New York was fantastic! But sadly my terrible luck in hotel rooms prevailed. Even though I thought I had a free upgrade to a suite in the bag by throwing on to the table my breast cancer card (I said I was still recovering and tired and would prefer a room with a great view because I might spend more time in the room than usual), I still wound up with this:



And this was my view:





I immediately called the front desk and asked to be switched - I mean, was this REALLY the only non-smoking room in the entire hotel? Come on! COME ON! Even with the free unlimited lattes the Shoreham has to offer, the glass of champagne handed to me upon check-in, that we were only blocks from Central Park, I wanted more of a view than a bunch of ducts and a man's face staring back at me from the other side. The face was a bit unnerving.

They did move us the very next day to a room that faced the street, where you could actually see the sky and discern what the weather was - or if it was day versus night.

Unfortunately our trip didn't start well with problems at LaGuardia keeping up stranded in Toronto - either high winds preventing us from leaving or someone in the LaGuardia control tower wasn't having a very good day. By the time we arrived in NY, we had just enough time to get to the hotel, change, clean up and have a surprise run in with William at the hotel bar. The handsome guy in the back is Paul.




Willy's show was fabulous! I channeled the 80s with a hint of Edie Sedgwick and had a fabulous time.




Here we are in front of the Forum Gallery about to go to the dealer's house for dinner.



Check out William's work at: http://www.forumgallery.com/current_on1.php?id=174

I'm off but will write more NY stories tomorrow.

Finally a few pictures to attach with my new camera!

Here are a few shots of my installed light fixtures: the powder room, front hallway and at the top of the stairs.

I'm off to New York City tomorrow morning and have no idea what to bring. Thursday night is the opening for William's show with a dinner after. That's my predicament - what does one where to a NY art opening?

I am so excited - we're off to the MOMA on Friday and then shopping, a trip to the top of the Empire State Building, perhaps a cruise around the Hudson, checking out the Statue of Liberty and then some more shopping. Kim & Scott, Eve & David are also going and we are staying at the same hotel, the Shoreham. Will be a fantastic and slightly wicked time!

It's been recommended that I censor my blogs - removing the name of a certain SOB in past postings for example as well as excerpts from an "alleged" email exchange. So I've done it - heaven forbid I enter into a lawsuit with him, as is the concern of my husband, and have to give him MORE money.

I avoided the final meeting with ___, instead bringing dinner over to Scott & Kim's place to heat up and eat while Paul dealt with ____. Suffice it to say, ____ won. When Paul brought up that he should perhaps get better in communicating and managing expectations with clients he began to get aggressive and combative again. Paul decided whatever and gave up, figuring we're done and he'll never concede. So a cheque was left in the mailbox Friday morning with his inflated amount and gone with out any note or message.

But later that evening I found out something huge is happening in ___'s life. Something that is going to completely turn his life upside down and how can I stay angry at someone who's life could potentially turn in to an absolutely nightmare?

We have our final meeting with our contractor tonight to go over the last bill and give him his payment. I am so angry with him right now that I can't bring myself to be at the meeting and will hand over the reigns to Paul. I'm taking the kids and going next door to Kim's so that I don't have to look at his face.

He is such an unethical bully. Paul wrote him asking him to clarify the cost of doors and credits that we should be entitled to after revisiting the original contract and the discrepancy with his final statement to us - and Paul wrote the email because if I had written it, I'm sure it would have led to a cat fight. It still led to one. Here are a couple of excerpts from his reply letter:

REMOVED

and then he hit with:


REMOVED


I'll write about how the meeting going tomorrow. I need to get back to my school newsletter.

Our project this weekend, outside of hanging pantings and curtains, is that we're supposed to go over the initial contract from ___ to determine if there is anything else we can hopefully deduct from his last invoice. So far we have a credit for the front door knob that R__ threw out, hopefully a credit for a $40 dimmer switch that Ron threw out and replaced with a $1 light switch, and we want ___ to justify why we were charged $500 the final clean when it consisted of R__ running through the house with a swiffer and a paper towel, and a half ass job at steam cleaning the attic carpet. I'd like to deduct $450 for that joke of a job.

My poor camera is dust, may it R.I.P. I am now waiting for Henry's to send me a replacement by Sony valued at with lens, $1,200. Yippee!

I am still poor having lost at the Millionaire lottery - not one number the same. Sigh.

Paul had his birthday on the 28th and I threw a birthday party which ended with American Idol on the PS2 and all of us signing and being rejected horribly by SImon. Well not all of us, William ended up being brilliant, David getting a perfect score and Paul doing quite well too. I think they're all wannabe lounge singers, needing only a polyester suit. While at the party I gave Scott a belated birthday present: Jesus Christ bandages which I told him I'd had blessed by a priest which tripled their healing powers and a little punching bag that when knocked, swears like a Newfie fishwife (or me). Scott took to shaking it at William everytime he'd make a comment about his "competitive nature."

Now we're desperate to get the game so we can have kareokee parties regularly. We're kareokee junkies!

Wow, Jakob has a friend coming over tomorrow - that's never happened before. I didn't think he had friends. Crazy.