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Update summer 2021: blog has a new name! Please visit me at https://thepowerofquiet.blogspot.com/

Thursday, June 30, 2011

NYC!!!

Over the past few years I have been stumped over what to get my oldest son for his birthday.  There haven't been any really longed-for ITEMS and I hate to just get him "stuff."  One year he noticed that Billy Joel was playing a concert near us, and fairly close to his birthday.  Bing! Tickets to the show for his birthday was the answer.  And of course, I had to take him to the show.  We went out to dinner first (my son is a very interesting and gentlemanly date!) and then to the concert.  Well, once precedent had been set, we found interesting shows for each subsequent birthday.  After Billy Joel it was Penn and Teller.  After that we moved farther afield, and took the train down to New York City (ah, the advantage of living on the Connecticut shoreline) and saw an off-Broadway show with John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle.  Of course, we had to spend the day in New York, wandering, ice-skating at Rockefeller Center, finding an interesting place for lunch, and looking, of course, like the wide-eyed tourists that we were.  But it was such a fun day!  And I got to spend an entire day with my son!

This year he turned 19. There were other thoughts this year, as he's in college, between his freshman and sophomore years, and in the market for THINGS.  After much thought, however, we returned to what is now the tried and true.  Broadway shows.  And he is still happy to spend a day in New York with his mother!!! Woohoo!  So we took an early train in to Grand Central Station.

Jeff in Grand Central Station


Grand Central Station
I just love that train station.  It truly is grand!  I tried to take a picture of the ceiling, which is painted to look like a sky, with constellations painted on it, and lights where the bright stars are.  But the photo didn't really turn out - you can't see much.  Here it is if you want to try:  OK, I'm a sucker for grandeur, but it really is a beautiful station.
Grand Central Ceiling
We strolled down Park Avenue, just so we could say we did.  The sun was shining, it was in the 70's (deg F) and the day was beautiful.  As we walked we saw an interesting sculpture in front of a large office building.
funky sculpture
I couldn't resist taking a picture, and Jeff was good enough to stand next to the sculpture for me.  We walked into the building to see if there was any information about it, but nothing.  When we came back out I noticed the security guard, at the bottom left of the picture.  I asked him about it and he was very friendly and explained that it had just been sold through Christie's Auction House and they needed someplace to put it.  Ha!

Apple Store
Well, we wandered some more, looked in shops, and ended up at the edge of central park, where there was an apple store.  My son, being the techie that he is, of course wanted to go inside.  It is entirely underground.  The white structure that you see is painted plywood that is covering up the glass block that used to be there (I'm not sure whether it is under construction or being repaired), but we entered and all that was inside was a spiral staircase that led us underground.  I guess they need to use all the space available in a place as crowded and built up as New York City.

We chatted with a very friendly pedi-cab driver and got a recommendation for lunch, then we walked back toward Times Square to get to the theatre in time for the show.

The show Jeff picked out was "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."  And it was fantastic.  We both love musicals, and a good comedy.  This one was written in the '50's, very dated, but they really played up the camp and we were smiling and laughing throughout.  If you caught the Tony Awards and the song-and-dance number that they performed from this show, you'll have an idea of a little of what we saw.  Sets were very  creative, choreography was a lot of fun, dance chorus was fantastic, and the performances had a lot of energy.  We thoroughly enjoyed the show!

After the show we took the subway up to Central Park again (an adventure in and of itself!) and while wandering, met up with my running partner's daugher and her boyfriend, both of whom were in Jeff's graduation class at the high school.  What fun!
Jeff in Central Park
I had not ever spent much time wandering in Central Park on earlier visits to the city, and I was really impressed with the size and the greenery within such a large city.  Central Park really is beautiful.  We saw lots of runners and bikers as well, and families, and kids with nannies, baseball games, playgrounds, I think there's even a zoo in there somewhere, but we didn't walk that far.
beautiful stone staircase in Central Park
After the park, it was time to head home.  We took the subway back to Grand Central and picked up dinner, which we ate on the train.  I got some knitting done on my summer cardigan.   I really need to put up some pictures of that project.  I may even finish it while it's still summer!  Maybe in my next post.

A wonderful day, but I was pooped by the time we got home.  I just love the fact that we can go down to New York for the day, even if I only go once or twice a year!  It's certainly a great birthday trip.  I'm already thinking about the next one...



