Garage Sales

With summer comes the promise of garage sales (car boot sales for English folks). Can you smell the hint of musty basements, attics and garages in the air? Each summer we've visited the US for the past couple of years, I have used garage sales to help stock up on toys and clothes for Penny. I usually filter through garage sale listings at Craigslist before hitting the streets because Penny has little patience for these shopping excursions and I want to use my time most efficiently. 

You can imagine my dismay when summer in NYC rolled around and the listings for garage sales were disappointingly sparse. For example, Amanda held a garage sale of Mom's stuff in Dayton two weekends ago. I put a posting up on Craigslist for her. I was disappointed that it was one of about 60 postings and several of those were entire towns around Dayton having sales. For Staten Island the same weekend: about a dozen postings. And it's not like back home where you can just cruise the neighborhood and stumble across a dozen or so additional sales - while traversing the northern quarter of Staten Island to hit the mere three sales that said they had baby clothes, I stumbled across only one additional sale. Plus, the ones here that list as "huge" just mean that they have as many as four tables covered sparsely with knick-knacks. It has been a serious disappointment. 

Dan claims people don't yard sale here - it is easier to donate things to charity. True, there are Brooklyn churches who stick fliers in our door saying they'll come pick up on a specific day of the week if we just call to let them know we're donating. In addition to donation being relatively easy, there is the fear that if you put your address out there people will come and rob you. Some of the online sale listings didn't even post their addresses until the morning of the sale, then they removed the postings immediately afterward. Is it really worth a robber's effort? Personally, if people run off with my junk, I'm not bothered. More power to them if they can use a bunch of old clothes, some scratched picture frames and ugly ceramics! Better than having to pay someone to haul them away.

Despite the challenges, I am pleased to say that I have rounded up some nice items for Penny. I just barely caught a posting for a multi-family sale at the local military post - seemed a good chance because it's more people, they tend to have young families, and they might even be like the families in Grenada (off-loading stuff at a good price because they move a lot). Fort Wadsworth is Coast Guard and located directly under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, so I got to see a cool park, the best possible view of the bridge, and some decent deals all at the same time. Going to garage sales is actually a kind of fun way to get to know the island and some of its parks and things. Soon, I will be able to run errands with even fewer incidences of getting lost.

Another great way to familiarize myself with my surroundings is getting Traveling Zoo assignments. I had my first on Friday - tons o' fun! The teacher requested that we bring a bonus animal, so I added the chinchilla to my list of tarantula, tortoise and chicken. Unfortunately, the additional prep time almost made me depart late. I got lost briefly, fixed it, then managed to hit every red light for a full half the distance along the South Shore. Then I couldn't find parking. These things only happen when you're in a hurry. I quickly managed to find a way to get all the animals onto my cart, which meant I had to leave my other teaching supplies in the car. I got to the classroom just as the kids did. They weren't too broken up that all we had to look at were some pretty cool animals, though. There is an ongoing debate at work as to the value of the chicken when going to speak to classes. The kids seemed pretty thrilled with the chicken, in my opinion. You can weigh in on the survey at right.

I may not be able to post for a while because we're heading on a long road trip to Florida for a wedding this week. We should have lots of fun pictures when we get back, though. Keep us in your prayers as this is still somewhat experimental for Penny. She's so flexible, but there must be a limit.

Flats Friends Reunion

At long last, we got to meet up with some of our friends from the Flats (Grenada) this past weekend. Now that folks from Dan's class have finished their USMLE test and are starting their clinical assignments, they are beginning to settle here in NYC. This weekend we got to meet up with our friends Karen and little Paul.

We started off our day by catching an express bus into Manhattan...It was Penny's first trip on a for-real bus, not one of those crazy Grenadian things. No, Sleeping Beauty wasn't driving away while Penny was still crawling up the stairs. Penny did really seem to enjoy following her around the bus, though. Next, we descended into the depths of the NYC subway system. Oooh...so many fascinating people and things rushing around. I'll admit I was a little wary about such an excited little person with narrow platforms under construction, so I carried her during our time waiting for the train. When we finally reach Brooklyn, I opened up her stroller and we walked the remaining few blocks to the NYC Transit Museum.

