Rob Thomas At The Beacon

Saturday. After going to bed after 2am, Maria won her sainthood when she got up with Cooper at 7 o'clock in the morning. Bottle, played, breakfast, played, and then off for his morning nap. Maria had to work at a conference that day, so she got ready and was out the door by 10:30am. This was so not fair - Lori got to hang out and play with our Cooper all day!

Liza and the twins were on their way into the city in the late afternoon since she and Lori were headed to see Rob Thomas at the Beacon Theatre later on that night. They were meeting Kim/Michele and Eileen/Traci at Pappardella at 6pm for dinner, and then all would head over to the show together.

The Beacon Theatre is a fantastic venue to see any concert, and we both have been there many many times over the years. Not a bad seat in the house.

The other headlining band with Rob Thomas was One Republic.

Opening for the two was Carolina Liar .

What was happening on the home front? A sleepover was in progress. Maria and the boys ordered pizza, pulled out the sofabed, popped pocorn, and watched movies with all the lights off. Aunt Maria is definitely the BEST!

Prost For 40

TRACI'S BIRTHDAY

In a "borrowed" van, 12 of us embarked on a German pub crawl to celebrate the day of Traci's birth. This multi-borough and multi-prost tour began in the very non-deutchland bar/restaurant Ted's which is in the belly of Time Inc. Don't know if it was just because we were starved, but great freakin' sliders!

Embarrassed to say that we have no idea what bars we hit before Heidelberg'ing it over to a diner for some much needed eggs and nachos at 2am. How many was it? Four? Five? Eileen was very generous to us all, and really made Traci's birthday a success.

Regards? Hell no! In LOVING regard.
Which borough were these shots taken in? Before Mel's disappearing act? After stealing the ketchup? Before the cake? After the shots? Before Sarah arrived with suitcase in hand? After Cordoza hooked Lori up with soda/lime for vodka roadies? Who knows!

Cooper's two favorite people.
How cute are we?

Speaking of cute.......


Maria ran into her friend Anthony at one of our stops. She hadn't seen him in a little while, so it was cool to chat for a bit.

Hard to see, can you make this out?

EB.

Our Eileen is famous.

Traci. Traci. Traci.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Hola Hola

Hi Cooper!

Hi Aunt Mel!

Red Velvet Cake

If you are ever in Fort Greene,
You have got to check out Cake Man Raven.

Red velvet cake. So freakin' delicious! We are going back.

Native American Museum

Did you know that there is a Smithsonian Museum here in New York City? Well, there is! The National Museum of the American Indian is located right near Battery Park. Had the opportunity to attend the gallery opening and reception for their newest exhibition, 'A Song for the Horse Nation, this past week.

If you are downtown and have an hour or so to burn - we highly recommend checking out this museum. The space is not big by any means, but it is an interesting and unassuming little gem of New York City. And? It is free! Looking forward to Cooper visiting here when he is older. We are going to try and get to this too:

Whistlin' Dixie

Real Food For A Real Man

Cooper has unquestionably leapt into the next phase of food'dom.

Here are the items on this week's menu:

Grilled chicken, steamed broccoli, cheddar cheese, apple, hard-boiled egg yolks, kiwi, yogurt, graham crackers, limited amounts of baby food, and (of course) poofs.

Worry not, he doesn't eat all shown in the photo at one seating! It would take the kid an entire week to eat all this. He is trying new things, and loving it.


Look at him go! Next week? Curry.

Women's Event 12

We were invited to attend Women's Event 12 this past Saturday by Brian and Neil. So generous of them to extend the invitation, and we are thrilled that someone as great as Brian sits on the Board of The Center. We "double dated" with Arlene/Suzanne and shared a cab down to Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers. This is the first time in YEARS that Maria wasn't needed to interpret this event. What a nice change it was to simply sit at a table, enjoy all that wine, and enjoy herself.

Some notable guests in attendance were Sarah Paulson, Molly Ringwald, Robyn Goodman, Kelli O'Donnell, Gina Gershon, and two puppets (and cast members) from Avenue Q performed. Hundreds came out to show their support and also to be formally introduced to Glennda Testone, who has been named its first female Executive Director.

Cocktails, food, silent auction, mingling, dancing....

And then home. Teresa and Monique did a fab job of babysitting Cooper - of course they did, he slept the whole time! We want our money back. They also both received the added bonuses of Dominos and the contents of our gift bags. They will definitely have the opportunity to babysit in the future.

Oh, and we forgot to post the fact that we met Senator Kirsten Gilabrand at a Center event a few weeks ago. Cooper was sleeping, but the senator did stop and talk "shop" with us for a bit. She has an 18-month old. Great speech, and a very inspiring woman.

Mini Me

We are a tad behind on posting pictures! These are from a meet-up with Van/Sarah at Johnny Foxes to see some of our favorite people, check football scores, and lead-in to the Yankees game.

This little guy was sitting on the table just waiting for Cooper to make his appearance. Apparently it was stolen from the unsuspecting guy at the next table. Luckily the duo got away with only the doll. Next time? They may slip him a mickey!

Look at Cooper's face! The caper was well worth it.

He is absolutely crazy about Van and Sarah.

