Trip tp the Groomer

After a long summer of playing, chasing toys, rolling in grass, and running
away from his hair brush my little fluff monkey went from this...

To this...

My boss says he looks like a little lamb, maybe he and I can create a Halloween costume around that.

Christian - Good News!

Christian is on his way to Blythesdale. He will be staying there for rehab, with one of his parents staying with him nightly.

The MRI last week showed improvement, though his speech center is still being affected. The doctors hope for continued improvement. He was able to stand, with help, and support his own weight for a few seconds. Now, he is walking but with a lot of help.

Please continue to pray for his full recovery.

Happy International Coffee Day

I have a bit of a love affair with coffee, see here, so it is nice to know that, much like every other possible population on this planet, coffee drinkers have their own special day to celebrate. I could go on about it forever but instead, I thought I'd share this interesting tidbit about where coffee came from, courtesy of the WASHINGTON POST:

According to the National Coffee Association, an Ethio­pian goat herder named Kaldi was the first to realize coffee’s wonders: “It is said that he discovered coffee after noticing that his goats, upon eating berries from a certain tree, became so spirited that they did not want to sleep at night.”

Today, those berries are then harvested and processed, the beans dried, milled and exported, the coffee tasted, roasted, ground and brewed — all to get to that steaming mug in front of you.

Maybe the next time I really need a cup, as the first glorious sips cascade down my throat i should think THANK GOAT instead of THANK GOD.

Gorilla Cheese Truck

Having a sandwich from the Gorilla Cheese Truck became a quest for me around Memorial Day when a news program reviewed a bunch of food trucks in a "summer eats" segment. Now when I say quest, don't think of it like a never ending search like that of Don Quixote. It was more like, I saw the segment, thought that the grilled cheeses looked cool, and occasionally checked their website to see that days location when I was at a loss of what to eat. Last week, however, I found out the truck stopped serving on October 1.

Now,while my quest lacked ooph, but that didn't mean I wanted it to end like Monty Python's for the Holy Grail, ie unfinished, so it became my mission to get one, and today, with less than a week left, I finally had my sandwich.

It was a fresh mozzarella and tomato on white bread, and it was phenomenal. Better still, was that the truck was parked near Madison Square Park, so I sat outside of it savoring every last bit of it, while cute dogs passed on their way to Jemmy's dog run and a movie shot across the street.

Sidenote: food trucks are technically illegal in NYC which, in my opinion makes eating from them more fun.

happy fall

Ned Kelly

NED KELLY was one of the few works by Heath Ledger that I had never seen. Maybe the plot seemed like I wouldn't enjoy it when it was released, or maybe it wasn't available but, whatever the reason, it was something I planned to rectify this summer.
I wish I could say I liked it. Sure it was about Irish outlaws in Australia about a century ago but I like to believe I am cultured enough to watch something like that. I think Australia is a beautiful county and the acting was good. Unfortunately, I guess I just don't like Westerns, which it sort of was except that it wasn't America, and not even starring at Ledger and Orlando Bloom the whole time, was enough to keep my attention.

Having said all that, I am glad I saw it. It was nice to see Ledger work with his then girlfriend, and person I frequently see, Naomi Watts, in the film they met on. They shared a steamy love scene which was a nice change from watching the awkward and strained screen relationship he shared with his next girlfriend, Michelle Williams, in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. Besides, they can't all be winners right?

Torchwood

Being the TV addict that I am, it seems insane that I haven’t blogged more about the shows I watch. However, if you haven’t noticed, this summer didn’t seem to have a lot of time for blogs, or at least not extensive ones divulging into my thoughts on any particular topics. The 9/11 post notwithstanding, the last few months has pretty much been filled with my adventures, little bits of info, and a lot of fluff. For a while things have been a bit “Go, Go, Go!,” which I actually quite mind but it did mean on the occasion when I watched something that I wanted to blog about it was either an episode of a show that aired forever ago (I literally just watched last May’s season finale of GREY’S ANATOMY) and therefore irrelevant or I never had the time to sit and actually sit and go into details about said thing. I believe the common used phrase for this phenomenon is “living a life” but even so, writing has always been part of my life so it is a bit upsetting that I have been lacking sharing my opinions.

The one show that, no matter what was going on never went unwatched on my DVR for more than a day was TORCHWOOD: MIRACLE DAY. The show started on my birthday and every week I would say how I wanted to write about it, the season finale was unfortunately last Friday so reviewing it, other than to say it was amazing seems pointless. However, this was actually the fourth season of the Sci-fi series but it was the first that aired on the STARZ network, and therefore the first that I could actually watch. The show, which is about a group of people, led by the immortal Captain Jack Harkness (played by hottie hot pants John Barrowman,) who investigate super human occurrences, was created by BBC- as in British Broadcasting Corporation- and used to air in the US only on BBC America, which is a channel that I have loved from afar for about a decade.

