In early May, I went back to New York (shocking two visits in a couple of weeks!) for a conference. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I went for a run in Central Park one morning and came across a grove of American Elm trees. Our tree in the backyard is an American Elm, and we’re fortunate that it hasn’t been affected by Dutch Elm disease. To see a whole grove of American Elms is pretty cool.

We got these buttons at the conference. It’s fun being surrounded by people who all love metadata.

I stayed at the Pod51 hotel in midtown, and there’s a nice little cafe inside that serves steelcut oatmeal for breakfast. Yummm!


I came back on Friday night, and that Sunday was Mother’s Day. John made some amazing pancakes, with yogurt and fruit. On the oatmeal theme, they had cooked oatmeal in the batter. Double yummm!

The next week we went to Garfield Park conservatory and the school of the art institute fashion students had their final projects displayed all over the greenhouse. These ones in the fern room were pretty impressive.


Another highlight of this spring was we got a new bike for Miles. Working bikes had this great bike that fit him, a high Nellie style with rod brakes, and some delightful pink tires. He gets a lot of compliments on the tires when he’s out on the bike. It’s a really comfortable bike and good for city riding. We didn’t anticipate buying a bike since it was our first shopping trip, so we didn’t put the bike rack on the car. It was snowing outside so we couldn’t ride it home… so I shared the back seat with the bike.


Miles had to do a project about himself in Spanish class, and it gave us the opportunity to go through some old photos. Thought this one was pretty cute!

Nice picture of Miles when he was a little guy! I remember how he liked to play the guitar. The American elms in New York look much healthier than they do here in the Midwest. Yummy oatmeal and oatmeal pancakes! Nice bike! Not sure I understand the fashion display at Garfield Park Conservatory: One of them has taken shoulder pads to the max. 🙂