On The Other Hand…

…..we COULD pay the equivalent of $13.48cad or $9.99usd for 10 slices of precooked bacon, full sodium count.  NOT when I can get 8 slices at home for $7.99 with reduced sodium. The expensive bacon packs are sold at D’agostino’s….a very high priced grocery store that seems to be empty of customers most of the time. There are always many more staff visible than customers.  In fact we see so few customers inside either of the two D’ag stores near us that I am starting to wonder if they are a front for some other sort of more nefarious activity! Hahaha…..If they just sold reduced sodium potato chips they would have a regular customer in my husband….who is currently online desperately seeking a retailer who carries either the Cape Cod brand of lower sodium chips, or someone who carries Hal’s brand. Hal’s doesn’t banner their bags as having lower sodium chips inside, but reading the nutritional values listed on the packaging confirms that they are indeed more amenable to my husband’s allowed daily sodium intake allowance. I wish him well in his search. Now that he is reacting to rice the same way he reacts to corn products we have had to strike one more of his own personal major food groups from his list of yummy possibilities. Sigh…..hopefully potatoes will not be next! 

Different Shopping Choices For Groceries

 I am having a bit of fun looking at the differences in grocery products and costs here compared to home. One huge difference is in the size and price of a loaf of bread. The number of slices of bread per loaf 🍞 here for what I would call the regular lower cost grocery store loaf, is 18-20 slices for $1.39usd ($1.93cad) compared to 12-14 slices in the equivalent quality Canadian bread loaves costing $2.79cad ($2.01usd). On the other hand a six ounce jar of Japanese yuzu marmalade here is a high $10.45usd so in Canada the same jar could be $14.48cad, also known as, “NO WAY ON GOD’S LITTLE GREEN EARTH AM I GOING TO PAY THAT MUCH FOR MARMALADE!!!” Hahaha….so in cases like that I stop mentally figuring the exchange rates; I just purchase the product and enjoy it! What is shocking to me is how many grocery products, even figuring in the exchange rate, are substantially lower in price than in Canada…at least in our part of Canada…far more products than I thought. Grocery prices for many items we found in the Hannaford’s grocery near Red Hook were so good that before we came home from the cabin our kids stocked up on groceries for themselves and ferried them home to NYC. 

This morning we have been graced with light rain. Just as it began falling I took a short walk to Duane Reade pharmacy for some meds. It was lovely striding along with the tiny drops cooling me off. When I arrived at the pharmacy the clerks were determined I was going to have my annual ‘flu shot because, “the kids go back to school next week and they gonna be spreading’ that stuff everywhere!” The one sweet girl took me by the arm and started leading into the back of the pharmacy to the injection site before I understood what was happening and managed to avoid a poke in the arm that I didn’t want. I explained I was from Canada and my ‘flu shots are up to date. Then my arm was released from her determined death grip and I was allowed to make my purchases. We are finding many pharmacies in our neighborhood are aggressively promoting all manner of vaccines and we wonder if it is an attempt to counteract the misinformation and scare tactics presently being spread around this country and our own. You certainly could not accuse the staff at our local Duane Reade of being lackadaisical about ensuring every customer coming in had every opportunity to be vaccinated! 

We may or may not follow through with our plan to wander over to the Morgan. It feels like it should be a lazy day today; a stay home to read books and hand wash some undies kind of day. Traffic is gridlocked here more than usual so there are many more impatient drivers, car horns blaring at other drivers who can’t move anyway. 

The possibility of heavier rain and winds this afternoon and evening has prompted yet another possible flash food watch, as well as possible tornado activity closer to the upstate areas and over east closer to Boston. Weather watches seem to be issued well in advance of any and all possible problems, hours and even days ahead of the arrival of forecast storms. Good to be prepared, of course, but the dire possibilities seem to actually occur so rarely that New York City dwellers seem to pretty much ignore them and continue on about their daily business until the last possible second when the direst of events are already in progress. It will be interesting to see what really does happen with the weather today.

Sleep 😴 Of Champions!

 I won the contest as to what to have for dinner last night: teriyaki chicken and chicken katsu bento boxes so crammed with food that we brought home enough for a meal today as well. Yummy! We will also finish eating the last of the tomatoes our son and his wife bought us at their local farmers’ market when we first arrived. They also pick up fresh produce every Thursday from “Farmer Ted” who brings in his garden gleanings from his farm upstate. Spectacular stuff! 

