Dear Blog…
Once again, I have neglected you and for that I apologize. I have had days of nonstop activity followed by days of laziness and at neither point have I had the energy to come in here. 🙁
I am busy with work, with Fresh Photography stuff (including another Yale Street Market weekend that I had to miss but Christine managed it for us), with social events and editing of photographs (it takes many hours to edit over 1000 shots and I am still not done).
In general I am doing well although I ran into a tiny bout of depression last week – just fatigued I think and for whatever reason emotional. I hope I am over it.
Along happier lines, I am happy to report that my garden pond is finally in!!
Yes, such a simple thing as a small pond in the backyard has lifted my spirits. I still need to landscape the area around the pond, rearrange the potted plants, stock it with some fish and some plants but I actually have the upcoming weekend free to do so. Just having the weekend free of planned social events makes me happy. Don’t get me wrong – I am a social butterfly and thrive on getting out but I am enjoying it just as much just having friends over to our house. It’s all cyclical for me and I am sure I’ll get bored with it but for now, it’s a good way to relax at home and still get the social fix I need.
The dishes need to be done and things need to be tidied so I will end this entry here… Drop me a line to say hello so I know that someone is still out there reading this! LOL!
Manahattan Street Photography
Still uploading pictures into the NYC photo set… Hell’s Kitchen, Times Square & Brooklyn Bridge pictures are up, St. Patrick’s Cathedral photos being uploaded over the weekend, then Empire State Building, Central Park, Botanical Gardens, Staten Island Ferry and more…
Below are a few of my “street photography”, a departure from my typical style of focusing on architecture. The last two were shot on Canal Street from the hip without looking through the viewfinder. Hope you like them (click on image for larger sizes)!
What We Did in NYC
Photos are s-l-o-w-l-y going up over at Flickr… and I have started a NYC album.
In the meantime, I am going to list, for my own reference, a list of everything we did & saw… So as to not take up too much space, I will use the extended entry option.
Busy, busy, busy x 3 + NYC!
Sorry for the loooong absence. I have been extremely busy and have had no time to breathe it seems!
Kenny and I just got back from a 6-day trip to New York City (we flew back in last night) and before we left my schedule was full. I was busy with Fresh Photography (another Yale Street Arts Market) and getting the house in order for our house/dog-sitter since the house was a pig sty and needed a cleaning.
Between the house cleaning tasks I continued to be busy with a garden club meeting and a second commercial photo shoot at 7 AM (before heading into my day job). Kenny fortunately stayed home from work the day before we were to leave which was a huuuuge help but I still was left to pack my bags at the last minute. Oh, and I almost forgot – I stayed at work till 8 PM that night trying to finish certain work projects before leaving on vacation.
Despite all the pre-trip mayhem, we managed to get out on time and after an hour and a half flight delay we finally made it into NYC last Thursday night. The trip went relatively smoothly, we walked miles and miles, became intimately familiar with the subway and in general had a great trip.
I have lots more to share and still need to wade through over 1000 pictures so please pardon me while I monopolize the upcoming blog entries with NYC stories and pictures! 🙂 I’ll leave with a cell phone photo I took while walking through Central Park…
Galveston, iFest, Tucson, March of Dimes…
Wow – I started a weekend re-cap post last week and it sat in “draft” mode all week. Now another weekend has gone by and I never got the chance to actually finish it and publish it!
So instead of boring you with details, I will give a really, really fast recap of the past couple of weekends…
Weekend April 20-22
Spent Saturday at Galveston with Emma (her 1st time at the beach) and Hanna – had a lovely time catching up and just having a girl’s day… thanks Hanna!
On Sunday Kenny & I headed to the the International Festival where we were volunteering at the Sister Cities Wine Booth. The booth was a lot fun to work in – I took wine orders while Kenny poured – and I might get more involved in the organization in the future.
Week of April 23-26
I headed out to Tucson for a 2-day business trip. It was my first time in Arizona and although the business trip did not go as smoothly as hoped (not my fault fortunately), I did enjoy my time visiting the city. I managed to go to Saguaro National Park and the San Xavier Mission as well as spent a relaxing evening Downtown.
Weekend April 27-29
I caught up with friends over coffee and drinks both Friday and Saturday night – including dinner with Laurie & Christine. On Sunday I woke up early to work as a volunteer at the March of Dimes walk. My company is a corporate sponsor of one of the rest stops. I had a great time handing out balloons and filling cups of water…
And that gets up back to this week where I am still struggling to recuperate from a social calendar that won’t let me slow down significantly enough to catch up with myself. And to think we leave for NYC in a little over one week! Ack!! There is so much to do before then, including getting ready for another Yale Street Arts Market this Saturday!
