New York City with Janet and Tony

Just had to start off this post with pictures of Molly McBean, Janet and Tony's love of a dog.  The first picture was of her staring at me as I woke up one morning.  The other is with her prized possession, Mr. Lion.  What you have to know about Janet and Tony is that they are the King and Queen of fun in NYC.  Whenever I come to town, they always have lots of fun and interesting things planned for me to experience.  I am never ever disappointed.

The first day we went to the Met to see a costume
exhibit.  I couldn't imagine what that would be like
but was thrilled by it.

The exhibit was called, "Manus x Machina:  Fashion in an Age of Technology".  It was the Costume Institute's Spring 2016 exhibit showing how handmade and machine made techniques in haute couture and avant-garde ready to wear intertwine over the last century.  I've never seen anything like it.

This was a 20 ft. train on a wedding gown
by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel.  It was hand painted
in gold and machine printed with rhinestones and then
hand embroidered with pearls and gemstones!

This was the dress that wore that train.  It
was made of scuba knit!!!!  Hard to imagine!

And, here are pictures of the others in the show.  Some have actually been worn.  Others were purely works of art:

This one was made of black straws!!!!?!

Almost all feathers

This was an evening dress by Yves Saint
Laurent. It is made of silk and
bird of paradise feathers.

Both made of leather...

Feathers and plastic comprise this cape.

Would be a little tough eating in this one!

Made of paper

This one in the middle moved in and out by
remote control.

Imagine sitting down in this one!

Or this one-all plastic, I think!

On Monday night we went to a club called Iguana, NYC to hear Vince Giardano and the Nighthawks who perform jazz of the 20s and 30s.  Vince is a Grammy winner who plays multiple instruments and leads this multi-instrument band weekly at this club in New York.  Since he is somewhat of a "go-to guy" for this period music, he and his band have been featured in movies like The Cotton Club and The Aviator and the HBO TV show, Boardwalk Empire.  Pretty impressive!

And guess who was sitting at the table next
to us?  Mel Brooks-what a nice guy to let
us take a picture.  Apparently, he is somewhat
of a regular here.

Other regulars here are Charlie Levinson and his wife, Gail,
who are childhood friends of Tony's. Janet and Tony
get together with them here every so often. What
amazed me is that we left to join them at about 9 pm-
usually I am in bed shortly after that.  We left early-
after midnight! 

Time Square was hopping and was its usual exciting-
looking self as we drove to another venue to see
another favorite jazz group.

At The Rum House, we found Terry Waldo
at the piano in this very small, intimate club.
Several others joined him shortly and it felt
like he was playing just for us!

About 4 or 5 guys jammed together with Terry and we
sat right with them.  The clarinet player was my favorite.  

How can you not add another picture of the
infamous Molly McBean when she looks
this cute!

A nice surprise was lunch with an old college buddy of Janet's and friend of mine from my twenties, Judy Gleason.  We had a hilarious lunch at a very small table at The Park restaurant on The Highline.
I love how easily we can chat it up with old friends.  A very short but sweet get together.

Gleason, me and Janet

 Another day we found out from one of Janet's friends, Richard (who now lives in Florida), about The Kips Bay Decorator Show House which is a fund raiser for the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club.  The pictures say it all.

The penthouse garden area

Close up of the hanging plant

I loved the window seat!

A very cool ceiling and light fixture

Guest room

I really didn't know what this room was-like a waiting area
of some kind.

Great colors-and the ceiling was black!

Another guest room

The master-loved the chaises!

One of the new-fangled paperless toilets
Note the box on the wall-buttons for
washing, rinsing, drying, etc. 😱

The "off the charts" dressing room

The logs are made out of glass!

A very cool sitting room-loved the colors and the flooring-so unusual!

That's real grass leading down to the
terrace below.

The terrace-the guide there even matched the furniture!

A really cool modern chandelier

A living room area

Very modern living room

Very formal dining area-loved the pedestal

This was a sitting room in the dining area.

It even had a little spot for Boo, if he lived here.

