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

I have no title today

I'm trying to get off my ass right now and go for a run. It's not working.

Okay, so, I had a pretty good week. It could've been better, but it also could've been way worse - so that nets out to a win in my book.

Monday I came home from work and Blondie had some serious cabin fever. After dinner, he wanted to head out to buy some coffee so I went with him. It was a beautiful night, the sun was just starting to set - so Blondie suggested a walk to the Hudson. We sat out by the river, people watching, eavesdropping and debating about whether the city across the river was Hoboken (Blondie) or Jersey City (me). I lost.

We also found some free binoculars for your viewing pleasure - the kind that normally you have to put a quarter in. I made the pretty bad discovery that if you aimed the binoculars at our building, you could see in windows - you couldn't see in our windows as we are too low and face the other way. BUT, if people by the river can see into any window, that means that buildings that are close to mine can potentially see in our place. No more naked-walking around the apartment I guess. Sigh.

So half my office was in the SF office for work this week. I had big plans to leave a little early most of the week, but those were thwarted. We have 2 big projects coming up, and sure as shit, both of them had major issues this week that we were desperately trying to work through.

On Thurs, late in the evening, my friend suggested heading to a part of Manhattan called Koreatown for (you guessed it) Korean food. A call to Blondie and he caught a cab to meet us. We went for Korean fried chicken - a different kind of KFC! A huge bottle of Soju and a ginormous sampler platter later, we decided that the only appropriate way to end the evening was with fro-yo (thank god it wasn't karaoke).

We walked into the fro-yo place and lo and behold - they have Cap'n Crunch for a topping. OMG. Soooo good! I have an obsession with cereal but try to not buy sugar cereal because I treat sugar cereal boxes like it's my own personal sized box - I literally can eat an entire box of sugar cereal over the course of the day. But I added that Cap'n Crunch to my pomegranate yogurt and it was so good. Drool.

Friday night, Blondie and I trucked off to dinner where I received a text from Sweetie J. She had flown in from SF for the upcoming week and surprised us!!! She's staying in Brooklyn with a friend, but I met up with yesterday in Central Park for some beers on a blanket. I got to meet her friends from the city - she used to live here - and it was perfect temperature for a day in the park. Blondie stayed back and ended up watching the World Cup game, so his day wasn't quite as good as mine.

We have big plans this upcoming week too - we have a shit ton of cleaning to do today, and I need to get a good workout in and a pedicure. Blondie's sis and her husband and baby get into the city tomorrow. They leave Wed morning and we have dinner plans with Sweetie J and some of her friends Wed night. Thurs, Slick and his woman are coming in from Chicago for the weekend. Saturday night, another meetup with Sweetie J and another friend of ours from SF, Dirty Sanchez.

Now I just have to survive this work week! Blah. Maybe I'll make my good workout a jog to the corner store for lottery tickets.

--K

Crack is whack!

As promised, the picture of the Liberty Bell. Ahem, pssst, Liberty Bell? Your crack is showing!



--K

Chock Full o' ...

I'm coming off a jam-packed week, which interestingly enough, made my work week fly by. That rarely happens, so I'm quite happy with how it turned out. Anything that can make work go faster is 2 giant thumbs up in my book.

On Monday, I got stuck staying late at work for a project I'm on. Around 8 pm, when I was getting ready to leave, 2 of my besties from work suggested dinner. I wanted a burger, 1 of my friends wanted wine, and another one wanted mussels (random all the way around) so we ended up in a Belgium restaurant on the UES enjoying all 3. My girlfriend and I got a little blotto while my guyfriend just laughed at us both and ate all the food.

Tues night Blondie came home from the Land of Cheese! I met him at our cajun place in our hood where we both had a hurricane and a beer, and split some food. It was so good seeing Blondie again - 9 days apart is a lot.

Wednesday night was my 3.5 mile run through Central Park. I run on the treadmill 100% of the time and I'm fine with it - 3.5 miles on the treadmill is always doable. On the treadmill with no inclines in the air-conditioned gym in the morning no later than 7 am. I'm fine with that. Outside? At night? With hills? Um... BUT I DID IT! I'm a slow runner, but I got all 3.5 miles without stopping - and also, I noticed that all the hills in NYC are in Central Park, on the route that our race was on. My times probably would've been about 3-4 minutes faster if the walkers had lined up where they were supposed to - 15000 people entered and all I did was dodge walkers. It was also probably a lot more than 3.5 miles simply from all the weaving I had to do.

After my race, we stopped at Cold Stone so I could get a small Strawberry, Mango & Banana Sorbet mixed with gummy bears, before heading on home to order in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Thurs night and Fri night, we stayed in. The week had caught up with me, and I quite honestly, have something going on with my stomach. It started on race night where absolutely nothing sounded good - and nothing still sounds good. I'll be ravenously hungry but the thought of eating makes me want to vom. Hmmm... I hope it's not the precursor to some stomach flu.

Yesterday Blondie and I took off to the LES - we headed to Ippudo for ramen. This was Blondie's first visit, and my second one - the soupy ramen actually tasted good to me, so that made me happy. And Blondie LOVED it. I have a feeling we will be making a lot more trips down to visit.

After the ramen, we walked a few blocks over and toured Merchants House - it's an 1800's house, the only one left like it in NYC, completely restored to what it looked like in the 1800's. It was spooky and eerie, and also, the most haunted house in NYC. The whole house gave me chills. Every step you took, a floorboard would creak. The basement was freezing cold. The bedrooms where people died were boiling hot. The tour was amazing, but I was also glad to get out.

From the haunted house, to the oldest bar in NYC - McSorley's Ale House. Definitely a sight to see (from sawdust ALL OVER the floors to old-timey pictures ALL OVER the walls), and after more beers there than we intended, it was out to hit up a "Save the Lower East Side" festival that we had seen on our walk over.

Afterwards, we caught our train back to our hood and hit up our fish market for some tasty delights, before heading to the farmer's market and meat market.

Then it was home to collapse.

Today we are about 3 seconds from heading out to see the A-Team. We did laundry and a workout already this morning, and have to run an errand in Times Square after our movie, but then we are done for the weekend.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Finally, not only a big HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to the sheriff but also wishing TCKITW the happiest 5th birthday anyone can imagine!!!! I miss you sweetie and hope you are doing well!

--K

Shattered

I had my corporate challenge tonight. Even though I have no issues running on a treadmill, I haven't run outside in about 10 months.

It didn't matter tonight - I have been busting my ass hard at the gym and in working out in general, and it showed. I ran those 3.5 miles outside (not inside like usual), at night (not morning like general) and killed them.

I'm very proud of myself. And it was SO GOOD to have Blondie back and see him cheering me on as I rounded the corner into the home stretch.

Go me!

--K

Phew!

The week is over. I'm grateful. I had a blast last weekend in Philadelphia, but definitely am glad I'm in downtime right now.

So my week started with Blondie catching another Amtrak to Chicago. His dad came down from The Land of Cheese and picked him up, and he's been spending the week up there. He'll be back to NYC on Tuesday. I miss my Blondie. It's boring without him here. My cats are definitely not happy that they are the only ones I get to talk to at home now. They'll be trying to sleep, and I'm all in their faces going "Tell me about what you did today!" An eye will crack, a mean face will be put on, and I will not get the hint.

