weekend wrap up

random thoughts from this beautiful nyc weekend

1. in the sweet and chewy genre, the cookies at city bakery--the big ones near the registers, either chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin--are hands-down the tastiest in town.

2. the north end of central park can be truly spectacular. yesterday it looked like we were in new england or something, with the leaves in their full, fireworks-y glory, and those wide vistas you can get up there above 96th street.... and someone had made a huge, perfect heart on the ground out of fallen leaves (reminded me of andy goldsworthy) next to that pond right near the 103rd and cpw entrance, all red and orange and romantic. yes, i should have taken some pictures.

3. dancing with daughters is absolutely the greatest thing ever invented... even if it's square dancing!

4. after the 24-hour show at swiss institute (which was totally silly and entertaining, though it's too bad dglass didn't answer her phone), bo, co and i had fun on saturday goofing around in two new soho stores. you may have read about burton (on spring and mercer) in the times last week or whenever it was--that review that self-righteously spent about half its words on the 420 stash-pack they sell? anyway, the place is definitely chill, like a hipper niketown, with historic snowboards embedded under fiberglass below the floor (so you can "stand" on them) and a huge screen playing non-stop, totally sick snowboard videos (and co appreciated the comfy viewing couches) and lots of browseable burton and gravis accessories and clothing in addition to the hardcore gear and, best of all, a "cold weather" dressing room to try on jackets. really, it's just a big walk-in freezer with a full-length mirror, but it's decked out with huge ice blocks (with rubber butt-mats for sitting) and a deer head mounted on the wall and you can pretend you're locked in and make your kids laugh nervously....

we're uncle- and cousins-to-be so also fun for us was giggle, on wooster near spring, filled with high-end, design-y kids stuff but not pretentious and it has a cute stroller parking area up front and lots of seating (for nursing moms and tired 9-year-olds) and reasonably priced toys and beautiful but totally too expensive crib sheets from dwell and $700 stokke strollers that are way cooler than the ubiquitous, $900 (!!!) bugaboo strollers, though both price tags make my jaw drop.