saturday errands

since i'm not leaving for connecticut until tomorrow morning, i decided to run a few errands today that i had put off doing this entire week. i returned several bookbinding tools to my friend carol, and stayed to talk with her about her newest allergy testing she is doing. she is working with NAET and finding it (so far) very effective. i have another friend who has also been working with NAET, for several years. It's been very, very helpful for her and her children.

i also finally stopped at home depot to see if they had any hooks and/or a shelf for the bathroom. i finally discarded the metal rack that fell off the wall, and am looking for something to replace it. i think what i want is at ikea, so i'll have to wait until later this summer to do an ikea trip to red hook. i also discarded a few doll baskets that had fallen apart, and thoroughly cleaned a few corners in the living room (accomplished much needed rearranging of school books in the process).

greg has just arrived home from connecticut! i'll cut this short . . but the above two pics are eataly again! i couldn't resist a trip to the espresso bar for a dopio espresso! i also picked up mozzarella cheese for pizza dinner tomorrow night in connecticut.

celebrating on friday

this evening my friend janet took me to dinner at a new neighborhood restaurant called mémé. they serve mediterranean tapas.

 the food was really incredible . . this is calamari with tomatoes and onions and basil puree.

and these little round cakes are crabcakes, with guacamole and corn and . . hmmm, well, i don't remember, but it all tasted very good. afterwards, we walked to 17th street and union square for a surprise dessert place that i had never been to. it's called the soft serve fruit company. oh, it was delicious! it was a fun evening, though it is once again, very hot!!

a birthday night

i took these pictures this evening when i went and sat out by the river to knit a little bit on that shawl i'm supposed to be knitting on so diligently (cough cough).

 i love the blue tone to these . .

 it's the first time i took a moment to work with the settings myself . . 

and this is the knitting project . . shining silver in the streetlight.

thursday birthday

 korrina and i met at eataly after she got off from work for an espresso.

the second coffee stand in from the door serves espresso just like in rome: you just stand around requesting espresso shots until you've had enough. then you pay your bill.

 we picked up the couscous for the scampi recipe, and also rosemary breadsticks and prosciutto.

 it's warm out again. it feels especially warm after the cool wind we've been having for the past few days.

 i still haven't figured out what kind of grass or sedge this is, but the mice like to eat it.

 tiger day lilies are always in bloom for my birthday.

 at home, korrina was busy in the kitchen while i set the table . . 

 shrimp scampi with couscous. it was delicious. the couscous was cooked in half of the tomato sauce, and the reminder was ladled over the top with parsley.

a birthday excursion

i had to walk to the east village today, in order to get a few cans of dog food for jack. from 9th street and second avenue (whiskers pet store) i swung over to avenue a and 4th street to stop at downtown yarns. i bought several skeins of lamb's pride cotton fleece to make teva durham's ballet t-shirt (for me!). the yarn store owner is very sweet and asked how the girls were. the cotton fleece i bought is a special limited edition because it was a mistake. they call it "lavender smoke," and i'm pairing it with a lighter lavender color. it'll look pretty . . if i ever make it of course!

anyway, the above picture is gramercy park! it's been years since i walked by, and it's as beautiful as ever. it's an oasis in the midst of much cement and tar and steel and glass. i've never been in! it's a private park for the buildings immediately surrounding it. however, i once was in one of the apartment buildings years ago. it was the home of a vegetarian friend of greg and i. he grew up in this neighborhood, and his mom was still living there. it was a big apartment! the kitchen was the size of our whole place here on bank street! (at least it felt that way to me).

while waiting for korrina at eataly, i asked a server to explain all the food areas. they have different sections for pizza and pasta, fish, meat, crudite, and vegetables. i chose the vegetable place and had the most amazing bruschetta with mozzerella and corn and black garlic! the garlic is fermented for several weeks . . it's very good! i also began reading the third book of the austin family chronicles by madeline l'engle. i thought it was the second book! but the second book is called the moon by night, and it's difficult to find. i have books of wonder trying to order it for me. hopefully, it'll arrive in a few weeks. our wonderful librarian at jefferson market, rebecca, recommended the series to us.

