bread and butta

Italy 2011

2011-09-15T13:15:00.000-07:00

Obviously, we're not really bloggers. This one serves as more as a travel journal for us to remember our trips and what we've done on them. I love going back through old posts and remembering our vacations. This last one to Italy was our longest trip yet, and definitely one of the best.

We arrived (delirious from the flight as per usual) in Rome on Aug 27th and promptly pick up our sweet ride. It's hard not to feel like a real jet setter when you're cruising around in your brand new Panda model, with the body of a roller skate. Either way, it got us to our destination - a tiny town on the Tuscany boarder called Paciano. After a quick nap we were eager to explore the town. Needless to say, the town consisted of two restaurants, two bars/tobacco shops, a butcher and a barber shop. It could not have been more spot-on. The café two doors from our apt served drinks and snacks, and have tables lining the street. It’s the perfect place for a glass of wine that costs less than $2. We later learned that this would be our other home away from home. That, and the small balcony off of the apartment that housed a table and chairs where we would have our drinks before heading to dinner. Our first night, we ate at a place called La Logetta, that happened to have the world’s most mind-blowing handmade pasta – thick homemade spaghetti with wild boar sauce and gnocchi with truffles (both local specialties). Along with three other courses, this was one of our top five meals of all time. And this is also where our journey to becoming fatties began.

The next day, we decided to take the Panda out for a spin and head to the wine town of Multicipiano. Somehow we were caught up in a Ren fest of sorts, and probably would have stayed if an oversized turkey leg presented itself. But this town was high on tourism, and we left for Pienza. This particular town is the home of pecorino cheese, and we planted ourselves at a small store where mother and older mother served us cheese and wine at an indoor picnic table. The next day followed with another gorgeous hillside down called Castiglione Del Lago - home of a beautiful lake (where we later went swimming) and calzones the size of your head. We'd gathered enough provisions in these places to make dinner at the apt, which contained a kitchen that most chefs would be jealous of.

On day four, we woke up early to take the train to Florence. Both of us are pretty wild about train travel, but we happened to land in the train car from hell that morning. Literally, the compartment was at least 110 degrees. Luckily, the trip to Florence was only an hour and a half, and we went straight to see the famous statue of David upon arrival. This work of art really was beyond impressive. We had a nice day travelling around the city, and stopping for lunch. On this evening or possibly another, we decided we'd live like the locals and stop at a bowling alley on the way back home. We were kicking ourselves for not placing bets. Sure the Italians know how to live (eat, drink, nap and smoke), but they're awful at bowling.

After our blue collar night at the bowling alley, we thought we class it up the next day and head to Cortona. Apparently this is the place where "Under the Tuscan Sun" was filmed, and Diane Lane is next to Mary in these parts. We had a fantastic lunch there, but left because we had a winery tour booked that afternoon.

On our last day in Paciano we decide to explore the town, which took all of 15 minutes, so we headed to a long lunch at our favorite restaurant. Seriously, this had been our life for one week. Sleep in, eat lunch, and explore a small village, read, nap, pre-dinner drinks, and late dinner. It’s not hard to get used to this life. We ended the night with more lardo pizza (hence the word lardo) and were lucky enough to catch a beer festival a few doors down. We played a few rounds of foosball, while the owner let us hold her guinea pig, which promptly pooped on Nate.

The next morning we cleared out our leftovers for breakfast, and feasted on bread gnocchi, pizza and pasta before heading to Naples for the day and finally, the Almalfi coast that night. We sprung for first class on the train car, and the biggest benefit was a touch of air condition, and meeting some cool people on the way down to help occupy the three-plus hour train ride. We stopped on in Naples for pizza, and were not disappointed. The place we chose to was crowded, grungy and only served two kinds of pie. Our driver was nice enough to stop a few miles away so that we eat our pizza and drink a beer over a specular view of the ocean. We arrived at our hotel (which was beautiful) in the small Amalfi town of Priano in time for dinner.

For our first full day on the coast, we headed down to the beach. We rented chairs and an umbrella (along with a Jones' size bottle of sunscreen). The man next to us, who closely resembled a catcher’s mit, was only slightly perturbed at the shade it provided him. Note: Everyone in Italy wears a bikini - and a small one at that. Despite some of those views, the water was a gorgeous blue green and the swimming area was perfect.

