Bearshorty's musings

Yeva bought an apartment this year that has the most terrific views. She is on the 14th floor and you can see Manhattan, and most of Brooklyn and Verrazano Bridge too. So I knew that for 4th of July I wanted to come over to her place to watch the fireworks. She had a shift at work until 8pm yesterday and then went to see one of her private clients but she said it was fine to call her Mom, who lives two apartments down and her Mom would let us in and then Yeva would just come home closer to 10pm. Bear and I don't usually go out at night - we are stay at home types - but he loves fireworks and so we went. Yeva's brother let us in and then later, once Yeva got home, we were also joined by her friend Dasha from work, her Mom and her brother. The view was fantastic. The fireworks were just everywhere - not just the official Macy's ones - but plenty of local ones as well. I'm not great with heights - so I was mostly sitting on a chair on the balcony to watch them, while Bear was just looking at everything with binoculars at times. So we got to see the fireworks and be social for a while too.

Bear went to work for half a day - he volunteered for the day - mostly it was to put the soccer game on for everyone. In the meantime my parents drove over. My Mom grilled some steaks on the grill in the morning and brought lots of vegetables too. And we went to a walk and did some fruit/veggie shopping too. It was a little cloudy and started raining - we sent Papa back for the umbrellas and then walked in the rain. They stopped by a bakery, of course, as they like to do when they come to visit me, and got some little cakes and pastries to share for lunch. And then we watched "Dumbo" on Netflix, just because.

The weather turned nice and cool yesterday, which was very welcome after all the heat. I had jeans and jacket on last night for the fireworks watching and that was actually great.

Last week passed very quietly. I cross-stitched, read, finished reading "Silkworm" by J.K. Rowling - which was good but I liked the first one more, went for walks, watched original "Star Trek" with Bear during dinner (we usually just like music with dinner and no TV but we figure since our days in front of the TV will be limited with the baby coming, we might as well). I did get to cook a lot on Thursday, though. I made chicken, Ethiopian cabbage dish with cabbage and potatoes (it is spicy and fantastic) and my very first cookies - shortbread cookies. I already make a plan for next week to try three new recipes - one dinner recipe and two baking recipes.

I like waking up in the morning and just reading whatever book is currently on my bedside table. (Right now it is a biography of Catherine the Great). Before my day starts I can just lounge a bit. I also started the July issue of "National Geographic".

I watched the latest episode of ‘Burn Notice” with breakfast. I love having onDemand and the ability to watch an episode whenever I want. I do like the new addition to the team and the story arc this season doesn’t grate. Perfect summer offering.

I also looked at some things online before Bear came over. Here is a link I found interesting: some of our decisions are unconsciously made , like holding a warm cup of coffee makes us friendlier to a person we are talking to.

Bear and I had a terrific day together. We went to see “Toy Story 3” in the movie theater. (I can’t believe the price of the movie ticket now – it is definitely a treat now to go to movies.) The movie itself was wonderful and amazing. I cried at the end, that was one effective ending. I think, this movie is my favorite of the trilogy. The escape scenes were intense, and very creative. At one point, I wasn’t even sure where the story was going with characters in such peril. They created fabulous suspense there. But they also did signal what will happen, they just distracted the audience to forget about it. Pixar doesn’t disappoint as usual. Now, they just need a movie with the main female character.

After the movie, we went to the Indian restaurant that we like and had a delicious dinner. I got chicken tikka masala today. They have a buffet on weekends and I keep forgetting about it.

After dinner, we briefly stopped by the comic book store where I checked on the new Wonder Woman issue that is getting such press for changing the costume and story. I actually like the new costume, but it is not like I’m attached to the character or anything.

Bear and I capped our date with fireworks. A lot of places are having fireworks today, on July 3, instead of tomorrow, since tomorrow are the main New York fireworks that many want to see. We drove about fifteen minutes to a park where there was a concert (US army band) and fireworks. It took us a while to find parking and walk to the lawn where all this was taking place but then we settled down on the grass and waited for the fireworks to start. There were lots and lots of people. First, we saw some displays across the water (probably in New Jersey) and then we got our own show, set to some fairly patriotic songs. The fireworks were very pretty with lots of colors. My favorite fell down like golden ivy. They went on for a while too. I like the ephemeral nature of fireworks – they are only there for a moment and it is only really impressive live and not on TV.

We got turned around walking out of the park, since it was pretty dark, so we had to walk with a crowd for a while before orienting ourselves of where the car was. So we walked more to get to the car. But it was a very nice night and extra walking was actually a bonus. I did walk by some poison ivy so I was worried that I got some on my leg. I washed my leg at home and it looks like nothing really happened there. But other than that, the whole day was rather wonderful.