The Zoo Discovers New York City {Travel}

The Zoo spent last week (three nights, Tuesday to Friday) in New York City. There's so much to tell that I don’t even know where to begin.

I could tell you about the drive (658 km which took us nine hours due to rush hour and stops) complete with rain, hail AND snow! That we passed; Rome, Liverpool, Mexico, Columbia and Moscow. We get around.

I could tell you about how Nanna gifted us a hotel room at the Loews Regency Hotel (thanks Nanna) and that they upgraded us to a 1,500 sqft, corner suite complete with; 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathroom (each room had a four-piece ensuite), walk in closets as well as five others, three 47" plasma tv’s, a foyer, living/dining room and kitchen. That the kids spent all their waking hours (while in the suite) counting taxi’s (a never ending supply).

That we spent the first morning at the Central Park Zoo and Petting Attraction. Perhaps the highlight of our trip (only beat out by Wednesday night, see below for details). We saw penguins and seals (during feeding time), monkeys, walked right by a peacock in "The Rainforest" (really hot but really neat, birds were flying everywhere). And we spent the afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History. The kids weren't big on Dinosaurs but they loved all the dioramas of the African Animals (elephants, lions and tigers, oh my).

I won’t even bother to tell you about the lovely dinner that Ed and I had out on Wednesday night (Andrew babysat) at an Argentinian joint (food was amazing, service was cr@p). That we were offered tickets to the |Late Night with Somebody" (by a guy in a nice suit and credentials). We don’t actually know who it was for (this kind of stuff happens to us all the time) but we think Conan O'Brien. That at the end of the night, we found ourselves in the biggest dive in all of New York City "Arthur's Tavern".

And the Winner of the $50 in Coupons is...

The contest has closed.

The results have been written on a scrap piece of paper tallied.

While you're all waiting with bated breath, I wanted to make a few notes and walk you through the so basic it's silly selection process.

Note 1: I have removed three comments from eligibility. One from nrobak regarding email subscription, one from jayda regarding email subscription and a friendly comment from seapotato.
Note 2: I sent emails to nrobak and jayda encouraging them to verify their email subscription. I mean, this is a family friendly blog and we're friendly.

The selection process involved me randomly writing numbers on a piece of paper a highly intricate numbering process. I then asked our previously selected, unbiased, in no way involved representative, herein referred to as "Ed" to pick a number between 1 and 55.

And he picked………………………… #32 which means, Martin!

2. "There's more of a risk of losing the package, because they'll have to store it at the post office until you come pick it up. Maybe the company just wants to avoid the liability. As for UPS and FedEx, there's no need to have them ship to a PO box, which is why they likely don't do it. Just have it shipped to work or home, they bring it right to your door." "Identity theft...people who do "paper" crime will oftenn get a PO box under a false name to have goods shipped there from telephone and internet orders done with stolen credit card numbers. SO, postal delivery agents, retail businesses and banks who got tired of footing the bill for thieves made it policy to get a physical address (residence) that makes it easier to prosecute." http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071218132211AA3jAk5

It should be noted that our system is so messed up sophisticated that it wrote down Murray’s name as Martin so just pretend it says Murray instead. Sorry Murray. I’ll make it up to you by sending you the coupons (smile).

Murray, I sent you an email and you have 48 hours (until May 3, 2012 at 1am) to accept your super, awesome, amazing prize or else I’ll have to pick another sucker winner.

A big thanks to everyone for playing along. I had so much fun that I might annoy all of you further by hosting another giveaway. Speaking of which, keep your eyes open for (hopefully) May’s giveaway. This one will feature a talented Canadian artist!

P.S. Anyone know anything about random.org…

Update. Murray has accepted his prize and it will be mailed out to him today. Turns out we live about 30 kms from each other. What a small world.

Besos, The Zoo

And We're Off (Almost) on our Roadtrip to NYC

Uncle Andrew braved the snow blizzard (we got 3" inches last night and lost power for 1.5 hours, yes, on April 23) and arrived safe and sound today. Here are some pictures in the late afternoon (most of the snow has melted and there’s still tons!).

He's here because all of us are leaving tomorrow for four days in New York. It will be the first time for the kids and I. Bucephalus is ready to go and we’re (not even close to being) packed. Our plans are a secret (even to Ed) who is coordinating our activities.

As for last week, on Friday, we took Uncle Eric to the Five Star for his birthday. He enjoyed the Veal Parmagiana and the kids ate (the family favourite) Smoked Meat on Rye, yum! Unfortunately, when they weren’t eating, they were total crappers. As in everyone was staring and talking about how misbehaved they were. Good news was that there was a huge radius of empty chairs around us so no one got hit with anything (and everything). Sigh, I thought misbehaved kids were products of poor parenting. Something that would never happen to our kids (smile). How did this happen? They’ve been so good for the past 2 years, 4 months and now not so much (I'm being kind).

As for toilet training, I've spent more time in the bathroom the past five days than my entire life. Love the renovations! Max is 6 for 6 (in straight days) on going number 1 on the toilet.

The Ottawa Senators are playing the New York Rangers (in Ottawa) tonight. The Sens are up 3-2 in the series (and were not originally the favourites, in fact, Andrew tells me that people didn’t even think they’d get into the playoffs). Why am I telling you this? Well, because if they lose tonight, Game 7 is in New York, on Wednesday night. If that's the case, Andrew and I plan on going to the game. Here's hoping that they lose tonight!

