Today is the Lunar New Year and one of the traditional practices is offering friends even number of tangerines with stems and leaves still on them.
This beautiful lady was handing out free stockings to guests at the New York Fashion Week. When I asked for permission to take her photo, she graciously posed for me. And NO, I didn't get a free pair of stockings.
So guess who I saw at the New York Fashion Week on Sunday afternoon? It was Scott Schuman or The Sartorialist. He was gracious enough to let me take his photo. And he has a really nice camera with him.
New York Fashion Week is here again. The twice annual event at Bryant Park showcases the latest fashion by over 100 designers for Fall 2008. Here is a photo of the entrance to the show tents.
This photo was taken at the new and third Apple Store in New York City. Located in Chelsea, on 14th Street and 10th Avenue just north of the Meatpacking District, the store is one of the many new arrivals in this recently gentrified neighborhood. The staircase structure is made of plexiglass (I think) giving it that floating imagary as shoppers navigate from the one floor to another.
This magnificent looking building, on the corner of Centre and Grand Street, used to be the city's police headquarters. Now it is a luxury co-op building with a 24-hour doorman service. 
When people think of my city, they think of Times Square and the lights, the shopping and the crowds. This photo was taken about two years ago at around 9 PM in the evening during the Christmas holiday season.
Jilly of Monte Carlo Daily Photo and Menton Daily Photo sent me a beautiful postcard earlier this week. This was the first postcard I have ever received from my blogger friends so now, it sits on a special place in my apartment -- my refrigerator door.
This painting outside the Chelsea Market Building is what was left of the old wholesale flower market in the city. Now the building has been taken over and made into a television studio for The Food Network and NY1, a 24-hour local news channel. There are also numerous gourmet bakeries and grocery stores in the building.
These townhouses on 22nd Street, near 9th Avenue, are some of the more attractive homes in Chelsea. The area is not known for its beauty because it was an industrial/manufacturing district in the early 1900s. Now, it is populated mostly by warehouse size clubs, bars and galleries.
This is a street scene in Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal Street) on a week day evening around 6:00 PM. I was in the neighborhood for a meeting last week and decided to hang out in the area afterwards because I rarely come down this way. 
I was walking through Chelsea last weekend when I saw this vacant retail store. You can see part of a quickly written vacancy sign on the bottom left. Either the realtor had a couple giant plush toys lying around or this used to be a toy store. Nonetheless, I thought this was an excellent display of friendship, even if they were merely toys.
This succulents were available for sale at the Green Market in Union Square last weekend. I love cacti because they do not need a lot of attention. However, my cacti start to grow tall and stringy after a couple of months instead of staying short and plump like these.
Small plate cuisines have taken over the New York City culinary scene. None is as original as the Spanish tapas which are extremely popular here. This photo, taken at Boqueria in Chelsea, shows a tapa chef preparing various dishes in front of the hungry diners.
I saw this REAL tree at Union Square that looked somewhat similar to the STEEL tree by Roxy Paine that I posted last month. I also love the silhouette against the blue sky.
The squirrels at Union Square are definitely well-fed. Notice the empty walnut, hazelnut and peanut shells scattered all over the ground? Someone has been feeding them the good stuff.
These two squirrels were among the dozens of squirrels that live in Union Square. They were socialized to humans hanging around them so they gladly posed for me and a number of other photographers at the park. 
I was at Koreatown (on 32nd Street and 5th Avenue) for dinner earlier last week and this was what I saw as I looked up above me. The triangular shapes on the upper right and lower left corners are store front awnings. The structure on the upper left corner is the building behind me. And right in the middle is the most celebrated building in New York City, if not the country.
Question: What is the proper etiquette for entering the subway train? Answer: Stand to the side and let the passengers exit first -- similar to entering an elevator.
So what etiquette faux pas annoys you most?
The Plaza, which used to be a 4-star hotel, is now a luxury condominium. After almost 2 years of renovations, the landmark building is now open and a one-bedroom apartment costs about $1 million.