Farewell, sweet nalgene, farewell my lunchbag...

Greenie is history.

For the past few years, I've taken a lunchbag to work, on those day that I don't plan to embrace the lure of cheap chinese food. A dual-leveled piece of genius, I keep my Nalgene bottle up top, and my edibles down below. Yesterday, I realized at 168th street that my load was a bit lighter than usual. I left my lunchbag on a bench in the 181st street train station. In it, a fork, a disposable tupperware, and a half-empty nalgene bottle.

I got off, and waited for the next uptown A, getting more and more nervous as downtown A's passed... Is some scoundrel having their way with my bag on that train? I finally got back up to 181 and found my bag had grown legs and walked to the garbage can. Although, not in the garbage can, but on the floor next to it. ...?!? I opened it up. Fork? Check. Tupperware? Check. nalgene bottle? Alas, poor tankard, you've served me well...

I took the bag a couple of stations, thinking about what vile nastiness it was sitting in, and acknowledging the age and wear of it... I took the fork, chucked the rest. The last day of school starts without my trusty companion. But also, with out the BPAs. With all this talk about the chemicals leaching out of the number 7 recyclables, I figured this is a good opportunity to find a better solution.

The hunt begins. It'll start with looking at sigg bottles (thanks Bitter!), or maybe BPA-free nalgenes... Other suggestions?

I'm sorry I let you down, Greenie.

Come to the annual PS 87 street fair

I'm a little late to post this, but I hope not too late for you to make use of the info.

PS 87 Fun Under the Sun Street Fair
West 77th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus
Sunday, June 1st 2008 from 11am - 5pm

Come and support a local school, and enjoy the vendors, rides, food, games and crafts. More information can be found on the PS 87 website.

$6 movies in Manhattan??

Long gone are the days of the $3 $4 $5 theater at 50th street at 8th avenue. Man, I loved that place. I just accepted the fact that movies are going to cost $10 $11 $11.75 in Manhattan. So imagine my shock when DW and I went to a movie one morning and it totaled $12. Did Manhattan suddenly get matinee prices??

Loews/AMC theaters (which is absorbing almost every theater in Manhattan) have a program called A.M.Cinemas, where films before noon on Friday, Saturday and Sundays (and holidays) are $4, $5 or $6 depending on where you live. First run movies are included -- and even the IMAX at 68th is reduced ($10 vs $16 I think).

The theaters are a little more empty (as you might imagine at 10am on the weekends), but this makes it a little more family friendly or accommodating to groups who have that pesky request of sitting together. (Anyone who's gone to a movie with one person and still had to split up knows the utter frustration there). Even new parents who might want to try to take in a movie needn't risk of dropping $24 to leave 15 minutes in should a crying fit set in. Just ask darling daughter, who accompanied us to the new Indiana Jones flick this morning -- and didn't make a peep! We considered this a successful test run in case any NYC-centered movie should come out next weekend... :)

link: A.M.Cinemas Program

Find out how much they used to pay for your apartment

DW and I are starting to come to grips with the fact that we may be looking for new digs come October 1. It will be 3 years in our apartment, and we're going to try to do the stay-at-home mom bit, which we're both very excited for. But with one of us working, and that person being a teacher, the Upper West Side and us are likely to part amicably.

I was excited to hear there was a place that would send you your rent history. I thought for sure our apartment would still legally be rent-stabilized (and oh, the legends of landlords paying 3x the back rent did make me giggle with delight!)... but, alas, we're stuck with our deregulated, falling apart gem. When the next lease and rent hike comes, we won't be the ones giggling all the way to the bank. More like "Sobbing all the way to Craigslist..."

If you think your paying de-regulated rent on an apartment that should still be rent-stabilized, give the following number a call:
(212) 961-8930.
They sent me a rent history for my apartment going back to 1984. While our apt looks to have been legally de-regulated, it didn't cost anything to check!

I found this on the NYC Rent Guidelines Board site, which has a very useful NYC Rent and Rent Increases FAQ.

DD in her bouncer

I'm hoping to get more time as school begins to wind down to post more often. I missed earth day, I missed, well, spring entirely... but I missed sharing the newest addition to the family! Here is DD, and since I'm so behind in posts I'll go straight to a video. The laugh at the end is too cute.



She's a real angel, this one. :)