Engagement Photos

I really, really wanted to document the wedding planning process throughout our engagement, but I was too busy planning to write about it. I felt like I needed to be accomplishing some wedding-related thing on most free nights, and if not, then I just wanted to relax with my beloved. Well, the wedding has come and gone, we have been back from the honeymoon for a week, and we are now happily married. When people ask me what I will do with my extra free time instead of planning, my answer is, "I have to change my name and blog about the wedding." So regarding the latter, let the recapping commence, starting with our engagement session.

In general, I find engagement photos cheesy, but I knew we should do them as a way to get comfortable with having our pictures taken by our photographer. And I like the idea of trying to capture some pieces of our typical life. We found our photographer Jenna Salvagin through a friend of a friend - in fact, she was a bridesmaid in the wedding of one of my bridesmaids who got married a week after me. She has a great personality for a wedding photographer - I was in a terrible mood on the morning of our session, but Jenna's outgoing and positive vibe quickly put us at ease and turned my mood around. Most of my grumpiness was over the rainy forecast and my wardrobe - it's difficult to figure out what to wear that will look cute yet protect from rain.

However, the rain held off until late in the day, and it ended up being one of the nicest spring mornings in May, so we were able to capture a long stroll through our neighborhood of Park Slope (where we have been living for a year) and Prospect Heights (where we used to live). We started out at Cafe Grumpy, where we often take weekend walks for Evan's favorite coffee, followed by Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (where the proposal happened). 

Here we are sitting on the fallen petals of the cherry trees above us, on the same lawn where Evan proposed six months earlier.

Finally, I loved this portrait she took of just me. Jenna has a few more photos from our session up on her blog.

Bed Bugs Part 1: The Story

I was waiting for the bed bug ordeal to be over and my apartment security deposit to be returned before talking about it here. So now that it is safely past me (at least this time...because there is no guarantee that I won't get bed bugs again when they are so prevalent in New York) ...

There are two kinds of bed bug infestations. In the first one, you notice a couple bugs and bites and get sprayed right away, a few times over the course of a month and a half. You don't experience any bug evidence after the first spraying, so after the last one you can feel secure that the problem is gone and go back to normal living. This is how it seems to go for most people. It didn't go that way for me.

In the second scenario, the landlord ignores bed bug complaints for too long and doesn't handle the situation properly, which allows them to infest the whole building. I only know of a few other cases like this. 

Our building supposedly had bugs a year or so prior, and then they popped up in one apartment again, but the landlord ignored it for months before bringing in an exterminator. For some reason, those particular tenants didn't care enough to do much of anything about it, so their infestation spread to other apartments and continued to persist. Neither the landlord nor my downstairs neighbors understood the value of a preemptive, comprehensive approach. The landlord refused to spray the whole building on the same day. He hired an exterminator who would only come to our place on his days off from his regular job. Then he had his handyman "trained" as a secondary exterminator, who did a terrible job. Also, it was weird being in a text-friendly relationship with the exterminator that got so friendly he asked my roommate out on a date.

Our landlord also pressured me into not reporting him to the city, insinuating he would withhold our deposit. And since all I ultimately wanted was to be able to move out and get my security deposit back without spending time or money in the court system, we didn't report him. So now that I'm no longer fiscally or legally tied to him, I can say that Marek Kaczor is a bad landlord. It wasn't just the bugs. There were constantly things going wrong, like no hot water for a week, no heat over Christmas, no working oven for a month. Our neighbors downstairs said they had taken out two lawsuits against him. Unfortunately for renters, he owns several buildings in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area, mostly rented by Bedford Prime Realty.

I would have liked to just move out of the building, like many of the other tenants did within a couple months. However, my roommate refused to move - and I couldn't very well sublet a room with bed bug risk, I didn't want to pay double rent to live somewhere else, and since my roommate was my best friend, I couldn't just leave her to deal with figuring out how to cover my rent. 

