Back from San Francisco

Hello! We are back from our San Fran trip. It was great to see my sister and parents - we went all over the city and I have lots of photos to show. Stay tuned - I'll post them when I get back on east coast time....the jet lag has been a little rough this time around.

Sunny Saturday

We had some great weather on Saturday - so we decided to walk to the Botanic Gardens and see some cherry blossoms. I love this place! We renewed our membership, so we can go back as often as we like.

We stopped by the Grand Army Plaza farmers market on the way home. I picked up a few flowers. I love having flowers and plants in the apartment but ever since Luna came into our world, it's been very hard to keep anything alive! We'll see how long this daffodil lasts.....as Ethan says, "Teensy is the murderer of flowers". (FYI: Luna has many nicknames, Teensy being one, along with Tuna, Teeny, Lovie, Poopsy, Loony, etc...)

Yankees vs. Red Sox

On Wednesday, Ethan and I went to Yankee Stadium for the first game of the NY/Boston series. We took the train up to the South Bronx after work and met up with some of Ethan's friends. Here are some highlights and lowlights:

• Ethan (along with others) was frisked upon entry to the stadium.
• Our seats were in the bleachers. (We discovered that this is the rowdiest section of the stadium, even though no alcohol is allowed. Go figure. At Safeco Field, this is called the "Family Section")
• We saw several fans get kicked out for fighting. This is a super intense rivalry!
• The Red Sox fans were verbally abused the whole time, so we very quietly cheered for Boston.
• The Red Sox lost 15-9 - we left in the 6th inning, since it was 10pm and we had a long subway ride back to Brooklyn.

I am glad the next game we attend will be against the Mariners. Yankee fans are a little easier on the M's fans.

Hollywood comes to Brooklyn

My friend, Sarah and I were heading out for our weekly walk around the park when she told me about something curious happening in our 'hood. On 7th Ave and 9th St (two blocks away from our apt), the street is lined with big, white trailers. We walked by and found out that a big-time movie is being filmed in Park Slope (they were shooting subway scenes yesterday).

The movie is called "Julie & Julia" directed by Nora Ephron (who also wrote Sleepless in Seattle and Harry Met Sally). Meryl Streep and Amy Adams star in this movie based on a memoir by Julia Child and a memoir by Julie Powell, a New Yorker who wrote about cooking all 500+ recipes in a Julia Child cookbook in one year. I figure it must be a good one if Meryl Streep is involved.

Sittin' on the corner of Lafayette...

...at the Brooklyn Academy of Music ( I know, not in Louisiana, but the concert really was on the corner of Lafayette and St. Felix in downtown Bklyn!). Friday night was a great night. "Under African Skies" was a well-done ensemble concert, with Ladysmith Black Mambazo opening. They are awesome and fun to watch. They tell stories with their hands as they sing. Ladysmith stole the show, along with David Byrne from the Talking Heads. He sang two songs - "I Know What I Know" and "You Can Call Me Al". Those were the perfect choices for him to sing. Paul Simon, of course was excellent, but didn't sing as many songs as I hoped. But you could tell that he and everyone else on stage was having a blast and that made it fun for the audience. I loaded up my iPod with more Paul Simon and Ladysmith songs and will be listening on my commute tomorrow.

(Photos from a website I found by a man named Paul Fournier. We were not that close to the stage, sadly).

Paul Simon!

Paul Simon is in the midst of a month-long residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). He's performing a 3 part concert series - based on different themes of his music. We were fortunate enough to snag tickets to the "Under African Skies" concert tomorrow night. It will feature songs from "Graceland" and "Rhythm of the Saints", performed by Paul Simon and guests (Ladysmith Black Mambazo, David Byrne to name a few). Paul Simon is my all time favorite singer and I am so excited. I'll tell you all about it this weekend!

Pike Place in NYC!

I saw this picture in the daily subway newspaper "amNY" -1971 Starbucks in Bryant Park- it caught my attention and I looked it up on the internet when I got home. Apparently, Starbucks sent out this mysterious email invitation for a NYC event:


For one day only, Starbucks set up a temporary replica of the original Pike Place Starbucks in the middle of Bryant Park. Howard Schultz and the gang were in town intruducing a new line of beans- the Pike Place Roast.

The original logo

Flowers at Macy's and 600,000 Headstones

Last weekend, E and I headed to Macy's to see their Flower Show. Now, when I hear the words flower show, I think of the Seattle Flower and Garden Show, which has awesome, intricate gardens set up inside the Convention Center. I knew there was not enough space to have that kind of set up inside of Macy's, so I really had no idea what to expect. Here's what we saw:

The main floor of the store had turned into a springtime wonderland - there were flowers, green plants and blossoming trees everywhere!


On Sunday, we walked to one of Brooklyn's treasures. The Green-Wood Cemetery is about 10 blocks away from our apartment and is the size of Prospect Park. The cemetery originated in 1838 and was the inspiration for the creation of Central and Prospect Parks. There are approx. 600,000 people buried here, including some famous NY historical figures (Boss Tweed, Charles Ebbetts, Jean Michel Basquiat). Green-Wood hosts the highest point in Brooklyn (Battle Hill, 220 feet). Here's a brief history lesson for you:

"It can be argued that the battle that took place on this hill actually saved in the United States in its infancy in August 1776. During the Battle of Brooklyn, British troops in flanking maneuver had routed George Washington's army and were closing in on capturing him.

Washington fled with his army about a half mile west across the Gowanus Creek when a group of 400 Maryland soldiers stood their ground on the hill. All but 9 were to perish, being injured or captured. But the delay was enough for Washington to get his men across the creek and into Brooklyn Heights before evacuating to Manhattan under the cover of a night fog."

---from http://www.americasroof.com/

Views from Battle Hill (Statue of Liberty at the end of the street)

Civil War Memorial

Altar of Liberty saluting the Statue of Liberty

Signs of spring!

Green-Wood Chapel

Bright and sunny (and cold!) day at the cemetery

5th Avenue entrance - Gothic Revival architecture - amazing!

If you look closely at the spires, you will see bird nests. As we exited the cemetery, our eyes were drawn up to the nests. We heard birds and as we looked closer, we saw they were PARROTS! We have our very own "Parrots of Telegraph Hill" right in Brooklyn! The rumor is that back in the late 60's, a shipment of monk parrots from South America escaped from their crate at JFK. And the parrots made their home in the cemetery.

Here's a closer shot.

I Love MLB Extra Innings

Ethan did something wonderful last weekend and purchased the MLB Extra Innings package for our cable system. Now we can watch any baseball game we want, all from the comforts of our apartment. We won't miss any Mariners action this year! Last night, we watched Opening Night and saw the M's beat the Rangers in the snow. I don't remember EVER seeing snow at a game before!

The only downside to this deal is that many of the games start at 10:05 ET - past my bedtime. But there's always the DVR option...

Go M's!