Dustin' off the old blog

...to capture life as it whips by.

For those of you who are still with me - whaddup?

I know I promised a final installment of our trip to NYC back in March - and I actually thought about it again a couple of book clubs ago as I hosted a discussion of "the Virgin Cure" which took place in the Bowery district of New York ... but then life promptly got in the way and here we are almost 6 months later.

So the long and the short of it - we had a great last couple of days in NYC, where we ate at a resto that used to host a huge nightclub scene back in the 80s (saw pix of Andy Warhol and Tina Chow in the bathroom),

 which was just around the corner from where

the Blue Man Group now perform .... which itself was a hilarious experience and if you haven't yet seen for yourself, you should, as it's probably now available at a city near you...

Also explored a bit more of the Upper West Side ...

And that was January 2012.

February was pretty crazy workwise - with another couple of cross-atlantic trips for me ...  and life wise- with the kids' school and their schedules, which got rudely interrupted by the boy's concussion on a ski hill while snowboarding ... which promptly ended the indoor rep season for soccer.  I'll have to admit although it sucked somewhat for the boy and moved him even deeper into the underworld known as the land of Xbox addicts ... it alleviated things a little without the soccer runs on a thrice-weekly basis.

[As an aside - the concussion thing was a bit life-altering at the time.  I suppose this is the stuff of 12 year old boys.  If I had blogged about it at the time, the intensity surely would have surpassed this one sentence acknowledgement.  Little did I know that there was more to come for this 12 year old.  He didn't score an A+ on his report card for drama for nothing, after all. An update on this when we get into May]. 

For our late winter/spring break we decided it was my turn to determine holiday -ie a warm weather trip rather than the ski-based vacay.  Which turned out to be a great thing.

Bahamas.

  (I'm always holding a glass of something ... )

Jumping in the sun - what's not to jump about?

And the big bonus - the man did NOT get sick.  Not once.  A miracle for any hot vacation spot- for that is what he tends to do whenever we get on a plane for a destination somewhat Caribbean - get the GI (ie. gastrointestinal sort) blues. 

I think we've stumbled onto something.

The lovely thing about Nassau (other than the fantabulous fresh-fruit alcoholic-even-at-10:30-AM-in-the-morning-daiquiris) was that we could take public (*cough* rickety buses with doors hanging joyfully by the hinges) transit to and fro without a worry. We chose not to  do the usual all- inclusive, which tends to be become less and less economically attractive as our livers get older and it's no longer such a deal for "all you can drink" we are responsible parents, after all...although given the boy's growing hefty appetite it may be worth considering again as he hits the teen years).

Back to the bus.

Both kids, especially the G, were having a blast - not only was there no car seat on these buses, there was no seatbelt, and as above, sometimes barely a door.

You couldn't beat the Bahamian locals for their hospitality and overall pleasantness.  One morning I took the girlie grocery shopping and the local bus driver not only suggested which place to go to for the best stuff- but when I showed up back on the road to head back to the hotel, another bus driver stopped mid- route (I couldn't find the bus-stop and was struggling with grocery bags through the bushes and keeping a hand on the girlie) and actually FOUND us. We hopped on the bus and he dropped us at the hotel within minutes.  All for $2 USD.  I told the driver it's as if their buses are always looking for lost tourists.  He  gave a hearty laugh, complete with gold toothed grin and although he was wearing sunglasses, I could see the glint of a smile in his eyes as he agreed with me.

On the Sunday night, when the restaurant we wanted to check out was closed, the bus driver wouldn't drop us off until he found one that was open, and when there weren't any along the way, he took us to a lovely place along the beach which we knew was open.  So friendly, we felt well taken care of, truth be told. 

And we did the dolphin encounter thing.  Complete with Awkward family with the dolphin photo.

And that was March.

Now that we're in September,  I've still got so much more catching up to do.  I'll try to make it quick, as memories have a way of sifting through the sieves of my brain lately. 

NYC Trip Report continued: Of kicks and toys and American girls

Wednesday was the day set aside for SHOPPING! Only NOT for me - it was time for the kidlets!

The one passion the boy shares with his mom is his love of hats and SHOES! (With all these amazing post-Christmas sales I've been tossing the shoeboxes into recycling and keep my new purchases at the office, in case my husband notices. Shhhh, let's keep it a secret!).

I had promised the Boy a new pair of kicks for his size 9 men's feet (not kidding - he's not even 12 yet!) We thought that Macy's would be good place to start, and given that it wasn't too far from Times Square, another shopping mecca, we headed into tourist land first thing after breakfast. I had scoped out the subway route, but with a family of 4 it made sense just to hop into the nearest yellow cab. We lucked out - we got a clean non-stinky hybrid for our ride downtown.

