Your boss won't mind. Because the world's probably ending anyway.

Happy spring! Or whatever this is! Our fear of what this surely ominous early onset of warmth means is only offset by our disappointment that our favorite outdoor bars won’t even be open for at least another month. So until then, the obvious solution is to grab your machine and take advantage of the city’s parks that are newly enabled with free wifi: Herbert Von King Park, McCarren, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Prospect Park (by the Picnic House) and Fort Greene Park. Even if you’re working in the city, you can play too. Picnic work meeting, anyone?

Not the actual tree.

Screw it, we’ll just go all out for Valentine’s Day stuff today, even though us singles think it’s about as real a holiday as the Verdukian Holiday of Mouth Pleasures: You could spend tons on an overrated restaurant, followed by weak cocktails, followed by, I don’t know what you couples are into these days, flowers or something? Lame. Step up the game this year by putting all that money in one place and dedicating a whole tree in Prospect Park to your lurver, which will help replace all the ones destroyed by storms last year. For $75, you can plant a sapling as part of the restoration project; for $100, you can contribute to a communal Arbor Day Tree, which also gets you an invite to a special planting ceremony on April 27. Each one gets you a special Valentine’s Day certificate, but orders have to be in by noon on Feb. 9 to ensure you get it in time. Visit the park’s site for ordering details. Then maybe your partner will make like a tree and … oh never mind.

[via Windsor Terrace blog]

Winter Jam 2011. Photo by Alison Meier via Flickr.

Bad news for all of us who count on Prospect Park for our free outdoor winter sports fix: the New York City Parks & Recreation Department has been forced to cancel its annual Winter Jam, scheduled for February 4th, because “it is simply too warm to make snow.” No, it’s not that they were expecting natural snow and there’s none in the forecast. The air and ground will actually be too warm to make FAKE snow.

Climate change is a real downer, and now that you can’t repurpose trash bags as sleds (greener than buying a new plastic sled) this February, it’s up to all of us to keep the winter spirit alive… or completely give up and pretend it’s spring!

As an alternative, the Parks Department suggests going skating instead — but wait, Prospect Park’s Wollman Rink is closed for renovations. Is it time to shlep out to Abe Stark skating rink in Coney Island? Anyone been?

Oh, my good iPod was in there.

Enough time has passed since Christmas that you can ditch all that crap you immediately broke with your clumsy, nog-drunk hands. As you well know by now, e-waste doesn’t go in with your regular trash, unless you love the tangy taste of chemicals in your water. Instead, take them to one of the e-waste recycling events in Brooklyn in this weekend: one is at McCarren Park (Bedford Ave. at North 12 St.) on Saturday and another at Prospect Park (Prospect Park West at 3rd St.) on Sunday, both from 10am-4pm. The list of accepted items is below, which includes most things (not your fridge).  (more…)

Free wifi has been creeping its way across public parks ever since the city announced the initiative this summer: McCarren Park  became the first to go online in September. Today, AT&T flipped the service on in two more: Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Picnic House at Prospect Park (along with Marcus Garvey Park in Manhattan in Harlem, where you can go for some non-BK marathon watching). Fort Greene and Herbert Von King parks are slated to get wifi next. How well does it work? Brokelyn’s Meredith Olson took her laptop to McCarren to put it through the paces. See her findings here!

There's always money in the Bananagram. Image via Levy's Unique New York

Addicted to Words with Friends? Yeah, us too. You can feed your obsession by playing a life-sized version of another word tile game On Oct. 1 in Prospect Park: Levy’s Unique New York — say that five times fast — is hosting Big Apple Bananagram, a free large-scale version of the wildly popular word game. Bananagrams is like Scrabble, without a board. You’ve probably seen the bright yellow zip-up banana stuffed with tiles in bookstores, but Levy’s version will be played using large Masonite tiles. Players earn extra points for spelling out NYC neighborhoods and streets (serious bragging rights if you can get “Schermerhorn”), with prizes for the top winners. (more…)

Prospect Park canoes. Photo via Flickr's Megnyc

If you missed free summer kayaking in Brooklyn Bridge Park or are too skeeved out by free boating on Gowanus Canal (it is 90 percent guns, after all), you’ve still got one more chance to row-row-row gently: the Urban Rangers are hosing free “canoe adventure” that around the waters of Prospect Park on Sept. 18. Meets at the Audubon Center at 11am; the trip ends at 2. Kids 8 and older can take part too, and it’s first-come, first-served so get there early. For more info, visit Parks and Rec. For more Parks and Rec, visit this.

Now pouring: BK-bottled wine classes [Brooklyn Winery]
I am the Lorax, I walk for the trees [Prospect Park Alliance]
Post-Irene retail therapy [Racked]
Dinosaurs: on sale! [Google]
Irene stole all the blood [Gothamist]
Is McCarren Park just too shitty? [L Magazine]
Stand clear of the grabby hands [Daily News]
Who do you call when your broker’s a broke-a? [Awl]

Kayaking at Pier 1. Photo by Jonathan Barkey, courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.

Filling a kids’ summer with camp is like putting a full-size sheet on a queen-size bed — no matter how you try to stretch it, there just isn’t enough to cover the whole thing. If you’re a parent or a babysitter like me, you’re about to enter the gap between the end of camp and the beginning of school. Maybe mom and dad were smart enough to plan a trip, or maybe you’re trying to fill the time with local outings, which can cost as much as a vacation if you’re not careful. Here are some inexpensive ways to squeeze the most out of the season before school starts. And if you’ve got ideas, as always, please leave them in the comments. (more…)

Camping: part of the Swanson Pyramid of Greatness

All summer, the city’s parks department hosts free family camping nights in different parks throughout the city, but if you want to be sleeping under the stars in Prospect Park, today is your last chance to register! You have to enter the lottery to win one of the 30 spots available for 8/19, which is the last day the camping is offered in Brooklyn (Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island still have dates available). The program, put on by the Urban Park Rangers, starts with a cookout and includes other activities such as stargazing and night hikes. Everything is included so that means you and the kids just need to get there (and maybe bring your DJ Roomba). [via DP Blog]