My week was pretty low key. I had a bad day at work - one of those days were you look around your office (or cube or wherever you sit/stand for work) and wonder how in the f'ing world you are going to survive another 30 years of work. Luckily, it was just one day that I felt that way, but coming out of those moods takes a lot out of me.

I swear I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer today. So I'll give you some good news from my weekend. Yesterday started off with a really good sweaty workout, and then I headed up to Times Square to see SATCII. My lunch was a bag of gummy bears, and it was everything I wanted.

AND THEN, to make my day even better, my friend from Philadelphia took a break from her hubby and kids, and took the train to NYC to visit me. We had a couple of beers and some dinner, and then walked over to Broadway to see MAMMA MIA! OMG. MUSICALS. Everytime I see a musical, I'm like "okay, it doesn't get better than this." And then I see another one, and realize it does get better.

After the play, we headed to the UWS to Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes, and then I rode with her back to Penn Station for her to catch her train home. It was soooo good seeing her!

Today I got up and putzed around for a bit, before finally heading down to the gym. I have a race in Central Park on Wednesday so I wanted to time myself for the distance I'm going to run to give myself an idea of what timing I'm looking at. It actually wasn't that bad. I'm completely worn out now though.

The rest of my day is going to look like this: 1) eat fruit (I hit the farmer's market yesterday afternoon between the movie and my friend visiting and had a little bit of a love affair with the berries); 2) watch TV (is 'Bethenny Getting Married?' going to be as good as RHONYC?); 3) watch scary movie I downloaded off of Netflix; 4) make fajitas for dinner (I also had a love affair with all the peppers and cilantro yesterday at the farmer's market). Yum. Food.

--K

Go Flyers in the City of Brotherly Love!

What did we learn this past weekend? Well, we learned that one should not wear a Rangers hat to a city where their hockey team is in the Stanley Cup finals. We DEFINITELY learned that.

We also learned that my entire knowledge base of Philadelphia is based off of the movie "National Treasure". What can I say? I got my masters degree in Math, and my last history class was World History that I took when I was in the 10th grade.

Philadelphia was gorgeous. It has literally been about 20-25 years since I've been there (am I getting old or what?), and I don't remember much other than how hot it was when I was there last. That, and the horrid train ride in from the city my dad camped us in for our vacation. Apparently it's a LOT cheaper to stay outside of the city. Who'd thunk it? ;)

The birth of the US

We did a little bit of everything while there. We started out by getting tickets to tour Independence Hall - the only pre-planning event we had to do. Everything else was walk-up and free (with the exception of the Betsy Ross house - which quite honestly, was boring - my official opinion is "skip it").

We started by touring the US Mint. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but the tour was quite interesting. It was kind of cool to see all the coins being made.

The outside of the Mint

After the Mint, we headed to Betsy Ross house - our admission was $3, but it wasn't worth it unfortunately. With the exception of the girl who pretended to be Betsy Ross in one of the rooms, and who had to answer all kinds of questions from the nutter in front of us - it was kind of boring.

Betsy Ross House

Ross house - I like the shadows in this picture

After the Ross house, we headed over to the postoffice that Ben Franklin was postmaster at. That was actually really cool - it was still an active postoffice with this wee little museum on the 2nd floor.

Post Office. And the back of Blondie's head

From the postoffice, it was just a few steps to the underground Ben Franklin museum. They had portraits up of Ben, his wife, and his son - and I got to laughing so hard - it honestly look like they painted Ben, put him in drag to get his wife, and then shrunk his body to get his kid. Seriously, is this a fugly boy or what?



We then hit up the Old City Hall - this was exactly what it sounds like. It kind of reminded me of a library - the smell and the floors I guess are what did it.

Library? Is it just me?

Independence Hall was our next stop. It was at this stop where I realized my "National Treasure" connection to Philly, and also where we realized that we were about the only adults without school-aged kids in tow. Our tour guide was not great, it was seriously like "where you from? Rhode Island? Oh, I went on a fellowship to a school there. Professor X was all kinds of awesome. Have you heard of Professor X?" And Blondie and I were like "W.T.F?"

Independence Hall, aka where Ben Franklin hid his glasses

The room where the Declaration of Independence was written

After Independence Hall, it was time for CHEESESTEAKS! So yummy - we got them from a street meat vendor, and they rocked!

Lunch was taken in a park right across from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (similar to Arlington, but from George Washington times). We checked out the tomb afterwards - it was quite a beautiful monument, and rather peaceful, until the hordes of 5th graders (wearing their class of 2010 t-shirts????) descended on the park. Yes, let's do it - let's have a whistle blowing contest in the middle of basically a cemetary!

No whistles here

One of the last stops on our tour was to see the Liberty Bell. I enjoyed the murals in the building leading up to the Bell, and then it was cool to see it again. Blondie has the pictures of the front of the bell (with the crack) but he's off to the Land of Cheese (Wisc) for a week so I have to wait until he returns to be able to post that one.

The Back of the Bell

Peace Out Dalai Lama - part of the murals

We were dead tired after all this, so a few beers in a tavern were needed before hopping a regional train to visit our friends who live about an hour north of Philly. They have a gorgeous house in the middle of nowhere, and a set of beautiful twin boys (5 years old) who took a serious liking to Blondie. Our time spent with them was relaxing and peaceful and full of good company (and food and beer).

Long story short (too late!), we'd definitely go back. I think our friends are going to be sorry they extended an invitation to us.

--K

Poor Blondie

I think Blondie is questioning why moving to the city that is home to Broadway was a good idea. I love musicals with a flaming hot passion, and Blondie quite honestly does not.

I managed to convince him that seeing Hair on Broadway today is a fabulous idea. We are going to the 3 pm show.

At least there will be naked people to take his mind off all the singing.

I'm thankful I have Blondie because this will be our 3rd Broadway play since we've been here, and 2 of them will be musicals (the 3rd one had Scarlett Johannson in it though so I guess we are about even).

--K

Fleet Week, summer Fridays, pedicure, and a hangover

Oh My!

I feel off this week and I have Fleet Week to blame for it. We had Fleet Week in San Francisco also, but it was at the beginning of October. So I'm wandering around this week, sweating my ass off b/c summer has finally hit and hit hard, and everytime I see a sailor or a marine, I'm like "Huh. It sure is hot for October".

I'm an idiot sometimes.

So the ships are docked, our armed forces are in town, and it's Memorial Day weekend. It's a great day to be in NYC.

Yesterday started summer Fridays for me. This is a 1 pm end time on Friday, making your 8 hour day a 4 hour day. And you don't have to make up your time. I love summer Fridays. Love them. Like I'd totally drop Blondie for them.

To celebrate my first summer Friday, Blondie met me at a local burger joint I've been wanting to try (Mother Burger). They have a huge outdoor patio which is very important since one of our favorite shared activities is people watching. I got a wing burger which is a burger doused in buffalo sauce covered in blue cheese dressing (um, OMG, so freaking yummy!) and Blondie got a BLT. They also have $2 cans of beer. Which started us off drinking, ahem, rather heavily.

We also started the "Imaginary Dinner Party" game - which is pick a theme, and then pick 5 people dead or alive who you would invite to that theme. We went through everything from sports stars (Brett Favre was on both of our lists) to movie stars (ScarJo was on everyone of Blondie's lists and Jonny Depp was on everyone of mine) to exes to political figures to ... We literally played this game all night - that I can remember.