We didn't luck out so much at the department store - although I'm continually amazed at my son's growing preference for neon bright apparel. The wooden escalator was cool though:

We decided to head into the thick of Times Square to continue our search - but we got hungry (and cold) again very quickly. So we stopped in at the Hard Rock for lunch -we don't normally like the chains when vacationing, but the NYC resto was actually quite good. You can't beat a good burger on a freezing day.

With our stomachs full, we continued on our quest for the perfect shoes. Thank goodness for the girlie that Toys R Us, complete with indoor ferris wheel, presented itself right next to the shoe store.

Lady Liberty in Lego glory...



Barbie, Barbie everywhere...



I still find this Toys R Us more impressive than FAO Schwartz. Maybe it had something to do with the hot chocolate:



Little G wanted make some small purchases, but I told her we were saving up for our visit with the American Girls. That promise and the cookie kept her content. In the meantime, the boys found fancy bright blue high tops - a great NYC souvenir for the boy.

The thing I love about Manhattan is that it is so walkable. From Times Square, the American Girl Store was but a few short blocks away. I'd never been exposed to the American Girl experience - and that's exactly what it is. When I first heard of this phenomenon, I found it a little creepy that the doll could be dressed exactly as its girl owner. On top of that, there was enough experience to occupy four floors - complete with restaurant, doll salon, pet shop ... I knew we would drop some coin once we went through the door. And this was heavenly for a 7 year old girl:



It took us a little while to settle on which doll was our mini-G, but we did it. I had to promise that if we were to go to Chicago I would arrange for an American Girl salon visit for mini-G - $12 for braiding is a little steep ( I offered to do it for $5 but it didn't cut it). When we left the building it was already quite dark and we decided to head back to the hotel. We were actually turned down for pickups by a few yellow cabs before we finally lucked out. Didn't think a cabbie would ever refuse a fare but I guess this was NYC. I guess with so many people hailing cabs they have the luxury of being picky.

At home base, the boy decided he wanted to check out the Urban outfitters across the street - cannot believe that he can actually fit some of those fashions. Hilarious that the boy noted that one of the sales guys was wearing majorly low, I'm talking down to his knees, low-riders. The boy noticed the boxers, but did think it was rather silly. We did score on a couple of cute striped T's for him, though.

Picked up some juice, fruit, yogurt and salmon and bagels for next day's breakfast - and headed back to our UWS headquarters.

For dinner we went around the corner Asian - Fusha West. Amazing pan Asian food and despite the look of the lounge once you enter, it was quite family friendly. We had sushi, tempura, soup - all with a little bit of a twist. We girls enjoyed it - see our shiny happy faces.








(Yes, that is a sari that was fashioned for Mini-G by the fabulous Bigger G. She's still an American girl under all that, after all, the US is multi-ethnic, isn't it? I suppose we should look for some mukluks for her, after all she's now in Canada, eh?)

And that was Wednesday. We didn't have too late a night, as Thursday would be our last full day in the city. So much more to do and see.

A Day at the Museum

I'm on a roll here, aren't I? At this rate I'll post more times in one month than I did all of last year. Not a bad thing, given that last year seems mostly a blur at this point!

On the Tuesday morning, we left the hotel a bit later than I had anticipated. Against my better judgement, I had given my family a bit more credit than was due. I'm a bit of a slow study that way ... or maybe an optimist. You can tell me.

I did a lot of surfing to plan for this trip and tried to book as many tickets ahead of time as possible. (A major tip: I visited this website, "broadwaybox", where you can find discount codes for many NYC attractions, broadway and offbroadway shows.) From our previous experience at the AMNH, there were lineups galore if you waited to purchase tickets onsite. So I booked ahead to make it easy upon arrival - I would just have to visit their ticket kiosk (like an ATM) - swipe my credit card and prest0, we'd have the tickets. The problem with that is that at time of booking, you have to decide on the scheduled timing for any shows that you'd like to include in your package. I made the executive decision that we would make the 10:30 AM showtime no problem given that it should only take 10 minutes to walk from our hotel to AMNH.

Surely this would give us plenty of time - we were in NYC and although there was so much to see we'd still have time for a leisurely breakfast, no?

No. Not so much in reality. Seems I'm still the only morning person in this family. We left the hotel by 10 minutes after the hour, giving us barely any slack to pick up the tickets (yes, I still had to get those) and figure out where the space show was in the HUGE building. And of course we went to the wrong spaceshow first! I hadn't anticipated an early run - I suppose it could be seen as a fringe benefit, but not necessarily when you're not in the mood for a workout. In the end, we did make the show (and not that it was worth it- if it's the Whoopi Goldberg narrated space show, just skip it).