While in this town, we were able to explore some of the coast, including Ravello, Amalfi and Positano. Since the two of us always seem have some sort of travel malfunction, it was no surprise that on this particular day all Italian public transportation was on strike, but randomly, starting at 4pm. This actually benefited us since were able to take a private ferry back later that evening that happened to provide some gorgeous views. Ravello was beautiful, and we had one of our best lunches yet; Fried rice balls and baked crepes with cheese. (Um, see why we’re fatties.) Unfortunately we didn’t have much time in this cute town, but managed to push our way onto the last bus to make it to Amalfi and then Pastiano. The former being more touristy, and Postiano, which was more bustling, but charming. We ended the night with a swim, and some sort of fatty dinner.

One of our favorite days in Priano was chilling at the pool, which is almost always unoccupied. We stopped for our typical lunch, bottle of white and then finished the afternoon with reading and a nap. Our dinner was one of our best and biggest splurges, at Hosteria Del Pino. We had the local dish of squid and potatoes to start and some the most incredibly plump mussels. Nate had a light, crispy fried squid and prawns. This was only the beginning of our dinner, and we contemplated an exit because we were so stuffed. Not to worry, the two of us managed to force down our main dish, cookies and Irish coffee.

I think it was our day on the boat that was by far a favorite. We took a medium-sized speed boat to the nearby Island of Capri, and while the island itself is worth a visit, it was the actual stops along that way that were best. I'm not sure that meeting Dolly Parton herself could compare to swimming in the gorgeous blue Mediterranean Sea and greeted with a cold beer. It was a perfect way to end our visit to Amalfi.

The next morning we left for Rome, fully educated on train class. We splurged on the first-class tickets for the high-speed AE train to Rome from Naples. This made the trip less than an hour long, and they give you champagne and peanuts for being fancy pants. We arrived at our hotel, A View of Rome, in time to change clothes and walk to the city center where we visited the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and a few other popular sites. The positive was that they are truly beautiful attractions steeped in history, and it felt great to get a bit of exercise. The downside is that we were one of a million people jammed into history hell. It’s like a more beautiful and historic Times Square. Of course, this called for a drink, and we found a fantastic beer store near our hotel. The shop had a great selection of beers and a dog wandering around the store as a mascot.

On our second day in Rome we woke up early to visit the Vatican museum. After a nap, we moseyed over to St. Peter’s Basilica to see if the line was still a mile long, and surprisingly, there was none. Really, it was an incredibly beautiful sight, and it’s shocking that the two of us didn’t burst into flames upon entering. That evening we wanted to check out the Monti neighborhood, and it did not disappoint. We were out of tourist area, and found great wine bars. We had an incredible dinner (the most perfect gnocchi ever), and ended up at an Ice Bar. They gave us cloak-type of getups, and had banquettes made of ice to lounge in. We didn't lounge long, and the owner made a comment on how short we stayed.

Thought the Ice Bar proved to be one of our latest (I think we stayed up until midnight) nights, we woke up and set our sights on the Coliseum, which was Nate's version of Dollywood. Despite the heat (we’d had perfect weather up until now) it was truly impressive. A quick mosey around the gigantic antique stadium, and we were off to find the oldest Porchetta shop in town. It was indeed old, and we sat at one of the three tables to devour a Porchetta with a tumbler of red wine that came from a faucet. The owner was welcoming to us taking photos of both him, and his prized pig. After our greasy, porky lunch, it was, of course, naptime. We rested our heads before heading to a different ("young, fun, hip") neighborhood in the Traverse. We found the best wine bar here that served incredible snacks, and rather than having our normal multi-course dinner, we decided to find more places like this and hop around. Despite the Irish bar we stumbled into, there are some awesome bars in this area and a great chance to see what the local peeps do on the weekend. (That would be the same as anywhere else in Italy: eat, drink and smoke.)

We celebrated right on our last night of the vacation and despite managing to keep up our boozy lunch at the Dublin airport, it was clear (by the fit of our pants) that this lifestyle had to end.

Summer

2011-08-11T09:08:00.001-07:00

I'm blogging today on a very special occasion. You may have noticed (but most likely not), that back in the days of when we were fresh-faced off the boat from the Midwest, Nate got a job as a nurse at NYU Med Center here in NYC. He later went on to go to grad school to become a CRNA at Columbia University, and he JUST NOW finished he last day paying to work. And though he's had the pleasures of watching an abundance of foot amputations in the Bronx and birthing in Harlem, he's chosen to work as a Nurse Anethesist at NYU again. I'm certain it's so he can boss around his former employees.

In Blue Collar News:

I may have not graduated from an Ivy League University, but I am on a bowling team, and...wait for it...the Lois Lanes won the prestigious Bar Champs last season. Sure, we may have been second-to-last scoring on the league, but we made up for it by drinking everyone else under the table, and having an incredible amount of pep and spirit. Our zeal won us a $100 bar tab (that came out to approximately one free beer each), and a chipped mug.