The NYC Transit Museum is tons of fun - it has buses and subway cars you can get on and ride (or drive as Sleeping Beauty did). It is actually built inside an old underground subway station. You can even pretend to be the person in the ticket booth if that suits your fancy. It's more convincing play when you are a bit taller than Penny, though. There is all kinds of information on the engineering that went into digging the tunnels and building the transportation system for the city, from trains to roads and bridges, to how they process all those tolls and fares. Sadly, we weren't able to absorb much of that info because there were two VERY excited little folks running all over the place amongst the other little folks weaving among the various cool objects. I don't have any pictures of Penny and Paul together in the museum because at this age, they don't play with each other as much as around each other.


The museum seemed to begin to clear out (maybe because the birthday party involving Sleeping Beauty was breaking up), so we headed back outside for a little more energy blowing in a local park. I was a little sad that the park seemed to involve more pavement and cobblestone than grass, but that didn't cut into the enjoyment for Penny and Paul. They found tons of fun sticks to play with, birds to follow, and bocce players to pester. After a quick bite to eat, we headed back on the subway for Penny's first ride on the Staten Island Ferry. She was unimpressed by the view of the Statue of Liberty, but that may have had to do with utter exhaustion. It was her bedtime by the time we landed at the St. George terminal. We're looking forward to getting together with our friends again and some more exciting firsts.

Road Trip

Happy belated Mother's Day to everyone out there. Last week was a busy one. We started with a visit from Matt & Maria - it was nice seeing folks I haven't for the past six months or more. It was also a good kick in the pants to contain some of our sprawl in the house. We got to show off Dan's favorite pizza place and Dan got to explain some of his in-depth analysis of what constitutes good - strike that - excellent pizza. Penny got to show off her walking skills and her ability to smile at guys (she used to cry around adult males, even ones she knew).

We also expanded our walking exploration in search of a local playground. Penny was brave enough to actually play with one or two of the kids there. She also did a little more slide experimentation. There were a variety of shapes and heights of slide, so there was much to investigate. Luckily, many of them were tubes, so we had somewhere to hide out when it started to rain. She was undeterred by the sprinkles, choosing to catch a quick snack while waiting out the fast-moving storm. Then it was back to fun with the blazing noon-day sun. I certainly regretted forgetting the sunscreen for myself.

Then on Friday we welcomed Dan's brother, sister-in-law and niece from Atlanta. It was good stuff watching Penny play with Catie. Just when I thought it wasn't possible to get more energetic, Catie managed to wear out Penny. Penny's been taking two naps a day since their visit. Of course, it could have to do with the longer days, but it was definitely tough stuff keeping up with her older cousin. Saturday I got to enjoy my second venture driving into Brooklyn. Getting there was no problem, getting back was entertaining, though. Ed was nice enough to lead the way back through the maze of one-way streets to the highway. The wind that day was so strong, though, that I was really focused on maintaining my lane. Suddenly, the highway split into two in front of me and I couldn't find a sign to indicate which way I should go. I took a chance on the left path. Soon I found myself at the water's edge as I passed under the Verrazano Bridge. Huh...not at all what I had planned. Luckily, there was an exit for a familiar street from our trip to the Children's Museum - the last big street I was on before getting on the bridge, so potentially a helpful exit. With the Brooklyn map I had picked up at the museum and the occasional teeny little signs posted odd places saying "Verrazano this way," I managed to get across the bridge and back to Staten Island. I was mentally exhausted, though, from the drive - the bridge is high up and those 40mph winds were no picnic.

