Weekend with Grandma

Grandma's surprise party turned out better than we expected! It was so wonderful to see everyone!

Grandma and my cousin Tina

Grandma and great-granddaughter Sara

Grandma hugging a friend

The classic Grandma hug (that's Dad)

Grandma dancing

Grandma hugging two of her kids. My uncle Allen from New Jersey and aunt Brenda from Virginia. She didn't expect to see them.

She's so cute!

The surprise!

Be back next week

I'm home for the weekend to celebrate Grandma's 90th birthday. Don't say anything if you see her! It's a surprise and she has no idea! Be back next week!

Crafts and Cupcakes

I'm getting a little tired of being in the sun and the heat (a little burned too), so I spent the morning at home. After lunch I went to a coffee shop called Grey Dog. It was a pretty cute place, but I didn't stick around long. I was hoping to people watch and get a little work done on my computer, but the setup wasn't very good for people watching and no one had a computer out. I couldn't find a sign that said computers are not allowed, but a lot of coffee shops in New York have rules about that. Then I walked a couple blocks to the library to return some books and stayed in there for a bit. I looked up a couple more coffee places to check out and went out into the heat again.

I'm so glad I decided on this place! Sweet Revenge!

They have all kinds of food and wine, but are known for their cupcakes. This one, called Sweet Revenge, is described as "Peanut Butter Cake, Ganache Filling with Peanut Butter Fudge Frosting". It was amazing! I wish I had a prettier picture, but they put it in a cup so it would travel without smooshing.

Halfway through the cupcake. Yummy ganache on the inside!

Around 5:30 I left the apartment for a craft night at the Etsy.com labs in Brooklyn. It's a free night of crafting! They have a couple crafts that they show you how to do and then you make your own. Tonight was cupcake night (how appropriate!) and they were making embroidered cards and felted cupcake pins. The felting was so much fun! You basically set a piece of felt on top of a piece of foam, lay another piece of felt (cut into a shape) on the other felt, and poke it with a pin. The fibers of the top felt stick through the bottom felt and they bind together. My cupcake didn't look anything like a cupcake, so I made knitting needles.

The studio at cleanup time.

I wanted to take pictures during the event, but I was too busy felting!

Giant stuffed typewriter

Giant stuffed phone, stapler, and coffee mug

Giant stuffed clock with giant stuffed pushpins on the bulletin board!

Awesome handmade stuff! Check it out! Etsy.com

My felted knitting thing. What should I make with it?

Here are the fibers sticking through the back. Pretty cool!

Washington Square Park

After a lovely morning of NPR's Saturday programming I went to Manhattan for a slice of pizza at Joe's of Spiderman 2 fame. On the way there I walked through Washington Square Park and found my new favorite place!

First, there's this awesome fountain in the middle. I am definitely going back without the camera to play in that!

The best part is you don't have to feel weird about not being a kid. Adults with kids and without kids were there too.

Periodically, the fountain would go off and the kids would get so excited when it came back on.

Aww

This little kid was so funny. I also love the look on the face of the kid on the right!

Even dogs get to play!

Here's a pretty dog after a swim.

A cute mom and daughter. I love the little girl's hair!

One of my favorites.

My favorite of the day.

In addition to family fun, there is also a lot of art going on. The woman in the middle seemed to be running things. She had the chalk and invited people in the park to add something to the circle.

This guy was there for a long time. If I just saw him walking through the park in his wife beater I would never have guessed that he would be so into this! Very cool!

This might actually be my favorite. Let's make it a tie.

Another chalk artist.

Color change!

Fancy chalk smudging!

This guy was doing crazy stuff with sand.

There are also a lot of musicians. Several guitar players and a couple drummers.

This guy had his piano disassembled and started setting it up. It took a long time, so I didn't end up hearing him play.

The piano sure was cool looking!

I'm pretty sure she's the next Regina Spektor!

I asked if she had any recordings of her work and she said she's in the process of making a CD.

Her first name is Gabrielle and she told me her last name, but I don't know how to spell it! I've been working on finding her online.