In old people News:

I'm making rhubarb pies, and we're both contributing to homemade pizza. We commissioned the Amish to make us this picnic table to eat said pies.

In Habits News:

We've hit up the Belmont and Saratoga races this year. Giddy-up!

it's still winter

2011-03-24T12:09:00.001-07:00

While the rest of the U.S. is enjoying wet t-shirt contests and foam parties on their sunny spring break, the lovely residents of New York City are mercifully dealing with yet another snowfall. Nate and I wait patiently for the sidewalk cafes to spill out and the restaurants to open their windows as the weather gets warmer; but until then we're biding our time holed-up in our heated apartment with Miller Lowlife and board games.

Year Seven

2010-12-07T15:27:00.001-08:00

Nate and I just celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary on November 29th. I can hardly believe that seven years have gone by since we said our vows with ol' Dart Henry at Elfindale Chapel in our hometown. We celebrated by spending the weekend prior in Hudson Valley doing what we most love when it's freezing cold in NYC; eating good food and drinking good drinks. But on our actual day, which was a Monday, we took the day off and decided that we'd trim our tree and have leisurely lunch.

What I have learned after seven years of marriage is that there are certain things that Nate does not like to do and causes instant agitation. One is putting together anything from ikea and another is getting anything down from our poor excuse of a storage unit in the guest bedroom. This happens to be where our holiday items were stored so I decided to have these extracted on the day before our anniversary in order not to start the day off on the wrong foot. Surprising, this was pretty painless and we left the next day to choose and decorate our perfect tree from down the street (I’d liken the beaute to nothing short of a Charlie Brown wonder).

Suffice to say, I’m like my mother and grandmother in the way that I get hot and bothered by a piece of glass on a string. I’ve been known to collect ornaments from places we've traveled over the years and am giddy when they arrive in the mail from my mom in July; even if it's a plastic pig. Nate and I both love decorating each year and have our favorite ones to put on the tree. Though I’m easily the most laid back of the two, I try desperately not to rearrange his ever-so-sloppy ornament placement and have worked hard over the years to not suggest a more “appealing” place for his Royal’s ball. Either way, it's one of my favorite times of the year and after our tree was trimmed, we left for a long lunch at a French restaurant and spent a few hours drinking wine into early evening.

We decided to go home to open our gifts, make dessert and just as we were toasting year seven to a glass of champagne our tree came tumbling to the floor, ornaments and all. The only bonus was that after we finally fashioned it back in the stand, I was able to decorate again with what ornaments survived.

Clubbing

2010-11-12T05:35:00.000-08:00

I’ve found my way into a few clubs since moving to NYC. I wish I could
say that that I’m part of a key club or something more exciting, but my
participation is more along the lines of boring to lame. I’ve been in three
different book clubs since moving here and two have since dissipated;
once of those I think will revive at some point, but my current book club is going strong and is less of the pocket protector variety and more wine and gossip, with a good amount of stimulating conversation.

My favorite and most long-standing club is my cooking club. This is a
group of my good girl friends who, spoiler alert, all love to cook.
Our original name was, The Finer Things Cooking Club and later morphed
into the Fat Girls Cooking Club of Greater Hudson Valley, reason being
that we eat more than we actually cook at our club. Cooking club
changes host each month and the hostess chooses the theme and cuisine.
We’ve had Greek, Thai, Southern, Spanish, Moroccan, Brinner, Italian and so
much other goodness. We stuff our faces, drink wine and swear to wear
maternity pants every month. One of our lovely member's semi-maintains a blog here: http://goodfoodwithgoodfriends.blogspot.com/. Next month is my turn turn for holiday cookie exchange. I'm going to rent a fat suit and dress as Santa.

Acapulco

2010-11-08T16:56:00.000-08:00

...or as most people know it Johnny Weissmuller's personal playground. Anne and I recently took a trip down to Acapulco, actually we went in August during my brief respite from school. We utilized our airline miles to go down and that proved to be quite fortuitous as we would later find out (that was what I call in the amateur blog biz a "teaser"). Our flight was scheduled to leave about 1:00 AM on a Saturday morning. On paper this sounded good to us as we planned to have a few beers, head to the airport, have a few more beers, and then sleep on the plane to Mexico City where we had a fairly long layover. Then finally we were to take a quick flight to Acapulco and be in by noon to the resort.

