: Rainy day :

We're getting the remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto, which unfortunately rained out the opera performance in the park on Friday. I went to the park around 6 p.m., was one of the first people there, and sat for two hours, eating my salad and chatting with the two elderly women sitting behind me. One of them has been a season ticket holder at the Metropolitan Opera for the last 30 years, and she still comes out and sits in the rain for a free concert - that's what I call an opera lover. It started raining lightly about 7 p.m., but everyone stayed put because they weren't sure if it was going to stop or not. Finally, they called it off a little after 8 p.m., eliciting a collective groan from the rain-soaked audience. I felt bad for all the musicians who traveled all the way out to New Jersey, toting their instruments in their tuxedos, only to give up at the last moment. I wonder if they still got paid even if they didn't get to play...

The exciting news is that I won four tickets to Sunday's Yankees game at Yankee Stadium in a trivia contest we had at work. I'm really looking forward to watching it tomorrow - hopefully the weather will clear up. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of my first visit to the hallowed halls of the most famous baseball stadium in the U.S. The trivia question that I answered correctly was: "On February 6, 1921, the Yankees issued a press release to announce the purchase of 10 acres of property for $675,000 to build Yankee Stadium. From whom did the Yankees buy this land?" The answer is at the end of this post.

Today it has been windy and raining all day long. It's been one of those days when it's been nice to be home. I've been on a bit of a West Side Story kick lately, so I watched the movie starring Natalie Wood this afternoon. It's in the top three of my all-time favorite movies, but I haven't seen it for quite some time. Watching it today with fresh eyes, I was struck more than ever by the movie's effusive charm and the crackling energy that lights up the screen. It has that sizzle and snap we talk about in my family, like the first time I heard Roine Stolt's Remember, or reading any number of the Frank Miller books I've been reading lately. Especially the group scenes like the "Mambo," "America," and "Cool" numbers when the music by Leonard Bernstein is so intense, and combined with Jerome Robbins' exuberant choreography and fierce acting by Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, it's clear that we have lost the ability to make passionate musicals in this day and age.

This evening we braved the rain and went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art because some of the special exhibits are getting ready to close and we wanted to take a last look. I'll especially miss the Anglomania exhibit (this is my third visit) that highlights traditional and transgressional British fashion. The exhibit is set up in a series of panoramic rooms of different scenes, such as a formal ball, a sweeping staircase and entry hall, a garden party, a deathbed, a foxhunt, etc. One of my favorites is a dress and headpiece made to resemble a raven, and the mannequin is holding a stuffed raven, with a raven's birdcall playing in the background. One of the guards chastised me for taking this picture.

We also saw the wonderful Raphael exhibit, where I was particularly impressed with the artist's fine engravings. I've always been fascinated with the art of engraving and intaligio printing - perhaps that's why I used to collect wax seals and use them on letters, and why the art of making currency and coins continues to intrigue me. But the artists that engrave portraits of presidents on U.S. currency, as intricate as they are to foil counterfeiters, can't begin to compare with Raphael's skill on display in this exhibit.

After the museum we drove through the bright lights of Times Square and back to New Jersey through the Lincoln Tunnel. We stopped at the Tick Tock Diner for dinner and to talk about our favorite exhibits we saw that evening. Today was a wonderful combination of laziness and activity, and one of those days when it hits me how lucky I am that my life turned out the way it did after the fire. Today made me very happy, and it was a great start to the long weekend.

Oh, and the answer to the trivia question is William Waldorf Astor.