Sheep!

Thus begins our weekend o' art stuff! Today Lance, Lola, and I had fun in Times Square looking at sculptures.

Well, I had a fun time. They mostly tolerated it and Lance gave me his gloves when my hands got too cold. A girl can't ask for more really.

Apologies to Willie Nelson

♫ On the blog again
♫ Taking a while to get on the blog again
♫ I switched to facebook and found it easier to keep up with friends
♫ But my brain is turning to mush and I need to blog again

*Key change*

♫ But it's not easy
♫ I'm out of practice being cheesy
♫ You see things have been pretty shitty
♫ Though it's great living in New York City

*Back to original key*

♫ On the blog again
♫ I've started posting here (http://www.sewuseful.com) so I'm already on the blog again
♫ But it's hard to write when you're as rusty as I am
♫ So here we go and it's on the blog again

Happy Fourth of July!

Okay, it's actually the 5th by now. In which case, Happy Anniversary to Kristin's Mom and Dad!

So Lance and I have seen some AMAZING fireworks displays in our years together. We've really lucked out in that respect. New Years at the Eiffel Tower, New Years 2000 from the outdoor chapel at the top of Fort Riley, Fourth of July at the beach with Betty and Al and with the Grandparents Sells in their front yard in Kearney There's always my personal favorite, the two years of fireworks on the river just outside our apartment in Cherry Hill. That was spectacular. We had to close the windows to keep the smoke from coming in!

Tonight we added to the list by watching the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks in the Hudson River. Five barges made their way down to 25 - 50th ish streets, as did all the viewers. It was exciting to see the families walking down 96th street headed for Riverside Park. I had other plans though. Lance and I planned to sneak up to the roof of our 35 story building and watch the show from there. The challenge was the roof is closed due to attached scaffolding for construction a few floors down. (Why they began such a project when they knew it wouldn't be done by the ONLY day most of the residents plan to use the roof is beyond me!)

But.... the door was going to be unlocked.

There might have been caution tape. There might have been signs. I might have cared if we were going to get another shot at this. But my mother always said you need to take advantage of any opportunity you can. And since I always try to do what my mother tells me...

With AM radio in hand with made our way up to the roof and promptly got stopped by a member of the board of residents. *Next few minutes of the story is omitted - it's really funny so ask us the next time we talk!*

So I'm not saying we succeeded in watching the New York City Fireworks from the roof of a building, much less our own. But I did find these really cool videos that "someone" took from what would have been a similar vantage point. That someone also just happened to have an AM radio right next to the camera. Guerrilla tourism from NYC! Enjoy!






P.S.

The Muppets are Funny Again!!!

Just saw this on you tube and it is fantastic! I read that this is part of a viral campaign for reboot that the Jim Henson company is doing. New CDs and a movie are on their way. VIVA LA MUPPETS!
Quick December Update:
Lance is working on papers
Kristin is working on everything else
Boggie looks really cute in his red flannel jacket and Delphi continues to tolerate us all until she can figure out how to open the food canister by herself.

Lance and I will be visiting Lance's Grandparents in Kearney,Nebraska for a few days but will otherwise be spending Christmas in New York. Presents and cards might be late but will be heartfelt. All we want for Christmas is health (health health health) and happiness for all of our friends and loved ones... though a pony would be kinda cool too. We *heart* ponies.

All the best,
Kristin, Lance, Boggie and Delphi

A little music to deck the halls by...

Hello and Happy Holidays from Ready!Set!Go! Lance and I are up to our eyeballs in projects these days but are taking a little time out tomorrow night to catch a local band. You might have heard of them. Here's some stuff from a recent concert:



Oh yeah! It's gonna be awesome. Twisted (ahem) Sister has an entire album of Christmas songs to play with so it should be a fantastic time.

All the best to everyone!!!!
K

Hey that's me!

Minute 1:30. I was taking a Dear Jane class as part of the Made in New York Quilt Exhibition and the woman on the left is showing me a technique. I look way too serious! Enjoy the quilts!

Kristin vs. The Boxes, Day Whatever

Folks who move a lot often tell or are told the following joke:

"Opening boxes is great! It's like Christmas" Good-natured laughter usually follows.

Well, I'm writing tonight to tell you it is not like Christmas. Christmas is a lovely, relatively short period of time when people are given gifts that are either small enough to be carried or large enough to be so totally awesome (Pony!) that it doesn't matter. Christmas has cookies. Christmas has cheerful wrapping paper to induce holiday cheer. Christmas has the possibility of shiny new gift cards.

Opening moving boxes has none of this.

First, unpacking takes all of eternity. Kristin! You exaggerate! Yes and quite often but possibly not this time. Many people have told me of unopened boxes moved from garage to garage. You, kind reader, might have a few yourself. (If not, can I send you some?) Moving boxes also tend to be heavy, dusty, a blandish brown with brown tape, are gift cardless and never contain any cookies that you really would want to eat.

