Continuing in this vein of adventures in and around and occasionally having nothing to do with NYC, here goes … StoryCorps.

NPR’s StoryCorps oral history  project (what they say | what the other guys say)
Foley Square, NYC … and other locations fixed and mobile

ReyesReport Overall Rating: Two Reyi thumbs up (we’d add toes if the rating allowed!)

Time

• Book your appointment in advance with their Web site. We found this incredibly easy to do (+2) … down side was you had to book in ADVANCE – we booked over a month in advance (-1)
• We got there on time, recording started on time, recording ended on time. +2 for accuracy and good expectations!
• Net: +3

Cost

• There is no charge for the interview session.
• Two recorded copies are burned to a CD — one for you, one for the Library of Congress. That’s free too.
• They do ask if you’d like to make a donation – they suggest $25. We happily agreed with that. Donations are 100% tax deductible.
• +2 (who doesn’t love free. no pressure for a tax-deductible deduction for a service you think is super cool is good too.)

Quality

• The recording equipment and sound booth were top-notch.
• My dad felt like a celebrity on a radio show… which in a way, he was … the star of the talk show about my life and those who influenced it.
• The free recording they send you off with was great too — mom enjoyed the listen, and I’m sure more will be subject to at least part of the 40-minute adventure.
• +2, no doubts.

Experience

• You know where this is going. I walked out of there thinking who else to set up time with and wishing grandpa Osmon was still alive. When you want to go back for more, right away, it’s a good thing.
• Dad was on top of the world — having contributed a living memorium to the Library of Congress. Not to be morbid, but I think that’s way cooler than an obelisk in a graveyard. This is a moment and a breath of life that will live on — both with my family (e.g. future kids, yes moms, we do hope) and with anyone else who wants to hear stories from a real American who was drafted for Vietnam, made sweeping changes to the public school system, publicly fought the influences of religious fundamentalists on public school policy, or about the life of a deep-sea charter captain.
• Dad was also a little nervous about what I’d ask … I didn’t give him any zingers, but I didn’t let him off the hook until the interview was over either. Yeah, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy watching him squirm just a little bit Next time I’ll ask him about his torrid affair with my mother or … maybe some of the other unmentionables we don’t discuss in our WASPy little family >:-) <wink>
• +5 … can I do that?

Overall

• Reba: I don’t know why everyone hasn’t done this. Other than planning ahead, there are no down sides. The experience was excellent. If you live in NYC, book a time slot now. You can figure out who to interview when the date gets closer. Or hell, ask someone to interview you. We all have a story to tell. If you’re not in NY, no worries, there is a mobile booth that’s making its way around the country — stalk it. Or just come to NYC and make it part of your visit!
• Rad:If nothing else, this offers people a forum to sit down with someone you want to talk with, ask them questions you want to know the answers to, and preserve those answers for future generations. Of course, there is also the doubt or challenge to now figure out how to make what is probably thousands of hours of interviews usable for those who want to dig into the hundreds of interviews and topics discussed.
• Score: Perfect 10 (actually, it got a 12, but we gotta stay true to the system and have some kind of ceiling.)

A friend asked me that about our recent trip to DiFara’s Pizza. After all, it is way the heck out of the way. So I thought that might be a nice summary for some of the adventures we do.  I know, I’ve been bad at the blogging … if my company would get a wee bit better at the speech to text technology, I’d could knock this out from a wireless phone update on my commute home from the north … but I digress.

Now, in any good rating system, one needs consistent metrics. As we’re just beginning this experiment, I’m still open to the influence of outsiders — feel free to comment. Here’s what I’m going to start with: Time, Cost, Quality, Experience, Overall rating.

So let’s start this new blog experiment with DiFara’s. (If you’re lucky, there’ll be a second post this weekend on a new subject.)

