Photos from Greenpoint and any other random place I may be at.

Photos from Greenpoint and any other random place we may visit.


Photo 37 – August 31, 2010

The first day of first grade at AF Bushwick Elementary School.

Photo 36 – August 30, 2010


This is a very strange display that I saw in one of the Polish furniture shops in Greenpoint. According to Rob it's a jackalope. Per Wikipeida:

The jackalope is a mythical animal of North American folklore (a so-called "fearsome critter") described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns or deer antlers and sometimes a pheasant's tail (and often hind legs). The word jackalope is a portmanteau of "jackrabbit" and "antalope", an archaic spelling of antelope.


Here is a close-up of the little guy:

Photo 35 – August 29, 2010


This is the view of the city, one block away from my house.

Photo 34 – August 28, 2010

We often take Coco to the LIC dog run. They are doing construction in the area and CoCo has a fear of trucks and men in hard hats, but If we get lucky and it's a quite day, she has a great time.

Photo 33 – August 27, 2010



The beer store.

Photo 32 – August 26, 2010

A truck crashed into our parked car (the Roo), luckily the only damage was to the window. The guy driving the truck was honest enough to leave a note on our car and he is going to pay for the repair.
This is the second time that our car gets crashed while it is parked. Our old Buick (the Bui) was totaled when a guy fell asleep driving and crashed head on into it. The good thing about that, was that we got more money than the car was worth and we were able to buy the Roo.

Photo 31 – August 25, 2010

We got into bed tonight and this is what we found under the covers.

Photo 30 – August 24, 2010





I realized we were out of beans this morning, so I stopped at Porto Rican Importing for some coffee. We buy whole beans, because we grind our own coffee in the morning. Some mornings I am so tired, that I stand in the kitchen for like 5 minutes (it may be less) because I'm not sure how to press the button to grind.

Photo 29 – August 23, 2010


This is the only way that I can survive in the morning.

Montauk, NY


We went invited to Montauk by our dad, Ed. Well he's not really our dad, but he's the guy that owns the beer store and he was our boss during Celebrate Brooklyn and since he's always bossing everyone around we call him Dad. He invited all the beer store employees, their families and us to the beach. We drove up at 6:00 am on Saturday, so that we could bypass all the traffic. We got there in record time. We spent the day at the lying out on the beach, playing frisbee, bocce ball and I rode my SUP.














Baby Avery ate quite a bit of sand.


After dinner, we had a bonfire on the beach.




Photo 28 – August 20, 2010


One of our favorite bars, Habitat, is holding a wing eating contest in a couple of weeks. Last years winner ate 48 wings in 10 minutes. Just thinking about that makes me want to throw up. They are trying to see if this years winner can beat that record. I didn't even bother putting my name in that entry box.

Photo 27 – August 19, 2010


This is what I woke up to in the middle of the night.

Photo 26 – August 18, 2010




I came home exhausted and Rob also had a busy day, so we decided to go out for 'soup dumplings.' Soup dumplings have to be one of my favorite things to eat. It's a dumpling that has pork or crab meat and a broth inside of it.

Mmmmm.

I always get my own order.

Photo 25 – August 17, 2010

I started work yesterday and I don't really know how to feel about that. My co-teacher and I inherited a room that is a disaster, so we will send the next two weeks organizing. I tried taking a picture of our school sign, but it had a weird light reflection thing going on. I will try again at some point.

Here is the pic with the reflection:


Photo 24 – August 16, 2010


Rain, rain at last
Thank God there's rain at last!

Today my garden and my garden gnomes are happy.

Photo 23 – August 15, 2010

We went for a bike ride to the Greenpoint Farmers Market in Mccaren Park. For years, I thought that Mccaren Park was in Williamsburg, but it is in fact in my town. It's a rather small Farmers Market, compared to the one in Union Square and it is always crowded. We purchased Boston Lettuce from one of the stands and when I got ready to wash the lettuce I noticed a dead ladybug in one of the leaves.

