A Day With Ruby

Saturday began with Ruby and I heading over to Shady Park to play while Mama and Daddy and Red headed over to the East Side for a checkup with the pediatrician. It was a beautiful sunny morning and there was only one other little boy at the playground. Ruby had a ball running and squealing "eeeeeeeeeeeee" as she and the little boy ran around together. I chatted with the boy's parents as the kids played. What a small world it turns out to be! The husband is from Lake George, NY and Bennington, VT and his father worked at the same state agency where I worked!

After playing for about 45 minutes, Ruby and I headed over to the Food Cellar for a bagel for Ruby and coffee and a muffin for me. After hanging for a while, we headed over to the park along the East River, then back home to meet up with Mama and Daddy and Red.

Parental discretion paragraph:
Now, when Ruby needs to poo (pardon my French) she tends to emit long grunts. With Red being born this week and normal routines disrupted, Ruby was a little past due for both a BM and a nap.

After a delicious lunch of grilled cheese (thanks Joe!) and tomato soup, Joy and Red settled in for tag teaming of nursing and napping, while Joe headed out for a location scout and Ruby and I headed over to the "Train" Park.

When we arrived it the park, I then realized why it's referred to as "Train Park"!  We had the playground to ourselves!  Ruby headed to the giraffe slide, but hesitated at the top. I thought she was enjoying the view.  Then the grunting and grimacing began.  Oh, no!  My first thoughts: head back home!  I realized she would not agree to sitting on that lump of coal all the way home, plus I didn't want to do that. So, over to the nearest bench, a quick semi-strip, (for the not faint of heart, it was a clean job!). And, voila!  All is well.  I figured we would head over to the playground on the riverfront which would put us closer to home should the grunting begin anew.  Back into the stroller and off we went.  Not a half a block later, the second lacking event occurred, Ruby was asleep!  Mission accomplished!  We walked along the riverfront for a while, then headed back home where Mama put Ruby to bed for the remainder of her nap!

Later, after joe came home and we feasted on pizza and pasta, Joe, Ruby and G-Pa headed up the block to get some cupcakes.  Ruby had a ball riding her tricycle and "weeeeeeeee"ing all the way!

Welcome Red Hudson!

I'm a Grandpa again! We all thought this baby would be born early like his big sister Ruby, but he had his own plans! My bags have been packed for three weeks (today) in anticipation of coming up to NYC to help keep Ruby entertained (or more for Ruby to keep G-Pa entertained!) I talked with Joe and Joy on Monday and it seemed like the best laid plan would be for me to fly up on Wednesday. Ticket purchased, perishable food, about all gone. All well. Planned on doing laundry on Tuesday, bed early, and then to the airport for my morning flight.  So, off to bed on Monday night at about midnight. That was a bit early for me, but I was tired from having taken two walks (one around midday and the other in the evening) for a total of about 8.25 miles.

Then after being asleep for a little over an hour, I was awaken by a phone call from Joe. Looks like the kid wanted out! So, a couple phone calls later, I was booked to take to the skies at 8:30 AM. I was wide awake so gathered my laundry and did that one wash load in the middle of the night. I figured I didn't want to return two weeks later to a hamper of stinky clothes.

6:00 AM, pickup and off to TIA. Shortly before boarding the plane, I received a text message from Joe: "He's here! Red Hudson G . . . 8lbs 8 oz born at 5:33 au natural. Everyone is doing great!"

Arrived at the apartment around 1:30 PM and then took the MTA to the East Side. What a special moment to hold Red, not yet 12 hours out in the world! As I talked to him his eyes looked towards my voice. How beautiful! Very calm and alert! And Ruby, looking like the world's most nonchalant big sister, was sitting watching the adventures of her friend Dora on the iPad!

What a special time in that room! One of life's cherished moments. Another sweet spirit has joined our family! Already he is letting us get a taste of his personality.

Dad, Ruby and I left a short time later. What fun taking the subway with a stroller during the afternoon rush! After getting back to LIC, we stopped at the playground in 'Shady Park' before heading back to the apartment. This park lost much of its shade last October when superstorm Sandy toppled many of the trees. Ruby had a ball, chatting and playing with her friends and climbing up and then sliding quickly down the slide with a huge smile!

Mia put the two pictures together of the proud Papa!

What a special day!

Alzheimer's Moments Gets Published!

Back in 2006, my friend Gavin introduced me to blogging and encouraged me to begin a blog.  He had recently started one Why Oh Why? and shortly followed with a second one Alzheimer's Moments.  His second contained stories and experiences as he was living day to day as a full time caregiver to his mother.

I am very excited for him because he recently published a book based on his experiences with being a caregiver.  His blog posts provided the kick off to this heart warming book.  Although I have not had to go through anything like this, parts of the book stirred up many of my own memories around childhood, family, holidays, celebrations and death.  It's a beautiful work!

Congratulations Gavin!  I admire you!

On Hiatus

Not Florida

NYC with Ruby in January

Random photos. Freezing here in New York City.

Christmas in Saint Pete 2012

Elvis Lives!

I scored some free tickets to see Elvis Lives at the Mahaffey last Sunday.  Balcony center, first row.  I'm not a huge Elvis fan but did enjoy the show!  Very entertaining!  I hadn't really thought ahead about the audience, but there sure were a lot of gray and white hairs there!  And a strong smell of cheap perfume attempting to cover up the smell of cigarette smoke.  Just sayin'

It was a fun show though.  This coming Sunday I'm ushering at the Natalie Cole show there.  Ushering has its perks.