The first red flag we encountered was only realized in hindsight, the agent at the ticket counter where we checked strongly advised us to carry our bags on and not check them. No big deal at the time, as we intended on doing this anyway (another teaser). Then, our "beers at the airport" plan was foiled by the fact that every establishment that sells alcohol in the international terminal of JFK is shut tighter than a nun's knees by 11:00 pm. This development had me fairly irritated, but I moved on as it's hard to spoil the beginning of a vacation.

The flight to Mexico City was great, the plane was only about 30% full, red flag #2 (I should change this column title to Acapulco Teasers...wait that sounds like a strip club), which meant that we each had an entire exit row to ourselves and were able to stretch out and sleep quite comfortably. The flight landed right on time and we made our way through customs and to the terminal for our flight to Acapulco. After waiting several hours with all of the other passengers for the flight, we learned it was cancelled. Huge bummer, a delay between us and our vacation. Oh, did I mention the flight was Air Mexicana? Have you heard of that one? Oh, no? That might be because it's out of business. As of the morning we landed in Mexico City. As in, we were in Mexico City with tickets to flights that no longer existed on an airline that was no longer in business. Needless to say we were rather distraught upon learning this. We pleaded with the manager to do something, in fairness he was quite sympathetic to our cause but simply kept saying "we're broke". We learned our options were to book a flight on another airline if we wanted to leave the airport via plane, otherwise we could walk/drive/take a bus/crawl/live there forever. As we waited in an incredibly long line for another airline with everyone else who was charting the far reaches of shit creek with us, the manager whom we had spoken with previously came and found us in line. He was communicating with someone over the phone, and telling us to hurry and come with him. He told us our flight on Mexicana was reinstated and to run, nee, RUN to the gate to catch the plane.

We sprinted through the terminal (well, I slow jogged and Anne sprinted) to the gate. There we were met with new people who were not sure if we were going or not. (Bear in mind that Anne speaks essentially no spanish, and I speak very little and seeing as we weren't in need of any "papas fritas", I was useless in this situation). Eventually, we got boarding passes, felt a wave of relieve and headed down the jetway. Whoops, stopped again this time I could see the inside of the plane, taste it even. More delay, eventually let on board. More delay, more official looking people coming in and out of the plane, inspecting us and leaving again. Finally we took off and were on our way. You can imagine the sense of relief that was felt by the passengers on board. All 3 of us. Aside from Anne and I, there was one other gentleman on the plane. Stewardesses were taking photos together, we took photos, it was quite a scene. Beers were free, and that is how we were on board the second to last flight ever flown on Air Mexicana (the same plane returned to Mexico City with a lot of people running on as we deplaned, looking much like we probably had an hour earlier.

Anyway, after spending a couple of hours on the phone with American while we were at the resort, we had to spend about $250 bucks for a flight to Mexico City, American got us a new flight back to New York (this is where having used miles came in handy), and credited us back the miles for the trip to Acapulco and back. A pain yes, but it could have been much worse. On to the vacay itself.

We arrived at our resort, Las Brisas a couple of hours before check in and were entertained in the lobby with pink margaritas and a very hospitable staff. This resort is really cool, it's heyday was clearly the 60s/70s but it is extremely well kept and clean. The kicker here though is that each room has its own private swimming pool. As a result we didn't plan on doing much aside from swimming, napping, eating, and drinking. On that last note we decided to make a beer run into town (the resort is not all inclusive). By beer run, I mean we went to a local Wal-Mart (vacation!!!), bought 4 cases of beer, two bottles of rum, a bottle of vodka, all of the mixers, and a blender. We were quite the spectacle both in the Wal-Mart checkout line and when we arrived back at the hotel lobby. (the remainder of the week was spent meeting looks from the staff of subtle grins and chuckles). At last, the room was ready and the hotel jeeps (this is how they take you to your room, very hilly) took us and our bar up to our room. Our room was fantastic, a nice patio overlooking the pool, and all of that overlooking the entire Acapulco bay. It was incredibly scenic. We settled in and had a nice room service meal and drank beers by the pool for the rest of the day.

The next day we went down to the beach club. The hotel has a separate beach area that is all the way down the mountain at the water. A van takes you down and it's private for the hotel guests. We had some nice drinks by the pool there, including a fresh coconut hacked open with a machete and filled to the brim with different types of rum. We also had a really great meal at restaurant with waves crashing in on the rocks just below. We went back up to the room that afternoon, did swimming, and went down to the nicer restaurant on the resort was I was kindly asked to stay near the bar as I didn't have on dress pants. So we sat with the open night air blowing in and looked out over the bay and had drinks.