DiFara’s Pizza (what they say | what the other guys say)
424 Avenue J, Brooklyn NY 11230

ReyesReport Overall Rating: Two Reyi thumbs up (that’s a 4 thumbs for those of you who have trouble counting fingers)

Time

• For starters, DiFara’s is not close but it is accessible by public transport, so +1 for that. But it took about an hour to get there by subway, so there goes that bonus point (-1, one hour or over).
• Now … once you arrive, you don’t just get your pizza. You shoulder your way to a wait list. Get your name on a sheet of paper. And wait. Some people bring games. Some people have children. Most of the comments on the Interweb warn to plan at least 30 minutes of queuing. That would normally garnish a -1 … but we made a special order of pepperoni pizza, which apparently put us on a special list. The woman taking orders told us if we didn’t mind pepperoni *and* mushroom (which happens to be Conrad’s absolute favorite pizza), she could give it to us right now. The people in the line were *not* thrilled. I, however, attribute +1 for just being awesome and jovial.
• Net: 0 — It’s not worth a regular commute, but on a splurge, time is on your side.

Cost

• This pizza was not cheap. Tasty, but not cheap. Toppings were all extra too. -1
• They accept only cash. -1 (Sorry, Mr D, I’m a modern girl)
• Net: -2

Quality (warning: this is one of two of the distinguishing qualities)

To me, pizza is judged in 3 main qualities. So that’s the methodology we’ll follow here:

• Crust: Thin and just the right kind of crisp. Delectable. Amazing. Even after a 10 minute walk to a park. +3, really great.
• Toppings: Pepperoni is a staple. I think it has to be the most common, American pizza topping. We used that as the topping benchmark. Honestly, DiFara’s didn’t stand out here. The mushrooms were awesome, but the pepperoni was sub-par. -1  However, Mr. DiFara has a special secret touch and adds, by hand, to each pie, as they come out of the pizza oven on that crazy board thing, a special drizzle of olive oil and a fresh cut of basil. +1, Mr. DiFara, +1.
• Taste: Put those things together, and does it all work? Yep. +2.
• Net: +5. It’s damn yummy pizza.

Experience

This is the tourism rating. The flavour. The zest. The culture. Mr DiFara has created a cultural experience all his own. And kids, he isn’t young. It’s a trek to the depths of Brooklyn. It’s a story to tell your grandchildren. It’s a tiny hole in the wall that you’d pass by on the way to the 7-Eleven without a second glance. The interior is not special, it’s a pizza joint. We went in the summer. The pizza oven was hot. There was no A/C. And every step of the experience made us feel like happy tourists at home in our city. Yep, definitely a +2.

Overall

• Rad: Definitely go do it. Now, my caveat, we didn’t have to sit for 1.5 hours to wait for the pizza. Would I wait that long? I don’t think so. But I had a great time, great pizza, don’t miss it before this guy dies.
• Reba: Do it, at least once. But make a day of it and enjoy the ride — it’s an epic adventure and not a regular commute for your daily slice.
• Score: 0 -2 +5 +2 = +5, don’t miss it!

For my birthday, Conrad gave me two big gifts: 2 tickets to see Avenue Q, and dinner reservations at a restaurant on our “to eat at” list, Mermaid Inn.

Well, after two intense dramas, Avenue Q was Broadway redemption. I can’t remember the last time wet laughed so hard, for so long.  It definitely wasn’t the all-girls comedy show we saw, that’s for sure. No, this cast of 6 was phenomenal. If you don’t know, Avenue Q stars puppets. It’s a Sesame Street for adults, if you will. There’s a gay puppet, a slutty puppet, a porn-loving puppet – and that’s just the beginning. You can see more of the puppeteers than I expected, and they themselves acted as complementary roles to their puppet characters.  The voices were amazing — the singing voices, and also the ability to seemingly split their personality and perform the voice of another character under someone else’s control. It was slanderous and rowdy and fun and escapist. If you haven’t seen it yet — do. It closes on September 13!!

We had late dinner reservations, which meant we didn’t have to rush. So we got to hop on the bus (which I love) and headed up to our old neighborhood. Much to our delight, today was Amsterdam Avenue’s street festival. Yay! The street is closed to traffic, vendors park their booths were normally there are cars and delivery trucks. Smells of roasting corn mingle with Thai noodle dishes and watermelon snacks. Hawkers sell hats, jewelry, t-shirts, kids clothing, rugs, sheets, socks … truly a little bit of everything, and always a surprise. Last year I found the greatest pair of Indian-style handmade shoes. Sadly, I’ve never found him again, but I keep hoping we do!  Somehow Conrad managed to find a weird locking bit of some kind or other that he HAD to have (naturally, he just needed it this week — what are the odds it was right there on the table in front of his eyes… ).

