Wednesday Night

It's still so hard to watch the news and see how hard it is for so, so many people tonight. It's very cold (especially AZ girls) and I'm praying for those without power.

Gina and I walked down to Bryant Park, which was still closed - so we walked around midtown and decided to check out cheap broadway tickets at TKTS. We ended up getting tickets for Rock of Ages. We got lunch at Sosa Borella and then came home for a quick nap before the show.

The show was a lot of fun - lots of 80s music :)
And on our way home, our neighborhood firemen were just coming back to the firehouse and we saw the guys we met in the grocery store. We asked them how their spaghetti squash turned out and he told us, "It was missing something." He described how he made it and I suggested, "Parmesano Reggiano?"
And his eyes lit up and he said, "YEEEES! I'll try that next time!"

Glad to help out where I can -

FDNY

Gina and I just went to the grocery store to get a couple of things and we got in line behind some FDNY guys buying food for the firehouse.

They had 7 packages of sausage, 7 spaghetti squash a few boxes of pasta and pesto sauce. They were discussing the need for bread and realized it was on the other floor (the grocery store in our neighborhood is on two floors) and so they RADIO their buddy upstairs and say, "Hey, Billy!! Grab some bread while you're up there!"

Which of course I had to say, "Aww man! That is so not fair!"

We started chatting with them and found out they had been the guys to evacuate the area around the crane that had fallen off the roof of the high-rise - they were telling us that the biggest pain were getting people out who had pets. One guy had a cat in a bag in one hand and a baby in another - he said he wished he had gotten a picture!

Cutest girl ever!

These guys had been working since Sunday without being home. They said it has been totally crazy. They were so nice and so positive - I'll definitely be praying for them and for their safety. God bless these guys.

Our friends from church, the Lusks, who have given us rides every week live downtown and are without power and water, internet and cable. So they came up today to charge up their phones, check email and take showers. I'm really, really glad we were able to help someone out. Their daughter is 18 months old and such a little doll - we loved playing with her this morning.

Gina bought Anwin this cute doggie.
She pants for "dog"

Kisses for doggie

Playing with Shel

Anwin, Katie and Jeremy

City on the Rebound

Morning Walk
Line @ Shake Shack was crazy
Not too much open at this point

New York rebounds fast!
It's pretty amazing actually.

I know that the clean-up will take months - and maybe for some - even years. But the speed at which shops and restaurants have opened is staggering. Part of the bus system was back up by 2pm today. The airports will open tomorrow. They opened 4 bridges and 1 tunnel today. They were also hoping to restore power tonight to a huge block of downtown - Unbelievable!

I took a walk this morning from my apartment on 50th St down Broadway to 33rd St, then back up via 8th avenue. At that time, about 30% of the shops and restaurants were opened even though we were still getting rain and lots of wind gusts. There were city crews out cleaning up and fixing stuff. There were quite a few people out and about.

At noon, we went out for lunch and walked down 9th Ave. About 50% of the shops and restaurants were open. We stopped in at a pizza place that had limited food but they were serving up what they had. I checked out the local churches, hoping to volunteer, but there really wasn't much going on in our area - things were getting back to normal. When I got home, my internet was down so I wasn't able to google volunteering until later in the evening.

I spent the afternoon catching up on my Smashbook and spent about 3 hours printing pics, smashing and journaling... it was a good activity for me today and definitely helped pass the time in a constructive way.

We Skyped with mom and dad when the internet came up and I started searching for volunteer opportunities - nothing was online, but Gina has seen a URL on the news. So I will try to catch that on the news tonight and hopefully be able to volunteer the next couple of days.

The one felled tree in our neighborhood - 50th St & 9th Ave

Gina was ready for a walk, so we went out for dinner - to a little Italian place on 48th and Broadway that has a piano bar. The service was TERRIBLE, but the piano bar was a lot of fun and the food, of course was fabulous! We took a walk down into Times Square and got some pictures - there were not many people out at all, but I'd say about 60% of the businesses were up and running. It was truly amazing to see so many places open for business so quickly. We popped in to the M&M store and they were blaring music and people were dancing all over the store - it was quite a scene!

Noon - 9th Ave - getting pizza - packed uut

ELEVATOR!

Dinner @ Da Marinada

Times Square!

Geeg and Shel

It's Raining - Katie this picture is for you!

Cool recreation

blurry... but cool

ABC news 

Tuesday Post-hurricane Update

I wanted to let everyone know that Gina & I are fine and in some divine grace ... We still have power.

We are exceedingly grateful to God because there are 724,000 people in NYC without power & a great number in shelters.

All the subways, busses, and many bridges & tunnels are closed. The airports are closed. We are praying that we will be able to fly home at the end of the week... Trusting it will be ok by Friday.

