When my alarm went off this morning, it was pouring outside. So, I didn’t get up and run. I only have 5 miles scheduled for today, so hopefully I will be able to sneak them in this evening. It looks like I’m going to have to have to get wet at some point this week, though. I just checked the forecast and apparently it is going to be raining until Thursday.

Yesterday evening shaped up nicely. We did a couple of videos for Reagan, then shot some stills (also for R’s hair blog) on the roof with umbrellas. Just when I had resigned to being a homebody for the day, I received a text from some of our friends to hang out at their place. We had a blast hanging out with them and eating some delicious food together. They live about a mile and a half up Broadway from us. Since we had the dog with us, we had to make the journey on foot. MTA doesn’t allow dogs, unless they are in a carrier. Plus, we learned the hard way that the little guy gets car-sick pretty easily.  So, all three of us had a really fun night-walk through the park in the rain, on the way home.

This has been a pretty strange weekend, for me. Not strange in a bad way, just different. I think that the rain today might have something to do with it. We had a huge day full of activities planned today, but as it stands, I have only made it outside today for three quick tasks. 1. Moving the car (when I shot the photo above); 2. taking our friends’ dog (below) for a walk (we are dogsitting, while they are out of town; and, 3. to do a quick and wet 4m. run. Other than that, I have been helping Reagan shoot another tutorial for her hair blog. Right now the battery is charging, so that we can do one more.

I suppose that I can take comfort in the fact that we had such a productive day yesterday. We had our long run in the morning, for which we incorporated the Summer Streets event. Summer Streets is when the City shuts down Park Ave to auto traffic, so that peds and bikes and ride all the way from 72nd St. to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a really cool run. Apparently the training is paying off, too, because Reagan and I both felt fine afterward.

We headed up to see  Piper after grabbing some lunch. It was a cool visit, because one of our friends came with us, who was meeting Piper for the first time. We talked about Piper  and how proud we were of her accomplishments, for about 4 hours straight, hahaha. It was one of those overzealous proud-parent moment, that ended up being a lot longer than a moment. We didn’t get any photos of her, this weekend. Actually, Reagan snapped some really cute ones on Friday that she will probably share. But I didn’t get any.

I hope that everyone else had a great weekend.

Someone is barbecuing in our alley. It smells delicious.

I apologize in advance for including so many photos in a single post.

After our Saturday morning run, we trekked out to Coney Island. This was our third (and hopefully final) visit to Coney Island this summer.

We rode the Wonder Wheel (we do, every time we go to CI). We also did the Cyclone, which is the old rickety roller coaster, that they are always threatening to shut down. I actually filmed the whole thing, maybe I’ll post it later.

The sky was extremely clear and blue, all day long. It was hot, and it really felt like summer.

The beach was totally packed, despite a shark warning. Hahahah. No one was bitten this weekend, except a guy on a boat who caught an 8 foot blue shark that bit him when he was trying to release it.

Even though we have a thousand shots of Reagan and the parachute drop. I liked this angle from the pier, instead of the usual boardwalk shot.

After lunch, we went to visit Piper, who was sleeping exactly like this, when we arrived. At cute as it was, it turns out that she wasn’t feeling very well. She has had a bit of a fever for the past couple of days. Her lungs are clear though. So, hopefully it isn’t anything serious.

There are a few more Coney Shots over here.

And it is just going to get worse.

I shot a G-Shock event tonight at the Bowery Hotel. It was the first time I had ever been there. I snapped the image above when I was adjusting the flash output, and exposure settings. Normally, I go back through and delete all of the test shots. But I really liked this one, for some reason.

Anyway, before I could even get there, I had a seriously long day at my real job. Then, I was caught in a deluge, without an umbrella.  All of that will seem like a snap, compared to tomorrow’s agenda.

1. 7 mile run before 7 AM

2. Drain our huge aquarium.

3. Help some dude carry it down the stairs and load it into his car. (I’m super sad about this, by the way)

4. Get to work on time.

5. Shoot the Warhol Exhibit at the Brooklyn Art Musueum.

6. Pick up some samples on the way home for a shoot Thursday morning.

7. Breathe.

It is hot in the city, these days. Really hot. Even so, I’m tooootally ready to spend some time outside of the air conditioned office. There are a few notable items on the agenda for this weekend.