The next day we headed down into the city of Acapulco for the first time. It's really not that nice of a city, not terrible but kind of dirty. I swung through the Wal-Mart a second time to pick up some khaki pants (my mexilones) and we went all the way around the bay to see old Acapulco. The cab driver was very determined to tell us all about Johnny Weissmuller and showed us where he lived (in a large room at an old hotel) and all of the stars who used to come there etc. For those who don't know, Johnny Weissmuller is a former Olympic swimmer who played Tarzan in the movies back in the 30s or something. He's been dead for a hell of a long time but is still quite big in Acapulco for whatever reason. Anyway, we were rapidly moving toward the point of explaining how we couldn't give a shit about Johnny Weissmuller when mercifully we were taken to a bar built on cliff's where you could watch the world famous Acapulco cliff divers. This is as touristy as it gets there and as a result our expectations could not have been lower. However, we were both quite pleasantly surprised. The cliff diving show is really pretty cool. First of all, the cliff's they dive off of are damn high. I would say at least 100 feet or more. Second, the area of water they dive in is basically a crack in between two cliffs. So the breadth of the water they land in is only maybe 20 feet wide, which might as well be a kiddy pool to me. Third, the water they dive in is evidently quite shallow, so much so that they have to time their landing into the water with when a wave comes in so it is deeper. Finally, they don't just do a straight up dive, they'll go off of the very top and do flips and all sorts of tricks on their way down before finishing with a dive. The show is not singular reason to book your flight to Acapulco today, but if you ever decide to go it's certainly worth seeing.

After we headed back to the hotel, we again took a swim and probably napped somewhere in there. Then, armed with my fancy new pants from Wal-Mart, we confidently marched into the restaurant for an excellent meal of duck for me, and Anne had some fresh tuna. It was really a nice meal and worth the cost of the pants to be sure.

One morning we woke up and decided we ought to do an excursion that day. Since our budget was a little pinched from the unexpected expense of buying a plane ticket, we opted to move down form the deep sea fishing to a nice boat cruise around the bay, or that was how it was advertised to us. The price was right and it included all of the drinks you wanted. Yes, a booze cruise. Seemed fun, and we both wanted to get out onto the water. As it turns out, the bay is quite rough. The boat was a pretty large boat with probably 200 people on it, but big enough that it didn't feel crowded. They had a band and nice roof deck with good views. The boat really did sway quite a lot the entire way. Shortly after departure Anne started looking/feeling pretty green. I got a little snack and some beers and that really helped. I also moved to the center of the boat, reasoning that the swaying would be less in the middle as opposed to the edge which was moving up and down pretty solidly. After a few minutes, she settled down and was fine for the rest of the trip. Others, uh, didn't fair so well. Before we got off we had dubbed it the Puke-Ship-Lollipop. It was comically bad. People were hugging trashcans everywhere, as soon as the bathroom door would open, someone else would fly. I saw one girl throw up in a sack, and another over the back railing. I, sadistically, was getting quite a kick out of it. Otherwise, it was very lovely. On the way back we stopped off for a traditional goat stew, made only on Thursdays, at a local restaurant in town. The place came highly recommended and the food was excellent. That pretty much capped our day and was back to the room once more.

As it's been quite sometime since were there, (I really slacked on getting this up) I'm having some trouble remember day-by-day how things went, so I'll try to hit some highlights. One night we went to eat at this restaurant not on the resort. It was a pretty nice atmosphere with decent food and it also overlooked the bay. The really noteworthy part of the meal though was when randomly during the meal these huge movie screens descended from the ceiling and covered the large windows which offered the view. The lights were dimmed and we were treated to a video of a concert of a Mexican band that was probably a 7 piece band backed by an orchestra. The first song was all in spanish, and I of course didn't know it, but the second was a rather emotional rendition of "Knights in White Satin" sung in English but with Spanish accents. It was totally bizarre and we were really fighting back laughter but everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Also, sometime during the trip I got a touch of food poisoning and spent an entire night and day sweating out a terrible fever and running to the bano (spanish) for various reasons. That sucked, but I got over it pretty quickly. All in all, the trip was great though. The room was really nice and we definitely intend on going back there when we are ready for another relaxing vacation. The trip home was uneventful, thankfully, and it was back to NYC for a healthy dose of reality.

L.A.

2010-11-08T12:54:00.000-08:00

I went to LA last month to see my little bro. To New Yorkers, LA is the nemesis but there's very little in common between the two places. For one: Everyone in LA drives in the world's most insane traffic yet seem to have no stress whatsoever. Secondly: Everyone in LA smokes Capris - the smallest cigarette known to man.