After Mother Burger it was off to Rudy's - home of the $7 pitchers of Rudy's Blonde Ale and free hot dogs. 3 pitchers later, we headed home. I think we got in around 9 pm, we had skipped dinner, and were completely toasted.

Somehow we managed to split a meatball sub that I had leftover from a few days ago, which I guess was smart. I woke up naked this morning with no memory of removing my contacts or clothes.

I huddled in a little ball on the floor for most of the morning, before finally giving up and starting to workout. The sweating was what I needed b/c I feel right as rain right now.

I headed out around noon to get myself a pedicure (somehow a foot massage seems to cure everything) - we're off to Philadelphia next weekend, so I wanted to have good looking feet when I see my friends. Can't wait for the trip! Afterwards I called Blondie and he met me at our local BBQ restaurant Daisy Mays, where I induldged in mac&cheese and creamed corn. Hello carbs! You are my friends! The best part is the leftovers are in my fridge to eat with homemade crab cakes tonight!

Knappy has invited us over to Bklyn for a party on his rooftop, but after my hot date with beer last night, I think an invitation to go to bed early is going to be accepted.

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

--K

Today's going to be a good day!

Let me start by saying - I need another weekend! Thank god this is a 4.5 day work week with a 3 day weekend coming up. OMG. I'm going to be counting minutes until Friday at 1 pm. Also - this Friday starts summer Fridays, so let's say it together - "WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO". Summer Fridays are half day Fridays that you don't have to make up your time for. So our work weeks become 36 hour work weeks.

It's the small things that make me happy.

My week and weekend have been ON THE GO. Blondie came and met me on Wed night for some shopping and dinner on the UES. He needed new jeans and I needed a new handbag. Then we both needed pizza. Then, of course, Dylan's Candy Bar (Ralph Lauren's daughter's candy shop) was calling our names.

Who's bright idea was it to have an entire wall of different flavored gummy bears? Those are my obsession. $15 worth of gummy bears later, my shame kicked in. But they were soooo good!

Thursday I made it to LES for lunch with CChu - another friend from work who was visiting her offices here in NYC. We ate at Ippudo, which is said to be the best ramen bar in NYC. It was definitely good, but I've also definitely had ramen I liked better. 5 hours after lunch, I was still stuffed to my eyeballs and it was TIME TO BOWL! My workgroup headed over to Chelsea Piers to bowl and booze, and finally hit up the arcade. I had a total blast - from games of flippy cup, to "Let's not aim for the pins, let's just bowl the fastest" to The Vadge putting on a devil voice and screaming "I'm the LOUDEST drunk alive!"

Which leads us into the weekend...

I have a slight obsession with SNL digital skits - the Lonely Island guys that make those videos are genius. A friend of mine from work told me about their latest video - "Today's Going to be a Good Day" - and we ended up watching it like 50000 times at work this past week. Check out Hulu - it's SO WORTH IT!

There is a point to this - the video was actually filmed in the West Village area of NYC, close to NYU campus, so I drug Blondie down with me to revisit the area this weekend. We had gone down when we first moved here, back in February, and we completely loved the area.

This time down we went ahead and visited Washington Square Park - home of the famous arch (see my NY blog - nynoob.blogspot.com - for pics), and then poked around the NYU campus some. Afterwards, we headed over to this bar we found from our previous trip down - which is home to honestly the best burger I've ever had in my life.

We headed there for lunch after our touristing activities, and I was so worried that maybe I had made the burger out to be way more than it was in my head. Fears were overcome though - that burger actually makes me want to cry it's so good.

About 7 beers into our afternoon, Blondie suggested giving the Knapster a call. Knappy was one of my BFF's from SF, who was actually in the process of moving to NYC when I was in the process of moving to SF itself. I heart me some Knappy but you have to have a certain amount of energy to keep up with him.

We determined we had that energy, the call was made, and the next thing I know, Blondie and I were on a train to Brooklyn to party it up Knappy-style in Williamsburg. It was the first time we've met up since we've moved here, which is actually totally my fault. We had a great time, and ended up back at his and his roommate's apartment drinking beers on their rooftop patio which had the most awesome view of the NYC skyline I've ever seen.

In a completely random happening, it turns out that Knappy's ex gf, the lovely Yo, LIVES IN OUR APARTMENT BUILDING! WTF? Of all the buildings in NYC, we moved into the same one in the same timeframe!

So last night when we were ready to leave Brooklyn, we hired a "livery cab" (I'm still not sure what this means) and Knappy came with us to visit Yo.

Today was spent dying. Blondie made me pancakes and turkey bacon for breakfast, and then I finally got a workout in. We made it out to Subway for lunch, and now I'm going to curl up in a ball on my floor and sweat the rest of the beer out.

The weather has turned crappy today - you'd never guess it was almost June out there right now, so this is a perfect day to be a lazy-ass. I'm going to try and convince one of my cats to take a nap with me also. We'll see how this goes.

--K

Laziness personified

My cats would say "HI" but they are too busy sleeping. And they could care less if you are offended by them not greeting you.



--K

The calm between the storms

A nice down week was what was required for us. After 2 straight weeks of visitors (WOO HOO! We LOVE you guys!), we needed a few days of being lazy asses to recuperate.

Ironically, another set of people from my old division were in town again, but this was not a crew I partied with, but one I had definitely shared many projects with instead. I have great respect for them, but our interactions were limited to lunches, and not bars after work.

So this week was Blondie's birthday!!! My hottie turned another year older, and still looks just as good as when I met him (10+ years ago!). He decided to celebrate by selecting cajun food for dinner. Blondie picked a different place than the one we normally go to though, and this one RULED.

The decor was amazing - you honestly felt like you were sitting in a bar overlooking Bourbon St - and the food rocked. We split an order of spicy red bean dip, and Blondie had fried pickles (there are not many foods I don't like, and even fewer I won't try - but pickles/cucumbers are not tops in my book). Then Blondie got a plate of crawfish etouffe and I had a plate of shrimp creole.

Many glasses of $5 hurricanes and Abita were also involved in this venture.

Afterwards, a long walk was required as Blondie was feeling extremely full. Our walk took us the roundabout way home, and soon we had pulled up in front of our 24 hour deli. Of course, ice cream sounded fabulous at this point, but true to form, I didn't even touch mine once we got home. But that was my birthday gift to Blondie ;)

The rest of the week was mild. Blondie got out of the apartment yesterday and hung out tourist-watching in Times Square for awhile. He's completely burnt now. I had of course work. Yay. Work. Woot.

Next week, yet another friend of mine from SF is pulling into town for work. I can't wait to see CChu and hang out! And my work group is going on a team outing for bowling on Thurs. This ought to be fun. We bowl everytime we go back to KY to visit my family, but that always involves about 20 beers - it will be interesting how I do with only a few in me.

Cheers to everyone and have a great weekend! I'm off to convince Blondie to go outside with me and enjoy the sun!

--K

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLONDIE!!!

I love you Chompers!

We belong to the night, we belong to the thunder!!!

OMG. A whirlwind week that ended in karaoke bar in Koreatown trying to get out of the way of a girl who was about to projectile vom all over the bathroom.

It started, again, with friends (this time coworkers). The division I used to work for in my company also has an office in NYC (not just my new division in the same company) and some of my old coworkers were out this week to work out of the NYC offices.

