Spoke too soon...

I've been writing about the work on the front of the building and how the renovation of the port cochere has taken its own sweet time in getting finished. Just when I thought that the finishing touches were all that were needed (some simple plantings in the driveway flowerbed), we were informed that there still needed to be work done on the sidewalk in front of the building on the Sutton Place side. So for the last couple of weeks we've had unsightly barricades and screens, jackhammers and an open pit of a sidewalk to navigate around to get into the building. Here are some shots of the corner of the building. This can't be over too soon for my taste.











The good news, small though it may be, is that they've put some plantings in the flowerbed, more still to come we're told...

"Amazing Aquarium"

I've written about how I LOVE my app from AppleTV that plays a serious of continuous fireplaces here. In the winter I use it constantly. Well, now that's it's getting warmer and the season's changing I've found a new app to love. It's called "Amazing Aquarium" and for only $1.99 you get the choice of four different aquariums to play on your flatscreen that almost look like they're an aquarium built into the wall (well, almost, haha). I find it's much better to have something playing on the screen than have a big black rectangle hanging over the room. You also get the sound effects of bubbles and the airator for more verisimilitude...OR, you can have it going while you play Pandora, so music wafts through the apartment at the same time.
The four styles of aquarium are "Tropical Aquarium", "Japanese Aquarium", "Goldfish Aquarium", and "Shark Attack". My favorite is "Japanese Aquarium" because I like the little pagodas placed in the 'tank'. If I had a real aquarium of my own I'd place things like that in it.
Here are pics of the 4 choices:

"Tropical Aquarium"

"Japanese Aquarium"

"Golfish Aquarium"

"Shark Attack"

The last "Rosemary's Baby" posting

By now you must be really tired of me comparing my apartment building to the spooky fictitious one,  The Bramford, in Ira Levin's modern day horror thriller "Rosemary's Baby". So I promise that this will be the last posting about that book and movie. Anyway, I got an email notice from Amazon pushing the special 50th Anniversary edition of the book in trade paperback. So I decided to click on it and read about the book and to see people's comments, etc. When I did I noticed that they were also selling other editions of the book, including some vintage paperback editions from when it was initially published. One thing caught me eye: some new versions of the original, which I assume are collector's items, are priced at--wait for it--over $1400!!

From the Amazon website

And even better, guess who owns an original copy of one those editions? You guessed it, yours truly. Many years ago I found one in a used book store. I couldn't have paid more than two or three dollars for it. You can imagine my happiness to know mine could be worth a lot more than that. Now, mine is a little worn, "gently used", in some parlance, but still...nice to know it's worth something :)j
Here are some pictures of my copy...on the back cover you can see the iconic baby carriage on the rim of the volcano image that was used in the film's poster, plus a shot of Mia Farrow, the star of the movie.