Pen-Elayne on the Web

Distant and Closer

2026-09-11T15:09:00.000-04:00

We didn’t actually take the 25th anniversary of the September 11th tragedy into account when we made our vacation plans, but I’m very glad to be away from the US and mostly offline today. I cannot forget the tragedy seared into my very being as a New Yorker a quarter century ago, and don’t need the almost fetishized reminders. I’d much rather commemorate Leah Adezio’s birth date, as I miss my late best friend every day. But today, with the distance afforded by being in the UK, it was easier to feel the joy that comes with family, especially the youngest generation. Today we visited Robin’s sister Carol and brother-in-law Graham, and the branch of the family of which she’s the matriarch. Just about 80% of the fam showed up at Sandra and Robert’s home, including Tracy and Graham, Georgina and Keri with their young ones Freddie, Rosa and Elowyn, Matthew and fiancé Kristin, and Naomi and little baby Elsie. I made repeated eye contact with 9-month-old Rosa and even got to hold her a bunch of times without her crying, and Rob drew pictures for Freddie and Elowyn (two extremely precocious, talkative, and exhausting kids) and a couple of the adults as well. I’ve already volunteered our babysitting services after we move here. It’ll be so wonderful to have kids around! We had a lovely time, and Robert even drove us back to the hotel to save wear and tear on my poor feet and legs. I could use a few quiet, non-mobile days now!

A Plethora of Bungalows with Faux Tudor Solar Panels

2026-09-10T15:17:31.307-04:00

I slept a bit, then breakfast, then a bit more sleep. My feet hurt a but less but I have a lovely little infection at the base of one toe, so when we finally got going I went into a Boots (my fave British chemist) and the pharmacist suggested a warm water soak with some tea tree oil. Most of the day was spent on one bus or another traveling around the south coast of East Sussex scoping out possible towns for our retirement bungalow. So many faux Tudor houses! But we have a good idea now of where we want to end up and, after all, that was the point of the visit. It’s just relaxation and foot soaking from here on!

Too Much Travel

2026-09-09T16:52:00.000-04:00

The landlord sent up the roofers to our apartment not two hours prior to our departure, but the place is all locked now, our car is still along the side of the driveway as the dumpster hasn’t moved, our downstairs neighbors will take care of wny incoming packages, and the car service arrived early so we were on our way to JFK with no issues. I was able to walk to our gate without too much foot pain, but was glad I opted for a wheelchair on the Heathrow end. Because even though we had no seat mate on the plane and were able to stretch out over the three seats, we got no sleep at all on the overnight flight. So not having to walk to baggage retrieval was a blessing. We were on our way to Canary Wharf in short order, but by the time we arrived my feet were killing me. Still, my UK work colleagues were lovely and I couldn’t refuse a brief tour around the extremely fancy office. Alas, the trip across London to catch the regional rail down to Lewes was exhausting, so many escalators and lifts and not having slept didn’t help. We also had a few issues with out hotel room, but all sorted now Rob’s college friends Debs and Jane came over for dinner, by which time I was too tired to care about anything else Need sleep now…

The Hardest Part

2026-09-08T14:53:54.550-04:00

We’re all packed and waiting for the car to pick us up and take us to the airport. But of course there are still last-minute hitches our of our control, like some weird tech issues at all English airports affecting all incoming flights (last we looked ours was still a go) and the landlord sending up the roofers again to vacuum up all the detritus from the rafters, which took over an hour of privacy away from us Still, I’m hoping for the best and trying to get into relaxation mode I should sleep pretty well on the flight!

20,20,24 Years To Go

2026-09-07T16:45:48.204-04:00

Happy blogiversary to Pen-Elayne on the Web! The world and I have both changed quite a bit since 2002, sometimes we keep making the same mistakes, sometimes we make worse ones, and every now and then we learn from them. I plan to keep trying to make daily entries for the foreseeable future, but we'll see how things go in England and beyond. The landlord and his helper came by for a surprise inspection of the roof from the inside rafters, making me doubly glad we cleared those out last week! That shook me up a bit (and rudely roused Robin from his morning nap) to the point where I couldn't concentrate on packing for our trip; good job we have at least all morning tomorrow. As of now I think all my clothes are sorted except my travel outfits, and I still have to go through earrings, but first we need to make sure we can sit together (we can't reserve seats until 24 hours in advance), and tomorrow Robin sets the phones so they can work in England while I take care of last-minute job stuff. As half my brain is in travel mode and most of the other half is already overseas, you'll forgive me for not making more of a thing about this blogiversary. Next year for sure!

