No Diploma for You

No diploma for you! I recently found out that I’m still missing a bunch of credits (outside my major) to graduate from Teachers College any time soon. I’ll write to the administration to get the full details, but it looks like I’m a TC captive for another semester or two.

Another Lawn Post

Today’s lawn post. There’s a big maple tree in the backyard and the wind is blowing all the “samaras” down into the grass. So we had to cover it over or they’ll clog up the lawn and kill it. According to wikipedia: “A samara is sometimes called a key and is often referred to as a helicopter or whirligig or a polynose.” I call them a pain.

Grass Is Coming Up

grass (end of week 3) with insetYes another post about the lawn. Get used to it because I can promise that there will be more. This is the lawn at the end of week three. Many people have said, “it looks perfect”, but I’ve included an inset so that you can see, in fact, it is not ready for romping and playing. Follow the link for a larger version of the picture for details. For a progression of pics in flickr from seed to today click here

Pizza Plus Fire

pizza plus fireOn my way home from the dry cleaners tonight I smelled smoke and saw fire trucks out in front of Pizza Plus. A welder was doing some work this afternoon and had gotten sparks in the walls — it caused a big smokey mess. Basically the whole building is wrecked. I talked with Roz who says that they’ll rebuild.

Crazy Neighbor

crazy landlordLast night the crazy landlord across the street started throwing junk off the roof of his garage. He wasn’t making much of an effort to avoid pedestrians either. He didn’t hit anyone, but he was belligerent and kept throwing things when the neighbors asked him to stop. When he got to the metal pipes, huge panes of glass, and planter pots it was time to call the cops. About eight of them in four cars descended on the scene and arrested him. The photo is of him harassing a neighbor… “shut up and go back inside… I can do what I want”.

Five Boro Bike Tour 2007

5 boro bike tour I did the 5-boro bike tour today. The ride starts in Manhattan, touches the Bronx, winds through Queens, and then drops into Brooklyn across the Varrazano and into Staten Island (I didn’t do that last part). The planning seemed a little off this year since we had to wait nearly an hour between 51st and 57th where traffic was halted into the park.

A Lawn Grows in Brooklyn

Grass end of week 2 (may 3)A lawn grows in Brooklyn… I hope. The grass is doing pretty well. There are still some spotty patches, but I will plant some “dense shade” seed in a week or so to fill in the bare spots.

A Blade of Grass

blades of grassTeeny, tiny sprouts of grass! These were replanted on 4/19 after the big nor-easter and then the sprouts were up today on the 22nd!

New 12-String

IMG_0754.JPGI ventured out into the huge rainstorm this weekend to buy this Carlo Robelli twelve-string that was for sale on Craig’s List. This is an inexpensive guitar that sounds good and holds its tune pretty well. Now all I have to do is learn how to play it.