January 30, 2010 by kim.

MONTH

National Cherry Month -
http://www.absolutemichigan.com/dig/michigan/february-is-national-cherry-month/

National Grapefruit Month -
http://www.texascooking.com/features/feb2003nationalgrapefruitmonth.htm

DAYS

February 20 - Hoodie-Hoo Day -
http://www.wellcat.com/february/northern_hemisphere_hoodie.htm

February 22 - World Thinking Day -
http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/global/world_thinking_day/

Posted in Holiday | No Comments »

January 27, 2010 by kim.

Thus began the tale of Paul Clifford (and so many stories that Snoopy would start to write on his trusty typewriter), and hence begins the tale of Chris, Kim, and the Creaky Building.

Once upon a time, there lived a handsome fellow, his beautiful wife, and their darling cat …

Oh, who am I kidding? Let’s get on with it.

It was stormy Sunday night. REALLY stormy. Not just here, but my sources (friends) in Kansas City and Greensboro tell me that the storm had reached their neck of the woods, too.

It was a storm like we had never experienced before. Wind. Rain. More wind …

Scary, huh?

We’ve experienced such things as wind and rain before, but this was different. This storm had wind gusts hitting at least 55mph, and while that might not be the worst (I’m sure those living through tornadoes and hurricanes can attest to that), it was pretty scary to us living here on the 15th floor of a rickety old high-rise.

Our building CRE..A…K…S… when the wind blows strong. When it’s really strong, it also sways a bit. A bit, meaning, you can actually feel it. And, you can see it. It is hard to capture on video, but here is the best I could do. What you are about to see is how our outside bedroom wall (which is made up mostly of glass) bows in when the wind blows from the southeast. The behemoth you are looking at is our big old hotel-like heater/AC unit:

That is just not right.

Many thoughts raced through our minds during the completely sleepless night and the following windy day. One thought in particular was that the windows were going to shatter and that we’d be sucked out into Jersey. Nothing like imagining the worst, right? We (Chris) were starting to get pretty nervous. Walls should not bow in like that unless you live in a cardboard box. I don’t think we do. At least, the floors seem solid. Anyway, it was time to batten down the hatches the best we could.

Chris had the idea of putting the kitty perch next to the heater and pushing the bed up to it to make it more secure. He put weights on the other side of the bed to make sure it didn’t move, and pulled our handy dandy (dusty) Total Gym over to help support the door brace he jammed up under the window. He put a couple of weights on it, too, for good measure. Now we were all set and ready for anything (ha ha). We had our contingency plan in place (in the event of windows breaking and rain pouring in, put everything we can fit from the bedroom into the bedroom closet and start looking for a new apartment), and were ready for anything that nature could throw at us.

Then, the wind stopped.

That was unnerving. Now I was able to imagine what people must experience when the eye of a hurricane passes through. The quiet is glorious, but you just know the other shoe is going to drop.

When the wind picked up again, we (I) felt a little better. At least I knew what was going on. Weird, I know. Knowing there was nothing more to do, we went about our day catching leaks that sprang up and waited out the storm.

Finally, when we were just starting to get used to it, the wind and rain stopped completely and the sun came out! Hooray!

Their life back to normal, the handsome fellow, beautiful wife, and darling cat walked hand in hand (and paw) into the gorgeous golden sunset, excited to experience yet another glorious day …

The End!

Posted in Video, Observation | 2 Comments »

January 21, 2010 by kim.

Oh yes. We grow them big out here:

On occasion, we’ve seen these inflatable rats around the city. Not just here, but in Chicago as well. They are put up to signal labor disputes by union workers. This one was in front of a hotel, and when I crossed the street to walk by it, I read “no worker deserves to be exploited” on the sign around its belly.

A couple of days later, I came up behind it and noticed this sign:

Nasty!

Posted in Animals, Observation | No Comments »

January 17, 2010 by kim.

While waiting for the bus, we noticed these buildings across the street:

The building on the right:

And the building on the left:

At least if you kick the bucket at the senior dance, you won’t have very far to travel.

Posted in Observation | No Comments »

January 13, 2010 by kim.

