HAPPY HOLIDAYS

From a very cold and snowy land of cheese, wishing you all a very merry christmas. And an invitation to join us in Jamaica next year instead.

Sending TCKITW and TCKITWv4.0 mucho hugs and kisses, and sending the rest of my family just hugs. Miss you guys!

--K

LOUIS!

This deserved it's own post. On Friday night, after our dinner and drinks out with my coworkers, I wanted to head out even more. Blondie talked me out of it, said he wanted to head home. I was a bit bitchy, b/c I really wanted to go out.

We walk into our apartment, and I realize that Blondie has dug out all of our stockings (one for me, him, and one each for our cats). And he had stopped to buy a little Xmas tree - and had put a few decorations on it. It was so beautiful.

On top of that, I had been eyeballing these Xmas Oreo cookies (Oreos with candy cane bits in the creme), and he had picked up a pack of those. So I'm standing there about half crying, really touched that he had done this, when he said "You haven't gotten all your presents", and pointed towards the little tree again.

I realized there is a bag hidden behind the little tree so I head over to it, and HOLY SHIT. Blondie bought me my LOUIS VUITTON bag!

I had been talking and talking and talking about getting myself a LV bag - it's been over a year now, but keep talking myself out of it - we are on a budget, and it's not cheap to live here. And I could not justify pulling the trigger and purchasing my bag.

He called my friend from work, and she tricked me into telling her the bags I was looking at (she said she was buying her mom one for Xmas, and couldn't figure out which one she liked most - and asked which ones I had liked b/c she knew I had done a lot of research). Then she went and met Blondie and the rest is history.

I've spent the weekend petting my purse, being paranoid about someone stealing my purse, and generally wanting to cuddle it. It gets tucked in a dustcover every night so that the cats don't get to it.

Um, I REALLY started bawling after I saw my bag. I LOVE MY HUSBAND.

--K

Jon Stewart, Paul Rudd and me

So on Wednesday this past week, me, Blondie and a couple of our friends had VIP tickets to a taping of The Daily Show. It felt like Monday and Tuesday took forever to get through, but FINALLY it was Wednesday. My friend and I were off early to head over - we met Blondie and her man at the show. We were early, and it was freezing cold, so we stopped in at a local bar for a drink before the start. We were all very giddy, and cracking jokes, and it was eagerly that we headed in for our show.

It was insane actually being in the studio where they film it. If you are anything like me, then everything thrills you. I was just grinning my head off, looking around the room, thinking "But I've seen this on the TV!" We were only seated for about 30 minutes before the warm-up comedian came out. He was actually really funny and got the audience riled up. And then he introduced...

JON STEWART!!!! We erupted when he first came out. Everyone was cheering and whooping it out. And he was RIGHT THERE. The studio is not that big, and we had awesome seats (go VIP tickets!). He did some Q&A with the audience, and then we launched into the show. They pretty much tape the show in real-time. They really only have a 3 hour turn around time from taping to airing, so it was really impressive to watch him nail everything. No retakes, no stuttering, no getting tripped up on his words...

Paul Rudd was also really awesome - he did this great riff on his kids, how he keeps his scotch and wine on the bottom shelfs of his kitchen, the cutlery in the middle, and the cereal on top so his kids can't get to that. After Paul Rudd, Jon did his hand off to Stephen Colbert, but before they did the taped version, they did some chatting between them - and it was the funniest thing ever.

We left floating on air and headed down to our bar to hang out for the evening. Our bartender bought us all a round of shots, and we spent the rest of the evening just reliving everything.

Friday I got news that I will be needing to go to SF every 4-6 weeks for the next 6 mos at least. I am excited about it, I miss California so this is nice for me. And it gives Blondie a few days at a time without someone being like "want to go get beers tonight?"

After my news, I headed with some of my coworkers out for the evening. We went shopping for a bit before calling our significant others to meet us for drinks and dinner. We had a great time just laughing and catching up with everyone. It was my core group at work, and it was like our unplanned Xmas celebration.

Yesterday I drug Blondie down to the gym - I went for a run, and Blondie did some elliptical. After our workout, we headed out for lunch. We went to a different bar this time - split some chicken bites, and I had some fish tacos while Blondie had a burger. A few beers, and the tiredness kicked in. We stopped at our drugstore before heading home and crashing out for the day.

Today I got up and did one of my P90X DVD's (I do them in whatever order I feel whenever I feel like) before we headed up to catch a morning show of the new Harry Potter. After our movie, we went out for a late lunch, before stopping at our bakery to buy a loaf of bread. We both came home and dozed for a bit before watching the Jets FINALLY win a game. Now it's time for the Packers - but without Aaron Rodgers. We are holding our breath, hoping for a miracle. BEAT THE PATRIOTS!

Tuesday starts my vacation - we are off to Chicago for a few days before hitting The Land of Cheese to hang with Blondie's family. I'm ready for vacation!

--K

A Good Week. No Snow.

The temperature is dropping here in NYC, which means that winter has officially hit. We've had 1 day of snow flurries, but for the most part, it's in the 20's in the morning (with windchill in the teens) and 30's in the evenings. The good thing about it being uber cold in the mornings is that about 4 minutes into my walk to the subway, I'm completely numb. And nothing hurts anymore. A little warmer, and I wouldn't be numb for any of my walk - and it would just be completely miserable.

So our week started out well - we hit up our bar to watch the Jets/Patriots game on Monday. And while the Jets basically rolled over and died, it was still fun getting to hang out with everyone. Our local crew was there, and our bartender was just so funny (die hard Jets fan, Irish, and a cusser - it's an awesome combination). We were up until about 1:30 am Tues morning, just laughing and having a good time.

Tuesday night, I went with some of my coworkers to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A coworker's mother is on the board, so we got into an exhibit pre-opening. It was open bar and appetizers, and we got to see the exhibit in private without a ton of other people there. It was amazing. The Met is a fantastic space - it's so beautiful and breathtaking. The room that our cocktail reception was in was filled with old greek statues, and the ceiling was entirely windows. Everyone was dressed very nicely, and again, I just got so tickled, that all I could think was "HOLY SHIT! I'm in the Met! In NYC! On a private exhibition showing! OMG. In case I forgot, I LIVE IN NYC!"

Wednesday and Thursday we took it easy. I've been working out hard-core again, but my eating-right mode at night isn't so good - I'm fine during the day, I get in an awesome workout each morning and eat healthy and properly during the day, but as soon as I get home at night (or on the walk home), I start getting out of my mind nuts about food. It's the season I know, and I've said to myself that as long as I keep working out and eating right during the day, I can go crazy at night.

The reason I said all that was that on Wed and Thurs, we ordered in some greasy yummy food each night. And just stayed in and watched TV. It was nice because it's been sooooo cold out!

Friday was my office holiday party - we had a potluck early afternoon, and then headed to the bar for an open bar and white elephant gift swap. I got a good gift - a box of Ghiradelli's and a giftcard to Starbucks. I'm quite happy. After the party ended, I felt like just hanging with Blondie, so I bowed out of the next bar, and stopped on the way home to buy garlic bread and meatballs. I got home that night and we split a bottle of wine and made a huge pot of spaghetti.

Yesterday I went down and ran, and was proud of myself because my speed is back to my old running speed. I was sick for about 9 days over Thanksgiving, and still am not quite over whatever it is, and my running speed had dropped about .2 - I'm normally a 5.5 mph, but it had gone down to 5.3 mph since I started running after the sick. Yesterday, I booked through at 5.7 and 5.5 mph, didn't drop any lower - and felt really really good with myself. It was hard, but I garnered up the willpower and stuck with it. It's the first step in feeling really healthy again.

After the run, I baked a cinnamon cake and we ate on that all day yesterday afternoon - it was a healthier cake in that only egg beaters were reqd to make it (and the cake mix). No extra oil or butter was called for.

Today I did yoga and got all stretchy again. We had our groceries delivered since it's a flood outside right now - the storm front that's dropping all the snow on the midwest is dropping all the rain on us (it's warmer today so it can't snow yet).

This week will be an awesome week - first on deck, VIP tickets to a taping of the Daily Show!!!! That's on Wednesday and I CAN'T WAIT! We also plan to visit our bar, and I have to do a night stint for work this week on Friday. Next week we are off to the midwest (and all that f'ing snow) for the holidays. We are going to stop in Chi-town and visit Slick, before heading up to the Land of Cheese to see Blondie's family.

--K

NYC in the winter

Our Thanksgiving weekend ended as follows: Friday = do absolutely nothing; Saturday = do absolutely nothing; Sunday = do absolutely nothing. It was *lovely*.

I did make it back to the gym - I forced myself down on Friday after Thanksgiving and felt great from the moment I set foot on the treadmill. I just did a walk on Friday, while carrying handweights, and then Saturday I started running again. It went really well - I was suprised simply because to this day, I'm still hacking stuff out of my lungs. But running doesn't seem to make things worse. Which is good because I'm about to start training for my half.

Okay, so last week was pretty low key. We didn't have much going on. I had a late Thursday night for work, but it was fine, because I took Friday off.

We woke up Friday and headed out around 10 am. We went to Rockefeller Center first to scope out the Xmas tree, and all the decorations they have out. It was beautiful. I don't like a real Xmas tree for the most part, I'm pretty much an artificial tree girl, but the Rock Center tree is just something you have to see. After checking out the tree, we braved the Best Buy madness to get Blondie a new router. And then it was back to Times Square for lunch - we had been craving Red Lobster, so we stopped in for some seafood (and biscuits) and beer (and biscuits).

After lunch we headed just a few blocks down to see the King Tut exhibit at the Discovery Exhibition Center. This was amazing. They had set up a museum in the space that discussed King Tut's lineage and life, and then they had a bunch of artifacts from King Tut's tomb. It was pretty crazy to see it all. The exhibit goes out at the end of January, but then at the beginning of March, they are bringing in a Pompeii exhibit - which I'm also uber excited about.

