Urban mole

The solution to the proper ending for Miss Amelia Hamster's short but happy life was to have one of the building staff send her on a final journey. Happy trails.

Today is almost 40 degrees with brilliant sunshine and melting snow which made my trip up to the Museum from Union Square very colorful. I rejected my role as an urban mole, eschewed the subway and took a cab so that I could see everything and everyone. People were flooding the streets on their way to work. Park Avenue is a riot of color with giant red and orange flower sculptures which are amazing. Every store on Madison Avenue is festooned with red hearts and the whole trip was great. Tonight it is supposed to snow and rain.

I wasn't really looking forward to several of my weekend activites because...well just because. The first one was a shoping trip to help a friend nominated for an academy award buy a dress for the ceremony. Shopping is hard word but at 10:00 am in the pouring rain Trish and I had our noses pressed up against the doors of Bergdorf Goodman. Start shopping! This is the best store because it's where you get the most help from sales people who don't just point to expensive dresses but help you, get you shoes and offer to accesorize. Trish found a stunning coral dress which she may or may not buy. Standing by....

the rest of the day was spent in a pleasant kind of cocooning coma. Homework for Kate. I read two books and we totally blew off soccer.

Then Sunday Kate had a date to go to church with Alice and her family in Brooklyn. I detest going to Brooklyn at any time but especially on the weekends when the subways inexplicably stop running and the conductors start talking in tongues. Detour is the only word I every understand. We got up at 6:00 am so that we could get out of the house by 7:00 in time to arrive at our destination by 8:30. And while there is very little snow left in Manhattan, there is plenty in Brooklyn where the streets and sidewalks are still incredibly icy, slushy, and generally yucky. I wouldn't want to do that trip during rush hour but the views of the City on the way back are drop dead gorgeous because the J train -- who has been on the J train? -- runs above ground and you can see the entire city skyline. Quick drop off with Alice in Bed Stuy and then back to the house by 10:00 am. What a good mother I am....

Kate got home around 4 pm just in time for a round of festivities for Chinese New Year Lile, Maia and Rosie. It's the year of the Rabbit and in Vietnam it's the year of the Cat. It's amazing to me that these girls who see each other perhaps 4 times a year always have such a good time together. Worth organizing these trips and dinners at Chinese restaurants more often. The girls sit together at a table and the adults sit together which is a fine arrangement for everyone. I specially like the fact that the waitresses always come tell us what the girls have ordered....There is always surveillance.