Thursday, January 27, 2005

Jennifer is in print!

Jennifer recently helped some dear friends sell their NY apartment. The sale was apparently noteworthy enough to be printed in the NY Observer, a local newpaper! And she is mentioned in the same article with Harvey Weinstein (of Miramax fame), Rupert Murdoch, and the Rockefeller's.



The Upper East Side just lost a piece of television history. The actor Jimmy Harder, who achieved a cult fame of sorts for his roles as the Butterball turkey pilgrim and the Sealtest ice-cream man, as well as for his infectious Fig Newton jingles, recently sold his apartment in the landmarked Black and White townhouses at 531 East 72nd Street for $625,000.

Mr. Harder, 75, relocated with his wife Dorothy, a retired ballet dancer, to their summer home on Cape Cod, according to his broker Jennifer Bancroft of Warburg Realty Partnership. The buyer was an ordained minister from Atlanta and was represented by Elinor Sheppard of Stribling and Associates.

The prewar co-op has two bedrooms, a windowed kitchen, a wood-burning fireplace and East River views. Other details include original moldings and Subway tile bathrooms. The apartment was on the market for eight weeks and was originally listed for $649,000. The townhouses at the eastern reach of 72nd Street were originally built in 1894 and then renovated by the firm Sacchetti and Siegel into the four existing buildings in 1938 at the behest of Carmel Snow, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar, who soon enticed her friends on The Social Registry to move into the apartments. Residents have included George Plimpton and Frances Fitzgerald, and The Paris Review is still run out of the buildings at 541 East 72nd Street.


See the full article here

Saturday, January 15, 2005

That damned Chrinitoid thingy

Tom's obsession with the Chrinitoid has gotten him published in the Rensselear alumni magazine. Jen still thinks he's a bit crazy


Chrinitoid from 1974 Transit (RPI's yearbook)

Monday, January 10, 2005

NOLA - Jen and Tom invite themselves along...

Jennifer and Tom invited themselves along on a trip to New Orleans with Bob and Danielle Burke. It all started at Kimberly's engagement party..."Did we tell you we are going to New Orleans?" "No! We love New Orleans". The next thing you know, airline tickets are purchased, hotel reservation are made and Jennifer and Tom are invading Bob and Danielle's vacation.


Cafe au Late and Bignets at Cafe du Monde (click for more pictures)


The trip turned into a veritable family reunion. Bob and Danielle were going down to Nawlins with their aunt and uncle (Jeff and Ann). It turned out that Tom's Aunt Arlene and Uncle Bill just happened to be in town the same weekend as well. And Father Jon Parks, the priest that maried Tom and Jen and their dear friend had returned to his home town. A great time was had by all.

Saturday, January 1, 2005

James' tsunami adventure

Tom's friend James was visiting Thailand for Christmas & New Years this year when the tsunami hit. For several days, we didn't know if James was among the thousands of unfortunate victims. On New Years day, Tom received the following email indicating James was alive and well...and has some great adventure stories to tell!



Tom,

I'm still in Thailand, in Ao Nang. I was scuba diving in about 60 feet of water in Phi Phi when the tidal wave it. It was my first dive as a qualified Open Water Diver, which I obtained here last year. Anyway, we were diving when a big current surge swept us along the edge of the reef wall, pushing us down as the water drained off the reef. Within a few minutes, it swept us beyond the island into a big eddy current, where we surfaced and the boat picked us up. We thought is was a pretty cool ride. The dive master said it was similar to a normal dive in Indonesia, where they normally have strong currents. He had only been diving in Phi Phi for about 2 weeks.

After getting onto the boat and having some lunch, the boat driver heard what happened on the island. As series of tidal wave completely washed over the middle, low section of the island. None of the boats would go ashore for about 4 hours because they were afraid of another waving coming. We finally went ashore about 2 hours before dark. To me, it look like in the worst-hit area, the water was about 20 feet above normal level. At our bungalo, the water just one inch below the bottom of the window, about 4 feet up from the ground, which was about 10 or 15 feet up from the normal water level. The waves surged in an out several times. Fortunately, our bungalo was fairly water-tight and the door didn't break down - like the one next to us. So everything was dry except for the few things we left on the floor. Most of the bungalos in the other low parts of the island were completely destroyed with all the contents washed away.

That night, decided to sleep on higher ground and met some people from a Thai village that took us in, fed us and then found us a very nice bungelo on the hill that was vacant. We hung out with them around the campfire under the full moon until about 1 AM. They the men politely convinced Alexandra that she was tired and should go the bungalo. So after that, it was just me and about 15 of the Thai guys sitting around the fire eating fresh cooked fished and drinking warm beer and tequila that they "salvaged" from the abandonded market below. They were mostly hotel facility operators and taxi boat drivers. So they had lots of stories to tell about what happened. One of the guys had climbed us to the top of the roof on the main pier in the middle of the low section and watched everything from there. He said the water rose from both sides of the island simulaneoulsy and then retreated many times, carry a lot of people with them. I'm guessing that the death estimates are still quite lower than reality.

I'll send you some photos when I get back home around January 6 or so.

James