Tour Bus Trip

Since Mark is in conferences all day (Mu-ha-ha-ha! Evil Laugh!)I decided to take a tour bus around NY. Unfortunately, it was wet, cold, and foggy, so I did not take any pictures:
Look, here's St Paul's cathedral in a down pour!
This is the John Lennon mosaic covered in muddy footprint!
You can almost make out the Statue of Liberty through the fog!

But I did have a good time, despite the weather. I learned a lot of facts (some of which might even be true) and saw a lot of things I didn't even know about.

Our cutie-pie tour guide (he once had a speaking part on an episode of Law and Order!) was really fun. He stayed with us the whole time. It wasn't one of the red bus tours where they drop you off and you catch the next bus when you are done. We all stayed together.

We saw Ground Zero, Wall Street, Trinity Church, as well as important places like Yoko Ono's apartment building. ;-) We also took the Statten Island Ferry out to Statten Island, then got right back on in the other direction, spending a total of three minutes there. You can't just ride back on the same boat for security reasons. I did take a picture of the Ferry Station, which has the words in large letters across the wall "We were very tired, we were very merry..." I took a picture for you, Mom.



In the evening, Mark and I were supposed to go to a shin-dig at the conference, but we played hooky and went to a play instead. Right outside our hotel is the TKIT office, where you can buy last minute tickets at discount prices. We would have liked to see Spamalot, but they only had one ticket left, so we decided on Rent instead, which was probably not the best choice. The production quality was far below that of the other plays we have seen.

Today I saw Avenue Q without Mark. That is possibly the funniest play I have ever ever seen. I highly recommend it. It is Sesame Street for adults.

I also did a little shopping and spent too much money, mostly on stuff for the kids, who don't need anything anyhow. But what's a little more clutter between family? Right?

We will be returning tomorrow (Sunday) and can't wait to be home.

Gluten Free in NYC

Pizza, hot dogs, knish, bagels... the city calls out from every street corner "eat gluten!" At this time, I would gladly mug someone for the chance to eat potato pancakes without getting sick. (I ask - they always contain flour.)

Fortunately, the Internet is a wonderful place and I found a gluten-free restaurant in the West Village. The Gluten-Free Girl blog sent me to Risotteria, a risotto restaurant that primarily sells gluten-free food. Mark had a "full gluten" pizza, but I had the most incredible risotto. It was super creamy with mozzarella and pesto, all stirred up together and served like a stew. They brought gluten-free bread sticks to the table (nice crunchy, flaky crust) and we drank lemonade. We couldn't decide on the dessert, so we ordered three: a cupcake, carrot cake and a "fudgie."

The fudgie turned out to be two very large chocolate chip cookies, sandwiched together with a massive amount of chocolate icing. They cookies themselves were a little too sweet, so when you add in the frosting it was sugar overload. The cupcake was fun. It was chocolate decorated with white boiled icing and topped with colorful sprinkles. Inside was a cream filling. It was kind of like eating a Ho-Ho. But the real winner was the carrot cake. Carrot cake is such a great dessert for gluten-free cooking, because it is dense rather than airy. This was great, with lots of nuts and dates, and a cream cheese frosting. Yummy.

Friday night we wandered Time Square in search of food. We had tickets to see Rent, so we couldn't go too far. We found a neat place called Duke's that had all kinds of food in a quasi-cafeteria style. I had a make-your-own salad (they make it, but I got to decide what went in it) and Mark had panini. We both had fresh squeezed OJ and we bought some chocolate bars for dessert. Our dinner was only $30, a bargain on Broadway.

It's been kind of challenging eating here in NYC. Not because the food I can eat doesn't exist -- it does; but I have to learn where it is and that reduces our ability to be spontaneous. Fortunately, there are many fresh fruit stands all over the city, so I won't be needing to rely on that ol' Frisco standby -- Fritos.

"Start spreading the news..."

My first full day in NYC! I was on my own today. I walked to 32nd street to visit a spa. That was a really wild experience. The spa was tucked away in the Korean section of town, not visible from the street. I had to take this rickety elevator up to their floor, but once I got there it was lovely.

In the center of the facility is a giant jade igloo. Yes, I typed that correctly. It is a very large sauna, shaped like an igloo, and made of rough-hewn chunks of jade. (Jade is supposed to have some type of healing power. Whatever. I just like rocks.) So my first stop was there... after a quick shower.

After the sauna, I took another shower. I took a lot of showers at this spa. I lost count. I shouldn't need to take another shower for a week. (Kidding)

Then came the bath. Er, excuse me.. "Japanese Style Soaking Tub." It was a giant bathtub, the size of a Jacuzzi, but no jets. Floating in the tub were about a dozen whole lemons. And the tiles on the tub were, of course, made of jade!

Then another shower.

On to the steam room, a glass structure shaped like a hut. There was some type of aroma-therapy going on there, and it was nice. I normally love steam rooms, but my body temperature was pretty high after a sauna and hot bath, even with the cool down showers in between, so I didn't last long. Still, it sure clears out the sinuses!

And then another shower.

Next I was led to the "Baked clay, low temperature sauna," which, as far as I could tell was just a room with low lighting. I tried meditation for a while, but frankly, I suck at meditation. I always have. So I did my stretching exercises, which I hadn't had a chance to do that day.

After a while, they came and got me. I signed up for a "facial and brow shaping."
Next time I will ask a lot more questions before signing up for something. I have had brow shaping at home. Not often, but a few times, and they just put some wax on my eyebrows, pull it off and your done. The sadist who was my... whatever you call them...beauty specialist?... told me that waxing is bad for your eyes and makes them droopy faster. She was a believer in the good old fashioned way -- tweezers. I should have said no, but my pride (and about $100, prepaid) was on the line, so I said "go for it." All I can say is "OUCH!"