I made a little friend while I was eating my lunch in Central Park today. Yes, outside. It was cold. I’m insane. We all know it. Anyway, I had just finished eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and started in on my crunchitos (organic Cheetos) when a sparrow appeared. Just one sparrow. Only one. Where the rest were, I don’t know. I proceeded to eat, and as I did, he began hopping around at my feet.

Hop, hop, hop.

Hopping to the front of me, hopping under the bench, hopping ONTO the bench and staring at me with his cute little sparrow eyes. How could I say no? I broke off a tiny piece and pretended to drop it so I wouldn’t draw the attention of anyone or any other birds.

The sparrow sat there and pecked away at it as I took pictures with my iPhone, and when he was through, I decided to get my other camera out to take some closeups. I dropped another piece and took a couple more pics:

All was going well until 20 other sparrows descended on me. They were coming from every direction, hopping and hopping, until I was forced to get up and walk away. I didn’t get very far before stopping to put my camera in my purse and get myself together. When I turned around, there he was. Cheeto. Yes, Cheeto. Did I mention I was insane? He followed me to see if I would drop any more cheesey goodness. I couldn’t do it without being bombarded, so I gently told him no, and was on my way. He watched me longingly as I went away, never to see him again.

Farewell, my fine feathered Cheeto!

Posted in Animals, Food | No Comments »

January 10, 2010 by kim.

We all know how much I hate shopping (if you didn’t before, you do now). Well, I hate grocery shopping only slightly less than regular shopping. Only slightly, because with grocery shopping you can at least walk out of the store with a cupcake or some other yummy treat.

Buying groceries for most people is probably not that big of a pain because they likely drive to one store to pick everything up at once. Not so for me and others in the big city. Or maybe it’s just me. I don’t have that data. Anyway, grocery shopping for me in Fort Lee involves four different stores:

1. GooWah/Good Nature Market (this place carries many Asian foods that I have no clue about, but also carries name brand items)
2. Rite Aid (like Walgreens or CVS)
3. Fairview Market (Italian grocery)
4. A&P (regular large grocery store)

GooWah/GoodNature and Rite Aid are steps from my front door. I’m sure I could probably get everything I really needed between the two. However, I have been spoiled living in WI, IL, and NV where HUGE supermarkets are the norm. Therefore, there are certain items that I want that cannot be found in those two stores alone. So begins my trek on foot, as we don’t have a car anymore.

Sure, I could take a bus, but why not get a little exercise while I’m out? Fairview is easy – it is only six blocks away. That is where I get pretty much everything that I can’t get at the other two places. Still, they don’t quite have EVERYTHING. It is a small store, after all.

A&P, on the other hand, is a mile and a half away.

I know, I know. You think I’m crazy. A 25 minute walk just to pick up some Tostitos bite-size chips? Is it really worth it? Yes. Yes it is. It is worth it not to have me obsess for three days about how I couldn’t get those dang chips.

Mmmm … I guess that does make me a little crazy …

I haven’t even included Whole Foods in that list above, because that is a very special trip in itself. I try to go only when I’m already in NYC and near a Whole Foods to begin with. Then I buy duplicates of everything to tide me over until the next time I’m in the area. Shopping there is a whole different issue, as each store is a little different and not every store carries exactly the same thing. I like to buy an organic Cheetos snack called Crunchitos and they keep changing the brand that I like. First it was Garden of Eatin’, then it was Little Bear, and now it’s Happy Herbert’s. Why do things have to change so darn fast when I’ve found something I like? Oh, I could go on and on, but I won’t. Not today, anyway.

You’re probably wondering why I don’t just order my groceries online and have them delivered to save all the running around.

I’ll tell you. I’ve ordered once from Peapod and a couple of times from the A&P, and unless you place an order over $100, it just isn’t worth it. They charge for ordering to begin with, and then a delivery fee. You can roughly choose the time you want them to arrive, but you are stuck in the house for that 3-hour window. If you’re lucky, they’ll have everything you want, but if not they’ll make substitutes. Neither place actually has everything that a large store has, either. For instance, we like Ortega Taco Hot Sauce, but neither online store seems to have it. They only have mild and medium. If I want it, have to pick it up at Fairview. Well, if I’m going there anyway, why not pick up the rest of the stuff I need? Plus, I like to look at the meat, fruit, and vegetables that I’m buying, so unless I’m ordering a bunch of heavy generic items – there’s no point.

