when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.

This is my last full day in New York, and I'm tired. This place is exhausting. I'll be glad to go home and relax.

It's been a busy three days. Monday I went to the Met only to find it was closed. It wasn't a waste though. I went to the Guggenheim, a few blocks up the street. It's not the Met, but it had some nice paintings -- Paul Cezanne, Robert Delauay, Picasso, Van Gogh, Manet.

Then I spent a couple of hours relaxing at a Barnes & Noble. Also dropped in on a friend of Andrea's.

On Tuesday slept in a little longer, then took the train to FAO Schwartz. That's the toy store in Big where Tom Hanks plays the giant piano. The place is huge, but not terribly impressive. It's like a Toys R Us with giant stuffed animals.

From there I walked up Fifth Avenue, strolled through Central Park, went by the zoo and finally made my way to the Met. I probably spent 2 1/2 hours there. It's amazing.

I always thought Andy Warhol just painted goofy pictures of soup cans. Turns out he painted other stuff. And it's good. And I never knew much about Georgia O'Keefe. But I saw about a dozen of her works.

And then today, I visited the New York Public Library -- as seen in the movie Ghostbusters. It's big.

From there I walked to Times Square and bought a few things. Another tiring day.

Also today, Billy wanted me to make more movies of him. I thought about slicing these together into a 2-minute documentary on Billy. But I'm too tired to figure out how the software works. So here's the raw footage.