Ever watch Sesame Street with your children and see shots of the home of Count von Count, the PBS television show’s famous vampire who loves to count? If you have, you’ve seen one of New York City’s historical treasures — Belevedere Castle located in Central Park.

Built upon the summit of Vista Rock, the one hundred and forty-five year old castle rests at the second highest elevation in the park. Designed by Calvert Vaux and sculptor Jacob Wrey Mould, the structure was made from Manhattan schist (a type of rock that can be split into layers), with an overlay of gray granite. Over a century ago, the castle was meant to act as a decoration to the woods; however, as the trees grew, the castle has vanished from sight.

Over a hundred years ago, the castle overlooked a large rectangular reservoir, which has been transformed into the Great Lawn of Central Park , grounds which contain eight baseball diamonds, and is host to summer concerts.

Closer to the castle, at the bottom of Vista Rock, you’ll find Turtle Pond, which includes concrete shelves, sunken at different levels to allow shoreline plants to grow, including bullrush, turtlehead, blueflag iris, and lizard’s tail. Since the Turtle Pond was redesigned in 1997, sightings of various birds and reptiles now also include types of dragon-flys not previously seen in Central Park.

If you’ve come to New York and decide to stay by the park , you’ll definitely want to take in the castle’s blend of Romanesque and Gothic styles. Originally, the building contained the New York Meteorological Observatory, but in later years, in 1912, it was used by the United States Weather Bureau. In the 1960s, the castle was closed to the public and left to deteriorate for many years, but in 1983, the Central Park Conservancy reopened the building as the Henry Luce Nature Observatory.

Today, you’ll find inside exhibits for the whole family, including displays of microscopes and telescopes, feathers, and skeletons, all purposed to teach children about natural observations and the scientific method.

Count von Count would be proud.

You need money in your hands today. There are bills to pay tomorrow, and you still need to buy groceries and you won’t be paid till Friday. Most people have been in this situation before and it is a hard place to be. It is even harder to be in this position if you don’t have credit, or if you have bad credit, the two of which seem to be mostly interchangeable in the eyes of lending industries right now. The thing is that large banks will take too long to get you the money you need, the loan will last longer than you need it to, and you won’t have gotten the money you needed in time. It sounds like a lot of hassle for something that doesn’t work. It is a good thing that banks are not the only places that lend money. If this is your situation you may want to try out a cash advance loan agency . There are a number to choose from, and you can decide how you best prefer to deal with the loan business. There are shops on street corners you can go into, or you can look at the dozens of agencies online that will get you the money you need right away.

The reason why these work is because it is reliant on the fact that you will be paid soon, and your loan is due a few days after you have been paid. This will give the check enough time to go through the bank without a lot of worry about overdraft fees before the loan is due to be paid back. You can lend against the majority of your paycheck, or even just a small part of the paycheck, but only getting the amount you are going to need is best. While this should be done sparingly, when you are having a hard month this can sometimes be the solution so that you can work on improving your credit and making sure that you still get fed.

Italian fusion restaurants have been popping up all over North America. These new restaurants are definitely not your usual Italian restaurant . In Cypress, TX Romero’s Italian Fusion Grill serves both classic Italian dishes and Italian-Mexican fusion dishes like Fusion Enchiladas, an enchilada filled with red fish and shrimp, topped with creamy pesto sauce, and served with grilled vegetables. Italian-Indian fusion cuisine can be found in Toronto at 5th Elementt Fine Dining & Lounge, where you can order Lamb Kebabs With Mint Chutney or Tandoori Shrimp. In New York you can purchase a Natsumi roll an Italian-Japanese fusion of tuna, spicy tuna, avocado, apple, and basil at the restaurant that gives this roll its name.

Fusion cuisine started emerging in the 1970′s referring to culinary innovations that combined elements of various culinary traditions while not fitting specifically into any one. There are several approaches to fusion food. One approach is regional fusion that combines the cuisine of a region into one restaurant, like an Asian restaurant offering mandarin, Mongolian, and Vietnamese dishes. Another form fusion dishes take is more eclectic, like in the case of 5th Elementt in Toronto , where the dishes look like one region but have incorporated seasonings or cooking methods from an entirely different culture.

Since fusion cuisine is a general term, it is can accurately be applied to either sort of restaurant.. However, while many diners feature dishes from Greek, Italian, and sometimes Asian cuisines side-by-side or even mingled, they are not considered fusion because they lack a theme and fail to combine any elements of cooking styles. Unfortunately it’s hard to find fusion recipes to try at home since most are closely guarded by their specialty restaurants. Don’t be afraid to experiment and find your own fusion recipes combining which ever cultures suit your palette.