July 04, 2007

Happy Independence Day!

Speaking of independence, I finally took Sienna into the city on Monday and her first subway ride!!

Doesn't Sienna actually look excited?! She's still pretty light so it was easy carrying her up and down the stairs. I know I shouldn't be surprised but not one person offered to help! But maybe I didn't look like I needed help since like I said, she is still light. Anyway, Monday was a perfect day to go into the city, it was bright sunshine and not humid or gross like a week before. We transfered to the B train so I could show Sienna Bryant Park.

Not a fabulous picture but I wanted to show her by the Carousel. And then I wanted to take a picture of her by the lions at the library but man, so many tourists! This is the best I could do:

We went to visit my former co-workers at mada. It felt so weird walking the same streets I used to walk to go to work everyday. But now with a baby carriage! She was a big hit with everyone there. Here's a pic of her with Theresa and Cindy.

Then we walked over to visit where her daddy works and meet his co-workers. Needless to say, everyone loved her there too. It was weird going in there too since I also used to work there.

Then we went back on the train to go home. Yves was with us this time so it was an easier trip. More emotionally easy because I felt more comfortable being with another adult as opposed to being all by myself. I don't know why I still have that hang up. I blame my mother. LOL!

And before I forget to document this, we heard Sienna laugh for the first time last Friday!! She's been laughing and smiling for a couple of weeks before that but Friday was the first time we heard her! It was so precious!!

Posted by luluvision at 08:32 AM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2007

Action packed weekend

We went out with Sienna almost everyday this past weekend. On Friday I thought it would be nice to go out to lunch at a kid friendly place with Sienna. I settled on Two Boots in Park Slope but little did I realize how much traffic there was and how hard parking was going to be! Then we tried equally kid friendly Bubbys in Dumbo. That was my original plan but the reviews said the service was really lacking and I didn't want to waste my time. HA! I ended up wasting more time just getting down there with the traffic! So we finally ended up at Metzals on Atlantic Avenue. It was pretty empty so Sienna's carriage wasn't in anyone's way. While down there, I finally went and checked out Sahadi's. That place has been there forever and I remember going to school with Renee Sahadi. We were in band together and she played clarinet. Anyway, I got Turkish apricots there and they are delicious! And half the price of Russ and Daughters! Now I don't have to go to LES for my dried apricot fix anymore.

Saturday we went to the Renegade Craft Fair in Williamsburg. I went last year with Peter and Brenda. Brenda got a late start so was not able to meet up with her. I managed to overdo it at the Reprodepot booth. I couldn't resist all their fun fabrics and ended up spending almost $60!! I better start sewing! Since we were close, I had to check out Peter Pan Donuts, people say this is the best donuts in NYC. I have to say, they were pretty good and I even give them a slight edge over our place on Avenue U but Yves is sticking with our place.

Saturday we were up early to meet the members of Kagero for their photoshoot down in Coney Island. I used my holga and my horizon and will be picking up the film on Wed. Can't wait to see them. It was super fun and all the band members were really cool.

Silvia was nice enough to come along so she can watch Sienna. She said it was a pleasure as Sienna slept most of the time!

Later that day Mummy and the Chopards came over to celebrate Father's day and so we can do a video conference with Daddy and JP down in Jamaica. Mummy cooked delicious Jamaican dishes. Poor mummy fell down the stairs on Friday and broke her wrist and had to get stitches in her lip! Here she is sipping wine through a straw.

a cute picture of Liz with Sienna and Maia.

Posted by luluvision at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2007

Happy Year of the Pig!

Happy Year of the Pig! And not just a regular ole pig but a Golden Pig! According to my peeps, this happens every 60 or 600 years years, depending who you ask. Apparently, it's a great year to have a kid as they will be properous and lead a wealthy life. WOOHOOO!!

I made these cards to send out and got the pig from Viva LasVegastamps. I thought the pig was just adorable but couldn't figure out what to do with him, really. It was Yves' idea to put a party hat on him! Inside it says "like it's 4705! Happy Year of the pig!" It looks a lot better in real life, his hat has golden accents and the word party is embosseed in red ink with golden specks.