A Banging Time

2026-09-06T20:33:00.000-04:00

Are we home yet? The roofers have just about stopped their banging. This has dragged on for a full week, thanks to them not being around last Tuesday through Thursday, and I've never been so happy to be away. A decent night's sleep at the hotel, followed by a lovely brunch this morning that lasted way shorter than we thought it might, so we Uber'ed it to 30th Street Station and waited a couple hours for our train, running into our cousins (the groom's parents) who were taking an earlier train, for the traditional Jewish goodbye that lasts a bit longer than the Irish one. Yesterday we'd had trouble finding seats on the southbound Amtrak, and figured if we stuck with the redcap we'd have better luck with the northbound train. Alas, although we got seats they were hardly together. Lesson learned, it pays to be fleeced a bit if you want to sit together. I just hope we can get adjoining seats on Tuesday's flight to London! By the time we got back to New York, I wasn't thinking straight enough to remember the subways weren't running to our neighborhood, so we walked through Macy's and waited for the express bus home, which detoured a bit due to street fairs, and we finally got home about an hour ago to, as mentioned above, the sound of banging. It should all be over by the time we return from across the pond, and I'm looking forward to the relative quiet!

Philly Phamily Phun

2026-09-05T22:28:00.000-04:00

I could have wished my IT band issues didn't make walking so painful. Robin could have wished he'd used our overnight garment bag as a backpack instead of schlepping it around Central City in Philadelphia for so many blocks. Nonetheless, the wedding of our beloved cousin Jake to Lena (actually their second wedding, the official one was a few years ago as Jake's mom has been ill) was lovely and the reception, though long (and these olds left around 10 PM), a lot of fun. Too exhausted to type more.

Roofer Madness Redux

2026-09-04T21:10:21.091-04:00

Have I mentioned next Monday marks the 24th blogiversary of Pen-Elayne on the Web? And that I may go dark for a week or so after that as I'm not sure I can blog from my iPad? Well, if I haven't mentioned that it's because the roofers have driven most of the sanity from my head. They were here from 9 AM to almost 9 PM, and they threw a lot more stuff into the dumpster in the space where my car is normally parked so I know they were still stripping shingles, but I have no idea where they left off as they were hammering like crazy during the last hour or so. We'll find out tomorrow on our way to the express bus. With any luck, by the time we return from Philly everything will have been done. I don't get it, other roofers working on houses in this neighborhood didn't take more than a day. I'm figuring there was just way too much damage on our roof for it to be a quick job. In any case, I wore my earbuds and got through work, we took a long lunch at our favorite sushi place and picked up a bare minimum of food for tomorrow morning, Sunday night, Monday, and most of Tuesday, and I won't have to hear any banging for at least the next couple days. Now to finish packing!

Goodbye Manhattan

2026-09-03T21:05:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm coming back to the area on Saturday and Sunday on my way to and from Philadelphia, but this was my last day in the office for the next two weeks. Unfortunately I got very little sleep last night, probably due to nervousness about impending travel, so I sought to leave as early as possible, pretty easy considering very few people were in the office, certainly nobody I supported. So I hightailed it out at 3 PM, sped through Moynihan and Penn, got the subway just as the elevator doors to the platform opened, got a seat right away, and all was fine (give or take having to stand too long on the local bus) and I was able to log on again and do another hour of work when I got home. Trying to wrap up everything before travel time! There's a non-zero chance that I will in fact log off tomorrow with inbox zero...

Shredtastic

2026-09-02T21:39:33.011-04:00

Still no roofers, although contractors did come by again to dump more stuff in the dumpster. Glad they stayed away, as I had two more international business trips to book for my partners, one in a 3-way phone call and the other - yep, one last change to the India trip. Meanwhile, Robin has begun shredding all our financial stuff from years past that had been sitting up in the now-vacated rafters between our apartment and the roof, as by law we only need to keep a handful of years of records (and the important ones are pretty much all online now). He also managed to put his old Cintiq drawing tablet back in its original box (another bit that had been stored in the rafters) along with various peripherals, and we're well on our way to getting the apartment in good shape to welcome Jonny's cat Mango when he leaves the weekend after we return to retrieve his car and drive it back from Texas. Been awhile since we've needed to make space for a pet! In the meantime we can now reach the steamer and our suitcases easily, which will make our upcoming trips that much easier. I'm as organized as I can be at work, getting ready to send out my reminders to peers and partners tomorrow morning, and feeling my usual nervousness about travel.

