Chair Alert!!!

On my way home from work I was walking past some stuff left on the street for the trash and guess what was there...you guessed it....chairs!!! Actually this time it was a dumpster with pieces and parts of chairs. I am sure there are a few people who received a brand new chairs this week somewhere in New York. I was so disappointed that I did not have my camera with me to take a picture...but, I was on the phone with Sally and when I said "oh no, I do not have my camera with me...", she asked if I had spotted more chairs. So there is the picture in your mind...me, walking and talking on the phone then saddened because I did not have a camera to take a pic of more chairs. I do not know why I am so obsessed with these chairs.
Adios.

Jen's Wedding

My friend Jennifer got married to her fiance Jonah this weekend. Jennifer and Jonah are Korean and had a traditional Korean Dinner and wedding. She invited those of us from the office to attend. Jeremy and I took the train to Pelham and met Peter for a ride to the church. Jen was so thoughtful to arrange for the 'work friends' to have a reserved place to sit for the dinner reception. We had a great time during the wedding festivities. Of course, at the end of the reception, I had to get up for the 'always fun' single girl walk of shame to get ready to catch the bouquet....I did not catch it. Jeremy had to go up when they summoned the single guys.

We had a great time visiting with each other, Cristiane and family, Luciene and her husband Douglas, Jeremy, Peter, David and Me. After the Wedding, Dinner and Reception, there was an 'after party'. We traveled back to the city and had a great time at a club until early into the morning. I have posted a few pics below


Me and Jeremy and Cristiane's little one, 'Baby Brian'


Luciene (left) with Cristiane and her two little ones, Barbara and 'Baby Brian'


Jeremy (left) on stage with Jen


David (left), Peter (middle), Jeremy (right)


Third Avenue at 3:00 AM...the city that never sleeps!

Another Few Chairs....

Walking home from work, there were another few chairs up for grabs on the street this week. A few posts back, I talked about how there are often chairs just sitting on the street waiting for 'pick-up', either for the trash or something else. This week I spotted two more just 'sitting' in there. One was an office chair the other was a chair that may have been a 'guest chair' in an office. I do not know why I find chairs on the street so funny???? I did not take a pic of the first one, but had my camera ready this one. I asked Jeremy to sit in the chair and pose, but he quickly refused......You never can tell where a chair may have come from, especially if it is just sitting on the street......

President's Day of Events

Monday was President's Day. I did not get to take my picuture of the 'red, white, blue' Empire state building lights, but no worries....there are many other opportunities for the red, white and blue lights. The bank was closed on President's Day, so I had a much anticipated day off from work. I love Monday Holidays. I slept in and then went to the gym. I usually go before work on Mondays, but when there is a Monday holiday, I love sleeping in and going to the gym a little later. I can always tell who must work at a bank because they are the same sorry souls I see on my regular early morning schedule.

I took the remainder of the day to do a much needed cleaning and organizing of my apartment. I bought a paper shredder and got rid of the three shopping bags of paper that needed to be gone. I also organized my kitchen cabinets and clothes closet. Just as I was finishing up my organizing day, I got a call from Paula, who was in NYC for the week working at AMEX. Jeremy and I met Paula for dinner and some very welcomed catching up. We went to a Cuban Restaurant recommended by one of Jeremy's friends. It was a great. Let me know if you want to try it out when 'YOU' are visiting. We next went across the street to a 'pub' to chat. At the end of the evening, Jeremy and I cerimoniously hailed a cab for Paula and went home. It was great to see Paula and spend some time with her. (I realized now I did not take a pic of us, but I did take pic of the pub we went to for my 'pub pics' collection

I also bought a some potted hyacinth bulbs. They bloomed this week and are beautiful.

The Crane was back again....

For the past few weekends, 45th Street in front of my building has been blocked off on Saturday and Sunday. No problem for me since I do not have a car. There is a 'portable' crane that has been lifting object on the roof of a building across and down the street from my building. This crane is not like the ones that have been toppling over. The crane base is a huge truck. The tall part sits on top of the truck and lowers down like a fire truck ladder. Then the very top part disassembles and is carried on another truck. I know this because, last week when the work was over, the crane was laying down on 3rd Avenue and it took up three blocks from 44th to 46th Street. Today, the crane was lifting some very large canister shaped objects....I think that the building is getting a new air conditioning or some sort of HVAC system. Just a guess...I really have no idea. Today as I was walking past the crane one of the work men said watch out above...and when I looked up, there was one of these large canisters suspended in the air. I felt that maybe I needed a hard hat. I have attached some pics. You can see that the canisters are huge by comparing the man walking next to it. Well, that is the story of the crane. I am guessing it will be back tomorrow?

