Fall-ing

From 2006_10_22

I feel it in the air. The weather person says we've seen our last 80 degree day. I just couldn't help but think of good ole Phoenix. I remember one year where there were no days in October with a day with tempratures below 90 degrees, or was that 100 degrees? I still miss it. Though a nice fall day does have a certain feeling to it. I notice it much more here in the NorthEast than I ever did before. Even in New Mexico, where we had fall it just kind of came, turned brown...er and then turned cold. Here, the sky changes color. The washed out blue that you see through the haze of summer heat and humidity goes away and you start to see a deeper more intense blue that makes you feel like things have come into some sort of sharper focus. Everyone comes back from their vacation homes in the Hamptons and the city starts to buzz a little more.

These pictures are from a few falls back. Sky, Anna, Scott and I always take a fall trip to somewhere in the area. We usually manage to cover quite a few states. I think our record was seven different states in one weekend. It's always nice to take a weekend to relax and appreciate the East Coast instead of keeping your head down and buried in the New York City sand ....or smog.

From 2006_10_22

From 2006_10_22

Hurricane's A Comin'

Scott's Dad, Brian called the other night to check in. They live in Baton Rouge and got the tail end of Hurricane Gustav. That part of the family are all holed up using a generator to run the refrigerator. Though I'm not sure what they do for groceries since they don't expect to have power for another week. The grocery stores probably don't have power either. Though he did say that the governor was working to get the infrastructure such as grocery stores and gas stations set up first. They seem to be doing alright for now.

Scott and I on the other hand, should probably go to the store and buy some water. Hurricane Hanna is headed our way. See Map:

From Desktop

The weather channel tells us this:

THIS STATEMENT RECOMMENDS ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN BY PERSONS IN COASTAL SECTIONS OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY... SOUTHEAST NEW YORK...INCLUDING ALL OF NEW YORK CITY AND LONG ISLAND...AND SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT.

HOME OWNERS ARE URGED TO SECURE ALL LOOSE OUTDOOR ITEMS. GARBAGE CANS AND LAWN FURNITURE CAN EASILY BECOME PROJECTILES WITH THE ONSET OF TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS. ALL RESIDENTS AND VISITORS ARE URGED TO STOCK UP ON BATTERIES...FLASHLIGHTS...DRINKING WATER AND NON-PERISHABLE FOODS. PEOPLE ARE ALSO URGED TO REMAIN INDOORS DURING THE STORM AS THE COMBINATION OF HEAVY RAIN AND GUSTY WINDS WILL RESULT IN LOOSE SOIL AND THE THREAT OF DOWNED TREES...LARGE TREE LIMBS AND POWER LINES.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the large tree that nearly landed on Brian's house. Apparently it was quite a close call, but the tree missed hitting the house by about 15 feet.

I guess we'd better get those snow shovels out of the backyard. Don't want those to be projectiles. Do you think wind chimes count? Hmmm Somehow I think this is all going to turn into a little rain storm. Perhaps the people who live out on Long Island will see some action though. I wouldn't want to live out there.

Brella Jockey

Forgive me if I've lectured on this topic before, but every time it rains I find that it's such a uniquely New York phenomena that I can't help but notice again. On the sidewalks of New York which are usually busy with people going where they want to go at their own pace whether it be fast or slow tourists quickly learn to treat the sidewalk like the highway. Get out of the fast lane or you'll get run over. This problem is compounded when everyone has their own umbrella which can add an extra foot or five of mandated personal space. I always wonder if you can judge a person by their umbrella. I do notice that a lot of big wall street type men tend to carry the golf umbrellas that take up the entire sidewalk. Seriously, do they need to carry their tent with them? Anyway, you have people with huge umbrellas, people with colorful umbrellas and people with no umbrellas. If you're ever unfortunate enough to be in the latter category you will find no sympathy, because people will not get out of your way so you can walk under an overhang and they will walk right by you letting the water pouring off their umbrella stream onto your head. Even if you do have an umbrella and it's a small one you've got to jockey for space. Are you going to hold steady? Will you raise your umbrella up, tilt it or hunch down? You have to do that dance that happens every once in awhile with strangers. You know the one, where you both try to get out of eachothers way by going the same direction? With umbrellas you can't put yours higher if they're going to do the same. I hope this makes sense. It helps if you picture a sidewalk with say 6 people holding umbrellas trying to walk past each other at once. There's a lot of overlap and intricate manuevering. If you don't do it just right your umbrella could end inside out or maybe it just smacks into someone else's and showers you with the water resting on top. It's just a funny phenomena that I never though of before I lived in the city.
You can also tell when the rain started by the variety of umbrellas in the afternoon. If it was raining when everyone left for work, they were sure to bring an umbrella. One that they probably took time to select and purchase, so there is a lot of variety, pops of color or clear plastic dome shapes, all kinds. If it only started raining in the afternoon and people didn't check the weather report all the umbrellas are black and lots of people are wet or running for shelter. The guys that come out on the street corners like rats out of holes when it rains sell a standard cheap black umbrella with a curved plastic handle that will last you through approximately 1.5 rain showers before it flips inside out, rips and the handle falls off. It's fine in a pinch, but you'd be better off going to the nearest Drugstore and buying a real umbrella. I always think that would be a great marketing scheme for a bank or some business. Print your name on a big bright umbrella and give them out with any transaction while it's raining. Or maybe rainboots, since the people in the picture obviously could have benefitted from some.

