Red balloons

i totally didnt know what picture to post today. so i went to my november-folder of 2010, the first year we were in boston, and this is what i found... :)

this is close to the public garden in boston. i dont even remember taking this picture.....

Dancing cop

always fun to see a cop directing traffic. if you shoot multiple images and watch them after each other, it looks like a weird dance on the middle of the street, sometimes.. :)

going back and forth to new york in one day is really fun, but tiring too! we got up at 4.45am on saturday, caught the subway to boston, and then had the 6.30 bus to new york, delivering us to chinatown around 11 (traffic was a bit slow yesterday), we spent the day and got the 7pm bus back to boston, getting back home just after midnight..... then the downstairs neighbors had some loud party, so we stayed up and watched some series. 

as a result; today i did hardly anything. too tired... :)

NY today

still some autumn colors today in New York! we went for a day, from boston by bus, so now im tired....

it was real warm! at some point too warm for a jacket, can you believe it?!

Giant deer

when we were in toronto it was really cold! we didnt really find our way, and were frustrated that we had to pay for parking on a sunday (in boston its free on sundays, so sometimes we do a little crazy and goto the city by car....). besides, when we finally got a parking spot we could stay there only for 3 hours (stupid rules!!), on top of that we were so stupid to not change our watches yet to wintertime and so while walking through cold windy streets we suddenly didnt know whether we had to rush back to the car or not... do we have another hour, or....?

both me and tim were not impressed with toronto, but perhaps we didnt find the good part... we did find the shopping mall and i loved the deer they had placed there (there were several)! look how gigantic this one is! 

Golden skyscraper

im still impressed by skyscrapers, every now and then. this one was in toronto, where we went when we were in canada anyways to see the niagara falls. 

Highway distractions

while we drove to (and from) niagara falls i took a lot of pictures while driving. there were a lot of funny city names, or names of real dutch cities (like amsterdam and rotterdam), or cities that we had no clue how to pronounce. perhaps i should once make a flickr-set of those. not all are entirely sharp as its not easy taking pictures of highway signs while driving past them with 65 miles/hour!

there are a lot of signs for local/chain eateries as well, as you can see here. denny's is a very cheap breakfast place where we sometimes like to go. then there are the trucks and buses which can have interesting advertisements too.... or just rush by with such crazy speed that they become a scary distraction....

Anorexic rabbit....

or... what else comes to mind when seeing this sculpture...?

this sculpture is in the utrecht, the netherlands, and i have biked past it many, many times. ah yes, the scary rabbit again. until someone told me he always called it the anorexic rabbit. from then on thats what i thought as well. its right next to the bike path, across "het neude", a square lined with a lot of cafes. once i looked up why this statue was there, and found out its called "thinker on a rock", and... that the artist was inspired by.... the thinker from rodin! i totally saw that when i read that, but all those times i passed it really never crossed my mind..... the sculpture is there since 2002. the city council asked the people of utrecht what they wanted to see on the above location; they could choose from several things, among others this rabbit, or a fountain, etc. apparently, hardly anyone choose the rabbit, but the jury appointed by the city council did, and so the rabbit it was.... (so much for letting the public speak!). many were unhappy, its not even from a dutch artist, and neither is it "original"; there are 2 other casts made from this sculpture, both located in the usa (one in  st. louis and one in washington; i would like to see one here!). but... people have grown to like the rabbit, and it sometimes gets some carrots, or some clothing during winter.

the sculpture is from the british barry flanagan, and most of his sculptures are of skinny rabbits, in some pose or another. this is, according to wikipedia, because in the 1980s, "he perceived the image of a hare unveiling itself" before him and has used it since.....

i saw on google-doodles that rodin was born 172 years ago today....., and remembered i still hadnt posted the above-picture... :)

Christian eggs....?

yes, this is an egg carton. the one you get in the shop, with eggs in it. when i took the last ones today, i suddenly saw these eggs are christian... the psalm in the carton says; "this is the day which the lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." hmm... suddenly i felt bad we had used up a dozen eggs without knowing they are christian. yuk! but i presume it was a heavenly sign i discovered it on a sunday... no?

its also a different brand than we usually have, and i wondered where we got those eggs from. now i finally remember; from Aldi! this is a supermarket originally from germany, and it surprises me they sell christian eggs. i really wonder whether the german aldi eggs are christian too.... wikipedia tells me aldi is already in the usa since the 70s, so they had some time for religious change, i guess...

i find it really weird to see christian verses on stuff i buy. i once showed you they do it at in-n-out burger in california (although they there only refer the verse, and do not print the actual text). same with forever21, a clothing store for young people. i recently saw that their shopping bags refer to a verse as well! but i doubt that the clothes they sell at forever21 are suitable for church....

then there are some other companies that let religious beliefs have a major impact on their business model as well, here in the usa. i have been trying to come up with a dutch or european company that does that too, but i really cannot think of one. from that (haha, i could not even remember at first where bought those eggs, but well.... from that i conclude that this is something typical american... and i find it very odd!

ah, the last 4 christian eggs were used for my very first pumpkin pie, very american too. and i have to say that it is definitely not my favorite pie.... (luckily the homemade crust and the whipped cream we flavored with some brandy made up for it, a little...)

