WHEW! THANK YOU TO THE SUPER V's AND MR POOH!

Last Sunday took a turn when my bar friends texted around 1 pm to come meet them at Pony Bar. Blondie was waiting for his sis and her family to show back up, so I went up without him to hang out. We tried out some new items on the Pony Bar menu (fish donuts = suprisingly YUM), and enjoyed several frosties. We had just tabbed out to head to another bar when Blondie texted that his sis was there. So I took my leave of my bar friends and headed home to hang with the fam. We spent the evening catching up on their weekend, playing with the nieces, and enjoying some Ethiopian food before heading to bed for an early night.

Monday was a crazy day. I had taken the day off from work, and so we headed out around 11 am to go to Lombardi's for pizza. We all split a salad (crazy good) and breadsticks, and then Blondie and I got sausage and mushroom pizza and The V's got prosciutto and tomato pizza. Um, shame face, but I also had a sangria with my lunch. After Lombardi's we headed over to show The V's the Freedom Tower - we were going to wait for them to tour the memorial but it was a 4 hour wait for tickets and none of us wanted to hang out that long.

From Freedom Tower, it was back up the island to go through FAO Schwarz. I was in heaven almost instantly as this time I found the candy, and they had a gummy bear as big as my head. I took my picture with it, and sent it to my SF friends who know my love of all things gummy. Afterwards, we played a lot with the nieces on some train sets and the giant piano, before sneakily buying the 2.5 year old niece a Hello Kitty I Love NY doll. FAO Schwarz is almost directly across from Central Park, so after the store, we headed into the park to crash out (adults) for a bit and play (kids) for a bit. The day was beautiful so we found a nice patch of lawn in the sun, and watched the kids run around. We then cut all the way back across the park to the John Lennon Memorial and Dakota complex, before catching a train back to our hood. Dinner that night was at our peruvian restaurant, complete with a couple of glasses of sangria.

I had to go back to the office on Tuesday but it was all good - I got completely cleared from the cervix scare in August (everything healed and looks fabulous) so that made my day aok. I met Blondie and The V's for dinner at a local italian place that night, and afterwards we bought a bunch of sweets to end our night. Wednesday it was a goodbye to The V's - they headed back home. It was soooo good seeing them - their kids are dolls, and they rock themselves! Work that day felt a lot longer - I was sad to say goodbye, but then also looking forward to Mr Pooh arriving. So just a really long day.

Thursday sucked. My role at work is an amalgamation of a lot of different pieces, and another one got dumped on me on Thursday. I spent the morning talking to my friends about it, trying to decide if I would say yes or not. I ended up talking myself into a shitty mood, so the 3 of us (my 2 friends and I) took off for a long lunch. Where I also talked myself into saying yes. Pbbbtttt....

Friday was WAY BETTER than Thursday. It started off with a 2.5 hour work out in the gym, and then Mr Pooh was here! I showered up and then me, Mr Pooh and Blondie took off for Lombardi's - yes, we ate there Monday and Friday. We split a salad again, and then a large pizza with sausage on it all, and spinach on half and meatballs on half. Mr Pooh and I downed a pitcher of Stella also. After lunch, we walked over to NYU and hung out in Washington Sq Park for awhile. We listened to a brass band play some songs, made fun of the naked hairy guy, and cringed at Pigeon Man (a guy covered in pigeons). Mr Pooh tried to convince Blondie to take a picture with Pigeon Guy but Blondie didn't go for it.

After the park, we headed back to our hood and stopped at poison bar to waste the afternoon away. One of my bar friends joined us also, and we got pleasantly tipsy. It was then a trek over to our local bar to end the evening. Well, almost end the evening. The real end of the evening came with a stop at 7-11, and then eating junk food while watching Rock of Ages. All in all, a fabulous start to the weekend.

Saturday I convinced Mr Pooh to work out with me, and then we took a walk over to the High Line park and walked all the way down it. We did this because David Blaine was in town doing a stunt at the end of the High Line (Electrified!). Mr Pooh and I stopped to see him - it was free and nobody was in line. We got about 20 feet from him and then laughed for like 5 mins. It was pretty cool, but also pretty cheesy.

