iThoughts iPhone iMania

As early as Monday people began waiting in the line to be the first owners of an iPhone. The phones aren't going on sale until 6pm Friday. That's insane. I know NYers love to wait in lines (shake shack, free movies, sample sales, etc.) but 4 days? It will be funny to see all of the attention the first iPhones get around the city. I remember when the first iPods came out and you would see the occassional subway rider with the white earphones. They were so rare and kept getting stolen. Now it is more of a surprise to hear someone doesn't have an iPod (or two).

hot town, summer in the city

90 billion degrees. That's what it has felt like for the past two days. Huron Street and a few other streets in GP are getting torn up and repaved. Our street has a lot of potholes, so this will make riding our bikes a little smoother. We're still working on getting everything ready for storage. We are 70% packed up. Now we need to figure out what can be tucked away or thrown away. We reorganized under the bed and Max had a great time climbing the vertical mattress. He really tapped into his urban jungle roots.

On Monday we had our last dinner with Louise before she moves back to Sydney. It's been great having her in town and we really hope to be able to visit her in Australia in the future.

Cara is leaving SMP for an exciting opportunity at Simon & Schuster. Congratulations! I stopped by her going away party last night and saw lots of friends and had some very tasty white wine sangria. Olga is also leaving SMP to move back to Croatia. She and her husband are going to spend the rest of their summer swimming in the sea and setting up their new place. Sounds amazing. Afterwards, I headed uptown to visit Josephine and the painting class she is teaching at Columbia. Her students were all very nice and it was really inspiring to see them learning how to paint. Makes me miss painting.

Tonight we had dinner with Aaron at Markt, the only place with a dutch menu in NYC. Lekker frietjes. They have leffe blond and dark on tap. Why don't they call it brunette?

Can hardly believe tomorrow is already Friday. This weekend I am going to be a student at SVA. I've signed up for an Adobe Illustrator workshop.

NYU and tomatoes

Yesterday I presented a slide show of how the jacket for "A Long Way Gone" was created to the NYU Summer Publishing Institute students. I was nervous at first that I would have to speak in front of all of those people, but I managed and really enjoyed it. Plus I learned how to use powerpoint, so now I can make all kinds of pie charts and stuff.

I've been amazed at how our tomatoes are growing. Right now we have brocoli and tomatoes on the deck, along with a bunch of herbs, annuals and perennials.

Meeting Sophie

On Sunday we met the adorable Sophie Rotstein, daughter of Simone and David. First we checked out her crib...literally, and then went for a lovely brunch at Sarabeth's on the UWS. Afterwards we searched for a good place in central park to sit in the shade and play some scrabble. The photo of everyone in the grass reminds me of the famous Manet painting, minus the naked lady. Maybe Sophie and Cedric will meet one day and exchange cute baby sounds.

Coney Island Mermaid Parade

On Saturday I went with Louise and Kem to check out the mermaid parade at Coney Island. Everyone is saying that Astroland is going to be torn down next summer, so I tried to take some photos of all of the great signs before they're gone. I didn't get many good mermaid photos since the crowd was so thick.

Storage weekend

In order to make our apartment feel more spacious, we've decided to rent a storage space here in Greenpoint for all of our belongings that we can't bear to part with, but certainly don't need to look at everyday. We're photographing stuff before it goes in, so we can easily find it.

Friday night we moved the little green couch into the office and brought the giant wardrobe into the kitchen, messing up all of the other rooms along the way. Max and Meisje were scared at first, but soon came around. It was funny to see how they nestled into their cat carrier when they usually fight for their lives to stay out it. Erik was torn between watching the Subway Series baseball game and enjoying a beer on the deck, so I suggested he take the T.V. outside and enjoy both.

On Saturday, Erik continued his volunteering at the Center for Book Arts. He sorted type and got back into the letterpress swing. That night we were invited to a BBQ at Rob's just a few blocks away. His sister is working on an organic farm in PA and brought all of these delicious, fresh fruits and vegetables. "Picked that day" she said. What a difference from the usual hot dogs and chips.

On Sunday we checked out the Renegade Craft Fair in McCarren Park. Bought some jewelry, a notebook, and some letterpressed cards. Erik bought a AMS-JFK T-shirt. Afterwards we went to DuMont for a DuLicious dinner. I have no willpower against fries. On the bus ride to the park, we passed the 99 cent store that was going out of business. I guess they couldn't raise their prices!

eagle vs. conchord

Has anyone seen these ads around town? I first saw the poster for "Eagle vs. Shark" near work and then I saw the poster for "Flight of the Conchords" on the subway. At first I thought these were for the same show/movie since they looked so similar and they have the same actor. As it turns out, one is a movie and one is a new HBO show. I wonder if this similarity was planned or if it was accidental? The hand-drawn yellow type on a blue background with two quirky figures is awfully suspicious. I bet the HBO show will be great.

We got to see a lot of SMP friends this week at the Barge Bash at South Street Seaport, the Art Directors Club Illustration Review, Museum Mile night, and the Broadway show GREY GARDENS. I hadn't expected such a busy week, but all of these fun things came up each night and we didn't want to muiss out. Poor Erik has had a cold this whole week and last night I got my first symptoms. Hopefully lots of sleep this weekend will cure us. I've also made some orange juice popsicles! yum.

The ground floor apartment in our building is for rent. I did some detective work and found the listing online. There's an open house tomorrow. I think it is funny that the apartment has gained a bedroom in a week. Interesting sales tactic.

OPEN HOUSE: http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/abo/350807937.html

PICTURES: http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fee/345528413.html

Chicago wedding

Flew back last night. Beautiful wedding! It was great to see my dad's family. All of my cousins are growing up so fast. I wore my bridesmaid's dress from Isabelle's wedding (and they say you never wear those dresses again..ha). We almost didn't make it to Chicago on Friday. Apparently there was some computer problem at LaGuardia that had disrupted hundreds of flights. We were delayed 3 hours and all of the other Chicago flights leaving later then ours were cancelled. Yikes. I've lost all faith in LaGuardia and think they need a major overhaul to help with these constant delays.

Missy and Billy seem like such a happy couple. They are honeymooning in Spain and then returning to their lives in the windy city. Her dad gave a very touching speech. It brought the entire house to tears.

We had a few hours to enjoy Sunday in Chicago. Had breakfast with family and then Mike took us out on his friend's Aaron's boat. I am always amazed at the beach/lake front during the summer. You have beach volleyball only a few hundred feet from skyscrapers.

Busy week coming up with work and all the activities after work. Should be exciting. I am relieved that we have some non-traveling relaxing weekends coming up.

Construction Update

The building next door is really going up. The noise has not been bad, but it is sad to come home and suddenly have a wall against your deck. The pink shape in the deck photo is a simulation of the view when the wall goes up to 7 stories! Trying to think of the upside of things, at least we won't get as many sunburns and the plants won't need watering as much in the shade.

I hope they quickly finish so the sidewalk will be back to normal (and so we can see who is actually dumb enough to spend a bazillion dolars to live on Huron Street!)

We are flying to Chicago later today for Billy's wedding. I'm looking forward to seeing all of my dad's family. All of my cousins are really growing up,