We finished dinner at 6pm, about the time most New Yorkers are slowly waking up to the fact that a meal sometime between then and 9pm might be a good idea. Eating before 7pm pretty much guarantees us a nearly deserted restaurant space and freshly prepared food. Love it! 😊 

By the time 7pm rolled around we both had to admit we were completely exhausted from the poor night of sleep previously, my allergies and a certain amount of stress over an upcoming dinner party that may be socially awkward. So, we wisely, (for once), got ourselves ready for bed and read ourselves to sleep.  My husband was a goner by 8pm and I shut my light out at 8:30pm to enjoy a 9 hour, deep sleep. 

We finally figured out how to open all the windows in here, so we slept with them wide open all night. The “fresh” air dissipated the odour of carpet /room deodorizer sufficiently to grant me this wonderful sleep, awakening with far less congestion in my sinuses and throat this morning.

It is supposed to rain late this afternoon and into the evening. Hopefully that will cool things down slightly as we are losing the comfortably moderate temperatures and heading back into the heat. For the next 7-10 days at least we are looking at daytime highs in the mid 90F range. We knew these lovely days in the mid 70F range were too great to last, but we have been grateful for every one of them. 

Great transportation news for us: to get to the dinner tomorrow evening we can catch a bus right across the street that takes us to within two blocks of our destination. We have had great success with the buses and subways thus far and apart from the initial pathfinding glitch last week, my husband has done a spectacular job of navigating. 

This morning we hope to walk over to the Morgan to see some of the lighting projects our son worked on. Their main exhibition right now is on ancient tarot cards….not of great interest but we do want to see the Morgan library. It is very close to “home” so there is no rush to get transportation. Our own feet will do nicely.

Oh Frick!

 We received a nice surprise this morning! Our son had the morning off so he wondered if he could accompany us to the Frick Museum. Of course we said he could. Since he is extremely familiar with the collection, having worked there several times in the last couple of years lighting various exhibitions, he knew exactly which salons we would enjoy the most. What a joy to see works by Rembrandt and Turner, Veronese, Goya, Hals…..the list goes on. It was a delight for all of us to see our favourite painting: Saint Francis in Ecstasy (Saint Francis in the Desert) by Giovanni Bellini! It was painted around 1475-1480. The painting contains a fair amount of symbolism that my husband enjoys. It was amazing to see the actual painting!! There are rooms filled with oriental porcelain and small bronzes, as well as some incredible medieval works from between the 13th and 15th centuries. The colours of the medieval works are still vibrant: reds and oranges in the Italian works and blues and green favoured by the German painters.

Unfortunately the pigments used by artists in the time of Rembrandt, as well as the use of so much linseed oil, are blackening. Details in many of the paintings of that era are disappearing, fading away to black. The fading colours are called Fugitive Pigments and it is a shame their green, blue and brown vibrancy does not last forever the way the bright medieval pigments seem to. Grateful we saw some of these famous works before the remaining background details blacken into obscurity.

After a delightful couple of hours there admiring the paintings and the lovely fountain featured in the inner courtyard, it was time for lunch. Even though our son has often worked at the Frick he has never eaten a restaurant meal in this most exclusive and expensive area of the entire city. So, he contacted his wife’s aunt who lives in a penthouse only blocks away from the Frick. She suggested the Leo Cafe at the nearby Asia Society Museum. Tucked away at 725 Park Avenue we nearly missed the unassuming looking building. The cafe there was perfect for us: clean, quiet due to a small number of customers, and a short but comprehensive menu. My son had a flank steak sandwich on ciabatta bread with spicy chips,  my husband enjoyed a salmon bowl with a large piece of salmon on a bed of quinoa and assorted cold vegetables, while I had a chicken salad: six large slices of chicken on a bed of shredded curly cabbage, mixed greens, dried shiitake mushrooms, green onions, diced fresh pears and a large amount of slivered papaya. Oh wow, we really enjoyed the clean restaurant, attentive staff, muted sunlight, surrounding greenery, small number of customers and most delicious foods at an incredibly reasonable price. The quiet ambiance was conducive to family visiting before our son had to get back to his studio to continue packing for the move that will now happen early next week….giving us an unexpectedly free day tomorrow to do something on our own that neither of the kids would enjoy. Maybe a ferry ride over to  Staten Island for the day? Could be raining by late afternoon so if we can get ourselves moving in the morning we could get to the Island in time for lunch at Blue, then home before the rain falls. Think I will suggest that to my husband. 

