It's the little things that make me happy. Like this morning, when I rewarded myself for a hard workout AND bringing lunch to work with an overpriced grande chai latte from Starbucks. But they were all out of grande cups, so I was doubly rewarded with a venti.

And for all you ice skaters around, The Pond at Bryant Park opens today.

Melanie Fischer

Proteus Gowanus Gallery

Impromptu community garden on Union Street

Green roof on the lock pump house

Gowanus Canal

Modern fire station (first I can recall seeing in NYC)

Carroll Gardens Pumpkins

On Sunday, we adventured to the Gowanus area for the Annual Gowanus Artist Studio Tour. Not only did we get to see a lot of interesting art, we also got to wander through a new (to me) neighborhood. I've walked through parts of the area, but the only time I've ever crossed the canal is by bike.

The very long line for the Peking Duck "burritos".

Obligatory Lion Dance

It was worth the wait.

Fried Dumplings

Saturday we went to the Taste of Chinatown 2006. Cheap bubble tea was nice and the portions for most things were surprisingly large. My favorites were the roast duck wraps at Peking Duck (will definitely try that restaurant in the future) and the always reliable Fried Dumpling (the only ones actually charging their regular price). And while it was not part of the festivities, the Chinatown Ice Cream Company was great. Must leave room for desert in the future.

I'm glad that I got to go to Game 6, not last nights game. It was hard enough watching the last inning peeking through my hands, let alone leaving Shea Stadium amongst the mourners. On the upside, the likelihood that I'll be able to go to sleep before midnight next week has increased exponentially.

Last weekend, we went up to my parents weekend house in the Berkshires for a nice relaxing weekend. I made apple butter (though it was really apple/pear butter since we threw in some pears from my parents' pear trees). We ate biscuits and pancakes. We went for a hike through the beautiful New England fall, to see sweeping views of the Housatonic River Valley. I got depressed by the two Mets losses (and the third one last night). And I thought wonderful thoughts about how the new power cord and battery, waiting for me at home, would solve my laptop problems.

But Sunday night, when I was watching the Mets kick some Cardinal behind, I was let down by the magical orange charging light not turning on. The verdict from Sam when he took apart my computer? Corrosion on the inside of the metal plate that performs the power connection (roughly). One would think that a computer that is about 3 years old would last a wee bit longer. And so the countdown to Windows Vista's release begins in the Thompson household.

And so someday I will post a couple pictures that I had been looking forward to posting last week, being held hostage by my computer. But maybe I'll have some good pictures to post of tonights Mets game instead.

Over the past few weeks, my power cord for my laptop has stopped working. It regularly loses connection with laptop, causing my laptop to shut down at inopportune moments due to its power savings settings. Combine this with the fact that my battery goes from fully charged to empty in a matter of minutes and this leads to a very temperamental user. I play with my power cord like its a TV antenna, trying to find a position it can rest while keeping the magical orange light on. Or when that doesn't work, I press the cord into my laptop with all my might, attempting to type with one hand while the other one ensures that I will be able to finish syncing my iPod. I'm praying that my eBay bid on a new power cord and batteries will come through, because the idea of spending $200 just to keep the laptop limping along really gets to me.

On Saturday, Sam and I went to The Solaire, a new residential building in Battery Park City that is a green building - it is quite amazing in its design, as well as the amount people will pay to live there (a 2-bedroom goes for $6000 a month!). The green roof is pretty cool, but the feature that most impressed me was the wastewater treatment plant in the basement, which treats all the water in the building and the neighboring building, and reuses the treated water for toilets and irrigation in the two buildings and Teardrop Park next door. My firm is hoping to do something like this in a project in California, but nothing like that has ever been done in a residential building before, so I'm hoping this will be able to help our cases when it comes to getting approval from the authorities. Teardrop Park itself was also pretty neat - made mostly with construction waste from the nearby developments. The three R's at work.

Did you know that today was the Pulaski Day parade? Down 5th Avenue? I do. Because its going on outside my office. Because I'm at work. On a Sunday. Just like I was yesterday. And I broke my record of latest night in the office on Thursday. Such is life when the largest client has a major problem. On the upside, we will supposedly receive OVERTIME for this intrusion on our weekend. Unlike the intrusion on my Thursday evening, when all I got was some dinner and reimbursement for my cab ride home. Theoretically, the end is near. But with major deadlines on two other projects over the next week or two, I'm not so sure about that.

P.S. Pulaski Day Parade? Not the most popular. Maybe if they had it in Greenpoint, there would be more, than a handful of people on the sidewalk.