New Kitten

he looks like a 'Billy' don't you think?

New York State of Mind...

"Some folks like to get away, take a holiday, from the neighborhood
Hop a flight to Miami Beach or to Hollywood....
I’m taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line....
I’m in a New York state of mind"......

Well as you can see, Santa obviously thought I was a good girl this year - I'm finally seeing Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden!! Apparently the last concert before he 'retires'.

There were teary eyes when I opened that pressie!

That - and I am lucky to be "Mom" to a new little boy kitten who we adopted, and arrives tomorrow - he was rescued from the Korean Market - poor little bugger.

He is yet to be named (suggestions appreciated).

Had a wonderful Christmas morning in the apartment with my cousin Cara & R.

R gave presenty tickets to Cara and I to see 'Chicago' on Broadway in January - Huey Lewis (think "Back-to-the-Future movie soundtrack)happens to be playing my favourite character "Billy Flynn" during that time which will be great.

(There's an idea for kitten name - Billy Joel/Billy Flynn) !?

After presents and brekky this morning we then went to our friends in Upstate NY, lots of yummy food made by Beth & Rob. In fact we just arrived back home to Manhattan on the train. (These country trains were never on strike!)

Merry Christmas to all, hope yours was as wonderful as mine.

K.

Filming in our street...

There are so many movies filmed on our street, yet I am still not acting cool about it. I am such a dork.

It makes me so excited to live in a street in New York that the moviemakers deem important film making locations!!

I don't ever think I'll ever be as unimpressed with actors as that girl who was in my Julia Roberts blog entry!!

Here's last night's filming photos...

I'll have you know that we looked like the biggest tourists taking these photos last night .. for your benefit!

Fun - you should see the photos I didn't post!!!
K.

New York Marathon

Our friends W&A visited last weekend, and W had a great shot at the 'elusive' New York Marathon - he was one of 37 thousand who were picked out of 80,000 entrants - (lottery system).


Last photo is the finish line - he did pretty well!!!

We were proud, and boy, did we have a great time on the Sunday night after the marathon!

Possibly the best photo... ever...

I know I posted this photo before, but look closely at the sign under the Frontier:

“Bikini Bull Riding”
“Dirty Girls”
“Cold Beer”
“Mud wrestling”
“$10.95 steak & lobster dinner”

Honestly, what more could you want in Vegas!!!!

Nicknames

For as long as I can remember, my nick-name has been 'Katie-Pops', for short, it was always 'Pops'.

I don't know where it came from, maybe it was Soph, Rae, Amber or Andrea, but it has always stuck.

I still get 'Katie' all the time, but hardly ever "Pops" (unless I am talking to them or Sniff).

Today I was walking down 3rd, and I heard someone yell.... "Pops" well I turned around so quickly that I nearly got whiplash! It amused me so, to find a young boy yelling at his Grandfather!!

This one is for Cara Bella

The "Boo Boo Pocket" has good taste... don't you think!!!?

My Ric Ocasek - let the good times roll

I just cannot believe what happened to me on Monday.
My hubby had ordered this brand-new printer, and to cut a long story short, it was supposed to be delivered to us of course, but no, it was delivered to "My RIC" down the road from us, he actually came to my house. He actually pressed the buzzer on my apartment!! and I think I nearly had the heart attack. I walked with him to his house down the road, and he brought the printer to my house, (actually carried it) then he shook my shaking hand, called me sweetie.

Still have the Cd's in my handbag for him to sign - - I don't mind them so much, it's just the LP's that take up a bit of room! Ha only joking, the LPs are back in Australia at my Mum's house - maybe she can send them to me!!

Macaroni & Cheese

What is it with Mac & Cheese in America? I certainly don't want to bite the hand that 'feeds' me, but this is a serious thing.

While we were in Mexico, my little brother was staying at my house, so I made sure there were plenty of 'frozen dinners' in the freezer so he wouldn't starve. One of them was a 'Banquet' Mac & Cheese dinner (like a Lean Cuisine), which he didn't eat, and thank god he didn't! I had a little bit of it tonight, and it was shocking. I can't believe they are allowed to print 'cheese' on that box. Plastic, plastic, plastic.

I guess Americans grow up on this stuff, a bit like Aussies and vegemite.

Vegas Photos

Here are some more photos of our Vegas trip........

Viva Las Vegas...

Arrived back from Vegas in the wee hours of yesterday morning.

After a hectic flight on Friday night, we arrived at Caesar's Palace with minutes to spare before the concert. We were running so late that both of us changed clothes enroute in the plane bathroom (not easy).

When we arrived at Las Vegas airport I couldn't believe that they actually had slot machines in the baggage collection area - in fact, all over the airport! (See photo).

Elton John was magnificent! His voice just blew me away. It was well worth the trip. Caesar's Palace was a great place to stay, right on the Strip, and the pools were beautiful.

We also managed to see "Tribute to the Rat Pack" (www.ratpackvegas.com) and the guys who played Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Dean Martin & Joey Bishop were very talented indeed! The place we saw the show was at 'Greek Isles Casino' off the strip, a bit skanky, but the place was set up with the old fashioned booths, we could almost imagine that we were back at the real thing in the 60's.

Of course we had to do the all-you-can-eat 'Vegas Buffet' at the Monte Carlo Casino, as recommended by my brother. I think we stayed there for 3 hours and were absolutely stuffed, yummy, I'll attatch the very creative food photos!