On Sunday we took both cars and everyone got together in New Jersey at the house of Dan's other brother. We were a little late because we had to feed Penny before heading over, but I wasn't behind the wheel and so I was fine with whatever traffic we encountered. It is nice to know there are multiple routes to get to their house. I got a chance to catch a picture of the other side of New Jersey - it is more than just highways. NJ is also the big filter that keeps the sludge of the inland from escaping into the sea. Here you can see at high velocity one of the myriad wetlands along the Hudson that absorbs all the waste from the high population density there. It's really fun to see from the sky when you fly into Newark Airport. There's this incredibly densely populated area, then this confounding green wavy sea along the river. With the premium on space here, it is refreshing to see this little bastion of nature, often littered with old tires and shopping carts, but also teeming with wading birds and other fun wildlife. There is some self-preservation involved in keeping this natural sieve keeping pollution from overwhelming the river, but I'm guessing that doesn't stop developers from asking for the land. So somewhere out there someone cares enough to keep it. Yay!

I'm considering helping with a BioBlitz in a few weeks, where scientists will converge on a local park to devote 24 hours to counting every species of living things living in the park. I went to one in DC and it was pretty fun (we got to help with the bat counting). I think it would be fun to see what kinds of critters and plants live here, despite and because of the human presence. We'll see if I can figure out how to manage it.

Penny is 18!

With an impending interview at the Brooklyn Children's Museum and Penny's 18 month birthday coming up, there was a perfect storm blowing us to the museum for some exciting exploration. I did my very best to let her direct the visit since our leisurely walks together often center around my search for flowers to photograph. It was tough letting her take the reigns, but I think she had a blast exploring the special section for folks her age - as well as the rest of the museum.

She was a little shy at first, but after a bit got totally into digging in the sand. I like this venue much better than the beach because I wasn't cleaning sand out of her diaper area for days afterward. They had all kinds of cool toys that slowly let the sand drip out, move gears, etc. She even shared toys with other kids on occasion when they came by. I let her play for what seemed a long time (two phone calls at least - I hated doing that, but with Mom's blood pressure high, repeated calls from family can be worrisome).

Penny followed some other kids away from the sand pit, but kept coming back because it seemed so fun. Eventually, I was able to drag her away and convince her to explore a tunnel. Then she braved a very steep ramp to discover another wonderful section - smacking things to make music!! Wow! She knew hitting things was fun, but this brought it to a whole new level. She went rigid with excitement quite a few times with those bells. Then she approached a slide. The slide seems to have reminded her of stairs, so she turned around, crouched, then extended her legs out over the slide. She had short sleeves, so was able to stick gecko-like at the top for a little bit. Then she slowly lowered herself down the slide all on her own. I dashed around to meet her at the other end so she wouldn't be scared and she made a break for the tunnel again. She had survived the slide and was ready for more fun.
Next we were off to the water play area. The museum provides a lot of cute little plastic smocks to keep the kids dry, but Penny scoffed at them. She removed it every time I tried to put one on her, so I decided we would utilize the spare outfit that has sat unused in the diaper bag for the past three months. She had so much fun splashing with the plastic sea life and boats. There were a few incidents of straight up pouring water on the floor, but it was generally a good time. Thankfully, we had done activities in the order we did, otherwise, all the sand would have stuck to Penny as we continued our visit.

So even though the rest of the museum is intended for older kids, Penny had tons of fun there as well. Here she is planting a garden of stuffed veggies. She also had fun at a little kid-sized grocery store. There was a 7 or 8 year old who appeared to be the shop keeper. He told us mackeral was on sale and helped Penny select the freshest specimen. He did apologize for not allowing any tasting in the store (she was snacking on a wax tomato at the time), and was very prompt at ringing her up on the little cash register.

After a short lunch in the cafe upstairs and a little more exploration, Penny was pretty exhausted. Three hours is impressive stamina for such a little person in a museum. It was obviously as much fun for her as it was for me. I'm glad she had a good 18 month birthday and think she'd love to go back whenever we find an opportunity. We got back into the car and started the long journey on surface roads to go home. Major eek! I had one and a half lanes to work with and people were passing me on left and right with pedestrians crossing at random spots in front of me. It seemed every other car parked on the right (that's why only a half lane to my right) had an open door or trunk. I have no idea how anyone does the speed limit in Brooklyn - there is just too much going on to do 30mph. Somehow, we did manage to make it home in one piece. I was pretty proud of my first driving venture into another borough.