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