Snow in London!!!

April 6th 2008

I woke up today feeling a bit under the weather (Britishism cockney: tom and dick) with a sore throat and just a bit weak and tired. But, it was SNOWING outside so I could I not go outside, especially Brockwell Park. I got out of bed around 11:30 and made my way to the park to take some photos and enjoy the pretty whiteness all around and collecting on the trees and flowers. It was stunning, really gorgeous how the snow collects and bunches up on the different plants. Lots of people were out and playing in the snow and I was really wishing I had someone to play around in the snow with. Still haven't had a proper snow ball fight, snow angel's or snow man making since I've been in colder regions where snow is possible in the winter. It's a bit odd that snow came in April of all times, that was a bit shocking but then again I welcomed it and so did everyone else in the park :-) I passed a few people and was taking photos as they passed. Most of them commented on the scene like "it's beautiful isn't it?" or "what a gorgeous park in the snow!" It was nice to have people just chatting around, I don't think I ever had anyone speak to me when I was taking pictures in NY. It could just be because I looked like a goof with my hat and camera around my neck or it could also be that snow doesn't come all that much in England and people were just in a happy and talkative mood. Either way, it was nice.

PICTURES

A Long Overdue Entry And So Much to Tell

It's certainly been quite awhile since I've typed up an entry in this here blog. There are just a few small things that have kept me busy over the past few months. Additionally, I've had this uncompleted task of typing up all my CR entries from my notebook but have just closed that out by typing up the last one and leaving it as is. I'm not going to type up any others and it's tedious and time consuming and honestly not that rewarding. Next time I'll have something to write up my entries electronically.

So where do I even begin?
Well for one, I'm going to London next week! I'm going there for a week to work from office and look for a flat.
Hang on a minute... look for a flat??
Yessir, I'm moving to London on April 4th to take on a new role which I am very excited about. The whole move is something I'm ecstatic about and it goes WAY beyond switching roles. There is just so much to look forward to and it has me smiling wide with excitement. :-)

There's lot to do until then, but it had been bugging me that my blog was missing the last CR post and also an update on the changes going on with me. I'd better crack on with my list of tasks, much to do.

Oh, and by the way, IT SNOWED TODAY! WOOHOO! Beautiful, white, powerdery snow filled the streets and sidewalks, car windshields and signs. I'm headed out tomorrow to explore the park and see if there's anything fun to photograph.

Wintery Goodness

Snow snow snow!!! We've been getting quite a lot here as of late and it's AWESOME! It's making up for the dismal snow year of 2006. I'm watching the white specks stream down through the windows at my office. It brings a smile to my face this morning.

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!

It was great having Michelle's parents here to visit. We did most of the things we planned on doing and most importantly went to the restaurants we planned on taking them to. NY is all about the food, well any city is about the food for me!

I don't mean to...ah, the words are NOT coming to my head and I can't figure out how to best put it. So forget that sentence, all I really want to say was IT SNOWED TODAY!!!! I woke up to a winter wonderland outside as a blanket of white powder covered the area outside the apartment. I quickly showered, had some yogurt, got dressed and put my boots on. Michelle asked "where are you going?" I didn't need to respond since the look on her face knew my response was going to be "I'm going to play in the snow!" I bundled up, grabbed my camera and headed out the door to find flakes fluttering through the air. The picked up speed and showered me with white flakes. I had a HUGE smile on my face as I walked around, cozy in my coat, scarf and sweater. I snapped a few photos of the wintery goodness but mostly I just walked around and let the snow piled up on me. I think this photo brings that description to light (it's blurry because the camera chose to focus on the background instead of yours truly).


More pictures of the snow! View the rest on my flickr page.








The city was absolutely beautiful today as we walked around. Snow covered every spot of the city: signs, doorways, rooftops, car windows, benches, christmas trees on the street. Ahhhhh, how lovely to see the city in the middle of the holiday season AND fully covered in snow. It was gorgeous!

Tonight we made use of the Bowbeer's rental car and drove to Jersey (i know, we're crazy but keep reading) to go to Bertucci's. It's the italian place with the AWESOME bread. Oh man, so so so good. I haven't had that since I went to Michelle's graduation in May.