I am so tired thinking about all this already…
Virginia Tech Commentary
This will probably be my only commentary on the Virginia Tech tragedy but I wanted to post it. Robert Siegel, an NPR host, gave this two minute commentary that completely hits the mark on an issue that has been on my mind as I have heard and read the enormous amount of articles on the subject. This aired on All Things Considered on April 18th… it really is worth a listen and I hope you find the time to click on the link.
Oh, and of course, my heart goes out to all the families and students affected.
Picnic, Cirque & shopping…
Wow. Is it Wednesday already… heck, is it only Wednesday? This week seems to have been flown by but at times it seems to be going so slow. What have I been up to?
Well, the weekend was busy. Saturday afternoon we attended my company’s annual picnic. It was fun despite the windy cold overcast weather. Kenny and I did not wear warm enough clothes but fortunately, they moved it to a closed building that was much more comfortable.
After the picnic we had tickets to go see Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo. This was our 5th Cirque show and we are always excited. We had amazing seats once again and came to the consensus that this was their second best show. We still consider Quidam our favorite though.
Sunday we slept in and then spent the afternoon out and about. We mostly went shopping for our upcoming trip to NYC. three more weeks, woo-hoo! Ended the weekend meeting my Mom for dinner.
As you can see it was a pretty relaxing weekend which has continued into the week. We’ve actually had the chance to stay in and catch up on TiVoed shows. I am battling a hacking cough that is deep in my chest but I am finally going to the doctor in a couple of hours. I think it’s just a case of bronchitis but it sucks nonetheless. Hope it starts to clear up sooner rather than later since I have a pretty full weekend planned and then will be traveling for work the first half of next week.
Speaking of work, I must get back to it! Later alligators…
Do shrimp go to heaven?
Back during Christmas 2005 I received an Ecosphere from Kenny. It has sat at two desks with me and actually, most of the shrimp died earlier last year but there was one red shrimp left. I check on him every now and then, see how he was doing. I checked on him yesterday and unfortunately, he’s gone on to the giant Ecosphere in the sky. RIP little shrimpy!
Now I don’t know what to do with the Ecosphere. I can “re-charge” it but with shipping, it ends up costing the same as going to the store and buying another one… what should I do? First my betta, now my shrimp. Ack!
NYC in one month!
We leave for New York City in exactly 30 day!! We are going for 6 days, 5 nights and I can’t wait!!! Airfare and hotel are booked… We haven’t been on a vacation in ages and I didn’t expect to go on one this year but we could not resist the cheap airfare (and on Continental non-stop too).
I am already making lists of what to see & do… researching museums, harbor cruises, sites to see. I also bought a couple of guidebooks this weekend to help me narrow things down. I do not like huge travel guides but swear by Fodor’s “25 Best” series – I always buy one if it’s available for the city we visit and have been doing so for years – and this time I also bought Michelin’s Must Sees book.
Anyway, just wanted to mark the occasion because I am so giddy with excitement. Can you tell how much I love to travel?
A couple of added bonuses: NYC in May is supposedly lovely and is the best month to visit the Botanical Gardens… and it will be almost 10 years since Kenny and I last went to NYC (shy by 1 month). We went when we had first started to date back in June 1997 and have been longing to go back ever since. This will be a nice anniversary to mark besides the standard wedding anniversary.
A fire in the firplace in April??
Brr… what a chilly Easter weekend!! No snow here in Houston but it was soggy and cold. It ruined the art festival on Saturday, that’s for sure…
Friday night: Stayed in, finished getting ready for the Yale Street Arts Market the next day.
Saturday: Despite the rainy, cold forecast, Christine and I were determined to set up the booth. We had already paid for it and Houston weather forecasts aren’t always that accurate so we still had some hope left, especially since the rain had not started to fall yet while we were setting up.
Boy, was our hope dashed by 10:30 AM when the rain did start to fall. It was never a downpour but it was enough to make everything miserable. Add to that temperatures that never got past 40 F and you can only imagine how bad it was out there. Over half the vendors had canceled and no one was out buying (who can blame them?). I was cold to the bone and told Christine I was not lasting past 2 PM. Nobody else did either. By 2 PM we were all broken down once again and I was happily on my way to a nice warm bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup. I think the picture below says it all, don’t you think?
The rest of Saturday was spent warming back up. I took a nice hot shower, put on my favorite housepants and took a nap. Kenny eventually headed over to a friends’ to play cards and I stayed home and watched a movie with a cozy fire in the fireplace.
Sunday: Slept in (what a wonderful feeling) and vegged around the house all day. Watched another movie (we have the 3-movies-at-a-time plan from NetFlix) and made cookies. We only left the house to have dinner over at our friends’ house. It was a very pleasant evening of grilled steaks, baked Brie and Dresden Files. And I got to spend some time with their newborn too!
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