Nathan

Nathan came to visit last weekend. It was a pretty lazy weekend, but still fun to have him around. We had Thanksgiving dinner Saturday evening. Check out the posting on my blog for pics of the dinner (www.clarindas.blogspot.com).





Here are a couple of pics of Nathan:

After a shower. Oh to be little enough to wrap the towel completely around yourself TWICE

Balancing on the exercise ball--with a little help from the couch. :-)

Activities Committee

Yesterday, Jeff and I accepted new callings in our ward at church. We are now members of the Activities Committee. Our first upcoming activity is the ward Halloween party. Sounds like fun!

We will continue to serve in our previous callings as well. Jeff is a Sunday school teacher; I am the Relief Society Enrichment Leader.

The Dayton ward is so grateful to have us, and we are so grateful to serve!! Losing ourselves in the service of others, helps us to keep our sanity. Well, I feel that way at least. It helps me to feel grounded--if not busy. But hey, a busy bee is a happy bee. :-)

Nathan's first visit

Nathan came to visit us this weekend. For those of you who may not know Nathan, he is Jeff's son, my stepson. He is 7 years old and full of energy!

I thought it was a lot of fun to have a child around the house. For as much energy as he has, he is still very well behaved. He was such a big helper, too. He helped set the table every night! Plus he helped with just about anything I asked him to do.

We had a very busy day on Saturday!

He had a soccer game in Salem, OR. It's fun to watch these little guys play. Nathan is actually quite good. Unfortunately, the team they were playing yesterday were even better! Oh well, you can't win 'em all...of course, they don't even keep score yet.

Dad and Nathan before the game.

Nathan wearing a silly hat (?)

It's the cover for a camping chair; he was pretending to be Cat in the Hat.

A couple ACTION shots...

After the soccer game, we headed to the International Rose Test Garden in Portland. Jeff needed to visit the garden for one of his classes (Art 101), so we thought it would be fun to kill 2 birds with one stone. I've wanted to visit the garden for some time, so it was a bonus for me as well.

Jeff taking notes at the Garden.

Nathan is such a little ham; he loves to get his picture taken.

The little guy tried his best on this one, but our heads got a little trim. Oops! What do you expect from a 7-year old, I suppose. :-)

Day at the Beach

Before life got too crazy for Jeff with classes, we decided to take a drive to the Oregon coast. It's only about a 1 hour drive. I had never been to the coast before, so it was exciting for me.

It was peaceful to watch the waves come crashing in.

It seemed weird to me that something so fierce and strong could actually exude a feeling a peace and calm. I was definitely enjoying it.

We walked along the beach together--hand in hand.

Jeff pointed out all the dead crabs on the shore.

I hope we get to go back again sometime soon.

Check out the mountains in the background!
And the crashing waves were so beautiful!

Shadows in the Night...wait it's midday!

Jeff named his Henry (for the day).

We have a short video clip of our beach experience as well. It's about 1 1/2 minutes. If you'd like to see it, let me know and I'll attach it to an e-mail.

Mama & Baby Girl Shull

Not sure what Amy is talking about...but who can resist the adorable, Baby Meredith!?!

The von Hartens

Andy, Isaiah and Staci (friends in Brooklyn)

I love this pic of Daddy and baby boy. :-)

Crazy Hair

Coney Island BLUE

After spending the 4th of July at Coney Island, we couldn't resist buying some BLUE cotton candy. We figure they must use some powerful blue dye because this is after just a small taste.

BUT...boy was it good!!

Beautiful sunset

Check out this beautiful sunset! This was taken out the window of the truck as we were driving. I can't remember where we were at...somewhere in North Dakota, I think. It was really breathtaking.

10,000 Silver $ Bar

One of the stops we made on our road trip across the country was at this really neat Bar. Jeff's mom suggested it to us, and since it wasn't out of the way at all, we decided to stop.

It was really cool! The walls and the bar tops have silver $'s embedded in them. This is an up-close photo of one of the walls.

Today, you can still buy a silver dollar--except they are actually Eisenhower $s. I don't believe that silver dollars are still being made. Jeff and I each purchased one.

We purchased numbers 47, 832 and 47, 833. They give you postcards with your name and hometown on them as a memento.

Mormon Night at the Mets

June 19th was Mormon Night at the Mets. I always enjoyed going to Twins games with my Dad, so I thought it would be fun for Jeff and me to go to this game with members from our branch and the whole mission.

All the missionaries from the New York New York South mission sang the national anthem. Unfortunately, we were a little late getting to the game, and we missed seeing this.

