alex in a suit

Had a big presentation today... it made the news.  [edit: there's a really annoying commercial for the first 30 seconds.  I recommend the mute button.]




I know, it sounds terrible, replacing the iconic wood with plastic.  But it's not plasticky, it's actually pretty woodlike, and it's even 100% recycled.  What it comes down to is there really isn't any other material out there that will work without destroying rainforests.  Believe me, we have tried everything.

The main thing for me was that nobody threw tomatoes at my new tie, which I have now officially designated as a Good Luck Tie.

Shake It All About

Every night at dinner we tell each other our "best" and "worst" for that day.

Nico told us his "worst" was having to do the Hokey Pokey in kindergarten.

I knew there would be something about kindergarten he wouldn't like.



(It does make me giggle just a little bit to think of Nico the Sober doing the Hokey Pokey.)

random new york: south street, manhattan

For those of you who have read/are reading Joseph Mitchell, here's what the South Street Seaport area looks like now...

They've tried to preserve some of the historic look and feel.  Most of the area is landmarked, so the buildings can't be messed around with too much.   The whole fish market area has been moved to the Bronx, though, and replaced with a large upscale mall and rather touristy park space.

And also some regular New Yorker park space -- here's a nice little project in the area that we recently finished.  Not my design, but Tristan and I ended up locating the boulders.

So although in some parts it seems a little like Disney Seaport-Land, it's still a pretty great place to hang out. Not sure Joseph Mitchell would recognize it, though.

50

First of all, Giants!  Woohoo! Yeah!

And second, sorry for the lack of posts here lately.  It's been pretty much the same as the "hour in the life" Ami posted on Dec 13, with a quick break for Christmas.  Once again, we shall strive to post more, with a corresponding increase in baby pictures for those who are interested.

But not this post -- I'm asking for your help on this one.  I should point out first that I am not a fan of bold New Years’ Resolutions, as I find it plenty difficult just to keep up with modest goals.  This year, however, I couldn’t help breaking out a little. 

I used to read during the 7 train portion of my epic daily commute, but for the past few months I’ve found it difficult to organize myself in getting reading material lined up, relying instead on whatever news and other drivel I can pull up on my phone.  So, I decided to try reading 50 books this year. 

Naturally I’m blogging this in the hope that you can help me draft my list.  I don’t have any hard rules at all –- could be any length, genre, whatever – although I do have a few loose parameters.  As some of you know I’m trying to read an interesting book for each country, so I’d love to make progress on that front.  I’d also like to get through some of the books I feel guilty about not reading yet.  Finally, I’d like to get a decent variety.

I do recognize that this goal requires almost one book per week.  But if it spurs me to be more prepared with reading material, that’s all I’m really hoping for.  Also, if I have, say, 50 years left, and I stick with 50 books per year, that’s only 2500 books I’ll get to out of the bajillions available.  Time to get cracking.

So if you’re in the mood, please suggest anything that comes to mind!  Could be a few of your favorites, or just something you read recently and liked.  You can provide explanations or not, I can check out reviews online before deciding if it will fit on the list.  Thanks!

An(other) Hour in the Life

In an effort to document our lives every so often, I've opted to take another hour and post it through pictures. Here is what life is like at the Hart household on an average Monday during one late afternoon hour.

The babies start the hour off by watching Baby McDonald or "eee iii oooo" as Liam calls it.


Nico contemplates, long and hard, whether he wants to eat some of his gingerbread house or leave it how it is. (And by "long and hard," I mean loooooooooooooooooooooong and hard. He was there for at least 30 minutes before this picture was taken.)


Ellie does her homework. She is very studious.


Having finally decided to eat his Christmas tree brownie, Nico does so and then goes off to spin on the office chair and look at his Ninjago cards.


Liam saw me eating a Gogurt and wanted one.



Anders saw him eating a Gogurt and wanted one.


Nico saw them eating a Gogurt and wanted one.

Being a frozen Gogurt, it gave Nico "Brain Freeze." Nico is pounding his forehead to alleviate the "Brain Freeze."


Ellie is doing her homework.



Liam is sad because he wanted more Gogurt.


Having seen me put the Gogurt wrapper in the garbage, he tries to retrieve it, hoping (I suppose) that there is more yogurt in it. As I'm not to keen on the twins excavating things out of the garbage, I blockaded it. Liam is doing his best to move my 100 lb. tower of flour. It didn't go very far.


Anders was very sad and needy and clingy, and therefore ended up in the backpack. Shocking.


Ellie is no longer doing her homework, but is instead doing a workbook of homework type stuff, all of her own choosing. This is after having regaled me, on the way home from school, with how much she hates school because they always give so much homework. Hmmmm....


Giving up on the flour, Liam attacks the Kleenexes.


Utilizing the assets at hand, Nico is either surrendering, polishing his sword, or raising the Title of Liberty.


Fresh from the backpack and ready for action (and apparently left unsupervised for a moment), Anders is joined by Liam in his exploration of the dining room table.


Ellie does more extra work.


Whining again, Anders goes back in the backpack.


"No, no, Liam." I'm not sure he knows what "no" means.



She "haaaattteeess" homework.


Still there.


Green Monkey!


Shortly before Anders tried to put this cracker in my ear. He's crazed for ears.


Really?!

Mine!


Ellie, finally done with her homework and extra work, pulls Nico and Anders around on a blanket. They LOVE this activity.


Liam likes it too.

My super-cool designer husband.

Okay, so you know your husband is a designer when his comment after watching "The Lion in Winter" is, "Wow, I really liked the font used in the credits!" Or how about when he gets his new cell phone and rhapsodizes about the packaging. "Someone put a lot of thought into this. This is great!" Or when he goes to put the new sim card in and rhapsodizes again about the inside of the phone being designed well. My husband is a designer.

And, he must be a good designer because he has an awesome new job starting Monday. In case you don't know, Alex has been the Director of Landscape Design for Manhattan for about a year now. No more. On Monday he starts as the second in command for landscape architecture for all of NYC Parks. My husband is cool. And smart. And awesome. And good at what he does. Congrats Alex on a job well done!

The Happy Dance

November deserves many posts, but I have not gotten to them yet. I will. In the meantime, please enjoy this. Liam does this dance whenever he gets really excited and also when asked to. Enjoy.