Last night we went down to Rockfeller center to see the tree. We got there around 11pm and it was practically empty. Our strategy of going late seemed to pay off. I took a couple of photos (of course) and here are a few of them:

IT'S SNOWING!

We woke up on November 19th to some lovely white flakes falling out of the sky. It wasn't snowing very hard but it's technically the first snow day of the season. When I walked outside to go to work, the snow was very wet and melted when it hit the ground but it was SNOW nonetheless :-) Last year snow didn't come until January so this is very exciting!

You Must be Saying FINALLY!

Listening to: Stereophonics - Mr. Writer

Apologies for the hiatus. I've been really busy lately including a trip to Chicago last week and Michelle visiting this week for her spring break. I cannot recall details from the past 3 weeks because that's just not how my brain works but I have some pictures from a walk through the west village and dusk over the Chicago river that I'll add to the next entry which will be nothing but images.



One detail I do recall is receiving a very densly packed box yesterday. Michelle and I walked into the mail room and I saw a slip hanging on my box indicating a package has arrived. I didn't recall ordering anything and wasn't expecting any packages so I was puzzled. Five seconds later a light bulb popped on in my head and I had a very educated guess at what it was. We rushed upstairs to my apartment and opened the box. The sweet scent of fresh orangies wooshed out of the box and engulfed my mind with a sense of euphoria. My thoughts instantly wandered to the orange groves at home and how wonderful they smell during their peak season. Oh how I miss home.



...More to come, including MOZZIES!

Identifying My Strengths

Listening to: John Mayer - Gravity

I recently took a class on being a self-leader in the workplace. The class wasn't all that exciting but I received a few good points from it so I guess it was a good class. I learned more about identifying my strengths which really leads to identifying my natural talents. The presenters only summarized the issue and made me curious, I had to take the next step. Recently, I talked about leadership and responsibility with my manager who recommended a book to me entitled Now, Discover Your Strengths. I felt inspired from the class and from the talk with my manager so I spent $15 and bought the book which came with a great tool for identifying my talents. The survey consisted of 168 questions that asked me to rank my point of view on a certain situation. Afterwards, it listed my five main strengths. At this point I felt like I was taking a self-help test in a therapists office so I really didn't have any faith that it would be accurate. I read through the descriptions and felt some of them fit me but that they were off a bit. As I continued to read the book, it mentioned that the five themes resulting from the survey shouldn't be looked at as separate entities but instead built off one another. It was then that I compiled a few sentences summarizing each strength into one paragraph:

I am a problem solver who takes ownership of my commitments. I am honest and loyal and don't enjoy conflict. Alternately, I seek areas of agreement as well as treating everyone equally. Also, I work hard and take great satisfaction from being busy and productive. Lastly, I have a craving to know more and enjoy collecting and archiving all kinds of information.

Oddly enough, that does really sound like me...kind of crazy that a survey could summarize my strengths like that. Also, it's peculiar that the last point in the paragraph wasn't included as one of my five themes but I felt very strongly that it should. What do you think? Does that sum me up?



To try something fun and new, I'll recap my weekend in a stream of thoughts:

Fun, relaxing, sleep, Michelle, The Great Burrito, incredible Mexican food, entourage, entertainment, humor, closeness, Texas BBQ, pulled pork sandwich, central park, walking, playing, double Jamba juice, exploring, midtown, Moma, art, creativity, Picasso, Monet and snow!

Now for some more snow pictures! :) Be sure to check out the rest on my flickr page, there are lots!

Snow Snow Snow - Wintery Goodness

Listening to: Howie Day - Be There

I'll be eating a homemade chocolate covered banana while writing the first part of this entry. They have become a tasty treat of mine that are very simple to make. However, after this past weekend I shouldn't have anymore sweets for the rest of the year. I think getting Michelle a giant heart shaped cookie-cake from Mrs. Fields was a very bad idea... It was sooo good at the time though and I've been enjoying it the entire weekend. Michelle ate a few pieces but I admit that I did the most damage. Every time I went into the kitchen I would slice off a piece of the pie and little by little I made my mark. I'm guilty as charged. Another sinful treat was the chocolate covered strawberries I made for Michelle. I bought some ghiradelli dark chocolate and pulled a recipe from foodnetwork.com and went to town. They turned out really well!! What made them even tastier was some champagne I picked up that turned out to be very good for the price.