On Saturday we met up with Little Dragon and her hubby to see Billy Elliot on Broadway - a show that blew me out of the water. This wasn't one that was on my list, but I'm so glad we went anyway. The kid that played Billy Elliot was an amazing dancer, which again, leads me into "OH MY GOD, I wish I could dance!" It's pretty pathetic. After our show, we headed for several beers before Blondie and I caught the train to Brooklyn.

Sweetie J is in town for the week, and we went to meet up with her and some of her friends for dinner. It was a great night - full of good company and most excellent food.

Today we've stayed in. I've been working out hardcore again, and today I felt like I needed to stretch so I did my yoga DVD instead of a cardio based exercise. I feel great now - all loosey goosey and relaxed. The only problem is that I think I broke my nose somehow - I have no idea what I did, but my nose is KILLING me. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to have glasses on, everything that involves my nose is bad. It's not black and blue, and it's not swollen, but the bone itself has something seriously wrong with it.

Yay. Oh Yay. :) Okay, I'm off to finish off our Harry Potter marathon. This week is another monster work week, but at least on Friday we have our work Xmas party. I have a private museum exhibition I'm going to on Tuesday, and tomorrow we are off to our bar to watch the Jets/Patriots game.

--K

To the T-day Parade, and beyond!

San Francisco was a blast the second time around. And also, apparently whenever I decide to visit the city, the city decides to have the most beautiful weather ever in return. I told my friends that I have to be careful, because when people start talking to me about SF, they'll be like "oh, and the weather? Cold and foggy right?" And what I'll remember is sunny and high 70's with no clouds, and be like "COMPLETELY wrong".

So I landed on Sunday and headed to my hotel. My room wasn't ready so I did a quick wash-up in the lobby bathroom before heading out to enjoy the day. I took the train to my old hood, and got myself a sandwich from Say Cheese - the best sandwich shop around, and home to the best sandwich I've ever eaten in my life - the mozzarella, basil, tomato, prosciutto on ciabatta. OMG. Heaven on bread. I took the sandwich to the dog park and people/dog watched while chatting with my mom. After my sandwich, I headed into my old bar for a few while watching football. All too soon it was off to Pac Heights to meet up with Ma Peng for brunch (haha - 2 meals!) I got to meet her bambino and it was soooo good seeing her.

After our brunch, I headed over to North Beach to catch up with Sweetie J - we headed off to a bar with a patio and had several frosties before doing some shopping in Union Square. Then the 2 of us met up with KT for some vietnamese food before KT and I headed to a bar to spend the evening. I was back to my hotel around 11 pm (2 am ET) completely exhausted, but completely happy.

Monday I was off to the gym for a workout - the gym in my hotel was pretty nice, but very hot - it was like working out in a sauna. I headed off to work to enjoy my day (no meetings), and got to get coffee with several people along with lunch with a coworker. The night was going to be my off night but the delightful S&HK called and I got to meet up with them instead. It was a really good night - I hadn't got to see them last time I was in town, and in the meantime, they've gotten engaged, so it was good hearing wedding plans, and seeing them in general.

Tuesday it was back to the gym and then back to work. I did have meetings on Tuesday so it was a little more hectic than Monday but it was also over before it started. I had drinks with my tech lead on Tuesday before heading back to North Beach for tacos and Glee at Sweetie J's house.

Side note: Is Glee not the best show on TV? If not the best show ever? I love how they are handling the bullying situation, and Kurt's character in general. Everytime I see this show (along with anything on Broadway), my heart hurts that I can't sing or dance. Or act.

Okay, so many beers at Sweetie J's leads to waking up Wednesday with a sore throat and stuffy nose. I decided that sweating it out would be appropriate so headed to the gym. It was not a good decision. I sweated nothing out, but sent my heart rate soaring, and felt like ass afterwards. Work was about the same as Tuesday in terms of meetings.

On Wednesday night, I was supposed to go for dinner with my project team. I went for drinks with one of my BFF's from work first, and then when it was time to leave, couldn't find a cab anywhere (typical of downtown SF). I ended up meeting with another tech lead and contractor instead for many drinks late into the evening. I skipped dinner b/c I was full from lunch *and* still feeling like ass.

Thurs morning, I woke up in misery. This cold/sinus/flu/whatever had settled in deeply and I was hacking my lungs out and sneezing. My nose was raw, and my throat was on fire. I felt better after I had a shower, but knew the day was going to be a bad one. I got through work without infecting anyone, and then I tried to go to a coworkers going-away party. I lasted one drink before calling it a night and heading over to meet Shelbs and Bbbb for some sushi. I had a few beers with them before they took me to the airport.

The overnight flight is generally my favorite one to take back to the east coast - but it turned out awful this time. Everything went on time, and the people around me where quiet, but I felt so bad/sick that it turned out feeling like a 40 hour flight. I got back to the apartment on Friday, said hello to Blondie, took both cats into the bedroom and konked out hard.

And good for me, got Blondie sick in the meantime. Saturday and Sunday were spent miserable - both of us have this crud and just wasn't good. Monday I still felt like shit but had so much stuff to catch up on with my projects and being in SF that I headed into work anyway. Tuesday I did feel a little better so that was okay.

And Wednesday was a half-day. We are both sort of on the mend, so on Wednesday, we decided to catch the matinee showing of "Lombardi" on Broadway. This stars the dad from Wonder Years as Vince, and Angela from Who's the Boss as Marie (Vince's wife). It was a theater in the round, and we were right at the stage - the play was funny and moving, and all about football. The employees at the theater rocked (when I was getting a beer at the concession stand, and mentioned someting about having to have a beer while watching football, I got whole-heartedly agreed with by the person selling me my beer).

After the play, we headed up to the UWS. We stopped in at a wood-fired pizza place and split a bottle of wine and a pizza and salad, before heading over to join the ginormous line of people watching the balloons get inflated for the Macys T-Day parade. That was an incredible experience. I know the balloons are big, totally know that, but to actually see it in person - it really put it in context just quite how big they are. Some of the balloons were easy to tell what they were (Shrek), some I had no idea (Diary of a Wimpy Kid). After the balloon inflating, we headed back to our bar and caught up with everyone for the evening.

Thursday was spent with our bartender and his family - we headed up to the parade, and used our bartender's connections to get awesome spots along the route. It was so amazing, I watched in awe while thinking "OMG, we *live* here". We saw Kanye West, and someone in our section started chanting "Taylor Swift" which the whole section picked up on. And made me laugh my ass off. We saw Jessica Simpson, Mrs Pooh's favorite person in the world. We saw Jimmy Fallon, who even on his float was laughing hysterically (which makes me wonder that maybe he wasn't goofing around on SNL on purpose, maybe he just is in a perpetually good mood). We saw all the balloons we had watched getting inflated. And we saw Santa.

After the parade, we left our friends and headed to the bar, where we had a few drinks before heading home and crashing out. I ate all day long and now feel like a giant blimp - especially because I haven't been well enough to work out for the past week. I seriously feel like I've gained 10 lbs in the past week. I'm trying to talk myself into a workout today, but woke up again hacking and sneezing.

Our plans for the weekend include nothing today - maybe heading to our bar but that's it - it's cold and raining outside. We do want to see the new Harry Potter this weekend (well, Blondie wants to see it anyway), and maybe Elf (the musical on Broadway). No shopping for either of us, b/c that's insane this weekend.

Hope everyone had a great turkey day. And a happy birthday to the Sheriff, my mom, and BFF in the world TT.

--K

I've been busy....

No excuses for lack of posting, just been busy. And when I get home at night, the last thing I want to think about is updating the blog. BUT, I'm here now (yay for you! :) and I'm ready to fill everyone in on the last 2 weeks.

First on deck, the Jets game! WE HAD A BLAST! We took the trains out to the new stadium, and had pretty easy time getting over to Jersey beforehand. The new stadium is butt-ass ugly on the outside. Our train was pulling up and Blondie was like "um, that's awful". I'll be posting pics on the NY blog later on today so be on the lookout for a prime example of "WTF architecture".

We got to the stadium about 3 hours before game time and met up with our bartender and group of friends from the bar for some tailgating fun. It was one of the best times we've had since moving to the city. There was so much food and booze, it was mind boggling. And everyone was so friendly - I knew about 80% of the people from the bar, but the other 20% made me feel like I had known them for years as opposed to hours.

The game itself was kind of a blow - our tickets rocked, we were 10 rows off the end zone and felt like we were in the game itself b/c of how close we were. The game sucked though - there wasn't a single touchdown scored, and it ended with Packers 9, Jets 0. Just boring. And then the train ride back was horrid. Blondie cut us in line for the train which was a good thing, because even cutting in line it took us 2 hours to get home (the stadium is literally right across the Hudson from NYC). If we hadn't cut, we would've been there another hour at least.

Okay, so that was Halloween. My birthday was 2 days later - and true to form, we got trashy trashed. My friends from work took me out for Indian for lunch (soooo good), and then Blondie met me early for margaritas and chorizo, before we hit up our bar for plenty of beers and shots. The day after that, my friend Little Dragon met me and Blondie for some more mexican food (WOOT) and margaritas to complete the celebration.

Then on Thursday of that week, I got a chance to reconnect with an old boss of mine in the city. She had been my VP at my SF job for almost the entire time I was there - she had taken a years LOA to travel the world with her boyfriend (OMG - how fabulous?), but is now back. She has taken a lesser position which made it a lot more comfortable to get drinks with her. I didn't have to worry about what I was saying, or temper my conversation in anyway. Which can be really hard for me to do - especially if I get some drinks in me.

Last weekend was spent recuperating. My body is tired. We ended up spending most of the weekend at home, watching the NYC marathon on TV. It inspired us to go for long runs as we tried to feel better that 45000 people were running 26.2 miles while we watched them from the comfort of our home.

