Sing for Hope's ' Play Me, I'm Yours ' project is officially over. I watched the movers roll away a brown, upright piano from Stone Street and thought about the 2 weeks it had spent outdoors in the elements with only a plastic tarp for shelter. I thought about the endless hours we spent walking through the 5 boroughs, searching for each of the 60 pianos as we baked in the heat, yet the pianos never got relief from the sun. One thing I know for certain as I tend to my sunburn and wipe the dripping sweat from my forehead, it is summertime! And this was a great way to kick off the season. Enjoy this clip, "Summertime," from one of the Central Park pianos. To see my photos from our piano hunt, click here . To see more videos, click here .

Some of the best moments are the ones accidentally seen. I was the only person in the world to witness this one. A mother was trying desperately to entertain her young toddler and distract him from the heat as they waited outside for the fireworks show to begin. She sang to him, played games, and did everything in her power to get him to interact with her, and distract him from the excruciating boredom and fatigue. The little boy was only about a year old, with wide, brown eyes, and black eyelashes that reached up to his thick eyebrows. He didn’t speak. He only stared at his mother with a questioning look on his small, round face. “Donde esta Ricardo?” His mother asked in a high pitched, playful voice. “Where is he? Donde esta Ricardo?” Still, the boy showed no sign of interest in the game. She persisted however, coaxing him to play along. “Donde esta Ricardo?” Eventually, the mother gave up on the one-sided game and with a shrug of her shoulders, she turned around to tend to her ol...

Today we plan to fight the crowds, the heat, and the traffic, all to catch an unobstructed view of the magnificent fireworks show put on by Macy’s Department Store over the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey. This is our first 4th of July in this area and will be vastly different than the home town parades and celebrations that I'm used to in Nebraska. I wouldn't miss fireworks for the world though. Ever since I was a little girl, I've been fascinated with them, and thought, "This must be what real magic looks like." After doing our research on the subject, we learned that in order to have a fighting chance at claiming a good piece of ground, we should arrive no later than 4 pm for the 9 pm show. There will be no funnel cake stands, ferris wheels, or arts and crafts booths to entertain us while we wait in the stifling heat and humidity. Instead we’ve packed a cooler full of picnic food, a blanket, a radio, and board games. Eddie and I went through a si...

Brooklyn Bridge Park was another jewel we found on our journey to play 60 pianos in the 5 boroughs. We discovered several locations with a beautiful view of the water, the Manhattan skyline, and the Statue of Liberty. This particular spot was even more special because of the by stander who encouraged me to keep playing song after song, even though I had only intended to play one, then move on to the next piano. I also thought that the artist who painted this piano put a lot of time and care into their design. I wish I had gotten the name of the painter. Anyways, enjoy this clip of "Cold Cold Heart" (boogie-woogie style) and the lovely view caught on camera by Eddie.

In preparation for my family’s upcoming visit, I’ve been de-cluttering our cramped apartment to make room for three extra people for a week. This involved a great deal of sorting, vacuuming, and shoving random junk into the hot, hard-to-get-to attic. Along the way were many exclamations of, “Oh, there that is!” and, “I thought we lost that in the move.” Eddie re-discovered one of his Christmas gifts from 2 years ago - a do it yourself stepping stone creation kit. You poor cement into a hexagon-shaped mold and then craft a design using pieces of broken, colored glass. I bought him this in North Carolina when we had a house, yard, and garden, but we never got around to constructing the lawn ornament. Instead it was lost in the shuffle along with other back-shelf items when we moved to New Jersey. Today of all days, we decided to tackle the job and sat outside mixing and pouring cement. We brain stormed ideas of what the design should be, deciding between a generic pattern or something...

I've posted "Sparrow" before. It's one of my favorite songs that I've written. As I was touring pianos for Sing for Hope's Play Me, I'm Yours project in New York City, I soon found that after several dozen pianos, my performing repertoire of well-known songs was running low! I resorted to singing a few of my own and I'm glad I did. This location in Gantry Plaza State Park in Queens was so beautiful. Eddie did a great job capturing the surroundings as camera man. Hope you enjoy. "Sparrow" words and music by Elizabeth Grimes, Copyright 2009

Once in a very great while, the planets align, the stars shine brighter, the sun glows stronger, and all is perfectly right in the universe. Today, on this last day of our piano hunt to play 60 pianos, throughout five boroughs, in two weeks, I experienced about two and a half minutes of this extraordinary phenomenon. To me, it was the definition of a "magical moment" to the core. The Staten Island Zoo was one of our last stops on our piano journey. And of all the days and times to drive to this location, we chose Wednesday at exactly 2 pm, which coincidently is the exact day and time out of the entire week that admission is free at the zoo – Wednesday at 2 pm. Really! We walked through the zoo searching for the piano, smiling at the children who were delighted with every living creature that surrounded them, from horses, to goats, to llamas. Eventually we found the piano. When I sat down to play, I noticed tiny little creatures scattering across the floor of the outdoor pic...