Posted by luluvision at 10:03 AM | Comments (1)

January 11, 2007

Being blah in Brooklyn

Brooklyn Museum lobby

Being at home all day while waiting for this baby to pop out has gotten me restless. I'm not doing as much creating as I would like to and I haven't taken many pictures because I don't really go anywhere. My motivation and inspiration are lacking but I'm slowly getting out of it. It was worse last month where I was moping around too bored to do anything about it. So I've been wanting to check out Annie Leibovitz's exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum before it closes at the end of the month. I figured that would inspire me. I'm a fan of AL's from her Rolling Stone and general celebrities work. I know there is a certain talent in taking portraits but I'm not overly impressed with it because it's such a staged thing. I know that portraits are harder than they seem because you have to get your subjects comfortable in front of the camera. I know because I've done this. Capturing things that are happening right now and out of your control and getting right in there is what I'm impressed with. I lack the courage and strength to do any kind of photojournalism myself so I really appreciate that type of work. With that being said, I was a little disappointed in the exhibit. I enjoyed her celebrity portraits and her Sarajevo work. She even has a portrait of the Bush administration from December 2001 that I found really striking. If I didn't know any better, I would have been proud of our president just from that photo. Eek, shiver! There were a lot of personal photographs of her family and such that I didn't really care about. I don't know, maybe it was my frame of mind, maybe it was because it was more crowded than I thought it would be for a Wednesday morning.

Swoon

What I really enjoyed was Ron Mueck's exhibit. He does amazing life like sculptures. Truly, truly amazing. Photos weren't allowed and I was too chicken to try and sneak some. His latest was a huge sculptor of a baby still attached to the embilical cord. Since I'm popping one out soon, I couldn't really bring myself to look too closely to it, it was so lifelike!

I milled around the watercolor and Egyptian exhibits but was already growing tired so I called it a day. I'm glad I went and got out of the house. By the way, it was freezing! Winter finally came and it was around 35 degrees and really windy when I went out that morning. It was less windy later on that night when I met Joy and Tammy for dinner with Yves at Spring St. Natural.

Posted by luluvision at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

November 04, 2006

Goodbye Vancouver!

Today is our last day in Vancouver, we fly home tonight! Our flight isn't until midnight so we virtually have all day! We decided to head up to North Vancouver and check out the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It's a 450 foot suspension bridge among the rainforest. From the brochures, it looks really beautiful and it was!!

As soon as I stepped on the bridge, I was terrified! It moves!! Yves was walking behind me and I thought he was making it swing on purpose but he wasn't. It's just the way the bridge works. I was hanging on for dear life and chanting to myself what I read in the brochure that it could "hold 2 fully loaded 747s." Not that I was afraid it was going to break, I was afraid it was going to flip over! It's silly, I know. Many people were walking over it.

Well, after surviving the bridge, there were mini bridges among some other trees. Those weren't bad at all except we got stuck with a group of unruly little kids whose mother let them run across andf wasn't even watching them! We tried to get away from them as soon as possible.

After the bridge, we headed back toward the states and looked for some place to have lunch. We found this little restaurant off the highway called Madison's. It wasn't too bad considering it was in the middle of nowhere. Their onion rings were real!

We made it into Seattle around 5:30-6ish and decided to go see a movie to kill some time. We were too tired to do anymore sightseeing and even though we were going to sit on a plane for 5 hours, I welcomed seeing a movie. We went to see School for Scoundrels. It was funny, a good movie to see if you wanted to kill some time.

We headed to the airport, dropped the car off and tried to find something to eat. Not an easy feat at 10:30 at night. Our only option was gasp Wendy's. I used to love Wendy's! We both just got a burger, at least it was something in our stomach's and once wasn't going to hurt us.

The flight was uneventful, I think I might have slept for an hour. And we're home!! Yay! It's good to be home.

Posted by luluvision at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2006

Vancouver day 2

So our first full day in Vancouver, we overdid it again. We walked alllll over the place! We took the train to the downtown area and went into one of the malls (I think it was Pacific Place??) to look for new shoes for me since the ones I had on were on its last legs. I don't know if it's just Canada or the shoe store was just nice but they measured my feet and put the shoes on me! I haven't had that kind of service in ages. I bought a pair from them and the guy said to wear it for 4 hours and then switch.

We continued walking and went over the Granville Bridge that leads to Granville Island. It's a cute little area with a farmer's market, little shops and restaurants. It turned out to be a real long walk. The above picture was taken while we were walking over the bridge and the bridge you see is the Burrard street bridge (I think!) We ended up having lunch there and going into a rubber stamp store (my reason for going) even though I only bought one thing there. We took this little ferry bus back to the other side and it took like less than 5 minutes to cross it!

We continued walking, our goal was to end up in Chinatown since we heard that it is huge in Vancouver. We walked through Yaletown and it didn't seem that exciting but we were probably on the outskirts. I think by that point in our trip, we were kinda touristed out.

Science Center

We finally made it to Chinatown sometime in the late afternoon. Of course that is when the sun really comes out and starts shining. It had been overcast most of the day and only seemed clear in the north. And of course that is when we are just exhausted!

The Chinatown was huge! But still lacking in people. No bumping into people on the streets, no crowding...We weren't hungry or anything which was a shame cuz I really wanted to try their food. So instead we bought a bunch of buns from New Town Bakery and Restaurant, voted the best pastries by the Vancouver Sun. They also called their steamed buns "Chinese hamburgers." I don't know where they got that from but it's far from a hamburger! So we got some roast pork buns, a don tat, a coconut creme bun and a sponge cake. I have to tell you the roast pork was the best I've had. Better than New York!

