Upper East Side

Outside a school.





It's a chair.

That "teacher" style of printing is so characteristic; I have it also, from years of marking up page proofs.

Found

A rawther odd image featuring a clown.

On a piece of cardstock with a hole punched in it.

My mom's new cat

His name is Herman.









He is a mellow fellow. Also: handsome.

My mom lured him into the house with a can of tuna on a string (he was a stray with a hurt leg) and now he lives with her.

Beach buddies

These are the people you want to vacation with.

At Value Village

Another thing you read about in old books:

Excelsior! Used for packing fragile items since 1868.

I really wish I had bought this.

Found

All of someone's art.













Pretty moldy.

Did I mention

That we went deep-sea fishing? My plan was to catch a delicious bass.

This guy followed the boat the whole way:



Smart.

The moon rose.



There's the city:



Poles up while the boat's moving.



Rob caught a flounder! So did Greg.

I lost my lunch over the side a couple times . . .

Apparently

I was wrong.

Snow is good for a cactus! Because look at this guy now!

Umm

I found your sweatshirt.

(I may have run over it in my car.)

More beach swag

An awesome chunk of wood!







Now it sits on the dresser.

The Diary of Adrian Mole

Did you read that book when you were a kid? Were you totally confused by some of the things in it? Like, what is a vesta, what are PE shorts, and what the hell is a string vest???

WELL!

Look what I found in a thrift shop in Park Slope:



































Zackly, a string vest! A long weird tank top . . .



Made of string.



That says "string vest" on it!

Bush

Check out the berries on it:

They have such a strange shape! Like little jester hats.

New thing

Carry a bag of a jillion coins around with you.

Use it to pay for things!

Yes, I took my coin sack to the post office this morning.

The first fall apple

Honey crisp.



CHOMP.

Doesn't that taste remind you of picking apples in the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia when you were a kid?

The beach

I enjoyed examining everything.

Vacation friends!

We ate the last friend pictured.

Wowsers

Quite the bunch of garbage!

I grabbed these for Greg:

I considered taking this thing, but thought better of it:

Since someone already practiced their buzz cut on it.

Plus:

Yay books! (Though James Freund—retired lawyer—must have paid Fordham to publish his terrible photographs; maybe he donated a couple million to their capital campaign. That one's going back on the street!)

And this bottle:

Two dollars cash value at the farmer's market, AW YEAH!

Sproats!

New life is growing up from these little guys's roots (I picked the two leaves from a sidewalk plant in Los Angeles and the mini-cactus bud, now living at the office, from a colony on a sand dune on Long Island).

They just sat and sat and then one day—sproats!!

Decor addition

Donald Duck with his nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, in a grayish-lavendar plastic frame.

I saw it in a thrift store in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and like the Santa Claus boot, I just had to have it!

I unpacked it and stuck it up there last night. It really balances out the whole look, dontcha think?

The best taste

I think it really is my #1 favorite.