Meeting Avery for the First Time

Went to Albany this weekend to meet my newest love--Miss Avery. Kristie came home from Texas to spend the winter months with her family in New York while Tony's deployed. Avery gets to hang out with her cousins and Kristie gets a hand from her mom and sister. This little girl is the sweetest baby. I don't even think she minded that I thought her pacifier was for teething though she's only 8 weeks old. But seriously, how do you know that kind of stuff if you don't have kids? I could've held her in my arms forever.

Kate and Her Wine

At Justin's on Friday.

Flying Into Albany

I always try to remember--and never do--to take a photo of Albany from the air when I'm on my way back into town. I finally remembered--here's an aerial view of the Empire State Plaza (right to the left of the plane's wing).

Tuesday Night

We went out to celebrate last night, and got caught in the rain like three different times. We had dinner and drinks at a couple of different places on Lark and stayed out far too late for a school night. But it was a lot of fun and totally worth my exhaustion today. But I can tell you--I will be in bed by 10 tonight. :-)

Standing under an awning waiting for the downpour to pass.

They're Just So Pretty

. . . . I had to post another photo of some of the zillions of tulips that are in full bloom here in Albany.

Weekend Wrap-Up

(I'll start from Thursday since I haven't blogged in a while.)

On Thursday we went to the opening of a new club called Ballinger's downtown. It's a very large, well-decorated club with various floors and a huge outdoor patio, which will be great for the summer. Unfortunately, the building it's in--and the location of the building--has not proven to have much success in terms of attracting a crowd. It's perched on the corner of a street on a steep hill, and there's very little (if any) foot traffic there. We'll see how it goes. The opening was fun, though--we had some drinks and wandered and mingled. Then we went to Justin's for some late-night grub.

Here's a photo of some corner seating at Ballinger's.

Friday was dining-guide production day, which is always a merry ride to hell on wheels. Once that was done, I went to the gym and then home to relax for a little while before going to hang out with Nate and his brother Trevor, who was in town from Buffalo to hang for the weekend. Mike joined us later, and we went to the Fountain for a yummy midnight snack.

Saturday was spent sleeping for the most part--then a nice long walk in Washington Park with coffee because the weather was beeeautiful. Saturday night mimicked Friday a bit in that it resulted, ultimately, in me, Nate, Trevor and Mike eating pizza again. This time it was at DeJohn's, and the ceiling began raining on us before we left. (We learned that the dishwasher on the second floor was the cause of the downpour.)

On Sunday, we left the house at around 12:30 on a mission to find lunch. A stroke of genius pointed us in the direction of Cohoes to get some "real Texas barbecue." Unfortunately, it turned out that the BBQ joint was closed on Sundays, as is everything else in Cohoes, we came to realize. We finally ended up at Bob's Diner in Watervliet and we ate a very average but satisfying lunch. Later, we took a motorcycle ride up to the mall and walked around a bit, contemplating dinner, which we had at Moe's. It was my first time eating at Moe's, and it actually was pretty good. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and watching the tube.

Here's Mike having a grand time washing all the bird crap off his car on Sunday. :-)

In conclusion, a very good weekend was had by all.

Urban Jungle

This is how kids on my block play basketball. The bottom of the milk crate is not cut out; hence the ladder standing nearby.

Tip-Toe. . .

It's tulip season here in Albany. (For those of you who don't live here, the tulip is Albany's city flower.) They are beautiful, and everywhere. We may as well be in Amsterdam.

Demo . . . At Midnight

So late last night I started to hear these continuous crashing noises. The crashes were very loud, and very close. You would think a house was being knocked down! Well, lo and behold, a house WAS being knocked down, like 10 feet away from our house. Our neighborhood is very typical of old downtown Albany--streets full of row houses, all inches from each other, if not attached to one another. So Mitch opened the bathroom window shade and told me to come look. The house that sat between our house and Dove Street was being demolished. It was so close to our house, and we had a great view from the bathroom window, so I took some video. I can't believe it's legal to knock down a house so late at night. What's wrong with doing it, oh, I don't know . . . during the day?

St. Patrick's Day

I spent St. Patrick's Day sipping brews with Kate and Nate. Here are my awesomely goofy friends hanging at DeJohn's.

Weekend in the Snow

This weekend we had another snowstorm. About a foot to a foot and a half fell between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. We had another snow emergency, so I spent a good portion of yesterday digging out my car again. But then afterward I took Asa to the park, where he proceeded to be incredibly cute. I took some photos to demonstrate (if you can't tell, in the first one he's airborne). Click on 'em to make them bigger:

He's just so adorable.

They All Leave

Well. Another of my very closest friends is moving away. It's strange that leaving the area has been such a trend with the people I've become the most attached to.

Each time this happens, it just breaks my heart.

First it was Jan. He moved away to go to grad school in Louisiana, and he's still there, teaching at LSU.