You see all the things I have to think about for something so seemingly simple as grocery shopping?

No WONDER my brain is mush!

Posted in Food, Annoyance | No Comments »

January 7, 2010 by kim.

What am I going to do about this??

My poor iPhoto!

This happened after a couple of external hard drives took a dive off of a shelf I have above my computer. Well, they didn’t actually dive on their own, but the entire shelf did come off of the wall. I was zoning out in front of the TV when I heard Chris yell for me to assist him as the whole works was falling down. Hard drives, routers, lamp, etc. I ran in and caught the drives before they smashed my laptop, but they did get shaken up a bit. That is the only explanation I have as to why the thumbnails won’t show up in iPhoto.

Luckily, I do have all my digital photos. They are still in the computer and on the external hard drive. The trick is getting the files to reconnect so I can see the thumbnails. We’ve looked up a couple of solutions online, and I think the one we may have to go with is the one where I will lose all of the keywords associated with each photo.

ALL of the keywords. All 188 keywords. All 188 keywords associated with all of the 18013 pictures that I have in iPhoto that will need to be labeled again. Painstakingly labeled. Again.

Yipes!

Posted in Annoyance | No Comments »

January 6, 2010 by kim.

I was wandering around in Central Park a couple weeks ago, when I came upon the Trump Wollman Skating Rink.

We’ve considered skating here, so I thought I’d look and see how much it would cost:

Whoa. That’s pricey. Wait - spectator fee? Seriously? How far away do I have to stand for it to be free to observe?

If we went on a weekend, it would cost this much:

Double whoa.

That’s insane! I remember skating in middle school on a frozen parking lot and it cost us NOTHING! To pay over $50 to skate around on some ice with a bunch of people is a little much, I think. It looks like we could save the locker rental fee (I hope that the whopping $0.25 bump is helping them out – wow), if we left everything at home and just went into the city with cash and a train card in our pockets. Is it worth it? Looking at the rules and regulations, skating here seems a little restrictive, anyway:

No bags? What if someone has a really huge purse? No cell phones? Okay - I can see that, I guess. No getting distracted by texting or a phone call and running someone over. Fine by me. No cameras? How are people supposed to take pictures of each other? Are they allowed to have any fun at all?

No.

While I was watching the skaters (and taking pictures from a safe and free distance), there was an announcement commanding the skaters to stop. They did, and the announcer went on to chide them all for reckless skating. They were told NOT to have bags and cameras on the ice and NOT to skate through the middle of the rink. They were told NOT to mess around with the cones in the center and to be sure to hold on to ONLY the white boards surrounding the rink if they were having a problem staying upright. Then they were told to TURN AROUND, face the other direction, and SKATE. Which they did. Carefully.

Note the cones

Have fun, everybody.

That’s an ORDER!

Posted in Observation | No Comments »

January 4, 2010 by kim.

We’ve all seen them, haven’t we?

revolving door 
–noun
1. an entrance door for excluding drafts from the interior of a building, usually consisting of four rigid leaves set in the form of a cross and rotating about a central, vertical pivot in the doorway.

They are shown being used on TV and movies (rather maniacally in the movie ELF), so why does it seem that wherever I go, there are two or three (or ten) people who don’t know how to use them? Just walk into the open space between the doors and PUSH! It’s that simple! Push until it rotates enough so you can exit the door and shop or do whatever it is that you’re there to do. Is that so hard? The only time it gets confusing is when the doors move automatically and you DON’T push. In that case, pushing actually causes the doors to stop completely, gumming up the whole works. It really isn’t helpful at all to have them turn automatically anyway, because they move … so … slooowwwly. I could get in and out faster using a regular old door on regular old hinges with a regular old doorknob.

Grumble grumble grumble …

Maybe it’s my own fault.

I have no PATIENCE.

Posted in Annoyance | No Comments »