Cousin Steve!

I'm so excited. My cousin Steve is coming to visit tomorrow. He gets in around 4 and will be here through Sunday night. yay!! We're going to Mamma Mia tomorrow night, but that's about all the plans we have. We'll play it by ear from then. Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Favorite Valentime's Day memory

Ok, So I was just thinking about this, so I thought I should share it. My favorite memory from this day was about 4 years ago when I was living in Seattle with Brian. His girlfriend (now wife) Julia AKA Hools was coming to town that day and my friend Charlie and I were Brian's accomplices in getting the apartment ready for her. He picked her up from the airport so while he was driving there, Charlie and I DECKED out the apartment. We put little heart confetti all over, flowers, rose petals, candles etc. but the catch was, we had to have the candles lit and NOT burn down the apartment. It took lighting the candles at the exact right time so they wouldn't burn all the way down between the time we left and the time they got home. So when they were on their way back from the airport, in an amazingly sneaky maneuver, while he was driving Brian called us, let it ring a few times and hung up without tipping off Hools at all. That call sprung us into action. We lit candles, made sure everything else was in the right place and skeedaddled out of there just in the knick of time. Needless to say, it was a rousing success, considering they are now married. :)

Happy Valentime's Day

Hope everyone has a wonderful day full of love and happiness.
<3, Anne

HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY KATE!!

It's my sister's half birthday today. 22 1/2. She's really old. I hope she got some good cupcakes or half cards today!

And it begins...

Pitchers and catchers reported to spring training today. Baseball season is officially underway. Rock on!

Here comes the snow

Get ready New York, the snow that has dumped 12 FEET upstate is on the way. It's supposed to roll on in tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure for those of you reading in Minnesota, Colorado, Washington, Montana or any other state with tons of snow already, you're thinking, big deal. But for my few southern california readers, enjoy your 75 degree weather, I'll be thoroughly jealous!

What the???

Ok, I think this might be the stupidest proposal for a law EVER. http://www.wnbc.com/news/10948106/detail.html
There are 8 million people in NY, out of those 8 million, 7.9 million walk everywhere they go and out of those 7.9 million, 7.89 million of those either use an ipod or a cell phone while they walk (ok, I made up those #s, but the actual #s are really high). And for those people who use ipods/cell phones and cross the street at the same time, and DON'T make it safely, SHAME ON THEIR MOTHERS for not teaching them to look both ways!
And what about disabled people?? Deaf people have been crossing the street without the use of their ears since, well the beginning of streets! And blind people can't possibly determine if it is safe to cross the street without the use of their eyes, can they? And people in wheelchairs, there's no way we can ensure that they will get across the street fast enough to not get hit. So do we ban all disabled people from crossing the street altoghether too??
And FURTHERMORE, what about radios in cars? Drivers can't possibly be paying attention to pedestrians while they're listening to the radio. If we're banning all entertainment for pedestrians, we better ban it for all things out on the street. We better ban tour buses too, because the driver won't be able to look out for pedestrians while using that little microphone thing to give a tour.
Anyway, 2 stupid people who got hit because they weren't paying attention are not representative of 8 million street crossers. Now, I'm usually a very law abiding citizen but if this law got passed (which I HIGHLY doubt it will) I would continue to listen to my ipod and use my cell phone, whenever I wanted out on the street, and if I got ticketed, I'd pay the fine and tell them to shove their stupid law. :)

A slight reprieve

So, it sounds to me like the jackhammer has moved down the street a slight bit. The building isn't shaking quite as much and its slightly quieter. But when I say slightly quieter, I mean the sound of a 737 roaring past your head as opposed to a 747. We're still talking about a jackhammer here.

ps.

I've started watching spanish soap operas lately, just to help with my comprehension of the language. Right now I'm watching, El Privilegio de Amar. It's difficult to understand over the jackhammering, but I'm catching most of it. It's 1:21 now, 20 full minutes of jackhammering and no end in sight. Although one positive to this, i just looked up the word for jackhammer in spanish and its way cool: martillo perforador.

JACKHAMMERING!!!

Ok, as you can see, it is currently 1:07 AM Eastern time and I am awake. Now, that isn't that unusual, I don't usually go to bed til 12 or 1 anyway, but today it is for a particularly obnoxious reason. About 10 minutes ago, directly below our window, Con Ed (that's the power company) crews started JACKHAMMERING something in the middle of the street. It's wicked loud and, as jackhammers tend to do, it is shaking the entire building. I assume it has something to do with the frigid cold that is here right now, and I sincerely hope it is truly an emergency that is so important that it needs to be accessed, through the street, via jackhammer, immediately. Because if this is something that could have waited until 9am tomorrow, I'm going to be really annoyed. By the time most of you read this, it will be morning, and hopefully the jackhammering will have subsided hours ago, but in case you read it earlier, keep your fingers crossed that it's almost over!

Superbowl and cousins!!

So, who is watching the Superbowl tonight? My friend is having a party at his house (too bad its in Hoboken. boooooo Hoboken) so a number of us are going over there. I think I'm rooting for the Bears although I really don't care. I'm just going for the chili.
I also recently found out that in addition to my awesome cousin Steve who is coming to visit the weekend of February 23, my cousin Michael and his lovely ladyfriend Emily are coming the weekend of February 15. In addition to fun restaurants and other activities, I'm taking Steve to Mamma Mia and Michael and Emily to Colbert and Conan. Maybe this will serve as incentive to anyone who has been thinking "Gee, I'd love to visit Anne in New York but I'm just not sure that there would be any fun activities for us to do while I'm there."
My third cousin mention of the day goes out to Elizabeth, who is meeting me in Florida for spring training in a month. Last year we had the BEST time and I'm sure this year will be just as awesome. Hopefully we'll return with some dates with major league baseball players. ;) She's running the LA marathon the week before too, so wish her luck!!
Ok, off to the gym so I can burn off enough calories to eat loads of chili tonight!

Team Mean Jean

In case you didn't get the email....

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to send out a note and let everyone know that the 2007 MS
walk is coming up on April 22 and it looks like our inspiration, Mean
Jean herself might be making an appearance at the NY walk! Last year,
Team Mean Jean was only Caroline and me and we did the 6 mile walk in
the pouring rain, but this year we're hoping to expand! There is a 3,
6 and 10 mile walk, so a distance for everyone. Official Team Mean
Jean t-shirts will be provided (even to people doing walks around the
country) so let me know if you, your families or anyone else you know
might be interested in walking!
Details here: http://nationalmssociety.org/nyn/event/event_detail.asp?e=6536
Thanks, talk to everyone soon!
Mean Jean's official coordinator,
Anne