Halloween Scenes

Some days I miss living in the city.

Halloween was not one of those days.

No offense to Manhattan, but when it comes to Halloween, the suburbs have you beat.

Happy Birthday To My Best Girl

How is it possible that this:

And this:

And this:

Becomes this:

And this:

Happy 2nd birthday to the smartest and silliest girl in town.

Thanks for making me an aunt.

Halloween: Suburban Edition

Last year, we were pretty excited for our first suburban Halloween. Not because we have kids or were planning on trick or treating, but mostly because, for the first time ever, we would get to hand out candy.

Our apartment building in the city got a few kids from time to time, but since we lived all the way up on the 23rd floor, no one really ventured up to knock on our door.

But plans have a way of changing.

Not only did Hurricane Sandy push off our move to the first week in November instead of the last week in October, the storm also cancelled Halloween for all the kids in our new neighborhood. With downed trees and power lines all over the place, the mayor decided to err on the side of safety.

But this year, everything is different.

This year, Halloween is happening, and we are On. It.

As some of you may remember, for the past ten months there has been a life-sized R2-D2 in my living room. Well, our robotic friend will be playing a big role in our first suburban Halloween, as my handy husband transforms our front porch and entry way (and himself) into something straight out of the movie, light-sabers included, for the neighborhood kids.

You'll have to wait a day or so for pictures of the finished product, but to hold you over, here are some pictures of the master at work, getting R2 all wired up to walk and talk.

Sandy: One Year Later

I listened with half my brain as Bill Evans, the dapper ABC 7 weatherman, talked about a hurricane that had just made landfall in Jamaica and seemed to be charting a course for the northeastern coast of the United States.

The other half of my brain was focused on my living room as I organized its contents and wondered how many boxes we would need to pack it all up for our impending move to suburbia that was scheduled to take place in five days. Totally overwhelmed, the only answer I could come up with was, a lot.

I tuned back into the TV in time to hear that the hurricane was a category 1 storm and that New York City was concerned. Unimpressed, I hit the button for my DVR and turned on a Gilmore Girls episode to provide a more entertaining accompaniment to my chores. Having once lived in Florida, a category 1 storm was not something that worried me.

Show me a category 5, I thought, and then I'll get excited.

I had time for packing, moving and worrying about the construction in my new house. I absolutely did not have time for mass hysteria over a hurricane that would probably turn out to be nothing.

So I spent the next few days ignoring the news reports on how bad the storm was predicted to be, choosing instead to focus on saying goodbye to my favorite places in Manhattan and bemoaning the fact that I would be without TV and internet for a few days since we were transferring our cable from the apartment to the new house a few days before the actual move.

When New York Governor Cuomo declared a state of emergency I turned a blind eye. When the people of the Upper West Side took to Fairway and Trader Joe's and emptied the shelves in a panicked frenzy, I refused to join in. Not only did I not want to stand in line to get into the stores, I absolutely did not want to have food left over that I would have to move.

When my move was postponed 5 days and then Mayor Bloomberg ordered the evacuation of parts of the city and the shuttering of the entire transit system, I decided I was pretty lucky to be able to stay in my own apartment, and was grateful for the extra time to pack.

And when the managing partner of my law firm announced that the office would be closed Monday and Tuesday, I celebrated like a 10 year old on a snow day.

On Monday we gathered our snacks, queued up some movies, and I even went for a run along a closed - but very windy - Central Park. As the day wore on with barely a raindrop in site, I started to feel pretty superior for not getting caught up in the hype.

But when darkness fell over New York, and the water started to rise, I realized it wasn't at all as bad as everyone thought it would be.

It was so very much worse.

Throwback Thursday

With Dad.

This is What Sisters Do

Share recipes.

By taking pictures and texting them.

I love technology.

Thanks Sister K.