Shakespeare in the Parking Lot

We went with our friends last Saturday night to Shakespeare in the Park . . . ing lot. They put on a great performance of Twelfth Night, and Cassandra and her husband brought us the best donuts I think I've ever had from the Doughnut Plant. Performance photos from LarimdaME. 

thanks libby

cd ryan

I love this guys work. 

The crib

This is the crib my dad is making for our incoming bundle of joy. It's really beautiful as you can see. 

Satirical Observation

I know this might be old to some of you but, after showing Emily, we joke about how we often find it to be true. Like the other night at the Feist concert at Prospect Park.

Palmyra Trip

We had a fun weekend up at my parent's house. Emily had her first pageant experience as well. I enjoyed being with my sisters and brother. It was especially fun playing catch with frisbees and footballs before the performance began. We stopped by grandma's house as well.

Duty, done

So I was on Grand Jury duty in Brooklyn for the past two weeks. Unlike a trial jury that hears one case, we heard 35 cases and decided whether to indict (true bill) or to dismiss (no true bill). It was an interesting experience. Here is a list of a few things I learned:

(1) Where not to go in Brooklyn

(2) Most crimes happen at night

(3) Drugs aren't that expensive

(4) Cell phones are hot items to steal

(5) Grand Jury Duty=lots of reading time (read three books)

(6) I'm proud to be a Brooklynite (based on my fellow jurors)

(7) Brooklyn is quite diverse (and Russians are nice)

All in all it was a good experience. Heard a few terrible crimes though. I was also able to share some of my beliefs with a few people on the jury along with a Book of Mormon. I kinda think Grand Jury duty is a waste of our time if, like in other states, a judge can just do what we did. They let me go free for ten more years in NY State.

Too Much Law and Order?

Leave it to NYC to rob me of my 911-virginity. I've never had to call 911 before (Adam has--when his brother was hit by a truck as a child) but I've had lots of nightmares about trying to dial that or another important number and I couldn't for the life of me punch the right buttons. But then a few weeks ago, my time came. I was driving East on the Belt expressway (I've been told we don't call them "freeways" here) when, in one of those slow-motion moments, I noticed that there was a head floating in the middle of the fast lane on the West-bound side. Something clicked in my brain telling me that all was not right in time for me to look over and see a man in the middle of the fast lane. He was sitting serenely, with his back to traffic. My brain had two thoughts in a nano-second: "He must be protesting something" and, "Is there a mental hospital near here?" I debated if I should call 911 and even dialed 311 but hung up on the first "please press one..." This man is going to die! So I called 911, gave them my location, and a surprisingly detailed description of the man and hung up, shaken beyond belief and wondering if he would be hit. I searched the web for news of any weirdness on the Belt later that day but found nothing. So much for my "first time."



Last night, Adam and I were awakened out of a dead sleep by the sound of a gunshot. We had heard what sounded like rockets or firecrackers periodically the last week or so, but this one was different. We've both fired a hand gun, thanks to Adam's old roommate Jake and a bunch of 2-liter jugs filled with water in a Springville canyon, and so we knew this wasn't any firework. My first impulse was to run to the window and see what was going on. But Adam threw his arm over me and yelled at me to get down. Ok, maybe he wasn't that dramatic, but we were both really shaken and scared. We didn't hear any other noise, but at 1:11 AM, it seemed like calling 911 was the right thing to do. So, once again, I dialed and told them my name and what happened. NYPD called back and asked, just like the 911 dispatcher, if anyone had been injured... "No..." How many shots were there? "Just one..." Did we see anything? "Um...no--we're in bed." They asked if we wanted to meet with a police officer and we declined. They said something about officers being in the area and that was it. We slept fitfully the rest of the night; my dreams were filled with crime and violence. But everything seemed perfectly tranquil when I left for work this morning. My co-worker laughed when I told her how we'd called 911. Maybe, since I've already done it once, it's made it all the easier to do it again.



P.S. Before he rolled over and went back to sleep, I did tell Adam that, if someone was shot on our street, we were MOVING. To Utah.

Giving blood

Ah, Vampire Weekend.
They put on a good show this past Saturday at the SummerStage.
It was a bit of a sacrifice to see them, though they didn't take our blood.
We did get quite soaked several times. It's funny that we haven't learned one of the basic rules of being a NYer:
Never leave home without an umbrella.
It was a bit crazy. When we got there at 4, I walked for 5-10 mins and never saw the end of the line. So Emily and I decided to wait outside of the fence. It began to pour and seemed to not let up for like an hour. We decided to throw in the towel (which we wish we had) and headed for the subway, Once we got there we waited and warmed up a bit. By that time it had stopped raining so we said, heck we made it this far, and headed back. When we go there we saw that the line wasn’t that long and got in it since Vampire Weekend hadn’t taken the stage yet. At 6 they took the stage and started their first number as we were let in.

They were very entertaining. It was really fun until it began to pour again and were got re-soaked to the bone. We left quite the puddle under us on the N ride home.

The only casualty, we thought, was my cell phone. But now it works, except for the screen.

Thank you Brooklyn Vegan, Surgery, and Gerry Visco for the photos.

Our little girl

We had to go back for another ultrasound on Friday, because the last time we went, she was curled up so tight the technician couldn't measure her heart. The 3-D images they took that time only showed us that she was timid. Now we know she is friendly and responds when we tell her to say hi.

Oscar is printed

My first cover that I am stoked about.

Saturday Sights Part II

As promised, here are more photos of our excursion last Saturday.

We went to the South Street Seaport, a stone's throw from Wall Street. It was mostly a tourist trap but it was fun to see the ships and be so close to the water. Plus, it had a great view.

When I saw the tugboat, I couldn't stop myself from going "toot toot!" But I wouldn't do the motion for the picture. Sorry, Adam.
We checked out the restaurants on the pier but didn't find anything reasonable. Then we wandered down a cobble-stone street, past some bars that were hopping, and stumbled upon this restaurant, Carmine's. It's over 100 years old! It's hard to see in the picture, but it looked really...piratey from the outside. Inside, the low lighting and thick wooden furniture added to the feeling that we were on board a ship—the Black Pearl? And we ate some of the best food I've had here: clams, scallops, shrimp, and fish fillet, with spaghetti to break up the fishiness and garlic bread to sop up all the mouth-watering sauces. I'd been craving seafood for a while and I was in pregnancy heaven.

I think Adam's thinking, how much is this going to cost? And I'm just excited to eat seafood.

Saturday Sights

On our outing on saturday we caught this view together. More photos to come.

Solar Airship

So this is pretty cool. It's works like a kite. Check out the video here. Thanks Swissmiss (who also brought me mixwit).

On the way to the subway last night I gave Elmo a hi-five.

The Man-child

Emily and I read this article earlier this year about the man-child. It's really interesting. Tell us what you think. This image is on that very subject by Graham Roumieu who is very talent artist I stumbled upon in the past month.

This is another one I really loved.

Colin Meloy

I saw this live studio session with Colin Meloy today. I really enjoyed it. He has an amazing voice, and to see him sing in such an intimate setting in an unpolished video, like a music video would be, really makes him more real. Check it out. I also enjoyed him in an interview with Terry Gross about a year ago.

Also I just heard Laura Gibson yesterday for the first time. She's got a great sound.

Burnt offering

This happened right near my work yesterday. It was kinda freaky walking to the subway and seeing the burnt carcass of a nyc taxi cab. Never saw any smoke or fire though, I walked by at 5:15ish.

Sun message

Really great idea with type.