(...here's another lesson - although it might seem a little easier traveling with school-agers versus toddlers - ie. no diaper bag, no lugging around food/bottles/ strollers ... there is now more baggage of a different kind. A lot more negotiation is involved when you're dealing with whining about leaving beloved Cartoon network and the TV shows that we don't normally get at home. And also not helpful - a husband who is not a morning person and who would prefer some deservedly extra shut-eye. The mother/wife a.k.a . Me in this scenario just feels like a caged animal in the hotel room, as she's usually the first up and itching to do NYC in short order. By 10 AM I've already been up for more than a couple of hours and stir-crazy is putting it mildly. I wish I were a runner ... now that's an idea for next time...)

Rant over. Let's move on. The AMNH was wonderful - again. We had actually seen the "Night at the Museum" a second (or maybe 3rd time now) over the Christmas break, so it was amazing to see some of these things live.

That's one big canoe...

An origami tree

The squid and the whale (have you caught the movie? You should.)

Hall of "water dinosaurs" according to the girl

Our gracious hosts...

Most of the rest of the visit was captured on video, so the shots here weren't really representative of the amount of ground we covered. By about 1:30PM the kids were tired and hungry, and the museum had gotten rather crowded. You probably need at least 3 days to see everything at the AMNH rather than just 3 hours. But we were all museumed out.

We headed out into the frigid temperatures - and yes, even for us Canucks, it was very cold on that Tuesday. After a bit of arguing as to the best place to eat with the kids (another note to file - hungry is not a good state for this family)... we settled on a French cafe "Nice Matin" which is the restaurant affiliated with another hotel I had looked into staying at - The Lucerne, which also has kitchenette facilities. I had the most amazing sandwich there and the kids were happy with their meals - it was a welcome respite from the crazy frigid wind.

It was really too cold and late in the day for the family to do anything after getting back to the hotel. Well, you guessed it, except for the Momster - who decided to walk a few blocks down to the Upper West Side's Century 21 location. After all, I had to buy a couple of hats for me and the girlie - it was so darn cold! But yes, I scored again with Betsy Johnson ("Mommy are those spiders?) and Velvet Tees; and a great Calvin Klein dress for work.

For dinner that night everyone was still tired and seeing as it was so cold, we decided just to have dinner again at the Viand Cafe. Nice and close - and a perfect end to a long and busy day.

Agenda for Wednesday? Times Square and shopping - only this time not for me.

Epic start to 2012

Heroic. Massive. Impressive.

Long.

Words that could be used to describe this post. What I'd like to accomplish here is two-fold: 1) cyber-dump the description of my last week for the internets to enjoy, and 2) have something for me to look back on as I will inevitably forget the details.

Details? Oh yeah - another recent discovery. Not only do I need more cowbell, but apparently a lot more walnuts as well.

I'd like to capture the best parts of what it was like to spend 5 nights in Manhattan with our 11 year old and just turned 7 year old. A nice family, bonding, city vacation. NYC was such a blast for me solo in November - and because we have extremely fond memories of the last time we took the kids around the same time of year in 2006 , we were pumped about this trip.

As I said, I could make this an epic post. But I won't. I'll need to break it up - for my sanity and for yours ...

Day 1 - New Years Day 2012

2:15 PM flight was very civilized. According to the flight attendant at check-in, the morning was an absolute zoo at the airport. We apparently avoided it all. A+ to me for planning the timing.

Side note: This allowed us to enjoy some New Years' Eve activity the night before (at a friend's house where, had my kids not had their friends to keep them busy, I would have embarassed them to no end dancing to Rush, the Cars (come on- "Just What I Needed?" - just have to bop to that...) - oh there was Radiohead too and some Green Day too - little G did great but had a meltdown at about 11:50 PM as there was too much of this old people stuff and LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" did not come on again as quickly as anticipated). ANYWHoooo...I'm rambling...I hope not to digress so much as we move forward.

We arrived at LaGuardia about 4:30 PM- I keep forgetting what a yuck airport LGA is- at least we didn't have to wait in the lounge here. Different story later when coming home.

We picked up a taxi very easily, and hit the road for the Upper West Side.



I had booked the Hotel Beacon, a couple of blocks around the corner from the Museum of Natural History. Seeing as we'd done midtown last visit, the UWS seemed like another great part of the city to explore.

Hotel Beacon is adjacent to the cool Beacon theatre that has hosted the likes of such acts as The Cure (incidently, Robert Smith is almost looking more Divine than anyone else these days -I know, so cruel, but it's hard to continue rocking the look of Goth when you're in your fifties, I suppose...) Morrissey, Louis CK ... who knew. Unfortunately, no great shows were on while we were there - although Peter Frampton is apparently "coming Alive" again in a few short weeks. Him and Myth busters - now THAT be would be cool.