We took the train back and caught a bus up to the street our hotel was on. My feet thanked me for that! Later on for dinner, we decided to try this Portugese restaurant a block from our hotel. I was quite disappointed as everything was just too salty. It's too bad Yves' first taste of Portugese food was from a mediocre place.

Posted by luluvision at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2006

Vancouver, here we come!

Wednesday was pretty uneventful. We woke up to a misty and overcast day. We went to check out the free breakfast and kinda smirked. It wasn't really all that different from Silver Cloud's breakfast besides it being in a little room instead of a restaurant. They had the same stuff: waffle maker, bagels, cereal...But we got turned off with the styrofoam cups they had for the coffee. They had styrofoam plates and we might have been okay with that if only they had paper coffee cups. Yves has finally seen the light with drinking coffee in styrofoam, basically it sucks! So we decided to go to this little coffee place I saw yesterday. We both got egg and sausage sandwiches on english muffin and it was probably one of those frozen kinds but we also got cafe mocha! MMMM. We haven't gotten something like that in ages. It was good and sweet.

We headed down to the pier to catch the 11:10 ferry back to Anacortes and headed straight up to Vancouver. It took us about 2 hours and the border wasn't too bad, not too long of a wait. As soon as we hit Vancouver, fellow yellows everywhere!! Hello my peeps! hahaha

We found our hotel okay after making a wrong turn. We went with the Days Inn, Vancouver Metro. Apparently it is only 3 miles outside of downtown Vancouver and within walking distance of the Skytrain. The Days Inn is a Days Inn, nothing special but it was cheap. We decided to take the train into downtown to check it out a little bit. The Skytrain ended up being about 10 loooong blocks away. Normally not that big of a deal but we were at the end of our trip and starting to feel touristed out.

We went to the machine to buy our tickets. They operate on a zone system and we were going to zone 1 so it cost $2.25 canadian. We took the escalator upstairs to the platform and a train was coming in. We jumped on it. We then realized something didn't feel right. Where was a turnstile to put your ticket through? How did they know we paid? I thought maybe there would be one on the other side. Nothing. How bizarre!! They work on an honor system! If someone stops you, of course, you have to show proof you paid but we didn't see any sort of official looking person on the platform. I'm guessing if you get caught, there would be a hefty fine. The trains were only 4 cars long and shorter in length and narrower than NY. But the trains come very often.

We decided to get off at the waterfront and thought we might be able to take some night shots. HA. We got there and it was so foggy and misty, we couldn't see anything! We really didn't prepare for Vancouver so I didn't really know where to go. We saw the tourist information center and went in there and got some brochures, walked around a little bit and decided to call it a night. It started to rain pretty steady. On the way to our hotel, we stopped off at a little pizza place where I got a meatball sandwich and Yves got a greek salad to bring back to the room.

Posted by luluvision at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2006

Goodbye Seattle!

Tuesday, we took the shuttle van down to the waterfront to get our rental car from Thrifty. We got a white Chevy Cobalt. It had the bare minimum! Manual windows (didn't know they still made those!), manual door locks, no cruise control but it got us from point A to B so that was fine. We went back to the hotel to check out and we're on our way North! We head up to Anacortes to take the ferry over to Friday Harbor and the San Juan Island. We left the hotel at 11 and iIt took us around 1.5 hours to get there. The next ferry wasn't until 2:40 so we had some time to kill. We shared a half turkey sandwich from the little food stand, which turned out not to be so bad. And the view waiting for the ferry wasn't so bad either.

The ferry was really nice!! I don't know why I was thinking more along the lines of the Staten Island Ferry. I mean, that ferry is free, this one is not. There were cushy seats, carpet, nice bathrooms and everything!

We got onto the island around 3:45 and started driving around it. According to the brochure, the island is 55 square miles. I was hoping to see some Orcas but they knew I was coming and hid. It was a nice sunny day and the scenery was just beautiful!!

I do believe the island across the water is Victoria, BC

The sunset wasn't as pretty because it was so cloudy but it was still nice. We decided to head back into the little town to see about dinner since our lunch wasn't very substantial. We settle on a Mexican place and it wasn't bad. It wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst. I don't remember the name of it.

Since we spent a good amount of money on the hotel in Seattle, we just wanted something cheap for the night and we went to the Best Western. The only room they had available was a King Suite. It was a 2 room suite with a big frig, microwave and gas fireplace. It was nice and roomy and much more cheaply made than Silver Cloud since I could hear our neighbors talking and the people above us walking around. I felt like I was at home! But I put my earplugs in and was able to fall asleep.

Posted by luluvision at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2006

Last day in Seattle

Monday was our last day in Seattle. I planned it that way so I could see Jude but I ended up not going. More on me being a bad fan later.