Until Friday...

Besos, The Zoo

Making Millions and Being Naked (not at the same time)

As you're well aware, I'm really into DIY and Crafting right now.

Today, I created something truly unique. I call it the "Slinky Flower". I'm patenting it so please give me credit when you blog/pin/facebook/tweet and just generally share it around the world.

To do this project, you will need:

• One willing child. Although an unwilling one will probably also work (results cannot be guaranteed),
• One slinky. Preferably not a family heirloom as this thing will never function as intended again.

Steps:

1. Take a slinky and at your child’s request, wrap it around their midriff. I did it three times but four times would probably work as well.
2. Take some pictures.
3. Write a blog post about your brilliance. Note do not leave child unattended.
4. When said child gets sick of your "project". Tell them to "step out of it"
5. Voila. Enjoy your Slinky Flower for Minutes to Come! That is until your other child takes it apart.

You know those old Slinky commercials from the 60's and 70's.

Is this an example of pulling a fast one on me genius advertising or could you get them to do that?

Last night for dinner, Artemis ate ketchup. Not a lot of ketchup with some grilled cheese but ketchup, straight up. This morning for breakfast, Artemis ate (half a tub) of peanut butter. Not on bread but straight up. Luckily, Shoppers has it on sale this week for $4.49 a tub. Based upon my calculations, the two tubs I bought (with the $10 free card that Nanna gave me, thanks Nanna), should last me for two days. Make that 1.25 as Max just grabbed a spoon and is also sitting down for a feast.

This morning when I I released the hounds opened the kids door I was greeted by a "sleepover" on the floor (the kids must have read my blog post). They'd taken their mattresses off and were sleeping on the floor. I often find them sleeping with each other (totally adorable).

But that's not the end of the story, or even the point. Did I mention that they were t.o.t.a.l.l.y.n.a.k.e.d. I know that we’ve thrown around the word before and it has always meant that they had a diaper on but this time they were t.o.t.a.l.l.y.n.a.k.e.d. Great.

Thankfully, they’ve both started actively toilet training.

Besos, The Zoo

Can you Believe Someone is Turning Another Year Younger

In honour of someone turning another year younger (I don't feel a day over 28), my day has already included the following;

• Waking up to the phone ringing,
• Looking out the window and seeing the sun shining (although totally deceptive because it's only 5 degrees Celsius outside),
• A visit from Uncle Eric complete with a dozen of my favourite peanut butter cookies. In 2010, he brought five dozen and I ate them in less than 24 hours. My excuse, I was pumping (and producing almost 2 litres of milk) so I needed the energy. I think I’m still working off those five dozen...

  

• Breakfast in bed, cooked by me and eaten by the kids. I'm starving,
• Call/email/visit/smokescreen from everyone that loves me. In other words, if I didn't hear from you, you don’t love me. That’s okay, with my advanced age, I’ve forgotten already.

It was going to be a pajama day (and will be for me) but then I realized that you would want to see pictures so I thought that I would ply you with cute ones of the kids and hope that you didn’t realize there weren’t any current ones of me (let’s be real, that’s so not why you stop by anyways).

For those of you that live in Toronto or are chock full of useless information, you’ll probably know about the "Moose in the City". We’re starting our own tradition around here. Check back later (could be daily, weekly, monthly, we’ll have to see) for the next installment of "What’s Alexander Wearing Today?"


Thankfully, the heating is still on in the house or Max might be cold in his dress t-shirt but he’ll do anything for his mother’s birthday for the sake of style. This was the best picture that I could get as he didn't stop moving (a regular occurrence). Love my boys in ties.


Yes, Artemis’ clip and hair elastic (!) match her outfit. As for the leggings. Let’s just say that I have a pair in maroon (and yellow, and white and ...) but she wanted to wear these ones. The dress has beautiful embroidery all around the bottom.


Looking forward to having Ed home tonight.

Hope your day was as special as mine.

P.S. We’ve been seeing “this look” a lot lately. Are we ever in trouble...



After hitting "post", I thought that it would be fun to take a walk down memory lane so I dusted off the box of pictures that Nanna gave me (my parents were so good about taking, developing and labelling pictures) and picked a few.

The first few are of the early years. On the left, I'm around 4-5 months. Not sure if my parents had this taken or if it came with me. The top right one is my 2nd birthday at Millwood. My Gram-o is also in the picture (Poppa’s Mother). In the last one, I look about three. Not sure where the picture was taken.


In these pictures, I'm probably 10. It's definitely after my 9th birthday because my ears are pierced (a present for my 9th birthday that even my mother didn’t know she was giving me, another story in itself). Note the location of my middle finger (I was such a cheekie little thing back then). The other one was of my birthday party at the Granite Club. I’m pretty sure that this picture captures me rolling a gutter ball getting a strike! History is how we remember it.


Lastly, isn’t this a cute picture of me and my girlfriends having a sleepover in the den for my 12th birthday. Note my teddy bear Cuddles in the picture (still have her). We're all engrossed in watching the new movie release that my mother got us. You remember, the one with the up and coming star Tom Cruise, Risky Business. Yes, you read that correctly, tweens watching Risky Business (even today, at my ripe old age, just thinking of the subway scene makes me blush). Nowadays there must be a law against that. To her defence, Nanna (probably to this day) has no idea what the movie was about.


In order to be considerate to Amy all my American readers, 5 degrees Celsius is 41 degrees Fahrenheit.

Besos, The Zoo