Coney Island Mermaid Parade

This is the last year for Coney Island... AGAIN. Well so they say -- apparently this parade is a tradition that won't go away that easily. People just enjoy dressing up in strange aquatic themed costumes and walking along the boardwalk on a summer day. It never fails to draw a huge crowd. We watched from the fringes, sneaking some photos where we could and drank the yard long summer cocktail... which for unlimited refills was pretty good, some sort of Koolaid spiked drink.

world traveler visits

Our globetrotting friend Lisa made a pit stop in NYC to catch up with old friends and work a spell before heading back out on the road in Africa. It was great catching up on old times, although I miss her dog Darwin! Lisa was a first grade teacher here in NYC and put her career on hold to chase her dreams of adventure. She likes to keep everyone guessing.. where in the world is Lisa?... Somewhere in Africa right now!

Don Gato Live!

Rod got a new Flip video camera and Don Gato got curious about it.

memorial weekend grillout

We finally made a long overdue trip up to Boston again for a visit. Maya and Maizey are changing so fast and are getting so pretty! The last time we saw them, Maizey was barely crawling. This time Maya was quite a showboat -- posing for the camera and insisting on seeing the digital photo to examine the results. We enjoyed a delicious grillout and great bonfire. We also saw the new 'Indy' flick which didn't really meet our expectations or rather just didn't exceed them.

Johnny Hollywood comes to town

Johnny came to visit last week for 10 days of fun in NYC. His main stated purpose was to meet Señor Don Gato and win her over. I think one could say that he won her love as much as anyone can, as she slept on his feet and laid belly up next to him on the couch. True Love. I'm pretty sure she misses him. We had an action packed week of adventure despite the poor weather conditions of drizzley days and low temperatures of which Johnny has grown unaccustomed.
Johnny's second stated purpose was to eat as much 'good' pizza as he could get down before returning to L.A. where they reportedly do not offer such quality in their pizza-making— so he stocked up on Smiling Pizza and Grimaldi's. We spent a few days exploring the cultural institutions of the Moma and the Brooklyn Museum of Art where we saw such exhibits as 'Design and the Elastic Mind' and the 'Murakami Exhibit' respectively. We walked through the Botanical Gardens to view the Cherry Blossums in bloom and also Prospect park to heckle a few little league baseball games. Many lovely days exploring the fine eateries and drinking establishments that Brooklyn has to offer such as the Gowanus Yacht Club where there are certainly no Yachts and it's not a club and also the Montauk Club which is a club. We walked the Brooklyn bridge when some sunlight broke through the clouds. Some sports were played at the Tennis Courts. And we even managed to catch the final race of the Kentucky Derby over a cannoli where alas Blue Bells ran her last race. So we had a really eventful week and enjoyed Johnny's visit! Hope he had fun too!

Inspired by Arthur Ashe

After listening to an NPR interview with Arthur Ashes' wife about civil rights and became really curious about him and impressed with his story. He was the first & only black pro tennis player to win Wimbleton and the Australian Open. He also was a very outspoken civil rights speaker and died of AIDS after contracting it from a blood transfusion in the hospital. Here is an inspirational quote that I read in regards to his feelings on the disease...

During his battle with AIDS, one of his fans asked: "Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease?" To this Arthur replied: The world over — 50,000,000 children start playing tennis, 5,000,000 learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5,000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to the semi-finals, 2 to the finals, When I was holding a cup I never asked God "Why me?" And today in pain I should not be asking God, "Why me?".

computers for kids

Interesting concept - It’s an effort by One Laptop Per Child (http://www.laptopgiving.org/) to develop a very low-cost, rugged computer for impoverished children in poor countries. It was designed to sell at a very low cost of $100, but they were offering a donation deal, of buy 1 for a kid and get one for yourself. I wonder what the potential is for kids actually using this device, will they be able to figure it out? Will enough kids around them have one so that they can use the sharing software? It's definitely a powerful tool that could help poor kids in third world countries get access to ideas. NY Times writer, David Pogue wrote an interesting review, read here.