The weekend was a quiet one with a trip to New Jersey to a friend's grandson's 2nd birthday party. There were lots of very cute children many of whom were bilingual. I hope they know how lucky they are. Old people like grandchildren, it's like having your own kids but you can give them back when they get noisy/smelly/cranky/hungry etc etc. - the best of several worlds. Driving back home we made the mistake of try to drive down Canal St. A kangaroo and an emu holding hands walking backwards could have done it faster. Here's a hint - old people also like slightly silly, slightly intellectual riddle-y type things (answers in a comment to today's riddle-y thing please). Hint - the flag might seem upside down to us.
Sunday was mainly taken over by a trip to the grocery store. Now my grocery store, in Redhook, in addition to having most of the grocery stuff we need, has a wonderful view of the Statue of Liberty. I never get tired of that and in fact when special people come to visit they get taken to the grocery store just to look at the view.
After coming home, my daughter and boyfriend came for dinner and the Patriots won. What could be better? (Apart from the Red Sox winning too - getting slightly anxious now).
Monday, September 19, 2011
Saturday, September 17, 2011
My sister is coming, my sister is coming!
Just had good news that my sister is coming to NYC on business and will be staying with us. She is much younger than I, having stopped having birthdays in the mid thirties (her mid thirties that is not THE mid thirties). She lives in Sydney, Australia so we should see some antipodean reactions to our neighborhood. More on her arrival soon.
Williamsburg has balls
Meatballs that is. Michael Chernow and Daniel Holzman's 2nd Meatball Shop (after the LES) has recently opened a restaurant on Bedford Ave - WIlliamsburg's main street.
I should, at this point, explain the meaning of recently when spoken by old people. Recently means "probably within the last couple of years but definitely within the last 5". In fact, I recently heard myself telling a friend that 1966 didn't seem that long ago. But I digress. Old people do that a lot, usually to tell a story that is extremely tangential to the actual story they are telling. Anyway in this case recently means July 2011.
Everytime we went past on our evening constitutional the place was packed, so we thought we would let it calm down a bit. So last night we ventured out and into it a little bit earlier than usual at about 6:30pm. We normally eat at about 7:00pm which seems a very good time as it is slightly before Williamsburg usually starts. But at 6:30 the place was packed and we were lucky to be seated right away.
The average age of the place was probably about 25 before we arrived (bumped up to about 28 when we got there) but the good news is that there were kids (people with age less than 7) there. Usually kids stop a place from being too pretentious, always a good thing in my opinion.
The menu was a little unusual needing a little explanation from our tattoed server (on the whole, old people don't like tattoos) but being edumacated people we got it pretty quickly and ordered some from the menu and some from the specials. You get to write on the menu too - how cool is that? I started with a SixPoint IPA, she who must be obeyed had a prosecco. Biggest disappointment was that the risotto was squash. I hate squash (although my mother told me i mustn't say hate, I should say it's not my cup of tea - she's English and now lives quite warmly in Australia). So I had the spicy pork with polenta on the side and my wife had the special meatballs (mediterranean - lamb with mint and stuff) with the aforementioned risotto. So how good can meatballs be? The answer, surprisingly, is really good. The meatballs were excellent, the sides were delicious and a good time was had by all. We even made room for a shared ice cream sandwich (caramel between macaroon cookies) - again extremely delicious. The tables are close enough that it seems to encourage discussion about what's good between neighbors without seeming all up in your business. We had nice conversations with the people on either side of our table. We learned some good tips for our next time, and i'm pretty sure there will be several next times. Just to rub in that "we youngsters have all the power in this place" feeling, they changed the risotto from squash to saffron just as we were paying the bill. (which at about $50 for 2 including tip was excellent value).
So all in all two very enthusiastic, albeit slight arthritic, thumbs up.
I should, at this point, explain the meaning of recently when spoken by old people. Recently means "probably within the last couple of years but definitely within the last 5". In fact, I recently heard myself telling a friend that 1966 didn't seem that long ago. But I digress. Old people do that a lot, usually to tell a story that is extremely tangential to the actual story they are telling. Anyway in this case recently means July 2011.
Everytime we went past on our evening constitutional the place was packed, so we thought we would let it calm down a bit. So last night we ventured out and into it a little bit earlier than usual at about 6:30pm. We normally eat at about 7:00pm which seems a very good time as it is slightly before Williamsburg usually starts. But at 6:30 the place was packed and we were lucky to be seated right away.
The average age of the place was probably about 25 before we arrived (bumped up to about 28 when we got there) but the good news is that there were kids (people with age less than 7) there. Usually kids stop a place from being too pretentious, always a good thing in my opinion.
The menu was a little unusual needing a little explanation from our tattoed server (on the whole, old people don't like tattoos) but being edumacated people we got it pretty quickly and ordered some from the menu and some from the specials. You get to write on the menu too - how cool is that? I started with a SixPoint IPA, she who must be obeyed had a prosecco. Biggest disappointment was that the risotto was squash. I hate squash (although my mother told me i mustn't say hate, I should say it's not my cup of tea - she's English and now lives quite warmly in Australia). So I had the spicy pork with polenta on the side and my wife had the special meatballs (mediterranean - lamb with mint and stuff) with the aforementioned risotto. So how good can meatballs be? The answer, surprisingly, is really good. The meatballs were excellent, the sides were delicious and a good time was had by all. We even made room for a shared ice cream sandwich (caramel between macaroon cookies) - again extremely delicious. The tables are close enough that it seems to encourage discussion about what's good between neighbors without seeming all up in your business. We had nice conversations with the people on either side of our table. We learned some good tips for our next time, and i'm pretty sure there will be several next times. Just to rub in that "we youngsters have all the power in this place" feeling, they changed the risotto from squash to saffron just as we were paying the bill. (which at about $50 for 2 including tip was excellent value).
So all in all two very enthusiastic, albeit slight arthritic, thumbs up.
Friday, September 16, 2011
And in the beginning
It has been a long standing joke in the family that we are the oldest people in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC, NY. It probably isn't true but it makes us smile. There are lots of old Italian and Polish people here but there are only a few of us that have recently moved into the extremely trendy northwest section of Brooklyn that we call home.
I have decided to write down a few ongoing observations that may help when your aged parents (or heaven forfend, your grandparents) come to visit and you wonder what they may like to do or perhaps what you may be better off avoiding.
So watch this space for a few, hopefully humorous, observations from the oldest people in Williamsburg.
I have decided to write down a few ongoing observations that may help when your aged parents (or heaven forfend, your grandparents) come to visit and you wonder what they may like to do or perhaps what you may be better off avoiding.
So watch this space for a few, hopefully humorous, observations from the oldest people in Williamsburg.
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