Our Adventures with Ragan! (part the first)

So, Ragan is here now...there is fun in the air! He arrived on Wednesday and came out to Hofstra to see the campus and sit in on a class that I taught. Unfortunately for him, the class was doing a task called Sing and Play that didn't allow him to fully enjoy the normally energetic interactions I have with my class. Then we went back to Brooklyn...Ragan says I am verbose, but he doesn't know jack...and hung out, looking at some computer stuff and going to a very tasty Jamaican place for lunch. I went to a rehearsal in the evening and Ragan and Katie (who had just gotten off work) went to go get a bite to eat. Later, we all joined up to watch some DVDs and drink wine. Thursday, we all went to Lombardi's (one of the oldest pizza places in NYC) and decided we liked Grimaldi's better (the place in Brooklyn that Katie and I have taken many of our visitors that gets rated best pizza in NYC). Katie went to go run errands, and Ragan and I went to Jacques Torres choclatier and he got some tasty goodies. I went to another rehearsal (in Connecticut) and got back pretty late. Today I had to teach at Hofstra and Katie had to work, so Ragan went to the Met Museum, and then joined my at home to wait for Bird. Then it was on to the Brooklyn Brewery (from which we stole our logo but also purchased a case of Lager for our party on Sunday--see their website, linked at the right) for happy hour. We ordered pizza and sampled many of the offerings, including: India Pale Ale, Smoked Porter, Saisonal, Brewers' Reserve, Weisse, Brooklyn Brown, and Pilsner. All were tasty and good. Ragan leaves on Monday, so we'll blog again about the rest of his trip and our housewarming party.

I have to say, though, it is much nicer having an extra bedroom for guests. I don't have to worry so much now about turning on lights and making too much noise during my very early mornings. I can eat my cereal sitting down at the table (rather than furtively scarfing it in the the kitchen while standing). Ragan claims he is sleeping well.

Check out the pictures we have posted (click on the link at the right of this page).

Cereal Nirvana

Those who know me well, know that I LOVE cereal (even more than Coke). I eat at least two bowls of cereal for breakfast every morning. Naturally, I go through cereal like it was going out of style. Katie and I usually stock up on three big boxes of cereal when we go to Costco. This lasts me about a month. She eats cereal only very occasionally. Which is fine with me. We also look out for good sales at the supermarket. So I now find myself situated at a wonderful confluence of events: a "premature" trip to Costco in order to prepare for our housewarming party on Sunday (at which we bought more cereal), remaining cereal from our last trip to Costco, and two separate sales at Pathmark Supermarket--one on Kix (at which Katie bought 3 boxes) and another sale: buy one, get one free on Life and Oh's. So now, instead of Cheerios and Honeynut Cheerios as my only two cereal options (which I don't mind, since I will gladly eat Cheerios any day of the week), I now have, get this: Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, Kix, Life, Oh's, Frosted Mini-wheats, and Honey Bunches of Oats (not pictured).

Each morning I am almost completely paralyzed when faced with the difficult decision of which cereal to ingest. I don't know if you've ever been faced with such an overwhelming sensory overload that you were rendered helpless, but I assure you, it is disorienting and confusing. Sometimes in order to combat this feeling (I am almost ashamed to admit this), I will actually eat TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF CEREAL for breakfast...can you imagine!? I tend to start with a less sugary one first, and work my way up to a more sugary one. Not that any is totally laden with too much sugar. No Fruit Loops or Lucky Charms here...I can tell you that right now, boy.

I could go on about cereal for some time, but I feel like I might bore some of you. Besides, it's lunchtime--I wonder if we have any milk left?

Happy Easter!

Although Spring officially started a few weeks ago, it's only been in the last week or so where the weather has been nice. The cherry trees in front of the museum are in full bloom and the moon was close to full. We were coming back from Holy Thursday service (at which Katie and I had our feet washed! We were asked by the priest to participate after Katie drew his blood at the parish blood drive last Sunday! The feet washing represents Jesus' washing of his disciples feet at the Last Supper.) and I just couldn't resist taking a picture as we walked by, and the picture hardly does the whole scene justice. This part of our neighborhood can be quite beautiful (witness the New York City tour buses coming down this way with tons of sightseers) and it is only about a 5 minutes walk from our place.