We will keep the blog & FB updated.

Sandy Preparation Strategies (SaPS)

Times Square - tourists abound!

It's Monday.
Hurricane Day.
It's supposed to hit NYC at 3pm and last until 3am.
Then continued rains through tomorrow.

Anticipating that I'll be cooped up in my apartment for most of the next two days, I decided to take a walk since it was only drizzly and slightly windy this morning.

About 70% of the stores and restaurants are closed but there are a few diehards out there making their last dime before they have to shut down. My street is pretty empty. All major businesses are closed. The subways shut down at 7pm last night and the busses shut down at 9pm. The taxis are out in full force and a few cars here and there.

As I got closer to Central Park, the wind started to really pick up and as I entered the park, the wind was CRAZY! With no buildings to really block it, it was quite strong and literally pushing me along the path. I decided that was probably not the smartest place to be - so I walked back downtown towards Times Square. I started noticing the various strategies that people have put in place to (hopefully) minimize the hurricane damage. I thought some of them were pretty funny - so I took some pics and have them to share with you.

I've now copyrighted the title: Sandy Preparation Strategies (SaPS!)

1. The Disney Store - the most prepared. They are completely boarded up and the company that did it tagged themselves on the front. Great advertising!

2.  The guys at McDonald's used masking tape! I guess that secret sauce really does make you smarter!! Did someone see this on Pinterest or something?

3.  The genius engineers of Microsoft put sandbags down. I'm not sure how that will help when a garbage can goes flying through their glass doors, but whatev!

4.  Big pumpkins are Halloween decorations or ballast for the planters? You decide.

5.  This is what I like to call the "Hire-a-Big-Guy" strategy. I'm sure he can fend off the wiles of Hurricane Sandy!

 6. Inglot, a make-up store, threw some towels down. I can just see the employees as they were closing last night, "What should we do?" "Ummm, There's some towels in the back!" "OK!"

 

7.  And my favorite is this: I call it the "Screw you, Sandy!" Strategy - we're just staying open. Gelato is served!!

Here's some other funny stuff I saw:

My "Seinfeld Coffee Shop", Cosmic Diner, was  open
for business and packed full with a line!

We sell flashlight, but we not open!

Oh Sandy

Sandy Sandy my darlin', you hurt me real bad, 
you know it's true 
But baby, you gotta believe me when I say, 
I'm looking at grey skies
Love has flown all alone, I sit, I wonder why-y-y oh why you
left me stranded, oh Sandy Sandy, 
Sandy, why-y-y-y, 
oh Sandy

(from Grease)

Gina and I have our water, our flashlights, our candles, our non-perishable food, our regular food, a deck of cards, farkle, a puzzle and markers. We're all prayed up, too!

We're not sure what to expect - it sounds like the worst of it is going to start Monday night and run through Tuesday, but it's hard to decipher the reports... albeit they are constant. We watched the news for awhile, but finally switched to Partridge Family reruns - COME ON, GET HAPPY!! :)

Finding shelter from the cold wind

We went to church this morning with the Lusks and it was a really nice morning. We took a taxi to our "drop spot" and it was really cold and windy. Gina found shelter in an old abandoned phone booth until our ride came. The Lusks have an 18-month old daughter named Anwin. She is adorable and just learning to talk - I loved sitting in the car with her during the drive into New Jersey - she's so charming.

The message this morning was about Jesus and the disciples as they crossed the stormy seas and Jesus said, "Peace. Be Still." And the wind and waves obeyed his command. We have a great God who cares for us and keeps us under the shelter of his wings. Come what may - we will be OK. All is good. Peace. Be still.

When we got back into the city, we had a few more supplies to buy - I especially wanted to search for flashlights - everyone was out of them. I walked down to 40th St and asked in about 15 stores and they were all sold out. But I did get our deck of cards and dice and puzzle for entertainment. Gina went to the grocery store and got the few things we needed. When we got back home - we headed out to lunch and I happened to ask a guy in front of a store if they had flashlights and TA-DA! Score... all that walking and the flashlights were 3 doors down! It was a good walk, anyway.

The funny thing to me is that except for the Disney store that was boarding up - everyone on Times Square was Ops Normal. Open for Business. Going to Shows. Taking Bus tours. Even when it was super dark out at 2pm - calm before the storm.

I have decided not to be mad at Sandy anymore.

Oh Sandy.... Why-y-y-y-y!

I wonder if Sandy will rip that tree right off?

Sunday afternoon - Times Sq - all normal

Except the Disney Store - boarding up for Sandy

2pm - dark skies

Big Catholic procession outside my window.
I hope they are praying for safety in the storm!

