When January rolls around, your failed audition seems like it happened eons ago, and Simon, Paula, Randy, and Kara seem like ancient history. Until the American Idol Auditions start playing on television... and you are on it! Hopefully you're not the person that they hype up for the entire hour as the worst audition ever, and hopefully you had the sense to not spout insane curses at the judges for twenty minutes after they tell you to hit the road. The less time you spend on the air, the better.

A date for high tea? Although the formality of white gloves is gone it is still important to dress nicely. Do not wear jeans or a sloppy shirt. If the high tea is an informal meeting then pants with a nice light jacket is spring colors is appropriate. If high tea is to honor someone then step it up a notch with a nice light skirt and top, or a nice light dress with jacket. Some funky jewelry for the casual get together or more elegant jewelry for the more formal get together.

FAO Schwarz (note this is the proper spelling) located at 767 Fifth Avenue, across from Central Park and the Plaza Hotel. This toy store is for kids and grown-ups alike! You might remember Tom Hanks in the movie "Big" where he danced on a floor piano. Well that piano is still there and yes you really can jump on it and make music!

Through it I got to see the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus and the rings of Saturn. But above all these eye-openers, there was the moon. There in the eyepiece stood craggy mountains - spires casting long shadows across crater lowlands, dark maria and (painfully) bright highlands, a surface pockmarked with craters of all sizes, some with bright ejecta rays and some funny squiggle type features. I soon learned that the greatest amount of detail was seen along the terminator, that line splitting light from dark, where shadows played across features showing them in stark contrast. And to cap it all, each night different features could be seen in detail.

cap To make this costume at home, all you need are a skirt, vest, cowboy boots, and a bandana to wear as a scarf. You can buy the cowboy hat and toy gun from stores such as the Dollar Tree.

Although most of the road system is closed during the winter, the park remains open, with the south entrance to the rim plowed and passable except during major storms.