The Only Church in My Neighborhood

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church is a little church in my neighborhood. I took these pictures while waiting for my husband to meet me for dinner last night. I'm sure most of its members are locals who have no clue how to manage (invite?) their new neighbors living in the luxury high rises. I learned from their blog they did recently offer a class on how to play the spoons.  

The Wake of the Destruction of the Crane Collapse

The crane has been cleaned up from the construction site, and what's left is a clear view of the damage. It won't take them long to fix it, but I wonder if they'll have to tear down much to begin again. I'll keep you posted. (I've included more pictures from my place because the sun is finally shining through the clouds today.)

Delivery is Awesome!

Say you're sitting around watching TV at night and you realize the soup and salad you had for dinner just isn't going to cut it. It's sleeting, you've already changed into your pajamas, and you just want something delivered right to your door. In Ohio, for the most part, your only options are pizza and pizza-related products, right? Here, it's a different story.

Here, you can order, say, steak and Monterrey Jack nachos or tuna tartar or chicken satey. You have your choice of Mexican, Japanese, Thai, Chinese, Greek, and the list goes on. Restaurants are eager to deliver to your door. I'm telling you, it's really hard to find an excuse to cook here.

With all those choices, though, last night hubby and I ordered two hamburgers from Petey's Burger four blocks away. The guy took my order like the place was on fire. The burgers were delivered in six minutes--that's not an exaggeration--including the time he had to stop at the front desk and deal with the doorman.

Update on the Crane Collapse

This article give more details about the crane collapse just outside my apartment. The crane has been removed showing the damage it wrought. I'm grateful no one was seriously injured.

Seven Construction Workers Hurt After Crane Collapses onto Long Island City Construction Site.

Crane Collapse in Long Island City, New York

Yesterday a crane that was set up just a few days ago outside my window in Long Island City, broke and collapsed on top of the workers right in front of my eyes! I had been reading the newspaper around 2:30 p.m. and saw it sway and lean over and crash onto the rough construction below. The sound of all the metal crumbling was frightening. I jumped up and ran to the window and opened it. People were yelling and running everywhere. This video was taken prior to any emergency vehicles had come on the scene.

The Crane Outside My Window

One false move or another Hurricane Sandy, and that baby's coming through my window.

Horses and Bullhorns

This is the scene outside my apartment window these days. My once quiet corner of Long Island City is no longer a haven from the noise of Manhattan. Promptly at 7 a.m. workers commence hammering, engines start revving, bullhorns begin blasting and. . . horses neighing? Yes. Every time this 20-story crane changes directions, it sounds like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I searched online for a video clip of the four horses scream-neighing in the Lord of the Rings, but didn't find anything without Metallica playing over it. I did find this:

The sound of a crane turning directions.

Rockefeller Center Christmas

It's much easier to get to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree AFTER Christmas. Each time I went there in December, it was too crowded to attempt to get close. Colors for the flags this time of year: silver and gold. Naturally, a photo cannot do justice to the tree. Is has so many lights it's like God spilled bottles of glitter onto it.

Anthropology Store Windows

My husband and I had just spent an uninspiring afternoon at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) when we walked past the Anthropology Store at Rockefeller Center. These window displays were the best art we'd seen all day. It's all paper mache and simply beautiful. I think I've mentioned in an earlier post that this particular Anthropology store has a full-time artistic staff to keep the store decorated. Such creativity!

 

Christmas Cactus

We spent Christmas in Tucson where the ubiquitous suguwara cactus plants (trees?) replace evergreens as Christmas decor. This one's fake, of course. It would be really hard--not to mention dangerous--to put lights on those babies.

Lord & Taylor Christmas Windows

Here you see Lord & Taylor Christmas windows. To get an idea of the scale, I took photos of people looking on, but you'll enjoy the detail of the next photos where I got close up. Their theme this year was Santa visiting places around the world.