Winter Update Part 2

So, the winter storm that is being called the "Blizzard of '06" is here in full force. Luckily, our friend Mitch decided to bail out last night by getting bumped to the jetBlue flight leaving yesterday. He would have been stuck if he tried to leave today as originally planned--all 3 major airports in the NYC-area are closed. We are officially snowed in. Another few inches in Central Park and this will be the biggest snow storm here since they started keeping records over 100 years ago! In Brooklyn where we live, there is already over a foot of snow, and talking to some of my friends in other places north of the city, they have over 2 feet!

We went to Mass this morning, and even Mass started late! On the way home we took some pictures, which you can see if you click here . The wind was gusting to up to 50 miles an hour at times, and it blew snow into our apartment through some chinks in the window frames (yay for old buildings with single pane windows in wooden frames). Our apartment is on the chilly side at the moment. We spent some time this morning putting towels over the places in the windows where the snow was blowing in, and cleaned up the few inches that had accumulated on the window sills in the living room. Yikes! If we had decided to watch the Winter Olympics then, it would have felt like we were actually there, experiencing the cold and the snow.

Winter Update Part 1

Well, here's the report on the massive test I took. It was a 12-hour exam spaced over 2 days (6 hrs/day). The first day was 3 essays of about 2 hours each. There were two questions per essay from which one could choose. The second day was a musical analysis. I was given a piece I had never seen before and had 6 hours to explain it, using whatever means I had at my disposal. A week later, there was a 1 hour oral exam. I found out that my written test was mostly very good, but during the course of the oral, I discovered that my knowledge of current research was not as up-to-date as I had thought. I need to read up a bit more and go interview with my panel once again in about 2 months. Then the only hurdle left is the big dissertation. Meanwhile, Katie found out she got into Long Island University's PA program!!! We are super excited. She has worked long and hard to get accepted. She will write more in this blog later, as she recently interviewed at another PA program at SUNY Downstate (also in Brooklyn), and wants to give a complete account.

In other news, Mitch Mankowski, our friend from Mtn View High School came to visit. He came out last Friday. We went to the free night at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) and saw some pretty outlandish stuff. We DID get to see Van Gogh's "Starry Night" which had been on tour somewhere last time Mitch came to visit (this is one of his favorite artworks). The following night, I went to go see the Hofstra production of Bizet's "Carmen," which the students (many of whom I teach or have taught) played/sang exceedingly well. Mitch and Katie went to the Brooklyn Museum. The next day, we went to our friends Ben and Jara's apartment to watch the (very disappointing) Superbowl. They are such gracious hosts--they made homemade guacamole and chili. Yum!!

Speaking of food: also during his visit, Mitch and I went to Grimaldi's (the best pizza in the city), an Ethiopian restaurant, an artisinal chocolate shop called Jaques Torres, and the three of us went to Thai food, really good Chinese food, an all-rice-pudding dessert spot called Rice-to-Riches that had over 20 flavors of rice pudding, and Katie and Mitch visited the renowned Carnegie Deli.

Mitch also brought his laptop computer, which has many TV shows stored on it; we basically watched an entire season of Arrested Development (a Fox network sitcom) and most of the second season of the sci-fi hit Battlestar Galactica (not the 70s show). Fun times. We drank lots of beer/wine/liquor while he was here (never to excess of course). He had the foresight to move his departure up one day to avoid the huge storm that was forecast on the news. It turned out, that was the best choice he could have made, and, although we were sad to see him go, we are glad he's not stranded at the airport.