She sounded French.

I'm kind of obsessed...

Then this trash tub pulling guy walked by and pulled out his harmonica. It would have been magical if his harmonizing wasn't pretty much non-existent. Oh well. The thought was cool.

Then I finally got to Joe's Pizza. I'm not sure if it's the same location. I think the sticker on Peter Parker's helmet in the movie said Bleecker St. and this is about 4 doors down from Bleecker. It's close enough for me! (Lisa, feel free to check the movie for authenticity for me. I've tracked down the addresses of Peter's apartment and Aunt May's house too!)

Coney Island

Today I went to Coney Island! Despite a rather scary nighttime visit last summer, I went to ride the Wonder Wheel and play a little skee ball! It's not scary at all in daylight.

Before I left I had a yummy breakfast of french toast with blackberry preserves in the middle and homemade raspberry sauce on top!

The view of the beach from the top of the wheel

I need to go swim sometime!

The other rides. I only went on the ferris wheel.

One of the signs for a bumpers cars business...

After the ferris wheel I went to one of the many arcades and played skee ball, which I was quite good at, and the jackpot game. Last summer I played it and did wonderfully, but this time I didn't do so well. I ended up with 200 tickets! I used ten of them and gave the rest to a little kid who talked to me while we were playing skee ball.

So, when you give the guy your ticket for the Wonder Wheel he asks if you want a swinging car or a stationary car. I said swinging, not really knowing what that involved. When I got most of the way up I was startled to experience this:

It was a little much the first time when I wasn't expecting it, but after that it was the perfect amount of excitement! Also, the breeze was strong and cool on top of the wheel and it felt amazing!

Finally, more pictures!

I started my day with a nice visit to Teardrop Park. I believe it is part of Battery Park (not positive), which is along the Hudson in the Financial District. I read that Teardrop is a less populated park because it is somewhat hidden between a bunch of high-rise apartment building. It was a lovely park!

A bunch of jaggedy rocks

This is my New York version of Dad's Colorado rock close up!

I love that you can be in a nature setting and see big buildings at the same time!

Cool archway. Look at the little white sploch in the top left part of the rock. It's a sock!

More pretty rocks

I was determined to overcome my aversion to slides and go down this one, but the little kids were pouring buckets of water down it.

I found this nice little geyser overlooking the water play area, spread my blanket on the rocks, and stuck my feet in the water!

A cute little bird on the rock

Swooshing water from my little geyser!

This evening I went to a movie screening on a rooftop! There's a film group called Rooftop Films that shows new, offbeat, and indie films in outdoor locations around the city. Tonight's film was a sneak preview of a new film called Aardvark. It was the director's first film and it was pretty obvious. The story had potential, but it was not fully developed and was kind of incoherent. The sound editing was terrible. The music was often too loud and covered up dialogue and the room tone cut out out a lot. Yikes! However, I talked to the woman sitting next to me and found out she is about to start shooting a film and one of her friends is making a documentary about the filmmaking process and needs help. I gave her my card and she's going to get in touch! I'm networking!

When I got on my daily R train at the 45th st station I was the only one on the car! No one joined me for about 3 stops, so I had time to take pictures!

The car. I like the orange ones best.

This duct of some sort has a wink on it! It was next to me in line for tickets.

The movie was on the roof of this school.

Bikes tied to the fence in line. I'm pretty sure they belong to the people I ended up sitting next to/exchanging contact info with!

People waiting in line

The screen about an hour before the film. Doors opened at 8, the musicians who did the soundtrack for the film played soon after, and the film started around 9.

View from the windows of the roof. It was open on top, but there were walls and chain-link covered windows.

The walls were completely covered with these awesome murals! I wish I could have photographed all of it!

This is my new desktop picture. It makes me think of Mom and Kim, I think because it reminds me of their pictures from San Francisco a few years ago.

The view of the city from the small space between the chain-link and the wall.

Pretty sunset!

More mural/window

People's clothes hanging out the windows! I love it!

The view after the movie. Lovely!