Lady Liberty

With Mike finally in town for more than just a few days at a time, we spent Sunday playing tourist in Lower Manhattan. We started the day just north of Little Italy, with a yummy brunch at a place called Emporio - we kind of stumbled upon the place, and were lured in with promises of eggs with goats cheese and smoked salmon. If you go, I recommend sitting in the back room - the whole ceiling is a collection of greenhouse-style peaked sunroofs, which let in loads of sunshine and give the room a warm, sunny feel. (Mind you, I think it would be really cool to sit there during a rainstorm too!)

After brunch, we wandered through Little Italy and Chinatown, working our way down toward Battery Park and a view of the Statue of Liberty - quite fitting, I think, seeing as its the Labour Day weekend.

After watching the sailboats for a bit, we wandered back toward Wall Street, so Mike could find the Wall Street Bull (and show me that it actually does exist!). By that time, the clouds were rolling in, so we slowly made our way back to the subway and home.

One other photo I wanted to share is something I saw the other day when I was up near Columbia Uni. I was on the way to the post office, when what should I happen to see, but a Nuclear Fallout Shelter sign!

Given the age of the buildings in the area, and the fact that scientists at Columbia were splitting atoms as early as 1939, I guess I shouldn't be so surprised to see that these buildings had fallout shelters built into them. Yet I can't help but find these signs a little disturbing - was it written in your lease that you'd have access to these shelters, should the need for them arise? Did people in the penthouses have first access to them, because they paid higher rents? The whole idea makes me think of that Simpsons episode where all of Springfield tries to crowd into the Flander-es-es (that's how Homer pronounces it, so why can't I?) bomb shelter when Bart's comet threatens to destroy the city. How big were those shelters, really? Would everyone in the building actually fit inside, and if so, how long before it became a reinactment of Lord of the Flies? Mind you, given what we know now, I'd like to know how they actually expected most people to survive the blast of the bomb, let alone the fallout that comes afterwards?!

And with that pleasant thought, let me distract your attention with photos of something equally man-made... acrylic yarn actually being put to good use!

One of the side effects of moving is realising just how much stuff you really have. And now that my UK and Canadian stashes (sp?) have been re-united, I'm a little surprised at just how much yarn I do have.... so it looks like stashbusting is the order of the day for the next few months at least. Which is where these scrubbles come in, eating up some of the acrylic yarn that was leftover from the Xmas stockings I made last year. (all the yarny details are on Ravelry)

Hmmm... now what else can I make from my stash? :)

ETA: How is this new colour scheme working out? Does anyone find it hard to read?