May 31, 2007 by kim.

Ah…Summertime. I know it isn’t officially summer yet, but it sure felt like it today:

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn’t it a pity
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

—Lovin’ Spoonful

I can’t imagine how sticky it’s going to get in August. Well, I can imagine because I’ve lived through it before, but I wouldn’t mind if the temperature was in the 70s all summer. Guess we’d have to move to San Diego, CA for that kind of temperature.

No - we’re not moving. Just making an observation

Anyway, there are many interesting things to see right here. Doesn’t this just say, “New York City” to you?:

Chris took these pictures of the fire hydrant outside of the apartment. Gritty, rusted, painted hydrant spilling water all over the pavement. This has been leaking for at least three days. Someone put an orange cone on the road in front of it, but I haven’t seen anyone come by to tighten it up. I wonder how long it will go on…

I’ll keep you posted!

Posted in Art, Observation | No Comments »

May 25, 2007 by kim.

…Matilda. Hey - it’s been a slow week.

Posted in Nature, Animals, Happy, Observation | No Comments »

May 20, 2007 by kim.

This post goes out to my Dad who turned 60 on Friday, May 18th! Happy Birthday to you!!

We weren’t able to fly home to WI to celebrate, but we (me, Chris, my brother and my mom) all chipped in to buy him an iPod. He LOVES music, and I know he’ll enjoy it!

We got the idea when we were home in February and he tried out my iPod:

Happy listening, Dad!

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May 16, 2007 by kim.

Well…I got music, anyway.  Rhythm…yes for dancing, no for walking.  I’ve realized that I simply cannot walk and listen to my iPod at the same time.  I’ve tried it a couple of times, and I don’t know what happens, but I lose all sense of awareness regarding my surroundings.  My internal compass is completely distracted.

You see, when walking in a large city (New York, especially), one develops a sense of anticipation.  You can anticipate what direction a person a half a block away is going to take as they move toward you.  You’ve got people coming at you from all directions, crossing in front of you, behind you, coming up along side of you…you’ve got to have your feelers tuned in.  With the iPod, I lose it.  I’m walking into people, dodging cars, can’t tell whether or not that person making a beeline for me will move left or right…I’m a mess!

I guess I’ll just have to listen to my music while I’m standing still or sitting on the train.  That way, no one gets trampled on by me, the crazy musical misfit loose on New York City.

Picture courtesy of Apple.com 

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May 13, 2007 by kim.

Fort Tryon Park is a beautiful park in our neighborhood (please click on the link for more info). This area was originally inhabited by the Weckquaesgeek Tribe until the early 17th century. In 1776 Hessian mercenaries fighting for the British forced the Continental Army troops to retreat. The British then renamed the area for Sir William Tryon. More about the battle of Fort Washington (the area we live in) and Fort Washington Park can be found here.

We went for a walk in it today and took some pictures:

Fort Tryon’s Heather Garden

View from Heather Garden looking out on the Hudson River

Flowers in Heather Garden

View of the George Washington Bridge going into New Jersey

A path in the park

Locked Gatehouse. This accompanied the mansion that belonged to Cornelius K.G. Billings (a wealthy horseman from Chicago) in 1901. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. bought the mansion in 1917. This is all that remains of the mansion which burned to the ground in 1925.

Hope you enjoyed this brief foray into the history of our neighborhood!

Posted in Nature, Observation | No Comments »

May 12, 2007 by kim.

Yes, we do have washers and dryers in our building, but sometimes you just can’t dry certain things or they shrink so much we look like we’re trying to wear children’s clothes.  So, we have to hang them up to dry:

Oh - we do have one of those clothes drying racks, and we did fill that up before we had to resort to the clothesline-in-the-office method.   We did this when we lived in New York before, but didn’t have to do it when we lived in Chicago or Las Vegas.  Hmmm.  Must be due to all that subway travelling…

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May 12, 2007 by kim.

Yeah, well, it sprang a couple of weeks ago, but now it really feels like spring.  Time for me and Matilda to watch the birds and squirrels make their appearance outside our window:

Yay Spring!