On our way home this afternoon we stopped in at a museum only a block from home: American Kennel Club’s Museum of the Dog. We knew nothing about it and had low expectations, but it was the most fun we have had at such a cute place in ever so long. The walls on the ground floor are set up like a portrait gallery for dogs of any and all breeds. Some of the artists are gifted at realistically capturing the various expressions on their poochy subjects’ faces and the fluid motions of their muscles when walking or running.  There was a large ceramics collection, antique dog collars and leashes,  an interactive video where you can play at being a professional dog trainer, interactive dog recognition and breed histories challenges, a wall covered in drawings and paragraphs about their own dogs written by elementary school children, amazing full sized bronzes and heavy ceramics of several breeds…two full sized ceramic replicas of Dalmatian spotted Great Danes immediately caught my attention. On the top of the three floors of exhibits was an art contest: 20 works of art and photography created by local dog lovers. We were each given a ballot when we paid the entry fee and chose our most favourite from among the twenty. That was fun. I loved a small bronze of a dog carrying a large stick in its jaws, running toward someone with the obvious intent of wanting to play Fetch! It was titled, “Favourite Stick”. My husband voted for a black and white headshot of a rescue bulldog cuddling up head to head with its new owner and it was captioned, “You Chose Me!”  We each took a self photo that was then matched to what breed of dog each of us most resembled. I have done this before several times over the years, in various places. As always I was matched with a bulldog, but my husband turned his head just as his photo was being taken, so he matched with a bulldog as well and I didn’t feel so badly, hahaha. The biggest joy for me was discovering oversized AKC tee shirts for sale in the gift shop! Now I have the extra item of sleepwear I have been needing for the rest of the trip! YES!  👏 

In a couple of hours it will be time for dinner. I would like to return to the sushi shop we went to last week, but am guessing my tired husband will prefer to remain here and finish up the last tomato 🍅 and remaining strips of skinny bacon 🥓 for sandwiches. We shall see whose views win out tonight! Hohoho!

We have finally opened all the windows to try to rid this suite of the disgusting deodorizer that has been making me ill since we arrived. Tonight I will try sleeping on the living room sofa with all three windows open and see if it helps rid me of the overnight congestion. Here’s hoping….

A Happy Ending To The Day

 At 6pm today I realized it had been five hours since lunch and to keep my blood sugar happy I should prepare dinner, but after our large portion of protein lunches neither my husband nor I were at all hungry. We decided to go for a short walk instead, this time doing a bit of exploring on the avenues immediately to the west of us: Lexington, Park and Madison. We wanted to do a reconnaissance tour of Bryant Park and the main branch of the NYC public library so we could take photos of the iconic stone lions in front of the building, locate the Museum of the Dog, take a setting sun photo of the Chrysler Building, photos of the ceiling in the main concourse of Grand Central Station and locate the oldest Japanese grocery store in Manhattan which opened in 1910. All of these places are within 4 blocks of our apartment, so on another day we will go to the library and the Museum of the Dog. We had planned to go tomorrow, but our son is available to meet us at the Frick Museum in the morning before he goes to his studio, so we will do those things the following day. So many interesting things to see right in our own neighbourhood. By the time we wandered home again it was 8pm before we made out bacon and tomato sandwiches! Next week we want to return to upstate New York for a day so my husband can go to the motorcycle museum we didn't have time to see on our way to the cabin. The following week we will take a day to go to Staten Island to enjoy a good walk and lunch at our favourite restaurant there: Blue. Time for some seafood! Lots to see and do in this area of the country.

Good Housekeeping….Weeeeell, Mediocre At Least!

 It has been a productive day despite my miserable sleep last night. Amazing how this cycle of antihistamines is helping me to keep going day after day.

After a leisurely breakfast here at home we got ourselves showered and ready for the day, packed up our dirty clothes and headed to the basement laundry room. The washers and dryers are large capacity so we were able to easily wash and dry everything in about 90 minutes time. With so much space in the bin dryer to tumble dry, two shirts were all that needed ironing…easy peasy! Round trip cost per load, $7.50. Done and done. Now I have to come up with another 30 quarters for our next load about ten days from now, hahaha! It feels good to have all clean clothes again.

For lunch we walked across the street to Sam’s place, a lovely little Italian restaurant with high quality food and service and high prices, white linen table cloths and sterling silver tableware, white shirted, black panted, bow tied waiters…worth every penny. Our assigned waiter asked where we are from and was very interested in learning about the extent of our Canadian wildfires. At Sam’s you don’t bother looking at the menu unless you need to pay less for your lunch than the cost of the daily special entrees as the manager rattles them off with nary a mention of price. We have eaten so few expensive meals we didn’t care today, just ordered a veal and a chicken dish and paid a pretty penny for all the deliciousness! I can’t even remember the names of the dishes as they flew past my ears, missing my brain by a mile, in rapid fire, heavily Italian tainted English. My husband couldn’t hear or understand a word of it, but did catch the word veal at some point, so he ordered that. Haha! 

