My kids are both working and taking courses in the city this summer, so I have been in New York during the week, and only in Connecticut on weekends. Most people try to leave the city in the summer, but it's my favorite time to be here. No crowds, no lines at the movies. No need to make reservations at your favorite restaurants - there's always a table available.

We live downtown and I have to walk through Soho to get anywhere. Soho, as you probably know, was once a very quaint area, below Houston Street, where artists had converted lofts into studios and it used to be a very bohemian scene. Now, it's a tourist trap. It still has very quaint, cobble-stone streets and cool old buildings, but, especially in the summer, you will have a hard time finding another American walking the streets there. It's all Europeans. Two years ago, when the dollar was at an all-time low, these Europeans were literally filling hefty bags with their loot from Gucci and Prada. I watched them throwing our dollars around like Monopoly money. Now, they're still flocking to Soho, but they don't seem to be spending as much. Still, at least twenty times a day, I am asked, by very beautiful people, in very broken English, the exact same question: "Where .....is...the Chinatown?" I have actually started just blurting out directions to Chinatown, the minute a gorgeous Italian, French or Swedish person approaches me. I don't know why they all want to go there. But they do.

The city, in the summer, is also quite colorful. Yesterday, I wandered through the Union Square Farmer's Market, where farmers from upstate, and other areas, bring their offerings. I walked by all the stands once, then turned back and walked by again. The fragrances!

Fresh baked bread, scones, cinnamon rolls. Cheeses. Crates and crates of freshly picked beets, squash, onions, scallions. And the berries! Strawberries and blueberries everywhere you look! It's the season, I guess, The farmers are the friendliest people and urge you to try their strawberries and sample their muffins. Yum.

Then I cut through Washington Square Park on my way home. Washington Square Park has just undergone a two-year long renovation and it's more beautiful than I have ever seen it. I gazed at these hostas and silently cursed the sinister, roaming herds of Connecticut deer that devour ours.

I love these flowers, which I call "Black-Eyed Susans." I know they have a latin sounding name as well.

It was a hot day and children were running through the fountain, or chasing each other around screaming, pop-sickle juice dripping down their little chins. I got a little weepy recalling the bygone childhoods of my own kids who are both, now, taller than me. I say it and I sound like an old lady, but ...it goes by so fast.

On Thompson Street, every afternoon, this fellow takes in the sun:

Now, I don't want any comments about how cruel it is to tether a cat. This guy purrs happily on his little cardboard box that he sometimes uses as a scratching post, sometimes a bed. Most of the time, he does what I like to do - watch all the people go by.

Just this, today, a poem by Ms. St. Vincent Millay:

Recuerdo
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed "Good morrow, mother!" to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, "God bless you!" for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

The photos of Tracy and Barbara reading my book, Outtakes From a Marriage, in Times Square, on the previous blog, gave me an idea for a contest. Send me pictures of my book (either of my books will do) - and the one that's the funniest, or in the most unusual place will be the winner. If you're shy, you don't have to be in the photo. Just prop it up someplace. Or have a pet doing something with it (that's Daphne, above, examining my shipment of the first edition of Outtakes. You guys can all vote, but my vote will always be for the photos of the book being read in a very public place. This blog entry is under the category "Shameless Self-Promotion," after all.

Just email me your photos during the next month and I'll post them in August and we'll pick a winner. Haven't figured out a prize yet.

Also, I see that several of you have joined my Facebook group. Those who haven't, it's here:

Everybody's invited! We can have discussions and chats there ...as soon as I figure out how. And for those who don't like Facebook, don't worry, the party's still going on right here.

Can't wait to see your photos!

