Bar-B-Cool

The Burgs are VERY excited about having a deck. So excited that before the furniture arrived they bought and assembled their Barbecue. In the classic Cool Hand Burg tradition, Karen captured Erik mid-assembly.

First meal in the Burg house? Why, a simple teriyaki shrimp with grilled pineapple and veggies, of course.

Speaking of Snoopy . . .

Another thing we miss about NYC? The weird abandoned stuff on the street, I mean, who could forget this gem? It always feels like one big inside joke that no one wants to let us in on.

I don't get it. Why won't someone clue us in? We're cool, come on! I promise we'll laugh.

Schulz Museum

Did you know that Charles Schulz lived only about 60 miles from our new home? It's true! There's a museum there and the Burgs visited it on their anniversary. It was pretty good actually, excellent rotating exhibits (we will be back) a theater, and lots of Linus to love (and Snoopy, but Karen's more of a Linus girl.)

 Mr. Burg was feeling empathetic for Charlie Brown in front of the Kite Eating Tree.

 The level of detail was pretty admirable. Even the bathroom doors were adorned with Peanuts goodness.

Good picture but not very classy, (we know), but the interior of the bathrooms were also pretty amazing. Sadly, the comic strip tiles were not for sale.

Bodega Bay

Our second waiting for furniture escape (also known as "tired of sleeping on a floor/air mattress) was to Bodega Bay. You may or may not know, but they filmed The Birds here. As many of you may have guessed, that film had a lot of of influence on Mrs. Burg, so she was extra jumpy.

It had some pretty gorgeous beaches.

And a gorgeous bird sanctuary. Well, we assume it's gorgeous, this is as close as Karen would get. This was the view from the hot tub at the hotel.

About eight feet from our lounge chairs we made some new deer friends, they were not shy at all. 

One last shot to reiterate how pretty it was there. It's like a painting...Happy little sky.

The Window

Meet the window. It's in our living room. We really, really like it.

No Photoshop.

It doesn't really need any actually, it's just that amazing.

Window at night. Sometimes we can see the moon without getting off of our couch. (The furniture did eventually arrive, don't worry.)

It also makes for some pretty sweet sun patches. If we had a cat they'd be really, really happy. Too bad we're allergic.

Escape to Monterey

Tired of waiting for our furniture, we decided to check out the local getaway spots. Location number one: Monterey.

It's kind of beautiful there, but you probably knew that.

We met a lot of cute sea life. Look at these guys! They were just hanging out waiting to meet us.

More cuteness. Erik again demonstrated the superiority of his zoom lens. Look at the whiskers on him!

Our playful little buddy had a slightly less active friend nearby. Look at him! He was just laying there in all of his Jabba style glory.

YUM! They have some pretty decent seafood there. Nothing as undignified as some of the things we ate in Maine, but delicious in all of there own West coasty glory.

Erik indulged in something called "Seafood Pile Up" . . . It was way more delicious than it sounds.

 Worst likeness of John Steinbeck ever. 

You may have heard, Monterey has a pretty decent aquarium.

We had a lot of fun over at the newish Open Sea exhibit. Karen plans on spending about 75% of our weekends right in this exact spot.

Nature's little joke: the sunfish. Yikes! 

We've got nothing to say here, except "really?" So many Ringo fans in this world!

 Karen is sort of obsessed with jellyfish. She took some pretty amazing shots.

Ever find yourself bored in Monterey? Wishing you could be both terrified and amused at the same time? Well, we've got the perfect answer for you!

Ta Da! It's the Steinbeck's Spirit of Monterey Wax Museum*. 

*Please note, we're about 99% sure that Mr. Steinbeck was not at all involved in the making of this museum.

We're also pretty sure we're the only people to visit the museum in the past few months. The lady who took our money was a little bit shocked that we weren't just asking for directions somewhere else.

The whole thing was an riveting wax adventure through the story of Monetrey's founding and history through present day. There were moving eyes on some of the figures, horrifying lighting effects and even creepier narration.

The sardine cannery section was Karen's favorite. Erik favored our friend above. 

Good times for everyone involved.

New Digs

We found a place in CA pretty fast. It had everything we need, a giant kitchen, a deck, room for our books AND a parking space. Sadly, our furniture didn't arrive for quite some time after we did, which means this was what the living room looked like for roughly 18 days.

Last View

The final shot of the Burgs' sweet Brooklyn digs.

Sorry kids, it's already been rented.

NYC Farewell Tour

We're going to miss a lot of things about New York City and the Museum of Natural History is numbers 1-50 on Karen's list. She wanted to say goodbye to a few of her favorite things.

Goodbye Blue Whale! And the entire Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, we regret that we can no longer bask in your diorama-filled glory whenever we want.

What are some of Mr. Burg's favorite exhibits you ask? Why, the "How to get bit by a snake" exhibit of course!

#1. Stepping over logs without looking.

#2. Reaching into rocks without looking.

We also said goodbye to some of our dinosaur friends.

And took a last view off of the Empire State Building. Sigh . . . there are so many things about New York we will miss.

Goodbye, Lady Liberty

For those of you who haven't heard, the Burgs are moving to California in a few days.  As part of the Burgs' Farewell Tour of New York, Erik and Karen paid a visit to the Statue of Liberty this weekend.

Lady Liberty has made appearances at Cool Hand Burg before. But this was the first time we paid her a proper visit.  We had yet to do this in the 2.5 years we've spent in New York which isn't bad at all when you consider that Erik lived in Arizona for 22 years before he visited the Grand Canyon. 

Rear view: Bet you didn't know her right heel was up like that. OK. Maybe you did. But wait.

Left foot detail! Not the actual foot...this is detail from the exhibit inside the pedestal (which explains why there are walls around it).  But it looks like that. And then there's that sign which is pretty great.

Indeed.

C you later.

Apparently these big yellow Cs have been popping up around NYC to spread "awareness about a disease affecting nearly 150,000 New Yorkers." BUT, as the website tells you, you need to stay tuned to find out what the disease is. All will be revealed Sept. 20! Is it cancer? Cholesterol?
The smart money's on Hepatitis C but wait…why are they rolling this out like it's the campaign for a new James Cameron film?

I sense a class action suit around the corner

Mrs. Burg was a little under the weather last week. As part of her regimented "getting better" routine, she opted for some orange juice one morning. It might have been the headcold, but she felt a great deal of distress and confusion when examining the carton:

For a moment Tropicana Corporation's flagrant disregard for clarity had poor Mrs. Burg in a tailspin. Had she opened it wrong? She DID use the straw hole, but the arrow is pointing elsewhere . . . what are these people trying to pull!?

If you or a loved one has experienced similar distraction and anxiety due to this labeling error, please contact coolhandburg immediately. We may have a case on our hands.

The Lasting Effects of Irene

There's often a puddle at the bottom of the Broadway-Lafayette station when it rains. There isn't usually a pond, however.  Mrs. Burg attempted to get a shot of the morning commuters contemplating how to navigate the water without a canoe. Unfortunately, they figured it out before she was able to capture the mayhem.