at victory garden with friends

 after chanda had a violin lesson with her teacher jose, we met clyde and louis and clyde's friend renee for dinner at the thai restaurant, tue, on greenwich avenue between christopher street and sixth avenue. afterwards, we walked to victory garden on carmine for goat milk ice cream.

 soft swirl cups . .

 i had chocolate mixed with coffee.

 there are so many delicious flavors and shakes and sundaes . . it's often hard to decide what to get. the store also has goat milk soap and hand lotion and honey and tea. it's a great place for gifts.

home again . . 

selling the crown victoria

greg and i were up early this morning to complete the sale for the crown victoria we had bought from my dad many years ago. we've been using his 2005 ford freestyle now. 

selling a car is like selling one's horse . . i hope it has a good new home. it had been very good to us! the man to whom we sold it told me years ago to contact him if we ever didn't want it anymore. he works at the parking garage around the corner. 

i feel sad that we sold it; there are so many memories attached! but i'm also relieved that it's finally done.

ice cream on a hot day

chanda and morgana went out to see a ghibli studio film called princess mononoke. the east village cinemas is having a ghibli studio festival for the next week and chanda hopes to also see howl's moving castle, and spirited away.

i went out to meet them and it was so hot! we took refuge in amorino . . !

lunch with korrina

korrina came by for lunch today.

 i met her outside the local health food store.

 she was playing the pokemon game and was very excited because our neighborhood had many different pokemon than her neighborhood.

 this game is very popular now and i haven't understood it . . 

so it was fun to see exactly what the fuss is about. she was excited to finally capture "seel."

hmmm . . is this a reaction to something . . moi said?

i always enjoy these lunches . . we had an amy's fennel bread today that m and c picked up on the way back from the gym. morgana did a pilates class and chanda swam.

 we even had dessert . . strawberry and coffee ice cream . . 

 morgana ran off to see some friends . . 

 and korrina walked with chanda and i to the lululemon store to see about buying a sport's bra.

walking home again . . 

interesting car!

 the crepe myrtle tree is in bloom . . 

 (it's been so hot again . . it's nice to have trees that give shade . . )

 rose of sharon . . 

hibiscus . . 

 and an incredible sunset.

watching the tv show friends . . chanda got me started on this again . . i watched it years ago . . fortunately or unfortunately, i do find it hilarious . . and it brings back many memories for me of living with greg in the village before we had the girls . . and a feeling of what life was like in our neighborhood in the 80's and 90's (even though the show was filmed in LA!). we just finished watching season 8, episode 1, which was dedicated "to the people of the city of new york," for it first aired in september of 2001 . . a time when chanda was two and still being carried around in the robozo/sling . .  well, after looking for an hour for a picture, i couldn't find chanda and i, so here's korrina and i in 1993:

and finally, chanda found a photo of the two of us when i carried her around in her sling/robozo (this is 2001):

a cooler morning

 this is breakfast from a few days ago, but it's exactly what we had this morning also. m and c ran off to the chelsea piers gym. morgana has a student membership and chanda has the whole week to attend as her guest. this morning they did a pilates class and a yoga class. 

well, the flowers have drooped a little from when i took this picture on saturday. the sunflowers really look very sad and i'm thinking of buying some new ones when i run out right now to get lunch items to have with korrina this afternoon. the humidity is a little less today, but it's still supposed to go up to 93 or so. i added our saturday in the park excursion, and chanda's ballet observation day.

dog days of august in july

 it's hot again. every day is in the 90's and i always run out of energy and end up collapsing on the bed in a stupor. yes, i could put the air conditioning on but that becomes very uncomfortable for me too . .  so i guess i've chosen the heat and humidity. the nights haven't been too bad as there's usually a breeze.

 greg and i woke ourselves up around 5 pm for a walk to a small mexican restaurant he likes called oaxaca.

oaxaca . . 

from inside, looking out.

 enchiladas: pollo y camaron.

meanwhile . . 

the girls were at the beach . . on rockaway.

poem for a sunday morning

from summer by amy lowell, 1874 - 1925

above me spreads the hot, blue mid-day sky,
far down the hillside lies the sleeping lake
lazily reflecting back the sun,
and scarcely ruffled by the little breeze
which wanders idly through the nodding ferns.
the blue crest of the distant mountain, tops
the green crest of the hill on which i sit;
and it is summer, glorious, deep-toned summer,
the very crown of nature's changing year
when all her surging life is at its full.

saturday in the park (but it wasn't the fourth of july)

after lunch with our friend clyde we walked home through washington square . . (greg's choice, i was going to walk along ninth street which is quiet and lined with trees, but the park is wonderfully cool on a hot day too).

the sun is just soooooo hot! it's a relief to be under the old trees of washington square.

 the fountain looked so inviting to me, 

but greg was dubious about its cleanliness. (i really think it's fine!)

 i miss hanging out in the playground on a hot summer's day with the girls. i always enjoyed cooling off in the sprinklers.

then it was time to go in search of greg's favorite jazz band . . 

and here is chicago (from 1973), singing the song i quoted in the title:

every day is the fourth of july . .