Celebrating with Gina at Disney

I met up with Gina on Friday to celebrate her 22nd Birthday.  We headed first to Animal Kingdom for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.  Gina looked regal with her Princess crown and Happy Birthday button!  The weather was perfect!  They had just opened another section of the restaurant so we had much of the room to ourselves and a couple other larger parties.  The most noise came from the elephants and chimps in the trees over our heads.  We were just hoping that no dust or other critters would fall into our food from the swaying branches!

We started with Chili Con Queso (Gina had to make that face because I'm always taking pictures!)  She chose for her entree Pastalaya ( shrimp, sauteed chicken breast, bell peppers, onions and Andouille sausage tossed in a hot and spicy Cajun sauce and served over linguini.)  I picked the Macadamia Crusted Tilapia and Coconut Shrimp.  

We then headed over to Expedition Everest to ride the roller coaster.  We figured we would give our lunch a little time to settle before riding the coaster.  We decided to get in the single rider line.  It only took us about ten minutes before we boarded.  And we got to ride in the same train!

Then we headed over to Hollywood Studios to meet up with Adele.  She was performing in the Little Mermaid show and we were meeting her for her hour break between two of the shows.  First we went over to the Hollywood Hotel to pick up three fast passes.  Then we met Adele and picked up some treats at the Villains in Vogue Shop at the Beverly Sunset.  After enjoying our sweets, we headed up Sunset Boulevard to the Hollywood Hotel.  We practically walked on with our passes.  It's always a blast!  As one girl was saying as we were getting off the ride:  "this never gets old!"

After bidding adieu to Adele, Gina and I headed back to her place.  I had a piece of her birthday cake before I left.  Pumpkin chocolate chip with a delicious cream cheese butter frosting.  How can you go wrong?!!!  It was another fun annual birthday celebration!

“Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time.”

The title of this post is a quote by Steven Wright.  Now that the holidays are behind us, I have been getting back to my daily walking.  I find that walking is very relaxing for me, even though I walk at a brisk pace.  Although I've lived here over five years, I find I still have to remind myself that I actually live here and that it is the middle of winter.  And, I've been trying to control my shutter finger, but am still finding it hard to do.

I found this quote by Ellen DeGeneres, and I thought it was apropos:  "My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty.  She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the heck she is."  I guess that will be me someday.

These first three collages were taken at various spots from Coffee Pot Bayou on the north to Demens Landing on the south.

These last three collages were taken on my last walk, starting with my midway break for refreshment, down to the Dali Museum and Albert Whitted Airport.

"But the beauty is in the walking -- we are betrayed by destinations."  - Gwyn Thomas

Happy Birthday Gina Bean!

Happy, Happy Birthday to the Bean!  Twenty-two years young!  I love you!!!  We get to celebrate soon!

Canvas Photo Art

I like taking pictures when I am taking walks around the neighborhood and downtown.  I see so many shots waiting to be taken that I have to control myself at times.  Every so often, I have to "prune" my vineyard, getting rid of some duplicate or similar shots, or ones that just don't seem appealing to me.  The total goes up and down, but right now I'm close to 17,000 photos.  Time to pare down again.

I've been getting emails from the MyPublisher website notifying me of various sales and specials for a while now.  When I saw that the canvas prints were at 40% off, I thought I would give it a try.  I went through events that came to mind, selecting various photos, some scenic, some close-ups, some family, some events, to try and pick one that I thought I wouldn't grow sick of looking at.  I decided on the above, one section of the Vinoy Renaissance Resort, which is within walking distance of my apartment.  It's a favorite locale for me and my family too.  In fact, we take a family shot in front of the Christmas tree in their lobby every year.  And the girls and I went there for our "Christmas dinner" ( click here for link ) when they visited me around my first Christmas here in St. Pete.

I was very pleased and am thinking of ordering more when there is another good sale.  The stretched canvas measures 24" x 36".  It was delivered within 6 days and came with the wire attached on the back for hanging.  All I had to do was take it out of the package and hang it up!

I may experiment with some photos, maybe giving them some special effect.



But then, I remember I'm going to have to live with them for a while!  Excuse me, I have a few photos to look through.

Early January 2013 in St. Pete

What a beautiful start to the new year.  First order of business: order my annual blog to print book.  Check!  It's in the mail!

I've gotten rid of almost all the sweets and treats in my apartment.  I ushered at the Mahaffey last night, so I brought a bunch of leftover candy and placed it in the ushers' room. Poof!  Didn't last long!

And I've made sure to start back to my walks.  It's interesting to see the remnants of the holidays disappear slowly, and to see the seasonal blossoming.  Today I took my tree down.  All of my holiday decorations are packed away until next December.  And next Christmas I will have a grandson!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year - Welcome 2013!

The weather warmed up a bit for the New Year celebrations.  Fireworks and firecrackers going on all over the place.  I had no plans going into the evening, so took a walk around downtown to see some of the First Night events.  Crowds everywhere.  Music blasting from clubs and restaurants.  It was a beautiful night to be outside!

I met up with Otto and some other friends at Georgie's later in the evening.  It was crowded there so I didn't stay too late.  I guess I'm getting old!

Happy New Year!!!