Since the weather was overcast and misty, we decided to go check out The Underground Tour. It reminded me of the underground subway tour under Atlantic Avenue that I missed out on. I wasn't sure if it was real or made up for the tourists and I was hoping it wasn't going to be hokey. We finally utilized the free shuttle van our hotel offers. It only takes you to downtown areas and this tour was in Pioneer Square. We made it for the 11 am tour and it was fun. The tour guide had a lot of corny jokes but it made it fun. The tour lasted about 90 minutes. We learned some interesting facts about Seattle, none of which I could recite right now.

After the tour we walked around a bit and headed over toward Chinatown since it wasn't too far away. I'm not sure if we ended up on the outskirts of Chinatown or what but it barely seemed like a Chinatown. And there were hardly any people around! We decided to have a dim sum lunch at Sun Ya Seafood Restaurant. Since it was a Monday, there weren't as many customers and only 2 carts of dim sum were going around. But since we weren't too hungry, it was fine with me.

I thought the dim sum was good, Yves just thought it was ok. The above picture shows we got har kow (3 pieces of shrimp inside instead of 1!!), shu mai,fun kor and turnip cake (yum! all for me since yves hates turnip cake). I had to ask for sauce for the turnip cake! We also got sticky rice and don tat. The sticky rice tasted a bit dry and the rice not cooked enough and the don tat's crust wasn't flaky like we are used to. I think that was all we got and it cost about $17. Pretty reasonable for dim sum.

After dim sum we called the hotel to have the van pick us up in Chinatown but we ended up having to go back to where we were dropped off instead. It wasn't far away but after walking so much earlier in our trip, I was just tired! I did the laundry when we got back and we just kinda lazed around our room. That's when I got really tired and lazy and the prospect of taking the bus to the venue that Jude was playing did not sound desirable. I know. I'm getting old. I haven't seen Jude in years and years and we're in the same town and I dropped the ball and didn't go. I'm a terrible fan. Yes. I. Am. Sigh...

For dinner, we walked a couple of blocks over to Pike Street and had some Indian food. It was pretty good. Then we just went back to the hotel and got our bags ready to check out tomorrow and start heading north!

Posted by luluvision at 04:24 PM | Comments (3)

October 16, 2006

Super Tourists day 2

Man, I love the water pressure in our hotel's shower. It may seem like a small thing to some people but weak shower pressure could really make for a bad start to the day. And the curtains are great! They really do keep all light out of the room and you don't know what time of day it is when you wake up. And the hotel breakfast had hard boiled eggs so there was our protein. So today we went to Museum of Flight. Yves was really excited to go check it out. We walked downtown to catch the bus and the ride wasn't too bad, about half an hour. The bus driver gave us a transfer to use on the way back! Can you believe that? Use on the way back!! It blew our minds. The museum had an airpark with the concord and air force one planes and we were able to go on it. It was pretty cool. Inside the museum there were a bunch of planes hanging from the ceiling.

What's a car doing at the museum of flight?

It's not a car! It's an airplane! har har har

After the museum, we hopped back on the bus toward downtown and the transfers worked! We got off by the waterfront and had lunch at The Fisherman's. We had a delicious lunch of clam chowder (better than the one we had in San Francisco) and I had a crab cake sandwich and Yves had a grilled salmon sandwich. They gave us warm yummy sourdough bread and as usual, ate too much of it. Halfway through my sandwich I was full. Well, I wasn't wasting the crab cake so I just left the bun and ate the rest.

We went back to Pike's to pick up those almonds we tried yesterday. I got the orange honey roasted and I got Yves the regular honey roasted. I also picked up some organic homemade soap and almost got some chocolate. We then went on the bus to go back to our hotel. And I used the same transfer again!!! Yves was a sucker and paid. "It's only $1.25."

I tried to take a nap once we got back to the hotel because I was so beat but I couldn't get to sleep. It's hard for me to take afternoon naps. Before we knew it, it was time to meet Aunt Natalie for dinner. For some reason, Yves thought she was in Portland but she's been in Seattle 4 years now and works for Starbucks (and doesn't even like coffee!) We met her at Pacific Place, a mall in the downtown area and had dinner at Thai Ginger. It was a nice place and the food was good. We ended up staying for quite bit longer after eating dinner and paying the check just chatting and they didn't try to kick us out and it was a Saturday night! Wow! What's the matter with these Seattle people? She drove us back to our hotel after dinner and we just relaxed our little bodies, too tired to do anything else.

Posted by luluvision at 06:57 PM | Comments (1)

October 15, 2006

Super Tourists in Seattle

We arrived in Seattle via Jetblue Thursday night. Got a cab to our hotel, Silver Cloud Inn, Broadway. It was around midnight when we arrived so we were pretty beat. The room is really nice! A king size bed, free internet, frig and microwave (in the room) and laundry machines down the hall. The free breakfast lacks proteins but they have a waffle maker!