Passage to India

2026-09-01T21:19:00.000-04:00

White Rabbits! Do they have that superstition in India? Regardless, that's where one of my partners is headed next month, so I spent half the workday getting the ball rolling on his travel, which seemed to change a few times every hour. We finally got everything set, and it certainly kept me busy during an in-office day! I came home in the muggy and amp weather to find the roofers hadn't been working today, but they certainly made use of the dumpster still sitting in "my" parking spot. At this rate I hope they at least try to finish up by the time we leave for England. In the meantime my car is safe in the driveway in a spot where I can see, so I'm trying not to be too concerned about what happens when we're away.

Roofer Madness

2026-08-31T21:07:00.000-04:00

Had Robin not encountered our landlord at the mailboxes last week, we would never have known he'd hired contractors to redo the house's roof. Well, they arrived today and summarily asked (very politely) if I could please move my car out onto a main street so they could park their behemoth of a dumpster in my parking spot. The downstairs neighbor had to move his car as well, so I wasn't the only one affected. But I wasn't feeling well, and having to look for a spot then trudge back even that 1-2 blocks did me in. And this all happened in the middle of working. It was impossible to concentrate on any job stuff with all the banging going on; today seemed to be removal of the old shingles and putting down big wooden slabs to protect the area from the coming rains. At the end of the day I was able to move my car back to at least a spot where I can see it from my living room window, but I'm very glad I'll be in the relatively quiet Manhattan office tomorrow. And I believe the worst of my ailment is over, judging by my multiple trips to the "reading room"...

Jonny Come Lately

2026-08-31T14:33:13.365-04:00

My darling godson Jonny came to visit us today. He's moving back to New York City from Austin, TX, where he felt like he never quite fit in, and wanted to assure us that we'll be a major part of his NYC experience, at least until we move. Speaking of which, he's vital and strong (he does rock climbing and lifts weights) and was able to help Robin take down our printer and AC boxes almost single-handedly! Not only that, thanks to him all the boxes from the loft that aren't filled with receipts waiting to be shredded are now situated where the old AC/printer boxes used to be, freeing up space for us to steam our kurtas for this coming weekend and retrieve our suitcases for the weekend as well as the UK trip. Plus, he will help us rehome all our tech and appliances in the next few years as we get ready to downsize all the things that run on US outlets. Best of all, we get to cat-sit his lovely orange tabby Mango when he travels, satisfying my urge to have a kitty that won't completely be fulfilled until we've emigrated. We had a lovely visit with my uncle (his grandfather) then a nice lunch locally before he took off for more parts unknown. A bit of a whirlwind, exhausting day, especially being out in non-air conditioned areas for a longer period of time than I'm used to in muggy weather. And I'm still not walking properly despite having changed back to the sneakers I was wearing before my most recent pair, so that was pretty tiring as well. But so, so worth it!

The Calm Between

2026-08-29T18:15:00.000-04:00

With the car inspection behind me, the loft cleared yesterday, my godson coming to visit tomorrow, followed by the landlord's contractors putting on a new roof next week, this was our only day to rest, and I took full advantage. At least 2-3 naps during the day when I wasn't watching footie and baseball. I don't exactly feel refreshed, I'm a bit too travel-nervous for that, but I definitely needed the break!

Lofty Ambition

2026-08-28T20:47:48.294-04:00

When Robin met with the landlord in an unsuccessful attempt to get another mailbox key, he was informed that the house's roof is going to be replaced, which I'm sure it desperately needs. This spurred him to action to finally empty the loft space (really only rafters) which we've used for storage since we moved in a couple decades back, which of course we needed to do anyway but thought we had more time. As it turned out, Robin did a yeoman's job of getting all the various boxes, suitcases, etc. down into the apartment proper, and the only thing remaining up there now are a couple of dusters and two doors that were taken off what's now our larder and coat closet back when our wall-to-wall carpeting was installed, and have been used as runners of a sort to hold all the boxes and such. Now begins the wonderful job of sorting through it all. I suspect our shredder will be working overtime in the next few months. But it was, as Robin says, a job well jobbed, just in time for my godson's visit on Sunday where I'm going to ask him if he wants to give some of our old tech a new home. Slowly downsizing!

