My best April Fool's joke ever

I can't tell a joke. I think it's probably because I don't lie, can't really, I don't have a poker face. How I feel about what I am saying is written all over my face (or so I'm told). When I attempt to tease someone or play a trick with a little white lie, it's like I'm breaking in to reveal the truth before the words are out of my mouth.
So, April Fool Day is something I can enjoy all around me, but I can rarely intentionally participate in - unless you count switching sugar/salt and sewing together jacket sleeves (my mom's trick from childhood).
So it was when, in 2010, I pulled one over on my sister. Freshly back from Europe, I was living temporarily in a furnished apartment in downtown Vancouver, and feeling carefree and open as to what the next stage of my life would bring. Feeling emboldened by the positive outcome of several cases of recent risktaking, I had an idea, acted on a whim, and phoned my sister.
I owe my success to the fact that she couldn't see my face, and I was able to walk around to quiet any urge I had to break the spell. That, and the fact I wasn't known for trickery.
"Hello?"
"OMG, I can't believe what I just did!!!!!!"
"What?" "I cut my hair! Really short!!!" "How short?!" "I shaved my head!!!!!" "Whaat? You did what!!?!" "I didn't mean to! It just happened!" "How does that just happen!?!?!" OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!" "Oh my." "Oh shit (shrieking!), I can't believe I did that!" "What happened?" "You know I've been dying to cut my hair, so I walked into a place on Davie Street and they fit me in right away. I said I wanted it short!" "You got more than short!!!"" I know, I didn't mean to. But when I saw the razor, I said, just shave it all off! I guess that's not so strange of a request around here, so after asking a couple of times if I was sure (I said I was), she went ahead, and in a flash it was over. Done! Just like that! It doesn't take that long when they don't have to fuss. And I walked out with a bald head! Freaky!!! OMG. It feels so strange...." "Oh my goodness. Well, I am sure they did a good job." "I probably look like a freak!" "Oh no, I'm sure you look good, you have a nice shaped head." "I do?" "Oh, yes, I've always thought so." "Weird, I've never thought of the shape of my head." "Well, I guess you will now." "Guess so. LOL. What about jobs, how am I going to get a job!?!?" "You'll fit right in there!" "Gack! Maybe, but what if it's a corporate job?!? "Maybe you can get a wig." "OMG! Oh shit, what have I done?!?" "Oh my goodness." "It's ok though, it'll grow back, it'll just be very short." "It'll probably grow back patchy, you'll need to get it trimmed a lot." "I will?" "If not, then you will look a little, strange..." "OMG OMG...."
Or something like that. In the end, I was able to string her along for about 15 minutes, and it was a blast. I was so PROUD of myself. Sooo much fun. It took that long for her to process it all, before she made the connection.
... "Wait, what's the date... Is this April 1st? Is this April Fool's? ...." And finally, I fessed up.
HA HA!!!! We've laughed about it every year since then. And I still get so much joy from such a simple prank!
I wonder what I might get up to this year....

In the Big Apple: Cheap Thrills

OK, this taken before I landed in the New York...
... and it seems I have joined the Laviator's Club! You can too. Just take your camera into any airplane loo while it is in the air. Now... to NYC itself... and a good day two this time around.

Just a bit of classic NYC architecture, not far from where we are staying.

Neat quote, pic taken for my friend James.

Relaxing over dinner with new super-short do! Only $21 at Supercuts - who needs fancy styling with hair so short? Was able to walk in and get a cut 20 minutes later. And it so coooool!!! And it dries in about 3 minutes, if that. Sweet!

Evening ambiance along Columbus... a busy street but interesting and some great places to eat. Kelly and I had a great spot and a great meal (the fried artichoke hearts were amazing!)

I don't know what these guys were supposed to be doing, but the guy in the chair was having a doozy of a snooze.

Loved the signage at this store. Note the "your 24-hour pot dealer" line... and that's only the start. It's all very cool stuff for the home, lots at reasonable prices. Didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look. Jonathan Adler is worth a look if you are ever in the big apple. On Columbus, around 74th/75th.

I'd been looking forward to visting some thrift stores this trip, and I'd long had Housing Works on my list. So next went into the Columbus location. Great shop. Great cause. Oh, what I would have picked up if I lived here (which I sure would like to do one day!) Picked up a $2 big glass vase for our hotel room (the flowers are so lovely at the shops around here and we want some~

!), two $1 wine glasses to better enjoy our wine in the room, along with a couple of books and a groovy picture frame.

Stopped for a yummy frozen yogurt, at a place where you can choose your own toppings. It was great value at $5.95 - they had 2 smaller sizes and 1 larger one.

The frozen yogurt place is called Pinkberry. I'd go back again, but there are apparently lots of stores in this trend here. I saw one across the street called Lenny's that had delivery bikes out front. Imagine that, cooling off at home with an ice-cold frozen treat delivered to your door. I heart NYC!

