very simple

Coming back from the upper east side on Friday. First, a little girl attempting to play in the little bit of snow still left on the park side of 5th Avenue, and second, a much better snow scene inside the actual park.

Most of the city is nigh-well disgusting at this point, with dirty, soot-covered, half-melted snow/ice clinging to curbs. And that’s not even counting the trash that’s somehow melted itself into the same piles, or the newly visible dead christmas trees that have finally been uncovered since they were tossed out during the first big blizzard on boxing day. Or the “gifts” left behind by people who seem to think that if their dog poops in a pile of snow, that somehow absolves them from having to clean it up (note to my fellow residents: it doesn’t). But Central Park is still pretty nice looking, even from the sidewalk. I thank the real estate gods every day for landing me an apartment only half a block away.

Ollie always needs to know where I am. If I’m sitting on the couch, he just sits with me, but when I’m at my desk, he just sits here and stares at me for hours. Sure, sometimes he’ll pretend to go to sleep, but I guarantee that if I even shift in a way that indicates that I might get up, he’s up on his feet ready to follow me. We actually put the dog bed here so that he wouldn’t either (i) continually try to climb in my lap while I try to use the computer or (ii) position himself directly behind my desk chair, so that I risk running him over every time I move.

No real description. I was just crossing 5th Avenue last night and thought this would make a good, gritty picture.

I swear, I’m not going to turn this into a hipstamatic triptych blog, but I probably have a few more of these to get out of my system before I move away from the theme.

This is the “old” part of the American Museum of Natural History, in triplicate. Just sort of lends itself to the aging that the app provides.

I’m beginning to enjoy the hipstamatic app on my iphone more than I thought I would, and have been trying out different “films” and lenses for fun. So, in the interests of playing around with the settings, I present to you a triptych of my traditional cafe breakfast: espresso and mineral water. Plus the new york times e-edition.

(click on the images to get them at full-size)

As promised. here, ollie, a tiny jack russell terrier, has managed to monopolize both my couch and my favorite blanket. he also drove me up a wall last night, insisting every two hours that he needed to go out. I’m sure that this had nothing to do with the fact that my nighttime doorman keeps treats in his pocket. But the joke was on Ollie, when he insisted on going out again at 9 (after going out at 7), because Al was on a break! ha!

Seriously – we got down to the lobby, Al wasn’t there, and Ollie stopped dead in his tracks and tried to go back to the elevator. I, being the mean aunt, then forced him to take another walk in the rain anyway. I think he’s learned his lesson.

I have a feeling that this won’t be the last picture of ollie that gets included in the project. I’m beginning to understand why all those bloggers do their weekly pet blogging. It’s an irresistible photographic subject.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something about this scene indicates to me that perhaps this building doesn’t have the most adequate drainage system in place.

Compared to other cities like LA or San Francisco, we don’t actually get a lot of fog here, because we’re in a geographically unique situation. But yesterday was an exception.