New Camera.

I bought the Sony NEX-5. Thrilled. So excited. Tiny body, huge sensor size. Paired with various lenses, it takes a comically absurd look. Very nice to shoot with - I think a new generation/way to do cameras.


Here with the 16-55mm lens.


Here with the (!!!!!) 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS lens. Makes me crazy.


Here is very low light (the large sensor). The camera has a great feature - it shoots HDR (creates a composite image from 3 almost simultaneous/different exposures - shooting for color/contrast/tone differently, but then melds them to create one image. Photographers have done this a lot in photoshop. Opens up possibilities - often useful in a very sunny/shady situation, because it will expose for both).











It also shoots HD video.

Disagreeable.

The biggest pregnancy surprise for me has been just how disagreeable I've become. On a simple walk to work (punctuated by a short surrender to a garbage can for my breakfast to make a reappearance), the list of things that grate on my nerves is long:

- My tongue (feels too big for my mouth - it is, but it has never presented itself that way before)

- Food trucks (a personal attack from the city of New York)

- How short the person is walking next to me

- People walking next to me generally (sound thoughts, I know)

- People asking me questions (I generally like strangers, not now)

- The noise of the bus letting off steam when the stop light turns green

- Certain types of dogs (cocker spaniels and little poodles especially)

- The announcement of a noontime concert in the courtyard of the building where I work (could anything be more aggravating?)

- New York smells: tar mixed with urine and coffee and smoke, heaps of garbage bags, ladies' perfume, (they were all there, but mostly dormant before, but now it is like someone is brewing them just for me)

So, I walk around holding my breath, cringing and scowling. I look amazing.

Lots of people will make you feel guilty - like by saying that your mood will determine the baby's, or other such nonsense. Well, if that is true, this baby is going to be pretty unlikable and obnoxious.

Upward trends include the fact that I don't care about things that would have really bothered me before - like in the past, I would have been mortified by throwing up in a garbage can at the Rockefeller Center at 8am in public.

From our roof.

We had the good fortune of moving into a house where the space across the street has been transformed into a National Memorial - Hamilton Grange. The house of Alexander Hamilton was originally completed in 1802 - shortly before his death by duel in 1804 (poor guy, didn't get a chance to enjoy it at all - we promise to, in his honor). After 3 years of renovation and a total relocation of the house, the memorial will open again in September. Before it was moved here, the house was squashed between a church and a building up the street, with no space and stripped of most of the restored exterior detail/terraces which have now been re-affixed to the home.



Also from our roof is a view of our little garden. My brother Stephen had the brilliant idea of planting white impatiens in the circular bed and they are now a perfect orb of green and white - a hovering halo in the backyard.




Here is lovely Marguerite demonstrating the dimensions of the house out front. She and I took a walk over there and she bent down to collect every acorn in "Mr. Washington's" yard (she is mostly French at this point, so I can't expect her to distinguish all the Founding Fathers without a bit more time in the USA).