We started out our first full day being a total tourist. Our hotel is in Capital Hill, right across the street from Seattle University and not far from downtown. So we walked down to the waterfront and man, we didn't realize how hilly Seattle is, just like San Francisco. The waterfront is where I took the above picture. It was a beautiful sunny day. We walked along the waterfront a bit and then made our way to the famous Pike's Place Market.

This is the famous place where they throw the fish. See how big those crabs are??!! I didn't get a good digital shot of the fish throwing cuz all the freakin' tourists got in my way (haha) but I might have gotten it on my panoramic camera. We walked a little through the market and I got lured toward the smell of fresh frying donuts. They were mini donuts and we shared a half dozen of them. They were yummy! Lots of stalls were giving out free samples and I got pulled into the pepper jelly ladies. I bought the fresh garlic pepper jelly. Can't wait to try it out! We also tried some delicious orange honey roasted almonds but resisted buying any.

We continued walking in the downtown area and considered taking the monorail to Seattle Center but it wasn't working. So we continued walking toward the Seattle Center. We had lunch at this cute little Greek place next to the Space Needle. It was good!! I can't remember the name of it.

We decided that since we were there, we might as well go up to the top although they really get you with the price. While waiting to get on the elevator, they were doing those silly tourist photos, making us stand in front of a picture of the Seattle skyline. I made a totally goofy face on purpose and couldn't wait to see it. We got on the elevator and whooosh, it was pretty fast going up there! It boasts a 520 degree view and since I'm not that good in math, couldn't figure out how it was 520 degrees. Guess from looking up and down as well? Anyway, it was pleasant. It probably would have been much cooler during the sunset or at nighttime. This is a view of the downtown area from the space needle. You can see that there was a little bit of haze.

Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and by that time, we were really feeling it in our legs. We would have taken a bus back if only they had bus maps at the bus shelters, like they did in San Francisco but they didn't so we didn't know which bus we could take. I guessed that we probably already walked 2 miles and Yves thinks it was more.

We rested a bit at the hotel before it was time to take the bus to my friend, Barb's house for dinner. Barb gave me bus directions, according to their website (they have a trip planner) but the bus wasn't where it was supposed to be. The front desk didn't know much about the buses but thankfully, we ran into somebody that knew. The bus was about 10 blocks away. The bus was baffling! First off, you pay when you get off, how weird is that?? The bus driver said because they have a free ride area. And he got me nervous cuz I asked him to let us know when to transfer to another bus and he wasn't quite sure! But he called it in and knew where it was we were supposed to get off. And then, our transfer bus was on the highway!! On the highway!! How weird is that?? And there were like 15 different buses at that stop. The driver was really sweet and let us off right in front of the stairs leading down to the bus stop, on the highway!

So I asked the 2nd driver to let us know when we reached the street Barb said we were supposed to get off and he was kind enough to do so. It seemed like it was awhile so I was just about to ask him if we passed it and he forgot about us but then it was our stop. Barb was there waiting for us and took us back to her house. We met her mate, John and had delicious BBQ that John cooked. And he was kind enough to give me 2 bottles of his famous hot sauce. We were starting to get really low on energy around 10ish and Barb took us back to our hotel around 10:30.

A pleasant but looooooooonnnnnggggg day!

Posted by luluvision at 09:39 PM | Comments (1)

October 08, 2006

5 Years and we go to the Penitentiary

Saturday was me and Yves 5 year wedding anniversary. It's amazing that it has been 5 years because it doesn't feel like it. I won't get into the mushy stuff and say how we're still giddy in love, blah, blah, blah... We decided not to do any cards or gifts. Honestly, there is nothing I really want and besides, Yves is so supportive of my not having a real job, what more could I ask for? We did go to dinner on Friday night and I took him to Al Di La, the wonderful Italian restaurant I went to last month. We went early (6:30) since they don't take reservations hoping to get a table without waiting too long but I guess it took too long to find a parking spot because we got sent to the side bar, a smaller version of the restaurant but with the same menu/kitchen. I have to be honest and say I wasn't too thrilled with their new fall menu but you can't ever go wrong with one of their specials. I got the pork ribs and YUM YUM YUM, the meat just fell right off the bone. Yves ordered a whole young chicken, which I was surprised about because he doesn't like dealing with bones or using his fingers to eat. He almost got one of the pasta specials but since there was cheese in our app, he didn't want to have too much cheese. Of course he kinda grumbled about the chicken when it came and I tried to offer him one of my ribs but he passed. Finally, after I ate 2 ribs I made him trade with me and he finally agreed. His dish wasn't bad but the ribs were way better. I was stuffed because I also ate too much bread.

