8/6/04 Natalie's Office; Giant Flies at Nat's; Walking Astoria Looking for Food:

This morning, I joined Natalie for a bagel from a street vendor in SOHO near her office before work.

Not many places to sit down on the street in this area of SOHO, so we used a nearby ledge as a table.

In the afternoon, I stopped by Natalie's office and got to see her sweet office space. She has dual monitor CRT's!!!!

I was doodling with markers with Natalie a few weeks back, and then I found my doodle on her wall in the office. She saved it, cut it out, and put it on the wall. It was very cute to see. We were experimenting with symbols to represent our names. I came up with these three. She likes the bottom one the best, as I incorporate the N in "Natalie" and the C in "Coleman."

She has a window at her desk!!!!

I believe this is a relic from the previous person in this office.

She also has file cabinets and a big cutter.

Nearby is the trusty copy machine.

And there's a beautiful office kitchen around the corner.

After work, we stopped at my place briefly before heading out to Astoria. We said hello to Rich at the front desk, and showed him the stained glass project templates.

Then I took some photos through a fairly clear window on an Astoria-bound N train, after coming out of the 59th Street tunnel:

The N line curves around this clock towered building.

Looking back at the skyline on a beautiful early evening.

Then... DISASTER!!!! Tragedy struck the Natalie apartment when more living insects were seen in the apartment. But this time it wasn't water bugs or cockroaches... it was gigantic flies!!!

At first I wasn't too concerned. Then I saw how big they were, and I started to get a little panicky myself. This was the first time that the bug situation in Natalie's apartment really started to get to me. I mean, you could see the spots on their backs, they were so big!!!

I killed three, and photographed the results. I would swat at them with a rolled up magazine, and make contact with them in mid-air, throwing them, unconscious, to the ground, where I would subsequently smash them. And so, I come out of this situation the hero, I guess.

Then Natalie and I, cranky, hungry (Hangry), and a little freaked out, walk all of Astoria looking for a place to eat. We passed this "Papaya" joint at 30th Av and Steinway.

And then I got this lovely photo of the BQE and Grand Central Parkways leading up to the Triborough Bridge, and the Hell Gate Bridge to the right. This photo was taken from the elevated platform at the Astoria Boulevard station.

We ended up walking a 20 block circle around the neighborhood, settling on a place within 2 blocks from Natalie's apartment.

This scallops appetizer was amazing. The proscuitto and melon was... out of season.

Mmmm. Best stuffed shells I've had outside of a home.

They look good, but they could not compare with the flavor and texture of Richard's Mother's version of these.