songbird's crazy world

 Anyone else remember that there was supposed to be a “presidential curse”? These are the Presidents who died in office: William Henry Harrison was elected in 1840.  He contracted pneumonia at his inauguration and died one month into his term. Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860 and was assassinated during his second term in 1865. James Garfield was elected in 1880 and was assassinated in 1881. William McKinley was elected to his second term in 1900 and was assassinated in 1901. Warren Harding was elected in 1920 and died in 1923, presumably from a heart attack. FDR was elected to his third term in 1940 and died of a stroke during his fourth term in 1945. JFK was elected in 1960 and was assassinated in 1963. And then … Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980 and survived an assassination attempt in 1981. And nothing untoward happened to George W. Bush. So I guess the curse (if there ever was one) is broken …

 Got an email from Zillow identifying a few rentals we should check out.  Sorry, but we’re no longer in the market.  But I love how the house we are currently living in was one of the options. And the house we loved but the landlord wanted “something better”?  That listing has been updated, so I guess he still hasn’t found “something better”.  Meanwhile we got the keys  to the new house today, found a few things that need to be fixed, and started planning where everything will go.  We’d only seen the house  in person once before we got the keys, and while the photos and video the broker took before the last tenant moved in were helpful, there’s nothing like actually being at the house….its a great house, but there are a few problems.   And we’ve started to move things from the current house to the new house.  We hired a moving company to do the heavy lifting, but things like tv’s, computers, etc. aren’t going on the truck.   We’ve got this.

 Drew and I took the train into the city yesterday.  We went to the new Long Island Railroad terminal at Grand Central Station instead of our usual Penn Station.  Penn is on the west side, at 34th and 7th,  Grand Central is at 42nd and Lexington.  Until recently Long Islanders who wanted to be on the east side had to either go to Penn and then backtrack across town orb get off the train in Queens and take the subway, but now …the new concourse is sleek and modern. The reason we went to Grand Central?  Brunch with Becca and her fiancé and his parents. A little pre-wedding get together.  The restaurant is on 30th and 3rd, a 20 minute walk from Penn or a 20 minute walk from Grand Central, but going to Grand Central gave us the option to take the subway if it rained. And yes, rain was in the forecast, so we each took an umbrella.  It didn’t start to rain until we were on a train going home.  I’m sure we would have gotten caught in a downpour if we’d left the umbrellas home. So we walked to