Photo 22 – August 14, 2010

We have decided to try to start eating healthier. So we found this great recipe, Quinoa with Spice-Roasted Shrimp and Pistou from the Healthy Eating section of Food and Wine Magazine. For our side we made a summer squash, chantrelle mushroom, onion and red pepper stir fry.

Photo 21 – August 13, 2010

Today had a lot of interesting events, so this entry has more than one pic. We started our afternoon at Brouweji Lane, after a couple of half-pints (or pints in Rob's cases) we decided to go home to get ready for dinner.



On one of our adventures through Greenpoint we discovered, Amber Steakhouse. We were intrigued, we hadn't heard anything about it and when we asked around, no one had heard of it either. So we rode our bikes to this totally Polish, not hip steakhouse---but the food was GREAT.







We then rode our bikes over to a party at ReadySet Studios. There was free booze, girls dancing and music, so it was a scene. The owner is in a death-metal punk band, so his band played---Uhhhh...not for me, especially because the singer had fake blood all over himself and the drummer was wearing a creepy bunny mask. We did have fun though.




Once we got home, Coco found her place in the bed and there was no way for me to move her. It's very strange, that a 35lb dog weighs 150lbs when she's sleeping.

Photo 20 – August 12, 2010

Even though she won't admit it, Coco loves me!

Photo 19 – August 11, 2010

We stopped at my in-law's in New Jersey on the way back from Philly. While we were driving around, we found a farm stand that had great produce.


South Philly

My friends and I planned a trip down to Philly to watch a ballgame, but before we went to the game we went for cheese steak. We went to rival cheese steak restaurants Geno's Steaks and Pat the King of Steaks.


Here's the deal, if your going to compare cheese steaks they need to be made the same exact way. We made the mistake of ordering a wit with provolone from Pat's and a wit with whiz from Geno's. They tasted totally different and our favorite was Geno's because of the gooey whiz.


The Phillies lost the game, but we had a great time.

Photo 18 – August 9, 2010

We love to shop at Fairway Market and my favorite thing about going there, is that I can see Lady Liberty from the parking lot.

Photo 17 – August 8, 2010


Is it a plane, is it a bird.....No it's Super-Coco.

Coco has destroyed the blanket that she sleeps with and when she has a bee in her bonnet, she tangles herself in the blanket and walks around in the blanket. We just leave her to her own devices to get untangled.

Photo 16 – August 7, 2010

Throughout the summer, Rob and I worked at Celebrate Brooklyn as a way to pay for our trip to California. I checked ID's and he worked at the bar. We spent most of the summer in the spot they call Hell Well. Hell Well is the bar that is right smack in the center of the band shell. It was fun working there, because we were able to see the performances from that spot. This a pic of the best performance of the summer, Sharon Jones and Dap-Kings.

Photo 15 – August 6, 2010

My rooftop garden.

It's been fun experimenting with different flowers, herbs and vegetable plants. Tomatoes, thyme, rosemary and roses love the heat and the sun. Basil, mint and peppers like the heat, but not the sun. Cilantro and parsley don't like either-- they died.


Photo 14 – August 5, 2010

I was pleasantly surprised with my garden when I returned from Miami. My garden might just survive the summer. I had a bunch of ripe cherry tomatoes so I made a Rob's simple salsa with them, recipe below pic.



Rob's Salsa

Chop and add to a bowl:
1 tomato (or several cherry tomatoes)
1/2 onion
1 hot pepper (habanero or jalapeno)
3 sprigs of cilantro

Squeeze and add to the bowl:
1/2 lime

Add to taste:
Salt

Photo 13 – August 5, 2010






Magic (hahaha)

Photo 12 – August 4, 2010

UHHH....hello dog, that's my spot not yours.

Coco and I have always had some dominance issues. We are always fighting (well I'm always fighting with her) for the pillows, bed and the spot next to Rob. She took full advantage of the bed when I was in Miami and when I came back, she moved me out of the way so that she could snuggle with Rob.

Miami, Florida

Miami will always be home, because that is where my family is. I miss them and Cuban pastries on a daily basis.

Parents













Sisters (old pic)


Niece and Nephew













Macho (waiting for a snack)