Muggy

2026-08-27T20:42:00.000-04:00

A bit hard to breathe this morning, but Robin swore to me that his weather apps indicated no rain in the forecast despite a flood watch in effect, so off I went without my raincoat. A bit of drizzle greeted me as I exited the local bus near my firm's office, but aside from having breathing difficulty I saw no real signs of rain. At lunchtime I noticed the ground at Manhattan West plaza was pretty wet, but I figured maybe I could still get away with dancing between the raindrops on the homeward commute. Alas, it was not to be, as I got caught in quite the deluge on 9th Avenue crossing to the Moynihan train hall and decided to stay underground until I got to my homeward-bound subway. By the time we hit the Bronx the rain had stopped, so it wasn't really that bad, but it started again when I was on the local bus so Robin met me at the terminus with my rain jacket. My feet are in a lot of pain right now so I've ruled out the socks I've been wearing and am once again assuming it's the new sneakers, and will put on my "old" pair again to shop on Saturday. This too shall pass!

Done, Done, and Done Again

2026-08-26T22:13:04.194-04:00

I didn't have very high hopes for the latest place I visited bright and early this morning to get my inspection done, but this one turned out to be a winner. In the time it took us to buy new windshield wiper fluid and a drink in the adjoining convenience store, the inspection was all done! And I was back home in plenty of time to log on to work. With my car worries allayed, I decided to finally book our train tickets to Philly, and that went smoothly as well. Lastly, even though I was kind of beat by the end of the day, I decided to make a stir-fry and use a couple things for the first time: a cast-iron pan to get the tofu nice and crispy, a wonderful sugar-free teriyaki sauce, and mixing corn starch with rice vinegar to thicken the sauce. Two of those three things worked well. Next time I mix the corn starch with the sugar-free sauce. Now I have leftovers and our fridge is much easier to get into with all those veggies being used up (two kinds of oyster mushroom, a bunch of scallions, lots of baby bok choy, half a mandolined daikon). All in all a great day for accomplishing things. Back to Manhattan tomorrow!

Filling the Day

2026-08-25T20:15:00.000-04:00

Got through my commute and work day just fine, no real down time at all in the office, but my feet were bothering me too much to visit my partners so I settled for MS Teams conversations. Not sure if it's the new sneakers (possibly not as I was having much the same issue with my previous pair), the socks, or just me getting older. I'll be wearing thicker socks tomorrow with my support slippers to cushion my feet when I go out to get the car inspected (this time for sure!) but that'll be first thing in the morning so it shouldn't affect me too much. What is affecting me, more than I thought, is the death of the saintly Dolly Parton; we won't see her like again.

Like Unto a Zombie

2026-08-24T21:07:25.489-04:00

No real news today, I just couldn't wake up after yesterday's driving and car stress. I'm not used to being out and about two weekend days in a row. Also, when we returned around 6 PM we found the landlord's gutter repair/replacement folks hard at work, so I had to park in a different spot than my usual one right in front of the house, and retrieve my car to repark it around 9 PM when the gutter replacement was finished (and that was a bit stressful seeing them walking around the makeshift platforms outside our top-floor living room). I don't drive well at night, even tbe 30 or so feet it took to park it, and when I blearily glanced outside this morning I saw the car was crooked, which I never do in the daytime. Good thing I decided against taking it in for inspection, as I could hardly open my eyes all day. Somehow I got through work and made lots of progress, tried on my new yoga pants which I'm wearing under my kurta for the wedding reception (the first pair got waylaid so I ordered another pair to arrive today and, lo and behold, wound up with both pairs), and now I'm all packed for tomorrow's sojourn into Manhattan. I cannot believe I made it through the day like this.

The Wilds of Lawn Guylan

2026-08-23T20:52:00.000-04:00

Today we packed up about half the alcohol we've had lying around for ages and went to visit our friends Phyllis and Richie in Bellmore, whom we hadn't seen in way too long. They have the coolest backyard area and gardens, I got to each freshly-picked celery (although the basil I picked straight from the plant was a bit much and made my tongue kind of numb). The snacks and lunch/dinner they prepared us was wonderful, as was the entertainment as I learned all about Angine de Poitrine, Avatar, and Babymetal. Hey, gotta keep up with the latest musical trends, if only for my education. On the way there we went over a drain stuck out into the left lane that jogged our hubcap loose, but it doesn't appear any harm was done. Richie was also kind enough to fill our windshield wiper reservoir, allwaying fears it had sprung another leak (I guess I've just used a lot of fluid). Alas, no auto shops near them that could do a state inspection were open, so I'll have to resume my search to find someplace before next Sunday.