I'll always be partial to the East Coast after living in San Francisco, but had only been to LA a handful of times, including business trips. I was ready to immerse myself in all-things-LA and this mean busting out my flippy-floppys and getting a spray tan. Just kidding about the spray tan.

Austin picked me up from the airport and planned an awesome day of bike riding around Santa Monia and Venice, shopping, sushi and drinks at a rooftop bar to watch the sunset over the beach before karaoke. It's hard to be hatin' this life. I was meeting my Bay Area Bestie, Diana, and we were going to make it a weekend at The Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills. This place was fantastic. Very mod with an awesome pool/cabana area. D met me that night for dinner at Bazaar (this place was total LA) and then to an early rise for our class at Slimmons. We frantically search for an outfit for our Richard Simmons debut and arrived at his studio in time to sweat. Richard is one-part adorable and one-part insane. His class could only be summed up as a day at gay camp with Richard being the camp counselor who had outfit changes between songs. D and I were overjoyed to get pictures and kisses from Richie at the end of the (exaustingly long) class.

We finished the weekend with drinks by the pool on Sat, dinner at Test Kitchen (so good) followed by dancing with our gays. This was the perfect girl/brother weekend and I'm stoked (cali shop talk) to get back asap

Fall highlights

2010-11-06T13:18:00.001-07:00

Fall in NYC is absolutely beautiful and entirely too short. Nate and I have been taking advantage of so many things to do in the city. We spent a recent weekend playing tourists which included a little field trip to Times Square to see the musical, Memphis (incredible!). This trip would not have been complete without a stop for TGIFriday's for chicken fingers and a glass of their finest wine. We capped the evening off with a drink at the rooftop Marriott Marquis, where you can find not only un-parallel views of the city, but the restaurant rotates to boot!
Last weekend we saw Daniel Tosh at the Beacon Theater for his Tosh.0 tour and though I still can't figure out which team he's playing for, he's certainly sealed the deal for best comedian ever. This was also Halloween weekend and NYC is a fantastic place to celebrate my favorite holiday. As per usual, we (or me) are in talks about what will be the best costume of all time, but manage not to buy a thing until an hour before we walk out the door. This means that Nate was his old standby-the hillbilly hodgepodge costume and I was a cross-dressing detective.
Last night we went to see the Black Crows and nothing could have prepared us for how awesome this three hour show was. They played at Nokia Theater which was an great venue.
Tonight I'm reviewing a new restaurant and we'll go to check out the place before one of my BFF's bday parties at one of our favorite bars in the city, The Blue Owl.