Naturally, after strolling around in the sunshine, we were quite thirsty. And it being only 5 or so, a little too hungry to wait until 7pm dinner reservations. Hark, did someone say mussels and a great beer at a newly opened B Cafe West? Red curry and coconut milk meld together to make Mussels Malay Laksa. It sounds good, and it’s better than it sounds. Plus the great Belgian beers were served each in their own brewer’s glass, which I love. So yeah, we’d go there again. Only one problem. Our lazy appetizer snack was pretty filling.

We walked around a bit to work our appetite back into a frenzy (or at least fool ourselves into thinking it was). Mermaid Inn is a fish shack gone fancy. We started by sharing a crab  gazpacho that was light and lovely.  For dinner, we shared a Sunday pasta special — a version of their normal “pasta with salad on top.” It was a tossed with little necks, mussels, calamari (including the tentacle ends) and perfectly cooked baby scallops and is topped with just the right amount of peppery arugula. Thankfully, Mermaid Inn doesn’t have a dessert menu — but to make up for it, they give each patron a little cup of chocolate pudding to end on a sweet note.

What a great birthday! And as every Leo knows, any excuse to drag it out beyond the actual day just makes the celebration that much sweeter.

Yes.  We have mice. Sadly, like bedbugs and roaches, this is not a problem reserved only for those in rent-controlled apartments. (Though really, you get such a great deal, I think taking the vermin on for the rest of us would be quite considerate.)

We knew they were here when they left their tell-tale little calling cards. Poops. Gross. I was out for blood. And I got it. Conrad killed three. And we saw no more poops. Gone? You know the answer. Of course not.

No, these guys went to rally the troops. To bury their dead and allow the proper time for mourning, and then to double their force and come out tales waving high, little mouse toes scampering lightly. They took this new mission on with a certain gusto I hadn’t expected. In fact, this latest crew they’ve sent in is bordering on rude. Guerilla warfare. They will walk out and say hi. Scurry along the wall only to pop down where you’re quite sure there is no opening. And traps? Oh, we can lure them in. I’m a fisherman’s daughter – and I can bait with the best of ‘em.  But much to my chagrin, there little 0.5″ brains are smarter than me …

Note: Merl is standing ON the trap

And so I give you Merl. Merl is small. I mean tiny. Merl is the bomb squad. They send Merl in first. He scampers over to the trap and inspects the food. Then he gives the all clear. It goes like this, “Hey! Food! Organic peanut butter dipped in a lovely imported parmigiano reggiano!” (Note: NYC mice are fickle. They like mom’s homemade cookies and imported cheese – the other stuff, gets a turned nose and an extra poop to emphasize their dislike.)

And then out comes Murray. Murray is fierce. He is the brains of the operation. Murray inspects the trap for function. He finds the best way to extract the food from the locking mechanism and export it to who knows where. Murray has the soft, quick hands of a power-thief.

How do I know about Merl and Murray? I observed all this from my home office, looking out into the kitchen, where I watched the showdown between man and beast. And we lost.

Well Merl, well Murray, you may have won this battle. But we will win the war. This I can promise you. Tomorrow we are bringing in our big guns. The exterminator arrives with WoMD and he’s not afraid to use them.  And if you win that battle too, I have another trick up my sleeves. Much to Conrad’s chagrin, it’s a one-word answer that starts with “C” and ends with “AT”. … But we’ll only bring out that dirty word if all else fails. It’s that or move.

Bring it on.

Ok, so we (I) have been bad at the blog of late. Thank you dad, momma R, and Andy for telling us (me) that you miss our updates. After blog > Facebook > Twitter, I’ve been getting social networking fatigue.  Plus I stare at a computer screen all day at work, so the luxury of not doing so in my free-time is something I’m treasuring more and more… and since Conrad won’t help me in authoring posts on this blog …

But my people miss me. Har. So we’re back baby. To all who missed us, this next post is for you.

