Richard’s Neighborhood

NYC, Nov 16, 2008
taken with my new Panosonic Lumix

Last Sunday we went north to see the colors.  Found lots to see, and some to share. 

We got our Wedding bands yesterday, and we're pretty happy. We wanted something simple, but also personal to us. 

When cave diving, you dive down to the cave entrance, and use your reel and line to keep track of where you are.  Once you enter the cave, you are leaving open water, which means you are leaving light, the surface and the world you knew.  If the cave you are diving has been explored, typically there is a gold rope running down the main path, and you tie your line into it so that you can always find your way back.  And if something goes wrong, you follow the gold line back to light, air and life. 

So our rings are Palladium, with a 14k Gold Line down the center. 

These are pictures of the ring and earring set that belonged to Richard's grandma on his Dad's side.  His mom & dad offered them to us to use in our wedding rings. 

When I heard that we could use a pair of diamond earrings I envisioned something more like this:

But they turned out to be vintage Eastern Star past matron jewelry -- a pair of screw back earrings set with diamonds and colored triangular stones, in 14k yellow gold with a 14k white gold overlay.  And the ring was formerly a pin, also 14k yellow with a 14k white gold overlay.  The center diamond on it is a little larger, as is the gavel which symbolizes her having served as a Past Matron. 

Though the ring fits perfectly and I am wearing it for now, of course as is it will not work.  But now that I am seeing all the pieces I am thinking about so many kinds of options to re-work into something really unique and interesting.

And the other side of my concern is that there may be more historical value to the set as is, than if taken apart.  A pretty extensive google query came up with nothing even close to as nice as any one of these pieces.  Take a closer look.

Any ideas?

I spent last week in New Jersey presenting our Global Compliance training and showing the love to some of the co-workers I support.  I always enjoy traveling for work, and, when I can, I like to link it to a weeknd so I can enjoy some personal travel time.  I'd convinced another co-worker in town from Atlanta who had never been to NYC to do the same. so we both had Saturday evening flights. 

I enjoy traveling, but this time, it was a lot harder to be away from home and Richard.  Fortunately, he was able to use his travel benefits to join me Thursday night.  He teleworked from the hotel Friday, and then we checked into the Newark Airport Hilton  which I got for a STEAL on -- $89. 

Of course, I printed the driving directions to the Newark Penn Station Hilton, and the usual wackiness that comes from letting me navigate.  Which ultimately cost us about 2 hours, a few mad dashes through NJ rush hour traffic with luggage in the rain, and my co-worker's ability to hang for more wackiness getting into the city Friday night. 

 

Richard, on the other hand, is a trooper!  So off we went into the night, seeking food and adventure.  We took 3 different trains (Airport Rail, NJ PATH, NJ Transit) to the World Trade Center Station -- being there 7 years and a day after 9/11/2001 certainly gives perspective to what was otherwise a grand frolic.  After paying our respects, we wandered up West Broadway, just soaking up the night, enjoying each other's company, and looking for something to appeal to us for dinner. 

 

I spotted this place, with a fun looking bakery and streetside seating and so we checked it out.  Turned out to be much more upscale than we expected, and the 'casual' side of NY's Chez Panni cook fresh, seasonal local influenced chef, David Bouley.  We had about a 30 minute wait sipping beer/martini and checking out the Bakery, then had an absolutely AMAZING dinner:

wild mushroom salad   truffle dressing and parmesan cheese

chatham day boat lobster     red wine sauce and parsnip rosemary apple puree

Kobe Tataki seared Kobe beef in a ponzu dipping sauce

Chilled Creamy Dill Soup with fresh shrimp (and an oddly placed hint of vanilla)

Kamo Roast Duck & seared eggplant

Kakuni

 

 

Next day: (to be updated)

Richard & I tried to go diving off the GA coast this past weekend, but between Fay, Gustav and Hannah, somebody had other plans.  Before we knew all that, though, we decided to break up the drive by stopping in Savannah and have brunch with Paula Deen at "The Lady & the Tramp". It's not bad, but doesn't live up to the hype. None the less, we found ourselves needing to walk it off before driving down the coast another 2 hours.  As we were ambling up the main drag, we saw crowds and lots of police activity. Here's what we saw.  Click on the pictures, it's totally worth it. 