Happy Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day....so Happy Valentine's Day to you. I have been thinking all day that I needed to go to see the Empire State Building tonight. You see, there is actually a lighting schedule for the building.

Click here for the actual website schedule....http://www.esbnyc.com/tourism/tourism_lightingschedule.cfm

The tower is lighted according to various different events and holidays. I noticed the different lighting last year and wanted to take pictures everytime there was a different light display. In the classic Valentine movie, Sleepless in Seattle, Meg Ryan goes to the Empire State building to meet Tom Hanks. I remember in the movie that the tower was lit that night too. As the day went into night, I trecked over to where I could get a view of the lights tonight. For Valentine's Day, the light colors are Red, White and Pink. Last week, the Westminster Dog show was in town and the colors were Purple and Gold. During the Summer Olympics, the colors were Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. At Christmas time....Red, Green and White.....and so on. Here are my Valentine's pics for this year.

New Paint...Check, New Carpet...Check, New Renter (finally!)....Check

I am so excited that I have a new renter in my condo. It has been a long 5 months of mortgage payments, but I finally got someone to rent the condo. The renter moves in this Saturday, so Dave and I took a few pictures of the place all empty. It totally looks different than it did when I lived there. Thank You, Thank You to Mom, Sally, David, Mel and Chris for helping move furniture, coordinate contractors and everything else. I could have never finished all of this work on my own 2000 miles away. After I uploaded the pics that Dave took, I notices some 'orbs' of light.....I wonder if there was a smudge on the lens or something else????? What do you think???

Snow Day.. and a visit

One thing I really miss about Utah is the snow...real snow. Here in New York City it rarely ever snows. Most of the so-called snow is this wet cold frozen rain crap....by the time you get somewhere it is just like it has been raining all over you. I went home to SLC to visit last week and got to go skiing (snowboarding for everyone else). I went with Dave and Meg and Maddie. We had a great time. After a couple of times and a quick lesson on the bunny slope...the girls were getting to be more comfortable on their snowboards. It snowed the entire day....and I loved it. We took a break for some lunch and had our usual...bowl of chili and grill cheese....we all shared it. I posted some 'action shots' from our lunch. I am going to try to schedule another trip soon to go skiing again. It is not really worth the time and $ to go skiing here in the east. I guess I am a snow snob? By the time I spend 2-3 hours traveling by rented car, bus or train to the 'mountains', then renting equipment, etc....I might as well fly to SLC, get my skis out of Mom's garage and go??? I don't think I am missing out, because everyone I talk to in New York says the skiing is not in any way like Utah. I guess I am not missing out?

A Noise on the Roof....

A couple of weeks ago, I heard some voices out on the roof. Outside my apartment windows is a roof. It is not the top of the building but the landing for the fire escape. I was doing my usual internet surfing and heard some people arguing out on the roof. I decided to call Jeremy since he lives five floors above, and ask him to look out the window. Well, he was not at home, but still at work. I stayed on the phone with him while he ran home to check out the noises. When he got here he went out on the roof and did see a person on the roof talking to someone else. We went to the Super's apartment which is a couple of doors down from mine to report the noise. Jeremy went outside to check it out again and the fighting got louder. Then someone started smashing in windows. All of a sudden, I heard my window being smashed in. I screamed and Jeremy yelled for me to come down the hall. We piled into the Super's apartment and called 911. Within 5 minutes the cops arrived...all NYPD style... and went to apprehend the suspects. They were able to catch one guy. Apparently he was all disoriented and did not know how to get off the roof. We then had to go and 'ID' the guy in the cop car out in front of the building. A couple of hours later some more forensic cops (CSI ones) came to look and see if they needed fingerprints. Jeremy and I were also working with the Super to get the tape of who entered and exited the building....all of this ruckus ended about 2:30 AM. The next morning we spoke with the Asst. DA regarding the situation. We ended up going to prepare for court the next week. We found out that the guy was friends of some other guys in the building and was all disoriented. He ended up pleading guilty and was fined for the damage. He also has an order to stay away from our building.

I have posted some pics of the damages....needless to say, I have purchased window and door alarms. I also have getting back to a normal sleeping schedule. I cannot seem to think every night around 10:30 if anyone is coming back.

This story also made it in the NYPD police beat....I guess we did not need a note for being late into the office the next morning.

Here's a link to the NY post police beat.....http://www.nypost.com/seven/02022009/news/nypdblotter/nypdblotter.htm