Posted in Nature, Animals, Happy, Observation | No Comments »

May 10, 2007 by kim.

No, really - if you’re a quiet person, please move into the apartment above us.

We have some neighbors upstairs that are a trifle noisy. They are not as bad as our neighbors were back in 2001 when we lived in a completely Dominican neighborhood and our neighbors would play their music so loud the lamps would shake (I’m not kidding, either - they would shake). No, this is more like loud TV and an abnormal amount of walking and furniture moving.

So. The day we moved in we heard the TV really loud at night. For whatever reason, we thought it was a guy who lived up there. We were irritated, but didn’t say anything right away, since we thought we should establish a pattern before charging in there and throwing the TV out the window. Later in the week, we thought we heard a bass being played in the room above where we sleep and some more voices - a woman and a child. So now we’re thinking this guy’s daughter and son are visiting. Still have no idea what is really going on.

A couple weeks later, the TV was SO LOUD that Chris got fed up and went upstairs to ask the guy to turn it down. When Chris came back down, he reported that the people who really live up there are a woman (Russian or Ukranian) and her daughter (age 17). That’s what you get for assuming! She was nice, he said, but she didn’t really think her TV was that loud. I beg to differ.

We decide to let it go for a while. She usually turns it on at 7:35pm, and it’s off by 8:30 or 9:00. We worked our dinner routine around it, bought noise reduction headphones…things were going okay. Then the other night, we hear this really loud sound, like a racing game. We decided to both go up there and have them turn it down. Imagine our surprise when we hear an old man speaking in Russian / Ukranian, and an old woman answering back. Huh? Finally, the old woman opened the door - complete with housecoat and kerchif on her head. We try to explain that the TV is too loud, but she cannot understand a word we’re saying. We’re sitting there gesturing (making boxes with our hands, putting our hands over our ears) and still nothing. Then the old man comes to the door, shirt unbuttoned, and we repeat our game of charades. Finally he understands, and invites us in. We decline, they insist. Decline, insist, decline, insist…give in.

There is a curtain in the doorway of the living room. They pull it aside and reveal at least two single beds, a couch, an upright piano and the big OLD console TV. You know - the kind in a big wooden box that sits on the floor acting like a huge speaker that pushes the sound down into our apartment. Quite a crowded room and really not necessary since their layout is the same as ours.

They turned it down a bit, and now we better understand the situation. However, our minds are spinning. What goes on in the other rooms? Are they boarders? Are they the parents of the woman Chris talked to? Is it a halfway house? We hear a lot of furniture move around above our bedroom every night. What’s going on?

It remains to be seen. Perhaps if we hear something loud again, we’ll go up. In the meantime, I’m going to try and come up with some Russian/Ukranian phrases for “Hello - your TV is too loud, please turn it down”. Then…we’ll see who answers the door…

Posted in Observation, Annoyance | 1 Comment »

May 5, 2007 by kim.

Finally - I made pancakes that turned out to be edible! If you remember my post from January (Blandcakes), I had a bit of a problem. Now, though, I think I’ve got the problem licked! Due in part to my Mom giving me a newer, better pan and having some patience, my pancakes looked like this today:

See! I can do it!

New Pan:

Better pancakes!

Yay me!

Posted in Food, Happy | No Comments »

May 3, 2007 by kim.

I’ve been trying to think of something to write up here for two days, and can think of nothing! I almost regaled you with talk of candy bars and my longstanding obsession with the chocolate/peanut butter combination (Peanut Butter Twix - yum!) or about too much corn syrup in foods such as bread and yogurt, but they just weren’t working. So, I’ve decided to post another of my poems in the hope of buying some time until I can think of something more lively to write.

This is one in my collection of “Corporate Poetry and other Oxymorons”. Now if I could just get an illustrator…

Executive Sloths

Executive Sloths shuffle past
Ever…so…slowly,
Moving like an eight-legged mammoth
In blue and pinstripes.

One of the four heads
Turns to address the other three
While they take up as much time
And space
As possible
On the way to their destination;
Never to pass this way again.

© Spring 05
New York

Posted in Poem, Observation, Annoyance | 1 Comment »