Central Park Zoo, Part Deux ( 8.5.2007 )

Since we were rained out the first time we tried to go to the Central Park Zoo, we decided to go back and try again. Of course, what we didn't think of this time was the fact that this Sunday was the first nice day in about two weeks. No rain, just lots of sunshine. Well the zoo and the park, and the sidewalks, and just about everywhere else was full of people. Even the hot dog stand lines were long. Sometimes I forget how many people live in this city. Especially in the summer on the Upper East Side, everyone who lives here is in the Hampton's. It was a very quiet summer. But this day was crazy, and when we finally got to the zoo, I was sick of the people and I just wanted to leave. It was a nice walk though.

We made our way over to Ciao Bella for a little gelato before our walk down to the zoo. Molly found a new flavor, key lime pie (which had a lot of real key lime pie, including the crust). To say that she liked it would be an understatement. In her defense, it was damn good! It was all she talked about all day.

Goats! This was the closest we got to the animals at the zoo. Leaning over the walls of the park looking down at the goats. Like I don't know what a goat looks like? But here I am, taking a picture of an animal that many friends of mine raised. In fact, when we move out of the city, I may just raise some of them myself. Such noble creatures, the goat.

Aaaah the money shot. Goat butts! Yep, this was the Central Park Zoo, part deux, "Return of the Goat".

The Sunset

So I don't have much to say about this. It's just a photo Molly and I took over by the reservoir one night when it was really hot and humid. This was the only time of the day that we could go outside because it had rained so hard. Just a cool photo. Enjoy.

These are both basically the same thing. We just took a whole bunch of photos because it was so cool.

Central Park Zoo ( 7.29.2007 )

So it's been awhile since we did anything on a Sunday, but we decided to put our Sunday Plan back in motion. It looked like it might rain, but we decided to test our luck and head downtown to the Central Park Zoo (at 65th and Central Park West). The plan was to made a quick stop at Bloomingdale's for Molly to get a new watch battery (her watch had been dead for a week, but she was still wearing the watch out of habit), and then walk over to the zoo. By the time we got out of the subway at Bloomingdale's, it had started to rain. It only got worse as we walked over to the zoo.

By the time we walked into the zoo and were ready to purchase our tickets, the rain was really coming down. The zoo is outside, so we decided to skip paying and we just watched the seals swim around in their big tank from outside the fence. Once bored with the barking of those noble creatures, we decided to take a walk in the rain uptown. It was a cool new walk for me, with very few people out and about, and it felt like our park for the afternoon. As many of you know, I'm not to fond of millions of people (yes I know I live in NYC, thank you), so this was a nice change for an afternoon stroll.

This is the cool little toy boat pond where you can rent sail boats and send them around the algae infested pond. It's really cool and there were a few boats out. Say "Toy Boat" three times fast!

Molly was trying to stay dry under her umbrella while I was taking pictures of the pond. Around this time, Molly got a phone call from one of her past co-workers, Camille (the one who gave me a reference at K&D) who was in town from Canada. She was visiting her mother who lives near us and asked if we wanted to go out to Kinsale for a pint. Not one to ever turn that down we said yes, and enjoyed a nice few hours in a quite pub listening the rain and talking. It was like Ireland. Oh, and we went to The Simpsons movie later on. The review: Good, too short, but very funny.

Harry Potter Weekend! ( 7.21.2007 )

So, as some of you may know, Molly is a bit of a fan of the works of J.K. Rowling. She has a little obsession. In fact, if you even mention that you have ever heard of Harry Potter, you will receive a full blow rant about Harry and her love for the various characters. And don't even think about disagreeing with her. She has a passion, and it is Harry Potter.

On Saturday, July 21, the seventh and final book was released, but the night before, there were HUGE release parties at bookstores all over the city (and world) at midnight. We had scoped out our bookstore the week before during Bastille Day, and Molly said it would suffice. Although to be fair, she had already reserved her book at five other Borders and Barnes and Noble bookstores, both here in the city and in Washington D.C. (there was an outside chance she would be away on a business trip). While the store at 57th and Park Ave (on the east side, an easy subway ride downtown) was not her first choice, it was the easiest to get too, and a straight shot home so that she could start reading that night.

Before we left for the store at 10:30 at night, we sat around watching the movies, catching up with the characters' roots. She was getting a little anxious and excited, so we decided that it would be best to get moving and take part in the events planned at the bookstore.

Just look how excited that girl is. She was about to leap onto the subway as it came to a stop. The plan was to get there, play some games, get some food, and line up when the time came. Molly had gotten up early on Friday morning (she took the day off from work) and went down at 7:30 AM to line up to get a ticket so that she would be one of the first to get the book that night. She got number 24, not bad since they were lining up in groups of 25. The first ticket was to be raffled off just a few minutes before midnight.

At the bookstore, I enjoyed some Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans guessing games. The store had set up a small table with about 50 little white cups, with one jellybean at the bottom of each cup. The goal was to eat the bean and guess what flavor it was. I proved to be especially adept at this game, nailing both the earth and fried egg flavored beans, and winning us a couple of raffle tickets. Before I was able to flex my tasting skills a few more times for the 12 year olds, Molly made me buy her a water and forced me to have a butterbeer. I think I may have lost a tooth in the sweet concoction.

After wondering around the store for anther half an hour or so, it was time for the line up. We headed downstairs and wondered over to the start of the line. People were already set to go, they just had to raffle off the first ticket along with some other goodies. Some guy right next to us won a sweet framed poster sign by the artist, and he got very excited. When it came time for the big one, Molly and I pulled out the raffle tickets I had won through my jellybean skills. They read out the numbers, and I had won! Molly was so excited, she couldn't stop smiling and hitting me. I gave her the ticket, and they let both of us go to the front of the line.

Oh yea, front of the line! We were the first ones in New York (at this store) to buy the Harry Potter book. The employees thought it was strange that I was buying two books, but we got the books, took our loot (which included a poster and some stickers), and bolted out the front door before the crowd tore us apart. Outside Molly jumped into a cab before I was out the door.

Molly reading in the cab. We got home in about five minutes and stayed up till 2 AM reading. It was a good book, and a funny night. A good time for the last book. Molly was able to finish it the next day while I was at work. It took me a week to read it, much longer than Molly would have liked, as she wanted someone to talk to about the book.

Yep, that's the golden ticket right there. Note how Harry is holding it.