By Omission or Commission

Whether or not it was by virtue of the fact that we've been mongo-busy or simply due to a weird hiccup in this blog's server, it was a bitch getting back here over the last few days to keep this space updated.

It's not for want of activity on which to report, of course; we've been doing a lot of running around and, despite the opportunity, very little shopping. So, in essence, we've been seeing apartments, museums, neighborhoods and friends, and, overall, just spending time together and trying to avoid any major humidity. Of course, on that last one, being out and about over the past few days meant ultra-humidity so we didn't quite accomplish that last goal.

But beyond that, we had a blast over the weekend -- we spent time with friends and then hit the San Genarro festival in Little Italy on Saturday, at which time we ate surprisingly little (we tried funnel cake as Kaia's never had it before), but I wound up not getting sausage and peppers on a roll. It's not for lack of desire -- getting a sausage and peppers roll in Little Italy during San Genarro is one of those things that everyone (aside from vegetarians) have to do at least once in their lifetimes. Short version: they take huge coils of sausage -- typically "sweet" -- and grill them to get a good amount of fat out of the sausage. Simultaneously, they sweat green peppers and yellow onions until they're fully tender, then slather a few hunks of the sausage and the onions and peppers on a large hot dog bun and serve it up with some napkins. I'm sure salt and olive oil are added into the mix, but overall, that's the gist. It's not fancy, it's not high-brow, and it sure isn't healthy, but these festivals are rarely about healthy eats.

What we ended up doing was walking through about twenty blocks of sweaty people of all nationalities, not just Italian (duh). As far as food is concerned, I got a roasted corn on the cobb and Kaia got a kebab (really just small pieces of chicken fire-roasted). We later got Italian ice, popcorn and the aforementioned funnel cake (which, after one-third had been tasted by the four of us, found a garbage can) and we kept going through the throngs. I snapped a photo of a client's building on which I've been working and then we hopped a cab to Whitehall Street, the subway station which also concurrently links to the entrance to the Staten Island Ferry. We took a 5:00PM ferry across to (drumroll please) Staten Island and took a bunch of photos of the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island and a variety of stuff both land- and sea-based, then spent about 20 minutes hanging around Staten Island just to kick back and relax and then we headed back to downtown. Since we were still local to Little Italy I suggested a place to eat in Chinatown, so we walked (about ten or so blocks) and arrived, waited for five or so minutes up front and -- finally -- sat down. We had a nice variety of stuff -- spring rolls and vegetable dumplings, sweet and sour pan-roasted sea bass, shrimp with broccoli, roast duck buddha-style, and kung pao chicken. By the time we left the restauarant for a nearby bar -- Madame X in Soho -- we were just falling-down tired, so after a few drinks and an hour or so, we said our goodbyes to friends and headed home and landed in bed.

Yesterday: football.

By the time we landed in bed last night -- later than we'd planned -- we had fit an entire week's worth of activity into our weekend, so despite the fact it flew by, we both agreed that we'd had a lot of fun and that it went way too quickly. Alas, there's another one coming up in about five or so days, so I'll be sure and keep you posted when/if appropriate.

-B-