Instead, after three months, the landlord realized it was probably because bugs could hide in our cracked floors. So we moved across the hall into a fully sealed apartment while he redid our old apartment. Things got better there, but knowing that the apartment below us still had bugs meant I could not, nor would I ever in that building, trust it was safe to take my stuff out of bags.

We finally moved out in May, two months short of our lease. Ultimately, it turned out for the best that we waited until the spring to move. By then, we hadn't had any definite bites in a couple months, so we felt relatively confident that the bugs were gone and we wouldn't be taking them with us. Which meant I didn't have to throw out or store away my stuff, or spend a month's worth of rent to fumigate all of my belongings, all ideas I had previously, angrily considered.

You can be sure that when I went hunting for a new apartment, I was thorough about checking into the landlord. Most people by now know about the bed bug registry. But in New York City, you can also search an address in the city's public database of building registrations and violations to look for past and current complaints, violations, and lawsuits, and to find out the landlord's name so you can google for any dirt to be found on them. I always ask the broker/landlord/current tenant if there has been any history of bugs or other problems. There is also a disclosure of bed bug history form the landlord is required to complete if you ask for it. See the city website for more on the laws related to tenants' rights and landlord obligations regarding bed bugs. 

This experience also taught me the value in trusting your gut when looking for a new apartment. My gut didn't feel good about choosing this apartment in the first place, but we took it anyway because we felt like options and time were running out. In Part 2 tomorrow, I talk a bit more about how this experience tested my patience and my sanity.

Birding in Jamaica Bay

Not only does Jamaica Bay offer camping, as I was surprised to learn last summer, it is also home to one of the country's largest bird sanctuaries. We headed out there on Mother's Day. The air smelled clean and salty, as if we'd left the city behind. From the visitor center, it's an easy mile and a half walk circling a pond, with the bay water on one side and the marsh and shrubby vegetation on the other. Ducks and geese abound, but so do plenty of other birds. Bring binoculars to spot them all, as well as bird watching lovers. I'm no good at finding and identifying birds, so I'm always impressed by people who can. They pointed out ospreys in their constructed wooden nests, egrets, a green heron, yellow warblers and others I can't remember. We stopped so often to look at birds that we had to turn around after only making it a quarter way around in order to make a dinner reservation on time. We drove there, but it would also be a nice day trip by bike.

Fueled by Fries

I know I promised cupcakes next, but I come bearing hot dogs instead. My friends have started up a food truck business called Snap that serves Chicago hot dogs and avocado fries and other tasty foodstuffs. They spent the last year selling at various food and craft markets in New York, and now they've launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the last bit of money they need to get their truck on the road. They bought a truck that they are converting to biodiesel so the used frying oil can be used to power their vehicle, in a brilliant form of recycling. They're also using locally sourced ingredients and actually plan to compost their compostable cutlery (that stuff won't just break down in the landfill). So not only is it delicious, it's also responsible and smart business.

If you're in the New York area, consider helping them out! They have another $5,000 to raise by next Monday. Kickstarter pledges come with free hot dogs and other goodies once the truck is running this summer.

Biking to Fort Tilden

I took advantage of the surprise summer weather this weekend to bike to the Fort Tilden beach. I'd been there before, but last time we drove there and the flies chased us away. This time it was perfectly lovely. Hour + 15-30 minute bike rides flanking lazy lying on the beach. The water was too cold for me, but my companions enjoyed floating in unusually calm water.

After researching and trying both routes, we figured out that you can either take Ocean Parkway or Bedford Ave. Ocean Parkway has a pleasant separated bike lane, which is better for conversational biking, but adds two miles to the ride. If you take Ocean Parkway, turn left onto Neptune Ave before you reach the boardwalk, which turns into Emmons Ave. If you take Bedford Ave, you take a left right onto Emmons Ave. Either way, when you reach the intersection of Brigham and Emmons, you will see a path set off to the right of the ramp onto the Belt Parkway (pictured below).