 

greg sent me a picture of morgana and chanda at sturbridge today. chanda wore her dress and looked like she was working also. i'm sure she enjoyed that. in this picture morgana was squeezing cheese curds. they also called and sang happy birthday with aunt kathy. nana and nonno also called, and janet called with camille, her sister, lucien, gael and gabriel. i also received an email from ron and andy, kendall and lori johnson. i'm impressed my friends remember the date so readily! they are all so thoughtful! i think i should write their birth dates down in a book so i remember for the coming months. 

wednesday

i met korrina at chelsea market this afternoon and we bought the ingredients for dinner tomorrow night. she's cooking dinner, and making me a special dish since it's my birthday: shrimp scampi sicilian style with couscous. it's a giada recipe.

in the morning i went for a walk along the river. there was a cool wind and you could smell the sea . .

and there was lavender growing along the fences . .

cooler weather

the weather has been very cool after the heat wave we had. unusually cool! today i walked into soho to meet the mother of morgana's ballet teacher. her younger daughter is getting married and she has commissioned me to make a shawl for her to wear to the wedding to match a beautiful grey/silver dress she has. we found the perfect yarn at purl soho: alchemy's haiku in silver. i only have four weeks to do this. yes, i'm quite worried. i can only do this if i knit non-stop, and i have never done that before . . but then of course i've never been commissioned to make a shawl before. i need a lot of persistence and will. i'm rolling my eyes here, and shaking my head . . i think i just won't accept the money until it's done . . or maybe i should accept the money and that would help me knit more productively . . 

gay pride day

 korrina and i started the day with fresh blueberries and strawberries . . 

and a watermelon pineapple smoothie . .

then we left the apartment early to circumvent the gay pride parade on our way to mary anthony's studio for the 3 pm performance. we walked along the river to morton street (the police had pier 40 closed off along with the walkway and bikepath - everyone was riding in the street with the traffic - too crazy), and into soho to get a chocolate croissant at balthazar. we met tyler and got coffee at macnally j's bookstore and coffee shop. korrina worked on her new knitting project for a little bit until we had to leave for the show. we walked up broadway to 8th street.

along the pier . . 

two sweet dogs on prince street . .

walking along broadway . .

we made it to the studio at 2:35 pm. it was another beautiful show with the final piece being gloria-5th movement by mary anthony. gloria is about the crusades, and the fifth movement is a piece for the women, when they arrive on the field after battle and must lament the dead. very moving and all-encompassing. korrina's teacher, ellen, had danced in the piece years ago, which was nice to hear about.

i left the studio at 5:30 and ran into . . the parade! (they had started at noon!) they were still marching and dancing and celebrating. it was very joyous and fun.

i caught them at the turnaround from fifth avenue to 8th street.

and then i walked along university to 10th street and crossed fifth at 10th. this is looking north on fifth . .

and looking south towards washington square . . 

10th street walking towards sixth avenue . .

at sixth avenue i turned to go up to 11th street.

it's always fun when the avenues and streets are devoid of cars.

 here is greenwich street at bank, just two blocks from the apartment.

of course my neighborhood was noisy far into the night. it's the ending zone for the parade, and also has dances and fireworks on the piers at night. surprisingly, around 1 am or so, all became quiet. i was surprised! i thought i would hear everybody partying until 3 or 4 in the morning.

yarn stores and dance performances

after the rehearsal today, korrina and i decided to take the F train to brooklyn general store as they were having a sale. we bought beautiful yarn! i haven't taken a picture of it! too sad. i'll have to do so tomorrow. i also bought the wooden rabbit you see on top of the coffee cup . . from mazzola bakery! mazzola bakery is one of our favorite stops when we're going to or coming from brooklyn general. today we had coffee, tea and italian butter cookies. it was a good thing, as we transferred to the R train, the slowest train on earth, and it was good i had cookies and coffee to keep me going.

what was this dog doing??? i really wasn't sure . . just trying to stay cool, i suppose!!! to continue the day's story: after visiting the yarn store we took the R train back into manhattan to 8th street and to mary anthony's loft for the 8 pm performance. we arrived at 6:40, just in time for korrina to run the dance with the quartet . . i mean the trio . . before the audience arrived. it was very, very hot in the loft (i felt like i had gone back in time to the '60's when cafe cino was still open!) and korrina was not a happy camper. but she and the rest of the trio danced beautifully, as did the other performers. it was an amazing show, ending with dancer mary ford performing mary anthony's dance lady macbeth (first shown in 1948, i think). it was truly a tour de force, and i had chills run up my spine as the full horror of lady macbeth's predicament swept over me. here is a link to photos of ms. ford dancing the piece at riverside church in 1999.

another dance tech

ellen robbins' dance teacher, mary anthony, has twice yearly performances at the beginning of the summer and in the winter. ellen asked the quartet to perform for her latest show on saturday at 8 pm, and sunday at 3 pm. this evening was their tech at the studio on broadway.

mary anthony is 95 years old and lives in an old loft without any air conditioning. well, it has been very hot these past few days, ever since we arrived home from annapolis, and the loft was quite steamy!

korrina, deychen and amelia actually have to re-work the piece as the fourth person is away at a piano camp, and the choreographer, who was to fill in for her, is ill. it's to be a trio now, and they'll rehearse in the morning at 11 am.

summer storm

a summer storm blew through at 1:30 this afternoon. the breeze felt wonderful, but it was still just as hot afterwards.