The weekend was needed last weekend, because this week my project kicked in. A group from the SF office arrived in the NYC offices to officially kick everything off. A work week has never gone so fast for me as it did this past week. From meetings all day every day, to getting everything planned and coordinated... It was a whirlwind week that felt like it was Friday before I even got through Monday.

On top of the actual work, I had a busy week too - my good friend from the SF office was part of the group out, so we took Tuesday evening and went to see "The Addams Family" on Broadway - it starred Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth and we were dead center of the venue, 4 rows back from stage. It. Was. Amazing. It was a comedy and a musical, and I've never laughed so hard at a play in my life. At one point, Grandma said to Pugsley "What's up stud?" and I about gave myself an asthma attack from laughing. You had to be there - the wigs and clothes that they put on the Pugsley character made him look like a weasel, not a stud. So when Grandma said that... OMG. And the set was killer also - the money they must put into these sets, I can't even fathom. If you are in the area, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this play. Also, holy shit, Bebe Neuwirth? Looked fantastic. She was gorgeous and sexy and flawless. She's in her 50's, but looked like her 30's (I looked her age up afterwards because I couldn't even guess).

Okay, Wednesday this past week, I had set up a huge drinks event at one of the local bars. Everyone from the SF office came out that was in town, and the NYC office joined up too to celebrate the start of the project. My second goal for the night was to get everyone comfortable with each other as we are going to be relying on each other *heavily* to get this project done. And I think it worked. People got to chat and find out about each other from a personal perspective, which will help when it comes time to figure out how to work with teams in India, SF, and NYC. That was a late night that ended with 2 of my girlfriends from work and me as the last ones there, drinking and laughing the night away.

Then came Thursday - when we went with my friend Little Dragon and her husband and friends to MSG to see the Rangers vs the Sabres. Little Dragon's social circle is so much fun, and I hope we get added to it permanently. It was a good night, and the Rangers WON! Making it our first time watching a NYC team play where they actually won!!!! (We've seen 2 Rangers game, 1 Knicks game, 1 Jets game, 2 Yankees games, and 1 Mets game - all except for the 1 Rangers game have lost).

Last night was a trip back to our bar for dinner and drinks, before coming home and crashing out in front of the TV. I had stopped on the way home from work and bought a loaf of pumpkin bread from our local pie shop, and we ended up eating the entire thing last night. I'm supposed to go for a long run today but might give my body a break. I have a long ass flight tomorrow to head back to SF for work for my project. I'm pretty sure this is going to be standard for me now - 3-4 weeks in NYC office, a week in SF office going forward. Which actually for me is the best of both worlds.

Today will be spent packing up, getting everything ready before my alarm goes off at 4 am tomorrow. I have plans for all day Sunday, Tues night, Wed night, and Thurs night before I have to catch a red-eye back on Thurs next week. I'm hoping Monday night stays free so that I can order some room service, and watch TV to my hearts content.

--K

Excited for a Sunday??? How is this possible?

So, my week was quite low-key. After our trip to Pennsylvania last weekend, my body was screaming for a break. I managed to get in a workout each day which is good - I wanted so bad to take a day off after my 13K but there was no need really - I wasn't sore by any means, so it would've just been because I was lazy.

I've convinced Mr and Mrs Pooh to come up to NYC next year and visit for a few days before taking off with me and Blondie to PA to run a half-marathon. So I now have that for my goal - a half marathon next May. I'm excited to see the Poohs, and really excited to train for this properly. My 13K felt really good and it was because I kept my training/working out on a proper course. If I can get the half marathon down, I will attempt to do a full marathon next year just so I can finally stop talking about doing one.

In non-running news, on Wednesday, we hit up our bar to watch the first game of the World Series. Since the last 2 cities we lived in prior to NYC are in the World Series, it makes it interesting to watch. I'm totally rooting for SF, whereas Blondie is rooting for SF but only because of the way the games are played - he's rooting home team each time.

What's interesting about NYC, is that even though the World Series was on, nobody in the bar but me and Blondie were paying attention to it. Since there are no NY teams in it, nobody here gives a shit about it. I wonder if it would be the same way with the Superbowl (but since it's going to be a Jets/Giants Superbowl this year, we won't find out).

On Thursday I found out I have to go back to San Francisco again - in 2 weeks, I'll be flying back out for work. I love San Francisco, and have missed San Francisco - so this is good for me. I'm excited for it. After the San Francisco trip, my project will be fully kicked off which also brings a bit of goosebumps to my arms. I'm nervous and excited all at once.

Last night we hit up our bar again and just drank and chatted the night away. Blondie and I, are going to meet our bartender and his friends tomorrow to tailgate before we go watch PACKERS AND JETS in the new Jets stadium!!!! We have tickets 10 rows off the endzone, so please watch for us if you get the game in your area. It turns out that our bartender is a huge Jets fan, and he also loves us, so we're in like Flynn with his crew for tailgating. They've got us so excited for everything - I.Can't.Wait!

--K

From San Francisco, CA, to Northern, PA

Let's play some catch...up...

San Francisco was a blast - I had such a good time it seriously made me wonder why we had left in the first place. I flew in on Sunday morning, and left the airport to the most beautiful weather I'd ever seen in SF. It was a gorgeous day - breathtaking blue skies, no clouds or fogs, and temps in the low 80's. I went to my hotel, checked in, and then proceeded straight to a lunch of tacos and margaritas. I was joined by my friend Sweetie J, and then we headed over to one of her friend's house. This friend was having a huge house party (their house had a monster rooftop deck with views of the GG Bridge, Alcatraz, and the bay) that we joined in on - it was one of the 5 best parties I've been to in my life. We got some killer views of the BLUE ANGELS as they did their air show and I met a ton of new interesting people.

After my party with Sweetie J, a trip out to my old hood to visit my friend KT - we went for vietnamese food and then several drinks at a bar. We got to catch up on a lot and just enjoyed hanging out again for the first time in 10 months.

Monday, I got up and went to the gym in my hotel before heading back to my old stomping grounds for work. I won't lie, I was uber nervous on the walk over - I hadn't seen everyone in so long and while I was very excited for the social aspects of the trip, the work phase was throwing me for a loop. My fears were quickly overcome as Monday turned into a completely social day - I got to see so many people, it was non-stop someone coming up to me to say Hi and hear about what had been going on over the last few months. Monday evening, I met up with KT, Sweetie J and Dirty Sanchez for dinner and drinks - again a beautiful day, and ending it with food and beverage with some of my favorite people - it can't be beat!

Tuesday, I went for a run along the Embarcadero to enjoy the SF weather. Then it was off to work as we started meetings for my project. The morning meeting went horribly, and it kind of tainted the rest of the day. I made some hard decisions that afternoon about how I wanted things to go the rest of the week, and that helped some. Then margaritas and tacos with Miss Fenny and one of the sisters C helped the rest of the way.

Wednesday, I went for a LONG run along the Embarcadero - I needed to clear my head before our second round of meetings and the new process I wanted to follow. This totally helped, and it was with a lucid mind that I tackled Wednesday. Everything went much better and before I knew it, it was time for the party we had planned with everyone from the SF office. Such a good time! So many people came out, way more than we had expected. I think the bar was overwhelmed with how many people we had, but eh, you're a bar - deal with it!

Thursday, it was back to the gym before starting our last day of meetings. I was pretty tired at this point (I was up most days at 5 am due to the time change), and missing Blondie and the cats, so the day felt more rough than any other day. I got out early though and went with CChu for a drink before meeting back up with some work folks for drinks also. After my drinks, it was time to see Shelbs and Bbbb on the west coast! We hit up a mexican restaurant, and had a blast, before they drove me to the airport to catch my flight back.

Friday, was a good day also - I had the red-eye and when I got to the house Friday morning, Blondie and I decided to just keep going. We went for breakfast before heading up to see "The Social Network" (50000 thumbs up - go see it!). Afterwards, we did our grocery shop before heading to our bar for early dinner and drinks.

Then on Sunday we did a nice long run along Riverside Park - it was the first time we've really gone far on the park, and it was so nice - I'm glad we live close to it.

Last week was another party week - my friend from work had a birthday so Monday and Wednesday were spent celebrating with her. We did girls' nights both nights and had a blast! On Friday, I met Blondie at our bar where we watched the Yankees lose (tee hee!). We also made plans to meet up with our bartender this weekend for the Jets/Packers game we both have tickets too! We will be tailgating with him and his crew for the game.

On Saturday we got up uber early to catch a train to nothern PA - we hung out with our friends and their kids all day Saturday (um, BTW, flag football for 5 year olds? Funniest thing I've seen in a long time), and then on Sunday it was TIME TO RACE! My friend and I did our 13K (8.06 mile race) that we have been training for - I did around 1 hour, 33 mins, which for me is awesome good - 11.33 min miles. I'm not a fast runner, but I'm a determined runner, so that makes up for it. I felt so good afterwards (no leg pain, no achy knees, no blisters) that we talked Mr and Mrs Pooh into running a half with us next year.

Today it was back to work, woot. Plans this week include nothing. Nothing at all. And I'm very excited about it!

--K

OMG, has it been awhile?

So last weekend, one of my favorite couples arrived in town - they came in super early Saturday morning to spend the week with us! Yay for Shelbs and Bbbb! Bbbb came prepared with a list of things he wanted to do, and let me tell you - as much as I liked living here before they blew through town, I'm now in love with my own city. Bbbb's list - OMG. It was so awesome! He found so much good stuff (bars, restaurants, neighborhoods, stores, etc) that it totally opened my eyes as to exactly how much shit there is to do here.

I don't think we're leaving anytime soon, or anytime at all.

So they get to town and we immediately head out to show them our markets (Bbbb is a total foodie). We got our grocery shopping out of the way before heading over to the UT bar to watch the UT/OU game - it was completely packed. We had such a good time even though UT lost. We drank a ton, ate some tasty bar food, and just generally enjoyed being around a lot of Texans for the first time since we left Texas.

