Category: Uncategorized

I rushed Finney to the vet this morning, but luckily it was only a urinary tract infection. No fun for him, but not life threatening. Now I’m trying to calm down. And not think about what I spent. (Can’t win, going to be in debt for the rest of my life, I might as well accept it.)

Here are a few more pictures from my holiday windows walk. First up, people taking pictures of themselves in front of Von Clownstick Tower (I still can’t bring myself to even say the name). I did not kill any of them, or scream at them, or anything. Laugh it up people, enjoy the new world that you helped to bring about.

I felt for the police who were there to protect everyone. It’s freezing out, and when you have to stand mostly still it feels a thousand times colder. They should get extra winter pay.

The streets around Von Clownstick Tower leading to 5th are closed to traffic. But I felt like that command should be directed to Von Clownstick.

I did my yearly walk up 5th Avenue (and Madison) to look at and photograph the holiday window displays. This might just be me (and a friend has already disagreed with me) but I thought the decorations were not as spectacular this year. Bergdorf’s were still good, as were Tiffany’s, but everyone else felt very so-so to me, including Barney’s (except the South Park window was fun).

Also, usually the crowds on 5th are massive. Rockefeller Center should have been a madhouse, but it was quite sedate. Even the crowds around Trump Tower were diminished. Except, I had to open my bag in order to look at the Tiffany window closest to Trump Tower.

So, I only have a few pictures. This first one was from Bergdorf’s, which are always very glamorous and sparkly. This year they had a natural history theme.

These next two are from Tiffany’s which were as enchanting as always. You need to know that these windows are small, and these tableaus are actually miniatures, like dollhouse scenes.

This last one was from Cartier, which had a bunch of lit-up cats crawling up the building and one perched on top. The cats didn’t really come out well, they looked better in person.

With the help of my next door neighbor Eamon, and Peter, one of the landlord’s workers, I believe I’ve blocked every possible mouse entryway. It’s a jigsaw puzzle of openings, as you can see in the first picture below.

I’ve got strips of wood, which I painted green to match the trim, and patches of steel wool (covered with duct tape) everywhere. They go up and around the kitchen cabinets, and behind and around the stove and the refrigerator. The only other gaps were in the bathroom, and I’d already covered those up years ago. One more picture below …

You can see how much my apartment tilts. It’s insane. The building is over 100 years old, so I guess it makes sense that it has settled and shifted over the century, but still. Anyway, yesterday morning I heard scratching, scratching, scratching, but no mice ever appeared! Added benefit: I should never see one of those huge, horrifying, flying cockroaches ever again either.

And I haven’t died from hantavirus yet! God, I worked myself up into a complete state of panic last night about not cleaning up properly after my mice. My mice. Ha. I’m going to make a video of the jigsaw puzzle of wood barriers I made around my apartment. But I think it’s working. This morning, instead of seeing mice I heard scratching!

A diner I passed by coming home from my recent Queens cemetery trip.

Decorating the tree at Ground Zero, the one in front of the firehouse. The guy in the beard, who is also putting the flag on the top of the tree, is my friend Les Speiser.