Movable AC

2026-08-22T20:23:00.000-04:00

We got home from our grocery shopping and bonus H Mart visit around noon, to discover our landlord's van blocking our parking spot. Apparently there's going to be some gutter replacement shenanigans going on, but in the meantime he's asked us to move our living room air conditioner from its usual spot for the past 20+ years into one of the front-facing windows. This Robin did not need, as his back's been giving him issues lately. But by some miracle he was able to get it done, and I find I actually prefer the new setup, particularly as it allowed me to rearrange our corner table (which held lots of alcohol, most of which we don't really drink) and wine rack. We'll be getting rid of at least half the liquor when we visit our friends on Long Island tomorrow, and I'll be arranging the remainder so everything is together (including mixers and shot glasses and saki cups) and looks nice on the corner table, and so that all the pretty artificial and metal flowers are finally together atop the wine rack. The living room definitely needed a change!

House Call

2026-08-21T20:10:00.000-04:00

This morning I had a necessary telehealth visit with my new primary care provider, who will take care of renewing all my prescriptions under her name as both my old PCP and endocrinologist have left their respective practices. I like her, she seems very nice, and best of all she's in my neighborhood, but she may wind up being a little hard on me. Ah well, I'll probably need it. Meantime, the inspection machine is still broken at my usual auto shop, and the one around the corner doesn't do inspections, so I'm still on the lookout. I also had a lovely text convo with my godson today. He's back in New York City to stay, at least for now, and wants to come up and see me (and my uncle, his grandfather). Which I want as well, as I hope to pass along to him a lot of our household belongings in a few years when we retire and move countries. But for now, I have to deal with the fact that I actually have a social life. I'm way too old for that!

Drenched

2026-08-20T21:35:47.968-04:00

The day started out a bit difficult for me. My back's been bothering me all week, and I had to schlep an Amazon return in to Whole Foods this morning as I wouldn't get the chance at lunch. Turns out the pain I was feeling was more the weight of my laptop than the returned item. I continue to be in great shape at work, just waiting on both partners and client EAs to get back to me on scheduling things, and I'm taking so much self-study that I'm actually starting to remember a lot of the AI terminology, which scares me. Lunch was terrific, my colleague signed off on my and Robin's kurta outfits for the wedding reception, and the Indian food we had was nice but the restaurant not so much (very cramped and unprofessional, much more a takeout place). I'd packed my rain jacket for the afternoon deluge, left work a bit early before it started (only wind on 9th Ave and a little rain on 8th), and by the time I got to my neighborhood it was coming down in sheets. And it still is. Just a bit drenched to the bone! But warm and dry now, watching the Yankees win again, and getting ready for shuteye...

Stop and Go

2026-08-19T20:23:00.000-04:00

My life has once again become things I need to do before vacationing, the first being to take the car in for its annual inspection by month's end. Alas, the NYS DMV has suffered a major outage for the past few days, and while I believe things are now restored I'm going to have to wait until Friday to take the car around the corner (literally, I can practically see that auto shop from our home) and leave it there for the inspection whilst I go back to working from home. Saturday is the usual shopping and meds, and Sunday we head out to Lawn Guylan to see our friends Phyllis and Richie. But before that I'm having lunch with a former colleague tomorrow, where I will pick her South Asian brain to make sure my outfit for the upcoming Indian wedding celebration is acceptable. The dress I wanted finally arrived today, looks lovely, and fits wonderfully, so I'm hoping it's okay. Now I just have to finalize plans with my Philadelphia colleague so I can figure out which Amtrak to take and how to get around downtown Philly by bus. Fortunately that's all still a couple weeks away. Unfortunately the end of that trip is only two days before we leave for England. I'm getting a bit nervous about it all.

There and Back Again

2026-08-18T21:36:22.358-04:00

The back is still twingy, and I'm sure the backpack this morning didn't help, but the naproxen kicked in and by noon I was busy enough at the office that I didn't really notice. This evening we watched the best episode of Beat Bobby Flay I've ever seen because, even though it was scripted up the wazoo with them all pretending it wasn't, they made it extremely official that Flay and Brooke Williamson are A Thing, and it was totes adorbs all the way, lots of huggy kissy and such. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. And it made my back feel better too.