You want to take this bike path (not the ramp onto the highway), which follows the wetlands along the shore and takes you right to Flatbush Ave and over the bridge to the Rockaways. We passed an area where Hurricane Irene had washed away the path, despite the bags of sand buffering the coast - no matter, just walk your bike through the sand at this spot and enjoy the view.

Once you're over the bridge, make an awkward left just before all the field and parking lot business, and then turn right just before the beach and follow the path through the woods until you reach at least post 22 (which also has a bike rack) in order to hit the lawless Fort Tilden beach, rather than Jacob Riis. It's not the most straightforward journey, which is why I thought it would be helpful to put these directions on the internet.

map via brooklyn by bike

Camping in NYC

Did you know you there is a campground within New York City's limits? I didn't until last week, when I found myself joining friends for a camping excursion to Floyd Bennett Field, a former airport, now part of Jamaica Bay/Gateway National Recreation Area. It wasn't the best time for camping during the 100 degree plus heatwave. Thankfully, by the time we got there in the evening, it felt about ten degrees cooler than in the city proper with some breezes coming off the nearby water and the shade effect of trees. We made sure to bring and drink several jugs of water and coolers of cold beer. You can get there by car, bike, or by subway and then bus. We took a car to be able to carry all that gear, but several people in our group somehow made the hour plus bike ride in the heat.



There are about five group campsites, with little to medium shade coming from small trees and bushes. Each "campsite" has a picnic table, firepit and grill centered around an open field for frisbee. It was the perfect kind of setting to gather people together to kick back in semi-nature in celebration of someone's birthday. I only wish it hadn't been so hot so we would have wanted to stay all weekend and actually kick back. Even though a fire was the last thing we needed, we built fires anyway for cooking veggie burgers and to ward off the bugs.







We took long late night walks on the expansive paved runways, which felt in the darkness like eerie scenes out of Lost, and made new friends with other campers we ran into on our explorations. The unsettling sound of planes taking off and landing overhead at JFK just across Jamaica Bay comingled with a variety of birdsongs.







It was so hot that we were forced out of our tents in the morning before 8am, surprised to realize that our tent was in shade as we hoped when we set it up, even though it certainly didn't feel like it from inside.



Since the campground is just across the bridge from the Rockaways, we made a five minute drive over to the much buzzed about Fort Tilden Beach, where there are no lifeguards, where girls go topless, where you can freely drink cans of beer. I was surprised to see it looked like an actual ocean beach, like the Jersey shorelines I'm familiar with, rather than Coney Island's crowded, tame and murky water. The whole lot of us headed straight into the water to cool off, some diving under waves, some floating and bobbing, some standing knee deep in cold water to enjoy the occasional crashing spray. However, in what I understand was an anomaly, when we'd step away from the water, the flies swarmed relentlessly, dozens at a time surrounding and biting our calves. It was too much after a sweaty and itchy night already. So back into the air conditioned car we went, back into the weighty 110 degree heat of the city. Someday I'll make the long bike ride to experience Fort Tilden beach properly and hope for no flies.

PS. Did this heat wave make anyone else concerned about a future of global warming where there are more excessively hot days each summer and less available air conditioning as we run out of fuel?

Sudden Spring

Spring is here, and unlike last year when spring kept retreating back into winter, I am hoping it's here to stay. I had almost started to believe our lives would go on in a state of perpetual winter, so the warmer weather and extra daylight still feels like a pleasant surprise each day.



I enjoyed last weekend's sunny climes to the fullest with lots of biking and walking.


I took the Ocean Parkway bike path all the way to Brighton Beach, but it's not as nice riding as I thought it would be. After Ditmas Park, smooth paving gives way to bumpy and cracked sidewalks. Still, in less than an hour I was at the beach, something New Yorkers often forget exists as part of this city. Specifically I was sitting outside at Tatiana, one of the Russian cafes on the boardwalk. My salad and cured fish were good enough, but I'll have to go back for the delicious looking pierogies, which I regretted not ordering as soon as I saw them at a neighboring table.


