The Lights are Back on at Sterling Notes

Well, it's been an abominably long time since I've posted. I knew this would be a problem for me...my life gets hectic and the blogging goes out the window. I must learn to discipline myself if I expect to chronicle my existence on the internet and ergo exist at all.

It's been an incredibly full few weeks. Here are some highlights:

1) Elena came to visit! She was just in town for the weekend, having come back east to Baltimore for a training conference for her new job with Children Now. We're so excited that she has a job that inspires her and look forward to updates on how it's going. We had a great time doing our usual weekend routine with her, which basically consists of seeing friends, eating out and walking around if the weather permits. She actually hung out with Lisa on Saturday, so Andres and I took advantage of the sunny day to ride our bikes across the Brooklyn Bridge. That was a blast. Sunday it was pouring rain so we just chilled on the homefront and enjoyed a local creperie called Le Gamin for lunch before Lena had to leave. It was very cozy and relaxed and far too brief of a visit. We love you, Lena! So do Neko and Lucy. Next time maybe they'll both sneak up and sleep next to you.

2) The following weekend Sharon came to visit! Off from school for a week, she came armed with a must-do list, layers for the cold, and the ever-so-craftily employed insulated beer-can sling - used to transport the one item we requested from the Bay - burritos from Cactus. They made it intact from the red-eye, and we enjoyed them...for Sunday breakfast! Ah, god bless the beer sling, now dubbed the burrito sling. We cruised around Park Slope, dined on Italian food almost every night, met up with Natalie who was also visiting (yes, a veritable Bay Area invasion!) shopped Williamsburg, traipsed around SoHo (where Sharon tried valiantly but failed to find the cafe where she and Gomez had eaten the perfect chicken panini on their last trip here), sludged through pouring rain into the warm confines of Caffe Reggio in the village, and saw a disturbing but fascinating film at the MoMa called The Devil and Daniel Johnston. On her own Sj saw a great photography exhibit (which I can't wait to see), braved the wind and rain and confusing subway directions (from yours truly) to see a burlesque show, and did something I haven't done since I was a tot - went to the top of the Empire State Building! Well done, Sj. You squeezed every last drop of greatness from your journey! We love yoU!

3) Sharon left Thursday morning and Friday evening we drove up to my parent's house in the Berkshires with our new friends Debbie and Doug. We are such creatures of habit - we took them to the same little Italian restaurant on the drive up that my parents always take us to - Sinapi's. Sinapi's is just about exactly half-way up to Sheffield, MA, located in Brewster, NY. God bless the little unpretentious, delicious and well-priced strip-mall eateries. Saturday it was pouring rain, so we got up late, made a fire, and lounged around reading the trashy magazines we picked up on our drive. When the rain slowed down we went into town for a little window shopping and lunch.
Rented a couple of movies, got groceries so Doug could make Chicken Marsala for dinner. Delicious! Watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle - hysterically, sophomorically funny stoner movie. Sunday was very lazy. It's so peaceful up there, it's easy to spend many hours just puttering around the house. The house is on 5 acres of land, and very quiet. You cannot see it from the road, nor can you see any houses from it. Someday I'll post some pictures of it. Many thanks to my parents for letting us borrow their car and lounge about in their country home. And thanks to Debbie and Doug for such fine company!

OK. Time to stop blabbing and blogging. I have lots of pictures of the above described activities...as well as some gratuitous loving shots of our little fuzzy darlings. Will post soon.