My cable provider Cablevision did not have this channel but I began to lust for it when I saw how great the lineup was on my grandfather’s TV in the early 2000’s. The first time I saw TORCHWOOD was on a plane back from Florida (Jet Blue has Direct TV, which does carry BBCA) in January 2006. I know what you are thinking, why didn’t I have quality time with my grandpa every week and watch the show with him? Well he died later that month (needless to say, not seeing the show wasn’t the worst thing about that.) Anyway so fast forward a few years, TORCHWOOD moves to America and comes to STARZ, I finally get to watch the show, and find out that the first three seasons are instant watch on Netfix (jumping for joy.) But wait it gets better- while channel surfing, waiting for the hurricane that never hit, I discovered that Cablevision had, just that day added BBCA and starting tonight, they are repairing the series from the beginning on Friday nights at 11:30.

So if you like mysteries, or sci-fi, find some way to check this show out.

Arrowhead Stadium and Davi Cook's 9/11 Pre-Game Tribute

Ten Years...

Nobody really knows when the whole world is going to change forever, do they? Sometimes it can take years to pinpoint exactly when it was that the gears shifted and you changed or the world change and life became what it is verses what it was then. For me and for millions upon possibly billions of others, there is no question when that day happened.



September 11, 2001 was the most beautiful late summer day in New York. It was the kind of day that you'd image to be the climate of some sort of utopian society; there wasn't a cloud in the sky until the clouds of smoke, ash, steal, and I don't even want to think of what else covered Lower Manhattan. They say in the book GOOD OMENS that you would think that there would be storms on the night the Anti-Christ was born because something that monumentally sinister, an event in itself so evil that would throw off the lives of everyone in existence would start off dreary or a bit ominous but that that was not the case. That is how you would imagine September 11th starting but that would be a clue and as I said, nobody really knows when the whole world is going to change forever.



I was 15 at the time, a sophomore in high school, a time when you feel like you have sort of figured out the world with an entire lifetime still awaiting you. Wise fool indeed (if you don't get this look up the definition of Sophomore.) Ten years later I still can't explain exactly how I have changed or what I or my life would have been like had that never happened. I knew people who died but nobody who meant enough to me that loosing them would impact me. Perhaps it is all the people who never had a chance to become important to me. Maybe the events of that day made me more apprehensive and timid although, for all I know it might have made me braver. I can't explain how I felt on September 10th or who that girl was meant to become, I just know it is different.



No matter who you are, or where you were when you heard, that day drew a line through history and for as long as time exists, we will forever live in a Post 9-11 world.

****These photos are from the Newseum in DC, taken on the day Bin Laden was captured ***

365 days in...

It has been one year since Graham's adoption



Here's to many more with the happiest, most loving stuffed animal come to life!

prayers for Christian update

The following updates came in today:

-------Christian was taken off sedation and intubation yesterday. I'm told that he is "much more alert." I don't know the extent of that, though. I'm assuming that if he was communicative, we'd be told so. He is starting antiviral meds today.

Please pray that there are no adverse effects from virus or meds

-------Christian is much more alert, he is still in an "altered state" and unable to communicate. It could take 4 weeks! for the meds to work. His virus has been diagnosed. He has HHV6 virus. It is usually benign and is akin to roseola. But, for some reason, it attacked Christian's brain.

We all pray that he'll come out of this without any lasting effects.

HEY LOOK, A HALFPIPE!

I have been wanting to take Gigi to this one particular park in Hudson River Park, ever since I remembered that it existed about month ago. She had really enjoyed herself there last summer; it has man made creeks running through the cement and a water tree too cool children off along with your typical playground apparatus, who wouldn't love it?


Unfortunately, when the cold weather came around last year a playground on a pier above water isn't exactly an ideal place to play and, subsequently, I had forgotten all about it until late July. Then between my vacation, G's family vacation, and a million other little things popping up we still hadn't gotten there so yesterday we decided enough is enough and Lauren, Gigi, and I headed out to play there. On the way we noticed a halfpipe on Pier 54 and thanks to Google found the info:

A massive, all-ages halfpipe demo free to the public, with tricks by professional

skateboarder Hawk, Kevin Staab, Jesse Fritsch, Mitchie Brusco, Sandro Dias,

Neal Hendrix and Elliot Sloan"

Sounded like it could be fun if we could swing it and, as luck would have it, after playing, eating and Gigi's nap, we were able to stop in. I'm glad we did; there was Alt-Rock music which I love to hear and G loved to dance to, not to mention it was my first time watching stunt skateboarding live. The things that those guys can do is truly amazing, if you ever get the opportunity you really should take in one of these.


All in all, I think everyone had a really fun Friday afternoon.













*Photos are from my phone which explains odd sizes and quality

Please Pray

The following is from my friend Joyce:

Dear Family and Friends,

Michael's best friend, Christian, who is 11 and about to enter the 6th grade, has been in the hospital, Columbia-Presbyterian, since last Friday, He had a fever, which has now subsided, and was and is unconscious. They are treating it as a virus because any tests they have done have come back negative. Although his fever is now gone, he is still unresponsive. He was having an MRI late this afternoon. Please pray for his recovery, and please pray for his family.

Thank you.