See you in a few days!

I did the old "must stay ridiculously late and keep everyone up to date" last night at work. I'm exhausted. I'll bet everything would have worked out anyway, but it's in my blood to keep everything together. Eugh.

I'm leaving this morning for a few days, and I leave you with a constant watch on our apartment. You'll probably catch something going on with my three cats (a beautiful grey one, a super-skinny black one, and a fat orange one). They're pretty active (ie. a pain in the ass).

I was torn on leaving this view vs. outside, since we're supposed to get quite a bit of snow today and tomorrow. Instead, here are a few Times Square cams that should satisfy.

Eric will be back soon- he'll change the cam to outside later.

TAKE CARE!

Packin' for a Florida visit!

It's late, I'm tired, and I'm cleaning the house for no one since we'll be in Florida for three days starting Thursday. I guess I have a lot on my mind.

Eric's in Orlando now, gathering his belongings and visiting his friends. Dave is going to visit Orlando while I go to visit my parents in Palm Beach Gardens (3 hours south). Eric will be back right here after we leave, so it will sort of work out. He should be officially moved into his apartment on Monday afternoon!

Our couch arrives tomorrow afternoon from IKEA! We're going to keep it wrapped, so we can enjoy it when we get back, plus keep an eye on it to see how the cats will treat it. I don't expect too much of a problem, not that it's a big, expensive couch or anything. I'm not one of those people who obsess about scratches or dents. It's a natural part of an inanimate object, I suppose.

I might leave the web cam on insideon the apartment floor for the days we're out, so I (and you) can spy on the cats for fun.

Out and about!

We finally did it. We made it outside and had a long, creative day.

Here are a few photos to share!

At the Museum of Natural History...






"The Gates" at Central Park at dusk (note the pond freezing over)...


The Great Lawn (Central Park) at night...


From the cab on the way home (passing through Times Square)...


I also found some great jewelry at the museum. After the park, we ate at "Moon Rock Cafe", a simple but yummy deli uptown.

New stuff, new day

Welp, we made it alive through IKEA on a holiday sale!!! We were there for FIVE hours. I've never seen it like that.


We did manage to get a few cool things, as well as some stuff we desperately needed! Eric found what he needed to start up his new place, and Dave and I finally replaced the last of our dishes with some funky Japanese/retro glasses and plates.
We also finally found a nice, brown leather couch to replace our poor, over-sized flattened down one (to be delivered on Wednesday).

Today is obscenely beautiful! Two of the cats found the sunlight the second I opened the blinds. Ahh... to be a cat.


We're heading out in an hour or so to hit the Museum of Natural History, then a great lunch, then Central Park. It's hard to believe it's supposed to snow tomorrow and Monday!!!

The Gates at Central Park are up!

"The Gates" are up at Central Park! We're heading there on Sunday, so I'll post some photos for you afterwards.

The Gates are by Christo Jeanne Claude- check the official site and scroll down the page for photos from both ground level and high above the park!

You may remember the Running Gates project that was done in California back in the 70s. A fence of white cloth that curved through the valleys... beautiful.

Bluejake.com has also added some great photos on this event. I've also just added that site to my side bar. Lots of great NY photos updated daily.

Creating a bigger future

Me at work yesterday; I'm on the phone.

Eric took this photo right before we left to see his new place for the first time! It's a very cool studio apartment: a long room with a great kitchen in it! He's signed his paperwork and will have the keys on Saturday! Coincidentally, this weekend is a HUGE President's Day sale at IKEA, so Eric, Dave and I are headin' over for some Swedish meatballs and cool stuff!

Work is getting pretty interesting. I've been making plans to create the brand-new Production Department! I don't know if I had mentioned it before, but the studio I work in is a major DESIGN studio. They've had some pretty good-sized production jobs, but they've never had a real functioning, official full-out production department. I've been making floor plans, looking up prices for office walls and shelving... I'm even making my own office, kinda like SIMS in real life!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dave mustered up just enough health to go out for dinner! He took me to Fresh, a seafood restaurant on Reade in Tribeca. Most of the food looked more like art than food! By the end of dinner, we had to get out before Dave got too far into a coughing fit...the weather was cold and rainy- not helpful for someone trying to get better!

