a windy night

after packing everything up for connecticut, i decided it would be better for me to drive out early in the morning. greg and i were coming back from dropping a load of clothes at salvation army when i called home to tell morgana and chanda (korrina wasn't home yet from work). morgana wasn't too happy. but it ended up being very fortuitous that we stayed, because when i went to feed jack i discovered that his food was rancid. this particular bag was just delivered on wednesday, and i first opened it yesterday morning to feed him from it. i thought the bag was very dirty, so i tried cleaning it. however, i didn't notice that it smelled bad until after he got VERY sick on the carpet (oh, my poor carpet) this afternoon, and then i put two and two together when i finally opened the bag to feed him this evening. greg says he's very glad i discovered it, because he wasn't sure how long it would have taken him to figure it out. he would have had a very sick dog and a very big mess on his hands for several days. anyway, i went immediately to our pet store and the owner agreed the bag was bad, and gave me a fresh bag. i'm so glad the store was still open.

 

 when morgana and i got home, the wind had picked up and chanda and i went outside to catch the breeze.

 

it was a perfect night for running up and down the block . .

 and for watching the tree branches fly about . . 

and for demonstrating ballet combinations from the morning's dance class . . 

for dinner morgana and i had picked up half a pound of niman ranch jambon royale from murray's, and then some ba tempte pickles from dag's. korrina made a box of bunny macaroni.

there was also some leftover chili from last night.

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this morning we finally said good-bye to the loft bed AND the queen sized futon mattress. i had put it up on freecycle and a young man from new jersey came out with a van this morning to pick it up. he has a family so it'll have a another good busy life for itself. i didn't mind getting rid of the loft bed, but i cried after he left with the mattress. it was from the japanese store yao han, and we often all slept on it together. it had been one of our family beds, though the other one is still in the living room. funny how memories embody themselves in objects.

off to class and work

 chanda and morgana went off together to a ballet class at manhattan youth ballet this morning.

they caught the 8:21 bus on bethune street. korrina had already left for work at 6:15 am.

greg and i cleaned out the two hall closets, and then he cleaned underneath the kitchen oven for me. it was particularly bad because jack had had a pee accident there last week (i cringed as i wrote that).

chanda comes home and we celebrate clyde's birthday

hooray! chanda came home today from east hampton! her train was an hour late (due to flooding and who know's what else!!!), but she made it and we're all happy to see her. she had a great time with her friend nora. they went swimming everyday, read a lot of books and watched a tv show called "dance moms." my friend (nora's mom) informed me that it's an absurd show and i would be bored in ten minutes if i watched it. you think chanda would have enough of dance moms with her own mom!

 

clyde came over for dinner this evening. he looked over morgana's drawings from her met class. i think they had a fun discussion about sketching and painting.

 jack has a tendency to have accidents when there is company, so he stayed in the kitchen. (see that bag of food? read friday's evening post to find out how evil it really is!!)

greg talking and laughing with wendy (on the left) and kion (with her back to us). they're good friends of clyde whom i just met last week. it was nice to have them over for dinner. wendy made a delicious arugula salad with apple, lemon juice and parmesan shavings. kion leaves on saturday for DC. she has a new job she is starting. and then in two years she enters the peace corps!

 

 

 getting clyde's "sorbet" cake ready . . 

 

 

voila!

make a wish, clyde, and happy birthday!!

on a billboard in connecticut

my sister and brother-in-law were driving home from vermont and passed this billboard advertisement on I-91 southbound, just before the I-84 junction. do you recognize her?

tuesday night dinner

for dinner this evening, i made a chicken from the amish farmer. it's funny. this one had a very different flavor. i wonder what it had been eating!?

it's been funny not having dinner with chanda! notice how we're all sitting in different places . . except me!

taking chanda to east hampton

we were up early this morning to take chanda out to east hampton to visit her friend for a few days. we were up extra early so we could stop at the craft fair on montauk. the tie dye lady was there and chanda wanted to pick out a sweat shirt. she ended up not having one chanda liked, so we ordered it and it should come in the mail in a few weeks. 

 

it felt funny being out on montauk and not being able to visit nana and nonno. they've rented the house for august and september. here morgana is mailing a two postcards to their little friends anika and nikolas in amagansett.

greg drove out with us, but we left him to putter about in bridgehampton. he did not want to go all the way to montauk for a craft fair.

 

eating cucumbers before meeting up with her friends . . in the green bag was a pound of il cantuccio chocolate almond cookies. yum!

 

just a pretty tree in the bridgehampton starbucks parking lot . . 

 

greg did most of the driving so i could knit. but i usually never feel like knitting once we get on the belt parkway. i find the scenery too interesting . . and pretty, especially going past rockaway and the verrazano bridge and then up onto the gowanus and over to the BQE . .
 

and onto the brooklyn bridge . . hmmmm . . pretty is a calm word for the new york city skyline.

time for a bunk bed

 we drove out to red hook this morning.

 land of the large cranes . . 

 and ikea!
it's a neighborhood soon to be made famous by spike lee's latest movie red hook summer (which i'm looking forward to seeing).

we drove out to  pick up the loft bed . . and two mattresses. it was a good thing the mattresses came rolled up, but we couldn't fit the loft bed in the car. i had to stay with it in brooklyn while greg drove morgana and chanda to their ballet class, and then picked up our friend janet's minivan. we went from an impossible situation to easy peasy. one two three, the long boxes went in the back and over the seats and we were rearing to go.

 i went from ice box air conditioned ikea to hot and humid apartment, but everyone persevered and . . 

 piece by piece . . 

 screw by screw . . 

it was assembled!

a tired father . . 

pleased as punch daughters.

it's been a long time coming . . but they finally have their bunk bed.

juicing

my friend gave us her old juicer when she received a new one. morgana cleaned it up and has been enjoying using it. this morning she did beets and carrots.

i love having a vegetable juice in the morning. however, it does take a lot of vegetables!

walking home through the park

after the museum, we walked home today through central park. we were on our way to grishko so morgana could get pointe shoes.
 

we sat and ate our lunch first.

 

when we came out of the park, and were walking downtown along eighth avenue, we passed a balducci's at 56th street. we were surprised as balducci's closed there 14th street location three years ago. the name is now owned by the gordon company who also owns the kings supermarket chain. we've never heard of kings. it must be from new jersey. (!) balducci's first opened in brooklyn in 1916 by louis balducci. i wonder if the family still has shares in the business.
 

for years balducci's was on sixth avenue across from the jefferson market library. citarella is now there.
 

and this final pic is the (as yet unidentified) sea grass blowing in the breeze at abingdon square park.