Happy Independence Day!

this first attempt at a fruit pizza celebrates this great day. fruit cookie would be more appropriate. consider this a birthday cake for America. tonight's fireworks will be like candles in the sky.

thank you Jesus for this great country where we have the freedom to worship and praise You. and eat tasty treats because you've blessed us in abundance.

here is a panorama of central park that i took from the 8th floor of the Dakota at 1 W 72nd Street & Central Park West on June 25, 2009. this is actually 3 pictures put together in photoshop. i really need some photo stitching software, but this will have to suffice for now.

i wish this was what i saw every morning during breakfast. and while i'm dreaming, how about looking west instead? it's an even nicer view than the upper east side.

i started another blog.

my parents want to build a house on the family farm. and since i'm an architect, well.... i'm their guy. so he blog is a place to write about design issues, products and materials we are picking for the house, and then hopefully follow construction progress when it comes to that.

Homer Dody House Blog

hoon sighting!

take a look at this beautiful... creation i saw on my way home
yesterday. did you notice the pipes on the side too? and you should
have seen the wing on the rear end. the car must have gained an extra
2 to 3 feet in length from these abominations...i mean, additions, to
the front + back.

haha!

New blogger feature

I just tweaked my blogger settings to allow me to post entries just by
sending an email to a specific address.

This is my test of this service from my phone. Tech is cool.

j o s h

sent from my iPhone

the weather was so nice on saturday that i got out the bike and made myself remember how to ride it. My neighborhood, Sunnyside, isn't very exciting to bike around, so I pedalled south. (But it will be pretty there once the trees start budding; here's a picture a few blocks from my place.)

I stopped by the waterfront in Long Island City to see if there were any new developments in the Hunter's Point area. there weren't. okay, the sports park had some new landscaping + hardscaping going in, and the building parcels to the north of the giant Pepsi-Cola sign have been smoothed out into a vast gravel waste land. But nothing major like a new building going up.

i continued south to visit my old hood, Williamsburg. let me tell you, I miss being close to the water, even if the water i refer to is the East River, which isn't really a river. (it's an estuary.) But East River Park is really nice to have close by. it's not a manicured park at all; only half of the 'grass' is even mowed, and half the park is a leftover concrete building slab from the days of the large waterfront warehouses. but i'll miss it this summer. i guess it's only a short bike ride away.

I forgot how crowded Williamsburg gets. Biking along Bedford Avenue made me kind of happy to be gone. I never really fit in with all those hipsters. and while i loved all the shops and restaurants, i didn't really frequent them. well, sometimes. and it's nice knowing they're right there when you want them. Perhaps i'm just trying to convince myself that i don't miss the neighborhood that much.

I did see that my old corner finally got a stoplight. i can't tell you how many accidents i've seen there. Roomies and I would often hear screeching tires followed by the inevitable bang or crunch. we'd run to the window and usually catch the aftermath. lots of cars ended up on the sidewalk. thankfully they were mostly minor fender benders.

okay, Billyburg, i miss you. happy now?

It was a Sunday night in New York and it was snowing. ugggh. By the next morning we had about 6 inches piled up on top of a thick layer of ice. And what has been a frigid winter was not letting up.

But I was smiling.

Why was I smiling? Is it because I love leaning into a bone-numbing gale as I slip and slide down unkempt sidewalks and heave my snow boots up slick subway steps only to wait in the wind for the train to show up?

nope.

I was smiling because i knew i just had to stick it out for three days. then i was hopping a flight to the Caribbean! OH-yeah.

winter vacations are the best. leaving behind the cold and stepping out of a plane into glorious sunshine is such a great feeling. Am i piling it on too thick? As I was waiting at the airport for my friends to pick me up I realized that i was standing in the shade, the wind was blowing, and I wasn't shivering. i was still warm. ohhhhhhh yeahhhhhhh.

here's a synopsis of the trip. i occasionally took pictures. the link is at the end of this babble.

DAY ONE was mostly about getting there. Once i got to Providenciales, Ryan and Christina gave me a tour of the house they are building, let me unload my stuff at their rental house where i would be staying, and then took me a few houses down the road to enjoy the beach and watch the sun go down.

Ryan and I waded in the crystal-clear water and chatted about life in Turks and Caicos. i hadn't seen him for a long time so it was great to catch up. Also neat: we saw 3 or 4 sea rays in the shallow water. we tried to sneak up on them, but mostly we just chased them around the beach. one covered himself in the sand for us. don't worry, the super long tail is easy to spot.