Today's afternoon

we passed the city hall this afternoon (which i showed before, here its to the left), and this is city hall plaza. a huge empty space, sometimes occupied by the circus, or other events (then it looks less weird, i have to say. its really so huge, and often empty!). today somehow there were a lot of cars (i wonder why?!), and in the very back you see the entrance to the subway. 

we went to haymarket (just behind the city hall), to get some very cheap fruit and vegetables. i know that previous time i showed you a picture of haymarket i mentioned we never go there, but nowadays we sometimes do! it is actually really, really cheap and if you look carefully, you can get good stuff! you just need a big bag to carry it all back home. ah, and cash, plus a good memory in order to remember at which stand the fruit or vegetables looked the best for the lowest price (every time it does happen that at the next stand those oranges were even a bit cheaper than where we just bought them).

Where's this?

yes.... niagara falls. we went there the past weekend, finally! it was quite a drive, some 8 hours, on a mostly booooring highway (and we had to pay a lot of toll, in total perhaps 20 dollars). we both had never been there. first we watched them from the american site (as you can see above). we went to the information booth along the highway. we got some booklets, but there was absolutely nothing about the canadian side! not even the roads were marked (and canada is right across). as the man behind the counter said; "well, yes, guess which side we are trying to promote here, huh". we also discovered our tomtom is for the usa only, it was blank as soon as we crossed the border, haha.

as you can see, there are a lot of hotels with a view of the falls. and the ones you see here are just a few. there is basically an entire entertainment circus built along the falls. casinos, shops, hotels, restaurants. very touristy, nothing outstanding... really, it was so cool to see the falls! yes, ive seen pictures, but seeing and hearing it in real is so different! but i think it would be nicer if you would first have to walk through a forest or something, and then they suddenly appear...(imagine the explorers that discovered these falls!). now it was walking through a forest of signs for how to pay for parking, where your hotel is, or where you should eat. beeehhhhh.... on saturday it was pretty crowded, but we stayed another night (as driving 8+  hours on 2 consecutive days would be a bit too much), and on sunday the little entertainment town was dead. yes, all the restaurants were open, only hardly anyone was there... 

anyways, we really enjoyed seeing the falls for real. i took a lot of pictures, but none does them justice. you should go there in person! (and ignore the "ballentent" as we dutch would call that circus of hotels and casinos around it)

Frozen bananas?

yuk! saw these this weekend! cannot be tasty at all, i think.....

meanwhile, its really cold here. but the snow turned into heavy rain (this morning), and its all gone now. but the forecast says around 18 degrees celsius this sunday or monday! i dont get the weather...

First snow!

here a crappy picture i took out of the window from our apartment this evening! look at all that snow!! and its still coming down..... its a bit windy, but not by far as windy as it was during sandy last monday. but its quite cold!

i keep reading about new york/new jersey/connecticut where sandy left a real mess. houses are destroyed, and many people are still (!) without power. this new small storm must be shitty there... when we drove through the state of new york, we were warned on the highway that there were fuel shortages in the hudson valley. we didnt notice anything, but i have seen the lines for gas stations on tv.... (here you can read more about the damage sandy caused in staten island, or here about the rockaways)

Blue sky!

behind all those clouds there is a very blue sky!

we watched the outcome of the elections tonight. sort of. the enormous tv was on mute and we played some game. of all the people present, only 2 (out of 11, i think) were real americans and allowed to vote! i learned that when you vote, you get a sticker that says "i voted". and real americans really wear that sticker. i find that very interesting, and cute too! like when you did you did some task well, at school.... also, cnn said obama was "the winner", as if it literally was a race, and obama was fastest (shouldnt it be "elected"?). here you can see how much money each candidate raised and spent on the elections. its really incredible. imagine what could have been done with all that money.... (instead of all those negative ads about each other)!

anyways..., now its really late and obama still did not give his speech, maybe its time for bed and watch it later.....

Amsterdam, NY

we went somewhere this weekend and the stupid hotel didnt have internet, grrr... :((( or rather, having internet would cost additional money and so as real dutch we didnt do that. we did watch some tv, until i fell asleep; elections, elections, elections!!! (they are tomorrow!)

anyways, to get where we went, we passed amsterdam, in the state of new york. so of course i had to take a picture of that. 

it was very cold where we went (and we had a teeny tiny bit of snow!). i was hoping in boston it would be less cold, just like when we left (which was just 2 days ago, it somehow feels much longer), but now its bloddy cold here too! we even put on an extra blanket. both very tired, so even though its just 10 (winterime), it feels like 12.... (and it would be 11 in summertime; we had some stupid trouble with that this weekend, haha!)

good night!

