Ruby Meets Aunt Ngoc/Gina

Aunt Ngoc (Gina) flew in a couple days ago from Olympia, Washington, for some Ruby/NYC time. She hadn't been to the city in something like 14 or 15 years. We celebrated the occasion with a lunch at Tom's -- the legendary diner in Brooklyn, open since 1937 with the nicest staff in all of NY (free cookies, orange slices while you wait).

Earlier this week, Ruby had a check-up and learned she's in the 74% slot for height. She didn't like the shot she had to take, and it seemed to affect her appetite through the next day. All seems normal now. Normal enough that a couple nights ago, she entertained herself at 3am by listening to her (loud) voice and giggling (or at least) smiling at herself for it.

I Like Dylan Too

Though the last time Ruby wore this, it lasted all of four minutes before getting, um, a sort of leakage stain.

Ruby in the Catskills (Part III)

Bunches of pals came up for the Catskills weekend. Doug and Cathy on Friday night. The outdoor grill got going about 30 minutes later, for serious steaks, salmon and asparaguses.





On Saturday, Ben and Thuy (with Zama the hilarious French bulldog) joined the posse. The grill got much more action, with more Doug steaks and Thuy catfish (yes, that's three catfish you see below). We barely made it to the ice cream.





Zama was a huge hit on the Woodstock streets, and with Ruby:




On Sunday, we went on a hike -- Ruby getting her first go in the Ergo:





On an incredibly weird note, the house had some very disturbing artwork. One, a black-and-white photo of the house a century ago with some very disturbing people on the porch. The other -- actually a series -- were bizarrely graphic, violent paintings of a animal-type cartoon character being shot or decomposing. Typical weekend-away type stuff:

Naughty in the Catskills (Parts I-IV)

Uh-oh. Ruby was fussy in the Woodstock cafe -- the one that shows an old black/white photo of Bob Dylan in its doorway circa 1969 -- UNTIL they put on some reggae. Need to get her back on a diet of the Canadian progressive rock melodies of Rush. And quick.

More naughtiness:

Another Photo of Chet!

Per request, another photo of Chet! the dog:

Ruby in the Catskills (Part II)

Today we drove south 30 minutes to New Paltz to visit some friends -- Trippy, Jen, Dexter, Gus and Chet! the dog. They moved up from Brooklyn a couple years ago and now run an amazing cafe called Market Market. (Mai and I went with Rueben sandwiches -- veggie and beef, respectively -- unintentionally tributing one of Ruby's nicknames.) Lots of fun there -- some 'hide the baseball' and making-faces games with Mr Dexter. Plus some tears, some laughs all around.

We've been filling imaginary rolls of digital film trying to capture Ruby's sudden smiles -- and failing. In most, like a portrait below, she ends up looking grumpy. Grumpy and chubby.

Ruby in Catskills (Part I)

We had plans to come up for a short weekend in the Catskills, a couple hours north of New York City, and learned for a few extra dollars you can rent out a home for the full week -- weekends up here: gold, weekdays: discounted and closed. So we did. On our first day we bee-lined to Woodstock so Ruby could get a dose of tofu and tie-dye shirts. Woodstock did not disappoint. In one cafe, a gentleman walked in wearing a faintly Santa Fe/Southwestern fleece jacket, feather in his long hair, no shoes or socks on, and -- that's right -- leather chaps over his jeans.

The house up here is great. Couple floors, wood floors, leather sofas, bizarre art, and old-timey details. On our second day we drove up to wee Phoenicia and had some remarkable 'walnut crunch french toast' and walked around the dainty main street a bit. Lazy times. Not even turning on the TV.

Hip Days of Youth

We're tardy in saying so, but last weekend was a full one for Ruby R. Lauren, Lila and Mr Randall came over for bagels, cut-up croissants and coffee drinks. Sunday we ventured into a new realm for Ruby -- the hip weekend brunch place. Melt, in Park Slope, let us in two minutes before opening -- at 10:30am -- and we found ourselves in a full place by the time we finished. There we met some Sesame pals, including Cheroc, Cliff, Kim and Cathy (aka 'Kwonfucious').

Afterwards we went back to the apartment for a loose version of Scrabble involving made-up words and the need for hyphens.

Ruby's Message to Amadeus: 'Don't Rock Me'

They say listening to Mozart makes a kid smarter. Ruby has different ideas.

Liking the Park

Not many visitors or residents of New York City realize that Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux -- the creators of Central Park -- created a 585-acre sequel. And one they believed it to be far superior to the original. Hilly and (in season) green Brooklyn's Prospect Park was built a few years after Central Park in 1867, and is a park, unlike its more famous cousin, that allows visitors to play cricket and soccer, or roll strollers, onto its lawn anywhere you want. We like that. We also like that it's across the street from our apartment. Last Sunday's nicer temps lets us give Ruby her first taste of it. We met up with pals Cathy and Diana, and a feisty squirrel named Cameron.

In other Ruby news, chubbiness persists -- she's now almost exclusively wearing three-month-old outfits. I think she only got to wear that Bob Dylan onesy for 10 minutes. Also, we made it out yesterday for a third restaurant-made breakfast. She's starting to pay attention to the sounds of the rattle.

Ruby Bagel Bowl

For the past couple years, the Brooklyn Bagel Bowl has been an all-out testament to the love and lore of flag football, played with flags -- without apology -- in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Sometimes park staff make fun of this.

Today we took the BBB indoors, for an all-Okie Ruby Time party with bagels and way too much coffee.