June 30, 2007 by kim.

That’s right!  One year ago today I started this little blog of mine!  I’m pretty sure that Blog-i-versary is not a word, but I think it fits!

Happy Blog-i-versary,

Happy Blog-i-versary,

Happy Blog-i-versary,

Happy Blog-i-versary!!

Posted in Happy | No Comments »

June 24, 2007 by kim.

As you may or may not know, I have sort of a thing for sweets. I did scale down my stash about a year ago, but I had a bit of a slide back into candy hoarding yesterday.

It was a nice day, a day for relaxing with a favorite book and perhaps a nice little treat. Now when I get a craving for a certain candy bar or cake-type thing into my head, I won’t rest until I have it. I may not get it that day, but I will think about it everyday until I can find it and eat it. Bit of an obsessive disorder? Maybe.

Yesterday’s obsession was all about the Watchamacallit candy bar. Here’s how that came about: I had on my dresser, a book called “Mad’s Vastly Overrated Al Jafffe” from 1983 (A collection from one of the cartoonists of Mad Magazine):

Anyway, when I was a kid, we used to drive in my Grandparent’s green station wagon to see my Aunt, Uncle and cousins in Minnesota, and I used to lay down in the back of the wagon with this book, a coke and a Whatchamacallit candy bar. So, when I saw it on my dresser, I thought, “Hey - let’s take a trip down memory lane!”. The search began for this elusive candy bar.

It’s only elusive in my neighborhood - not anywhere else that I know of. I went to the stationery store (they sell lots of stuff) up the street, but no candy bar. I knew the grocery stores wouldn’t have them up here, so I went to the Duane Reade (like a Walgreens or CVS). They didn’t have it. I went into two newspaper stands that were stocked with all kinds of candy - but no Whatchamacallit. Finally, I stopped at the deli back near my house, but no luck.

At this point, I could have just tried to let it go, maybe picked one up somewhere during the week, but no. I had to have it. I decided my last stop would be the BP gas station at the bottom of these stairs:

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. I took the 130 steps down (yes, I counted) and walked to the BP for my fix. Lo and behold, there it was! Along with the elusive Peanut Butter Twix and the elusive Hostess cupcakes! My own little oasis in the Manhattan snacking desert! Hooray!

In typical Kim fashion, after all that, I didn’t even do what I had set out to do. I haven’t eaten a single one! Maybe today will be the day…

Sometimes, I can be so exhausting

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

June 24, 2007 by kim.

Boy, that Matilda sure knows how to relax.  She is seen here just chillin’ in the chair, perhaps just waiting for me to bring her a nice cool drink:

Oh, the little things that entertain me…

Posted in Animals, Happy | 1 Comment »

June 21, 2007 by kim.

That’s right!  We had our 4 year wedding anniversary yesterday!  We took it easy and ordered Indian food.  Just stayed in and relaxed.  Chris is battling the cold that I gave him (I didn’t mean to - it just happened!) so he wasn’t up for going out to eat.  I am still recovering from my cold, but Chris ended up with a worse strain than I did. Aside from that, we had a lovely evening!

Yay us!

Posted in Food, Happy | No Comments »

June 19, 2007 by kim.

The week is again starting off a bit slow, but we have an excuse - we were (are) both sick with head colds, sore throats and a general wiped out feeling. Yuck - not fun at all!

Still, we keep plugging along! Here is a picture of the view from our apartment at night, as taken by Chris:

Isn’t that cool looking?

We’ve been walking in the mornings before work for exercise, and one day I took my camera. As we passed the train station, we heard chirping and saw some birds who had built their own aparment complex:

I can’t even imagine how many birds are living in there - what a sweet setup!

Now I just need to keep my eyes peeled - there has got to be more going on in the city than night scenes and bird nests…

Posted in Animals, Observation | 2 Comments »

June 16, 2007 by kim.

All week I kept trying to come up with something to write about, but I am at a total loss.  The week went by and nothing very exciting happened.

Let’s see…I went to work and came home…Chris freelanced a bit…I have a head cold and feel miserable…Matilda ate a spider…

This does not make for an exciting blog, let me tell you.

