Not native, never will be

My two readers already know this, but as of this Friday, July 31st, I will say good-bye to New York City, and subsequently, this blog. I had the best intentions of staying in New York for at least two years to experience life on the East Coast: the golden autumn, snowy winter, sprightly spring, and sweltering summer. The pizza, bagels, wings, and Shake Shack. And the subway trains and cab rides, the masses of people and the tall buildings.I managed to do a lot of the things I wanted during my time here, including:

• An off-Broadway play, "God of Carnage" (of which I had always meant to blog about and which actually won a Tony award this year)
• a ballet production of "Romeo and Juliet" at the Lincoln Center
• a New Yorker Festival event
• a Mets game
• a NY Rangers game
• an air guitar regional championship
• the AIDS Walk
• visits to the Guggenheim, Natural History Museum, MOMA
• Afternoons talking bikes at Continuum Cycles
• 2 trips to Fire Island
• 2 trips to Naples, Fl
• 1 trip to London
  
• a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
• Many visits to Pegu Club and to our local Community Food and Juice (which was blighted by a kitchen fire what seems like many months ago, boo! Re-open before we leave, please?)
• Many bike rides through Manhattan, Central Park and along the Hudson
  

All fun activities that made me fall in love with this city. But I also spent the whole year alternately wishing each of my respective home cities, San Francisco and New York, could be a little more like the other. Unfortunately, I think I will always suffer from wanderlust. Thank you, New York. I guess if I can make it here, I can make it anywhere.

Midsummer review

How does that saying go again? If a blog (with very few readers to begin with) is left unattended in cyberspace, it not only dies, but also doesn't make a sound? That has unfortunately become the fate of this blog. Perhaps if I had a more functional MacBook this past year (one that, in fact, functions), I probably would have been more diligent with my posts.

I would have followed up on our fabulous trip to London, where we admired many a fixie in Clerkenwell, gorged on the gluttonous bacon butties and chips at Smith of Smithfield's (SOS).
drank a Fruli here and there,and strolled along the Thames.I would have also summed up our second trip to Fire Island. The weather wasn't as great this time around, but the ferry ride was still funand it was great to see the same endearing wagons awaiting us at the Seaview Ferry Terminal.There have also been picnics on the fire escape, complete with pitchers of Pimm's.Combined with last weekend's Fourth of July feast of smoky chipotle pork burgers, sweet potato fries, buttered corn on the cob with cayenne pepper, BBQ baked beans, a homemade peach and blueberry crostata,and our new puppy, Lucie, it's safe to say we've been busy and up to good things in New York.

Ye Olde English Holiday 2009

We sneaked away to London for a bit of a transatlantic holiday. Three initial fashion observations:

(1) Unbeknownst to me, Brit blokes love American Eagle shirts and are rocking a popped collar look.
(2) Ladies, buy your floral print dresses and accessories now before the English roses move on to the next hot trend. (Try not to look like Elaine from Seinfeld, circa 1993).
(3) Leggings. Still.

Pictures and day-by-day posts anon!

Sunday sunset, Riverside Park

Like a bloomin' onion!

Spring has officially sprung! The tulips and daffodils are standing, cheery and proud along Broadway.Combined the flowering magnolia and cherry blossom trees, even the most mundane morning walk to work has become ephemeral and dreamy. Time to dust off the old blog and write about some springtime adventures!

Biking along the Greenway

New York City: simply saying those words conjures up images of honking yellow taxi cabs, a maze of whirring subway lines, and Pace picante salsa. But it's amazing how much the city really opens up to you on a bike. Yesterday, we took our fixies out for a ride along the Greenway path that circles the island. What a great city resource! The light wasn't so great, and I only had my iPhone camera on me, but the weather was just fine for a bike ride. We started by heading down the West Side Highway bike path.From there, we went all the way down, past the ambling tourists, through Battery Park to South Street where we could see the Brooklyn Bridge and the clipper ship in the distance.We decided not to ride into Brooklyn this time, but paused to admire the bridge from its base.Biking further east, we passed the Manhattan Bridge.We almost made it to the Williamsburg Bridge, but decided to get off the path for a late lunch of panini from 'Inoteca (home of the famous egg truffle toast).This time, we ordered the coppa, pepperocini spread, and fontina panino and the fontina, roasted garlic, and red chili panino, mmm.
From there, we did a bit of dodgy weaving between cars and cabs on Houston to get back to the West Side Highway path for a straight shot home.

The fresh, the good, and the ugly of Saturday

Having a late lunch at Oyster Bar in Grand Central StationMaking stews and panroasts since 1913Oohing and ahhing over glassware, espresso cups, and bits and bobs at Fishs EddyRetching at the ugliness of Ed Hardy glassware and home accessories at Macy's. (Who the hell buys that crap??)Seriously?