On Tues Blondie and I met up with one of the guys - he was one of my BFF's from work, and an integral part of my "crew" in SF. We had a blast - we hit up a bar around my hood that was very similar to The Flying Saucer (a chain bar in TX and Memphis that had about a billion beers on tap). For those who don't know me, there is nothing I like more than grabbing some friends, finding a bar, and having some beers and good talk. And maybe some bar food.

On Thurs, I met up with one of the other guys who had flown out. I was also friendly with him and partied so much at his old apartment - he's the one that had the giant patio and threw parties all summer long last year. We ended up in on the east side (Midtown) and basically had a signoff to the jukebox. It was disastrous.

This leads us to yesterday... Me, Blondie and my 3 best from the city decided this was a fabulous night to slam some Soju, eat some wings, and then we ended up in Koreatown. Karaok'ing. In a private karaoke room. Drinking Sake and beer.

I was under the impression that the rooms were soundproof and let me say, I took advantage of it. I WAS ATROCIOUS. Video from Bacon will prove that. Um, also my impression? COMPLETELY F'ING WRONG. You could hear every other room from the halls. Luckily I was so far from being the worst person singing.

So I'm drunk, go to pee - 1 stall bathroom. I get done peeing, and all of a sudden someone starts yanking on the door - screaming "OMG, is someone in there?!?!?!?" and I'm all like "Yeah, just a sec" and then the screaming goes "Just hold it in Kate (I'm making up a name, I can't remember the name they used), HOLD. IT. IN!"

So I go flying out of the stall, with my pants still down - my big old butt on display - to find this girl who looks completely toasted, make-up smeared all over her face, and her friend who frantically shoves this girl into the stall where she immediately starts vomiting her brains out.

Standing there, still pants not up, and of course that's when I realize that they've brought a male friend into help *AND* more importantly, that the door from the bathroom to the hall is wide open.

Disaster.

But that's the beauty of being drunk. I was embarrassed for about 2.5 seconds, and then thought "that's what you get for getting so drunk. Silly people".

Last night seriously ranked up there as one of the 5 best nights I've ever had in my life.

On another note, a huge shout-out to Mr and Mrs Pooh (my brother and sis-in-law). They are running a half-marathon today. Mr Pooh has lost over 100 lbs over the past 1.5 years, and this will be his 5th or 6th half (he took up running when he started losing weight). Mrs Pooh, who does NOT have a weight problem, but has a job that makes it VERY hard to find time to run (stay-at-home mom to 2 of the Cutest Kids In The World, both under 5) will be running a half for the 1st time.

GO TEAM POOH!!!!!

--K

The city of brotherly love

Tickets bought to visit friends in Philadelphia in a few weeks. We are going to Amtrak down, and do a day of touring and then spend the weekend catching up! We haven't seen this crew since about 2006. Can't wait for our mini vacay!

I've been to Philly before, but Blondie hasn't, so if you have any suggestions for things Blondie might like, let us know.

--K

SF invasion of NYC!

It started on Monday. The fabulous Ma-Peng returned to her old stomping grounds for a week of work. She had worked in the NYC office for years, and had transferred to the SF offices about 2 weeks after I transferred into NYC.

Then on Tues night, Sweetie J called - she was waiting for her red-eye to the city! So excited to see her. Blondie and I immediately jumped into a night of housecleaning to get things ready for her to stay with us.

I had a VERY boring banquet to attend on Wed morning for work - work rented out a huge space close to Grand Central, and we spent 4 hours listening to this awards ceremony. I was disappointed b/c I didn't get to see Sweetie J - she didn't arrive to our apartment until after I had to leave for work.

Wed afternoon, I got the email from the K's that they were getting on their bus from Boston (they had flown to Florida and then done some touring up and down the east coast - but they are from SF also) and heading to the city. They were getting in really late Wed night, so we weren't going to meet up then.

Instead, we got some drinking in with Sweetie J on Wed night.

And Thurs night turned into a shit show. I called Blondie and he came and met up with me, Ma-Peng and the other cool people from my work. It seemed to be a fabulous idea to slam down sangria and margaritas - and then to meet back up with Sweetie J to start pouring beer down my throat. I was a train-wreck.

Friday was a horrid day. I had to bail on a HH with the K's and on a BBQ with Sweetie J - I have also never been so grateful for an office with a door. I had to lie down on the floor, complete with shakes, and try to recuperate. It's been one of the worst hangovers I've had in awhile.

Yesterday was much better though. The K's and Blondie and I headed over to the Bronx to the new Yankees stadium to watch the Yankees play. True to form, since Blondie and I were watching, the Yankees lost (adding them to the Knicks and the Rangers who've lost while we've watched them). Our subway train back was all sorts of delayed - it turns out there was a bomb in Times Square last night and we think that was what caused the problems.

It turned out ok though, b/c we slowly meandered our way home - the weather was gorgeous and perfect for a walk!

Everyone has left today to head back to SF. So it's just me and Blondie on our own again. We do have a date with my coworkers this week to hit up Koreatown for sake and karoake, so be prepared to read about bleeding eardrums (what will happen when I start to sing!).

--K

Lived for the weekend

I've worked for the same company for 3+ years now. When I switched jobs and moved to NYC from SF, it was still with the same company, but just a different division. It seems to me (and I don't think I'll be alone in this) that since I did all new hire training 3+ years ago when I started, there should be NO reason to have to sit through it again.

I'd be wrong in thinking this.

This past week included 2 straight days of lectures from senior mgmt in order to be "aligned with the Company brand". It was torture.

Luckily, the weekend has been MUCH better. Friday night was designated "lazy night", and I loved it. We caught up on Weeds watching, a show we became addicted to when it came onto Netflix free downloads, and just generally enjoyed a night of doing shit.

Yesterday we tried out a new DVD I'd gotten for exercise. It was actually pretty killer and we're going to give it a whirl for 30 days starting next week (we have 3 of our SF buddies flying in this week to visit so no point in starting now and then making them watch us sweat and groan everyday while we do this).

After our workouts, we headed out to grab lunch. I'm a huge HIMYM fan, and the NYE episode one year had them picking up a friend and heading to Gray's Papaya and then chowing down on what looked like the most fabulous hotdogs in the world. So we headed there for lunch. They were gorgeous dogs.

Afterwards we decided to stroll through the Fashion District and just window shop/people watch. We came across an OTB parlor, and well, god forbid we'd pass up the chance to gamble. I have a feeling this is where you will find us most weekends going forward. I know that the only reason I agreed to leave finally was because there was no beer sold. Otherwise, I'd probably still be sitting there and Blondie would be pissed as hell at me.

It was a trek then down to Macys, just to see what the store looked like. And then we slowly wandered back to our hood to hit up our 3 markets for groceries.

We ordered chinese food for dinner last night, and then around 9 pm, after I had done a 3 hour discourse on "My Love For All Things Ice Cream" we headed to our 24 hour deli and picked up some pints of Ben & Jerrys. Blondie hates when I do this, b/c literally like 4 bites and I'm done. And then the ice cream tempts him all week long since he's home during the day. Sorry Blondie!

Today it's shit weather. It made for really good sleeping in though, and then I did 2 hours of exercise. We just ordered in some sandwiches, and I'm about to watch my crap shows (ANTM, 90210) and relax this day away!

--K

Strike averted!

Thanks to some serious last-minute negotiations (like 3 hours past deadline), the building crew strike was averted!