After David Blaine, we caught a train down to Chinatown and did some shopping before heading back to our hood and meeting up with Blondie for lunch. After lunch, we stopped for a few beers before crashing out for a nap and a movie that afternoon. Around 5:30 on Saturday, Mr Pooh and I headed out for another walk. We hit Hudson River Park and saw the Intrepid, and walked about 1.5 miles up towards Harlem, before cutting over to the west side. We made our way to Central Park, had a really long serious conversation about what we would do if we saw Alec Baldwin (and also a really long conversation about how fun it would be to drunk-heckle David Blaine at 4 am), and then wound our way around Columbus Circle.

On our way back to the hood, I mentioned to Mr Pooh that there was a whiskey bar I had been dying to try, so we stopped in there and had a blast. The bartender was awesome, he convinced us to try several really good bourbons, we had some great conversation, and we got "happy". We texted Blondie and he ended up coming out to join us, but he was starving, so it was a trip to an Irish bar down the street that had awesome fish&chips. And then we headed home, stopping of course at 7-11 for some tasty grub to finish the day.

Sunday we went for breakfast (bagels) and then were going to hit up Intrepid. But the line to get in was super long, so we decided to skip. We went back to the apartment and played a bunch of Fusion Frenzy before meeting up with one of my bar friends to watch the Packers (sigh. Seriously? Packers?) We cheered them on to no avail, got drunk, and ate some delicious nachos. After the game ended, Mr Pooh, my bar friend and I headed to Pony for a few drinks while Blondie headed home to relax/calm down after the shit show of a game. We eventually called Blondie to come meet us as we were going for fried pizza for dinner. Which ended up being not that great. The regular pizza rocked, but the fried pizza was too much like a doughnut and not enough like a pizza. After dinner, we caught a cab home, amused the fuck out of our cab driver with our drunk banter, and then said goodbye to my bar friend for the night. A drunk-face-time call to Mr Pooh's kids completed our night - they are SO adorable, and seeing their giggly faces made my night!

Today I walked Mr Pooh up to Penn Station - he's off to NJ for the week for work. It was hard saying goodbye - I know he would laugh at me if he saw me getting weepy so I basically just said "See you!" and ran. Work today actually went okay - I was very sad all day, but the meeting I was d.r.e.a.d.i.n.g turned out to have good news so that worked out well. I got home tonight and did a workout to clear my head once and for all. We ordered in peruvian for dinner, and now I'm ready to relax and do nothing for the rest of the night. And a big huge thanks to Mr Pooh for coming to visit also! We love you!

Workouts were still pretty dang good.
Monday: 45 mins on bike - 2 mins level 5, 2 mins level 9; 5 min cooldown; weights
Tuesday: 30 mins hill running - 2 mins 4.1 mph walk on 0% grade; 2 mins 5.3-5.5 mph run on 3% grade; 5 min cooldown; weights
Wednesday: 3.1 mile run - 37:42 - 2 mins 4.1 mph walk, 2 mins 5.7-6.5 mph run; 5 min cooldown; weights
Thursday: Insanity Cardio Recovery; P90X Ab Ripper
Friday: 2.5 hour workout - 3.1 mile run in 35:30*; 5 min cooldown; ton of weights; 10 min on bike - 5 mins at level 12, 5 min at level 13; 5 min cooldown; 10 min walk at 3.4 mph up 6% grade hill; 5 min cooldown; abs; stretching
Saturday: 28 min on Precor - 2 min at level 6, 2 min at level 10; 5 min cooldown; little bit of weights
Sunday: 20 mins on treadmill - 2 mins 4.1 mph walk, 2 mins 5.7-6.5 mph run; 5 min cooldown; little bit of weights
Monday: P90X Legs&Back

* = I felt great on my run, loved it - felt SO EASY. Then when I was riding the bike, I noticed that the treadmill I was running on didn't look flat. So I took a look after my bike ride - and realized the front of the treadmill dips down a little, so it was like running downhill the entire time. No wonder it was so easy.

--K