• The West Side bike path is right here, and with the exception of a few breaks, it goes all the way to my day job, 12 miles away on Wall Street. A great deal of that distance is protected. This is a big part of why we moved. The day job is freelance and will end at some point, but the bike path traverses vertically down the entire West Side of Manhattan, and then hooks north at Battery Park and comes up the East Side as far as 34th Street.
  
  
  
• But what we didn't know is the entrance to the protected bike path (not the street path visible in the photo I posted) is right here. Like right out our door and down a ramp.
  
  
  See the low wall? There's a break in it just to the right of this photo. That's the entrance.
  
  
  
• The sushi place I found when I stomped out in a vile mood on Sunday is outstanding.
  
  
  
• The liquor store I found Tuesday night carries Laphroaig, Speyside, Basil Hayden's, and Chokara, and they were having a tasting when I swung in with the boys--and the double stroller fit in the store.
  
  
  
• We now have window coverings. Less fun in the "Rear Window" sense, but the "They can't see me changing if I stand riiight here" zone is much larger.
  
  
  
• The big, wide view of the bridge, the Hudson River, and New Jersey when I step outside is big and wide. (Though I wish we had a facing window.)
  
  
  
• 175th Street to 42nd Street/Port Authority: 11 minutes when the A train aligns with Mars, 20 when the MTA is retrograde.
  
  
  
• I now have enough room to sit in a chair and clean a bike.
  
  
  
• We have a dining room.
  
  
  
• We have a dishwasher. This should really be the first thing on the list.
  
  
  
• We have an icemaker.
  
  
  
• The oval defined by the living room, dining room, and entryway makes an excellent velodrome for those not as tall as this line.
  
  
  
• We have one of those detachable kitchen spigots that sprays tea leaves out of yesterday morning's diffuser basket.
  
  
  
• Several places within walking distance on Broadway sell mofongo.
  
  
  
• Papaya Dog is only the finist made from the melon the caribean nochemical.
  
  
  
  
• Though some like it more than others.
  
  
  
  
  
• I was sitting at our dining room table, thinking Hmm... what clever keyboard/laptop combo stand can I set up quickly at night for working on the CUPID & PSYCHE music--and then I realized I have a dining room table.
  
  
  
• This is the first place we've lived since we moved to New York that's both of ours by choice, not just a place where I live so Kathleen can be a singer--yet it's also the most convenient to the Upper West Side, where all the classical music is.
  
  
  
• The way the boys say "George Washington Bridge."

Things I don't like: Water pressure, hot water issues, elevator problems, grafitti and dirty walls inside the building. Assuming this neighborhood in transition conserves its momentum, these things may slowly improve. Except for the water and the elevator.