Friday evening: I’ll be attending/shooting the “Love and Guts” art show in SoHo. It is a tribute exhibit to several skaters that I grew up idolizing.

Saturday: Reagan’s sister and brother-in-law are coming to visit. I’m not exactly sure what Reagan has planned yet. But I’m sure it will be a good time.

Sunday: Japan Day race in the morning. I’m not running. But I would like to make it down there anyway, to cheer on my teammates who will be running. Then.. we will be hitting the Renegade Craft Fair at Mccarren Park in BK. I’m looking forward to that one, too. Let’s not forget that MotoGP is at Mugello, this weekend (Rossi’s home track).

Of course all of this will be intermixed with PJ visits, and watching the BP cam. But, that goes without saying. Hehe

So, break out the coasters.

Sunday morning, we were up at the crack of dawn, for a bike ride. It was such amazing weather. We just pretty much stuck the to the usual and headed down the Hudson River path going south. Early in the morning, we pretty much had the park to ourselves. It was really quite amazing. As we approached mid-town, it was a bit of a zoo. There were two cruise ships at the docks, that appeared to be preparing to depart. So there was a ton of traffic coming in and out of the terminals.

As we were passing the Circle Line piers, we heard a loud crunch/crash, directly behind us. I hit my brakes and turned around just in time to see a dudes bike come flying out from underneath the cab that he had just been hit by. I dropped my bike and ran over. He was able to roll out from under the cab, which I took as a good sign, especially given the fact that he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Reagan was on the phone with 911, as some police officers showed up. It was a  pretty nerve racking experience. It was pretty scary, but luckily it wasn’t worse.

After the incident, we continued downtown, and had brunch at the North Cove Marina, before lounging a bit at the Battery Park City Promenade, and heading back up town.

After the bike ride, we headed up to visit Piper. She was in a foul mood again, Sunday, until I let her watch some ukulele videos on my phone. For whatever reason, that was all she needed. After watching one or two, she was all smiles and party-time.

We tried her out in the chair again, too. Since she was in a better mood, it seemed like she sort of liked it. Although, she still clearly preferred Reagan’s lap, understandably hehe.

Later Sunday evening, we had the really fun opportunity of visiting our friends, and their brand new baby, at the hospital. Their little guy is super cute. He was in a pretty mellow mood, too, considering the fact that we interrupted his lunch, when we arrived. Reagan enjoyed holding the little guy, and I enjoyed watching.

I didn’t mean to post so much this morning. But I woke up early to move the car, and run (which I intentionally park on a Monday side, last night, so that I would have to get up), and it is pouring outside. So, the running part, didn’t really workout for me, this morning.

It was a beautiful day to be in New York, Saturday.  The weather was absolutely perfect. Reagan and I headed upstate early with some of our friends, to climb at this place that we discovered last year. It was Reagan’s first time climbing outside of a gym. She put on a very impressive display of natural ability.

It is kind of crazy how close we are to the tracks. There was kind of a lot of train traffic today, too. We were only on the wall for a few hours and in that span 3 trains came through. As loud as it was, it made for some cool shots. Hehe.

Additional photos over here.

Sunday was grey and cold, all day long. We visited Piper early. Reagan had a long story reading session with her, before Piper decided that it was nap time. I was definitely feeling the nap vibe, too. So, I caught my own nap, later in the afternoon. I hope that spring comes back soon. I can handle the cloudy skies, I just need the warm temperatures back.

So then why is everything going so crappy? I missed my run this morning, because 1. it was raining 2. I was getting a haircut and 3. The temperature dropped like 20 degrees, overnight. To cap off a rough morning, the crowd was 4 deep on the train platform this morning (see above). Everyone had clearly been waiting for a loooonngg time, when I arrived. Luckily, I only waited 15 minutes or so (during which 3 uptown trains came by) until a downtown train finally came. Of course it was already full. I considered just bagging the commuting idea, for the day. Working from home is nice. Instead, I squished my way onto the train and made it downtown. Here’s hoping the rest of the day feels a little more like a Friday is supposed to.