Last Wednesday Cagle and her friend Erin came from Alabama to visit for three days.



We wandered around the Big Apple and hit a lot of cool shops in Greenwich Village, where I snagged some good vinyl and a really cheap  hardcover copy of Thomas Pynchon’s Mason and Dixon to add to my to-read list.

I found this picture on the wall at Famiglia’s Pizza, a nice New York pizza joint.  My brother will appreciate it.



Tucker, Cagle, Erin, and I went to Jacques Torres’s chocolatier in Brooklyn for my third time.  I found these chocolate sculptures in the back room:



We walked back over the Brooklyn Bridge, for my fourth time.  I found this spray-painted into the concrete of the bridge walkway.  I hate it when people spray paint messages on stuff using stencils.  It’s tacky and rude, but at least in this particular case it supports my political cause, albeit to an extreme.



We ran into a b-boy posse breakdancing for the crowd later that day.



The next day we ran into a large group of firefighters and police unexplainedly axing their way into a Borders bookstore which otherwise seemed fine.



We ate at a nice little Greek restaurant in the Village, and I ordered pastichio, a traditional Greek dish that my mother and grandmother make every once in a while since my grandfather has full Greek blood.  The pastichio was excellent, the salad was wonderful in its feta glory, and the baklava was just what I like, proving that I do indeed have Greek blood running in my veins.

On Saturday after the two girls left Tucker, Mara, and I went kayaking in the Hudson River.  If you go to the end of Riverside Park by 72nd Street, they have a little platform set up where you can hop on a kayak for free for up to 20 minutes, or up to 2 hours on Fridays.



The journey offered a wonderful view of Manhattan, dominated in this particular area by a series of Trump condominium buildings.

Dan drove down from Boston later that day and stayed the night.  We ran around town some more and ended up in Hoboken, NJ, for my final trip to visit Emily at Stevens.  Dan grabbed some of my belongings to help me in my upcoming move to Boston for the weekend before my flight home next Wednesday.

On the way back from work on Monday, Tucker and I ran into a strange sight:



Sorry for the gruesome imagery, but whatever got to this bird left the wings and only the wings entirely intact.  Very strange.

Today Tucker, Mara, and I ate at an Afghanistan restaurant.  I loved it!  I didn’t expect to, since I had nothing to base expectations on.  I am now convinced that orange rind should be put into every dish.

After putting in a little more work on the synth, Mara and I watched a bootleg copy of Fahrenheit 9/11, which I found to be suprisingly devoid of any real argument or fresh, important details about its title disaster.

I highly recommend the 9/11 Commission Report for anyone who wants a serious look into the reality of the situation.  You can grab a recording of an executive summary free on iTunes right now.  I much prefer to read it, however, and want to buy a copy sometime soon.  It’s now on my Amazon wish list.  Go be curious and poke around on it if you like.