very simple

random candle feature from the back wall of Dos Caminos, where I had dinner tonight with friends I haven’t seen in forever!

this is actually an extra photo that I took yesterday in Madison Square Park. NYC empties out the fountains in the wintertime under the theory that frozen water is not good for them. Of course, it hit 60 degrees today. In January.

These three buildings used to comprise one store known as the M. Gordon Novelty shop. It was a bright blue eyesore, made even more eyesore-ish by the fact that in the entire time I lived in the flatiron neighborhood, the shop was actually abandoned. It spend years as a closed, gated over, crumbling mess in the middle of some of the most premium real estate in the city (you can sort of see the old building from an angle in a photo I took in 2005. and this flickr group seems to be dedicated to preserving its memory). But it was also one of those vestiges of old new york that more often disappear too quickly in our modern age. I’m glad that they refurbished the buildings – if nothing else I spent years wondering when the thing was going to collapse. I just wish they had found something more unique than yet another le pain quotidian to stick inside.

American flag, received at my grandfather’s funeral almost exactly 10 years ago.

Yes. it’s another cat picture. It will probably be a theme. I pulled out the desk chair tonight to sit down and do some important stuff on my computer (or check Facebook. whatever), and sadie immediately jumped up and assumed this spot. the rascal.

It’s been a really long week at work, for many reasons, but the biggest one is that this is our first 5-day week in the office since before Christmas. Compounded by the fact that the sun sets at, like, two in the afternoon and sunlight becomes hard to come by, so you have to find the beauty in 6th Avenue at night while waiting for the bus…

Work has been a little busy lately, so I’m going to the “things sitting on my desk” well already. Bluetooth speaker. Invaluable when traveling (at the destination – I’m polite enough to use headphones during the actual travel portions of the trip!).

It’s a two-fer today, since I fell down on the job last night. So…a theme.

I don’t know how it started, but I’ve ended up with a collection of mugs from all of my (grown-up) jobs. But they’re starting to turn into bad omens after not one, but two(!) law firms that I previously worked for have gone bankrupt following my departure. At least I have this lovely commemorative swag.

First, I worked at Reid & Priest as a summer associate in 1998, the summer it merged with Thelen, Marrin, Johnston & Bridges. I left Thelen Reid & Priest in 2003 with a group, and it went belly up in 2008-2009 after it merged with another firm that (at least according to the stories I’ve heard) saddled it with unmanageable debt.

The firm I moved to and stayed at quite happily until they kicked me out in a misguided effort to save money by firing profitable associates was Dewey Ballantine, which eventually became Dewey & LeBoeuf, and which finally, last year, became an object lesson in how to turn a highly respected law firm with a 100-year history into an industry joke.

A little delay in getting this posted, thanks to a major server outage last night at my hosting provider. Things seem to be back up and running this morning, so…fingers crossed. Cute cocktail stirrers that I ended up with. Now I just need to have more cocktail parties to utilize them!

Well, maybe not the last tree, but given the rate at which I’ve seen dead christmas trees out on the sidewalk for garbage pickup in the past few days, it’s certainly one of the very few left. And it’s the most famous tree around. I had to pop by my office today for something, so I decided to use the excuse of going to midtown to wander up near Rockefeller Center. No way was I going to fight the crowd to get any closer – working in this neighborhood for a dozen years will cure anyone of that desire.