Oh well - when all else fails…post a picture of the kitty!

(Matilda is seen here wrestling with her calico catnip mouse)

I hope next week is more promising!

Posted in Animals, Observation | No Comments »

June 10, 2007 by kim.

While walking through Fort Tryon park today, I happened upon the ever-friendly Orange Clothed Cave Man. Here he is seen exiting his cave and walking towards me:

Got ‘im!! The Enquirer will pay millions for these rare photos! I shall take him home and call him “Chris”.

Posted in Nature | No Comments »

June 4, 2007 by kim.

Last night it rained. Sometimes, nature does that. That was okay. What wasn’t okay, was the way the rain was pitterpattering on the metallic air conditioner outside.

pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter pitterpatter

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!

I remember when we bought that air conditioner, that we both looked at these pads you could also buy to place on the top of the air conditioner to prevent said air conditioner from being too loud when the incessant raindrops keep falling on the metallic air conditioner casing outside your window when you are trying to SLEEP. Obviously, we were too cheap to buy it at the time.

So - at midnight, I’m laying in bed wondering why my heart keeps palpating and I can’t sleep. The sound - won’t - stop. Finally, since Chris was also awake, I expressed my frustration and declared that I would be sleeping on the couch. He basically said, “wait for me” and we both just got out the air mattress in our exhausted daze and set it up in the office where it was completely quiet (no A/C in there yet).

Ahhh. Peace and quiet. Finally - sweet slumber!

Today we fixed the problem. We cut up an old rug and duct taped it to the air conditioner. Not pretty, but it’ll do!

Posted in Annoyance | No Comments »

June 4, 2007 by kim.

This poor little bee wasn’t alive, but it still was a bit unsettling:

At least it was only one (remember the wasp infestation last fall?)…

Posted in Insects, Food | No Comments »

June 4, 2007 by kim.

This past Saturday, we met up with our friends Bob and Abby to go on a hike. They recently moved to Lake Peekskill, NY and bought a house, so we wanted to spend some time with them, see the new place and enjoy the beautiful nature while hiking. We planned on a 4 mile hike, which in my mind wouldn’t take that long since I can walk a mile in about 20 minutes. Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha! This is HIKING, Kim, not strolling along 5th avenue!

They picked us up from the train station (they live about an hour outside of the city) and off we went to the trail. We had our backpacks and we had bought a 20oz bottle of water each, so we thought we were all set. Luckily, Bob and Abby already thought ahead and gave us each a much larger bottle of water and a hiking stick (or trekking pole, I believe it is called). They each had backpacks filled with water (a reservoir with a tube attached, so you’re drinking straight from the backpack) - so very cool!

Off we went along the trail! We started off on a bit of the Appalachian Trail, and then followed some white trail markers and some blue trail markers up and down and over and around, and we went by a beaver dam (I keep thinking of Beaver Dam, WI, but that was not what this was - it was actually a dam built by beavers) and climbed up some embankments and walked and walked, and two hours later, we stopped for lunch. We were only about halfway through!

Bob, Chris and Abby

Once we refuled, we took off for more hiking. This was hard! I’ve never done so much climbing on a hike before! It was very beautiful in the wilderness, though. We even came to a place where there were some ruins and a place to get water (fresh water, not lake water):

Gorgeous!

We kept plugging along, and after 4 hours, 15 minutes (including lunch) we made it! Yay!!

We had a great time, but were now exhausted, so we went to Bob and Abby’s house to get cleaned up before going out to dinner. Here is their house:

A cute little place tucked away in the woods! It was really breathtaking being surrounded by all that greenery. It makes you forget you’re only about 40 miles away from the city.

After dinner and ice cream, we had to get back to our apartment. They gave us a ride to the train station We said our good byes and caught the next train into NYC. We made it back to our apartment and collapsed into bed - all that fresh air and exercise just wiped us out! It was a really lovely way to spend the day - thanks Bob and Abby!

Posted in Nature, Happy | 2 Comments »