A very fun experience Michelle and I had was going to the play Avenue Q. We tried a few weeks ago to get lottery tickets but didn't get any. This time we lucked out and Michelle's name was chosen first from the big bucket of names. We were both really excited about getting front row seats for only $20 each. It was my first Broadway show too and what a show it was...SO FUNNY!!!! We both had a great time and are going to try to get tickets for Wicked next weekend. :) Overall, Michelle and I had a great weekend in the city together. Although we didn't do a ton of stuff it was still fun to hang around the apartment and stay out of the cold. We made some yummy food too and I just had an all around good time. --Thanks for making the trek down here sweetie!--



So on the the title...there's been snow on the ground for the past week and it's been very exciting. It's cool to see white covered cars, trees, patches of street (although most of it is an ugly brown by now) and it's stayed cold enough so the snow hasn't melted. Warmer temps are predicted for the coming week so I set out today to get some pictures of central park before the white blanket disappeared. When I first arrived it was such a breathtaking sight...the entire park was as white as could be except for a few paths carved out. It was amazing and gorgeous and great for pictures. I loved walking through the cold, snowy fields and just feeling winter all around me! This is what I was waiting for the whole year and it was hard to take it all in. I tried to capture some of what I witnessed but I messed up the settings on my camera so a lot of the pictures came out grainy or too light. For the techies, my ISO was set too high and the exposure was too long so the pictures were blurring and grainy. I snapped a couple of good ones though as long as you don't zoom it all the way.



I've been playing a lot of guitar lately and it feels so good! I love jamming with my electric on Guitar Rig. It's probably one of the best pieces of software I have and it makes the guitar experience so much richer. There are hundreds of settings and thousands of combinations to choose from...it never gets boring. I've been trying to record some new stuff but Sonar has been giving me problems lately (it's the software I use to record). I recorded some long solo's just for fun but they are just too raw, there's lot of mistakes and switching...it's basically just 9 minutes of experimenting which nobody wants to listen to, haha.



Without further ado...

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's SNOWING!!!

Listening to: Jet - Stand Up

IT'S SNOWING OUTSIDE!!! I walked out and to my surprise, light, fluffy flurries were sweeping down out of the sky. It wasn't cold enough for the snow to stick but it was fun to see it coming down. I walked up a couple of blocks and felt the snow blowing past me. I stopped at the intersection and watched it through the street lights. It was soooo cool!!!! Man, I can't wait until there's a big storm and the snow piles up on the ground outside. I want to see that white blanket covering the city. In the meantime, I took a couple of pictures with my small digital camera (I didn't want to bring the big one out into the wet snow). You can look at them on my flickr page but I've also included a few below for your viewing pleasure.









As for the weekend, Michelle and I didn't do a whole lot but it was really nice to see her again. It was extremely cold on Friday night so we decided not to brave the wind chill. We stayed in and watched "This Film is Not Yet Rated." We both really enjoyed it. Check out the review here. On Saturday morning, I made waffles for breakfast which I've captured below.



After we stuffed ourselves with yummy waffles, we ventured out into the city to do some shopping. We took our chances at getting lottery seats for Avenue Q but no dice. It's not going to stop us from trying though...next weekend! Instead of the play, we ate at Spanky's BBQ in Times Square and went to a comedy show at UCB. It was a nice full night of entertainment and good eatin'!



...and here are some more pictures from the weekend. Check out the rest on my flickr page.

IT'S FINALLY SNOWING!!!

Listening to: Supergrass - Moving

The snow is falling harder and harder outside the office window! I can see a whirl of white flecks drifting to the ground. There's no hope of it sticking in this metropolis but it's still wonderful to look at! :) :) Just a little bit has raised my hopes of it actually being a real winter up here in NY. I can't wait for more!