Autumn yellow

i took this picture last weekend at the cemetery. this tree is just so magnificent! especially in fall, i think...

by now most leaves are probably gone. its getting colder again too, and this weekend we change the clock; an hour extra! and shorter days again.... beehhhh

Mobile devices

this was in the getty museum in los angeles where we were back in may. actually tim say these girls first, immersed in their phones... hmmm. now i look at it i wonder whether the blond one really is looking at her phone, but the other one defenitely is! :) 

here in boston in the subway most people are on their phones too. i think at least 50% of the passengers spends the entire ride tapping on the thing. then there are some with e-readers (or whatever you call them), and then there are just a few that have a real book or magazine... i just read that newsweek will go digital only from the new year onwards!! im glad i discontinued my subscription, because i dont have an e-reader or a fancy phone... so how would i ever be able to read their articles on the train or while im in the gym..?!

sometimes i wonder whether i dont miss something, without a fancy phone. but then i try a game on tims phone and i am just horrible at it (and dont enjoy it), or the other day i needed to retrieve a specific email while using his phone; it drove me crazy as i mistyped my password i dont know how many times on the little screen. so i guess no 800 dollar new iphone for me... i use a very simple prepaid without camera, without T9, and unfortunately usually without very good sound (i.e. when someone calls me i usually dont hear what they are saying, so i prefer not to pick up and send texts instead). am i getting old...?

Subway entrance

this is the subway entrance to south station. i think there are 4 of these, even, for the train in each direction on either side of the street.

i also like the thingies in between for the many, many free magazines you can get. most of them i have never seen! often they are empty anyways, and in areas with lots of homeless people they are usually used as storage for their blankets... so, beware... :)

Sunny hours

i saw this in august on a small, old cemetery alongside the road. somewhere in vermont. i liked it, took a photo, and forgot to look whether it belonged to a grave, or anything... 

today i saw on the news what damage hurricane sandy did. a lot of power outages and downed trees in and around boston. but all that is nothing compared to the mess she left in new york, for example. as you can see here. we were really lucky!

So far...

...we didnt need to be rescued! everything fine! as i wrote yesterday, the MBTA (i.e. the subway system) had a note on their site that they would operate as always during sandy.... so... they did, this morning. but then, at some point they decided to suspend all (all!!) service from 2 in the afternoon onwards.... glad we got up a little late, and found that out, so we just worked from home today. but imagine all those people that did get up on time, only to find out they had to rush home again before 2!! although judging from all the empty parking spaces near the subway station, many people already had decided to just stay home.

the winds and rain were pretty crazy at times! sometimes the wind was so strong i was sure i would see a tree go down, but around our apartment everything remained fine. pfew... :) lights were flickering sometimes so i was really afraid we would loose power. during the day i followed the nstar power outage map (you can view that here, where they list where and how many people are without power), and more and more places in and around boston lost power. at first it was just a small percentage of the customers, but s the day went on, more and more regions had power outages well above 50%, and 2 towns at some point were even out entirely! judging from the news many trees went down, and here and there there was some flooding in and around boston, but nothing major, luckily.

sandy herself lost some power, and now its very quiet around here. lets see of it stays that way...

Wild sea!

as it has been all over the news, i dont have to explain that hurricane sandy might visit us sometime tomorrow night...

whereas saturday the weather was very nice (we went out without jackets) and sunny, today it was dark, rainy and quite stormy already. strong winds brought many (kite) surfers out to revere beach. here you see just 2 in the back, but there were many, many kite surfers out there! we just briefly ran up to the beach, but the wind was so strong and the rain was making my camera wet.. after the beach we went to the supermarket but no crazy empty shelves as i have seen now on several blogs. only all bottled water was sold out. 

while they shut down the subway system in new york, here in boston they expect to operate normally, although they are placing sandbags somewhere along the green line, as you can see here, to prevent flooding. they do suspend ferry services tomorrow. our apartment complex send out some "hurricane preparation letter" with very helpful tips, as for example: do not open the fridge/freezer too often when its not working anymore....

well, lets see. we have a flashlight (somewhere!), some candles, i just made a large pan of soup, baked 4 breads and an apple pie.... that should be enough, no?! also, i did most of the laundry and cleaned the kitchen. if disaster strikes, at least everything is clean.... also, i went to a halloween party yesterday, and sort of dressed up, something i already hated to do when still a kid..... hmm, i guess that actually has nothing to do with the hurricane, i just wanted to mention it.. ;)

anyways, if i not post, like i didnt for the past 2 days, it could be because we lost power, but it could also be my laziness (the reason i didnt post the past 2 days).