Dave will hopefully get to the doctors tomorrow.

Awesome outside, not inside

We are all wiped out. We're all sitting around the apartment in silence. It's 1:30 in the afternoon, and we just can't seem to get going. We've definitely overworked ourselves.

Dave ran out of steam yesterday and had to leave MOMA after a few hours. Ryan did come over last night- I felt bad, though. We were all sort of sluggish. Eric went over to Brooklyn to hang out with Ryan and friends, but Dave and I went to bed at 10:30pm.

Dave's going to have to stay in today, and he's pretty upset about it; he just feels terrible. It's so incredibly beautiful outside, too. At least we can look forward to visiting Florida on the 24th for 5 days!

Also, tomorrow's Valentine's Day. We were going to try and get to the Dragonfly downtown...maybe we'll just fondue at home. It depends on how Dave feels. I have a lot of things I'd like to do, but it's also a work day. Sucks.

Aaaahh day off....

The frontmatter and backmatter of the book is coming to us next week, but the rest of the book is DONE and at the separator! It's almost all done!!!

Dave and I took yesterday off and stayed home all day! The only problem is that Dave has gotten so worn down, he has some sort of awlful cold, which made him sound like he's on his deathbed last night. We were supposed to meet up with a friend at CGBGs and introduce him to Ryan, a great Orlando friend that's in town, but Dave was just too sick.

Today, Dave is way better- we're going to Central Park to get some fresh air and meet up with Ryan in a few hours, then go to the Guggenheim and then MOMA. Tonight, maybe we'll get over to Sequioa, which is a seafood restaurant (located at the Fulton Street Pier) with the best view of the Brooklyn Bridge I've ever seen.

WHAT A WEEK!

Ok, so THIS Saturday was our last one!!!

The CLIENT on the giant job the studio has been working on for the last 8 months FINALLY freaked out three days before the ship date. We've been warning them forever- we were wondering when they were going to wake up! They've been marking up pages as if they were first proof (repours- patches with edits!) and making MAJOR design changes for weeks! Unfortunately, when they woke up, it wasn't in a "Hey, we're sorry we've been making this so impossible for you to meet the date we gave you; are you guys still going to make it?" way. Instead, it was "We're extremely concerned about the final days: how you expect to finish this book in two days? Please tell us how you plan to make it happen." ...Asses. Thanx for setting us up.

After getting heavily raked over the coals by the big boss, we all got into serious gear and shipped 13 chapters out in one night. We left at 3:45am- the studio paid for a car to pick us up and drive us home. Pretty cool!

We were back at work at 9:30am Friday and worked until 1am. Back at work yesterday (Saturday) from 10 to 11 (but got another car to drive us home). One more day- Monday- to get this done. Then.... freedom!

Last Tuesday, Eric met up with the crazy broker we had used to find our apartment when moving from Florida. They found only one kinda cool one, so Eric waited. On Saturday, in the middle of kicking major ass, Eric got a phone call from the broker. He said, "Hey Eric- this is Skip. I found a really great 450 square foot studio for you in Dixon Mills for $950 with a low fee." Without a pause, Eric said, "I'll take it! Tell them I'll take it!". Skip put a personal check down for $200 to hold the place. So that was it. Eric hasn't even seen the inside yet- but Skip is awesome- Dixon Mills loves Skip and so do Dave and I, so we're all trusting him. We came home last night, put our stuff down, and walked through two small sky bridges to see the apartment from the outside. SO COOL! He has his own little entrance and it's something like 20 steps to the elevator, which you take down to the 1st floor- you walk outside, go one door down, and there's the liquor/grocer we always go to! (We call it "Helen's" -That's the woman's name that runs it) He's so lucky! So, he'll be in his place in two weeks! Amazing.


The right part of this building (the glass area) is where Eric will be living. "Helen's" is on the bottom left.

The coolest part is to get to each other's apartment...we don't even have to put shoes on. We don't even go outside! We take a great walk through the sky bridges, occasionally catching a great view of Manhattan.