Lost In Austin

2010-08-24T13:15:00.001-07:00

Get it? Rhymes. Hey friends, it's my turn to put a few words down on the page and this time it's about a trip to Austin I took with the wife a couple of weeks ago. We have always wanted to go there, and thanks to Delta bumping us last fall we were able to fly their for free (not a cheap place to fly surprisingly). We rented a car when we landed, and much to the chagrin of the rental car guy who desperately (forcefully?) tried to upsell us on a new camaro ("a lot more power in this one") we drove out in our chevy cobalt with black leather interior. For the record black leather interior in Austin is closely ranked with other great ideas like a ski-mask in Ecuador and wool sweaters while visiting the sun. We stayed at the Hotel San Jose, a newly and nicely renovated 50's motel with a hip patio/bar area and a nice pool. However, prior to checking in we went straight from the airport to Iron Works BBQ. It came recommended to us, but I honestly found it dry and uninteresting. I went for brisket since Texas is beef country, Anne's BBQ beef sandwich was better, but mostly because the sauce masked the dryness of the meat. Full and undeterred, we checked and went straight to Barton Springs Pool. This place is pretty cool, and I'd recommend it to anyone heading to Austin though it's probably best enjoyed when it's really hot. This place is a giant (HUGE actually) natural spring swimming pool. The edge is cement and rectangle like a typical swimming pool, but the inside is all natural spring with a natural bottom (feels like walking in a river or lake...full of ice). There is a diving board on the side, and watching people go off that is occasionally impressive but mostly hilarious. Watching knees buckle as they are unable to withstand the recoil of the board is entertaining to say the least, and many backs and belly's were busted during our stay. Anne went off of the board twice, both times playing it safe with a standard dive. I finally jumped in after fearing that I might actually cook if I didn't go soon. The water was subzero, and even after 10 minutes I was nowhere near used to it. I clawed my way out of the water and lay in a fetal position on the hot cement as my bluish skin restored it's healthy paste tone. OK, maybe that was an exaggeration but the water was damn cold.
We headed back to the hotel afterward and hit up the pool area for some cold beers and michelata's (a sort of bloody mary-esque drink with beer as the main component instead of tomato and vodka). The water here was very toasty and felt great after the natural spring. We then hit up a shower and a quick nap before off to dinner. We ate a known tex-mex place called Chuy's. This meal more than made up for the subpar BBQ we had earlier. Excellent margaritas, chips, salsa, and the food in general was delicious. We lucked out on the wait, since only one table in the restaurant is for two people and we were the only party of two there, so while everyone else waited 45 minutes to sit we were sipping drinks and munching on chips and salsa at our table. After dinner it was back to the hotel to drop off the car and taxi over to the Broken Spoke. An Austin institution for honky tonk music and dancing. We paid $20 for a two step lesson and drank $5 pitchers of Lone Star beer all night. As for two stepping no one felt threatened by my dancing prowess but I wasn't the worst one there which was my goal. Also the women's bathroom was equipped with stalls that had American flag shower curtains for doors, and the men's room only had a trough urinal (god forbid you have to drop a deuce) which was inhabited by the largest cricket I've ever seen. If crickets fiddle their legs, this one could have sat in with the band. After a night of "two-stepping" and beers we decided we'd had enough for the day and headed back to the hotel. The cab ride home confirmed that the Austin cabbies have no idea where anything is and they don't know where they are going very slowly. Additionally, when I finally got my phone out to look at a map, they don't understand where you are telling them to go despite the fact that outwardly they appear to be fluent in english. I guess I'm used to cabbies here, but these guys were beyond imagination, and the subsequent one we took did nothing to dispel this notion. Upon arriving back at the hotel, we decided a bed time snack was in order and decided to head up to a pizza place we had heard was good earlier in the day. We asked a couple of people if the place was good on our way there and they said it's pretty good "unless you're from New York or something". It was actually pretty good, but I'm not sure they were exactly making authentic New York pizza. Admittedly, it probably wasn't the smartest thing to try to get that there. From then on we stuck with the food the locals are known for and had great meals.
The next morning we woke up late and had brunch at another tex-mex restaurant down the street from the hotel called Guero's. The food here was also amazing, tex-mex is absolutely the way to go down in Austin. With our belly's full we headed out for a drive around Austin, we saw the campus some different neighborhoods and basically just took in the city. It's really nice down there and aside from the heat, it doesn't feel like any place I've been in Texas before. We headed back to the hotel and spent a little more time out at the pool hanging out. Then showered and got ready to go out to a dive bar we'd read about called Ginny's Little Longhorn. The attraction on Sunday's at Ginny's is chicken shit bingo. Which is a little misleading in that it's not really bingo. They set up a huge board painted with squares, each square has a number painted in it. Over the top of the board is a small pen made of chicken wire. You buy a ticket for two dollars, and the lady that owns the place, Ginny, puts her chicken, Penny, in the pen. Whatever number it shits on is the winner, and the person with that ticket wins all of the money that was spent on tickets. It's really a hell of a lot of fun actually. They serve $2 bottles of Lone Star, free chili dogs, and a damn good band plays in the corner. It was an awesome day really, and I would highly recommend it. Ginny even let Anne hold the chicken. We headed back to the hotel again, and went out for some really nice oysters and other food a cool restaurant that I forgot the name of and called it a night again.
Finally, on our last day there we woke up and went for breakfast at Magnolia Cafe. This place had some really good traditional breakfast food, and massive portions. After breakfast, I picked up some vintage shirts that I found on a sale rack for $5 apiece, a steal. We then drove around Austin a little more and headed outside of town to a place called County Line BBQ. It was located down on the banks of a river and was in a really cool spot. However, again the food was not that great. So far I was disappointed in the quality of BBQ here. I know that Salt Lick is supposed to be the mecca of BBQ here, but it's pretty far out of town and for a short stay we didn't want to devote that much time to going out there. After lunch we drove off the highway and sat out by Lake Austin which was nice for bit, and then we headed back to check out and make our way back to the airport. Coincidentally the same day that President Obama was there. After checking in and going through security, we got to watch Airforce One take off, which was a lot like any other plane taking off however it is worth noting that it is massive plane. After that bit of interest had passed I was happy to see that Salt Lick has an outpost at the airport. I figured I might as well give it a try on my way home. I wasn't particularly hungry, but I'm so glad I did. The brisket sandwich I had was unreal. By far the best BBQ I had in Austin. I can only imagine that the actual restaurant puts the airport version to shame. I will not make the mistake of skipping that place the next time we go back, which we definitely intend on doing.

