For one of the first times, John was disoriented when we got off the subway and insisted he knew which way to go, but in fact I really was the one who knew. And even though we all know I am usually wrong, he did what I said and we got where we were going. And on the way he lost a bet that I was wrong -- which cost him a gelato.
We went to Washington Park in the Village, which has been undergoing various renovations for at least seven years, since we've been coming here, but it seems to finally be finished. The park has a famous elm tree, which is supposed to be 400 years old, as someone was supposed to have been hanged from it about 350 years ago. Now why one can live to be that old in NY, and we can't keep ours alive in Sacramento, i have no idea. 
This has a trunk about as big as ours, but it is 10 stories high -- judging by the building behind it. You'd think just the bad karma of being a hanging tree would have killed it. It was a nice day today, so there were kids having a great time playing in the fountain.
We took in a few shops, had lunch at Lenny's "the best sandwich in NY" and maybe it was. It was pretty damn good. We had turkey (of course) on Ciabatta bread. Frankly, I don't think you can go wrong with a sandwich if it's on Ciabatta bread.
Greenwich Village has lots of interesting little shops -- a very fine variety of erotica, and various head shops, but also this cool music shop called Music Inn. I had heard that this guy charges $5 to let you in the shop if you don't buy anything, but when we went in he was down in the basement,
apparently hiding out from the girl upstairs who was failing to play chopsticks on an electronic keyboard. I can only assume he was asking himself why he had even gone into this business. The girl's boyfriend was saying "where did you learn to play the piano?" and the girl answered, "My grandmother played the piano, but she has dementia now." I was looking for some sort of cause and effect in that sentence, but couldn't find any. 
By now we had walked enough that it was payoff time, so we found this great gelato place, which by the way is only a few steps away from a place that only sells cream puffs.
Here's a picture of the menu and a picture of the place itself. You can't go wrong in a place that has three flavors of chocolate. In the category of "is this a great city or what?" I have the following for your consideration: You can see the New Year's ball in Times Square all year long. You can watch Fox News and see Arnold Schwarzenegger in Times Square, should you have any interest in either of those relatively disgusting options.
OR, you can get an apology by proxy. Think someone has dissed you, but they won't apologize? Just sit down with the nice lady with pink hair, tell her what happened, and she'll apologize. Next thing you know, they'll be selling indulgences. Or creating world peace.
Best of all today, I got to pick up my new glasses at Jeffrey's Manhattan Eyeland. Cute name, isn't it? They are really good opticians and very friendly, and they have the best selection of frames I've ever seen. And for the first time since I started going there, they had a sale!!! Even better. These glasses are replacing the ones that got run over by a car -- fortunately not while I was wearing them. They have transitional lenses, and they work pretty well. Not as dark as real sunglasses, but wonderful when you're going in and out of stores and such. By the way, the reason my hair looks weird in this picture is because Despina slept on my head last night.
She is a very finicky eater, and her friend Julia lives to take Despina's food away. So when I feed Despina, I have to lie down in front of her and create a human wall that Julia will not cross. Do you think this picture makes my butt look big?
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