Saturday, June 25, 2011

Washing sweaters for the season

Bet you wondered when I would put in some knitting content!  This isn't knitting content per se, but it is related.

Time to put away all the winter woolies, but they must be clean!  So I have begun.  I only have two sweater dryers, so I'm washing wool sweaters two at a time.  I've used eucalan in the past, which I like very much and doesn't need to be rinsed.  I ran out and was too lazy to drive to a yarn shop to buy more eucalan, so I've been using cheap Suave lavendar shampoo.  It works well, smells nice, but I do have to rinse the sweaters.  It's not really a big deal though.


After washing and rinsing, I squeeze out (don't wring!) the sweaters and lay them on a big cushy towel.  Then I roll the towel up with the sweater inside and step it.  A lot.  Then I lay out the sweaters to dry.  I have two mesh sweater dryers, which are just mesh stretched over a square-shaped frame and raised a little bit off the surface of wherever you put them.  You should be able to see what they look like in the pictures.

These sweaters are store bought.  You'd think that with all the years I've been knitting I'd have a ton of handknit sweaters.  I wish!  Most of the sweaters I knit are for the kids.  I have 3 sweaters and a sweater vest (and a bunch of scarves, shawls, mittens, etc.) that I have knit for myself in my 38 years of knitting.  I'm working on bringing that up to a more respectable number.  I do have some kid sweaters to wash too, so I can feel like I've accomplished something.

On another note altogether, I am anxiously awaiting a skype call from my daughter who has arrived at her host family's house in Sapporo, Japan!  She has emailed to tell us that she arrived safely and it sounds like things are going well, but I will feel so much better when I have spoken to her.  We have tried really hard to not be overanxious parents.

Perhaps I can find something on TV to watch while I do a little knitting.  I haven't done much knitting lately and this is a good day for it.

Shelley in CT

Friday, June 24, 2011

Has it really been a whole year?

Well, I'm not going to catch up on a whole year in one post, but here are the highlights. Good summer 2010, sent Jeff off to college and handled that reasonably well (his father flew out with him - whew!) and Jason started his freshman year at high school. Jessica enjoyed being a sophomore (AKA: NOT being a freshman anymore) and kids kept very busy with homework, sports, and outside activities. In December we helped move Dan's parents to a retirement facility from the home they had lived in for the past 15 year. Dan and I took a vacation at the end of February with Dan's brother and his wife in Puerto Rico, which was lovely and relaxing. End of the easy part.

Once we got home from Puerto Rico (my parents flew out and stayed with the kids so that we could go away - yay!), we picked up our Japanese exchange student, who stayed with us for 2 weeks. She was very nice and we enjoyed having her here. A few days after she arrived, Dan's father went into the emergency room with terrible back and hip pain and ended up with a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma (after many days, tests, biopsies, and heartache). This began the odyssey of Dan's visits to PA to help his father and the stress of the situation.

Dan spent almost as much time staying with his brother (who lived within an hour's drive of their parents) as he did at home this past spring. Their siblings also took turns staying in PA to help out. Eventually they moved Dan's parents to a nursing home (Dan's mother suffers from dementia and cannot live by herself) so that both parents could be taken care of. Dan's father passed away in May and we drove down for the funeral. Dan's mother is still in the dementia unit at her nursing home and is doing very well.

In the meantime, we have been helping Jessica to prepare for a trip to Japan as an exchange student this summer. She started her application back in November. Unfortunately, our school year had 5 days added onto the end of the year due to all the snow days we had this winter, and she had to leave for her program before school officially ended. She took 2 of her final exams a week early, and was able to get off in time, even after missing several days of school to attend her grandfather's funeral. Whew!

School is finally out, Jessica is safely in Japan, and should be flying out to meet her host family sometime today (tomorrow in Japan). Jeff is home from college for the summer and working 2 part-time jobs. I am still trying to catch up. Oh yeah, I started a new part-time job as an accountant. I have no training as an accountant (I worked in publishing - proofreading and editing) and am learning as I go. I started in March. It is now June and I am finally feeling like I know a little bit of what I am doing.

I was going to make this a very short post but I suppose I am still feeling a mite stressed and needed to get some of this out. I have great hopes that I will get some projects around the house accomplished this summer, and maybe manage to visit my folks in Oregon. Wish me luck. I will keep making my lists of things to accomplish and projects to do. Happy summer!

OK. Now it is time to schedule a massage!

Shelley in CT