Afterwards it was a trip up through Times Square and Bryant Park before heading back to the apartment - we ordered some Thai food for dinner and then it was bedtime by 8:30 pm - they were exhausted from the red-eye the night before, and to be honest, Blondie and I were totally beat too.

Sunday we got up and went to the gym - Bbbb and Shelbs were troopers and came with us. After our workout, we headed over to Penn Station to pick up a friend of Bbbb's who had come in from Philly for the day - we then took the train across to Brooklyn to eat a brunch at Marlowe & Sons (Tony Bourdain fans will know all about this restaurant). Our brunch rocked - several mimosas, some oysters, a cheese/meat platter, and then finally a bowl of chilaquiles for me and a french dip for Blondie. Blondie's desert though blew ALL OF US out of the water - he got this chocolate caramel tart that was honestly one of the 5 best things I've ever eaten in my life.

After brunch, we toured around Brooklyn for a bit before heading back over to Manhattan and the Lower East Side. We hit up a bar and had a cocktail and then headed to McSorley's Ale House for many many rounds of their house beer. We shared a table with some brothers from New Jersey, and laughed our asses off at the bachelor party who cheered every single person who went to the bathroom (they cheered them going in and coming out - it was so f'ing funny!).

After McSorley's, a trip to a speakeasy Bbbb had heard about - Angel's Share. This was on Bbbb's list of where to go to get awesome cocktails and did not disappoint. You had to go into a sushi restaurant and through an unmarked door to the side to get to the bar. We got a booth overlooking the street below and had some completely killer cocktails. After Angel's Share, we hit up another speakeasy, Death & Co.

I liked D&C better than Angel's Share, but I was the only one. Angel's Share was very quiet and sedated, but D&C was balls out noisy. I loved it. We got a booth there and again, had several cocktails before splitting a huge bowl of rum punch. Then we all realized we were quite drunk so we headed off to a late night meal at Lombardi's pizza before heading home.

Monday I was completely zonked at work - it was rough going for awhile, but I got through it. The weather was awful, so we decided to just meet up for dinner in our neighborhood - we went for Turkish food, and it was so good - we split a bottle of wine, and some appetizers. Our main courses rocked, and then we headed home for a lot of beer and to watch some TV.

Tuesday I went for a run and then when I got home, I realized I felt horrible. Oops, I was coming down with a massive head cold. I made it until about 3 pm before I had to leave for the day. I met up with Shelbs, Bbbb and Blondie for a really late lunch at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. The food was not good at all and it was disappointing because this place is talked about all the time. Blondie and I headed straight home afterwards so that we could crash out.

Wednesday I stayed home from work, and spent the day in a daze on the floor. That evening, I had managed to dope myself up enough that we met up with Shelbs and Bbbb for dinner - we went to Minetta Tavern, home of the best burger ever. I skipped the burger but got pork and beans (OMG, heaven in a fucking bowl) and Blondie got the burger. It was a killer burger, but I've never been so happy with my own meal in my life.

After the Tavern, we headed back up to Broadway to see another Broadway musical!!!!! Squee!!!! We picked "Memphis" to see - the winner of the 2010 Tony for best musical, and it ruled my world. Even Blondie loved it. I'm seriously like a kid at Christmas at these things - I'm more than addicted. Seriously, this is how seeing a play goes with me - I spend the entire time completely glued to the stage, and then afterwards, I talk about it for at least 3 hours. And then entire time I'm talking about it, I'm also trying to dream up ways to break into theater. It's annoying.

Thursday I was feeling better so it was back to work, before meeting up with the gang again in the East Village for another trip to Angel's Share. After our drinks, we headed out for a cheap italian dinner (so good, sooooo good - we split a fettucine and sausage plate and I could've licked the plate clean). We tried to stop into McSorley's again but it was uber crowded. As we were looking for a cab, we spotted a hat shop and stopped in, and of course, we all ended up with new hats.

Friday we said goodbye to Shelbs and Bbbb, and I met Blondie for dinner at our local bar. Today I went for a very very long run and finally started to feel human again. I got a pedicure afterwards, and we ordered in street tacos for lunch. I have to get some packing done as tomorrow morning bright and early, I'm off to San Francisco for a week for work. I'm SO excited to see my friends again and be back in my old stomping grounds.

Watch out everyone, here I come!

--K

Catch Up

Sorry for the delay between posts. I'd list some excuses but I honestly have none. I'm just feeling lazy lately.

Sooooo.... here's what has been happening. Last week on Wednesday night, I went with my 2 best girlfriends from work to see the Yankees play. We ended up totally ignoring our seats (nosebleed section) and just hanging out drinking some beers and periodically watching the game. It ended up being a good thing - where we were standing was covered by an overhang, and about 3 innings into the game, a huge rainstorm blew through. We had the ideal watching spot.

The rainstorm was awesome. It's been a long time since I've gotten to experience something like that. San Francisco was straight up Fog City, and in Texas, if you were getting rain, you were probably also getting thunder and lightning. Our rain delay ended up being a 2 hour one, but we stayed through. Probably because we didn't stop drinking and talking. We ended up leaving in the 6th inning, and only because when we went down to the lowest section to sit down, we got busted. Even though there were about 3 people total left in the stadium, they wouldn't let us sit down below. I understand that rules are rules and all, but seriously, my friends are totally cute and they couldn't even talk their way past the security guard.

On Friday last week, we got notification that a project I have put a shit-ton of time and effort into will not be launching. It was a bit of a sad day - not only was I excited to see this project through the finish line, I gave up several summer Fridays for it also, and the amount of work I put into graphs and charts and spreadsheets surrounding this - well, that alone should've made this thing go. Due to the news, I called Blondie on my way home from work and he agreed to meet me at the bar.

We ended up bar hopping our way around our hood (there are 7 bars in a 1 block radius, we hit up most of them), enjoying beverages and food at about every single joint. The good thing here is that there has been a bar that I've been wanting to try since we moved in - from the outside it looks like it should be filled with cigarette smoke, old men with long beards, low ceilings, florescent lighting, and very old carpet. I was uber excited to go in, but it was so weird - the inside was *gorgeous*. It blew my mind - I'd put something in here about "Don't judge a book by it's cover", but I'm not feeling very deep today.

The good news about this bar is that they also run drink specials when NYC teams play - Mets, Jets, Giants, Yankees - $30 all-you-can-drink drafts for the duration of the game. Holy. Shit. People. I'm. In. Love.

Saturday was a "OMG what did I do last night" day. I went down for a long run, and ended up only getting a little over 2 miles before my body was like "okay, you're done". I decided to listen to it - only because I go balls out every day working out - I needed a low-key day. After my run, I lifted weights and did some core work before calling it quits.

We did our grocery shopping afterwards, and it got me excited for fall because of the vegetables that are coming into season. Blondie picked out 2 beautiful beets and we've been enjoying those this week. Okay, so Saturday night, Blondie comes strolling out of the kitchen with a beer, and then it was all bets off. We ended up watching the movie Blow off of Netflix (I love Johnny Depp) and getting a little boozed up - a really great date-night in my mind!

Sunday was spent doing nothing but working out and watching football. I got a much better workout in on Sunday than I did Saturday, and then hit the deck and watched the Vikings and Cowboys win (boo! suck!).

Monday was our not-real anniversary. Due to a mix-up with our paperwork 7 years ago, we weren't officially married on 9/27. But it's still the date we celebrate, as opposed to the real anniversary in 1.5 weeks. We met up at our local steakhouse and split some asparagus, mashed potatos, and mushrooms - we each got our own steak and just enjoyed chatting and watching the rain come down (we were supposed to be at a Mets game for our day but it got rained out). After our steak meal, we stopped for a doughnut before heading home to watch the Packers lose (boo! suck!)

Not a lot of plans this week - a lot of cleaning to do before the lovely duo of Bbbb and Shelbs hit town on Saturday. Very very excited to see them!

Hope everyone is well.

--K

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY CHOMPERS

7 years and 1 hr 47 mins ago today, we tried to make our relationship official. It didn't quite work but today is still our day to celebrate. Love you and your blonde head (and your cat)!

--K

Here comes the fall... and the tornados

The weather has certainly taken a turn towards fall here in NYC. It seemed we went from high 90's with high humidity to mid 70's with no humidity, in the space of 3 days. There was no in between. I even asked some coworkers to make sure I didn't like, you know, miss 3 weeks of weather in the 80's. But I haven't. Apparently this is typical. Oh yay. It's time for winter again.

And, BTW, I hate winter.

Okay, so on top of the chilly weather, we've also had a spate of rain. Like 3 weeks of it. It's rainy or cloudy every single day. And on Thurs this past week, we had a *massive* storm roll through, and with it, 2 tornados. Queens and Brooklyn were wiped out, but we were lucky since we live in Manhattan. I spent Thurs evening, about 20 minutes, watching the storm out my window at work - it was intense. I haven't seen anything like it in 4 years. The sky went super dark, and then it lit up bright white and the rain came in sideways it was blowing so hard. It lasted about 25 minutes, and it was over as fast as it started.

The rest of the week was good other than the weather. On Wednesday, we said goodbye to one of my favorite coworkers. We did it up in style, and met up for Korean Fried Chicken and Soju one last time. A pitcher of soju turned into, um well, a lot of soju. And beer. And then Blondie and I decided we didn't want to go home so we ended up the bar until about 1 am. Thursday was suckity suck balls. But we had a blast.

On Friday, I went with a friend to a korean marketplace a friend of mine had told me about. It was like heaven on earth. They had so much good shit - I picked up some marinated short ribs and ribeye, some spicy noodles and some pot stickers. I talked myself out of the srirachi peas, still not sure how I did it - but if I would've bought them, I would've eaten them all. In about 5 minutes.

I walked home from K-town that night, and just appreciated living in the city. Blondie and I cooked up the ribeye for dinner, and we have our short ribs for tonight now.