The bar area in the kitchen

A part of the huge, very modern kitchen

Gorgeous gold mirror in the powder room

Art work in powder room-love how
you see this in the mirror as you
walk in.

Gold frog, of course!

We were really tired after the Show House, so just peeked our heads into Barney's across the street-how the other half lives.  The prices were out of sight.  Loved this little bag-it was $1500!!

For our last night we went to a restaurant in the theater district which Janet and Tony called, "The Secret Place"-Bar Centrale.  It is secret because it is attached to Joe Allen's restaurant next door and it wasn't advertised for years.  There is no name outside on the entrance.  We even ran into Joe on our way out the door.

J and T

We had wonderful lobster/crab rolls

That night we went to see The Book of Mormon at the Eugene O'Neill Theater.  Written by the writers of South Park, it was creative, innovative and entertaining.  I can see why some would consider it controversial.  I wish I could have taken pictures.  It was a great trip-thanks to the city's best tour guides:  Janetski and Toneman!

Back in Longmont and Boulder

Soooooo-we are not on the road yet but we have been enjoying ourselves back home in our part of the world.  We were so excited to see Jason and Jack.   The two dogs are so happy to be together, chasing each other endlessly until they collapse.  They love snuggling together with Jim-his chair is alot more roomy for 3 than mine-otherwise you know I would have had them on my lap.

It usually takes us at least a week to unpack, reorganize, make appointments, etc. before we can settle down to really being here.  This year we had a big get together at Nissi's with friends.  It almost seemed like San Carlos, as there was plenty of dancing-this time to disco music.  Terrible pictures, but you get the idea.  The wigs were pretty hilarious!

There were lots of get togethers with friends and I must admit that I didn't think to bring out my camera often enough to capture all the special moments.  There was lunch with Bertha, a wonderful walk and talk with Kathy at Coot Lake, Gail and Harley for a welcome home drink and dinner, a fun evening with Cindy and Win and Cinda and friends at the new Via Perla, a really fun retirement party for Patty and much, much more that my mind can't remember......But, here are a few that I do have pictures of:

Lynne and I did a walking tour of the new Hyatt Place area-
that's the old depot which is now a restaurant with pretty bad
service, but, it's new and hopefully, will improve.

Love the walking areas that connect the Boulder Creek
Path with the Eastern part of the bike/walking path.

Now that's a cool fish!

We celebrated Merry's birthday with the whole ladies group at Julie's.  It was so good to be with everyone.

We had to laugh a little at Evie
who was coordinated with her
appetizer from head to toe.  We
now call her "Guacamole Girl".

The birthday girl, who was also coordinated
with her desert- Chocolate/Strawberry Girl?

The infamous ladies

Athena was in town for the first national cross country championships at her college, UNC.  Erin treated us both to massages and facials in honor of Mother's Day and then she and Todd took us out for a wonderful Nepalese dinner at Sherpa's in Golden.

Lounging in the Ritter back yard

These are my Godchildren.  They are so special to us.  We were there for both of their births.  Their mom worked with me at CU and their Dad is an amazing Renaissance man-bartender, chef, woodworker, artist, owner of cool cars, etc.

Jameson and Julianna in the MG-TD

I am blessed to have Julie in my life.  She has a gorgeous cabin in the mountains, near Meeker Park and we spent a relaxing, hilarious, mucho bonding time at this wonderful place.  I miss being with her when I am away.  She is so good for my soul!  And so is her cabin!

Mt. Meeker

Memorial Day weekend we went up to Carter Lake to experience Diana and Steve's new pontoon boat.  It exceeded expectations beyond our wildest dreams.  A VERY GOOD TIME was had by all!

Steve, Jim, Diana, Merry, Julie and Lynne

Merry, Me, Lynne, Julie and Diana (under dressed, as usual!)

Steve

My love

Jason is now volunteering a Flatirons Community Church in Lafayette.  He operates one of the many cameras.  Very impressive!  He then drove me to the airport for my trip to NYC.

Jason manning the camera