January 27, 2015: Walkabout during the Travel Ban of NYC Blizzard 2015

What: Walkabout during the Travel Ban of NYC Blizzard 2015
Where: Manhattan, NY
Cost: FREE (except for some shivers and cold fingers)
Summary:  The snow didn't materialize as they had predicted, but the travel ban made the streets of Manhattan absolutely deserted!

I'm one of those crazy people that love the snow.  I couldn't WAIT for 20-30 inches of it!  Alas, NYC was spared, getting maybe 7 inches (?).  However, there was a Travel Ban in place (no cars allowed on the road and the subways weren't running), so the streets were just about as quiet as you'll ever seen NYC.  So, when my alarm went off at 5:30, I put on my long johns and an extra turtle neck, grabbed my camera, and hit the empty streets.

I meandered my way up the middle of 5th Ave, Broadway, and 6th Ave from 14th St through Madison Square Park, Harold Square, Times Square, then over to Rockefeller Center.  And yes, I literally walked up the middle of the Avenues.  How often does one get to do that?!?!  Fun!  I'll get some better pictures posted later, but below are the tweets I made along the way (including an expected appearance on the Today Show, LOL).

October 13, 2014: Grand Opening of Lego Store Flatiron

So I was taking a short 'refill-my-coffee-and-check-my-twitter' break and I saw a tweet from @jonnyjlm (aka Jonny Lee Miller who plays Sherlock Holmes on Elementary). T he tweet was a picture of Lego flowers in Madison Square Park.  What’s this?  Lego flowers?  At Madison Square Park?  Well, this is clearly something I need to go see.  So, I grabbed my camera and my MetroCard (my two ‘don’t leave home without them’ items) and headed to MSqPark.

Well, it was so much more than just Lego flowers. It was a whole Lego festival-like-thang, celebrating the grand opening of a new Lego store in the Flatiron district (were the park is located).

At this event they were allowing kids to build ‘bricks’ (out of other bricks (aka Legos)), that would then be used as part of a giant Statue of Liberty made from these bricks of bricks. They also had (in addition to the giant Statue of Liberty) other full-sized Lego statues that were both fun and impressive engineering and design feats. As I wandered around looking at them (as well as the lego sculptures in the store itself), I thought of my nephew who wanted to be a Lego project designer. And I have to say…that would be a pretty cool job! So here’s to my nephew!