Yesterday I got up and headed down for a run on the treadmill. I decided it was time to up my mileage so I plugged in 5 miles for my goal - and it rocked. I felt great for the most part, and finished in a pretty good time. I was pretty giddy afterwards - my runner's high was off the charts and I drove Blondie bat shit crazy b/c I couldn't stop chattering away. That's my favorite part about running - to be honest, I hate running but I love the runner's high afterwards.

After the run, we headed out to the first annual OKTOBERFEST on the Hudson! That's right folks - it's time for my favorite holiday. We met up with some friends of ours, people watched the day away and enjoyed some kick ass beers and brats. Although I have to say, Blondie makes a mean brat and his brats have it all over the brats at the fest. After the fest, we headed to our local bar for a few more beers before heading down to a mexican "restaurant" I had been wanting to try. By "restaurant", I mean a grocery store with about 3 tables in it - but the food ROCKED. OMG. It was so good. I had chorizo and potatos, and Blondie had carnitas with cactus. We couldn't stop eating off each other's plates the food was so good. And the salsa was killer hot - I kept saying "is this shit really hot?" and Blondie was all like "nah, it's all good". We were pretty blotto at that point, so I have no idea if the salsa was that hot or if I was just being an idiot.

Luckily I didn't try to speak Spanish to anyone. Also, the people at the restaurant were so nice. We were picking up some coconut water afterwards and she told us to try a different brand b/c it was much better. We also got some chorizo to cook at home and Blondie tried a mexican dessert which pretty much tasted like easter candy. Which I love. We will be back to that place.

This morning I woke up hung.over. I waited about an hour to make sure my system was done revolting before putting in 1+ hours working out. I got all the leftover booze out of my system and feel much better. We had our groceries delivered today (lazy lazy lazy) and are set for the week.

Now for some football.

--K

A Hot Date with Beer and Doughnuts

Low key week... Loooooooooooooow key......

On Thursday, the clouds started rolling in and the temperature started dropping - it was one of those days where all you want to do is go home, climb into your pajamas, order a pizza and eat it in bed while watching TV. Unfortunately, on Thursday, there was a going away party for one of my favorite people at work. So I didn't get to put my plan in action. But it was okay because I wanted to be there for my buddy - she's an awesome person, so funny and smart, her projects always went on time and went well, and she can drink me under the table.

On Friday, the weather was the exact same - and it was also first full day Friday back. Le sigh. Fortunately, I have a hot blonde husband who listened to me on Thursday about what I wanted to do. I came home that night and he made me a big plate of spaghetti and garlic bread, and we crashed out while watching TV. Then, to make it even better, at about 10:30 pm, Blondie turned to me and said "hmmm... want to go get some wings and beer?" Well OF COURSE I do! We headed out 1 block to our tiny neighborhood bar, and spent a pleasant couple of hours before heading home. I had just enough beer to put me into a deeper than usual sleep and it rocked.

Saturday I woke up a bit worried. I had a 4 mile run scheduled for the day and I thought maybe wings and beer would affect it - and it did - but in an awesome way. I had one of the best runs I've had since I started back on it - it was one of those runs where the breath and the strides align, and I bounced along at a pretty good speed for the entire time. It felt AWESOME. I had a huge runners high after.

I went back up to our apartment when I was done working out, and bragged all over the place to Blondie, before we headed out to do our grocery shopping. We both agreed that all we wanted to do was drink some beer and watch some college football (go Badgers!), so we picked up some 6-ers and headed back to the apartment to veg. 4 hours later, we were out of beer, so Blondie had to go out and get some more 6-ers. We ordered some street tacos to be delivered, and got pleasantly drunk by ourselves. We rule.

Yesterday it was another crap day - we both did a workout in the morning, before heading out at lunch for beers and sandwiches before hitting up our local Dunkin Donuts. Um. Oops. I had 8 chocolate donut holes and 1 glazed donut, but OMG, so worth it. We hit the 2 hour window yesterday where it didn't rain, which was good for us - we ended up watching it pour out the window all afternoon before cheering on Green Bay to a victory.

Today it's another crappy weather day (Jets delay anyone?) - I soaked myself trying to get home from work, but am happy I'm here and dry. Blondie made chicken and rice and veggies for dinner (yum!) and now I'm about to get a granola bar. The Jets are winning thus far, albeit slightly. And Monday is over. It could be worse.

--K

The essence of NYC

A Salt and Battery fish and chips shop - a tasty tasty lunch in Greenwich Village. Picture taken by Blondie.



--K

Killing Bill, drinking Bailey's

What a perfect week... I'll start with that. I got some good news at work this past week - I won't fill in details, but just say that it does involve both my boss and my coworkers showing that they are impressed with how I'm doing.

On Thursday, I headed to my eye doctor's appt - it was my first one in 4 years, but I hadn't been going since my eyesight hasn't changed at all. My eye doctor confirmed it - if anything, he said my eyes have gotten a slight bit stronger. But the bad thing is that I have inflamed corneas, and he wants me to stop wearing my contacts to let my eyes heal. I can't do that - I work out everyday and I sweat like crazy too - if I had on glasses, they would just slide down my face. But I have committed to changing my contacts monthly, and taking my contacts out as soon as I can at night.

After my eye doctor, I swung by my pedicure place since it was still early evening. Got a bright pink pedi, which is pretty cool - it's like watermelon or something. It's such a good color that one of the girls sitting beside me asked me what color it was, and what bottle I had used, because she wanted to use the same color.

So now it's Friday - 1 pm rolls around, and I get out on time (le sigh, last one). I met up with Blondie at a new bar in our hood that we've been wanting to try. We had seen it being worked on/constructed for a few months, and since the name of it (The Pourhouse) was the exact same name as one of our fav bars in TX, we decided to give it a whirl. We weren't expecting much as they had only been open about 2 weeks, but it turned out super freaking awesome. They had great drink specials, and the food was typical bar food but turned up about 5 notches. We stayed for a few beers, before heading down to Rudy's for a cheap pitcher.

What is it about Rudy's that attracts drunks to me and Blondie? Of course since Rudy's is super freaking cheap, it gets the drunks. But how do those drunks end up right by us every single time? We actually watched cops come in and tell the bartender to stop serving someone because he was so trashed, and then a second guy comes stumbling up beside me and asked the bartender if they sold near beer which made me about pee myself laughing.

After our pitcher, we took off to the cheap grocery to get our shopping done - smartest decision we made that day. For dinner on Friday, Blondie grilled up some kielbasa and onions. SO GOOD! Friday night was interesting - at about 9:30 pm, we heard this monster crash from somewhere in our apartment. The cats flipped out, we flipped out - it was unnerving. It turned out that the racks in our closet fell out of the wall and everything came tumbling down. Once we figured out what had happened, we got to laughing, but before that, it was just "WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!?!?"

So Saturday rolls around, and I felt so lazy. Couldn't decide if I wanted to work out or not - finally decided I needed to - so decided to work out in the apartment. Just as I was putting on my sneakers, our doorbell rang - it was maintenance there to fix the racks. So I drug my tired ass body down to the gym instead and ended up doing 4 mile run. That was it though - my body hit a wall and I didn't want to hurt myself, so I didn't lift any weights.

After the gym, I went back up and "helped" Blondie put all of our stuff back on the racks. By helped, I mean, I got a shower, ate breakfast, poked a few boxes around, and then collapsed on the floor. He loves me, let me tell you.

Saturday afternoon, we took a 2 mile walk (on top of the 4 mile run) down to Chelsea to check out High Line Park - it's an old elevated rail line that the city has converted into a beautiful park. It was gorgeous - so beautiful. Also, completely crammed full of people. We walked through the park, and then headed over to this fish and chips place a friend of mine had told me about - A Salt and Battery. OMG - it was some of the best fish I've eaten, although the chips were awful. I had cod and Blondie had pollock. I was covered in grease, vinegar and ketchup when through.

Yesterday was the textbook definition of Sunday Funday. We did our workouts and then headed up to Brazilian Fest on 6th Ave. We only stayed for a little bit, long enough to split a sausage and drink some lemonade, before heading back to the Pourhouse bar (from Friday) for some pitchers. We split some chicken wings - some of the best wings I've had - and 2 pitchers. Just as we were about to head on out, our bartender bought us some shots. I had tequila, Blondie had a Jaeger bomb. Then of course we needed another pitcher. And some mozarella sticks. And then we struck up a conversation with the 2 guys sitting beside us - I apparently renamed them at some point, and went back and forth between their "nicknames" and their real names all afternoon.

After all 4 of us were good and drunksie (like really drunksie), I decided I needed doughnuts, and they decided to go find their girlfriends (who were wandering around Brazilian Fest). Blondie and I started back to our house, but then I had a brilliant idea for tacos, so we hit up our little taco stand. I decided I absolutely can speak spanish, so ordered everything that way - I'm so embarrassed today - it was literally like "Uno carnita y uno chorize con papas y...." you get the picture. After our tacos, we got our doughnuts, and then we came home - where apparently I went straight to bed - at 5:30 pm. I don't remember any of it at all - I just know I rolled over at 7:18 am this morning and felt 100% great. I run on sleep deprivation most of the time, some kind of sleep disorder that I've never figured out - so last night was exactly what my body needed.

Today I did a workout again, and then Blondie and I made some eggs and coffee with Bailey's for breakfast. Now we've got Kill Bill Vol 1 in, and the patio door is open to let in some gorgeous NYC weather right now. We have no other plans, and I'm super excited to not move the rest of the day.

Hope everyone is doing well, and enjoying a labor-free Labor Day.

--K

The Cutest Kids In The World

TCKITW, the original, and TCKITW, v4.0 for your viewing pleasure. LOVE THEM SO MUCH! Best nieces anyone could ask for! Well, them and Blondie's nieces!



