Off The Leash

A little itsy bit out of the price range

This is on my street.  This is why I cannot afford (ever) to buy any place near where I currently reside. Bah Humbug.  Did I mention that my long term goal is to get a place like that one and start a funky B&B?  I just don't see how I'm ever going to be able to do it.
I am going to get on the train and do some knitting.  Maybe that'll make me feel better.

Girls at Rock Camp

I found out about an online auction  for the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls last month and I put it on the google calendar that Scott and I share.  To my surprise, Scott saw the calendar posting and checked out the auction.  He bid on a vacation, but did not meet the reserve.  Oddly enough, no one else bid on the weekend in the Hamptons so guess who won it at a sweet price?
  I'm sure we'll fit in just fine. Ha.  Or we'll fit in after we buy the bar a round with our gift certificate (it says right on it we should buy a round for the house).

Rock on Girls and thanks for the getaway!
(Photo from Kate Milford's Flickr set)

Favorite Moments This Week

On Thursday,  I needed to buy a new Metro card.  The card gives me unlimited use of the trains and buses for $76.00.  I usually figure out that my card has expired every month on a morning commute as I rush to catch the  train. The swipe of my card is met with a "Uh uh, no way" sound, and miss my train...

This month, I broke the routine when I managed to actually buy a new card and still catch the train!  I tucked the expired card into my bag and put the new and improved card into my Jimi. (No garbage can around to pitch the old card)

Flash forward to my evening commute home.  The same scenario happened: imminently arriving train, fumbling for my metro card, I grab the loose card out of bag and swipe.  I feel the jerk of the turnstile because it won't budge for me and my expired card!  So I get the new card out of my wallet, swipe it, and run like hell down the stairs with my card in hand.  The doors are closing, but I just made it onto the train! Whew. 
Of course, my card didn't make it with me!  I dropped it just outside of the train door.  I think I made a noise like a whimpering puppy at that point.
Luckily for me, the train doors needed an adjustment, so they opened one more time and I jumped out, grabbed the card, jumped back in, and smiled.  I could've gotten squished by the doors, but I was a victorious klutz! No one smiled with me.  Damn New Yorkers.
_______

The best call I took at work on Friday:

Caller: "Hi, you know the movie 'Spiderman', right?"
Lizz: "Yeah, it comes out this week."

Caller: "So, (pause) do you have it on IMAX?"
Lizz: "Um, what?  (Laugh) This is a veterinary practice."

Caller: "Sorry about that"
Lizz: "I WISH we had Spiderman on IMAX. (Still Laughing)  Maybe we should set up a projector..."

Stream of Consciousness

Yes, I apologize for completely abandoning you at this blog.
I honestly can't keep up with myself.  Some people call me ambitious.  I hate that word because it implies that I want to do everything but I don't accomplish very much.  Clearly, I take the cynical viewpoint of ambitious.
These days, with everything NYC has to offer me and the burdens of being a responsible...bill paying....adult, I really feel the ambitious side of myself.  I want to do a thousand things, so I don't do very much at all.  I'm sure any of you can relate since we are all cursed with the American work ethic.

Here are a few things rolling around in my brain these days.

David Byrne, the person I wish would officiate at my wedding, has a great web radio program.  He has recently written about the impending doom for internet radio if the Copyright Royalty Board increases royalty rates for streaming radio.  I didn't know that he pays for his radio station out of pocket for his love of spreading music to the masses.  Now I admire him even more.  (Scott and I saw him perform "Here Lies Love" at Carnegie Hall this winter and I enjoyed that too.)

I love, love, love Etsy!  Every time I order something from a craftster, I get the nicest package in the mail, complete with thank you notes and cute drawings. I want to buy all of my art from Etsy from here on out!

The catch-22 of writing a pet blog is that my dog gets mad at me when I spend time with the computer.  So she barks at me for blogging about pets like her.

On that note, I better catch up here a little later!

Time flies when you are moving.