DAY TWO i spent at the beach, different one in the morning than in the afternoon while Ry and C went to work. In between we met at home for lunch. Good thing, too, because Christina prepared quite a spread. Then for dinner we went to a really nice restaurant on then beach. Since we couldn't get a reservation as soon as we wanted, we first stopped at an ice cream parlor. perhaps this ordering of things is the way it should always be done. haha!

I got to hang out with Ryan and Christina on DAY THREE as it was a Saturday. After a late start--hey, i was on vacation! plus Ryan went to the jobsite for a bit--we loaded up in the truck and went to the beach at Grace Bay. Christina studied while Ryan and I went snorkeling. It was awesome! Ryan said he had never seen so much at once. Besides a lot of the usual-for-TCI yellowtail and spotlight fish and others, we saw two big sea turtles, a 5-foot nurse shark, and a trio of enormous spotted sea rays. they were beautiful as they went by. so graceful.

The afternoon was relaxing. We had lunch on the beach at a place called Somehere on the Beach. I had Some Nachos. haha. most of the menu was named similarly. i took a long walk up and down the beach, swam, and then watched Ryan coach his kids to victory in Roller Hockey. Really good pizza on a boardwalk for dinner. what a perfect day.

DAY FOUR we explored some of the west part of the island. We drove something like 20 minutes down a gravel road to get to West Harbor. There were a few people fishing and beaching where we parked the truck, but our walk down the beach was completely isolated. And beautiful. We walked through Bonefish Hole to Bonefish Point. The beach was a conch shell graveyard and the sand was sometime fine, sometimes very coarse. Closer inspection showed that it was just made of super tiny shells not yet ground up the sea. amazing really. We also found a lot of sea sponges and really interesting coral washed up on the beach. Pelicans. Beautifully isolated ocean vistas. wow, God astounded me with his work there.

We pulled ourselves away from there--we didn't explore West Harbor Point where the fishermen were--and drove to a small beach with big rocks near North West Point. Ryan and I went snorkeling again while C studied and started the Pringles. haha. I found a few sand dollars and saw some neat fish and corral formations. Then it was nap time under the beach umbrella. That night we went to see Watchmen at the theater. Fried chicken with beans+rice for dinner

DAY FIVE i kayaked to group of islands in the sound without much trouble. then more reading on the beach. i swam out to rescue a wayward beach ball, but it was too fast for me. at some point i realized that i wasn't gaining on it any more. and i was waaaaayyyyyy out there. i didn't want to die quite yet. granted, the water was still probably just over my head, but i was almost at the sailboats anchored in the bay.

After lunch with Ry + C I walk to the other beach for the afternoon. C left work early and met me there to play tennis. Ryan joined us for a bit, but then had ball hockey. C and I watched the guys play... for a while. then my attention drifted to my book and christina studied her flashcards. but we saw ryan score a few goals, so he shouldn't feel neglected. Dinner was Johnsonville Bratwurst! who would thought you could get Sheboygan brats in Turks and Caicos?

DAY SIX i went for an extended kayak trip around half of chalk sound. it was really, really nice. i loved the combination of good exercise and total tranquility. I decided to skip the beach and walk down the road and see the houses and sights. i took a ton of pictures of the Sound and the plants and flowers i saw along the way. i walked to the end of the road at Silly Creek where there is a mansion accessible only by a bridge over a moat. someone whipped out the drive in a Range Rover as i got there and gave me a stare. it was all so pretentious.

I wasn't sure i was going to make it home through the heat without calling for a ride. Ryan was shocked when he heard about all of my "movement" that day! we all had a great laugh as i pretended to be Jaba the Hut oozing about.

Christina drove me to the beach at the other end of the island at Leeward. I just read my borrowed book and waited for Ry and C to come. I should have worked at the house. drats. But we all watched to the sun go down. it was nice. We stopped and got way too much ice cream. Sadly, the go-cart track was not open and the mini golf seemed too expensive to me, so we went home. i'm having some trouble remembering what happened when.

DAY SEVEN was short since my plane departure was at 3:30. we all got up early and went to prepare the jobsite for the final concrete pour. I helped cover everything in plastic to protect from the inevitable concrete splashing and possible formwork blowouts. i even used some power tools. The concrete came really late, so i didn't stay for the entire pour. But it was fun to watch it all happen. the pumper truck unfurling it's huge boom was kind of like seeing a real life Transformer.

As it was getting late, Christina and i snuck off to the beach. It was a great last swim. the weather was perfect, the water was warm, the sun was pleasing.... It was the perfect end, except ryan was still working. sorry! Christina and i floated around in shallow water, snapped a few pictures, and then raced to the airport. While i got ready to leave, Christina made me an incredible lunch to go. C, the chicken tacos were amazing.