So what *have* we been up to in the last few months? Plenty … here’s a taste:

• Bought a condo in Harlem (I think we told y’all that already)
• Meeting neighbors (people know people here, funny … it’s like we hopped in a time machine and went back to old-New York)
• Co-Hosted a Harlem house tour (Conrad helped me and other neighbors write a book, several friends and colleagues joined in the day — it was a fun success)
• Joined a community garden (we’re now growing tomatoes, collards, lettuces, peppers and other yummy stuff)
• Covered an IBM event in Germany (Rebecca did) where I randomly bumped in to my friend from the Netherlands (thank you Facebook)
• Conrad made his first attempt at his CCIE exam … didn’t pass, but walked away feeling better about it than he thought he would.
• Missed out on seeing Les Paul before he passed away
• Didn’t miss out on Mr DiFara and his famous pizza (worth the 2-hour commute, at least once).
• Tried the best tacos in New York City (according to a self-proclaimed foodie at work anyway) way out in Queens
• Gearing up for LobsterFest 2009

Some people have asked what’s still on our list. Here’s some of that:

• Catch Avenue Q before it closes (we have tickets on Sunday)
• Eat at Tavern on the Green
• Hit the top of both Empire and Top of the Rock
• Host a party with more than 10 friends who also live in NYC (silly isn’t it, but meeting people you really like in a new place is never easy — we never underestimate the value of a great friend)
• Take the ChinaTown bus
• Road trip to Niagra Falls
• … and there’s more.

So, I’m going to be better at this. If I’m not, be sure to flick a wet noodle at me and tell me you care about the piddly goings on in our little life, and we’ll trade some more stories.

7-12 inches of snow in a major city. You expect certain things, but our new city home continues to find ways to surprise us … here are some things that made us smile:

1. Don’t have enough snow plows? So what. NYC handles large snow storms by attaching huge plows to their trash trucks. Makes sense to use what you have. Brilliant.
2. Cancel schools? Well … it is a pretty big snow storm, so ok. But this was the first time in 5 years. Wow.
3. Mayor says some other surprising things in his press release … if you go out, ask your neighbors if they need anything; if you’re in 5th grade, math tests are rescheduled until Wednesday; and then summarized key points in Spanish for those who are more comfortable with the Spanish language.
4. City parks feel differently about snow days … come out and play! Each borough names one park with sledding and free hot cocoa!

Hillsborough, North Carolina. Trees. Land. Deers.

From the location of the Reyes Ranch you can truly get lost in the outdoors. From her window, mother Reyes watches the deer drink from the birdbath and the squirrels and blackbirds compete for leftover hushpuppies and shrimp (I didn’t know birds ate Shrimp, see, I’m learning all the time).

And the best part about being alone out in the woods is that we’re really not alone. In fact, after church on Sunday we gathered around the dining table and had coffee with my parents and Conrad’s parents together. It was a fun time seeing everyone together — there was much laughing and story telling, and I could from see everyone’s faces I wasn’t alone in the joy.

But we were alone in the woods of Hillsborough. And my parents were alone in the warmth of Florida.

So thank you Skype and Logitech Quickcam for bringing the family together for a Sunday social. We hope family togetherness is something we can more easily accomplish now that we’re all spread up and down the eastern seaboard.

See you online and around the supper table!
– The Reyi

I think she’s telling the truth about being unable to post from behind China’s Great firewall … but I have the slightest doubt that this is her sneaky way of getting me to finally post to the blog.
– C

First impressions of China as perceived in the Beijing airport.

We descended to the Beijing airport on a cloud (probably a smog cloud). Made me happy to think the pilots have a horizon orientation tool, because there was no way my eyes could tell which way was up. The window seat was pointless as we didn’t see ground until we were nearly upon it… so I’ll have to see the sights of Bejing another time, because apparently I am not going to see them from the window of a plane.

