New York Baby-

I flew out at 7:30 am this morning and spent a pleasant 4 and 1/2 hours knitting and talking to my seatmate about gardening, organic farming, politics (he was a county commissioner)and comparing the weather between North Carolina and Oregon.

My hotel is good (My room is great!). The Herald square is a tad tired from the front and the lobby is nothing to write home about (kind of scary shabby as a matter of fact) but my room is a remodeled one and beautiful!! The designer put cream colored italian plaster on the walls, cherry hardwood floor, gray marble bathroom with matching wall tile. a new iron bed with new mattress.

I checked for signs of bed bugs and there was none to be seen. In stripping the sheets off to check the mattress seams and discovered that the mattress is the same one as I have at home (I am thinking I will have a comfortable sleep!).

The down side is that my friend's room is not as nice or as clean. They have a nice bathroom like I do but the floor is covered in a filthy carpet and the mattress is covered in plastic. I am not going to be stupid about broadcasting my hotel room on here while I am staying but I will tell you what room to ask for when I get home again. Thus far I would stay here again in a heartbeat.

The food-My food has been fairly good. I am still pretty tight. I did not set myself up for a great trip restriction wise when I attempted to eat spaghetti last night. It tasted great going down and even after the first three attempts to un-stick the improperly chewed noodle I said that it was worth it. By attempt number 6 and pictures taken by David of me leaning over the kitchen sink I began rethinking my 'worth it' statement.

So today: I have had three cups of tea today and some water. I ordered a cheese plate on the plane and ate most of it before I landed. I had 2 grapes and about 3 oz of cheese in total plus 4 water crackers. Dinner was a small portion of Borscht with sour cream at the Carnegie deli. I also had one french fry (from a friends plate), and a slice of liverwurst and 1/2 a slice of rye bread.

We then walked over to Serendipity 3 for dessert. I ordered a very huge and food porn worthy maple nut sundae. the sundae came with huge amounts of walnuts, a maple sauce that was wonderful and a big old scoop of ice cream. I barely skimmed the top off it before I was too full to continue. Again it was worth it though because I got to taste a bit of that gorgeous delight even if i Had to pay a full portion price for it. My friends took pictures of me chowing down (actually I only managed one more bite after the pics). When she sends them I will post them for you to see.

Tomorrow I am having lunch with Catherine and there are tentative plans to meet up with Yana on Sunday evening or Monday sometime. I managed a bit of window shopping as I walked from my hotel to Times Square and between Times square and Serendipity. I can't wait to get some more time to have a look around. My list includes:

Knitting store
boots?
slacks
shoes that are comfortable but look good with a business worthy skirt.
American Girl ( a little look see for potential Christmas shopping)
other cool boutiques.

If anyone is familiar with New York and wants to offer up advice I am game.

xxxooo