Stay tuned!

We were sleeping when I heard kitty making scratching sounds on the carpet next to the bed. She was in a crouched stance, watching something on the floor. In the dark, I could only make out a black oval shape. I was hoping she was playing with her little toy mouse or maybe even a real one, but I had a feeling I knew what it was. A water-bug. A large cockroach, really. Yuuuuck. Water-bug sounds less disgusting, but it’s basically the same. They don’t move as fast as the smaller bugs, but they move fast enough.

Anyway, Matilda had pretty much beat it into submission when I decided to asses the situation by the light of my iPhone. Yep. That was it, all right. Time to wake up Chris to take care of it.

I did my part and got a cup to put over the offending creature until Chris could slip some cardstock under it to pick up the creepy crawly thing. Then, we made it to the toilet for a swift disposal. Done.

Let’s hope that’s the end of that.

Hope, hope, hope …

Chris (being wise) told me (having a lapse in common sense) that I shouldn’t pack sharp objects in flimsy garbage bags (which I did), and thus sustained an injury that could have been avoided.

Sharp fork poking out of bag

The fork

Luckily, we had our First Aid kit handy (thanks to my brother who bought it for me when I broke my wrist 4 years ago because I’m such a clutz).

First Aid kit

Chris grabbed it when he saw the gash that was made on my knuckle and the blood started flowing. He tended to my wound and all was well.

The wound – aren’t knuckles gross up close?

Yipes!

The dressing

Better.

In the near future – pictures of the new apartment!

Symbolically, we are opening the door to our new life in NYC, but this is actually the key to one of our interior doors. They wouldn’t have a key and lock like this to open our front door. We have a dead-bolt, like this:

That’s a lock!

Funny thing is, I frequent a nearby drugstore (which will remain nameless), and this is the SECOND time this has happened – with the same product! The first time, I took it back and exchanged it for one that was intact. No problem. Then, a couple of months later, I needed to buy vitamins (that’s what they were), went to the same drugstore, and it happened AGAIN!

In fact, it looked like the same puncture. Did the store actually put the same damaged product back on the shelf?? I returned it the next day and watched as the cashier tossed the vitamins into some unknown basket. Was that the basket of items to be re-shelved? I guess I’ll never know since I won’t be buying vitamins from there again.

She has also held her own in a staring contest:

Go Matilda!

1. New York to Chicago (2005) – 3 months – seriously?

2. Chicago to Las Vegas (2005-2006) – 6 months – not our style

3. Las Vegas to Chicago (2006-2007) – 10 months – better

4. Chicago to New York (2007) – 7 months – NYC is the place to be!

5. New York to Chicago (2007-2008) – 10 months – How many times do we need to be here?

6. Chicago to Chicago (different apartment 2008-2009) – 13 months – more than a year!

7. Chicago to New Jersey (2009-2010) – 11 months – getting closer to where we want to be

8. New Jersey to New York (2010-???) – September begins the third time living in NYC!!
(third time’s the charm, although we lived in Chicago three times before and it wasn’t …)

Now, the packing. Ugh. Here are the boxes waiting to be unpacked and used to pack all our stuff:

Here is a peek at the lobby of the place that we’re moving to, which is in a beautifully restored art deco building from 1939:

Sneak peek at portion of our apartment (dining room to living room):

And here is what I’ll look like when I move there and step back into time:

The picture above was actually taken back in 2004 for a photo shoot by Ann Brown, in the very building that we are moving to!

What a journey it has been!

A doughnut, yes, but how did it get to be so small? When I took it out of the bag, the first thing I said to Chris was, “that’s not a doughnut, that the appetizer to a doughnut.” Here’s another doughnut, and it is only slightly bigger:

I know I shouldn’t complain. After all, I shouldn’t really be eating such sugar bombs as these. I’m just disappointed that when I do opt for something so luscious, that I don’t get my money’s worth. Same price, smaller pastry. Chris had a cookie that was larger than the boston creme concoction:

If I wanted just a teeny tiny taste, I would have gotten a doughnut hole which really isn’t a hole, it is actually the opposite of a hole. It’s a ball. a doughnut ball generally about the size of a ping-pong ball, and that’s being generous. Still, a fried nugget of dough can be pretty tasty …

Really?

While browsing for a birthday card, I came upon a number of different types of “occasion cards”. It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Here are a few that I saw (including the aforementioned card):

Those last four seem to share a common theme …

I’m surprised it has taken so long for new and interesting cards to be printed. I only wish I could have cashed in on it first. Maybe there’s still time. How about these ideas:

*Moving Again, AGAIN?
*Sorry About Your Insomnia
*Congratulations On Finally Joining a Social Network
*How ’bout Those Mets?

What do you think?

There’s your history lesson for the day.

The festival consisted of food, music, and games in a 3 block area of the town. Yesterday was the day of the procession of Saint Rocco.

A statue is carried around the town, and money is pinned to it to raise funds for the Italian American Mutual Aid Society. Here are a couple of videos of the procession:

Pretty cool, no?

Other than that, it was a pretty small affair. We didn’t go on any rides (too expensive) or play any games (you know how fair those games are), but we walked around and did get plenty to eat:

Italian Sausage with onions and peppers

Deep Fried Oreo

Corn

Cannoli (we shared this)

Dippin’ Dots (ice cream that tasted like Nerds candy – we tried a little, but didn’t eat much of it)

Popcorn (we shared this)

Sno-kone (blue-raspberry flavor – shared it)

Cotton Candy (blue-whatever flavor – again, we shared it)

Surprisingly, we weren’t sick after eating all that junk food. We really did like the deep-fried Oreos, although we initially weren’t too sure about it. Deep-fried? Oreo? It’s not something I’d eat every day, but it was tasty.

Next month – Feast of San Gennaro in NYC!