So that was Friday night. Saturday, we wanted to go on a day trip and decided that if it was nice and sunny, we would go up to Hudson county. If it was cloudy and overcast, we would got to Philadelphia to Eastern State Penitentiary. Guess where we ended up?

The drive took only about 2 hours with a tiny bit of traffic. We had lunch at Jack's Firehouse right across the street. YUMMY!! Yves said his burger tasted great and my brisket sandwich was delicious! It came with fries and a salad and they gave us biscuits and homemade jam. YUM! And they were so friendly!

Ok, so finally on to the prison. It is now an historical site owned by the state of Pennsylvania. I think it closed in 1971. One of the differences with this prison is that the cells are made out of concrete and wooden doors so you can't even see who is in the next cell. That's pretty grueling! I don't think I have much more to say about it that you can't see in the pictures. It was quite an interesting day.

Posted by luluvision at 09:00 PM | Comments (1)

September 10, 2006

circe 1985 scanned from 35mm.

Posted by luluvision at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2006

2nd Anniversary!

Friday night we celebrated the 2nd year of exchanging mix CDs. You can see all my mixes here. The theme for my mix this month centered on two, for obvious reasons. Pete gave me the idea of two hit wonders and there were so many of them, it became a 2 cd mix. So hence the subtitle "a 2 cd mix of two hit wonders that made the top 20 compiled by 2 people for the 2 year anniversary." Pete really did all the work with compiling the information and getting the songs together. All I did was pick and choose the songs, re-organize the order and designed the cover. Yves burned the copies for me. So it actually took 3 people to put this together. Shhhh!

We had the mixer at the Frying Pan and since it was on a Friday night, Yves even came. It was a beautiful night although the boat was a bit more rocky than I would have liked. I think that kept the drinking down to a minimum, which is a shame since last year we had drunken fun taking head shots. The Frying Pan is really very cool and next to it is a tugboat that's all rusted out but they put tables and chairs on there so people can hang out there as well. Here are a couple of shots of the tugboat.

Posted by luluvision at 12:35 PM | Comments (1)

August 21, 2006

MOMA

Back to museum Friday and the museum was MOMA. After having lunch with Pete's visiting friend, Jess, at Pancho Villa (and taking a goofy picture with the host dressed up in Mexican regala), me and Pete headed over around 3. We only had an hour before the free time starts so we headed straight up to the DADA exhibit. No photos were allowed inside the exhibit. I'm still not sure how I feel about the DADA movement. I was expecting something else and I'm not even sure what it was I was expecting. Anyhow, we continued on to the other floors.

No goofy pictures of Peter this time since my camera ran out of batteries and my other rechargeables are crap. But he got some fun ones of me!

In that last photo, we were making fun of the tourists who pose in front of the paintings without smiling. It was really hard not to smile and open my mouth wide! haha. We were also cackling like little kids after taking the picture between the legs of the statue.

Posted by luluvision at 10:54 AM | Comments (1)

August 18, 2006

Gov'nor's Island

Last Saturday we took a trip over to Governors Island. It really didn't take that long to get there via the ferry and it was a pleasant enough ride. We weren't prepared for our trip since the only food they had was from the vending machine. A lot of people were picnicing. There was a Living History Demonstration so they had people dressed in civil war era clothing. It was pretty interesting. They still had most of the island closed off and there really wasn't all that much to see but it was a nice day.

Yves on the ferry boat

View from the ferry boat of the other ferry boat

We went to Chinatown afterwards to get soup dumplings for lunch. Later on that night we met up with Maureen and Tommy for dinner. We went to Coco Roco on Smith Street and sat in the garden. Me and Yves agreed we like the original one on 5th avenue instead.

Posted by luluvision at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2006

Where were you during the Blackout of '03?

So today is the 2nd year anniversary of the North American Blackout. I actually would have forgotten if I didn't read about it somewhere. So it happened a little after 4 on a Thursday afternoon. I was working in midtown. Me and my fellow Brooklynites decided to start walking home. We've done it before, 2 years ago, but this walk was more lighter and we were even making jokes on the way. Yves was already home at that time and he picked me and a co-worker up somewhere between Atlantic and Union street. Thank goodness I was weariing comfortable sandals and it was until I stopped walking and sat down before I realized how tired my feet were. We drove my co-worker the rest of the way home and it was getting dark on the way back home so it was kinda scary. I don't remember what we did that night. Here are some pictures I took along the walk.

That's my co-worker helping an old man over the divider on the Manhattan Bridge. I didn't notice that they both had cigarettes in their mouths until later on!

Posted by luluvision at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)

August 07, 2006

Never seen a Farm like this!

