Happy Yuletide everybody!

The four cards that HAD to ship to Korea by Friday finally passed the FIST test and I was off the hook. Then I handed in my project and was off the hook some more. I’ve spent the rest of the day catching up with facets of my job and life that were on the back burner. After work I went to get a xmass tree but was disappointed with the selection. I finally made off with a 20$ wreath that is more funerally then xmassy but that’s what I get for paying too much attention to my school and work and not enough to holidays. I’ll go see if I can find some wreath decorations.

* The Smiths

Since we live on a corner, our driveway is not only full of snow from regular winter snowing activities, but also from snow trucks shovelling snow onto our driveway while turning. Most of the time this annoys me but today I don’t mind. I’ve been cooped up in the house for the week (semester actually) programming. Today I took a day off work, but went to a meeting because I was giving a presentation. When I came back I decided to shovel the driveway since the weather was nice and I needed some exercise. An hour and a half later I am finally in front of my computer all worked out and ready to go. Yay snow!

I decided this to be a good opportunity to post some more of the photos from the New York trip. I could have talked about my homework, but that has no consequence to anyone but me. Chris wanted me to talk about the spambot attack he just fought off (go Chris!), but I will let him talk about it. So here go the slides:

This is the view from our Hotel room over the Central Park. It is the sister picture to the one I posted with the original NYC post.

Here is a more central picture of the Central Park:

We went to the Cloisters which is a pretty nifty museum type-thing on the northern edge of Manhattan.

You have to walk through a pretty nice park to get to the Museum. This sign is funny because it stands on top of the flight of stairs going down. This is apparently so confusing that they had to add a little paper sign on top to confirm that you should go down (rather than up) to reach the Cloisters.

The Museum is constructed from pieces of crumbling monasteries brought over from Europe.

I really like this garden and will try to steal some ideas for my front yard next year. I quite like the volume as well as the inconspicuous addition of the red flowers to the lower right corner.

This garden is the actual useful garden with food, medical plants and other household uses plants (clothes dyes…). It has a really nice view towards New Jersey:

Apparently one of the benefactors bought the land in New Jersey so the view from the museum is always uninterrupted.

Unfortunately he didn’t buy the waterways, so you still get some sense that you are in NYC.

Little bridies having a bath:

We also visited some gardens in the Central Park (unfortunately we didn’t have the time to go on a garden tour they offer). This garden is inspired by Shakespeare’s plays:

At the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts we checked out modern art and arms and armour section. Here is Chris and some frightfull warriors:

I should print this title out and hang it over my cubicle. Any time there is a bug going around, I get sick. This is particularly true when I travel. I love travelling but my body hates it. The New York trip cost me not one, but two, separate illnesses. I’ll try for three next time I go somewhere.

The worst part about me being sick is that I have to cancel the bike trip. This sucks since I was really looking forward to it and the d00d on CBC said that Gatineau Park foliage is extra beautiful this year due to some weather and tree chemistry business. Fortunately staying at home all weekend wrapped up in blankets and sipping tea and honey means that I have no excuse not to finish my homework.

My hubby has outdone himself again. We just came back from an amazing weekend in New York City.

We stayed at the Mayflower Hotel on Central Park. It is closing this Wednesday presumably because of the lack of guests. This in itself is weird experience. The hotel was a lot like our Montreal apartment. In a condition desperately needing more attention from the management, yet stubbornly liveable. I contemplated snatching a few towels (not like they will be in use any more) but it seemed like they were getting them from the bottom of the barrel and they did not even meet my standards of towel luxury.

We took many walks and subway rides. New York (at least Manhattan were we generally stayed) is amazing. Combination of urban rot and regeneration was evident everywhere. Art deco is overpowering, the ratio of really tiny dogs is mind-boggling and stenches of the city combine with surprising scents. It is surprising how liveable the city feels.

We ate at some pretty nifty spots. The Prune is my new favourite restaurant. I had tripe and really liked it. I don’t think I will ever order it again now that I know what it is, but I still enjoyed the meal. Another memorable spot is the Bus stop, a sidewalk breakfast cafe we stumbled on after we’ve found out that the place we intended to go for breakfast was no longer there. It was pretty regular cafe of its type, but it was still so much fun. Chris was absolutely giddy about Tea & Sympathy, an authentic Manchester eatery.

We went to the Puffy Ami Yumi concert at Webster Hall. The Mosquitos opened and they were cool. Excellent stage presence and the music was fun. I tried to buy their album, but by the time I made it to the desk the CDs were gone. I’ll see if I can get it off the Internet or get Record Runner to order it for me. Puffy Ami Yumi were fun. I was a bit disappointed with Ami and Yumi since they were generally just walking back and forth and moving their arms a bit. It didn’t help that Yumi looked positively stoned. The rest of the band was excellent. The drummer was absolutely mental, and the other musicians were fun to watch too. The music was solid and kicking. We met John, a J-pop fan, who helped us get good spots after we got kicked out of the VIP section. He took a few photos of the show and sent us the link to them.

The opera was a blast too and the bad movie we went to see was a kick, especially since we got a private screening after the only other guy in the theatre left once the boy band acting in the movie started singing.

I don’t know if I would ever want to live in New York. I wonder how high my salary would have to be to spend over 3000$ a month on rent. Given ability to afford living there I probably would not mind it at all. I am looking forward to going there again in a few years. There is plenty more to check out and I can’t wait to see what will happen to the hotel we stayed at. Will it be knocked down to make space for something bigger? Will it be gutted and turned into pricey apartments or condos? Will it re-open as hotel? Suspense!

*Cibo Mato