Thursday, November 24, 2011

practice (improves perfect).

one of the reasons we were in such a hurry to get in a visit with Aunt Marge and Uncle Ben at their place in NYC is that soon it will be getting a whole lot smaller, while our family gets bigger!



that's right- Aunt Marge isn't fat, she's pregnant! probably most of you knew this already, but now everyone knows! because my family blog is world famous! woo hoo! sorry! it's hard to stop using exclamation points once you really get going! seriously! try it yourself! oh god, someone help me!



contemplating the essence of chicken:

"so wait- i'm chicken. but this is a chicken. and i'm 'called' chicken. but we would also call this chicken. and this is a chicken in effigy. am i a squeeze toy? am i an effigy of this toy, or of an actual chicken? or is it all the other way around? what does it mean to truly be 'chicken?' and holy crap- which came first? chickens all the way down..."






i have this feeling that Aunt Marge is going to be an awesome mom, and Uncle Ben is going to be an awesome dad. 



hey look, it's them five years from now, enjoying a lazy sunday afternoon with their kids! no, wait. they're not nearly haggard and worn looking enough.



all in good time!







in the meanwhile, their nieces love them a lot! 


while the politics of the thanksgiving holiday get messy, is it so bad to have an official excuse ONCE A YEAR to just get together with people we love and who often drive us crazy, and just acknowledge all of the good we provide to each other? yeah, yeah, yeah, the pilgrims killed the indians with guns, and spears, and unsound building materials, and chicken pox, and herpes, and walmart, and high interest rates and whatever else. but can't we just forget about history and have a good time? i say yes!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


















Wednesday, November 23, 2011

sneak peak: a picture of two people i love a lot...





there's more where this came from- see you tomorrow!












interlude: more carousel










Tuesday, November 22, 2011

sunday: carousel!


going into this trip we had been dreading what the sleep situations might be with two small kids that sleep less than ideally even while home in their own beds. but friday night- no problem. and saturday night- no problem. when sunday morning rolled around and our plan was to get out early for breakfast with our friends tony and meredith and their boy lincoln, we were actually well rested and ready to go.

of course, it's still a bit of an organizational nightmare with two small kids plus you and your own shit to load up and get out the door on time, but while mommy kid wrangled i went out for coffee and bagels in the neighborhood, and by the time i got back we were all set!


"so bored of NYC."


"blah blah blah..."



tony and meredith and lincoln lived by the water, and when we got off the train we were treated to trees all dressed up in these cool lights! what does that have to do with where they live? NOTHING. i'm tired, i've been job interviewing, job searching, job jobbing... it wears me out. where the hell was i?


michael jackson lives on, in windows everywhere.



i'm including the following pics of their apartment because of how much less shit they have strewn all over the place than we do. will ever do. hair do. doo doo. doo wop. and so on.




this long hallway was missing a little kicker ramp at the far end though. if we lived here i could burst in the door coming home from work, push off down the long runway, hit the kicker, and launch myself through that window down there five stories to the pavement below. okay, so never mind. whatever.




there's a rumor that the statue of liberty is made of french fries, held together by a mixture of cheese and ennui. it was a gift from the french, after all. you haven't heard that rumor? all over the streets.


tony told me that the city is turning each of these piers into pieces of a sort of interconnected park, with cycling, kayaking, benches for the lazy...  



moms on a walk.




seconds later she just took off. straight up, in a cloud of smoke. really.



and what do we think of skate-stoppers on some back-alley already ghetto set of stairs that no one ever even steps on but would be a nice little two second grind on someone's daily cruising line? 


exactly. they probably cost more to install than the stairs are worth.






the real reason for our walk was to get to this cool, old, restored carousel:






this is the .005 of a second in which bebe had to contemplate whether or not to ride the carousel:




so, on we got!

bebe found a horse she like almost immediately. next stop, off track betting!



tony and lincoln had a harder time. luckily we were one of the first in line so we had our pick.



the entire carousel is encased in this giant glass cube. depending on where you stand (or spin) it distorts the outside view in cool ways.


we hadn't seen lincoln since he was about two weeks old, so to see him out and about like a little man was a trip. he was a-doorbell.



a better view of the distort-o-cube.




"look at that shaved cat. on a leash." 
i know, right? weird.


after breakfast, and a ride, and a walk, and that weird shaved cat on a leash, plus that old lady that took off, it was time to get back on the subway that was about to not get us anywhere close to where we needed to be thanks to trains not running, etc., thanks.







in the end, we rode way out of our way, got off, turned around and went back, and then got off no where near aunt marge and uncle ben's place. so we walked, and it wasn't so bad. i got to annoy the hell out of mommy by making her stop so i could take pictures of shit like this:

good times! but seriously, not that bad at all. we made it back with plenty of time to get out of town, but first we got a little more time with aunt marge and uncle ben!

more brooklyn here.