Believe it? Or not!

Q: How do you "play tourist" in NYC?
A: Hit up any Times Square attraction, still using your old CA driver's license!

I know this is super corny, but I've wanted to go to a Ripley's Believe It or Not for a long time. I mananged to convince Blondie that this was a *brilliant* idea on Saturday. We braved the touristy madness of Times Square and headed into Ripley's, which turned out to be a totally fantastic kooky wonderland of goodness.



Some of the items were just flat out wrong - case in point: the torture room where all kinds of exhibits of torture technics used in medieval times were documented. It was made worse by the group of 10 year old schoolkids who treated the room like their own playground. "Oh look! An electric chair from the 1800's which took 12 minutes to kill you! Can I sit in it???"

And the vomit-tron - how can I forget that? They called it "Experience a Black Hole" and put you on a metal grate walkway through a tube that rapidly spun and was entirely black but with stars lit up all over it. We came out of that and Blondie turned to me and said "Now I feel drunk". Um, again, those schoolkids loved it. To the parents of these schoolkids I say "rehab. now."

But then they had some exhibits which ruled. Want to see what you look like without legs but with devil-eyes?



How about Blondie getting to meet with a medicine man? What do you think he asked for?



My favorite thing, it actually took my breath away, had to have been the "WORLD'S LARGEST BEER STEIN COLLECTION"!!!!! Ripley and I would've been BFF's for eternity had we known each other.



And the boat carved out of a 1000 lb slab of jade was something that was pretty amazing.



Also, you're welcome.



--K

HELLO HOT WEATHER!

Fight fight fight!!!

WOO HOO! The Rangers! Blondie and I hit up Madison Square Garden again, this time to see a Rangers game (ice hockey to the layperson). We headed out on Thurs night to see the Rangers battle St. Louis, and had a total blast. We had paid a little more money then we had planned on for our tickets, but we had great seats. We ended up about 20 rows back, behind the Rangers bench.



Hockey players are vicious - but I see how easy it can be to get that way. All the body-slamming would make me pissed too. There were so many fights that we got to see, which to me is a big part of hockey to begin with.

They also had the best zamboni *ever*.



The Rangers did lose, which led Blondie to point out that the Knicks lost when we watched them, and then the Rangers lost when we watched them also. Maybe I should turn the TV off tonight when Kentucky plays???

It boils down to I will be a Rangers fan next year, and will be going to a lot of games. Hey, any sport where you can down beers and scream for blood every 3 minutes is a good sport in my book.

Ode to the park... and to cupcakes...

We set off on a walk yesterday. It turned out to be a 3 hour walk - it's easy to do that in the city. I had suggested poking around in Central Park yesterday because the weather was *awesome*. It was in the 50's, sunny, no breeze - just a perfect day.

We decided to walk to Central Park as it's only about 20 blocks to the beginning of the park from our house, but we made a mistake, and decided to make the walk by heading up through Upper West Side. And LALALALALALALALALALA - MAGNOLIA BAKERY! Before we could even hit the park, we ran into the UWS branch of the best cupcake store in the city (this can be debated - as there are people who don't think this is the best cupcake store in the city, but screw them - this is my blog). I was walking a few steps behind Blondie and as we started to pass, I was like "HEY! BLONDIE!" and convinced him to go in for cupcakes! So yum! And it was the perfect snack to keep us going.



After the cupcakes, we headed down 72nd St to Central Park West to the Dakota. I've never been a huge Beatles fan, but still felt this was something I needed to see. The Dakota was where John Lennon was shot. It was a crazy looking building, very unique. We then crossed CPW and went into Central Park to see the John Lennon memorial.

The Dakota

John Lennon Memorial

Once in the park, we headed on up to see several key points - we saw the lake, the reservoir (they are different), and the Great Lawn. It was pretty cool to see snow still on the ground in some places, and be sweating our asses off in the sun at the same time. The reservoir was my favorite part - this is basically the locale you see in any movie about NY where they show people running. I wanted to walk the reservoir but we were both pretty worn out at this point (we had gone about 50 blocks + a couple of avenues), so we just hung out beside it people watching for awhile.

Great Lawn

Reservoir

SO MUCH SNOW!

The lake

I loved GGP in SF - it was one of my favorite spots. But Central Park seems so much better than GGP. This is a good thing. I didn't feel like I was going to step on needles. I didn't feel like I was going to get run over by cars (they stop car traffic in the park!). I didn't feel like I was pissing runners off by walking (they have separate biking/rollerblading/running/jogging trails). The street noise was GONE. It was so quiet in the park it was amazing. I guess it comes down to I'm a city person that has to be able to dip out of the city when I need to. GO CENTRAL PARK!

After our walk, we took the subway back down our hood. The subway stop we got on at was the one of the Museum of Natural History and the station was decorated with fossil casts all over. It was pretty cool.


We stopped for big salads on the way home, and then collapsed last night. A great day in NYC!

--K

Snow sucks

That is all.

--K

I'll be seeing you on Broadway

Allo Guvnah! I had a bit of a life changing experience last Wednesday. Blondie and I headed to Times Square (the theater district) to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. I love musicals, I've actually loved them for as long as I can remember. And, I've always said that if I had the voice (read talent) I would've done my damndest to be a Broadway star (in some kind of musical).



Blondie agreed to accompany me to see Mary Poppins - even though it was a musical. For as much as I love them, he doesn't. BUT, OMG, IT RULED. It seriously blew every single expectation I had out the window. From the sets, to the dancing, to the singing, to the acting, I seriously was bouncing on the edge of my seat.



How is this a life changing experience? I think I'm going to attempt (once I get settled in the job) to be a volunteer somehow/somewhere for a theater. I have no idea if this is possible, or if it is, if they take people with 0 theater experience, but I think I'm going to try.

And if you are in the NYC area, I highly recommend this musical. We did half-price tickets, but I would've paid full-price and been happy. Also, don't sit in the upper section. We sat in the mezzanine and it was okay, but it would've been better lower.

Step in time folks, step in time.

--K

Uh, I like *totally* lied...

So I sure didn't post immediately after we did stuff last week, and I promised I would. I'll have to retract that promise. Sorry all!

But we did have a good week!

First up, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN! I'm not sure what I was more excited about: a) seeing the Knicks battle the Bucks; or b) telling everyone I was at Madison Square Garden. Can you same lame? Apparently, it's pronounced "Yours Truly".

So Blondie and I trucked over to MSG to see the game last Monday, and we had a blast. I was able to train it over from work, and Blondie walked up - it's only about a 15 minute walk (if you see me walk, and see how slow I go, you'll realize that 15 minute walk is a lot closer than it sounds).

We had some AWESOME seats, and I totally got an action shot!

And the Bucks won. That was actually a toss-up, as either the Bucks or the Knicks winning would've made us happy.



On the other hand though, everyone around me totally thought I was bipolar or had MPD as I kept cheering each team for each and every play they made - pick a side? Not me!

--K