Put on the Glasses

Last weekend, Brian spent an amazing amount of time digging up rocks. In order to claim the other half of the garden back from the weeds and broken glass, Brian dug through the dirt, pulling out rocks to cover the worst part of the yard. He found an incredible number of rocks, including bricks in a pattern that had clearly been a patio long ago. Below, you can see the rocks that Brian found. All of the rocks behind the pots were dug up by Brian in the other half of the yard. Now, we are going to seed the rest of the yard with grass and we should have a beautiful yard! Hooray! Our garden is coming around beautifully!

On Sunday, Brian and I went out shopping in Downtown Brooklyn. We came upon the New York Transit Museum. The entrance was actually a subway-style entrance where you had to go downstairs to get into the museum. It was a lot of fun for $5. They had typical museum display with graphics and history in one part. Then, on a lower level, on old subway tracks, they had discontinued subway cars. They also had displays for kids to pretend to be bus drivers and ticket booth workers. Above you can see Brian texting while he drives a NYC bus (you might recall Brian reporting a bus driver for this same offense a while back). Here is my favorite car from the past. It is an old wooden Brooklyn Transit car: We got to go into the Signal Booth too. Here you can see the board showing where all of the trains are: In this picture, I am using one of the old handles. This is why subway riders are called "strap hangers" for all of you Minnesota folk: We had fun. It was a small museum bu...

These are our new backyard friends. The mom and kitten live in the construction site. They are cute and I had to share. Yes, that is our Tupperware and we did put out food for them. No, we are not adopting them. We can't even get close to them. We watch them from afar.

I had to put up a picture of Brian's new flower box. He made it from scrap wood in the yard, screws and some nails. I think it looks terrific with flowers in it and the new grass next to it. It is a good 4 or 5 feet across in the spot where Brian had his garden last year. Good work Brian!

I know this is old news. However, unfortunately for you, jury duty reminded me how much I love reading and reading has sort of taken over the part of my life that was blogging for the past few weeks. You see, my jury duty was a whole lot of waiting. While I waited, I read. First, I waited in a big room in the above pictured building. We watched a video by the 60 Minutes people. Then we waited for the head juror to call out the reasons you could get out of jury duty (they were few). This was actually my favorite part of the whole experience. The clerk said, "Another reason you can be excused is if you do not understand basic English. If you do not understand basic English, please step through the door to my right." A whole slew of people got up and marched towards the door, immediately, without any confusion. Those of us still sitting started giggling. Obviously, the people headed for the door all understood what the man said! People will do anything to get out of j...

I had to share the fun things that Chuck wrote in the books he signed. They are all applicable to the storylines in the books. Here are pictures of the three books that I got signed at the event: Oddly enough, I now own a total of 10 signed books by Chuck, 7 of which are first editions. I also have a signed penguin, a signed CD of him reading short stories and a signed, personal letter. What can I say? I like the man's writing. Here is the giant inflatable penguin I got at the event. The ink smeared but it doesn't diminish the awesomeness of a giant inflatable penguin. Chuck sure is good to his fans.

Yes, I am obsessive. I saw Chuck Palahniuk, again. This was actually the third time that I have seen him live. It was a special event put on by The Strand (the bookstore with 18 miles of books) at Webster Hall. It was actually very fancy for an author event. There was a video projector, flashing images and lines from his newest book, Pygmy , which just came out yesterday. You don't usually get fancy technology for authors. Because I was one of the first 150 people to get a ticket, I was a VIP. this meant that I was able to have my books personalized by Chuck at the event. I arrived early to try to get my stuff signed before the event but not early enough. I ended up being 3rd from the cut off prior to the event, so that I had to wait until after to get my stuff signed. By that point, there were no chairs left. After standing in line, I stood through the whole event and then got back in line. Oh, the things one does for literature. It was a fun event. He gave out huge...

Last weekend, Brian and I went to see Neil Gaiman give a talk for Pen World Voices. Neil Gaiman, if you don't know, wrote Stardust , American Gods , Coraline , and Neverwhere , among other things. His latest book, The Graveyard Book , just won the Newbery Medal, for best American children's fiction. Neverwhere and The Graveyard Book are my two favorites. I liked The Graveyard Book so much that I forced Brian to read it. He liked it too. It was awesome to see him. Brian and I got terrific, front row seats. Neil was funny and interesting, even a bit inspiring at times. When we left, Brian said he even felt inspired to start writing! My favorite part of the talk was his revealing a fantasy he had as a kid. He dreamed of being the guy who wrote The Lord of the Rings . He didn't just want to write a book like it. He wanted to write that specific book. So, he fantasized that he would be holding the book and somehow transport to a parallel universe where The Lord o...

We have decided to call her Leela, after Turanga Leela of Futurama. I will admit, I liked other names but in the end I gave the name picking authority to Brian. It was his turn to name a cat and Brian really likes Futurama. Plus, Turanga Leela was an orphan in the show and our cat is an orphan, so it is fitting. We still call her Oreo occasionally by accident. In other Leela news, she likes to climb our window bars, as you can see in the above picture. She climbs up surprisingly fast but then whines because the descent is not as easy. Leela had a big moment yesterday. Brian was taking out some trash and Leela saw the open door and ran for it. When she got to the hall, she stopped, looked at Brian and marched right back into the apartment. She doesn't want to run away anymore! She seems to realize what a sweet deal she's got here with the free food and warm bed. We're lucky she's accepted us. She is a very sweet and loving cat.

As Brian and I have been spending lots of time in the garden this spring, we have seen more and more of our friend Oreo. Oreo comes running the second we open the backdoor and seems very hungry and skinny. When we feed her she gives us a lot of attention, purring and sitting on our laps. She has melted our hearts. Brian and I discussed saving Oreo from the outdoors and decided that we did not like the thought of anything happening to this sweet cat. We decided to bring Oreo inside to live with us. Brian and I have kept an eye out to see where she comes from. We went outside at strange hours to see if she was around. Oreo doesn't wear a collar and always comes running when we open the door. We decided that anyone who has this cat is not giving her the love she needs. So, Brian took her to the vet two days ago. She got her shots and is a perfectly healthy, 3-5 year old female. After the check-up, Brian brought her home. She didn't claw or put up much of a fight. She ...

So, it turns out, cross-stiching is a lot of fun. This is the one I have been working on lately. It is a small 5x7 of soeme herbs in pots that my mom bought me when I was back in Minnesota. I love that it gives me something to do when the TV is on. I hate just watching TV. I always need to be doing something else too. This is the perfect craft for that. I'll keep you posted on how it comes out!