Today it will get into the mid-70s. It is kind of misty, but I think it will burn off later in the day. Katie and I are going to the Easter Vigil since I am playing two Easter services tomorrow at an Anglican church. We are still working at getting our apartment into a state where in can be photographed. There are fewer mounds of things (papers, books, pictures, posters, appliances, food, etc.) around the apartment, and big pieces such as tables, beds, bookshelves and futons are now in their fixed places (I hope!). We have had to be a little creative in setting up the apartment because, being an older building (built in 1928), there are very few electrical outlets. Only one in our bedroom and only 2 outlets in each of the other 2 rooms. Yikes.

I am enjoying my Spring Break from Hofstra. It will be good to get back, though, to finish out the semester (only about 3 weeks left!) starting next Wednesday. It would have been very hard to move and get the apartment into shape if I had been teaching all last week.

Katie worked Good Friday, and she is working today. I work tomorrow at the Anglican church, but we both get a chance to relax at our friends' apartment tomorrow afternoon. Ben and Jara are preparing a feast, according to what they have hinted at, although we are not exactly sure what they are making.

If you read the blog before Easter, we wish you a very happy holiday, and if you read it after, we hope you had a happy, relaxing holiday!

Moving...moving...moving

So we are slowly getting things moved to what will become their new places. Katie has been very helpful with this, as I was studying for the retest for the oral portion of my comprehensive exam (which I didn't quite pass in February). The good news is that I passed this time around (I had brushed up on some current theories of music that I hadn't quite studied enough last time around). Now I just have to write the dissertation. Yikes...I'll report back 200-300 pages from now (ugh).

To celebrate this academic good news, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and spent some time at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (www.bbg.org), a 5 minute walk from our place. We fed the ducks, took pictures for tourists, strolled through the different areas (Japanese garden, rock garden, magnolia plaza), and just enjoyed the sun and the wonderful fragrances! I posted some of the pictures (click here to see them).

We'll post new pics of the apartment once we get it a little more organized.

We've Moved!

We have officially relocated. Our hopes were such that any official move would land us back in the NW. Alas, we are making baby steps and have merely moved across the hall. At this rate we will return to the NW, let’s see…never. Never fear, though, this move is only temporary while we wait out our last two years in NYC.
Now might be a good time to update our address in your books. We are in the same building, only the apartment # has changed. It is now 6F. Also, we severed our landline and are now completely wireless. (Dan still has wires.)
Some of you might wonder how, when, where, why this move has taken place. Others don’t care. And the privileged few who have had to put up with my constant (and endearing) recounting of my “lack of storage space” dreams can breath a sigh of relief: We have an extra bedroom! And closets (5)! But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me begin at the beginning:
It was a dark and stormy night. Wait, that’s a different story…
About three weeks ago we noticed a notice (haha) on the door of 6F stating that the apartment had been seized by the fire marshal. Intent on doing some seizing of my own, I cornered one of the maintenance men I had seen doing work on the apartment and found out that it’s a two bedroom. This set the wheels in motion. I called management and was told the apartment would be ready in a few weeks, to call back at that time. Meanwhile, my “lack of space” dreams were intensifying and my Dan was making plans to have me institutionalized. Dan and I were able to do a walk through of the place before it was finished and I immediately began planning out where all of our stuff would go once we moved in. They had redone all the hardwood floors, painted and put in brand new kitchen appliances, tile and cabinets. Of course, when I called back in a week to inquire again the landlord had someone in mind to put in there. THE HORROR! I expressed my disappointment and asked that, should the other renter fall through, we be kept in mind. After some minor haggling over rent and the craziness of finding a renter for 6H on Craig’s List, we are in the bigger, better apartment. Yes, bigger is better.
Our friend’s Ben and Jara helped us move in yesterday. Dan and Ben mostly moved, Jara and I mostly went to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond. We had dinner here (courtesy of Jara-I told her we would feed them for helping us if they brought the food). After realizing our new stove didn’t have gas yet, Jara was forced back into our old apartment to heat up the enchiladas and make the rice. We joked that she was cooking in the servant’s smaller quarters and would be bringing us our meal in the “big house.”
And this brings us to the end of our saga. More pictures will follow once we have everything organized, arranged and cleaned. Which may never happen.
The idea now is to weed out the stuff we haven’t used in five years and maintain a nice, capacious home. Dan is resistant due to the “pack rat” genes he inherited from a certain someone, but he is coming around. Some things may have to be mysteriously “lost” in the move. As for my Monday evening plans? Takeout.