KARABOUTS

Underwater Fun

I'm working on-site right now getting graphics ready for a trial that starts next week.  My typical work day runs from about 9:30am to well past midnight.  Some days I have so much work that I can't get up to go to the bathroom.  Other days (like today) things are very slow and I spend my time poking around in my computer and finding funny old photos I'd forgotten we'd taken.  These photos were taken in Ohio a few years ago when we first purchased the underwater camera and wanted to test it out.

This is Jesse who wasn't so fond of putting her head under water.

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Will doing a summersault

Me and Maddie trying to hold our breath.

Maddie looking cute under water.

Mike and Will.

Sophie showing us that she is a great swimmer.

I also found this cute photo of Mike and the kids taken that same weekend.

Good times!

Bold as Love

Yesterday when Mike and I went to pick up the keys to our new apartment, we walked by some nice art in the Broadway Windows (Broadway at East 10th Street).   The show is called "Bold as Love".   It's by the artist Adam Parker Smith.  The work is basically a bunch of creepy heads impaled on wooden sticks.  The heads are made of felt and held together with pins. Even the blood spatters are felt. It's really kind of extraordinary. It makes me want to do something with felt!  If you're in the city, go check it out.

Note: The above photos are from a New York Times article entitled Humble Fabric Takes Center Stage.

A Visit from Flat Stanley

Our niece Jessie sent Flat Stanley to visit us.  Flat Stanley is part of a Social Studies project where school children send Flat Stanley to friends and relatives in other locations so that they can learn about many different places.

We had to show Flat Stanley around town and then send him (and his journal and some photos) back to Jessie's elementary school.  Instead of heading to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building, we decided to give Stanley a tour of the nitty-gritty street life of our Chinatown neighborhood.

We started on the roof to get the lay of the land.

We went to look at porcelain Boddhas.

We saw a lot of dried fish...

and fresh fish.

We considered letting Stanley get acupuncture.

But decided to eat lunch in Little Italy instead.

Stanley wanted to ride a scooter.

He also wanted to ride the subway.

We watched some people play soccer. 

Then walked past graffitied streets to get back home.  What a day!

The Talents of Others

A while back I wrote a knitting pattern for a pair of skull and crossbones wrist warmers.  You can get the pattern as a free pdf download here.  The pattern is also listed on "Ravelry."   Ravelry is an online community for those of us who knit, crochet, spin and dye.  If you're not a member, you should join (it's free!).  One of the great things about Ravelry is that if you're thinking of making something from a particular knitting or crochet pattern, you can look up the pattern on Ravelry and see pictures of the finished item as made by other Ravelry members (there are currently 7,127!!!! versions of Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket on Ravelry - no lie). The other day I looked up my skull and crossbones wristwarmer pattern on Ravelry and here are some of the fabulous projects people have made with the pattern.

Foxhound did a great job on these - using the original B&W color scheme:

Gardengirl611 used glow-in-the-dark yarn from Bernat.  I bet these look cool in when the sun goes down!

Gtogirl13 decided to use red and black.  Very nice.

Purlpower went with a lovely halloween color scheme.

Jessafab used the chart from the pattern to make this awesome vest for her teddy bear.  She describes the vest as "business in the front and party in the back."  Hilarious!

Pilatease made this fabulous pink and black "skully" scarf.  Way to go.

Knitterholly gets the cuteness award for showing off her wonderful hat on this adorable tot!

These projects, and the many others I didn't have room to put on the blog, really brightened up my day.  Thanks everyone!

Goodbye February

February was a tough month because it was the one-year anniversary of my younger brother Jim's death.  Jim was the second of my three brothers to die, so I've now lost two out of three (hang in there Fred!!!).  

Here's a picture of Jim on one of his many visit to NY to see his big sister.  Jim is on the far left in the Chevrolet hat.  Notice how happy I looked to have my brother so nearby.   Like I said, February is a sad, sad month.

Mixed in with my February sadness were a few moments of joy. On February 14th the delivery man showed up with these beauties...

and on February 18th (my birthday) this amazingly tasty fruit tart magically appeared in the refrigerator.