The hotel is a converted apartment building - (in fact it appeared as if there was an original tenant just next door - very elderly )but it was perfect for a family - with a small kitchenette, pullout in the living room and a completely separate bedroom with King - an ideal space. Bonus with Fairways market across the street and a 24/7 Duane Read two buildings up.



The kitchenette, because you know, I've got a thing about kitchens...




We took it easy on our first evening, to energize for the next day of exploring. So that evening we had a delicious steak dinner at the Fairways Cafe, complete with amazing onion rings and reasonably priced wine.

All settled in to start our fantasy of living like an UWS family. Well, one can dream, right?
Next stop, Central Park.

Hi Ho...

...well I'm not Kermit the frog, but a new Muppets movie is on its way soon. But truth be told, I wasn't sure how to launch into a greeting after being away so long. I have been more than delinquent here. Since my last update, I have been busy...

family vacationing...

soccer momming...

traveling here...

Dublin Castle

Octagon Bar...Clarence Hotel...U2 owned.

and here...

(Opera House Copenhagen)

And, I've been to see this fellow

People at work had NO idea who he was - made me feel sooooo old(and the fact that he was playing at Casino Rama didn't make me feel any younger - despite the other fact that we appeared to be the youngest in the crowd...). But memories abounded because Avalon was the "last dance" song at our wedding. Bryan Ferry is still sexy and suave, even in his sixties. No wonder he has a 27 year old girlfriend. (Okay, that's borderline acceptable, but let's move on.)

I hit another birthday, and "turning 25 again" sounds a little more forced and a little less funny now that I'm on the other side of 40 approaching - gulp -the next decade.

This forced me to think about how I could switch things up a bit. I've now found a new addiction to add to my BodyJam fix of the week:

Now that I'm sans gallbladder and can re-indulge in cheese, and drink wine, and only feel ill effects every so often...I can work the guilt off even harder.

So now we're pretty much caught up. Mission critical, because I cannot NOT have a Halloween Post.

I keep raising the bar in terms of my costumes the last couple of years. So for 2011 I'm thinking I'll go a little darker, scarier. My costume has something to do with this...

Care to hazard a guess?

I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy Halloween.

Weekly Winners - Vacation

In case you haven't noticed, I'm taking a well deserved family break. Sun, water, trampolines... food, drink, s'mores...an additional five pounds to lose when I'm back on the BodyJam train.

But that will have to wait. Because I'm still on ...

Weekly Winners - Paradise

We're such rotten parents, aren't we? We took the kids out of school to go on a one week trip to Mexico. ( When I told the girlie we were going, she said she didn't want to get sick. So aware, these 5 year olds are these days. I had to tell her she'd already had the flu that started in Mexico. Great segue into getting her a Hep shot, though.)

And now they're starting their spring break. Wishing we were back in Mexico. Group sigh this time.

The ultimate fort...

Cocooned

Running...

with...

birds.

My favourite part
For more photo fun, visit the home of lovely Lotus. She'll take your breath away.

Wordless and wishing ...

that we were still there.

Sigh.

Weekly Winners - Aug 16 - 22

Just a few shots this week, and one mommyblog effort.

We took the kids downtown to Harbourfront and witnessed some wonderful Canadian aboriginal story telling and traditional hoop dancing as part of the Planet Indigenus Festival:

Organic Television

Update on the Barbie situation -
found lost long twin sister buried alive under toy mountain,
good thing I made two pillows...

For more photo fun, check the home of Weekly Winners, chez Lotus.

Weekly Winners - Summertime

It's been over a month since my last WW, and I've missed this. This week just some snaps of what we've been up to, colder summer temperatures notwithstanding...

Nightime at a friend's rented farm near Thornbury:

Exploring the Scenic Caves of Blue Mountain:

My off-roader in Albion Hills

The beach in the hills

We took the kids to Markham Museum, an outdoor museum which captures life as it was in the 1800's. A little gem, which I'd always wanted to visit but never had the chance. We had our own tour because no one else was there! First, inside a typical variety store:

A wreath made of human hair, displayed in a family home:

(Edited to add: uh, I think when I posted this initially it looked like, yeah, a wreath of human hair is just so everyday to me, when really I was thinking "OMG, a WREATH made of the stuff, it's sorta creepy, I HAVE to post this!!" and then thinking what an awesome wreath I would be able to make with all the serious high Asian hair turnover I have...that's the truth!).

And finally, newfound friend in our garden

For more photo fun, check the home of Weekly Winners, chez Lotus.