I'd be horrible at negotating contracts - I have a feeling it would play out like this:
ME: We want a 10% raise and dental benefits!
THEM: How about a cookie instead?
ME: SOLD!

--K

STRIKE!

Contracts all over the city for building personnel are expiring tonight - this includes maintenance men, concierge, doormen, etc. The contracts end at midnight, with walkoffs expected around 7 am.

I am going to miss my crew if this happens - they make me feel safe when I come home from work at night, they are always there with kind words as I come through the door (usually "Welcome home! Hope your day was excellent!"), they call our food deliveries up, they make sure that everyone who comes through the front door is either a resident or on their way to see someone, they hold our deliveries from FedEx and UPS for us until we can get to them, they send out our dry cleaning and laundry... You name it, they do it.

I have a SUPER SOFT SPOT for my building, and it was from day 1 that Blondie and I arrived. We came into the building, exhausted from a red-eye flight, loaded down with suitcases and 2 cats, freezing cold b/c we hadn't adjusted to the weather (SF, you definitely win the "weather" hand). They were there immediately to load our suitcases onto luggage racks and store them for us, and since we had arrived early and the office wasn't open to get our keys, they offered to sit both cats behind the desk with them while we went to get some breakfast and coffee.

I chickened out - I didn't want to leave the cats as they were nervous and they had a super stressful night (flying, cabs, etc). But the fact that they offered - well, you love my cats, I love you back.

Revisit the fun of travelling with cats - see the NYC blog

Building crew - you have my support.

--K

Why were we up early????

I know I didn't explain what we were doing up at 7:20 am today, I just said we were up. I actually am a morning person, believe it or not. I almost always am awake no later than 7:45 am. And Blondie, not quite a morning person, but usually an 8:30 am to 9:00 am type of guy.

We were up early because we found out about a deal at Chelsea Piers where you can go to their driving range on off-peak hours and get a fantastic deal on the number of golf balls you can get!

Off-peak is earlier than 9 am on the weekends. Sigh. Blondie convinced me that this was an awesome plan. Since I knew I would not be going to the gym today, I worked out every day this past week - so that was good! And then today the alarm went off, and we were like "W.T.F?" How was this a good idea?

But we drug ourselves out anyway, into the misting cold rain, and HAD A FREAKING BLAST! The driving range at Chelsea Piers was only a few subway stops away, and it was a 4 story driving range. Blondie is actually a damn good golfer, and my skills slowly started to come back as we hit about 150 balls each (for $25). We both agreed the auto ball loader and tee adjustment were pretty much the bomb.

My back and shoulders and chest and arms and legs are all sore now - same with Blondie. It was so nice though, the piers obviously look over the water, and it was still drizzly but we were dry underneath the overhangs. Just a lot of fun. And definitely worth the savings.

After the driving range, it was over to Katz Deli on the LES for some hot beefy goodness. ;) It. Was. So. Good. OMG. So. Good. We took our time enjoying our sandwiches (at 10:15 am).

By 11:30 am, we were back in our apt, having done our grocery shopping. The weather outside is still crap, but now I'm inside, warm and dry, with 2 cuddly cats and a hot husband. Could be worse people, could be worse.

See tour NY blog for the pictures!

And have a great weekend wherever you are, whoever you are spending it with, and whatever you are doing! I'm off to kiss a cat!

--K

Up early...

It feels really really early, even though it's 40 minutes later than I normally get up during the week.

Off to do some fun things at a discount!

Just wanted to share that I am tired. Woot!

--K

The freak heat wave...

So I have to assume that all of you are obsessed with NYC news. You know, since Blondie and I live here... ;) We had a freak heat wave roll through this past week, and even broke our record high for Wed! It was over 90 degrees in the city - you read that right.

Blondie and I enjoyed the weather thoroughly though. We had decided on Wed to find an outdoor area for dinner, but of course, everybody and their brothers were out so we ended up at a little mexican restaurant in our hood. The thing about these restaurants and bars though - all of them are built so that the entire front of the building opens up - those huge doors - it's insane.

So we stroll into our mexican restaurant, and there is a huge breeze coming through *and* it's 2x1 frozen margaritas.... And it was perfect. The guac was super spicy (and if I'm saying it's spicy, it's spicy), the steak fajita was completely juicy (moist - ew!). A perfect night.

After our mexican feast, we headed back to our apt, but ran into one of our neighborhood bars on the way. And lo and behold, it was $2 margarita night there, and we snagged the 2 bar stools right at the front, where you guessed it - the entire front of the building was opened up.

Needless to say, I felt like ass all day Thurs. But what a great way to welcome the first HOT day of the season!

--K

It is a yucky day. Rainy, in the 60's, just all around blah.

To counteract wanting to lie my head on my desk and doze (it's the weather's fault), I've instead shut the door to my office, put my conference call on speakerphone, and have been doing pushups and squats on and off for the last hour. 1.5 more hours of this call to go.

I love having an office. Also, my office is just a tiny bit smaller than our bedroom.

Sigh. Silly NYC rental properties.

Hope your day is more productive, and less crappy.

--K

Wooty Woot! We love you NYC!

The only thing that ruins a weekend for me is "Sunday Dread". I'm sure I don't need to explain it to anyone, but just in case - it's that feeling you get when you realize that your 2 sweet precious days of freedom are about done, and all you have to look forward to is work for the next 5 days. I know there are people out there who love their jobs, who don't deal with this feeling, and while I don't hate my job, I certainly wouldn't think twice about quitting if I won the lottery. OMG. Rambling. Anyway, this weekend was so good I almost don't have Sunday Dread!

Blondie and I hit up our bar on Friday night to enjoy some beers on the patio. It was so good getting to catch up with Blondie, and enjoy some cold beverages on a hot day. I know everyone is thinking "Catch up with Blondie? But you live together". And it's true - but it's still nice to get out, without a TV playing, with no distractions, just Blondie and me, and just chat.

Saturday we got up, and after nursing our headaches, I did my EA Active for the first time in like oh a year. I've been working out pretty regular for about 5 weeks now, but OMG, I hurt-ed my butt. I seriously feel like someone has punched me in both ass cheeks today due to the program I did.

After I did my work out, Blondie and I headed out to run a completely boring errand in Times Square, and then we caught the subway down to the Brooklyn Bridge (I'll post about it on the NY blog as soon as I get all the pictures downloaded). We strolled over the bridge with the 20000 other people that had the same idea, and took ourselves to a whole other borough!

A stop at an ice cream truck for soft serve, and then it was off to wait in a 2 hour line for what is rumored to be the best pizza in NYC. It was certainly delicious, but both Blondie and I agreed that it was not worth the wait or the time it took to get to Brooklyn in the first place. But, we are glad we did both - the bridge and the pizza.

When we got home last night, I collapsed completely in total pain from the EA Active program, and we ended up watching movies almost all evening.

Today we headed off to the Hells Kitchen Flea Market - I'm on the lookout for some fabulous bags so that I fit in more with NYC women. I found one that I truly loved but Blondie pointed out it was a tote (it didn't fit on my shoulder, I would have to carry it with my hand the entire time) and that's easy to get ripped off like that. So it was with sadness that I put it back.

We stopped for some turkish food afterwards. I had a grilled chicken and tahini pita wrap, and Blondie had a falafel plate (Blondie ate vegetarian and I didn't??? What's the world come to???) - the food was truly amazing and they deliver!

