Happy 99th Birthday Uncle Marty!!!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful man - Marty Kaprelian!

Uncle Marty Celebrates his 99th birthday today!  Can you believe it?!  We are so lucky to have him in our lives, he's a true treasure.  Having never met either of my grandfathers, I consider myself blessed to have had the chance to develop such a wonderful relationship with Uncle Marty (he's really my great uncle - in all senses of the word).  Uncle Marty has lived through many many things in his lifetime, I cannot even imagine what it must be like to have experienced so much change! 


He was born in the back of a shoemaker's shop...and has seen the world through industrialization, war, peace, prosperity, depression, technology and so much more.  A man who once as a kid sold newspapers on the street corners in Chicago, who acted in community plays in Milwaukee, who made gin in his bathtub during prohibition, who served in the United States Navy and countless other amazing things.  I wish I could write an elegant snapshot of his life thus far, but Uncle Marty leaves me practically speechless. 


What can we say, except for maybe "Hip Hip Hooray!  Happy Birthday Uncle Marty!!!"


Some more photos from his family birthday celebration this past Saturday:

We "Survived" Irene!

 A video of the amazing sunset we saw today!  Photos taken over an hour period, the wind was passing the clouds by pretty quickly.

So we "survived" the hurricane...I say that in quotes as it barely felt like anything to us.  We were lucky.  We must just be in the right spot on Manhattan, as we barely saw any wind this morning when it was supposed to be at its worst, and there was hardly any flooding by us (only a bit in a parking lot low area next to our building).  The wind picked up again this evening, but was nothing devastating.  We're lucky because we know how many people were left without power, or who were flooded or dealing with downed trees.

In the end we did not need our extra bottled water, or the candles (which they said later that they shouldn't be used in an emergency situation like this), or stockpiles of food.  Well we didn't have stockpiles...enough for the two of us for a few days.

I told Felipe today that after "weathering" an earthquake and a near hurricane in the same week that we better make a run to the gun store or to home depot to pick up some shotguns or axes for when the zombies attack....they say bad things happen in threes, stay tuned for that! ;)

Come on Irene! - Hurricane Watch 2011 [UPDATED]

So here we are, just days after experiencing an earthquake, waiting for the arrival of Irene. Part of me thinks that this is a case of over preparation, over reacting...but then again maybe not? The news and all the talk around town has been of "flood zones" (we're in Zone B if you would like to know), "Storm Surges", MTA transit shutdowns and emergency supplies. We've made our preparations: we have our candles, matches and lighters out and accessible in case of power outage; we have extra bottled water, enough for several days so that's no problem. There's very little chance we'll need to evacuate Zone B, as that usually only happens with a direct hit from a Category 2 storm. Right now there are conflicting reports of whether we'll be hit by Category 1 or whether it will be downgraded to a tropical storm.

Either way, people are taking this seriously. There were massive crowds at almost any store that sells groceries or emergency related items. I have plenty of candles and flashlights, but my coworker wanted to stop and pick up and extra flashlight...we entered the Home Depot and were greeted by a woman standing at the entrance with a sign and yelling "We have NO flashlights, NO batteries, NO candles and NO generators left - Sorry folks!". Well, hopefully we won't need any of it, but I think the worst that could happen here would be a power outage.

Yesterday was a busy one for everyone, preparing for the worst. Mayor Bloomberg started evacuation of everyone in Zone A. The evacuation was supposed to be completed by noon today. This also included evacuating hospitals and other medical facilities. Yesterday I spent my whole day at work calling each of the division administrators in the Department of Medicine to find out who exactly on the emergency plan would be available and to what degree they would be available. This meant finding out what docs were accessible physically to the hospital, and which ones were accessible via phone and email, but not able to access the hospital due to the danger in travel or the shut down in transit. This is partially due to the fact that there was an expectation of a rise in patients from the evacuated hospitals. I'm optimistic that our hospital is totally prepared for any scenario, as we have really terrific doctors and dedicated hospital staff.

Well, I will keep you guys updated as time passes. We've only seen a bit of rain so far, but they predict that starting later tonight and through tomorrow midday we'll be experiencing the worst part of the storm. So look back for updates and pics...

UPDATE - 9:15pm:
So, we've experienced a lot of rain yet today however the reports say the worst is just on the horizon. We're just starting to get the wind and the rain as the hurricane passes the New Jersey coast. On top of the rain starting, we're now under tornado watch as well (in addition to the hurricane warning - a first for me!). So yeah, I guess we'll be keeping an eye out for that too. All of the news coverage, which is probably the same that you'd be seeing if you were watching it on TV, says that people are "hunkering down" all over - it's really amazing how many times I've heard that phrase today. What does "hunkering" mean anyway? I guess for us it means hanging out on the couch watching TV.