Last post of 2007

The last weeks of 2007 have been busy ones. Scott and I flew to Des Moines Iowa the weekend before Christmas. We had good timing since they had a storm the day before we flew in. The runways were snow covered and the wind made the snow blow along the ground, either the snowflakes were very small or it was just pieces of snowflakes being blown along like dust along the ground. I tried to get a picture but it wasn't really possible.

From Christmas

Scott's mom picked us up and we decided that we'd need to stop at Walgreens since Scott's bag hadn't arrived with us despite the 3 hour layover and the fact that my bag made it there. We made the hour long drive to Toledo where Scott's Mom, Susan tried to drop off some stuff in a storage unit. Of course we realized once we pulled into the driveway that it was a solid sheet of ice and that we'd have to do some major manuvering to get back out. Scott and I got out and pushed and we managed to skate our way back out again. Later that night Scott's bag got delivered too, so everything worked out.

From Christmas

From Christmas

We opened presents at Scott's grandparent's house on Christmas eve since we'd have to head back to Des Moines on Christmas day to catch our flight to New Mexico. We had a nice time playing cards with his family and even managed to go for a walk out into the cornfields for a mini photo shoot.

From Christmas

From Christmas

We got to New Mexico with no problem and my Aunt Luella and Uncle Diego picked us up for the 3 hour drive to Farmington. We got to have another Christmas dinner and presents there.

From Christmas

From Christmas

It snowed enough to make the roads slick, but as ususal for NM snow it melted before noon.

From Christmas

My sister Erin will be graduating soon, so she wanted to try taking some senior pictures, but it was so freezing and windy that we didn't get much done. When the snow is outracing the car then you know it's windy. Hair blowing straight up in the air doesn't make for the most attractive pictures.

From Erin's Senior...

It was a short visit, but we also got to have some coffee with Chris and Tammie Billey of Largo Photography. We also got to meet their son Treston who is even more adorable in person than in pictures :) Scott got a mentos and coke rocket launcher in his stocking, but we didn't want to carry the soda so we launched it before we left.

From Christmas

From Christmas

From Christmas

Afterwards we headed back to Albuquerque so we could catch our flight the next day back to New York. I took some pictures of the NM scenery along the way.

From Christmas

From Christmas

From Christmas

Again we got lucky since we flew through Chicago and they'd just had a very large snowstorm the day before. We got home all in one piece and with lots of extra goodies. It was very nice to see everyone. It may have been a whirlwind trip, but it was definitely worth it!

From Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays to everyone. Scott and I are in Iowa enjoying a ton of card games and food with his mom and grandparents. It's pretty frigid here, but luckily we flew in Sunday, which was the day after their big snowstorm. I noticed that they'd had so much wind and snow that the parking garage had about an inch of snow all the way in the center of it and it's completely covered by a roof. Brrrr. We got some nice presents including yet more food and Scott got a toy transformer. I think that was his favorite :) The airline lost Scott's bag but got mine here ok, even though we had a 3 hour layover on the connection. But I was pretty impressed that they drove it out to us that same night by 11:30 even though we're over an hour away from the airport. Otherwise, Scott would have had to wear some of the "authentic western wear" we found at a local Ponida store. We're on to New Mexico early tomorrow. I hope you're all well and you'll have to comment about your favorite gift from this year!