Saturday, Yves and I went to Staten Island (yep, folks I know I rag on Staten Island a lot but we actually wanted to go there!). We went to take photos of the Farm Colony, an old abandoned poorhouse.Let me tell you, I didn't think it would be as spooky as it was. I should have known better but I didn't expect to have to get in through a hole in the chain link fence. Yves took a picture of me coming out of the hole instead of helping me out! We didn't explore that long because my ankles were getting bitten by mosquitos and I was creeped out. I guess I watch too many horror movies but I didn't want to go inside the actual buildings. We'll go back with more people, strength in numbers!

Afterwards, we went for lunch at Lentos, the same family of the greatly missed Lentos of Bay Ridge as written about here. Happy to report it was just as good.

Posted by luluvision at 12:25 PM | Comments (1)

August 03, 2006

We Came Out to Plaaaayaaaay

Waar...

iiiiiii

eeeeerrrrrrrsssss

Come out to plaaayaaay!!

Me and Pete met up with Nuno and his friends Ray and Rebecca to catch the free screening of the Warriors as part of the Netflix Roadshow where they are showing movies at the place inspired by or filmed at. Hence the Warriors showing at Coney Island. What fun! I've always loved the Warriors for it's cheasy 70's goodness and I never did see it on the big screen and I was with 2 Warriors Virgins! I'm so glad I went as the bail ratio was very high due to the intense heatwave we've been having. Oh, it was great seeing it with a big crowd, cheering for the Warriors and reciting funny lines. The best was this little girl next to us, probably around 5 years old. Cutest thing ever! Reciting the words right before they were spoken. We found out she saw the movie by 'accident' and loved it and watches it every week, or at least requests to watch it every week. It was the best hearing a 5 year old screaming 'Can You Dig it?' After the screening, most of the gang was there for a Q&A, including Cyrus even though he wasn't listed. He recited his famous words of 'Can You Dig It?' Freakin' awesome!! Sorry for my super grainy pictures but here they are:

Too bad James Remar (Ajax) wasn't there but apparently he's the only working, successful actor out of all of them. I had difficulty recognizing some of the cast so I hope I didn't screw them up.

The Warriors bopped their way home all the way from the Bronx. Home Sweet Home.

Posted by luluvision at 06:35 PM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2006

BK BREW!

Last night we went to Brooklyn Brewery for a free tour and tasting courtesy of Tammy. She's so super cool she ordered 3 pies for everyone. Yum and Yum. The beer was quite scrumptious, I do have to say! I got my buzz on, that's for sure. I'm not a big beer person but their wheat beers were delicious (forgive me Makers Mark!) and super cold. Everyone that worked there was super nice too. Yves didn't really drink so he safely got us home.

Posted by luluvision at 11:48 AM | Comments (1)

July 22, 2006

Nobu & Whitney, happy together

Pete made lunch reservations at Nobu as part of restaurant week. I was very excited as I have never been to Nobu and man I can't wait to go back!! Besides the food being wonderful, the service was really impeccable! They had a special menu for RW. I had the Rock Shrimp Tempura with creamy spicy sauce and the Assorted Sushi for entree. Pete had the Sashimi Salad and Blackened Cod with Miso Sauce. We also got extra rolls, I got Eel Cucumber (although I wish I just got Eel sushi instead of roll) and Pete got salmon and toro sushi. The Toro was too die for! It just melted in your mouth.

Pete's Sashimi Salad on top and my Rock Shrimp Tempura

Pete's Cod and my Sushi

More goodness when the entrees come. I know I was told to not get the sushi at Nobu because I should try their hot stuff but since Pete was getting the Cod, I didn't want to get the same thing and the only other thing was the Tenderloin of Beef with Teriyaki or Pepper Sauce and I didn't want that. But the sushi was fabulous, melt in my mouth goodness! The Cod was absolutely delicious! And for dessert there was Japanese cheesecake with fruit compote. YUM!! The cake was spongy and light, not like your typical cheesecake.

I didn't want it to end but we needed to be off to the Whitney to see the Hopper exhibit. Seeing the Hopper paintings and illustrations up close and personal was just breathtaking! Unfortunately, no photography inside!

Posted by luluvision at 11:35 AM | Comments (1)

July 09, 2006

More Coney fun

After the museum on Friday, we continued the day by going to Coney Island, specifically for the lighting ceremony for the parachute jump ("the Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn" HA!) Borough President Marty Markowitz decided to add 'bling' to the parachute jump and have it lit every night and on special occasions/holidays it would change colors. I think it's a waste of money but whatever, I'm not a politician. Anyway, we had dinner at Totonno's. Peter has never been there but it was all agreed that it wasn't the best pizza they ever had. Plus Yves is not a big fan of the woman who owns it and her kinda rough attitude. I don't mind going there as long as the wait isn't too long, at least it's better for you than Nathan's.

We went on the Wonder Wheel! YAY! What fun! I don't remember having been on it before and of course we got on the swinging car. Yves has funny video of us screaming and acting like idiots.