After the Eyebrow Torture, she washed my face with a dozen different substances, then proceeded to "detoxify" my skin. I assumed this meant some kind of mud mask. Nope. She proceeded to squeeze each of my pores individually, scraping them out with a tiny little awl. Every time I complained about the pain (every time she did it, it hurt, but sometimes it was particularly painful) she would say (in a deep Ukrainian accent) "you have blackheads, must go." I didn't even know I had these so called blackheads. You would think that they would be, well... black. But apparently these were subterranean blackheads, just waiting to pop out at any time.

Finally she was done. (She even cleaned the inside of my ears. She was that thorough. Wouldn't want to miss and opportunity for causing pain.) She put some type of liquid on my face that was supposed to soothe, but frankly it just stung. But I did get a consolation prize. She gave me a partial massage -- neck, arms, and hands. That was nice.

So I went back to the hotel all nice and shiny. I walked back on 5th Avenue, just to check it out. I took a nice nap, and when Mark was done for the day, we went out to dinner at a Gluten-Free restaurant in Greenwitch Village. More on that in the next post (which you are probably reading backwards, since that is the way they appear on the blog. So really, you've already read that, and you will be reading about my first day next. Oh, well.)

"I want to be a part of it.. NY, NY!"

Here I am in New York City. Footloose and child-free! Mark has conferences all day long so I am all by my lonesome...oh, what shall I do? Ha!

Yesterday we arrived in the early afternoon. I nearly got killed before I even left the airport. Crosswalk at airport. Pedestrians have the right of way, right? Apparently not. The bus never even slowed down. Fortunately Mark yelled out a warning (he was already across the street, but I was lagging behind) and saved me.

The relationship between traffic and pedestrians is very strange here. The pedestrians ignore the traffic signals, stepping out into intersections with cars baralling at them. The cars, in turn, ignore the pedestrians, barralling through intersections even when the pedestrians have the right of way.

But we had a great day. We walked around Times Square and down Broadway, all the way to Central Park and took the obligitory carriage ride. It was fun seeing the Plaza Hotel where Eloise "lives." In one of the kid's videos, Eloise runs out of the hotel and gets a horse-drawn carriage to take her where she needs to go. I thought that was a little far-fetched, but they are literally right there on the corner. She could easily have gotten there before anyone could even catch her. Cool.

And of course the highlight of the evening was Wicked. An incredible production. Phenomenal sets. Great songs. Great acting. The book, of course, has so much more detail and is well worth reading, but there is something appealing about it being less deep and more fun. Glinda was so funny, it just made the whole thing work.

That's Wednesday. New post for Thurday.

Time and Time Again

This note was dated 2-9-05, so Colin was three years old.

Since Christmas, Colin has been calling me "Green Mantis" (the bad guy from the TV show Kikaida). Now he claims he is Kikaida and his sister is Baby Jiro (a character he has made up), and Daddy is another bad guy, "Orange Ant."

One of the girls in our Girl Scout troop was telling the other girls that Colin's nickname is Ducky (which it is). Colin stood up straight, clearly annoyed, and said to the troop "My name is Kikaida!"

As time goes by

More from the notes I found yesterday...

On his third birthday, I caught Colin with the tube of toothpaste in his mouth, squeezing it into his mouth.

I said "Colin! We do NOT eat toothpaste!"

He said "But I'm hungry!"

How Fast Time Flies

Found some old notes tucked in a book... makes me aware of just how much Colin has grown.

Age 2 -- Colin was running around the house singing to the tune of Jingle Bells:
Raisin Bran, Raisin Bran
Raisins all the way
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse raisin sleigh.

One thing hasn't changed -- three years later and he's still obsessed with cereal.

Job Hopping

I had a conference with Colin's preschool teacher. She has pronounced Colin ready for Kindergarten. She described him as having "a quick wit and a gentle spirit." That's my boy!

Colin is more interested in his long term future. As the child of two Gen-X'ers, he takes it for granted that he will have multiple careers in his lifetime. His current plan:

First he will become a physicist and build rocketships.
Next, he would like to be a circus performer.
Finally, he will move on to building robots like his Gramps and Uncle James.

Upon further reflection, he made said thoughtfully, "maybe I should be a circus performer first. Even little kids can do that!"

(We saw a circus show with a young boy in it. He was part of a family act.)

I'm glad to see he is being practical. ;-)

An important lesson

We have been working on the party for Caroline's eighth birthday.

We made handmade invitations. I obsessed over mine. Any imperfection was agonizing. Caroline happily attacked hers with abandon, the process more important than the results. She was thrilled with the final product.

We planned the party favors. I had trouble finding the "perfect" bags to put the favors in. Caroline had a solution. We took plain ol' brown lunch bags and rubber stamped them with fairy stamps we already owned. The bags were covered in inky fingerprints as well as fairies, but Caroline was pleased and proud.

This is a fairy party and Caroline has planned the decor. We made a tree out of grocery sacks that we taped to the wall. Caroline will draw pictures of fairies to put on the branches. The fairies aren't done yet, but the tree looks great. I'm trying to look past the enormous amounts of tape used. I'm learning a lesson from Caroline. Perfection is not nearly as important as imagination.

Spectral analysis

Colin asked me "how do you make yellow?"

I said that you don't make yellow. It is a primary color.

"But how do you make it?"

You can't mix other colors to get yellow; yellow is just yellow. A primary color.

"You can make yellow. God made yellow."

Well, yes. OK, God made yellow.

Colin warms to his subject now...

"God made the primary colors. Then he sent his disciples out to make the secondary colors. There were ten hundred and ninety-nine of them."

Colors or disciples?

"Disciples. And the last disciple was Peter. He mixed all the colors up together. After that, God was in charge of the colors."