--K

Last of the summer Fridays

We're coming up on the very last summer Friday of the year. OMG. It's going to be awful. That first full Friday back feels like it takes 25000 hours to complete. I know, it's a pity party at my house and everyone is invited. I'm so whiny about this aren't I? Instead of enjoying 12 weeks of half-day Fridays, I'm focused on going back to what most everyone else does every week.

Okay, enough about summer Fridays.

We made our trek back to the Land of Cheese last week - we took off on Monday night, delayed due to rain in the NYC area. Landed late, and got our rental car for the hour drive to Blondie's hometown. We got to enjoy some quiet time with some of Blondie's family when we finally hit his area - his sister and her family, and his mom and dad.

Tuesday we got up and headed out for a run - I run all the time on a treadmill, and my first trek outside in several months was this day. I was slow, but still pushed through - the humidity was pretty bad, but the weather was slightly cooler than expected so that was nice. After our run, we headed over to Blondie's brother's house to meet their new baby girl. The same day that Blondie's grandma passed away, Blondie got a new niece also. Tuesday night was the wake, and while it was good getting to see Blondie's extended family, the reason we were there was no bueno.

Wednesday we went for another run, before heading over to the funeral. Blondie was a pallbearer, and I'm glad he got to do that for his grandma. After the funeral, we headed over for a buffet lunch with everyone - this was the best part of the day. We all sat around eating, chatting, drinking some beers, etc.

But no rest for the weary - as soon as lunch was done we were in the car headed back to the airport, where we were delayed once again, finally landing in NYC very late Wed night. We headed back to our apartment, repacked, took care of our shithead cats, and turned around 3 hours later to catch a flight to KY.

My family picked us up about an hour north of the city they live in, and we headed up a little further to get my uncle from a private airport (he has his own small plane and a pilot's license - he lives in Pennsylvania but flew in for the day) before heading to Kings Island for the day! It was a blast, even on 3 hours of sleep. We rode every single ride, drank some beers, downed some steak fries, and convinced my mom and sister to ride a water ride with us.

We got back to my parent's house late Thurs night, and fell straight into bed. Friday I was up and at em early - met Mr Pooh for a long run. He got me running pretty fast, so my timing was really good this time. Then it was back to his house for some more workout, before meeting up with everyone for lunch. Afterwards, what we do best - drinking, and card games. OMG - so much fun.

Around 5 pm, we headed out for happy hour and to meet up with my BFF in the whole wide world (squee!) and her man for a visit. The planned 1.5 hour HH turned into 4 hours of debauchery, before we ended up back at my sister's inhaling pizza and playing some dance game on her Wii. I about peed myself laughing at certain points.

Saturday was another day to go go go - we again met for lunch before heading back to Mr Poohs to play cards and drink again. We did a cookout on Saturday night, and I got to show TCKITW v4.0 some of my tats - she was fascinated by them. 1.5 years old and I think I've already convinced her to get one eventually.

I do have some pics of TCKITW and TCKITW v4.0, just need to download them. But it will happen and we can all breathe in the cuteness that are the 2 nieces.

Okay, so back to NYC on Sunday where I laid in a ball all day and poked my fat belly while complaining about how much I ate over the past 3 days. No amount of running counteracted what I did to myself.

Monday I felt drugged at work - it was all I could do to get through the day, and it's just today that I finally feel okay - but that might be due to the coffee I had this morning also.

Tomorrow I have an eye doctor's appt to take care of - I ripped one of my last set of contacts in KY, and can't stand wearing glasses everyday. And then Friday, I'm out the door as soon as that clock hits 1 pm. SUMMER FRIDAY! Blondie and I are going to meet for some lunch and beer. We are still trying to figure out what to do the rest of the weekend... Wicked? Avenue Q? Met? MOMA? Shake Shack? South Side Seaport?

So many choices, so little time...

Sorry for the delay in posts - last week took a lot out of both of us, and I wanted some time to decompress before filling everyone in.

Happy Almost Labor Day!

--K

Saying Goodbye

We got the news on Saturday morning that Blondie's grandma had passed. She was the last surviving grandparent on either side, and we are going to miss her so much. She was an extremely classy lady, one of the nicest people I've known, and always welcomed me into her life just as if I'd been born a G-ster instead of marrying in. Hugs and Kisses Grandma - we are going to miss you.

We did have plans for yesterday, but due to getting the news, we've lain low all weekend.

Last week was also low-key - coming into freeze for a major project I'm on, and trying to get it all cleaned up has been taking my time. I'm writing up defects, farming them up, getting shit cleaned up - you name it, I'm there holding the shovel behind it.

Hope everyone has a good week.

--K

I don't have a lot this week, but I am a shitty sister... So there's that

First off, HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to sis and brother R! Their birthdays were 8/11 and 8/10 respectively. I brain farted and didn't post a shout out to them on the blog on their days, but I did update their FB pages and in the case of sis, talk to her to wish her a happy birthday. Love from your crappy sister...

This past week was pretty tame. I feel like Blondie and I crammed so much stuff into our weeks and weekends when we first moved here, that taking a well-deserved break from the more touristy activities is a relief right now.

Blondie took off on Monday to Arkansas for the week - his baby bro is in graduate school there, and Blondie went down to hang for a week before classes started up again. He had a great time - from hiking and camping, to eating Chick-fil-A, it was everything he wanted in his vacation.

I, on the other hand, did jack squat all week. I worked of course. There is always that. But other than that, nada. I came home every night, made some type of mexican food for dinner (with Blondie out of town, it was all Kerri in the kitchen, all the time), and then crashed in front of the T.V.

On Wednesday, I got fed up with my hair. I had the very long, very straight hippie do left over from living in San Francisco for too long - I was in the process of putting it up on Wednesday when it hit me - "why do I do this? Why do I keep it really long and then tie it off my face? Why not just cut it off?" So I did. I LOVE THE NEW HAIRCUT! OMG. It makes me look about 10 lbs lighter, and it's so much cooler than all that hair I had before.

My hairdresser thinks I should go blonde, but I have to think about that one for awhile. It's been a long long time since I was blonde, and I'm not sure I'm ready to do that again - so I pussed out on changing my hair color. But I'm ecstatic with the cut.

Blondie flew back on Friday and we spent yday afternoon crushing on each other and our city. We got in a good workout, and then enjoyed some us time - we headed up to our veggie and meat markets, and stopped at our local magazine stand for lottery tickets, and then headed out to lunch at our bar - we snagged a prime seat on the patio, enjoyed some (many) cheap beers, ate some good grub, and people watched the afternoon away.

After our lunch, we headed back to our building and went up to the top floor (45th). It was a perfect day outside, 83 degrees and sunny, and the view from up top was spectacular. We both just kept saying "OMG. We live here!" or "OMG! Did you ever imagine 20 years ago that you'd be living in NYC now?"

After our trip to the top, we came back down and enjoyed a few more beers on our patio, before I crashed for a little bit. We ordered in a sub (I ate an entire 12" meatball sub on my own) and some pizza slices for dinner, and called it an early night.

Due to my sub-fiasco last night, I just got back from 2 hours at the gym. I feel a lot better now than I did before the workout. Today, Blondie and I are talking about going up to visit "Pop Tart World" in Times Square - 3000 sq ft dedicated to the pop tart. We also have to run another errand in Times Square. But the weather has turned crappy - it's completely overcast out there now, so maybe we'll just watch TV all day. What a great day to do nothing!

--K

A whole lotta nada

After our Willie Nelson concert last week, Blondie and I decided to lay low and just take it easy. We didn't entirely succeed in this mission, but had a good weekend anyway.

On Friday, I moved offices at work - I moved from my office down a little hall with no windows, to one on the main drag of the office with windows overlooking NYC and the East River. I thought I would love this - and I do, except that being on the main drag - everybody and their brother drops in. Sometimes this rocks, sometimes this is no bueno. Also, it's about 3 degrees in my office - the a/c runs full-blast at all times. I had to borrow someone's snuggie (it was a gag gift at the office holiday party) and cover the vents and then cover the snuggie with my whiteboard (which I took off the wall for this).

Since Friday is a short day at work and most of it was spent moving, my coworkers decided drinks were in order for Friday afternoon. We hit up one of our local bars that has a rooftop patio. It was a gorgeous NYC day - perfect temp, sun was shining - and we got awesome seats since we got there at 1:30 pm. Blondie joined us around 5, and by 9:30, I was home and getting sick. Sigh. Who's 35? Apparently not me - it turns out I act like I'm 17!

Saturday I felt right as rain though so Blondie and I did a good workout, and then I got a pedicure - I heart the color I got done and might make it my "signature" color. After the pedi, we went and did all of our grocery shopping before heading home to crash the day away.

Sunday we headed up to Times Square to see Inception, and holy shit - it was literally one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life. Blondie and I are still talking about it - 6 days later - trying to figure it out. We both have different theories, and both question how/why things occurred in some of the dream sequences. When a movie can make you question it almost a week after you've seen it - it's so worth it. Go see it. You need to. And I'm saying this even though Johnny Depp isn't in it - so you know I HAVE to love it.

This week went by kind of fast. It was work work work every day, but for some reason, it didn't feel like a dragged out week like it normally does.

Yesterday I was supposed to meet Blondie for drinks and lunch at 1 pm - but got waylaid at work. We're in the final stages of testing for a project I'm on, and someone had checked in some code that broke everything - so it was tracking that person down, getting the code cleaned up, making sure everything was up and running, etc (I still do traces of my old job duties in addition to my new role). Because of all this, I met Blondie 2.5 hours after I was supposed to - but we did get a nice spot on the patio and got to people watch and drink $2 Miller Lites for the rest of the afternoon. I'm going to miss summer Fridays.

I'm not sure what all we're going to do this weekend, but we are definitely going to see Dinner for Schmucks at some point. I need to get in a good run today, and Blondie has to pack as he's off to Arkansas to hang with his baby bro for a week. We bought tics back to KY for a couple of weeks from now to see my family, and SF trip is back on for work - I'm either headed there in 1 week for a week, or I'm headed out in the middle of Sept for 2 weeks.

