Weekend with Jackie

Jackie and I really hit the town this weekend, trying to see as much as possible. Saturday we intended to start our day by catching the end of the taping of the Today show....we were a bit slow, so we missed it, but oh well. We ended up walking down 'Diamond Row' - one long block where tons of diamond wholesalers are located. We looked at lots of huge diamonds - I think the only price tag we saw was for $178,000...and we saw diamonds way bigger than the one with that price!!! Then we shopped from Rockefeller Plaza on up to Central Park. We grabbed lunch from a deli and then found a shady spot in the park to eat lunch, and then walked around awhile.
Next we headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of my favorite places in NYC. Right when we were ready to leave, it started pouring rain. Of course. So we stayed at the museum awhile longer, trying to caffeinate and rest our feet. While we sat there, we did a bit of people-watching. The most entertaining person we saw was a little girl eating with her family. On her plate she had turkey cubes, tofu cubes, corn, and SIX hardboiled eggs. Other than the fact that it was hilarious that that was her meal, it was funny that her family thought nothing of it. She also ate her eggs very funny - she basically scraped the whites off on her teeth, eating slowly, and leaving behind the yolk (I can only imagine how much cholesterol there would have been in 6 yolks!!). Great entertainment.
We left awhile later when the rain let up, and we headed to Grand Central Station cause that's one of my favorite buildings. Then we headed closer to Union Square with the intention of doing more bargain hunting. One of Jackie's friends who lives in the city had told us to go to Nordstrom, so that's what we were looking for. Of course it started pouring rain again, and we had no idea where we were going....so we both tried to call anyone we could think of to look it up on the internet. Finally one of her friends found out for us that there isn't a Nordstrom in Manhattan. Interesting. We decided to go ahead and eat dinner at a place right by where we were standing under a scaffolding trying to keep dry. It was a wine bar called 'Wined Up'. When we got in, there wasn't hardly anyone there, and our waiter was awesome. After awhile, he came over to us, apologizing profusely, asking if we could move to another table - apparently the one we sat at (in the still empty restaurant) was reserved for a group. So we moved. We just had some bread and cheese, hummus and pita, and some crazy pumpkin-filled hush puppies, along with our bottle of wine. Our waiter gave us two more glasses of wine on the house as well for making us move to a different table. Worked for us!
Today we slept a bit later, and then went into the city again specifically to go to a Old Navy (I've got a gift card I've been trying unsuccessfully to spend) and a Nine West store (Jackie needs new black heels). So we went back to the SoHo area and did just a bit of shopping. We headed back to Astoria for lunch, and we ate at a fun looking Greek place right by my apartment. It was very good, the only thing was that we sat outside and everyone was smoking....and the service was kind of slow considering we were in a hurry - both the result of being in a neighborhood dominated by Europeans I guess. We took some baklava to go (I'm looking forward to eating mine in a bit here) and then we went back to my apartment to get Jackie's suitcase, and went back to the main drag to get her a cab to the airport. It took a little bit - I had no idea if there would be enough cabs around for her to get one or not - and this was like 3:00 and her flight was at 3:55! I guess she got there in perfect time though, phew.
After she left I went back into the city to buy a bag I had considered buying yesterday. Yes, I know, I'm a dork. I just needed something bigger than the one purse I had brought here with me, and it was a good deal. So now I'm just hanging out at the apartment for the rest of the day. I should do laundry but it looked a little busy at the laundromat - I think I'll go Tues or Wed night. Unfortunately, something is wrong with the cable, and I don't know how to fix it. I hope Mary will know how to fix it when she gets back from Portland on Tuesday. Until then, she has a few seasons of Friends on DVD that I will watch.....works for me!
5 days til I get to see Kevin!!! Too bad he can't bring Satchel to Erikka's wedding.


30 Rockefeller Plaza....I love all the Art Deco motifs!!



This design was in the concrete on the stairs down to Bethesda Fountain - I just loved all the flowers and leaves.



I was going to take a picture myself of Jackie and I at Bethesda Fountain - then some woman walked by, grabbed my camera, and took a picture for us. Thanks!!!



The Temple of Dendur at the Met....one of my favorite areas. Egypt gave this to the US as a gift in 1967 or so, and Nixon (I think?) decided to give it to the Met.



Design on the top of a column of the Temple of Dendur.



The Met has a roof garden, and right now they have Jeff Koons' work on display, including this crazy 'balloon dog'.



This Tiffany window was the only Tiffany glass on display...they are renovating the American wing, so most of it was closed :(



Another picture of my favorite skyscraper.