Then, since it's Easter, I had to have candy so we stopped at our drugstore on the way home for M&M's - it ended up being a good stop b/c they had Blondie's cereal on sale for buy 1, get 1 free - so we felt like that made the stop worthwhile.

I talked myself into working out again this evening, and actually feel a lot better in the legs and butt since I got my blood moving. I'm about to eat some more M&M's and finish watching my Project Runway. The door to the patio is open, the sun is out, it's still warm, and I live in NYC.

Yep, no Sunday Dread today.

--K

Hello! How are you doing???

We are doing fantastico here! We had an excellent weekend, with the exception of UK losing and Duke winning (boo you Duke!).

Friday night was lazy night - I came home exhausted and we didn't do anything. For dinner, we even just made egg beaters and frozen veggie burgers b/c we were too tired to order in.

Saturday we woke up with some energy! We hit our gym, where yours truly pumped out her first 30 minute run (without stopping) in a long time! I'm actually training for a 3.5 mile corporate challenge in Central Park in June, so this was a huge first step for me. Once I get 2 more runs in 30 mins without stopping, I'll start working on my speed.

After the workout we headed to our movie theater and caught the 10:45 am showing of Alice in Wonderland in 3D. The movie was great - I heart Johnny Depp so anything he does is worth it to me. Blondie loved it also!

After the movie, we headed to a BBQ restaurant, and then made the decision to "play tourist" the rest of the day. We started out at Cold Stone in Times Square and enjoyed some ice cream, followed by a trip to Ripley's Believe It or Not (see the ny blog for more info) and ended with some souvenier shopping for TCKITW and TCKITW v4.0

After that, a quick trip to the 3 market's (farmers, seafood, meat) and we headed on home to watch KY lose. Blah.

Sunday the weather turned AWFUL so we headed out at lunch to get soup and Cadbury Creme Eggs. I did my yoga program (and killed myself), and then it was a lazy day in front of the TV.

This next weekend we are off to the driving range at Chelsea Piers, followed by a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge to Grimaldi's (the famous pizza place at the foot of the bridge)! LOOKING FORWARD TO IT!

Hope everyone is doing well!

--K

Kind of like the 12 days of Xmas...

So, last weekend involved:
1 shut down runway
1 massive rainstorm
2 delayed flights
3 states and 200 miles away from where we wanted to be

A trip into Evansville to visit Blondie's sis and family and see her new baby turned into a travel fiasco. Our first flight got delayed, and we were going to miss our connecting flight. So they put us on a flight putting us into the completely wrong state (by a couple). That flight got delayed. Couple that with the JFK runway shutdown for 3 months, and it was a mess.

We finally got to Evansville the next day, 14 hours after we were supposed to. It was good seeing everyone. Blondie's sis' baby TCKITWv5.0 is a real cutie, and TCKITWv3.0 came down with her family, so it was a weekend of nieces!

But don't worry peeps, Blondie, his brothers and I still managed to get in some gambling on the gambling boat in Evansville. We headed there early afternoon and pounded down some beers, and lost some $$$.

Our flight back the next day (that's right, it ended up being 24 hours total with family - that's it) was also delayed, still due to the same rainstorm.

This weekend is a weekend of DOING NOTHING. It's mid-70's here today and beautiful out, so we've got our patio door open and are watching the bball games. We've both pushed ourselves at the gym this week and both of us are S.O.R.E. Plus, we've done something every single weekend we've been here, so we deserve a break! We did make it out to our fish market, veggie stand, and meat market - spent $70 total for some totally fresh and healthy food.

St. Patrick's day was this past week, and let me say, New York LOVES it some St Pattys. I went for lunch with some coworkers, and at 12:45 pm, we couldn't even get into the first 2 Irish bars we headed to. We also saw, still at 12:45 pm, someone getting totally arrested for public intoxication. This guy could not even sit up on the street curb as the cops stood around him.

St. Patty's though turned out to be not so good. My parent's house was broken into and trashed on 3/17 - my thoughts are with both of them and I am going to try and get back to KY very soon to see them. This is when I know we 100% made the right decision to move here. I can take a non-stop 1 hour, 30 min flight straight into their hometown. It's possible to fly in on Sat morning and come back Sun afternoon - which I could never have done from SF.

On a more pleasant note, we also went and saw our first Rangers game on Thurs! We had a blast - and check out our NY blog for more details.

Hope everyone is doing well!
--K

God do I wish I could sing.

--K

Yeehaw! A snowstorm, a wedding, and some cowboy boots

Blondie and I woke up Friday morning, and headed out around 5:30 am to head to JFK to catch a flight. We took one step out of our apartment, and about fell over. It was seriously a winter wonderland in NYC. The snow was at least a foot deep, none of the sidewalks or streets had been cleared, and it was STILL coming down heavily. We gingerly made our way to JFK (thank god for underground trains), the entire way thinking that there was no way our flight was going to go.

But it did - it was one of very few that went that day. And it was a good thing, for we were off to Austin to see the lovely Shelbs and Bbbb tie the knot!!!!

We landed on Friday (way late, but at least we got there) and immediately headed to the rehearsal. It was so good seeing everyone again (the SF crew, the TX crew), and after the rehearsal, Blondie took off with a friend for beers while I headed out for a pedi. OMG, my feet were disgusting.

After the pedi, I meandered across the bridge and into downtown to meet Blondie and the Brit for drinks. We spent a good hour laughing our asses off before heading to the welcome dinner (yay for Tex Mex!)





Saturday was a great day - the bridesmaids met Shelbs early and hung up for a couple of hours. Then it was off to get some lunch, before meeting Blondie and another friend for beers in the sun. The wedding was a late afternoon wedding, and the weather couldn't have been better.



Also, the other bridesmaids also managed to convince me that I needed cowboy boots - I lived in TX for 8 years, but it took a 3 day weekend in Austin to make me change my mind and actually purchase some. Want to bet I wear them 1 more time and that's it?

Congrats Bbbb and Shelbs!

--K

P.S.

I didn't cry when I left work on my last day. But I did cry when I saw Blondie for the first time after that. But then we headed over to the California Academy of Sciences in the GGP, and that totally righted my mood.

OMG, has it been awhile or what???

Hi from NYC!!!! I'm glad to announce we made it safe and sound, with the cats in tow. They've adjusted rather nicely (shockingly so), and both LOVE to sit on the wide windowsills we have and look out the windows. We laugh about them to be honest, because it seems that Max has really taken to the apartment here and the street noise doesn't bother him so he's a New Yorker. Tigga on the other hand seems kind of stressed, like he doesn't have enough room, so we call him the Texan.

We've done a lot of everything since we've been here - we've been exploring the city on a regular basis, eating out and hitting up our local bars, and just enjoying what we've got right in front of us right now.

In other news, TCKITWv5.0 was born about 3 weeks ago! She's a serious cutie, and she also has a lot of hair! AND, it's been announced that TCKITWv6.0 and TCKITWv7.0 (Blondie's brothers and their wives) are due in August and September respectively (10 days apart). I'm rooting for 2 more girls, b/c at this point, it's just funny that it's all nieces.

I've started my new job and it's really stressful to be honest. It's a job I've never done in the past, and I'm trying to get my feet underneath me, and not screw this up too bad. I've only been there 2 weeks, with 2 days off (President's Day, orientation day), and 2 half days (snow day, half day on Friday prior to President's Day) so I'm trying not to beat myself up too bad that I'm kind of floundering. But still, I feel like an ass that I'm struggling. It's a weird position to be in.