Also, the best news! Last night, after too many Miller Lites, we bought tickets for my birthday to see Green Bay and the Jets! We are in the end zone, 10 rows up - so super awesome seats! I'm taking the Monday off after the game too, since it's a Sunday night game. So excited! Time to bust out the Green Bay gear...

--K

Willie Nelson, You Are Always On My Mind

OMG people! Last night was... Best! Night! Ever! When we first moved to NYC back in February, we made a list of things we wanted to do here before we left (you can see the list on my NY blog). One of the things was "Concert at Radio City Music Hall". So I went digging, looked around, and holy crap - Willie Nelson was coming to town in July. I booked immediately.

Flash forward to last night (about 4 months after I booked the tickets), and here comes Willie!

I started my day off by dressing in cowtown clothes - that is, I wore my cowboy boots. I felt like a giant jackass all day long (hint: people at work give you really funny looks when you wear cowboy boots), but it didn't bother me.

I met Blondie for dinner at a diner, we both enjoyed a hamburger and split a chocolate shake. Then we headed over to RCMH. Where I 100% fit in with my boots. And Blondie fit in with his facial hair. Literally, 80% of the men had some kind of random facial hair. Also, we were younger than about 95% of the people there too.

So Willie's warm-up band pretty much rocked my world - between them and a couple of beers, I was bouncing all over the place waiting for him to come out. And then he did! It was like the 2nd coming of christ - everyone went nutso.

He's a fabulous entertainer - a huge pot smoker (a lot of his lyrics were about being high) - and the most sprightly almost 80 year old I've ever seen go in my life. Blondie pointed out that since Willie is a huge pot smoker, and he's totally got more energy than either of us combined, maybe we should drop the beer habit and pick up a more herbal one. Which made me laugh until I about peed myself.

We love you Willie!
--K

You're so money, you don't even know it

I believe this is the year of the never-ending heat wave. It's so disgustingly hot outside, it's insane. All week long, it's been in the high 90's with horrible humidity. But for as much as I hate sweating through my clothes, I've also started to remember how much I love the heat in general.

This week was good - it was obviously hot, but a good week. I finally feel like I've settled into my new role (only took 6 months - go me), but I still don't like the position that much. I don't think I'll ever be comfortable having my job be making other people do their job. This week involved a lot of making uncomfortable decisions, but I did it - and because of that, I feel okay about work.

Outside of work, I had an excellent week. A friend of mine texted me on Thursday and asked me if Blondie and I wanted to join her and her hubby for Shakespeare in the Park on Friday. We were all over it! And then she told me we had to get in line at the theater in the park at 6 am on Friday to get tickets. Luckily, I'm a morning person, so we worked up an arrangement where I would meet her at 6, and then Blondie would take over my position in line at 9 am so I could go to work.

The alarm went off on Friday and it was just like being at the despised old job again (or bootcamp). My eyes popped open, and I was instantly wide awake. I left the apartment around 5:40 am, and was so freaking surprised by how many people were already out and about for the day! NYC wakes up early - or maybe it's better to say it just never goes to sleep to begin with.

I met my friend at the start of the line at 6, and we headed down the line to the end to join it. We started walking, and kept walking and walking and walking. So many people. SO MANY PEOPLE! They weren't even giving the tickets out until 1 pm, yet the line was ginormous. It was so different than going to Shakespeare in KY - there you just show up about an hour before the performance and throw your blanket on the grass. Of course, Al Pacino acts in the NYC Shakespeare, and he never came to KY once - so maybe that's the difference???

Anyway, about 6:45 am, the people that run Shakespeare came through and told us there was no way we were getting tickets that far back in line. So my buddy and I packed up our stuff, and headed for breakfast (side note: as I get older, it gets harder and harder to just make friends - but I honestly met this woman and felt like we had been friends for years already. Thanks Sweetie J! I owe you!) After breakfast, I cut back across the city to go to work. I didn't get my summer Friday on Friday as I had to make the decision to have everyone work the entire day (anyone want to guess as to how much they hate me right now?)

Friday night was low-key - I met Blondie at a german restaurant for some beers, and then we headed home to order some pizza for dinner. And then it was Saturday 5:30 am and I was up again. My sleep schedule tends to get thrown off very easily, so uber early Friday leads to uber early Saturday.

After a good workout, Blondie and I headed up to Port Authority to catch the bus to Atlantic City. We had a fantastic trip - enjoyed some really good seafood, and spent the afternoon and evening gambling the day away (craps, blackjack and pai gow). We caught a 1 am bus back to the city which put us into NY at 4 am this morning. We are both way down for the trip - neither of us caught any kind of streak which kind of sucked. But it was so good just hanging with Blondie and getting out of the nasty heat of the city.

When we came out of Port Authority at 4 am today, I about fell over - even then, it was so muggy - I can't even describe it - it was like walking through hot soup or something. Ugh.

Today we slept in and then I found the energy somehow to force my way through some semblance of a workout. We headed down to our deli and got some cold sandwiches for lunch, and then a huge storm blew through so we watched that for awhile.

We have no plans for the upcoming week, but I'm hoping it goes by fast. Blondie has a trip to Arkansas coming up, and we are looking at heading to KY at the end of August. My boss has hinted around at me heading back to SF for a week for a project I'm on - I talked my way out of the first trip she wanted me to go on, but not sure I can do that again.

Sweatily Yours,
--K

From Broadway to Paris... With Love

First off, the answer to the question I know everyone is asking. It's "Yes, I did buy another eggplant this week". My food was SO GOOD last week (actually, I can't decide if it was really that good or if I'm just a cheapskate) that I'm doing it again this week. I'm off to grill up an eggplant as soon as I'm done here. I did hit up my salad place today for lunch though - can't have my guys forgetting I'm "mixed greens" girl.

The early part of last week was pretty low-key, but then Thursday started the fun. Blondie came and met up with me and 5 of my coworkers for some Korean Fried Chicken. Between the 7 of us, we managed to put away 4 huge bottles of Soju. Um, WTF? How? We also managed to cram down more food than should be legal. OMG. I seriously felt so gut-heavy when we left, like it was pulling me down.

Friday, I got out of work early (woot!) so I met Blondie for some hurricanes and cajun food (he had smothered chicken and biscuits, and I had etoufee) for lunch. 1 hurricane turned into 1 hurricane and a beer, turned into 1 hurricane, a beer, and 2 margaritas, turned into the same + 8 beers. Oops. :) And a bag of pretzels.

Saturday we had no plans, so we decided to head up to see an off-Broadway play we'd been wanting to see - The Screwtape Letters. This is a story originally penned by C.S. Lewis - it was basically a 1 man play, involving a bureaucrat in hell who was sending letters to his nephew in the real word who was trying to recruit people to the devil's side. It was so incredibly interesting - I was shocked. The set was minimal but spooky, the main actor was the perfect person for the role, and they brought in enough modern day references and comic-relief, that it never felt like you were being preached to.

Seeing the play was like being in church though. The people behind me kept saying "yes! Yes! oh yes lord!" and the woman beside me was bored out of her mind and kept sighing and slamming her body around her chair.

After the play, we headed off for some nachos and beers before heading home early and taking it easy the rest of the night.

Sunday, we decided to do a heavy workout (we workout every single day of the week, but on Sunday, we wanted a hard-core workout). We headed down to our gym, and busted some major ass, before heading on over to Brooklyn. Some friends of ours were headed to Bastille Day in Brooklyn, so we met up with them and some of their friends. Our day involved a ton of fabulous new people (I'd be friends with them all), a lot of champagne cocktails (you can drink on the street!) and some pizza to end it all. It's a good thing I did that hard-core workout, let me tell you. Captain Butterball, reporting for duty!

Today it's 5000 degrees outside (no exaggeration) and I managed to sweat out everything I ate over the weekend. I had to run to Times Square after work to do an errand and decided to take the underground path from Port Authority to Times Square. The non-air conditioned, underground path, crammed full of people headed home from work. I sweated clear through my khakis and had to walk around Times Square with 2 enormous circles of sweat on my butt cheeks. Swamp Ass - that's the technical terms for it.

Hope everyone is doing well, and is less sweaty than us!

--K

The way to my heart

Blondie brought me treats this past weekend - he knows me too well. Roses and a celebrity gossip magazine. I LOVE THIS MAN!



--K

Making Eggplant. Yeah baby. Exciting life I lead!

To start with, let me say - I'm a salad girl. At least 2-3 times a week for lunch, I get a huge veggie salad with 1 protein on top (chicken, shrimps, egg, something). I love my salads. It's so hot here, that all I basically eat is fruit, cereal, and salad. What I don't love about my salad is paying a minimum of $8 a day for salad for lunch. Ugh. Why can't my salads be free?

Sooooo, this past Saturday when we hit up our cheap ass farmer's market, the whole paying for a salad was on my mind - and I saw the most beautiful eggplants. Ever. I just finished cooking up one and Blondie grilled me a chicken breast - I have lunches for the rest of the week! Go me!

I'm sure my salad guy is going to miss me though - I'm in my salad place so much that as soon as they see me, they start with the mixed greens as the base. It's kind of embarrassing actually. So many places to eat in NYC, and I pick the same one. Every. Single. Day.

This was a very good, but still very jam packed week we just came off of. Slick and PFunk left last Monday, and on Wednesday, we had our very first Mets game! They played the Reds (whom I used to ADORE but that's only because KY doesn't have any pro sports teams at all, and the Reds are basically in KY anyway). I met Blondie and we took the subway out to Queens. The ride was nice, but honestly people - I must have a sign stuck to me that says "I want you to talk to me!" Everytime I get on a car, I guarantee I've either got the crazies, the people who want to convert you to their religion, or the ones that feel the need to tell you everything about them.