Saturday evening I biked to Williamsburg for bar hopping involving multiple charcuterie plates, in a sea of hip strangers all out and about in the balmy darkness. I played the "remember when" game, reflecting on all the years I lived in Williamsburg's lively social scene, along with most of my friends. Now it seems we've all packed up and scattered to other neighborhoods, and I can't help but miss it a little.


Sunday afternoon I walked to Carroll Gardens for some more bar hopping. The second stop was inadvertent - on my way home I passed this faux-farmhouse, which turned out to be Black Mountain Wine House, and it was too adorable not to stop in for a pre-dinner apertif involving oysters. Would you say no to adirondack chairs nestled into an unassuming Brooklyn street corner?





How have you been enjoying the newfound freedom of springtime?

Snow and Sunshine

January was a dark time for me. It's not the cold weather getting me down this winter, as usual, but the state of my life. All those New Years reflections snowballed, and it hit me that 2009 was not a good year: unachieved resolutions and aspirations, a total lack of exercise, a summer of stress, the realization that I've been living in an isolated dirty hovel of an apartment for six months, and the fear that I will trapped in this rut for six months more.

In February, things started looking up, little by little, or I am at least more hopeful that they are. It helps that February is all snow and sunshine. What winter should be. The kind of crisp air that is perfect for long walks and bundled jogs around Prospect Park. With the puppy in tow, for snow and the outdoors are his natural environment. Spying lots of snowmen and sledding. Hoping for ice skating next weekend. Still working on putting my 2010 resolutions and plans to paper. Only one month of winter left, and I think I can make it. How is February treating you?

Brooklyn Flea

I've never made it to the outdoor versions of the Brooklyn Flea, but last weekend I checked out the new indoor Flea at the recently restored One Hanson Place, aka Williamsburgh Savings Bank clocktower in Fort Greene. It is a beautiful space, which they have made great use of by sticking vendors in all its nooks and crannies.

It was mad crowded, which I expected since it was opening weekend and normally I would have avoided it for that reason, but I really needed an excuse to get out of the apartment.


I am not that big on shopping because I don't like to part ways with my money for stuff, even if it is vintage stuff. So I kind of went more to check out the infamous food vendors than for the vintage and artisan wares. The food court is located inside the old vault in the basement. Look how thick that vault door is!




The Red Hook Lobster Pound lobster roll is just as good as they say. At $14 it is pricy for vendor food but cheaper than lobster rolls sold in most NYC restaurants. Bun was deliciously lightly toasted in butter. I only wish there had been more of it to savor.


With the crowds, it was hard to take too close of a look at anything, so I didn't think I'd actually buy anything. But surprisingly, something caught my eye: a pair of wooden Danish mid-century modern candlesticks for $15. Which have been on my "to buy someday" list for a while so I gave into temptation. Now I just need to get long beeswax candles from the farmers market. And officially have way too many candles in my home considering that I always forget to light them.

In the Silvery Polar Night

Last night found me walking three quarters of a mile uphill through the snow at 3am. After a full and merry night at a friend's holiday holiday party in the south slope, back to the north slope we had to go. No cabs were running; we didn't trust clumsy buses on the slippery roads, so there we were. My new waterproof boots holding up their end of the job, I felt invincible and alive and keenly aware of my breathing and pounding heart that propelled me forward for much-needed exercise. I couldn't help but keep walking and walking, looking back every so often at my partner lagging nearly a block behind.

In the unusual stillness of the night, I wasn't in New York City as I know it, where I have never seen such a thick layer of fresh clean snow, but rather in the magical New York City depicted in Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale.