We met up with the Shull’s before the game, since they’re on our way, and we took the train together. Our seats at the game weren’t near each other, so we separated for a time. We ended up moving to where they were, because the missionaries in our area were definitely showing their 19-year-old natures. It was pretty obvious that they were not at the game to watch, but rather to socialize with all the other missionaries there. They were really loud and distracting, so we moved.

Of course, then we were distracted by little Meredith—much more pleasurable of a distraction! She is such a cute little girl (will be 1 year in Aug), and has definitely stolen Jeff’s heart! I think he will miss her most out of everyone we’ve met here in NY.

The skies threatened rain all day, but it held off until (I think) the 8th inning. Once we felt the 1st two drops of rain, we were outta there!

We're Moving!!

As I'm sure you already know, Jeff and I are moving out to Oregon at the end of the month. We are very excited for this move. Maybe even for the long road trip; although, I'm not so sure about that. A coast-to-coast trek will require a good deal of patience.

Anyway, we're loading up the truck on July 26th, and heading out to MN shortly after the loading has been completed.

We'll pit stop for a couple of days in Minnesota to rest, restore, and visit with my family. From there, we'll head out to central WA to visit an old friend of Jeff's, who he hasn't seen in 7 or so years. And then, on to Dayton, OR.

Our new address will be:
1005 Ferry St. # 17
Dayton OR 97114

We hope that you'll keep in touch!

Conquering Manhattan One Neighborhood at a Time -- TRIBECA

Next we decided to conquer Tribeca. For those of you who don’t know, Tribeca means “Triangle below Canal Street.”

For our roamings through this particular neighborhood, we found a walking tour online. We printed it out and met at the corner of Canal St and Broadway. The tour took us a couple of hours to finish, and took a lot of pictures of buildings that we found to be interesting. I’ll just put up a few of those that I really enjoyed.

Civic Center Synagogue


American Thread Building—now converted into condominiums


I don’t think this was a part of the tour, but we really thought these windows were neat.


American Telephone & Telegraph Long Lines Building—these tall, windowless towers hold electronic equipment for the phone company. It was designed to resist nuclear fallout and was to be provided with enough energy and food storage to keep it self-sufficient for two weeks' operation. The heat is provided by the telephone equipment itself. This info was provided in the tour. I was fascinated that the equipment produced so much heat.


Again, not part of the tour…but we’d really LOVE to live in a building like this. One of those top floors with one of those balconies! Can you imagine?! That would truly be a dream come true for us!

Agnieszka's wedding

On June 3, 2006, we had the honor of attending the wedding of an old friend of mine, Agnieszka. Agnieszka and I were roommates back in the summer of 1994 at a language camp at Simon's Rock in Mass. I can't remember how long the camp was for. I want to say 6 weeks, but I can't be sure about that. Over the next 12 years, we managed to stay in touch, and since we moved to the NYC, we were invited to the wedding.

We gave a ride to one of her friends as well, and the morning started out with a bit of drama! We had reserved the car to be picked up at 9 a.m. but we thought that would give us too much time for the Noon wedding, so we pushed it back to 10:30. Well, it turns out...that was quite a mistake. Or maybe the mistake laid in the lack of full preparation. We didn't bring any credit cards with us--only our bankcard (which anywhere else can be used as a credit card). What this meant is that Jeff had to return home to grab one. This was no small task, as it is quite a hike home! To add to that, it was HOT and RAINING outside--not pleasant to be running in Sunday best! It seemed that everything was stacked against us this morning, but Jeff made it back and we were on our way. We didn't quite make it on time...but we made it!

After the wedding, we drove on to Patchogue, NY, where the reception was being held. I have to admit that this was definitely one of my favorite receptions! The food was exquisite! (Too bad Jeff and I don't really have cultured palates to truly enjoy this remarkable food.) The band was fun. And Agnieszka...I don't think that I've seen a happier, cuter bride!

Jeff had this thing with the keyboard player of the band...something about his "look." I didn't really get it, but most of our pics of the days revolve around this man.

The reception was right on the ocean. It would have been beautiful if the weather had been cooperating. From the window, we could just see all the waves crashing. If the big predicted hurricane actually hits NY, this place is sure to be hit big time! It will be a shame, because it is a very nice facility.

Check out this cake!! Mmmm...Mmmm...Mmmm...

Cool bridge in Poughkeepsie

In June, I had to go to Poughkeepsie, NY, for the ELCA Metro NY Synod Assembly. Augsburg Fortress, as the publishing house for the ELCA, has a "bookstore" at the various synod assemblies across the country. I was asked to help set-up and work the one in Poughkeepsie.

Jeff drove up there with me. It was about a 2-hour drive. It was really pretty--even Jeff thought so, and we all know his preference to concrete, glass, and steel! :-) The trees made a perfect canopy over several parts of the road. It was really breathtaking at points.