And let's face it -

The kid is crazy about himself too.

The Word On 'The Street'

If you are a conservative, the word on 'The Street' is RADICAL.

It must have been a slow week, because there are now some idiot conservatives who are filling the voids in their lives by whining about a Sesame Street clip first aired 2+ years ago. Here is the "heinous" and "radical" clip that is "polluting" the minds of American children:

Let us break it down for y'all who need an explanation....

Oscar (who is a grouch) (and lives in a trash can) is a reporter for GNN (Grouch News Network) (funny play on CNN, huh?) and a viewer (who is also a grouch) is outraged about what she sees on the report bec it wasn't grouchy (remember, she is a grouch) enough. She calls in to complain, saying, "From now on I am watching Pox News. Now there's a trashy news show." Wow. That is horrible. Really. Wow. Pox News. That is deep.

How can these conservative parents have their children hear such things! These parents should do the RIGHT thing and change the channel to Rush Limbaugh post haste! It is so much better for their children to be influenced by a draft-dodging, drug addicted, racist, family values failure such as the current de facto leader of the Republican Party. Yes, much better themes than 'sharing' and 'cooperation' and the alphabet and counting games of Sesame Street.

You have to understand that Maria is a huge fan of Sesame Street. She was thrilled when she was seated a table with Sonia Manzano at an event a couple of years ago, the "seed" of sign language was probably planted by watching Linda Bove, and the fact that this week marks the show's 40th anniversary makes Google'ing that much more fun. Now this spewage from right-wingers allows her to start her Monday off with a smile. Pox News. LoL

Some other famous spoofs by Sesame Street are compiled here at Popeater.com - sketches called 'ABCD Blue', Law and Order: Special Letters Unit', 'Are You Smarter Than an Egg Layer', 'Squeal of Fortune', 'Desperate Houseplants', 'A's Anatomy', '30 Rocks', 'Mad Men', 'Spaceship Surprise: The Next Generation', and "The Adventures of Trash Gordon'.

We are waiting for Glenn Beck to out Elmo for being communist red. Maybe this will alleviate some of the historical pressure on Bert and Ernie to define their relationship.......

Comparing Notes

Cooper posed for this picture so we could send it to Michael while he was tailgating with Peter, Donny, and others. We can not believe how little he was only a few short months ago!

Now? He has absolutely grown into his own personality AND his Manning jersey. All we need at this point are the Giants to win....

Election Day

Run Forrest Run

The 2009 ING New York City Marathon took place on Sunday, November 2nd.

As the 43, 741 runners departed from Staten Island to follow the marathon's course through the other four boroughs, hundreds of thousands of supporters and onlookers lined up along the race route to cheer on entrants making their debut as well as seasoned racers.

We usually make it to view at least some of circuit every year, but since the first Sunday in November fell the day after Halloween, we were instead driving back to the city that morning.

Had to get back! Andrea was running in her 7th marathon, and we were not going to miss our opportunity to congratulate the sprinter! The "call time" to meet at Rancho Cafe was 3 o'clock, and we arrived as close to 3pm as we possibly could.

This is a picture of Andrea at Mile 23, and we don't think we ever look this good walking the one block to the subway each morning.

Did we mention this is her 7th marathon???

Andrea, you rule!

So #19682 finished with a time of 3:58:02 - and that is damn good. But what was Julie's time? Bec she managed to get ahead of Andrea at many points on the course!

So some quick stats:

Overall Place: 14,243th

Gender Place: 2,816th

Age Place: 494th

Seeing all the family and friends for "apres-race" on the Upper Westside was great fun. Apparently the sign which read, 'ANDREA - WHAT'S SO WRONG WITH GOLF?' was a crowd favorite on Sunday. The most impressive realization of the day is that fact that Team Fotos/Prochniak are a force to be reckoned with!

But Andrea, really..... What IS so wrong with golf????

Happy Halloween

* HAPPY HALLOWEEN *

Big Boy, Big Food

Cooper hit the 10 month old mark this week! Craziness! Big guy.

So we decided it was high time we needed to begin to actively introduce more table food into Cooper's diet. You know, the kid's palette has got to be shaped and molded to accurately reflect his geographical circumstance. Lots of food choices in NYC - tapas, pad thai, schnitzel, curry, sushi, etc etc.
Started off pretty easy.... This lunch consisted of grilled chicken and steamed broccoli. To date he has partaken in meals which included meatballs, garlic bread, bananas, zucchini, mashed potatoes, and more. He is loving the experience of the new tastes, and also the independence of feeding himself.

Michelle And Jill In The Bronx

On Wednesday, Maria had the opportunity to interpret at the James J. Peters VA Hospital in the Bronx for a community event - with Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden, and a whole bunch of Yankee people making an appearance. They were promoting Welcome Back Veterans, which is a Major League Baseball charities initiative (MLB Go Beyond) for returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families.

Maria arrived early to get through security and be cleared by Secret Service, but the program got a late start and really didn't begin until almost 2pm. Later on we searched the web, but alas, no photos of Maria interpreting the event could be found.

But do you see that group of people by the door? Maria is on the right, and attempting to escape before the masses leave the room. Hey, this pic is better than nothing at all!