Scott and I have been crazy (busy) lately.
We managed to spread our move from Manhattan to Brooklyn into a month-long event, not including all of the house hunting time and Scott's continuous search for real estate because he is obsessed with the NYC housing market.

I think the post office is tired of the move as much as we are because someone crossed our names off the mailbox and wrote "VACANT, NO MAIL", even though we are still here and I scheduled our change in mail service for October 22nd.  Now our mail is floating is space somewhere.  I hope you didn't send us anything!

Honey is not taking the move very well.  She seems depressed and conveys this through sad looks and a new disregard for housebreaking.  Suck.

As for the new place, I started preparing the space for paint and we moved one load of stuff over in a zip car (while almost crushing Ari Paul with our bookshelves--sorry Ari!).  The yard, washer/dryer, dishwasher, and full-size refridgerator and stove will all make this place loads better than our Manhattan place.  I will admit I don't want to leave the island, but oh well, I can visit all the time...

This Sunday, movers will come to take the bulk of things and we are leaving lots behind and plan to sell it on the web and in a weekend sale around Halloween.  We are paying an hourly rate for movers and I hope to have everything boxed up before they arrive.  I'm going to work on that right now!

New Home

We are moving back to Brooklyn in October.  We'll be 11.1 miles from our current apartment (see green arrow for new location).  The new place is a little small (that is "cozy" in NYC terminology).  We will have lots of storage space, in-house laundry and dishwasher, and a backyard that is pretty large and ready for Honey to enjoy. 
The location is good: a short walk to Prospect Park (the "Central Park" of Brooklyn) and close to 4 different train lines-B, Q, 2, and 3.
Scott was getting excited just noticing all of the places we can have new gastronomic adventures. 

Hopefully, this new apartment will have none of the problems we are currently facing in Manhattan:
-door locks are difficult to manuever, key must be forced into lock
-freezer of doom
-oven will not stay heated
-shower burns and freezes
-electrical outlets could go (again) at any time
-floors are not level
-recently found bugs in apartment

I will admit, there are some things I will miss about Manhattan Valley:
-Crepes on Columbus
-Central Park-especially the pond and the Great Hill, Riverside Park-the 104th St. Dog Run, Morningside Park (it has been our self-appointed duty to support the farmer's market in this park since it began earlier this year)
-Short commute to work
-Walking the dog to work when necessary
-UWS snobbery and good eats
-Neighborhood guy (Steve) and his ever-faithful Lab (Prince)
-Friends nearby in Harlem
-Being able to find and catch a cab
-Loud, smelly city living.

My Life in Pictures

A sad pair of glasses.

A monster freezer that eats the food.

I can't get anything done at work.

An abandoned cat.

And we are apartment hunting again.  We have any wedding plans on the back burner, but we'll figure it out soon enough!

MC Chris oh, I missed another MC Chris Show

I just put MC Chris back onto my IPod today.  I thought, "It would be cool to see him again since I haven't seen a show in NYC yet...".

http://www.theapiary.org/

Why!!!?
My new mission: to be more organized for the sake of fun.

It only took 4 years...

According to this Ann Arbor News Article, a dog park may be coming to Ann Arbor by the end of this summer.
Kudos to all the people who have been working on this for so long (and even those who were around for a few rounds of the battle).

In NYC, off-leash hours in city parks (without designated dog runs) are in danger of being taken away thanks to the Juniper Civic Association lawsuit.
Sign the petition to save off-leash hours here.
Read more on the nonsense here.

I believe the dog people will prevail, because dog play is the best thing ever.

The Brave One

In Manhattan Valley related news....

Our neighborhood is about to be taken over by film crews soon.
The Jodie Foster flick, The Brave One, will be in full effect.  I noticed on a flyer that if they have to tow your car because it is in the way, you do not have to pay for the towing and storage.  How kind.  I bet the city just adds the charge onto the film production bill.

My mission today: get the Mom and kittens out of the bodega basement across the street from our apartment and into the vet clinic for spay/neuter/rescue.
I hope the bodega guys couldn't smell the beer I just drank because I'd seem pretty desperate if I reeked like a bar when I asked to take the kitties.