This ride was no exception - I listened to a gentleman prattle on and on for the 35 minute ride, and the conversation ended by him telling Blondie he would look for him in his Mets cap on TV. Yes, because nobody else at Citifield would be wearing a Mets cap. Oh well, he made the ride interesting at least. If that was my biggest problem last week, then I'm 1 f'ing lucky person.

So the Mets lost which was sad - and brought our record of seeing NY sports teams play to 0 and 4. Yes, every single team has lost. But Citifield had some of the most amazing stadium food I've ever had. They had fresh jalapenos on their condiment station for crying out loud. It was beautiful. I almost cried. And then I molested the hell out of the condiment stand. Parents were covering their kids eyes - "don't look! don't look!"

Then, on Saturday, Blondie and I had tickets to see the Gotham Girls Roller Derby! We decided to cheer for the Queens of Pain (their mascot was a guy completely dressed in S&M gear - how can you NOT root for them?) They played the Brooklyn Bombshells, and absolutely whipped them. I LOVE ROLLER DERBY! I've made a decision to start taking skating lessons from the girls, because I think I'd be a bad ass blocker. It's all about the thighs, and trust me, I have the thighs. Blondie and I had a blast on Saturday, all without booze, because the rink was actually in a local college - no alcohol sold on that campus. It was so worth it. What a great game!

And finally, what I will call Shit Show Sunday. We got up and headed down to Greenwich Village to do a walking tour with a local meetup group we are a part of. Our subway ride (back to the crazies) involved an entire family from North Caroline (they screamed that they were from there) and a daughter-in-law who decided to climb up the rails and hang from her knees upside down. She kept hollering "Take a picture! Take a picture!" This woman was at least 25 years old. OMG. I couldn't decide whether to laugh until I peed myself or get the skeevies about how many gross germs she was picking up by flinging herself around like that.

And just so everybody doesn't think I'm a super mega bitch, I totally helped them with directions to the WTC site before we got off the train. Also, they TOTALLY reminded me of my family. North Carolina and KY are pretty dang close.

Anyway, I love the West Village area, and was really looking forward to hearing some more of the history about the place. So I was completely looking forward to this tour. But it was not good - I'm sure there are really good tours/tourguides, but our guide was not one of them. He did take us to 1 interesting site (in 2 hours) - some old stables that had been converted into houses on a street that was gated off. I didn't even know that existed. But the rest - nah. He seriously took us into Washington Square Park to look at an elm tree. I'm still not sure how that relates to Greenwich Village.

Afterwards, Blondie and I headed for margaritas and mexican food - which officially started Shit Show Sunday. While we were dining on the outdoor patio, I happened to notice a little bar across the street, down some steps, with $3 PBR specials. As soon as we were done with lunch, we hit up the bar where we got to watch the last of the World Cup game. The primary team being rooted for was Spain, and a woman in the bar kept screaming "Espana! Espana! We are the champions of the world!" Blondie made me about lose it when he said "If the Netherlands score (prior to Spain winning of course), then I'm going to scream Deutch! Deutch! and dry hump the TV screen".

After the game, we headed back to our hood but stopped on the way to pick up some margarita mix. We proceeded to each down a ton of beer and another margarita when we got home. I was fast asleep by 9 pm, completely drunk off my ass. I think I carried on an hour long conversation with my mom on the phone at some point but I could not tell you what we talked about to save my life.

Also, I'm getting old - today I totally felt everything I did to my body yesterday. I walked around work in a daze, feeling like I had been sucker punched in the gut all day. OMG. So old!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! We have no plans coming up, just some relaxation time built in. Can't wait to just enjoy what NYC throws at us.

--K

It's really f'ing hot here

And apparently, the belly is the air conditioner for a cat.

Revisit, redo, and recap

Monday: Last week started off with Blondie's sister and her family (husband and baby) coming for a visit. I came home from work on Monday and we took off to our local bar (it's totally baby-friendly, for as much as a bar can be baby-friendly) for some grub and beers. While we were sitting there chatting and relaxing, we decided a night out in Times Square was needed. We headed up in the horrendous heat to take in the lights and sounds of the craziest section of New York (which is saying A LOT).

One of the local businesses had taken over one of the huge electronic billboards - they had trained a camera on the crowd so basically you could see yourself on the huge screens of Times Square. The 4 of us spent literally about 15 minutes being giant jackasses and laughing our asses off at ourselves. Hey, if you can't laugh at yourself... BTW, it was all my idea to do this too!

Tuesday: I met back up with the group on Tues evening in Little Italy for some pasta dinner. It was a quick 15 minute train ride down, and my pasta con broccoli was killer. We split a caraffe (how do you spell that?) of wine and just enjoyed getting to catch up.

Wednesday: The family was off, but Sweetie J was ready for some action. She came to my office and hung out with me for awhile, before we headed over to Murray Hill to meet up with some of her friends from Brooklyn. Blondie joined us for a fabulous indian food dinner at the suggestion of her friend. The restaurant (Copper Chimney) was soooo good, and I think I made some pretty obscene noises as I slobbered over the lamb chops with yogurt sauce. Go me! Many bottles of beer, and after dinner was over, it was time to head to a local bar and party it up San Francisco style!

Thursday: Um, owies! I nursed a headache all day but sucked it up big time and headed out to meet up with Blondie, Slick and PFunk. They had flown in from Chicago (minus Blondie who just flat out lives here) early Thurs morning and had spent the day drinking beers, napping, and generally making me jealous. The 4 of us decided to hit our local cheap bar (hint: I'm going to marry Rudy's when it becomes legal to marry an inanimate object). PFunk and I managed to catch the eye of a very inebriated (very x very) lady who took it upon herself to try and be our BFF's. This is literally what I understood of what she said to us over the course of 20 minutes: chickpeas, pressure cooker, 3 pounds, helicoptor, Beyonce. The rest of her words ran together so hard - it was like madlibs without any clues.

PFunk and I literally pushed the guys out of the bar, we were trying to escape so bad. We headed down the street to our local sports bar to imbibe some more and split a plate of onion rings. PFunk had an awesome idea for Turkish Cuisine, so we headed there for dinner. Since I hadn't gotten my fill of lamb from the previous night, I got the lamb stuffed bell peppers - I was about to take a bath with them, they were so good.

Friday: 1 pm end time = Lombardi's pizza by 1:30. Such great pizza, and no wait time like Grimaldi's! Afterwards, we wandered through Chinatown and over to the Brooklyn Bridge - it was a gorgeous day for a walk over, and then we found a bar and had several beers while cooling down. We got a completely nutter bartender whom I wanted to adopt. His opinion: you haven't seen Central Park until you've been there after midnight. Also, if I went after midnight and got mugged, I could drink for free whenever I went into his bar. My opinion: It's almost worth it for free beer.

We caught the train back to the city and relaxed for a bit afterwards, before getting ready and heading out to Les Halles!!!! This is Tony Bourdain's restaurant (even though he isn't associated with it any longer - that I'm aware anyway). Our meal was so good - I got steak covered in foie gras. I'm aware that foie gras is a hot topic, and am always very hesitant to eat it. To be fair to me, it's only about the 3rd time in my life that I've had it - so it's not like I'm eating it out every single weekend. But I did have a lot of guilt afterwards, so I think I'll add it to my list of "no way jose". It's a shame it tastes so f'ing good.

After our meal, we headed out for more beers - we gave ourselves a curfew of 12:30 am which extended to 1 am rather quickly. We had a curfew for a good reason - and I'm glad we stuck to it because....

Saturday: STATUE OF LIBERTY AND ELLIS ISLAND TOUR!!! We were up and out of the house by 11 am to catch the train down to the tip of Manhattan. We waited in a line that was crazy big, but was absolutely worth it. We didn't have tickets to actually go up into the statues, but we got to completely wander all around the base of the statue. The boat ride over was beautiful and the views of the city skyline from the island was amazing. After the statue, we caught a second ferry boat to Ellis Island and went through the Immigration Museum. The exhibits were amazing, and it felt exhilirating to get a tiny sense of what people did to move to this country. Blondie and Slick were able to search for some of their relatives from the museum's database.

We caught the ferry back to Manhattan and enjoyed a pitcher of beer in the beer garden, before heading back to our hood for some pizza and a shower. At 8 pm that night, Slick's cousin caught up with us along Sweetie J and another buddy of ours from San Francisco. We went for tapas and enjoyed a beautiful Saturday night on a patio with many pitchers of Sangria.

Afterwards, off for beer! We hit up several bars before winding down the evening in a singing (not dueling) piano bar, serenading each other with heartfelt renditions of Bon Jovi, Journey, and showtunes. We got home around 4 am and decided food was in order. So I drug my drunk ass down to our 24 hour deli and proceeded to buy anything that wasn't nailed down.

Sunday: All of a sudden it was noon. WTF? How did that happen? I haven't slept past 7:45 am in about 5 years, but here we were. Blondie came to the rescue with a giant pot of coffee and then we headed out for greasy breakfast before catching the train to Central Park. It was crazy hot, so we found a tree, spread our blankets underneath, and rehydrated all afternoon with water.

We headed back to our hood early to buy some pies and snacks, and then it was to the apartment to start our party train off. 2 pitchers of margaritas later, it was time to head to our balcony to watch the fireworks show from there. HOW LUCKY ARE WE? As we watched millions of people trying to get out to the river to view the fireworks, all we had to do was step out our balcony door.

The fireworks were amazing. So good to finally see them in person. After the fireworks, we ordered in some more beer (and flaming hot Cheetohs) and drank the night away. My schedule is so f'ed up right now.

Today, everyone is gone. It's me and Blondie again. Le sigh. I'm going to try and get back to Chicago to visit Slick and PFunk in August, along with a trip to KY to visit the fam. Blondie is off to Arkansas to hang with his bro for a week, camping and fishing. And that's what we have to look forward to.

I'm in a down mood right now - I feel like I've had one of the top 5 weeks of my whole life this past week, and now it's back to work, work, work. It's Monday dread times 50000.

I think I need a vacation.

--K