For you newcomers, a few people have become a little chummy on this blog (yes, I know, that might be a bit of an understatement, it's become a big love fest here). Some blog regulars have become email buddies and a few - Barbara, Tracy and Kristin - decided to meet in person, in New York, a couple of weeks ago for an event they have dubbed the first annual Ann Leary Blogapalooza. Tracy has written up her version of the big event, and for the past several days she has been trying to email the accompanying photos, and I've been trying to reformat them for the blog, but I'm afraid I couldn't include them all, and fear that they might not be in the proper order. Nonetheless, without further ado, here's Tracy's wonderful report:

"The first Ann Leary Blogapalooza was a smashing success! Barbara, Kristin, & I all admitted we were a little nervous, but when we met, we greeted each other with hugs like old friends. Kristin brought her friend Lindsay, who she was visiting in NY, along, and Lindsay blended in perfectly. We all chattered away happily and luckily, the place had emptied out before we got there, so we didn’t disturb anyone.
We sang our praise about Ann & her books, and if you look closely at my copy of ‘Outtakes’, you can see all the little green post-it flags. They’re all pages where I found something that was hilariously funny, touching, sad, or where I really identified with Julia. Lindsay didn’t understand how we could become friends on a blog, so we explained how Ann replies to comments, and how fellow bloggers post things to each other in the comments section, and that some of us are now emailing each other, and are friends on facebook. She still couldn’t quite grasp how this could happen, and I told her that when I found the blog at the end of March, I felt at home right away. I said that after the ‘Who’s Youer than You’ post, when many people shared things about themselves, it became an even more close knit community. We told her all about how Ann shared her and Denis’s vacation to Italy, and how down to earth she is, that we all feel like we know her, etc. She sat there in a kind of shock I think. We all told her she has to read the blog to understand, & she better start soon!

Yes, I’m the dork who made the sign. ;-) You can’t see it very well, but I had all 4 of us sign it to mark the momentous occasion. For future Blogapaloozas (I love that word!!!), I will be happy to make them, renumbering them of course. Hehe
After brunch, Kristin and Lindsay left to go to Governor’s Island, and Barbara and I decided to spend the afternoon together. We parted ways with more hugs and all said we were so happy that we had met.

I could stop here, but I’m hoping that Ann will indulge me and let me share Barbara’s & my adventures that afternoon. We had such a good time. We stayed in SoHo for awhile, walking around enjoying an arts and crafts street fair. Suddenly I stop and tell Barbara to look across the street. An artist had canvases hung up in a stall, and every single one was of HUGE bare women’s BUTTS!!!!! I kid you not. We laughed and agreed that we couldn’t imagine anyone wanting that hanging in their house. We walked further down and came back up the other side of the street, and I wanted to see the front of his stall to see if he painted anything else. Nope, just more huge women’s butts! We laughed so hard and decided that he must have a fetish. I SO wish I had taken a picture because mere words can’t describe it.
We decided to go to see this clock: http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=134#comment-79 I had been to see it before, and tried to photograph it as it did its magic on the hour, but it actually does it about 2 minutes before, so was caught off guard. It is gorgeous. So I decided to get it on video with my camera. So we get on the subway, but half way there we realize that we weren’t going to make it on time, and didn’t want to have to hang around waiting for the next hour.

Next idea, there’s a photographer who has a stand outside the Apple store at 5th Ave & 59th St, and I really love his photographs of NYC. So we change subway lines to head up there. We get near there, but find that due to the Puerto Rican Day Parade, we can’t get anywhere near there, and the cop I spoke to said the vendors there had probably been thrown out for the day.

So we decided to go to Make My Cake, a bakery in Harlem, just a couple blocks north of Central Park. I’ve been wanting to get there because they say have the best Red Velvet cake in the world (it will have to be incredible to beat CakeMan Raven in Brooklyn!). We consult the map and find that we’re not near any subway lines that would get us there, so decide against that. I realize now that it never occurred to me to take a cab, I’m a subway girl. Hehehe

We decided to just take the subway back to Times Square to check out the areas they have blocked off to cars, and have chairs out for people to sit in. We head over to Columbus Circle to catch the subway and decide to go into the Time Warner building to use the restrooms. At the top of the escalators is a Borders. Great, we’ll use the restrooms and make sure ‘Outtakes’ is displayed properly. We looked through all the displays and on the Fiction shelves, no ‘Outtakes’!!!! I checked the in store computer, & it said ‘Likely in Store’. So I went to the register to buy the same kind of laminated NYC map that Barbara has (I don’t need a magnifying glass!!! It shows the subway stations & lines!!!), whip out my copy of ‘Outtakes’ with its multitude of post-it flags, and proceed to politely harangue the cashier about the store not having it. I told her that they had to get more in stock, that it needed a special display, that when it came out in hard cover last year it was voted #1 Beach Read, & that it was hysterically funny, fabulous, etc. I went on & on. I told her to tell her manager that he or she HAD to order a large supply and display it. Of course, dummy me; I should have talked to the manager myself!

