waiting for 2024

last slice of stollen which i had this afternoon (now we have a whole new loaf from a german baker in vermont that tsering brought over).

 
cricket is sniffing the gift for marisa which tsering took with him when he brought the loaf over (a little something from burdick chocolate, marriage frére earl grey tea from sweet rehab on sullivan street, and bayberry candles from sturbridge) . . i also stopped at faicco's for mortadella and soppressata to take to marlene on tuesday . . and martinelli's sparkling cider for greg and i for tonight.

it's an hors d'oeuvres night . . we also have shrimp and cocktail sauce for later . . (also herring for me). we texted with morgan about an hour ago . . celebrating with harley at aisha's house and everyone had watched the london fireworks on the telly.

a field trip on new year's eve

 

good morning!

 

(zuzu, just watching the mourning doves and the squirrels)

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greg, morgan and i decided to drive to hyde park to see eleanor roosevelt's house, valkill (korrina and i visited in 2018). morgan and greg had never been.

the weather has now grown so warm that the fog was intense coming after such cold weather. we had a very foggy drive north.

we couldn't join a tour until 1 pm so we stopped at the same diner (eveready) korrina and i had visited as it was only noon.

someone is missing their glove . . !

eleanor's study . . eleanor's son had sold the house after she died, but the town ended up buying it and establishing the historic site. 80% of the furniture is now original with more promised when the current owners pass away or are finished using the pieces.

 

the dining room . .
 

all decorated for christmas . . i was hoping to pick up a dessert plate in the franciscan design for korrina but they never reopened their gift shop after covid.

it was fun to see the house decorated for the holiday season.

supposedly eleanor loved picking out gifts for friends and family and would surprise everyone with her memory of what they liked.

videos of eleanor knitting:

more lost gloves . . 

and a foggy . . 

and rainy ride home . . 

where we played scrabble while waiting for midnight to come around . . 

watching the times square alliance streaming event . . 

they gave a fun commentary with stories from people who were in the crowd (people from kentucky, florida, minnesota, wisconsin, new jersey etc . . )

happy 2023 . .

new year's eve

 

 we had such a fun time welcoming in the new year. morgan prepared all the shrimp cups,

 

while i baked the pigs in a blanket and the potato puffs. i'm glad i bought three boxes as we had enough for chanda and her friends who came over to celebrate with her. we also had enough shrimp for everyone. we just kept sending dish after dish to her room. she and emily would bring out the empty dishes and we would load them up again. i don't think she expected them to eat so much as supposedly they just had dinner, but they did.

 

i really enjoyed watching the times square crowd this year. greg found the 42nd street alliance's video presentation of the event which did not have any commercials, just very nice commentary and streaming of kt tunstall's performance (she's very good). everyone was having a lot of fun in their sectioned off street pods and masks.

 

sparkling cider and potato puffs.

and then it was time for the count down! happy new year! wow! i can't believe it's 2022. 

it was a very festive and happy atmosphere, and they played our iconic song, frank sinatra singing new york, new york. which the white horse tavern used to play late every thursday night when i would be there with my acting friends (it is one of my favorite songs . . i used to also always hear it when i lived in dyker heights in the late '80's when greg and i first moved to nyc, as we had a neighbor who would blast frank sinatra on his stereo in his backyard on weekend afternoons).

"all the wishes . . " i hadn't realized that the confetti that rains down on the revelers are wishes that people have written and shared. you can read about it at this link. i think it would be fun to do.

morgan said i had to see how pretty the empire state building was. it did look nice twinkling in the distance. we also banged pot lids like i used to do with my folks, and listened to the shouts of people in the street.

greg called from the living room that the mayor was being sworn in. i never realized that it was done right after the ball drop. perhaps the major networks never covered it, but tonight the local 42nd street alliance did. it was exciting to see. i hope he supports all the issues that are important to me! (yeah, well, i don't think he does, but i can still wish.)

good luck to our new mayor, eric adams. he's going to need it. it's a tough job and everyone is a critic, including me.

happy new year

looking north out of the bedroom window, with the empire state building shining bright on the right.

when i was growing up, my family and i would always bang pot lids outside the front door, on the stoop, immediately after midnight. when we stopped banging the lids, we would listen to the sounds in the distance in the dark; we always heard others in the neighborhood also pounding their kitchen pots and pans. when my children were little, we would do the same at my parents' house out on montauk, but we never heard the answering clamor like when i was a child. i still like to listen to the new year's nighttime sounds . . tonight it was fireworks, the swish of the cars passing on west street, and people talking in the distance in the street. happy new year!

new year's eve day

 unfortunately, greg and i spent the day with pluto at the doctor's office . . 

 he began vomiting on sunday and then finally stopped yesterday, but he wasn't interested in eating this morning, so i knew something was wrong.

 waiting for pluto to come back from having his stomach x-rayed at our local doctor . .

what a cute picture!

 our vet's conclusion from the x-ray was that there was an obstruction in the stomach and that we should have an ultrasound at the animal medical center on the east side . . so we drove in our car with chanda and emily to 62nd street and york avenue.

 passing the brooklyn and manhattan bridges . . 

 

here we're waiting for the ultrasound test. the woman sitting with her boston terrier (whose name was jelly roll) was in with her guide dog (whose name was jojo and who was lying on the floor) who had eaten something "rubbery;" the doctor who pulled the something out wasn't sure exactly what it was! the poor dog had been sedated and was not in good condition and the woman was not able to leave. after about another hour, when the dog seemed more capable of walking, a technician aide came to help the woman into a cab so she could go home.

 

 eating my deliciously ella energy ball morgan had brought back from london for me, while waiting to be called for the ultrasound test.

 now we're waiting for the ultrasound results . . i actually really enjoy being at the animal medical center. it's a very high energy place with animals coming in from all over the city. there is a constant activity of technicians and doctors coming out to talk with pet owners, aides coming out to wipe up messes, administrative assistants calling out to owners to come to the desk to sign papers and pay bills, and a myriad of different animals in carriers with their owners. we saw cats, dogs, bunnies and birds while we were there. they also still had us in the system from when we visited with our bulldog louise in the 90's, and with jack in the early 2000's. our current vet who recommended we bring pluto, did his internship here.

when the ultrasound results came back, the conclusion was that there was an obstruction and that they would first go in via the esophagus with a camera and try to pull it out from the stomach. if anything had been in the intestines, he would have needed surgery. i went out for soup and a tea at this point, to corrado bakery (one of our favorite places from when the young ones did patrelle nutcracker) and on my way back i heard that he was already out from the procedure.

 so! what was in pluto's stomach causing all the trouble? a long, braided shoelace! with plastic tips! (chanda is trying to process this information!)

 he's finally back out and we're waiting for greg to bring the car around . . 

 it was actually a sweatshirt lace; a very long sweatshirt lace! which had been (supposedly!) on chanda's dresser, but instead was in his belly!

 waiting outside the animal medical center for our ride home.

 passing the brooklyn bridge on the fdr drive . . (and passing korrina's restaurant where she was at work).

 and back on the west side . .

 i kept korrina updated on the events and she sent me a little clip of her evening preparations with her co-workers.

 now we're home and everyone is having a bite to eat before going out to their new year's eve parties, except for greg and i. we plan to stay at home with pluto who is acting like a nut! i've fed him three times already, and he would like more. i don't understand how he can eat so much after such a procedure. wouldn't his esophagus be sore? his stomach? this is how i knew he wasn't well this morning, because he's prancing around now, so happy!