Thanks Ryan and Christina.

here are a few pics at Flickr.

Mies Van de Rohe (the cat) is saying, "I love you Macbook Pro!" i do the same thing with mine at home.

My coworkers and i probably spend too much time taking pictures of the cats, but they do such weird things. and the catfights (literally) are too much fun to break up.

Mies loves to lick plastic, scratch his face up against super sharp edges, and lay right on the middle of the drawings you're looking at, especially during a client meeting.

The other cat is Marcel Breuer, who is deaf. He likes to cry these horrendous moaning noises when he is bored, hungry, can't find someone, or just ate. He also enjoys clamping his fangs into the back of Mies's neck, posing with his front paws crossed, and sitting in your lap.

somehow we get some architecture done as well.

H. bday to me, H. bday to me, H. bday to me-e, H. bday to me!

(Keith is eating the missing cupcake.)

another year has gone by. that's about all i have to say about it.

did you hear that i moved? i am finally living on my own for the first time. new neighborhood, new grocery stores and restaurants, new borough, new subway. i am excited for the change even though things were great before and didn't need to change and didn't necessarily get better. does that make sense? i loved my old apartment and neighborhood, but now there is the excitement that comes with a new experience and all the promise that it brings.

i am extremely grateful to my friends that helped me with the big move. thank you for helping me pack up the kitchen, for lending me a van, for carrying everything i own out of one place and into the next, for riding in the back of the van, for filling my cupboards and hanging my shower curtain, for munchkins and cold water, and for a bookcase to swallow all my books. i could not have managed without your help.

here is a picture of the subway station i use on my way home from work. an artist used the standard fluorescent tube lighting fixtures found in every station in the system but arranged them in a new and exciting way. so now i get to enjoy that on my daily commute.

i walked around greenwich village on saturday to check out a possible apartment location, and since it was close by, i kept going all the way to Hudson River Park. my feet were beginning to ache so i sat awhile at the esplanade and watched the boats go by. i saw a canadian battleship speed by all the sailboats that seems so tiny in comparison. it's Fleet Week in New York and we invited the canucks. i hope that's not a derogatory nickname.

on monday i went for a late-day bike ride down to prospect park.
i had seen a bunch of apartment listings for the far + south sides of the park so i explored those neighborhoods a little before heading into the park. the sun was getting low in the sky when i sat in the lawn to rest and read, so i didn't even stay very long. i read a short chapter in a book i just started, Kavalier & Clay. mostly i just watched the kites flying and these three guys with amazing frisbee skills. somebody with two loose yorkies walked by me, but like most new york dogs, they didn't really want to visit me (or anyone). and since i was kind of worried about some issues with my bike, i left.

instead of going straight home i stopped at the new williamsburgh park right on the east river. after all, there was still lots of sun there; no trees to block everything, just a wide expanse of water with the manhattan skyline as a backdrop. i read another chapter and took some pictures of the setting. by then it was 7:45 and they were closing the park, so i went home for dinner.

enjoy a few select pics at kodakgallery.

i've posted some pictures on flickr of the guest house roof being lifted into place on a house my office is building out on Shelter Island, at the tip of Long Island. the guest house is just a bedroom and bathroom, but the roof overhangs the terrace a lot, so that makes it bigger. actually, it looked huge on the ground but tiny in the air. some of that is due to the swoop of the butterfly roof line. enjoy the pictures.

apartment walk thru video. warning: this was hastily done with digital camera.

I was admiring all the stately brownstones on my walk between construction sites today, thinking how i could bring my parents up to the area next time they visit, when i came upon this alien building. wow! i guess the Landmarks Commission wasn't up and running when this was built.

the (L) train keeps me feeling like a real new yorker. i am referring to the long and frustrating commute that many manhattan workers face every day just to get from their apartment or house in the suburbs to their job. since i only live two short blocks from my subway station, and then only ride the train three stops, it would seem that i know nothing of this commuting hell. i mean, how difficult is three stops?

that's where the (L) train helps me out. By the time the train gets to the final stop in brooklyn before going under the east river into manhattan, it can get packed to the gills with people (hipsters). and perhaps since the trains dead-end not long after getting to manhattan, they get backed up like a traffic jam on the interstate. Often this means that even if you manage to get on the train, it hardly goes anywhere... or it moves verrrrrry sloooowly and stops frequently at and between stations. i spend a lot of time under the east river.

Enjoy this a camera-phone picture from this morning. it took me four trains to get on, and that's only because i got onto a train headed the opposite direction and then switched back to a manhattan-bound train. smart, right?