The eye of the storm is supposed to hit us around 8:00am, which is apparently high tide...so they're really worried about flooding here, especially since we've had a very wet august and the ground is totally saturated.  This also is worrying people that trees will uproot because the ground is so soft.  We don't have any trees by our 6th floor apartment to really have to worry about them damaging our home, but there is always the concern that they will fall on a powerline.  We're very fortunate right now to still have our power, as I've heard over a million people have lost their power by now.   So yeah, saturated ground, high tide and storm surges...that's what we have to look forward to.

Apparently the city is boarded up and the streets largely abandoned. Here's a few pics from around the internets:

Michael Appleton for The New York Times


An empty Grand Central Station from the MTAPhotos flickr feed.

So that's the update now...more rain and tornado warnings. Will keep you updated as we get more information.

P.S. - why make all those poor weather reporters stand out in the rain all day? seems dangerous and bit stupid as it does not validate their weather reports any more than if they made the report from safely inside of a building....

The Impending Storm

A Massive storm has been moving past our window this evening...the photo above is of the impending storm. As much as I love looking at the calm clouds that I posted yesterday, I also love watching thunder storms! We've had lightening galore! Apparently a lot, maybe too much... We just noticed that there was a greater usual amount of fire trucks hanging out across the street. Thirteen to be exact!



Now I'm super curious to find out what's going on that would call thirteen firetrucks to our neighborhood...

[Update]: ALL of the trucks are gone now...must not have been such a bad emergency.

[Update 2]: The guy who owns the business downstairs says that the ruckus was all about the sewer drains being blocked up. Apparently the guys doing construction across the street closed off the drains and it was causing major flooding. Case solved!

Ever Wish You Could Just Float Among the Clouds...?

"Cloudbergs" floating in a sea of clouds...

This week has been a bit stressful, to say the least. Every morning at work has felt like a struggle. It's just one of those weeks that I wish I could just kind of float among the clouds. I remember a long time ago, in third grade, our teacher must have needed to get our class to settle down. It was hot, so probably early in the year when the weather could still be warm, and he told us all to put our heads down at our desks and told us a really fantastic story about a journey through the clouds in a floating bubble. This was one of those days where I needed to turn the lights off, put my head down and imagine I was among the peaceful looking clouds.

Unfortunately, I am an adult now, and it would look strange if I were at my desk with the lights off and my head down. So I'm posting these photos now, so I can look at them whenever I need to take a relaxing "bubble in the sky" kind of break.







I've always LOVED looking at the sky. Sunsets, cloud formations, lightening during the storms - I love them all (I'd add sunrises...but I'm rarely up at that hour!). These pics were taken from an airplane of course. While I was flying to Oklahoma earlier this year...I just couldn't help trying to capture these clouds on camera. I'm sure my seatmate thought it a bit strange...

Night Shots "Series"

Silva gets bored while home alone... It started with some shots of the moon, a sliver among the clouds, but when those shots didn't work out as I like I turned to the street scene. So here you have my "Night Shots Series".

A New Recipe Each Week

So a couple weeks ago I decided that after a slight tapering off of my cooking that I wanted to start making more yummy home cooked meals and decided that I would try at least one new recipe a week. Last week we had a super good chicken club sandwich with an olive tapenade and today we tried another delicious and successful meal. Now anyone who knows me knows I'm not much for pork - it's a mental thing I think, something I haven't "liked" for a very long time. But I've been easing up a bit lately when it comes to prosciutto. Especially when the prosciutto is cooked or crisped. There comes in our recipe for today - Ham, Gruyere and Shallot pizza. Now because I don't eat ham we replaced with prosciutto and it was a good result.

As you can see from the photo above, it looks delicious and tastes just as good as it looks. So here's to two weeks with two successful recipes! Maybe you'll give this a try and enjoy it as much as we did.

On another note, it's getting us very excited for our upcoming visit to Paris and Provence later this year!!!


Ham, Gruyere and Shallot Pizza
Real Simple, October 2009
Ingredients
cornmeal for the pan (optional, we did not use this)
1 pound pizza dough, thawed if frozen
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 shallots, cut into thin rings and separated
12 sprigs fresh thyme
kosher salt and black pepper
1/2 pound thinly sliced deli ham (I don't like regular ham, so we used prosciutto instead)
1/2 cup grated Gruyere or Swiss cheese (2 ounces)


Directions

• Heat oven to 425º F. Sprinkle a rimmed baking sheet with the cornmeal. Shape the dough into a 14-inch circle and place on the prepared baking sheet.
• Brush the dough with 1 tablespoon of the oil and bake until puffed and golden, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, toss the shallots, thyme, the remaining tablespoon of oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper.
• Top the partially cooked dough with the ham, shallot mixture, and cheese. Bake until the crust is crisp and the cheese has melted, 12 to 15 minutes.