Check out my awesome view

July 4th 2004 in Manhattan: The area around my building is one of the best spots to see the fireworks on the East River. Here you can see a crowd of people packed together on one side of E34th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues.

Intersection of 34th and 1st

There were cops all around and inside my building. I had to get past a barricade with some cops and a doorman in order to get into my building. Then I had to wait 20 minutes for an elevator to get to my apartment.

My apartment isn't facing the river, but I could still hear the fireworks, and big ones would make everything bright, or red like in this photo. If you look closely you can also see people on the tops of the buildings

Empire State Building

It got really smokey since we were so close

People watching on the rooftop

Fireworks on the East River as seen from the roof of my building.
To see more photos (including many of Lola in Central Park on 7/3 and 7/4) click on the imagestation link.

I've been going to Central Park recently and walking around different parts of it each day. Lola (my dog) comes too, so there's quite a few photos of her, especially in the first series. (The 2nd and 3rd series have more "scenic" photos of Central Park). This photo from the first series shows a gondola on the reservoir as seen through an opening in Bow Bridge. Click the Imagestation link to see the series taken on 6/20 and 6/21:

Flowers in Shakespeare's garden. Click the Imagestation link to see the Central Park photo series from 6/23:

The "mall" or promenade. Click on the Imagestation link to see the series of photos from my visit to Central Park on 6/27 and 6/28:

From my blog:
Feb 1, 2004
Took this pic of a headless Santa outside the Eckerd's on us1 and 80th st over the holidays in Miami. Wouldn't this creep little kids out?  

Here's an entry from my blog.
Feb 14,2004
Police Castle
i walked on 30th street from the east river to the hudson..cause im stupid i guess but anyway, on the way i saw this police station that looked like a castle...it was just weird...in the middle of manhattan..this picture doesnt do it justice but here's a little peek at it
---just looked on nysonglines and found this:
Tenderloin Station House
134-138: This medieval-looking fortress is the HQ of the NYPD's Traffic Control Division; it was built in 1907 as the 23rd Precinct Station House, and is now a designated landmark. (it was btwn 6th and 7th aves)--better picture of it here
if you want to track my journey today, take a look at30th street 

The series of photos that follow (the last is before the lobster) are from when I went to the Audi Driving Experience back in March. It was held at the Panoz Racing School in Sebring, FL. The full program is two days, but there is an option to do half of it in one day. We completed the one day program, meaning we could go back again and do the second half. To see all the photos, and some movies, I took at this event, you can visit my Sony Imagestation album by clicking on the Imagestation logo  

A photo of part of the Sebring Raceway. We didn't get to drive on it, but we were right next to it and could hear the racecars. 

The first few exercises we did on the same little course (explained below). We partnered up with someone else in our group (Bri was mine) and took turns being driver and passenger. I got some cool videos from inside the car this way when Bri drove. Hopefully when I get my computer fixed, I can make a DVD. In this photo, Coki and Loni are in the car in front of us, waiting for the signal to go. We get lectured by an instructor who comes up to our car before and after we do the exercise to let us know what to do and if we did it right. 

I think this was the stopping exercise. You can't really see it in the photo, but above each of the three cone-marked lanes is a stoplight. When we begin, the three stoplights are green. Then right when we're almost passing under them they turn red and we have to stop. We practiced stopping with and without engaging the ABS system. In the changing lanes exercise, the three lights would start off green, but at the last minute, two would turn red and one would stay green: we had to swerve into the green lane, which was randomly on the left or right lane so that we wouldn't try to guess. Bri tried to guess and ended up in the wrong lane a few times. One time they turned them all red to throw me off, which worked: I didn't swerve but also didn't stop right away. The point of this was to be prepared for anything. We all "killed" a few cones on these exercises. 

Loni and Coki pose with the porta-pottys. I didn't understand why, but I took the picture anyway. Later, I learned they thought the signs on the porta-pottys were funny. 

Here's a closeup of the sign 

We stayed at the Chteau Elan Hotel, which is located right off the hairpin turn of Sebring raceway. The hotel had a racecar theme, from the bed's headboard... 

...to the bedspread 

...to the napkins at breakfast 

We spent some time in the classroom to learn about the exercises and techniques before actually doing them. We got booklets with diagrams explaining certain concepts. 

Coki, Loni, and Bri pose with one of the Audis used in the wet pavement exercise. 

This is the third to last exercise we did. That's wet pavement on which we had to drive in circles until we started spinning out (The instructor sitting in the passenger seat sometimes helped start the skidding by using the parking brake). We then had to regain control of the car. 

I don't have photos of the last two exercises, but they were:
--An autocross course using a stick-shift Audi convertible. (I had to learn to drive stick 5 minutes before I did this!)
--An accident-avoidance scenario. Cones placed on the road blocked our way, and we had to swerve offroad at the last second to avoid crashing into them. The trick here was not to brake because that could make us skid dangerously.

The last day of cooking school we learned how to kill a lobster before boiling it: (apparently this is supposed to be more humane than just dunking it) First position your knife where the tail and body part meet. Quickly shove the knife down and...
 

...then you slice its head down the middle. The lobster still moves around even after this. I don't know..it seems that chopping its head right off would be a quicker death. I'm not too thrilled about cooking lobster any time soon. They're overrated anyway. 

Playing with food is fun! After filetting a fish, I used his bones to make stock, but I couldn't bring myself to cook the head too (it's too creepy when your food looks at you). I realized you can use its head like a puppet, and make the fish "talk". Naturally, I then proceeded to chase Lola around the apartment with it while humming the "Jaws" theme.