My brief career as a film maker

This was at our hotel in San Francisco.  The hotel had a bench in the elevator, I was trying to get a shot of the group in the elevator on the way to the wedding, but the door kept closing on me...

RINGO?

Not sure if this video will work, doesn't work on my desktop.

IF it does, this is a video I took of Ringo last night.  Tom has this contraption that allows him to make his own soda water.  It DOES make a little noise as you fizz up the tap water and it drives Ringo nuts!  He gets agitated when I just move the soda maker while cleaning.  It's SOO funny.

BUSTA MOVE!

Buster gets a new sweater!

NYC

Tom and I spent the weekend in NYC visiting Maeve at Pratt - had a great time!  Maeve is loving school, loving NY, etc. 

First I tried Priceline as I heard that is the best place to get a cheap rate, supposedly that's what all savvy New Yorkers do...but they also do it the same day they are planning on staying to get the BEST rate, I'm way too much of a control freak when it comes to travelling to do that, especially as I have zero confidence in my knowledge of the area.  So, when I put in the list of sections of NYC I would consider staying in...mostly everything but the airports, It wasn't accepting any of my bids...so I tried Hotwire as they allow you a LITTLE more control over where you will stay...still didn't feel like a got much of a deal, but as I know so little about NY, I was sort of stuck.  After I accepted a dollar amount (mind you, NY is quite a bit more than Boston), I learned that the W Hotel, downtown was where we would be staying.  About a block from the financial district...not exactly where I wanted to be spending a Saturday night in NY as that area is generally dead on the weekends.  Oh well, I'll learn as I go.....I want to try out all different locations in the coming years (luckily there are a few people that are eager to go to NY for a weekend to see Maeve!).

Turns out it was a GREAT location!  We were on the 16th floor overlooking the World Trade Center Memorial/construction - it was awesome!




View from our hotel room

 



As SOON as we checked in at noon, I made Tom go to the restaurant on the 1st floor and have a drink with me - okay, well I had a drink, Tom had an ice tea.  And it was a good thing that Tom had an ice tea, my glass of chardonnay was $16!  That was the ONLY Chardonnay by the glass on the menu.  I drank it slower than normal to give it the respect it obviously deserved.

Then, off to Pratt, long boring story, we were GOING to be adventurous and take the subway as we figure it's important to get comfortable with the subway system, but they were doing construction, our stop was only going uptown, directed to a different subway stop farther away, which was PACKED, hot, and no sign of a subway.  So we took a cab to Brooklyn.  Mind you, we were lugging 2 LARGE bags of goodies for Maeve, along with a mini cooler full of food.  We looked like TOTAL losers, I'm sure, so just as well we tucked ourselves into a cab.  Maeve was pleased to see us, and REALLY pleased to see the stuff we brought :-).  we had a great lunch at a place called Maggie Brown around the corner from her in Brooklyn, then headed BACK to manhattan to do some shopping.

ANOTHER bonus to our location at the W was that several times during our stay we walked past the occupiers on Wall Street (ironically, as we were on our way to shop or dine, like the capitalist pigs that we are).  Couple shots below.

Maeve reluctantly poses for a picture in front of the occupiers camp area with her Dad



Tom's solo shot has him looking a little suspect
(he has mentioned to people on facebook that that is me under the brown tarp in the background...
as IF I would use a BROWN tarp).

Following an afternoon of shopping in SOHO, we headed back to the hotel and had dinner at the BLT Grill at the base of the hotel, forgoing the long list of restaurants that I had searched out the prior week on the internet.  This happens to me all the time, hours researching restaurants and things to do in any given location, and I end of either forgetting the list at home, or simply being too tired to get myself to said restaurant/event.  But dinner was nice (I ordered a glass of the house wine this time), and we put Maeve in a cab and sent her off with our leftovers.

Next morning Tom went down to the Concierge because I had overhead that we might be able to get tickets to tour the WTC memorial if we got up and at it really early.  So one thing we CAN do is get up and out early, as we predictably fell asleep around 9:30, about half way through our (pricey) rental of The Planet of the Apes.  YES, we were in Manhattan on a Saturday night and we were asleep in our room by 9:30!  Anyway, at around 7 Tom went downstairs to the concierge...nothing available on the website, they suggested he walk on over to the WTC office.  Tom put on his "I'm a really nice person and I hope you can help me" face and headed on over.  Turns out they don't open until 8 (odd, because the construction guys are working 24/7 at the site).  Tom went BACK at 8 - turns out its 1st responder day, so it's only open for those public employees that risked life and limb and were witnesses to what could arguably be considered one of the most horrific acts of terrorism every wrought upon the United States.  Of course when Tom was told of this restriction he rightfully was like: 'are you kidding me?  I come all the way from Holliston and you're telling me that just because they ran into some burning buildings and watched as friend and fellow citizens perished they get preference over me? That's BULLSHIT!'.  Anyway, we didn't get to do a tour, I'm just glad that Tom had the temerity to speak his mind.

Walked over to Tribeca, came across this sign on the way - looks like we can't get away from Holliston no matter where we go.  For those that may not know, we live in the Mudville section of Holliston, the location of the acclaimed 1888 Ernest Lawrence Thayer poem "Casey at the Bat".

Maeve put her foot down on this one - she will not pose under the sign. 
As Tom lives with me, he was not so fortunate.

We ended up eating at a place called The Kitchenette that was highly reccomended by our Concierge.  It was fantastic, just what we were looking for; convenient and casual (read:  cheap!, well, by NY standards, it was still $80 for 3 of us).  We were able to send Maeve home with some baked goods that they have for sale to share with her roomies.  It was sort of funny though, I checked out their website, and this is what it says:  "located on bustling Manhattan streets but one step inside instantly transports you to a quaint country diner in the heart of the New England country side". So again, clearly we have some inner fear of venturing too far from our home in MA!

Sunday brunch at the Kitchenette

By the by, it if wasn't for me asking the waitress to take our picture, you wouldn't know that I was even ON this trip!





Ann's Feet!

Ann's feet helped her close up camp this last weekend along with the 2 Toms (husband and brother).  Had to get my final shop of Daisy!