Holiday Soiree

I'm going to make this quick, though I haven't posted in awhile. I have been doing pretty much the same thing everyone else has, which is shopping and planning for travel and holiday-ness. I went to my company Christmas party, which is nice. The only drawback is that we aren't allowed to bring a guest, so Scott didn't get to come. It's held at the St. Regis Hotel with a very nice food spread and open bar. It's funny because we all end up dancing with colleagues, and I'm probably one of the youngest employees so I don't feel intimidated on the dance floor. Every year our CEO hands out raffle prizes and everyone is wearing lovely yellow wristbands that give them entrance to the party along with their raffle number. So we're all staring at our yellow wristbands waiting for our number to be called. I did hand out the wristbands and when I handed my coworker Derek his I told him it was a winner and it was! Except he didn't get the 40" flat screen he got the CD gift set. Oh well I didn't promise him the best prize. Anyway, I decided I wouldn't take my camera but other people had theirs there, so here are some pictures. Oh yeah, I also got my hair cut. We're heading to Iowa on Sunday and New Mexico the day after Christmas. So we've got lots of travel. I'll cross my fingers that the weather holds.

From Holiday Party...

The St. Regis Ballroom, so very gilded. These are a couple of my work friends. The girl with dark hair is our volleyball team captain.

From Holiday Party...

This is the corp comm department. That's my boss in the pink jacket next to the CEO of Sony, Howard Stringer.

From Holiday Party...

This is most of the accounting department who also happen to be a good portion of the softball team.

Ice Ice Baby

I've been pretty busy lately with all kinds of things. I find that this time of year is just like that. We had a nice time last night with a few friends who came over for a poker night. I tried my hand at making Wassail which I have fond memories of my mother making. I love the smell of the cider, cinnamon and cloves all simmering on the stove. I didn't have a recipe just a general idea of the ingredients but it turned out pretty well. Scott and I are not so good at getting into Christmas. With no one but ourselves around the idea of putting up Christmas decorations only to take them down again just isn't fun. Especially since we won't even be around for Christmas. We put up a couple stockings and called it good. I am more interested in the smells and food that go along with the season than all the decorations. I'm sure someday we'll do all that fun stuff, but for now we're a little scrooge-y :) I did finally get the last two bunny shots done. I forget what the final captions were. Something like "Ok guys we're going green" for mine or "Trust me, green is the new pink."

From Bunny Edits

This is in reference to the fact that the person in the picture with me is in charge of Sony's environmental initiatives. The other picture is in the Sony Club, the restaurant at the top of the building reserved for people of my boss's boss's rank or higher. Since the calendar is for her we got the people to help us out with the carrots etc. I think that caption will be something about the carrot and stick method of management.

From Bunny Edits

The "big storm" we had last week was interesting.

From Ice Storm

The media sends everyone into a panic about how much snow and ice we'll have and it usually turns into a few flakes. There wasn't much besides some hail and sleet in the city, but when I got home and went to move my car there was a quarter inch thick sheet of ice coating the side windows.

From Ice Storm

It looked pretty neat. It was strange what the ice stuck to. For instance, my front steps weren't very slick, but the railing was coated all the way around in that layer of ice. The trees looked pretty and sparkly in the morning.

From Ice Storm

From Ice Storm

Mile High Mosey

Yes, I have been on quite the spending spree lately. With no wedding to pay for I have to keep my bank account low somehow. So I've purchased tickets to go see Sarah at her new Denver Diggs over Labor Day weekend. I feel a little silly, but it will be the first extended time I spend away from my new husband, and it makes me kind of sad to think that we'll be so far away from eachother. But I am really excited to get to see Sarah and Denver! Sarah recommended this site http://www.kayak.com/ to check for tickets and it worked pretty well. It showed me some flights that expedia didn't, and I was able to get one that was just perfect. Hurray for non-stop flights that get you there in half the time! Of course I don't think I will consider any flight long after our trip to Vietnam. Trivia for the day, (Scott and Sarah you can't answer) what is the only country with a name that starts with the letter "O"? I'm off to girls night with the soccer girls, though it's raining and one of the coldest days on record ever for NYC in August. The high was only 59! Blech, I wish I was in AZ where the 100 + weather would keep me warm :)

Today

It rained today. All day long. I have more to say, but I finally have the new Harry Potter book after a long and vicious struggle with UPS. I also got a parking ticket. I'm now a parking ticket teenager I've gotten so many. I'll have to recount all my trials and tribulations later though, my book calls!