Nice Work if You Can Get it!

Today was a mix of good and not-so-good.

First the good:
My cold is getting better and my cough is a LOT better than the last two days. Yay for antibiotics!!

COOOOOKIES!

This morning I took a really nice walk down to Bryant Park and had a great time browsing the shops and chatting with people. I got a Max Brenner cookie (Chocolate by the Bald Man) which they serve to you warm out of the oven. I also got some lovely hand cream at a shop called Saban and a very cool iPhone cover with original photography by the shop owner - who photographs Manhattan exclusively and then puts his prints on cell phone covers, wallets, along with prints to frame, postcards, etc. Very cool stuff. I watched the ice skaters, but didn't have time to skate because Gina and I went to see a matinee....


Nice Work if You Can Get it!

Super fun show!

It was such a funny play. Hilarious. Matthew Broderick stars in it and he was fantastic. The whole cast was really good actually. They used all Gershwin songs for the play - and it was set during Prohibition times. So it was a lot of ragtime, upbeat music. It was so cute and really funny - we loved it. Every play I've seen has been so different from the others - it's been a really fun experience to go to so many different genres. Everyone has been SO good in their own right.

We had dinner at a French restaurant called Pigalle which was quite yummy. We really enjoyed it and it helped that it was 5:30 and we'd only had time to eat breakfast today.


Now the Not-So-Good:
Hurricane Sandy is messing up my last week - BOO!
First of all, it's supposed to last for two whole days - with major winds and rain and flooding. Apparently lots of things will be shut down like subways and busses. There's a chance of power outage. I've heard that it doesn't happen much at all in NYC - mostly the places that have power lines above ground are in danger of that. But IF they do lose power, it could take days to get it back, so I'm praying that doesn't happen.

Gina's flight was already cancelled so she can't leave until Friday. My last day is Saturday. It's OK - it will be good to not be alone during the storm - but we're probably not going to be able to do the things we already had tickets for on Monday and Tuesday.

So, I am a little sad.

But at the end of the day - I wanted to do something new each day - and living through a hurricane is definitely a new thing for me.

I've gotten candles and extra water and non-perishable food -- so I think we are OK. The only thing we need now is a deck of cards!!

There's a waffle place at Bryant Park
(I passed this morning!)

The Max Brenner people were really worried
about the Hurricane taking their booth out!!

Restaurant at Bryant Park

Love the reflection on the buildings

Ice Rink @ Bryant park

Pasta, Chicken and Farro - OH MY!

We had a major guest change-over today.
Gina dropped her stuff off early in the morning as she headed out to Ellis Island.
The girls left around 11.
Gina moved in about 3.
Jules left about 3:39!

Whew... I'll miss the house full of guests.

Chelsea Market is in the former
Nabisco Factory

In the morning, Jules and I went to Chelsea Market and walked the Highline. We scanned through all the shops and bought a few things here and there. We split lunch at SaraBeth's Bakery - which is where mom and I ate @ Chelsea Market as well.

Blurry fall color on the Highline

The Highline was gorgeous, of course. Even though I'd just been there a week ago - it amazed me how much had already changed. There was a change in color in the few plants that do change color and because it was a gray day - it just had a different feel.

We got home about 2 o'clock which gave us some time to rest and relax before Jules had to catch her taxi to JFK. Resting was good because this evening Gina and I went to a Tuscan Cooking Class at the Rustico Cooking Company. It was SO MUCH fun! I really enjoyed it.

The Kitchens

They have one whole set up on the 2nd floor and another one on the third floor in midtown (39th b/w 5th and 6th Ave). There were 18 of us in the class and we learned how to make: gnocchi, fresh pasta with roasted asparagus, roasted chicken with lemon and rosemary, sautéed spinach with nutmeg, farro salad and panna cotta. The chef who taught the class was excellent and she had a lot of stuff prepared for us ahead of time. She also has the coordination of everything down to a science - so it made it really fun. She tries to get the students to do most of the work, so even though you don't get to try everything - everyone gets to do something and you at least learn how to do it.

Our main course

My favorite part was making the fresh pasta. It's so easy and I think I could do it myself. I hope my mom still has her pasta roller!! The gnocchi, which is my dad's favorite pasta, was SUPER easy to make - so we are excited to make it for my dad. You just need a potato ricer which I'm also hoping my mom has!!

It was like a being on a Food Network show and getting to participate and then eat the food. It was really fun to eat what you cooked and/or watched being cooked. I highly recommend this place to anyone visiting or anyone who lives in the area. Five out of Five ShelStars!!!

Geeg is ready to cook 

As is Shel

Cool wall art

The fridges and ovens

The dining area

Ready to make fresh pasta