But overall I'm glad we're done with February and I'm looking forward to a much brighter March.

Winter Viking

Last week I finished a new Viking doll made out of Lion Brand yarns.  After I got him done, we headed to Central Park to do a quick photo shoot.  It was FREEZING but we had fun.  Here's Mike getting ready to take a shot.  I like the size difference between Mike and the viking.

Here are a few of our best shots of the day:

STREAM & ROCKS SHOT

OLD NETTING SHOT

TREE SHOT

Despite the cold, it was a very successful photo shoot.  Way to go Mike!

Happy Anniversary Macintosh

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Mac.  In honor of the occasion I'm posting this photo of me at my very first job in NYC working on my very first mac.  My mac was an Apple Macintosh II.  I bought it while I was in law school in the early 90's.  I brought it with me to New York and ended up taking it to work because my company didn't have computers at the time (hard to believe, eh?).  

Just the CPU alone retailed for $3,898!!!  The monitor, keyboard and mouse were extra.  When it was all said and done I spent over $5,000 for that computer with two floppy drives and 1MB of RAM!  

I used my law school loan money to pay for it.  Since I just paid off the last of my law school loans, I guess I just paid off this computer!!!

Anyway, happy anniversary Mac.  It's been a long and happy relationship.

Friends on TV

When you live in Manhattan, it is just a given that sooner or later, one of your friends will end up on TV.  This is our friend Dave.

Dave is a local DJ and a head baker at Amy's Breads.  

Dave also served as the officiant at our wedding in 2005.  (He did a wonderful job.)

And now Dave is on TV!!!  He's currently in three IBM commercials.  Here's one of them:    

Go Dave!

She likes it - too!

A while ago we got a photo of lovely little Addison with her Sophie doll, and more recently we got this photo of beautiful little Laura Lee with her Sophie doll.  Could these little girls be any cuter???  I'm so glad they like the dolls!!! 

Vacation

Since the last time I posted we finished up our six month long project in New Jersey, moved back to our place in Manhattan, and took a much needed vacation to the Puerto Rican island of Culebra!  

The Culebra landscape looks like this

And the beaches look like this

This particular beach is known as Flamenco beach.  Flamenco beach is consistently rated as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  We loved Flamenco beach and we spent a lot of time playing in the waves!  

We also went to the isolated Zoni beach for sunset walks.

Mike is losing a battle with his beach towel in this shot.

In order to snorkel we had to hike over tough mountain terrain to the other side of the island.

That's me with my snorkel gear in tow - hot, tired and lost - trying to figure out the way to Tamarindo beach.

When we finally found Tamarindo, the snorkeling was amazing!!

Here I am over top of a huge staghorn coral.

And here's Mike swimming over more lovely coral.  We snorkeled for many hours and saw all kinds of beautiful corals, sea fans, sponges, anemones, gorgonians, urchins and fish.

This above photo is for you Johanna!  We know how much you loved our urchin.

After a long day of snorkeling, it was nice to return to the Bahia Marina where we stayed.

This is one of the Bahia Marina's many pools.

And this is one of the Bahia Marina's many snakes!  The name of the island ("Culebra") means "snake" and I can see why.  We saw a number of them.  The most interesting snake encounter happened INSIDE OUR CONDO.  A very long black snake slithered into the hallway when Mike opened the front door.  Mike isn't the least bit afraid of snakes (he actually loves snakes!) so Mike happily followed the snake into the kitchen and managed to get it headed back through the hallway and out the front door - all while I hid in the bathroom!

Dinner at the Bahia Marina's outdoor restaurant was so good that night, it made me quickly forget the snake incident. 

After a WONDERFUL week of life on Culebra, we said goodby to the island and flew in a tiny plane back to mainland Puerto Rico.

Along with our sunburns and mosquito bites, we're left with memories of beautiful beaches, great snorkeling, friendly people, and amazing views.  We will definitely go back to Culebra!!!!