Found a great post on the history of the building and fountain by Julia C. Muller.  She also says the driver has already been released from the hospital!

Here's her article; Cotton was king in the late 1800s. The Factors wanted a build as a trading center. The City had to pass an ordinance to allow the construction of the building on the site and did so on Nov. 18, 1885. The Exchange Board of Directors then advertised for an architect. They chose Boston architect William Gibbons Preston. After consulting and designing, ground was broken in June 1886. The grand opening of the building was held on Sept. 19, 1887. The guardian fountain lion was also designed by Preston. It was installed 2 years later on Oct. 15, 1889. FYI, Preston also designed other local buildings including Independent Presbyterian Church, Guards Amory, Baldwin Mansion and my favorite, the old Hotel DeSoto.

The building was occupied by cotton factors until about 1947. Then various other businesses had offices in the edifice. The Savannah Chamber of Commerce moved in there in 1954. The Freemasons brought it about 1976. 

Also from the same post, got this great image of the statue and light post, apparently taken the day before.  Photo Credit belongs to a Savannah Now blogger named 'emom'.   Such a spectacular guy.  What a shame! 

Yesterday I became the mom to a 4th grader. Yikes! How did this happen?!

 

On the other hand Isabella was excited about going back to school, seeing her friends and she loves her new teacher... although she was disappointed it wasn't her Aunt Marissa since her teacher's last name is Wood.

Yesterday I took Isabella on a play date with her 2 best school friends K &K (who are twins... just in case you thought you were seeing double).

The girls had a great time catching up in person after their summer separated by all but the telephone... tragic! Not really, the big reason for the play date was we had just learned that the twins will not be returning to the same school this year. Isabella was in tears on Saturday when she found out. The other mom (also a Lisa... isn't everyone?!) and I made a committment to the girls that we would make sure that they would see each other regularly and then made plans to get together at the park on Sunday morning. Fortunately there were no tears on Sunday, only good times.

After a couple of hours at the park we went to a nearby restaurant called Au Lac. The menu is primarily vegetarian/vegan, with a separate raw menu. Not somewhere Bella and I would normally go, but we had gone there with K&K last fall and they had noodles, so Bella was oblivious to all other choices. The cool thing about the restaurant is that it categorizes it's menu as "Humaneese" food. Hmmm, food for humans... that' s us, so count us in for some vegetarian chow fun and yummy rice soup!

Needless to say the girls wanted to spend as much time together as possible and went to great lengths to convince us to Lisas to keep talking. They were pretty funny with their puppy dog faces... even though they could not keep from laughing because they knew we saw right through their wiley ways.

The twins and their mom have been going to the restaurant since before the girls were born, so they know all of the staff including the chef Ito - who came out to give hello hugs (he chooses not to speak).

Last week I had a cold and lost my voice for several days. Isabella said I sounded like Minnie Mouse when I tried to talk.

While I was with out my voice, I thought of Ito and how amazing it is that he has choosen not to speak for the past 8 years.  After telling him this story he left for a few minutes and returned with this plate of LOVE

 

Raw chocolate! I have been abstaining from sugar whenever possible for the past 8 months and did not plan on having dessert, but when Ito brought back this plate with 5 pieces of RAW chocolate, I decided I would give it a try. It was delicious and melted like butter in my mouth. Who knew you could get chocolate raw?! Yummy!

 

Richard's company held a Braves night out in the all you can eat section.  This was my first time to Turner Field, Braves vs Giants.  I was rooting for the Giants, of course and they won, 5 - 1.  Picture on far right shows Chipper Jones for the Braves at bat (I know, you'll have to just trust me). 

No this is not about Olympic gold - although we have been watching.

Earlier this month Bella and I travelled north to California's Gold Country on our way to family camp with the Swedes. After our long drive we enjoyed hanging out at the pool waiting for MorMor and Papa to join us. The pool was behind the motel part way up a hill with open land behind us. As we were getting out of the pool we saw a doe and her baby - too cute.

Thursday morning after breakfast in Sutter Creek, we went with MorMor and Papa for a tour of a real gold mine. Our tour guide was a 4th generation miner and totally looked the part.

On our tour we learned that gold shines and fool's gold glitters. We used this (and a lot of wrist action) afterwords to  pan for gold... easier than a trip to Beijing and a little bit less gold to get there.