brooklyn aquarium

we just joined the aquarium (family membership), which will allow us free admission to all city aquariums and zoos - a good deal that will kind of force us to get out and see all of them finally. last saturday we took the subway down to the Coney Island aquarium, which hennie is fairly used to visiting - the mothers' group heads down there somewhat often.

mette getting a kiss on the cheek at the sea-lion show. hennie was too scared and was cowering in hege's arms

this is on the subway platform heading home after walking the beach. its just a really strange neighborhood down there, and the light was nice that day.

these were also on the subway platform leaving the aquarium at then end of the day. we were all exhausted, but had had a great day and were happy. mette was strapped in tight with cold suit and baby bag, but was exceptionally outgoing and charming all the other waiting passangers.

coney island babies

after the aquarium we walked out the boardwalk and ate some fantastically greasy lunch from the one lonely kiosk that was open. it was frigid cold, but the girls wanted to walk the beach.

we had corndogs, fries, and a guiness in a paper cup to cut thru the grease.

everytime we go there in the winter, its the strangest place you can imagine. this is one of those places where the word surreal should still be allowed to describe. the ratio of the insane and the circus performer to the average vistor is way tilted to the former. to make it perfect, the hi-rise housing projects on the opposite side of the abandoned amusement parks create a windbreak like artificial cliff faces and there is a constant haunted, siren-like howl from the gusts. its hard to over-emphasize how strange it is out there. all the ghosts speak russian.

(broken) heart glasses

i think this sequence doesn't need much explanation.

boobah

this thing is a boobah. it comes from here: the PBSKids website

jay/cynthia/riley/regan

Jay & Cynthia were in town w/ their kids Riley (4) & Regan (>1) to see Jay's mother, who lives in the city. They came out for brunch and the afternoon last Sunday. I didn't get one single good picture of the adults unfortunately - but we had a really nice long easy-going time. It had been 70 & beautiful the day before but the temp dropped and it rained all morning and most of the afternoon. We were worried that the girls would turn on one another wanting to get out and burn off energy, but they were amazing. There wasn't a single cry from any of them in over 6 hours. Hege & I actually got to calm down and relax with good beer and a lot of wine and talk to Jay to Cynthia without too much interuption or worry.

The rain did finally stop and we all decided to make a run for Greenwood Cemetary to walk off the food and drink. This is Hennie & Riley leading us in - we are all looking up at the large Parrot nest in the central steeple. The birds were exceptionally active.


Hennie & Riley were very talkative and social. They copied one another, held hands and even had some kind of passionate revelation about something I couldn't quite understand.







there is a new crypt for cremated remains nearing completion - its got some fairly nice details. The girls seemed pretty facinated by the various routes you could take thru its courtyard, which included a bridge/reflecting pool and the pyramidical structure below:

the girls ran happily shrieking laps around the whole place and we had a hard time pulling them away.


this was an amazing find - someone had obviously carved the note into the tree in 1967 and the scar had grown and distorted over the years.

after the bath

saturday ballet

getting ready on Saturday morning. hege's been going to a yoga class to have some hege-time, and I take the girls for some papa-time. the getting everybody dressed part is always the most difficult, but last weekend was almost perfect.

hennie has fallen into a routine of insisting on wearing her bathing suit and a wide variety of tights. so she shows up looking a little creative. here she decided that the traditional was shocking, at least for her.

she uses the back of the futon as a dance barre.


it was a beautiful day and they spent a lot of time damaging the flower sales along the way home.


I drop her off and have an hour to run errands with Mette - usually Home Depot - before heading back to pick Hennie up. Then we always head over to a nearby bagel cafe and have breakfast. here we're stopping at the Eagle (local polish grocery) to pick up some food before walking back to a (briefly) reinvigorated Mama.

prospect park

we recently had a run at early spring that was a real shot of energy for everyone. unfortunately it disappeard after a week, but hege and rebecca did get to spend at least a day in the park in short sleeves.

hennie & sophia.

magnify

walking to perch, hege had the brilliant idea to buy a couple of toy magnifying glasses.

they walked the whole way with the lens pressed against their faces, looking at everything and everybody

upstairs apt

hege & i decided to use the time we had between renters upstairs to break thru the dining room wall and open up the bathroom/entry hallway with some thru-wall shelving. I'd hoped that after demo of the plaster and lathe, we'd find the studs in perfectly regular locations so that the built-in shelving could be sized for identical fits, but of course they were not. I had to cut them out and install a header and a kind of sill and then re-frame. It was tricky because we were also aligning ourselves to a roof hatch in the hallway opposite this wall. Eventually, I'll re-install a ladder; tied into the studs of the second shelf.

first hole of demo


shelves in and everything primed from the dining room side

one of the new renters, Zoe, chose colors. we actually bought a shade lighter in both spaces, and i think we're both happy with it. she's got a great vintage 50's chrome & formica table which goes perfectly with the colors and the cubbie-hole room divider.

view from the hallway into the dining room


new ceiling medallian and fixture

these photos make the surfaces look much much cleaner and well finished than they actually are. we didn't have the time to skim the walls or scrape the existing base & casings. Things are much rougher than they appear, but the new portions of sheetrock and shelving itself is fairly crisp.

view thru to the bathroom door. I don't have a photo of the bathroom, which we also refinished to more or less the same degree. its a bright orange.

this was taken after cleaning and moving most of our tools out. Zoe was moving in the next day. it was 4am, (technically) the morning after our 10th wedding anniversary. we'd eaten mexican with a bottle of belgian trappist ale, sitting on the floor between paint coats. the girls got us up 2-1/2 hours later and we went in to work. there's still a dozen or more little things to take care of, but we are so glad the bulk is done.