From our hotel to the convention center, we could see this glorious bridge. This photo doesn't really do it justice, as it was taken as we drove down the road. It was a beautiful, quite majestic, bridge.

STOP!!!

Clarinda and I have each created our own blogs. This will still be our main page, but for some of our individual tastes, insights, reviews, and stories check out:

Jeff's Place - by typing gotojeffsplace.blogspot.com in your address bar,

or

All things Clarinda - by typing clarindas.blogspot.com in the address bar.

OR, the easiest way to get there is to click on the "View My Complete Profile" link at the top of the right column.

Only in NYC!

While standing in line for the Tribeca Film Festival, Jeff noticed this sign (Sorry for the blurriness of the photo. It was very far away and we had to really zoom in and then the camera doesn't perform as well because it detects every little movement.)

Where else can you save up to 74%??

Why not 75%??

They're going out of business...what's that 1% really going to gain them? :-)

Tribeca Film Festival

In late April, I kept seeing posters for the Tribeca Film Festival. I thought we can't live in New York and not go to at least one film of the festival.



Jeff scoured the films for something that looked interesting and that would be appropriate for us to watch. We finally decided on a film called Kettle of Fish showing on May 6th. It's a romantic comedy (no surprise there) starring Matthew Modine and Gina Gershon. Modine plays a musician...a lifelong bachelor...who sublets his apartment to Gershon...a biologist.



As we were riding the train to the movie theater, I noticed that the couple across from us had some flyers (or something) that had Kettle of Fish written on it. I thought, "Hey! They're going to the same film we are." Jeff was trying to remember where exactly the theater was (which wasn't in Tribeca at all, but rather on the Upper West Side). We had forgotten to double check the listing before we'd headed out. I leaned over and said he should ask them because they were going to the same movie.



So he did.



Turns out, not only were they going to the same movie, but she was none other than Claudia Myers...the writer/director of the film!! We chatted for the rest of the train ride. What was it like to work with Modine? Of particular interest to us, as he is also LDS--married to his wife for more than 26 years! How many films had she had in the festival? This was her first and only. It was really exciting for us to sit across from the director and her husband.



The film festival (as previously mentioned) is not confined to Tribeca. The venues for the films are spread throughout most of the City, which we found very interesting. We were also shocked that this was only the 5th annual festival. We thought that it had been around much longer than that. Here is the theater we went to...





Getting tickets was no easy feat. We were unable to purchase tickets online, so we decided to get there early. Our landlord was heading out the Manhattan at the same time we were heading to the train. He offered us a ride. We accepted. It really helped us out because we were running a bit late.



This was the line by the time we got there! And this was just to get the tickets




The film was very enjoyable! We even stayed for the Q&A with the director. Made me miss my film school days a little bit. Maybe I could've had a film in the TFF if I had stayed in the program for more than 1 1/2 quarters!

Conquering Manhattan One Neighborhood at a time -- CHINATOWN

The second neighborhood that Clarinda and I trampled underfoot was Chinatown. Chinatown, in and of itself, is a sensory overload for the shoppers of weak constitution. Unless one goes into Chinatown with a hardened heart, a sharp resolve, and an unwavering faith, you could go in looking for a wallet and come out with two sets of skies, a Rollix watch, a pair of Guccii loafers, a Prado handbag, three chickens and a goat. Heroes have been broken to mere mortals under the daunting stresses of this environment. However, I do believe the Ramsey girls could go in looking for a scarf and come out owning property, for the same price. To say the least, this neighborhood brings a whole new meaning to the term pushy sales people. And; it’s the home of the Knock-off. One must have a level of fortitude about them, the likes of which is not seen in your standard retail areas. My strategy now, is to have a target item in mind, and whenever entering negotiation with the sales people over it, pretending I only know one line of English…”you’ll take five dollars”. This usually results in a two way; monosyllabic conversation lasting about three to four minutes, but so for has yielded very good results.

This is one of my favorite places to shop. It is a hamlet of canopy clad vendors, selling a broad variety of merchandise. (Sorry about the byciclist, but it's NYC, try and get a photo without someone in the way)

New Yorker’s definitely don’t let reduced space allowances slow them down. It’s not just the buildings in this city that go into the sky to make room. They tell me you can get your car out in 15 minutes… I don’t buy it.

At one point Clarinda got some boots in this place called Chill. All I could think about was how bad I wanted to own that top floor loft.

The ground floors of the buildings to the left are all ostentatious galleries of several types, paintings, clothes, photography, etc…

And; if you didn’t believe NYC had a rat problem… think again.