He received six decent sized scallops of veal in a very light tomato vinaigrette  style sauce and a healthy portion of hot green beans, carrots and cherry tomatoes. The large plate was filled with veal and veggies. My butterflied chicken breast was lightly breaded and covered in a mixed greens and tomato salad in a light oil and white balsamic dressing. Despite the size of the flayed chicken breast it was a light tasting meal that left me happily full rather than stuffed past need. My husband capped his meal with an espresso with delicious almond filled biscotti and pronounced himself thoroughly satisfied. We will definitely go to Sam’s place again, where the older owner/proprietor greets all guests as if they are cherished friends, checks on the enjoyment of the meal and provides a heart handshake on the way out. 

Immediately after lunch we went for a ten block round trip walk to Lidl Foods for more breakfast items for the rest of this week. Between Lidl’s and Trader Joe’s on the other side of the street from Lidl’s, we are well taken care of for groceries in the immediate area.

After we arrived home I decided to give our kitchen floor a good washing. The housekeeping is quite adequate here apart from the kitchen floor. It was grubby when we arrived and no less grubby after our room cleaning yesterday, so I used a J-Cloth provided for washing any dishes not able to be put into the dishwasher, filled an old cereal bowl with soapy water and went after the kitchen tiles. The floor looks so much better and feels clean underfoot at last. Could I have called for housekeeping to come on to wash that floor properly? Yes. Should I have? Also yes. BUT if I clean something myself then I know it has been done properly! It is my very own hang up and I apologize for none of the cleaning I have done in various long term stay suites on both sides of the border over the years!

Back In The City

 Sadly we all had to leave the cabin yesterday to return to regular daily life in the city. The kids will return to work and we will try to snag a washing machine and have a laundry day here. 

After feeling so much better the past two days, I am struggling again to sleep here. It is 2:30am and I am wrapped up in a sheet on the living room sofa so I don’t wake my husband by putting on a bedroom light. I am starting to wonder if there is an allergen in this apartment: the laundry soap used on the bedding, some kind of powdered carpet deodorizer in the large throw rugs, a hidden plug in air freshener…I need to try to track down this information because something in here seems to be setting my sinuses off again…a sort of floral odour that is very subtle, but present. Just praying I can figure it out and eliminate whatever it is. I am so disappointed to find myself awake again in the middle of the night and feeling less than well. I think I will pack my nose with Vicks VapoRub to cover up that smell. 

A happy thing though is that a few minutes ago I found a couple of emails from friends at home that were newsy. If I try answering them now I will never get back to sleep, so will wait until tomorrow. 

Having the extra hours at the cabin yesterday made the entire day more relaxed for us all. The kids went swimming again, my husband made baking powder biscuits for brunch, his third day of yummy brunch fixings after pancakes and French toast. We completed a wickedly difficult puzzle…well the other three did. I was the assistant who asked if this or that piece went here or there with a growing degree of accuracy as the days passed. It was a fun project. 

The drive back into the city was along another gorgeous, tree lined highway. We came back into the most northern part of Brooklyn and stopped at an Irish style pub owned by acquaintances of the kids. Lovely pub, mediocre food and a brusque chat with this acquaintance that made me want to box his ears….don’t know what was up with him, but considering the only other customers were a pair of foul mouthed drunks, he could have expressed a bit more interest in the fact that our kids had come so far out of their way to support his business. Grrrrr….mommy noises! It left a nasty bruise on our otherwise happy trip home.

The final trip home was through the city on very busy and crowded streets and byways. The rural highways and some of the city streets seem narrow to us so the tolerances between vehicles are smaller. Travelling for a couple of hours with cars speeding past only inches away was somewhat nerve wracking for us, so we were grateful both our kids are such experienced and aggressive NYC drivers. They drive like everyone else in the city, whereas my husband and I are a bit leery. Our hesitation would irritate the other drivers and potentially cause accidents. 

I don’t know if we were happy or sad last evening as we transitioned abruptly from lakes and trees to skyscrapers and exhaust fumes, but our kids were excited to be back in the city. They are already planning a return to the cabin at the next possible opportunity; perhaps in the winter to enjoy the snow and the lovely looking fireplace. We are most grateful they took us there to share the more rural experience together. It was so much fun, conducive to getting to know our daughter in law better. 

And now, to try to sleep here on the sofa. Praying about these allergies. Too much has gone into the planning and execution of this vacation to have it ruined by my sinuses!