Not a Wonder Wheel virgin anymore!

Pete's amazed with the powers of the Wonder Wheel

We took some night shots while waiting for this lighting ceremony. They were going to show all the different lights on it and this was the only time they were going to do that. Well, it was LAME! There really wasn't much to it. They had their regularly scheduled Friday night fireworks and that was actually pretty cool.

Posted by luluvision at 11:45 PM | Comments (1)

July 08, 2006

Nat. History Pt 2

Museum Friday continues and we went back to the Natural History museum for more fun. This time we hit the Gems and Minerals and the Biodiversity exhibits. The Gems and Minerals room was fun 70's brown carpet and circles and we amused ourselves taking long exposures. I'm sure the guard didn't understand our goofiness and the other people seemed to be oblivious. The Biodiversity room was really cool and the exhibits were really amazing.

Posted by luluvision at 06:34 PM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2006

Mermaids and Photographers

Went to the Mermaid Parade on Saturday. With the rain, there were less people there than normal (although it didn't really rain during the parade, maybe a few drops). I swear, though, I really think there are more photographers there than actual mermaids/floats. It was actually really annoying. I had to do a lot of cropping in my shots and I also had a ton of blurry shots too. I'm not the type of photographer to run along the parade or jump in front of the crowd to get 'the picture' but it's not my job either and I'm snapping for fun.

I really do want to be in a float and have my picture floating around the internet. Perhaps one year I will meet enough people that will go in on this with me. I really admire the gals that can parade around with just pasties on and skimpy skirts. My favorites are the ones that are actually doing something while walking, like the hulas.

I know this shot is blurry but I really enjoyed the red against the blue.

And although I did see some guys with skimpy outfits (I really think the roman men weren't wearing underwear!), I don't think I really needed to see this guy!

And an Elvis sighting! I love the expression of the little girl!

Posted by luluvision at 11:41 PM | Comments (1)

June 17, 2006

Museum Fridays-Natural History

This week's museum was the American Museum of Natural History. It's a huge museum so we barely made a dent in it so we will definitely be back. We got salads at EJ's on Amsterdam for lunch. A typical coffee shop.

We paid to get into the Darwin exhibit. I have to say, I wasn't all that impressed with it. They repeated a lot of information about him. Yes,he thought of 'natural selection', yes, he didn't like school, yes, he was really into nature, yes, he was constantly sick. I guess I was expecting the exhibit to be a bit more dynamic but that was my fault.

We also entertained ourselves quite well in the other exhibits.

Later on that evening, I met up with Yves to go see Bill Burr at Caroline's. He was really funny.

Posted by luluvision at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2006

Museum Fridays-Guggenheim

Nate says with the scaffolding, the Guggenheim looks like an old wooden roller coaster

Pete has half day Fridays AND could get into some select museums at discount/free admission. So Friday we went to the Guggenheim with Nate and checked out Zaha Hadid's work. She's an architect that definitely thinks outside the box. Most of her stuff is pretty amazing. You could only take pictures on the ground floor and since I was a good girl and obeyed, I can't show what I saw. There was also some Pollocks and Kandiskys on exhibit. And this pretty amazing, huge 9 panel (I think it was 9) painting of a male nude from the 60's. I forgot the artist but he/she painted it for his boyfriend even though the model was Sal Mineo. Well, Sal Mineo was uncircumsized, in case you wanted to know.

Posted by luluvision at 09:39 AM | Comments (1)

May 16, 2006

Greenpoint

Yves and I went shooting in Greenpoint in mid-April, a couple of weeks before the 'suspicious' fire there.

Posted by luluvision at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2006

Bodies

Yesterday, Tammy and I went to see the Bodies Exhibit. I totally went into this blind, I mean, obviously I knew it was about bodies but I didn't know it was real bodies! Yves couldn't understand why I wanted to see it, he thought I would probably find it gross and I did. I just didn't know it was real bodies. So the beginning of the exhibit was pretty interesting, seeing whole insides of bodies and complete forms of blood vessels and veins floating in liquid. When they started showing the bodies entact but cut up and sliced up, gross!! I didn't even find the diseased baby room that bad. By the time we were done with the exhibit, we kinda had a queasy feeling in our stomach and promptly went home. Later, Tammy discovered that there was this big controversy about the exhibit. Apparently, they are not sure if the bodies were used with permission! And I know me and Tammy were joking during the exhibit that the bodies looked Chinese. They were! And also, they think these bodies came from that Fa Gong (?) camp, you see those people wearing yellow demonstrating all over the city, protesting that China are torturing people for practicing Fa Gong. I told Yves this and of course he had heard about it a while ago. He said they are investigating the guy that brought it over. Huh! And I gave money to see this!! And kinda steep too!

Posted by luluvision at 09:12 AM | Comments (1)