We are off to Austin next weekend for the wedding of Shelbs and Bbbb! We are so excited for them, and wish them a lifetime of happiness! Hopefully Austin will be warmer than NYC.

Yes, the weather here sucks. I enjoyed the snow the first time, but now I'm ready for warmer weather. OMG. Really ready.

Plans today - we are going to try and hit up the local Farmer's Market, and then maybe see Mary Poppins. We also have tickets to a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on Monday night - which will totally rule. They are playing the Bucs (Milwaukee) and we both are really excited about it.

Right now though, I need to get a shower.

--K

New blog!!!

Wooty woot!

Okay, so I've used this blog as a diary pretty much (Captain Obvious reporting for duty sir!). And I like having it as a diary. It's been so great to be able to read back over the past 3 years and see what I've done (haven't done). So I'm going to keep it this way.

However, I also want to blog about what it's like to be new in New York, so I started http://nynoob.blogspot.com. You can peep it under "Yours Truly moves to New York" in the blogs section of this page.

This blog will still be my primary blog, but I'll still be posting on the other blog too.


Our move date is coming up fast. It's kind of taking my breath away to think that in 10 days, I'll be an east-coaster. Blondie sold his truck yesterday and that was a really hard day. The truck was the most expensive thing we owned, and to give it up was hard. In addition, we've also sold a lot of our furniture that won't fit into our new apartment.

I've been to 2 lunches this week with coworkers to say goodbye, and next week I have another lunch and a happy hour. I'm going to cry my last day of work here, and I'm going to BAWL LIKE A BABY when we leave our apartment for the last time.

I really am super excited to move to NYC, but it's also hard to leave a city that I've had such a great time in.

Special thanks to all my friends who've made life here great. Shelbs and Bbbb -if it hadn't been for you 2, we wouldn't have moved here to begin with. You opened your hearts and your house to us, and we are forever grateful to you both. We can't wait for your wedding and we wish you a lifetime of happiness!!!

Sweetie J - You took us under your wing, shared your friends, and cooked us food. You made us want to move to North Beach.

The Sisters C - Superbowl parties will never be the same. Thanks for letting us crash at your apartment when we had no furniture! We love you guys!

Miss HK and Mr SK - Hahahahah, white water rafting! Lieutenant Dangle! GO RAMS! Faux U2!

Party C - you don't live here anymore, but you are the best. I wish I had 1/100th the energy you have. You are proof that you can follow your dream, that you don't have to be tied down to something you hate everyday for no reason. Hope your travels bring you around to NYC eventually!

--K

Hells Kitchen!!!! Helllllllllllllllls yes!!!!

I'm going to annoy EVERYONE with my "Hells Kitchen! Hells yes!" saying simply b/c I'm going to say it all the time.

Hells Kitchen (HK) rocks. It simply rocks. Blondie and I were looking for a neighborhood that was maybe a little borderline skeevy, but with plenty of bars and restaurants that have people our age hanging out in them - not someplace where 21 year olds go clubbing, but someplace where us mid 30's go for a few (many) pints before bunking down for the night. We found this combo in HK.

We are about 2 blocks off the main drag for HK and about 5 blocks from Times Square. We left the bldg yesterday after we found out we were approved, literally walked 4 mins to the main drag, and hit the first bar we found. And loved it.

Our apartment = free pool, free gym, patio, river views, free breakfast (you are reading this correctly), rooftop terrace.

Our rent = makes me want to cry.

The size of the apartment = makes me want to cry harder.

NYC and HK = SOOOO HAPPY

--K and S

P.S. Everyone come visit!

East coast...

2/8 is my official start date. And Blondie and I are off to NYC next week to find our new digs. Wish us luck!

--K

NYC II, Happy Birthday, The Holidays, TCKITW v6.0....

First off, Happy Birthday to TCKITW v4.0!!! She turned 1 today, and I hope she's having a great day!!!

NYC was awesome - so awesome that we've accepted the job offer and are moving to the city in either Jan or Feb - I'm still working out dates with my company, so I don't have a firm one yet, but will have one this coming week. On my days off while in the city, we headed down to see the WTC site - they have started construction on the new building, and it was an incredible feeling to see new "life" springing up where so much horror had happened.

After that, we headed down to Wall Street to check out the bull sculptures and NYSE as well as Trinity Church (from "National Treasure"). We bought some roasted nuts from a vendor which brought about much merriment as we took every opportunity to ask each other if we wanted more nuts in our mouths. The church was great and we would've headed inside to check it out but there was a service going on, and we didn't want to disturb.

After Wall Street, we walked further down and viewed the Statue of Liberty from across the bay. It was freezing cold, so we didn't stay long. Blondie figured out the subway system in like 3 mins, so we used the trains to get back up to Upper West Side after that. We slowly meandered around the neighborhood, stopping in to eat a diner and to check out Zabar's. Our trip back took us through Central Park (LOVE LOVE LOVE) before we found the cheapest HH bar in NYC and hung out people watching for awhile.

Our last day was spent at Grand Central Station - we just took in the sites, and avoided getting knocked down by the women who about shit themselves at the sight of a roach.

I'm not a Xmas person - it's one of my least favorite holidays - but something about NYC put me in the mood. I don't know if it had to do with how many Xmas trees they had - about every park was decorated for the holidays. It was with that mood that we flew into Dallas to pack up our storage shed and move it all to KY.

I was kind of dreading this, b/c I was afraid Blondie and I would kill each other on the 14 hour drive from Dallas to KY. I'm standing in the airport, super excited to see my family after our road trip, but not looking forward to the road trip, and Blondie was taking his sweet ass time getting in touch with his friend who was giving us a ride to our storage unit. My nerves were frayed and I was tired, and all of a sudden Blondie said "Oh wait, there he is" and pointed, and I turned around and it was BROTHER R!!!! He had flown in to surprise me and help with packing and the drive.

THANK YOU. Brother R saved us from misery! He helped with the driving and the packing, and paid for our hotel rooms, and generally was a great distraction throughout our entire trip.

It was good to be back in KY and see everyone. TCKITW and TCKITW v4.0 have grown so much - I think TCKITW is going to be a super model, and TCKITW v4.0 is going to be a CEO. They are so unique, completely different personalities - it was so cool to see them interact and get along and also fight and realize, "yep, they're siblings".

The rest of the holidays were good, not relaxing as there was no downtime, but definitely good.

Our NYE was spent asleep (go us!) and I'm still trying to recuperate from travel. Blondie and I have a lot going on in the next 6 weeks - packing, flying back to NYC to find an apt, moving, moving the cats, selling shit, etc.

And on another note, Blondie got news from his bro that they are expecting again! TCKITW v6.0 is following close on the heels of TCKITW v5.0 (who's not here yet). I'm rooting for another girl which will make for 6 nieces! Congrats to the G-Family!

--K

New York City?!??!!?

So fabulous. Utterly and completely fabulous.

I've been to NYC 1 time for about 8 hours 12 years ago. Got that? ;) I loved it, the tiny tiny bit I saw of it, but was worried that it would be different this time.