It was a great trip, and we're thinking of going back in December to see Jerry Seinfeld perform at Caesars (if we can get tickets... here we go again!)

Mexico

Wonderful week of R&R in Los Cabos.
Met lot's of fun people, and spent many quality hours... doing nothing... by the pool!

M, G & Kiddies.... 

M at her 4th birthday party 

Back In New York

Back in new york and R and I were jet-lagged for 'nigh' on a week (as Kath and Kim would say)!

Best trip ever, we stayed with Sniff and Peach in Middle Park, and I am even more in love with Sniffy's daughter (see M in picture with her baby American doll - see matching dresses!)

Went up to the Gold Coast and Brissy, saw my sister in Geelong with her kids (love this photo of their fam).

Quick trip, but well worth it..


M with her baby doll Nala

The Back Yard

Slugs:

You all know that I am an animal lover. I will absolutely not kill a spider or even a fly. I have even rescued many a mouse from my cats mouths when they were outside in Chicago.

Warning: Do not read further if you are a “Slug Lover”:

We have a little tiny courtyard at the back of our apartment in New York.

Our friends who live in Melbourne will agree, that because of the rain there in Victoria, we used to get millions of them over summer & autumn.

We’re so used to, and not opposed to the odd slug going missing in Melbourne!

Here in New York I have only had three slugs inhabit my yard this summer, (three in total, not kidding), so I didn’t care about them much.

Frankly, they can go about their business, as long as those gross moving sluggish beings don’t come near me. I never wanted to hurt them like all of our other BBQ partners did though!!

I used to pick up ‘Dan’ (that’s what I called what I think was the boy slug – the one with the stripes), when he got too close to the BBQ and R’s size 14 feet. I used to pick him up with a leaf, very, very carefully, and pop him into the neighbours yard. We don’t like that guy next door anyway – Dan always came back to our garden, well I guess it was his destiny? (Past tense, very sad, you see where I am going with this).

The three of them, “Mum, Dad, and baby slug” have been here for a long time, only coming out for rain. (I’m getting dramatic, they probably didn’t even know each other).

This afternoon I fear (I know) I have squashed them all. I have been concentrating on avoiding them for months now during my frequent cigarette breaks outside, but today I was multi-tasking, not looking, and well…it’s a real pity.

Well, they are squashed now, and it wasn’t on purpose I promise – I even apologized to them after stepping on all three in succession (and thank the Good Lord for thongs).

Finally… Farewell Slugs, and we hope you come back in the next life as something less gross.

Packing

All set for our trip tomorrow night, as you can see in the photos, I think Boo Boo wants to come with us!! They get ansy whenever we pack for a trip...

Tell them they're dreaming......

It's just the vibe of the thing'......

The Castle

If it is possible to have an “iconic Melbourne movie”, then it would have to be “The Castle”.

R managed to find the DVD on-line at Buy.com, and although we have seen it a million times, we were cracking up, as usual, last night when we watched it again.

Eric Bana has a really small role in the movie as Tracey’s (Sophie Lee) Greek husband (his name in the movie is Con, of course). A couple of his best lines are not neccesarily the words but the way he delivers them deadpan:

when describing the airline food on the flight to Thailand for their honeymoon:
“…it was an absolute credit to the airline”

And when talking about the cable tv in their hotel room:
“they had kickboxing, 24 hours…. (pause)…a day”

And when Daryl asks him why anyone would want to leave Australia to visit Thailand:
“ It’s all about the culture Daryl, it’s full of culture”, and Tracey adds, “Chokka’s Dad” (we watched that bit three times)!

I especially love the bit when ‘Con’ is kickboxing at ‘Bonnie Doon’, and does the twirl.

Then there’s Santo Cilario playing the lawyer “Dennis Denuto”. Need I say more? The guy is hilarious.

What’s happening with all those guys over there who produced that movie? – I think it was Rob Sitch, Santo, Jane Kennedy, Tony Martin, Mick Molloy et al?

Do they still do “The Panel”? I used to love that show.

Andie Pandie

Good morning:

This photo is of Andrea ('Ond'), my best friend in the whole wide world, and her son, James.

I love her so much, and I remember the first day we met in ‘Science’ when we were at school, I think it was the same day I set the bunson burner on fire for fun? Can’t be sure?

It was ‘Firbank Anglican Girls Grammar School’ in the mid eighties. We really hit it off. She was 14 and I was 15.

We have never denied that the both of us are a little bit crazy, we used to lie down on the carpeted hall, outside the lockers at school, and pretend we could do ‘astral projection’.

Ond and I also used to have sleepovers in her twin-bed room, jump on the beds, and take a hairbrush or deoderant or something for a microphone, and pretend we were ‘rock stars’. We sang “Wild, Wild West” (Escape Club), and she knew ALL the words! (I didn’t, but she taught me) – she had the luxury of big brothers who taught her all the words.

I once ate a whole jar of ‘mint jelly’ (the stuff that goes on roast lamb) on the way to Sophie’s house one night, I got terribly sick, and Andrea patted my back ‘til I felt well again.

Then my Mum had to come and pick me up!

I love andrea,.

She is my oldest friend.

I have not yet met her baby boy (in the photo), his name is Jamie, (R and I call him JJ). He was born in May last year, and I can’t wait to see him next week. (Check out the colour of his eyes – so gorgeous).

We should go back to AUS more often?

K.

Boo Boo

I promised I would attach a photo of my other cat... so here she is... "Boo Boo Pocket Head" !!!