babysitting and dinner with clyde

i was out early this morning to watch aurélien at the playground while kendall sat in the car as the street cleaner went by, and sairy, her nanny, attended a special caregiver meeting at aurélien's preschool. i took this photo of him climbing over the bars, and he lost his grip immediately after and crashed to the ground. he was rather upset and i thought i had totally messed up the morning by taking pictures and not watching him properly, but thankfully he calmed down.

caregiver gloria was very good at making sure the children took turns pushing and riding, and also made sure they steered properly. as a parent my patience with this hot wheel car would be very short (later when talking with kendall, she concurred with this sentiment - that many of the parents wanted this hot wheel car to disappear).

 

afterwards, i walked to joe coffee on 13th street, just east of fifth avenue for a decaf mocha, and then went to michael's craft store to look at picture frames. clyde gave us one of his drawings years ago and i've always meant to frame it. morgan called while i was there and i sent a pic of this cute bulldog advertisement. morgan just moved with harley to a new apartment in soho and there is currently a lot of drilling in the street below them as the city is installing fiber optic cable. one of their new neighbors relayed the information that the wifi wasn't good in the building, so i think they're both happy that in a few months they will have new service.

i picked this frame for the time being as the drawing is an unusual size and wouldn't fit in anything i saw. i'm considering eventually having a custom frame made. i think clyde calls this drawing space bunnies.

peonies and eucalyptus from korrina and chanda . . they smell wonderful. i love the scent of eucalyptus.
 

the dinner crew, along with clyde's friend paul whom he has been staying with for this visit.

 

we had hamburgers and hot dogs (korrina cooked them so they came out perfect) with the infamous dilly brown rice salad from the cookbook, feeding the whole family, along with a green salad. 

korrina and i sat and talked for a bit after everyone left (chanda has one last paper to finish for school by midnight tomorrow). she has a bag filled with groceries from trader joe's on the bench beside her as she stopped to shop on her way over. they have the best prices these days; everywhere else has become so expensive.

cricket and zuzu wandered back and forth sniffing everything and jumping up to lick the plates in the sink. i've given up trying to keep them from doing so. everything goes into the dishwasher anyway, though it hasn't been working very well (the door has trouble locking in and the dishes sometimes are still gritty after a cycle). i have to go start it now and i hope it doesn't give me any trouble.

a familiar routine and lunch with clyde

hello again.

milly and i went for a walk to chelsea.

the little dachshund is winston and he's four months old.

saying hello to greg.

we met our friend clyde in front of the y. he's in town for two weeks. we missed him last time he was here as we were in london. it's wonderful to see him. (we were also just four minutes from the eye place where my new glasses were waiting for me . . i can see well with them, but they're a little big for my face.)

lunch at moustache . . 

always delicious . .

and ice cream at van leeuwen.

partial solar eclipse

 my friend, janet, invited me onto her roof to watch the partial solar eclipse today. she had the special eclipse glasses i've heard so much about, and i was amazed at how well they worked. you could look directly into the sun and watch the event very clearly! chanda had greg and i looking in seven eleven stores last night when coming home from the shakespeare performance, but they were all sold out of glasses.

 the day did get a bit dark, but not like if it had been a full eclipse.

 janet and her youngest . . 

 we had a delicious snack of peanut butter on sprouted grain bread and tea . .

 it was an incredibly pleasant afternoon. i'm so glad she called. chanda had gone over to her friend's house who lives in the east village with janet's son gabriel. how fortunate to have good friends with roof gardens!

 her apples and raspberries were especially tasty this year.

a serious pic with clyde, who came over for dinner as he's heading back to california tomorrow. we'll miss him and sunny CA (and those delicious avocadoes!).

shakespeare on the run

 we met our friends ron and andy, along with clyde and korrina, at castle clinton for a shakespeare on the run performance (the tempest) with the classic stage company.

 you follow the actors from scene to scene throughout battery park . . 

 sometimes you do have to run to keep up with them . . 

 afterwards, we walked to the shake shack at the new fulton subway station for a late night snack . . 

 french fries, turkey hot dogs, mushroom burgers and regular burgers . . and milk shakes for some of the folks . . 

 it's so wonderful to be home again and doing things with friends and with korrina . . 

 after we said good night to everyone, we went on a hunt for special eclipse glasses . . 

but there were no longer any available!

home again home again jiggity jig

we rolled into town around four o'clock this afternoon and met our friend clyde at veselka's for dinner. 

i'm never sad to come home to new york, but i have to add this song to this post:

bon voyage party

we met clyde at amorino's on university place as a good-bye party before we head out on saturday for our big cross country trip.

it feels like such a huge undertaking, and our return feels so far away.

nana, a new tent and finally . . veniero's!

 we took a trip to connecticut purposefully to see my mom. it served, also, as a time to set up the new tent and make sure everything was good with it.

 i'm really pleased with the tent. it went up easiy and has big windows and a door that is easy to zip open and closed. it's a little taller than i wanted, but that was a trade off for the windows (and the price). smaller tents with bigger windows (more dome like) were more than i wanted to spend. this tent was rated excellent for price, comfort and durability. it also packs up small and light. it's so different from the heavy canvas tents of my childhood (which i do love . . that canvas aroma!).

 of course toby inspected it . . 

 she seemed to give it her seal of approval, but deemed it beneath her cat status to actually stay inside.

 summer daisies in my sister's garden . .

and astilby . .

my mom had fallen on friday, but, thankfully, we averted a trip to the emergency room and the hospital. she was fine when we visited her today, albeit a little more confused than the last time we saw her, but that seems to be the path these days. we had a nice time together and ate lunch at whole foods. she had her favorite: roast beef on a buttered roll with a little salt and pepper.

the store was out of the haagen dazs chocolate dixie cups she likes, so she tried the new mochi ice cream which chanda loves (they're her favorite from a childhood spent in a local japanese restaurant - where they were offered as a special after dinner dessert on the house), but nana didn't care for them as much.

 we knew it wouldn't be easy getting home as the gay pride parade occurred today. however, greg had seen signs on our street that it would reopen at 6 pm.

 well, this was not the case. we were so close, yet so far. it was impossible to even get into our neighborhood. all streets were closed, even though this had not been posted on the city government's website (only the parade route streets were posted as closed).

we decided to go directly to the east village where we had plans to meet our friend clyde at veniero's.

after a few go rounds, a spot opened up in front of the restaurant and we were able to keep an eye on the car while having dessert (thankfully!!!).

two pignoli cookies and a rainbow cookie . . and decaf coffee . .

 a huge tart! they have so many different kinds and this was not what she meant to have, but settled for it anyway . . this was more of a cake.

 clyde with his beloved annual veniero's dessert choices: iced mocha with gelato and giant sized ricotta cheesecake (greg had my favorite: new york cheesecake).

 summer is here!

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(we didn't make it home until very late. the traffic was horrendous and we had to beg our way past a police barrier . . thankfully, a man with two little children pulled up behind us and added to our pleas and the officer guarding the street finally let us both through).

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pics from morgana . .

 nighttime pics of nice?

 and an early morning pic of the matisse chapel in vence . .