Sorry for the delay...

Hello again. Sorry for the delay, we'll try to stay more current with the blog. It's been a couple of crazy weeks. Katie has been working at the hospital quite a bit and I have been studying hard for my comprehensive exams for my PhD. This 3-day test starts Jan. 17. Hofstra won't start again until the end of January so I am looking forward to 3 weeks of basically non-stop cramming. Woo hoo. :(

One of the highlights of the last few weeks has been my parents visit the week before Christmas. They came overnight and arrived Friday morning on jetBlue to JFK and then took a cab out to Hofstra where I was hearing sight-screaming...I mean, sight-singing exams for my sophomore ear training classes. I took them on a tour of the campus and we took the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) back to Manhattan. Fortunately, the subway workers had postponed their strike until the following Tuesday.

We did so much fun stuff with my folks including, but not limited to, getting a architectural-themed walking tour of Park Slope (a very nice Brooklyn neighborhood) from a former Mannes extension student of mine who happens to be a well-known architect, eating some good food, going to Ellis Island, eating pizza at Grimaldi's in Booklyn (the best pizza in NYC according to the Zagat survey), buying quality chocolate at Jacques Torres, seeing the NYC Transit Museum, eating some good food, sight-seeing at Rockefeller Center, looking at the holiday window displays, eating lots of good food, seeing the Rockettes at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, seeing some wonderful illuminated manuscripts from the 1200-1600s at the New York Publick Libraries magnificent building on 42nd Street, and did I mention eating good food? It seemed like they were here longer than the 4 days since we packed so much fun stuff in.

They didn't escape the transit strike though, since they left on Tuesday (when the strike started). Fortunately, I was able to take the LIRR into Penn Station (from Hofstra where I was administering more torture, I mean finals) and we spent a few more hours sight-seeing, and then endured a 2-hour cab ride to JFK, ouch. I was able to take the AirTrain to the LIRR going back to Brooklyn, but there was still a 30-minute walk for me to get home. We are glad the strike only lasted 3 days!

So check out the new pictures at flickr.com, you can click on the pictures at the bottom of the page or over to the right-hand side of the screen. Katie is writing the Christmas report that you have probably already read since it was published later than this post. And we'll try to report back on our New Year's doings and not have a month-long reporting lapse again!