PLUS if these boxes have been in storage for a year they could be filled with things that you completely forgot you had/don't need anymore/replaced last month or are soooooooo yucky that you wonder why you even let it in the house. I'm looking at you mis-matched Americana Christmas fingertip towels from 1999.

I kvetch (love that word) but things are getting better. The apartment is at the glorious point where we could "live" with the chaos. I wouldn't want to let anyone see it but we could "live" with it. Big progress considering two weeks ago the apartment looked like this:

Bedroom with sleeping dog
Kitchen with plotting cat
Office with leaning tower of boxes
and Spare Bathroom, or as I told the movers,"The Book Box Bathroom"

So you will just have to trust me that everything is 100 times better and looks 1000 times worse because things are out of the boxes and I'm finding places for it all. Much of it going to the Salvation Army across the street or Catholic church up the road. (Crossing my fingers for the return of indulgences!)

It's nice actually. We can see things coming together. We can sit on our couch and sleep on our bed. We also find little jokes left by movers. The box in the upper right of this photo for example.
Yulp, that says, "Sweaters and Garden Hose" Odds are we aren't going to be wearing those sweaters. All's well. Come visit anytime and take things home with you. (Dog and cat not included in offer.) (Husband negotiable.)

Never mind

I lost to the school teacher who I probably would have voted for too. School teachers are awesome! It's thanks to them that I can rite so good. : )

Lance is a big jerk btw. When I told him about the results he did the whole L on his forehead thing, started chanting "Loser! Loser!" and marching around the apartment.

So for the rest of the evening he will be shunned. Not that he will notice as he is playing video games. I actually hope he loses. Then he would be the big loser. I hope he loses the biggest game in the whole gaming system because then he would be the biggest loser of all loserdom. I hope he comes close to winning, then the battery dies in his controller device and he isn't able to change it in time and loses so bad that the game doesn't even play right anymore.
That would be cool.

Back to the boxes.

Please vote for me so I can see Wait Wait Don't Tell Me at Carnegie Hall!

Hi Everyone,

Lance is fine.
Bogie is fine.
Delphi is fine and don't she know it.
I am fine and hoping you will vote for me in a little contest Paula Poundstone is running tonight on Twitter.

Long story short: There's this really funny show on NPR called "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" It is hilarious and I've listened for years. One of the regulars is the very clever Paula Poundstone. She also posts on Twitter which I joined just so I could read her posts and the posts of other funny people like her. (Note: Will Wheaton is such a cool guy!) (2nd Note: I will never ever post anything on Twitter so please don't "follow" me as it will be like people are staring at me and I will become nervous and throw up a little and faint.)

But I really love Wait, Wait so when Paula announced a contest I entered and next thing I know I'm a finalist. o..... m..... (squeak).... g!

So I come to you tonight asking for your vote.

Please.

Or you can vote for the mother of twins or the grade school teacher because I would vote for either of them if I were a nicer person.

But I'm not.

Please vote for me anyway.

Here's how:
You join twitter then go to Paula Poundstone's page which is here:

Click on the gear looking thing below her name and do the "@ mention Paula Poundstone" option. It will automatically return you to your twitter page and after the automatic "@PaulaPoundstone" say you want to vote for #3. Again, I'm kinda pulling for the mom of twins or the grade school teacher but it's worth a shot.

Thanks. : )
Kristin

Kristin vs. The Boxes, Day 3

I suspect the boxes are reproducing when I turn my back but can't prove it. Boggie was going to keep an eye on them but disappeared several hours ago. I'll radio for help if I can't find him by sundown.

Kristin vs. The Boxes, Day 2

It's time for a neurosis update!
Kristin now trembles in fear when faced with boxes labeled:
Misc, Garage
and
Knick Knacks, Spare BR
...and frankly you would too at this point.

Kristin vs. The Boxes, Day 1

You know what would make this apartment really perfect? An attached two car garage with shelves.

Just an idea.

Psst!

Don't tell anybody but we just got internet in the apartment! Just our little secret.

New York City!

Hey there one and all. We made it to NYC and are in the hotel. Must.... stay.... awake.

K's To Do List
Fly to The United States of America - check
w/ all luggage - check
Get on the internet and notify family - check
Find and consume a hot pretzel with lots of yellow mustard - working on it.

Actually, this afternoon is finding a phone chip for Lance and exploring the neighborhood. Probably scope out an apartment building or two. First appointment with first realtor is tomorrow morning. In the meanwhile, we are very happy to be back in the USA, miss our friends in Botswana tremedously but look forward to touching base with many of them in the next month as well as seeing family.

I am also looking forward to finding and consuming a hot pretzel with lots of yellow mustard.