Next it was Travis. He got into grad school at Cornell, which was very convenient, since that's the area where his little girl, Isobel, lives. So he moved, then moved back for a little while when he was working for the Senate, but he recently bought a house out west (in Montour Falls, to be exact) and so he lives there fulltime now.

Next was Kristie. She decided to marry an army guy, and therefore, now lives in Texas of all places.

Among my other friends who have moved away from here: Rebeccah (to Vermont), Brian (to North Carolina), Cecilli (to Seattle).

And, of course, there's Aaron, who moved to Florida this past fall.

Now, another one of my favorite people ever (and I must thank Travis, because not only would I not know her if it hadn't been for him, but we wouldn't be so wonderfully close either--our friendship was cemented when he was away in Afghanistan)--Kate--is leaving.
The story, for those of you who are interested, is that Kate's from Rochester, and she's been looking to move back there over recent months/years to be closer to her family. She got a job offer for a publicity postion from the University of Rochester, and she took it. She starts her new gig in early April.

Now, I know that these people aren't leaving me--I'm much more rational than that. But that doesn't make it suck any less. And no matter what, when so many people leave, you can't help but feel a little left behind--even if this is where you want to be.

Valentine's Day Snowstorm

I know it's a little late to be blogging about this, but this is what the Valentine's Day snowstorm did to my poor car:

Lark Fest

Joe and I have a beer on the street at Lark Fest; after Hector on Stilts played, Clay and Jeb signed a bunch of autographs for their excited fans.

Albany Turns into Wild West

There has been a disturbing spike in gun violence in Albany lately. It's unsettling that it's happening at all, but it mostly bothers me that it's been getting closer and closer to my personal space. For example, last week, I was at work and all of a sudden we hear pop! pop! pop! One of our staff writers, David, looked at me and said, "That doesn't sound good." A few minutes later, our general manager sent out an e-mail confirming that those "pops" were actually gunshots and that police had sealed off the block where it had happened (one block away from our office). This was in the middle of a busy workday in broad daylight. Luckily, the gunman had bad aim (it may have had something to do with the fact that he was on a bicycle), so no one was hit.

Then, on Monday night, as I lay in bed chatting on the phone, I hear pop!--a half-dozen times. It crosses my mind that the noise could have been gunshots, but I tend to rationalize those thoughts away pretty quickly. However, my brother walks in a little bit after that (from walking the dog around the neighborhood) and reports that there were gunshots around the corner from the apartment (about one block south of us) and that this time, someone got hit (actually, we learned later, two 20-something guys got hit, and they were rushed to Albany Med--their injuries were not life-threatening), and police had sealed off that portion of the neighborhood. The gunman (a different guy than the one from before) was also on a bicycle. They haven't caught that guy yet, but they did catch the first guy.

Now, while these shootings are alarming, they are only a drop in the bucket in terms of the amount of shootings that have been happening lately. Most of them seem to be occurring in the South End, West Hill and Arbor Hill (for you out-of-towners, these are some of the really rough neighborhoods in Albany). The police chief is adamant that these shootings are not gang-related, but group-related (whatever the hell that means). What's worse, the incidents have been under-reported--apparently it's not a "shooting" unless someone actually gets hit with a bullet. Read the daily's story about the multiple shootings here.

Oh yeah, by the way, the police chief wants to shut down two of the Albany police stations, including the station in Arbor Hill. This plan was announced one day after four people got shot on the same street that the police station is on. Explain that one to me. When our paper runs our piece on this, and the shootings, I'll be sure to post a link.

NOW Conference in Albany

Albany was the place the National Organization for Women decided to celebrate their 40th anniversary--Ani Difranco spoke, and I went down to cover it. Read my little story here. Thanks to Alicia for taking pics.

Bye Bye Book Shop

So sad.

Fashion and Fun at Noche

Saturday night, and a sweet VIP magazine launch party/fashion show downtown. Lights, drama, clothes, paparazzi, wine. . . . What more could a girl want?

Perennial Event Date

Yup, that's Brodeur. He said that he didn't mean to make a face in this pic, so I guess this is what he looks like normally. Hehee! Anyway, here we are enjoying olives and wine at Elissa Halloran's 5-year anniversary party at Noche.

Thanks to Leif for sending us this pic!


*Note to Michael C., my other--but no less important--perennial event date: As soon as I get a pic of us, I'll post that too. :-) Maybe at the art opening this evening? See you then.

Very Sweet Song

I carried the world on my back
to your front door
but darling you weren't home.
And Amelie
was baking her plum cake
she wakes from her dream state.
Love is pain,
pain is weakness leaving.
Love is weakness
leaving me.
It used to hurt my heart
to breathe your name
but darling
I'd say it anyway.
Cause love is pain,
pain is weakness leaving.
Love is weakness
leaving me.
And whether it's a dance, or a realization
my imagination
or a serenade. . .
between the devil and the deep blue sea,
I'm daydreaming
in Albany.
Love is pain
pain is weakness leaving.
Love is weakness,
leaving me.
--the lovely Laura Boggs