If what lines the arrival halls of the airport is to give visitors a first impression of what the Chinese value, then in order of importance, it would be: Olympics (advertisements of the 2008 special olympics still addorn the lobby); next comes History (massive, intricate iron artifacts decorate the terminal – from bells, to urns to a rotating dragon-flanked sphere built in 117 to prove the earth is round and rotates. Why do we talk about Galileo again?); and finally technology: I had help purchasing and activating a new sim-card for my mobile phone before even reaching border control.

But all these impressions were dwarfed, truly, by the scale of … well, everything. I’ve had to explore by bus to find Terminal 3 and transfer to my domestic flight to Shanghai. This terminal is massive. It’s at least 3 stories high and stretches … at least a half-mile long but probably longer. Typical for an airport I suppose. But where it differs is in the interior: the whole structure is one open space. Which means a view in any direction feels like you’ve walked into a room with a mirror on either wall, where the reflection mirrors a seemingly endless hallway within a hallway within a hallway, continuing forever until the smallest hallway dimishes to a dot — but if you peer even more closely, you see yet another iteration. So that’s the Beijing airport — and that’s just the architecture.

Anyone who’s been to a china town will probably comment about how rude its locals are – just cutting in front of you, abandoning the concept of lines, not even looking you in the eye. Only, they aren’t being rude, they are being Chinese. In fact, When we expect otherwise, it is we who are rudely projecting our cultural rules onto them. The scale of the population is apparent here in the airport — large tour groups continually parade through the check-in and security gates. And yes, Dad, they are following flags. I keep wondering what will happen if the woman bearing the yellow standard crosses path with a man carrying one similiar — will their tours fall into a state of chaos not knowing which to follow? I imagine them landing 4 hours later at the wrong destination and realizing they had someone followed the wrong yellow flag onto the plane.

As to the lines, I relearned that cultural phenomenon on a trip to the ladies room. Normally a long queue, this seemed a bit more chaotic, with people bipassing those waiting and tring different door handles. Once realizing the doors were locked, they would stand guard outside, pouncing on the vacated porcelain as soon as its previous occupant relinquished the stall. “But there’s a line,” I thought. And then I realized I was the only one standing in it. Everyone else was stalking a stall. There are just so many, many people in China that culturally they have have had to learn to push to the front — for food, for jobs, for attention. Those who don’t push, stay forever in the back, and you can imagine the results. It’s not rude, it’s survival. But when you know a culture’s rules, you can play by them. So when the stall next to me opened, though in my mind I was 4th in line, I was next in the potty. Good thing too

Alas, here I sit with time to spare, lots of restaurants, and not the slightest desire to eat or drink a thing. A food review will definitely be forthcoming … maybe tomorrow after a good night’s rest and a tour of my new surroundings.

We woke this morning to the mercury hovering around 23 in its frosy, glass tube. “Let’s go for a hike,” we thought. Duh. What else do you think when it’s 23 degrees and snowy outside?

And so we dug out and layered up with long johns, fleece, buff, coats and boots, and took Gil out for a ride in the chilly Westchester air.

Thanks to Bevin for the great suggestion of the Cranberry Lake Preserve. We stopped in at their Nature Center where the ranger made a few notes to our hike plan, and then we were off.

Though the weather was windy, we were well-prepared and actually grew toasty warm once we got moving. The three mile hike was a snowy wonderland. About 6″ of snow and ice blanketed the trail, giving us a beautiful winter wonderland to explore. Though the trail was well-blazed with orange, purple, blue and red — we found the rabbit and deer-print blazes even more noticable. Yet despite the plentiful snowy prints, the only wildlife we spotted were two hungry woodpeckers knocking for snacks.

Two and a half hours later, we picked up Gil and found a Little Spot in Westchester to replenish our calories with onion rings, hot dogs and a hamburger “wedge.” (Note: for all you non-New Yorkers, what we called a “grinder” in MA and a “Sub” in NC, they call a “Wedge” in Westchester — who knew.)

Saturday’s going well – Conrad has a little undisclosed location for tonight – this weekend just keeps getting better and better

… because I’m going!

And no, Kevin. I’m not going to Asia for another 4 months … just a short 7 day trip this time!

… oh, and the quality of this little clip isn’t too great, but as the first video blog update, and the first Flip cam experiment, I think you should give me some room for error here.