It's not. We are officially in love with this city. We flew in on Sunday night and went to our hotel to drop our crap off. Headed straight back out and watched the dancing/singing snowflakes at Saks, before checking out the Xmas tree at Rockefeller. We went by Radio City Music Hall and the entrance to the NBC studios before heading to an Irish pub for dinner. It was an early night on Sunday as we were both exhausted from all day travel.

Yesterday I had to work all day, but Blondie met me for lunch before he started touring the city. I met him after work, and we headed down to Times Square for the evening. Times Square is insane - it's like Vegas without casinos. So bright and loud and things to see everywhere you look. We did dinner in Times Square and then started walking towards Empire State Bldg - we ended up turning off before we got there, but it was perfect as our turn off street took us straight to Bryant Park!!!!

I heart me some Project Runway and for those who don't know, the season finale of Project Runway ALWAYS ends in Bryant Park - so this was a big deal for me. We watched the ice skaters for awhile and just hung out and enjoyed the view - giant Xmas tree, ice skaters, little temporary Xmas shops, the top of the Empire State Bldg.

Today I'm working again, but tomorrow and Thurs I'm off and we intend to tour. We are going to hit Central Park, do "Top of the Rock", make our way through Upper West Side, etc. We hope to try and hit Little Italy area tomorrow at some point too.

Having a blast!!!!
--K and S

A trip...

Blondie and I are off to NYC tomorrow morning for 5 days. I am SO EXCITED about this - I can't wait to see the city, hear what Blondie thinks, and also check out where I would be working if we do make this move. Our hotel is a really cute one, super close to Rockefeller Center, so we will definitely be checking out the Xmas tree also.

I got my hippy dippy hair cut off for this trip - it's back to shoulder length now instead of 3/4 the way down my back. I'm also going to get my eyebrows waxed today.

Not much else has been going on - I've been offered a promotion to a mgmt position at my company, it's obviously contingent on if I don't take the job in NYC. And work holiday parties were this past week - my work threw one Tuesday in the basement of our bldg, and then on Wed it was off with some friends for a few drinks, and then on Thurs, my boss threw one at his house.

MUNI went down on Wed also in the city - the underground trains were shut down completely in both directions. You know how bad it sucks to have to take a crammed full bus down Market St and the ride that normally takes 11 mins total, takes 40 mins? Yeah. Boo hoo.

Blondie has been making improvements almost daily to his site - it's zooming along and he has more fans than ever for it!!!! GO BLONDIE!!!!

Keeping sis in my thoughts - hope your "break the nose" surgery goes well on Thurs!

--K

Happy T-Day!!!!

Blondie, Bbbb, Shelbs and I started the day out early today and went turkey trotting! Blondie did awesome and ran it in exactly 30 mins, and I came in at 40:24. I'm okay with the time, mainly b/c it's about 2 mins less than I was expecting.

I'm about to go make a green bean casserole (and a vodka drink) before we head over to Shelbs and Bbbb for the afternoon.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Finally, a 4 day late happy birthday to the Sheriff and a 1 day late happy birthday to TT and Beckers! Don't freak out everyone - I called everyone on their actual birthday, just forgot to put it on the blog.

--K

It's early... I'm grumpy...

T-week plans to take all week off and staycation in my city and do some touristy things have been cancelled in lieu of... wait for it... WORK.

WOOT.

The capper on my poop pie is that I had to also work overnight tonight.

WOOT WOOT (double WOOT).

I hope my coworkers avoid me tomorrow. :)

--K

P.S. As not happy as I was about tonight, I'm still okay now, b/c I'm about 10 seconds from taking the cat that's sleeping against my leg right now and heading back into the bedroom to curl up against Blondie. That makes it all okay.

A little bit of filming... a little bit like my mom...

Our lovely street has been once more blocked off for the filming of a TV show that's probably going to be cancelled after this season. This show is a wonderfully horrible series called "Trauma". When I watched the first episode, I got SO furious with the character that drove his car like a maniac while reciting lines from Bullitt. 1) You aren't Steve McQueen. 2) OMG. STOP DRIVING LIKE A F'ING IDIOT!

Yes, I'm my mom. I'm going to drive 7 miles an hour under the speed limit and then tell everyone that limit doesn't mean minimum. (Oh wait, I already do that).

Anyhoo, the car that he drove like a maniac is parked about 5 houses down from us right now, and all the extras are out in full-force. There are ambulances and firetrucks everywhere.

I will definitely miss this. It's annoying, but it's also pretty f'ing cool to watch.

--K

Chilling like a villian...

Watching some football and eating some pizza bread today. GO PACKERS.

We have finalized our Xmas plans - this will involve a stop in Texas, along with a drive to KY in a U-Haul. That's right folks - we are finally getting rid of our storage shed in DFW, and moving all of our crap back into my parental unit's house. They are going to drive down and meet us in Memphis on the drive back, otherwise, Blondie and I would kill each other. We don't drive well together. Apparently, he drives like he's in Nascar and I drive like I'm a senile 90 year old. :) It's true on both parts.

Hung out with the fabulous Shelbs and Bbbb yesterday. It was really good seeing them and getting to catch up on everything. They both are enjoying their new SOMA jobs, and I'm happy to have them around again!

My PM quit from work - it was a sad day. She's the only one who brought any kind of order to the project I'm working on, so we will definitely miss her. But, we did have a blast celebrating her last day. I don't think Thirsty Bear will let us anywhere near the bar again.

Thanksgiving plans include taking the week off from work and stay-cationing in SF - we are going to hit up the California Acacdemy of Sciences, and the Yoda statue in the Presidio, and I'd love to take a Blue/Gold cruise through the bay. We will be at Shelbs and Bbbb for Thanksgiving dinner, along with all 4 of us running a Turkey Trot in GGP in the morning.

Things I'm thankful for this year:
1) The launch of Blondie's website. SO PROUD OF HIM!!!!
2) Great friends whom we get to spend T-Day with!!!!
3) A job in this crappy economy.
4) The fact that our respective siblings have spawned the greatest kids ever!!! We love all of our nieces (4 of them, soon to be 5)
5) Family that supports us no matter what we do!

--K

The dreaded day...

First off, last Thurs, Blondie and I met my friend KT for burgers at the new restaurant Burger Bar. I loved it! They had an awesome beer selection, and an even more awesome shake selection, and the burgers were sooooo good. I even got a fried egg on my burger! And Blondie had a twinkie shake, complete with a twinkie stuck in the top.

Then, last Friday, it was off to the Warfield to see Kevin Smith do a stand-up show. Blondie bought the tickets for my birthday b/c I'm a KS freak. One of my fav movies of all times is Clerks ("no time for love, Dr Jones") and KS is seriously one of the funniest people I've heard talk. THANKS BLONDIE!

Saturday we headed down to the hood to get some yummy Say Cheese goodness, and Sunday was designated "Lazy Ass Day" and all we did was watch football (and I drank, and passed out also).

Monday was not a good day - yes, I know, I'm being dramatic. I'm fully aware I'm being dramatic. But that day still felt like shit. Luckily it was KT, Blondie, Bbbb and Shelbs, and about 10 drinks to the rescue! This is all I'm going to post about the actual b-day itself b/c I don't really want to remember it.

Okay... moving on.... Blondie met me last night for some sushi, and after this week (it's been some crazy time at work), it was so needed. Hot sake, eternity roll, and then bed. So refreshing. The rest of the week is going to be spent trying to get this project to launch. Ugh.

--K