Knitting...

Kathy re-igniting Marta's passion for knitting.

Software pleasures

OMG! PhilBY has waited 7 years for this day! Adobe CS2 and Macromedia Studio 8, in one magnificent action-packed bundle of software goodness...

Ok.

Kathy's day in Manhattan

We spent the day with Kathy (Marta's mother) walking through Manhattan. We saw St. Patrick's Cathedral, tried to get the Empire State to fit inside a disposable camera (and failed), took the Staten Island ferry past Ellis Island and Lady Liberty, posed with the bull and the Stock Exchange and returned to tend to our mangled feet.

St. Patrick's


Empire State Building

Ellis Island



New Jersey port


From Staten Island




The Statue in front of New Jersey



Manhattan flash





Bank of America (1, Wallstreet), designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

Ali leaves, Kathy arrives

It never stops, at the Blyths... Alison left in the morning (after a breakfast of pankakes, not much else left in the house) to return to her Adi in Angola, and (after a crazy day of trying to figure out where the heck Kathy is stranded in Newark Airport Manhattan), Kathy's finally sipping Yogi-tea on a tour of our apartment...

More snow

The Color Purple

Mayte invites us ALL (except Pam, who has left to warm up in California) to see "The Color Purple", our first Broadway show (no photos allowed...), and it's AMAZING! The stage/scenery is insane (minimalist props, trapdoors, revolving platforms...), the acting/singing/dancing is perfect, and the black southern accent of the whole show and the 99% black audience is so cool we feel happy all day :) (more infos here)

NYCOMICCON

My friend Alex (who I met through Marta's job) had 2 free passes to the "New York Comics Conference", where, surrounded by tote-carrying scruffs and crazy StarWars fans, I finally realize what a geek I really am...



FlCl (pron. "FoulyCouly"), a series of individually customized vinyl figures that really stands out.

I feel bad for not being able to give all these artists work the attention it deserves, but time is limited, I need to get to "The Color Purple"...

Alex (on the right) trying to find one missing number for his huge collection. No luck :(

"where are the donuts?"

My friend Dominik would KILL for one of these...

Artists from the "Golden Age" of American comics, with their original oil-painted work for sale for a couple thousand bucks...

The expo is huge, and this is only one floor of 2!

I leave the NYComicCon with a heavy heart and a bag full of free stuff/samples/posters.
I took advantage of the great expo deals, and bought Chris Ware's "Jimmy Corrigan" and Mike Mignola's wonderful new Hellboy "Strange Places" for 25% off. Also, I chatted with David Mack, author of acclaimed "Kabuki", and he gave me his 50$ book for 20 bucks, plus a booklet from his current series (cover by Mignola), both signed, and a limited-edition poster for free! I'm a happy man... And now I have to RUN!

PhilBY's rubber duckie

Pam knows how much I love taking baths, so she gave me a rubber duck, which I test-drove in a piping-hot foamy tub. Now I have a companion for my weekly soaking-thinking-sessions!

Of Patsies, Stomp! and chocolate...

After coming down from the Empire State Building, we went to this Italian place "Patsies" we'd discovered when Shamim, Rebecca & Saleem came to visit (really great food, and great un-Manhattan-ish prices!)






Then, we went to see "Stomp" in its dedicated theater. It was seriously one of the coolest things we'd EVER seen. Go see their website if you don't know what the stomp we're on about!




After all the excitement, we went for a luxury mug of spicy Mexican melted chocolate
at Max Brenners chocolate bar. Oh...my...God...
And came home at about midnight... perfect.

To the top of Empire State

To see more pics of this flipping awesome view, check out our online album! We chose exactly the right time to go up there, as we got the sunset and NY's lights coming on :)