[Editor's note: I ADORE you guys for this]

We head down the escalator, only to find that there are 2 humongous statues of a man and a woman. Coming down the escalator, what do we see but the back of the woman’s statue, and she had a HUGE bare BUTT!!!!! We just looked at each other and laughed hysterically! Barbara said ‘Ok then, it’s just the day of huge bare women’s butts!’. It was just too funny for words.
When we got to Times Square, Barbara had the idea for these great photos:

[Editor's note: Seriously, I love you guys]

These were taken in one of the areas on Broadway that are closed to traffic. It is really pretty amazing, they have all these chairs set up (cheap ones for now, it’s an experiment to see how it affects traffic flow), and it’s so popular that it’s hard to find an empty chair. It also makes it much safer to walk through Times Square.
When Barbara & I got there, we joked that if the Naked Singing Cowboy was there, we’d get a picture with him as a joke, just for the blog, but he wasn’t there. I told Barbara about the 2 Naked Singing Cowgirls, one who is in her 20’s and hot looking, but frankly skanky because she wears pasties – ick! Then there’s this one: (These are especially for you Barbara since you left without the, uh, pleasure, of seeing her)

[Editor's note: Thank heavens the skanky one wasn't there]

Yes, this woman actually hangs out in Times Square like this, and believe it or not, she looks worse in person! The guitar is kind of holding them up, but those babies hang down really low! I’ll never forget the first time I saw her with a friend. She’s like a train wreck, you CAN’T not look at her!

I still had some time before my bus, so I found an empty chair, here was my view:"

Man problems?

Need a few beauty tips?

How about some organizing ideas?

Not sure what to say when your date shows up wearing this?

Well, you're in luck, because today is ASK LUPE day!
(this is the official ASK LUPE logo).

Blog regulars have come to rely on Lupe's savvy street smarts, her cool, quick wit and her willingness to delve deep into the internet to find answers to questions or problems no matter how large or small. So today, I open the blog to our mentor, the wise and wonderful Guadalupe. She has gracefully offered to be our advice columnist for the day.

Well, I'll go first, with a philosophical question. Lupe, do you believe in destiny?

Also, how do you clean a leather jacket? Do I send it to the dry cleaner?

Okay, everybody, ask away. Keep in mind that Lupe is on the west coast and might not get the early comments until later. Also, if you don't get an immediate reply, it's because Lupe and/or I had other stuff to do for a litttle while, but will get your questions up there. Don't be shy, you don't have to be a regular commenter to ASK LUPE anything.

I know I've mentioned that I receive a fair amount of spam on this blog. Usually I deliver it straight to the junk folder, but here's a quote from a spiffy piece of spam I received this morning: "Best choice of the month about Fetish, Smelling fetish, Fetish pantiehose and Kilt fetish." There's a link to a website attached, of course.

I get the whole fetish concept. I can understand a smelling fetish, and the pantiehose [sic] fetish. But "kilt fetish?". And why would the spammer assume that kilt lust should be thrown in the same pile as the desire to don a pair of tights? Or smell smelly things? And what did fetishists do before the internet?

I've been working and haven't had a lot of time to blog, so I thought I'd look up some more old commercials to entertain you. Since we're already talking about sex, remember Hai Karate cologne? I don't think this commercial would be allowed on network television today. Very funny.

Here's the link for those whose computers can't read the embedded video.

It's been wet here in New England. My friend Moses sent me this beautiful wet, green photo, and, to accompany it, I have chosen a poem. Sorry poetry haters, he's my favorite, Roethke, and, well, the photo was crying out for it.

The Minimal
by Theodore Roethke

I study the lives on a leaf: the little
Sleepers, numb nudgers in cold dimensions,
Beetles in caves, newts, stone-deaf fishes,
Lice tethered to long limp subterranean weeds,
Squirmers in bogs,
And bacterial creepers
Wriggling through wounds
Like elvers in ponds,
Their wan mouths kissing the warm sutures,
Cleaning and caressing,
Creeping and healing.

Thanks Moses.