Things that happened recently:

The new Gerber "spokesbaby" is literally the cutest baby I've every seen in my entire life and I tear up every time I see a photo of his smiling face (oh, and he also has Down Syndrome).

The new TWA Hotel at JFK won't open until 2019 but I'm already excited to grab a drink in their lobby. I will also be forever grateful that Jim and I made it to the TWA Flight Center for Open House New York weekend before renovations began.

The daily stories coming out of the current garbage administration are hard to keep up with and maddening to say the least, but this Op-Ed from the wife of former White House Staff Secretary, Rob Porter, is a must-read.

Things to do in New York this week:

Today is the Firecracker Ceremony and Cultural Festival in Chinatown to celebrate the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year. There will be lion dances, giveaways and 600,000 firecrackers to ward off evil spirits and welcome the Year of the Dog. I went to the Firecracker Festival in 2013 (yes, it was loud), but I'm most looking forward to the parade this year.

Jihan Zencirli of Geronimo has made this amazing balloon installation as part of the New York City Ballet Art Series. If ballet isn't your thing, there will be free public viewing hours of the installation February 17 through February 25, Mon-Fri 10 AM – 6 PM and Sat-Sun 10 AM – 12 PM.

On Monday, my mom, Francesca, David and I are taking this NY Adventure Club tour of Eclectic Props, "New York City’s largest collections of antiques, furniture, and accessories for rent on the East Coast." I'm excited for the tour, located in a 95,000 sq ft former Pepsi factory, but I'm also looking forward to getting breakfast at this diner beforehand.

Things I've discovered lately:

My mom and I went to the Oddities Market in Jersey City last weekend and she bought me a glass eye from Oddball Oddity. Amanda chatted with us for a while, and not only is she incredibly nice and knowledgeable, but she has the best collection of glass eyes I've ever seen (and they're very reasonably priced).

Speaking of eyeballs, I recently discovered Emilio Villalba's incredible eye paintings and I can't wait to go see his upcoming exhibition at Booth Gallery starting March 31st.

This guy spent a year building a sphere from 42,000 green-tipped matches and then, of course, he lit it on fire. I generally hate watching Internet videos but I was mesmerized by the sphere catching fire (and that smoke at the end!).

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day (David made us the most delicious steak) 💖 I think I'm going to try to check out the New York City Ballet balloon installation on Saturday and I'm excited to not stray too far from my neighborhood, for once. On Sunday David and I have our eye on some abandoned buildings to explore upstate, and Monday we'll be taking the tour of Eclectic Props. I think we may be done getting snow this winter (sad!) but sometimes March surprises us with a bonus snowstorm (fingers crossed). I hope you enjoy your weekend, and your extra day off on Monday, if you have one!

Happy Friday!