People were thrilled by the sudden onset of so great and (they thought) so unprecedented a winter. Even those who feared and hated cold weather and snow were quickly seduced by the silvery polar nights, and joined in a medieval pageant of sledding, gatherings about the fire, and evenings under the stars. It was as if the occasional joyful paralysis that winter sometimes lays at the foot of Christmas had come for good. Layers of clothing made the flesh more mysterious and enticing than it had been in many a year, a certain courtliness was restored, and the struggle against the elements reduced everyone in scale just enough for people to realize that one of the fundamental qualities of humanity was and would always be its delicacy. The entranced citizens did not go to so many places or work as hard as they usually did, but they lived far better than they had ever lived.

- Winter's Tale, Mark Helprin, page 600**

And today I never left the apartment, but stayed inside all day to bake Christmas cookies. In fuzzy socks and a fleece bathrobe because I don't think the heat turned on once today (wtf). I hope you all enjoyed our snowy weekend.

** It is an EPIC tale of love, morality, fantasy, and New York City from one turn of the century to the next. I still don't really understand everything that happened, but it features truly beautiful prose.

via themikebot flickr stream

Sixpoint Oktoberfest

One of my favorite local breweries, Sixpoint, recently came out with their first Oktoberfest beer, which I tried at the release party last month in the sweet little backyard of Sycamore in Ditmas Park. Beers were served in massive three-pint steins the size of my face, along with plates of bratwurst and potato salad. Oktoberfest indeed!


This is my favorite Sixpoint beer yet. I love complex fruity and spicy beers, such as cloudy Belgian wheat beers typically flavored with coriander and orange peel, as well as Harpoon's Winter Warmer spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. If I remember correctly, Sixpoint Oktoberfest had a hint of fall spices and was a touch sweet and round around the edges, softening Sixpoint's distinctive bite. I know it is currently being served it at The Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights, Flatbush Farm, and possibly Bar Great Harry. Give it a try if you see it on tap. What's your favorite beer for the fall?


It was a wonderfully warm October afternoon, so I biked to Ditmas Park. I never realized how easy it is to bike southward from Prospect Park, thanks to a dedicated bike lane on Ocean Parkway. Five miles of pure unadulterated biking on a quiet tree-lined path that takes you straight to Brighton Beach. I plan to hit that up next summer for some exercise-beach action.

photo 1 via Sixpoint's twitpics, 2 via personal collection, 3 via NYC Bike Maps Photo Gallery

Last Weekend Pt 1: Drunk Art

Before THIS weekend starts, I have to tell you about LAST weekend, because it was one of those rare weekends that left me feeling recharged and invigorated. There was the birthday party Friday night. It was my first time back in Williamsburg since the move and I think I talked a lot about missing Billyburg that night. On Saturday afternoon, there were some light errands and a new lunch place found (the ever-elusive combination of burgers for meat-eaters plus good vegetarian options for me. Meag, now I know why you liked Bar Toto!)


Saturday night I hit up First Saturday at Brooklyn Museum, which is just awesome. Get drunk and explore the exhibits*, and there is a crazy dance party. Michael Jackson + James Brown = couldn't help dancing. I went to check out the new Rock & Roll photography exhibit but it was a bit too crowded to take it all in, and there was a lot more in the museum we didn't get to see. Don't know why I've never been before, but I'll definitely be back, especially because it's such a pleasant short walk from my apartment to the museum.

It was an evening that made me feel alive. Doing something new, experiencing art, being out among other young Brooklynites, feeling a part of something exciting. This is why we live in NEW YORK CITY. These are the kinds of things I wish I did more often. It was more than just another weekend night/another boring drink at the bar. I was so energized afterward I didn't want to just go home so I ended my night at Pacific Standard, an excellent choice for craft beers and board games.

What makes your weekends exciting? What are the things that make your life sparkle and keep repetition and boredom at bay?

* Thank you to the trustees of Brooklyn Museum for entrusting your treasures within the reach of drunken revelers.

via Brooklyn Museum's flickr