So, now a little on how easy it is to eat cheap in NYC, if you really want to.

Saw this cute little Italian place with a nice patio I wanted to enjoy. Turns out my late lunch stop was a little too late, and they were already serving their dinner menu (ok, so it was 3pm), but decided to make it work in budget style. If I hadn't had coffee, my lunch would have cost under $10. I ordered the Caprese Salad, which was pretty large and fantastic (and made with real buffalo mozzerella!). I resisted the temptation to order wine and just had water. At a classy place like this you get a nice basket of bread, which I enjoyed with the traditional oil and vinegar. I was not meant to feel badly about buying so little, was nicely doted on, and had a glorious time.

This was the view from my table. You can see why I decided to stay for coffee. Just a regular coffee ($2?), but, surprise, it came with a nice little almond biscotti. Bonus.

The place was called Pappardella, and it was the corner of Columbus and 75th. On my receipt it told me that they have free appies at the bar from 4-7 Monday to Thursday, and again after 10:30pm. Went inside to check it out (and use the loo), and it was really nice. Icy cool AC, stone floors and old pics from Florence. Just might be back.

Also on the budget front, today's breakfast-to-the-door from the deli was only $7.50 for 2 coffees, 1 egg sandwich and a yogurt. We added bananas from our deli shop the night before. Yum.

An update on the HP battery issue from yesterday. I had a call from the front desk this morning, telling me that my package had arrived. That was 22 hours from when I hung up the phone that my new battery has arrived on my temporary doorstep. I continue to be impressed.

Murano Glassmaking Tour on a Shoestring

Perhaps you have heard that Venice is expensive. It is... and it isn't... More on that in another post, but here's a good example of what you can do on the cheap in Venice and still have an amazing experience: a self-guided Murano glassmaking tour.

Setting out to Murano is as easy as jumping on the vaparetto - and if you are in Venice for a few days then you probably already have a vaparetto pass; if not, tickets are cheap and you'll be using a few everyday anyways. So I consider the transportation segment "free".
Once on the island, you can find a glassmaking demonstration for as little as 5E. As I was getting off my vaparetto (at the first stop on Murano), there was a guy pointing the way to demos, less than 5 minutes walk away - I listened and paid attention to the details so that I could come back after lunch. But to the experience itself. I walked in, paid my 5E, they waited a few minutes longer for others to arrive and then the demonstration started. Exciting to be there, right in the workshop, next to the truly red hot furnace. There were only two other people there so I was able to get very close. Here are the glassmakers getting started...

Just before they got started, they noticed that one of the stones in their oven broken. The solution? Weld it together with a blob of hot glass!

Now, here is our blob of hot glass...

I had my camera on the glass-end of the process, but they guy would have been blowing down the tube you see while he rolled the rod around and the blog began to change shape...

He would put the glass back in the oven every few minutes before continuing on. At this point, there was another guy with another blob of glass in a different colour holding his stick next to the main guy. Here you see the main guy using tools to manipulate the second piece of liquid glass as it was twisted around the original piece...

Shaping the glass with scissors, hard to tell what is happening, but very interesting... They did have an audio recording playing during the demo, in English, explaining the overall process, the heat of the ovens, etc.

I literally gasped out loud as I recognized the horse that he was making...

Creating the legs...

And the finished product!!! Took all of 5-10 minutes to create. We had a quick minute to take pictures then this horsie was heading to a cool-down furnace for 24 hours.

They shepard you into the glass shop after the demo - with incredible stuff costing hundreds and even thousands of dollars - but all I bought was 2 little pieces of glass (a paper weight and a butter knife) for 10E each.. They didn't make their millions on me, obviously! Walking back to the vaparetto I spotted this gate at another glassmaking establishment and snapped a couple pics...

Another closeup of the gate....

Now, for a few other pics from my time on Murano... This is one of the glass places:

And another... this sign was made out of little chips of coloured glass:

This canal was the other way from the glassmaking demo and it's where I went first for a bit to eat and to soak in the ambience....

Oh, on the way to Murano, the first stop you come to is this one. Don't get off here, unless you have a hankering for seeing some crypts and graves...

These were some pilons that had seen better days that I spotted on the journey... I think they were just for directional purposes (once you get out on the water to/from Murano you can clearly see that they have "lanes" for the waterways)...

While I was at lunch, I observed this activity taking place on the canal across from me. The boat had a big winch (from which the operator made a point to look cool and grin once he spotted me taking pics, lol) and they were lifting heavy stuff out... Once they get these materials out of the boat, they will put them on top of that rickety old wheel barrow and all they guys would help push it along to a nearby building. It was rather hilarious as I was wondering if they wheel barrow would survive...

My pizza and beer. Pretty cheap, for Venice, totalling 21E for a whole pizza and two beers. And veeery good!

Found this guy fishing for lunch near the glassmaking demo place...

So, that was my budget tour. You don't need a tour company for this little jaunt. It was easy to do, very pleasant and for 5E who can complain?