That 70’s Shirt

2010-08-03T14:34:00.001-07:00

In case you’re wondering why Nate is wearing the same orange and brown shirt in every single photo that has been posted since the beginning of summer; it’s because of a bet. I think that he’s gonna win it.

Saratoga

2010-08-03T14:32:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we went to one of our favorite places in NY State: Saratoga Springs. Nate and I go at least once each season for the horse races and this year we had two of our favorite couples join us. We found a new place to reserve near the track and though my "lucky" coin sock only brought in one win, the weather was absolutely perfect and our cabin had a porch that was just nature-y enough. Better times could not have been had. Until next year...

summer so far

2010-07-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

summer has been fun so far; at least the weekends. we've been jam-packed with fun plans and are working to enjoy the city to maximum capacity. we're also enjoying record high temps that feel as you're roasting in a fire pit. anyhow, june included a trip to long beach. this was our first time there and it's a cute beach town that beats the pants off off most in close proximity to the city. for one, you can actually swim in the ocean without fear of being stabbed by a hypodermic needle. also, the number of people is far less, making for a much more pleasurable day at the beach. we also went to brew fest on governor island with friends and spent the 4th of july the same group. our friend's parents live in a darling little town in the garden state and host a 4th of july bash each year complete with fireworks, a parade, bbq and beer pong (not in this order). there also happens to be a county fair across the street where i was able to get my zipper on. we were lucky enough to spend the actual 4th of july on a friend's boat where we went zoomed up to hudson valley and spent the evening in the city on the water watching the fireworks. next year will surely suck after such a great day.

i like meat

2010-06-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

I took a vegan gluten-free dessert cooking class on Monday night for a writing assignment. Heaven knows this would never be my topic of choice considering that I consumed about a half pound of bacon in one setting last night. But...I love to bake and am always down for a challenge. By the end of the evening, the class of ten students had made over six recipes and about 200 desserts. AND, the sweets were incredible. I even sneaked one into Nate's lunch and he approved. I won't be whipping these up on a daily basis, but it would be handy for one of those annoying friend's with food allergies.

*I stopped for a cheeseburger on the way home.
** These are photos of some of our concoctions.

Veggin Out

2010-06-16T15:15:00.001-07:00

We've been doing a lot of chillin' on the back patio as of late. The weather in NYC has been top notch and some of our herbs and veggies are coming in. Nate has taken a shine to grilling about everything that he can get his hangs on. Last weekend we experimented with shell fish and learned that mussels make a better meal than clams. We also make some bomb bruschetta with our very own basils and tomato. My radish and sugar snap peas are not looking quite as promising, but I'm still giving them love. I'm already dreading winter.

Memorial

2010-06-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

Memorial weekend always makes me miss Table Rock Lake. I miss hanging out with all of our Missouri friends and sitting on the boat all.weekend.long. I also particularly miss the abundance of Budweiser bikinis here in NYC. It could be because there is not a body of water within a 5-mile radius of my apartment and my Hampton's house is currently on the fritz. In any case, we had ourselves a nice little “staycatation” as well, everyone likes to say.

Saturday we took New Jersey’s finest mode of public transportation to Monmouth Park for a picnic with friends. They have nice umbrellas and tables and you can bring your own wine, beer and whatever else floats your boat. I’ve quickly established this as my second home. Momma did not come back with a new pair of shoes but after two bottles of wine, we met new BFFs on the train who were on their way to a Bon Jovi concert and happy to share their Bush Tall Boys with us.

Sunday was self-proclaimed “pizza tour” where we decided to finally try three of the places that have been tacked to our bulletin board. Keste, Motorino and Volce. We shopped around and took our time between each place, but these two little piggies had no problem polishing off two whole pies and a Sicilian slice. This tour was long overdue.

Spring Break!

2010-06-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

I wanted to use this blog as our journal for NYC or wherever else we decide to end up in our life. I love to go back and read the old posts about what we were doing and places that we frequented. It’s amazing how I’ve already forgotten about those times and it’s only been three years since we’ve moved here. But somehow it’s turned into a travel blog. Whatever it may be, we’re not so great at keeping up-to-date. I’ll go back to March when Nate and I took a week-long trip for Spring Break. We had been gearing up all winter for a wet t-shirt contest in Cancun, but plans had changed and we remembered that we were 30-somthings, so Napa seemed like a better fit. We joined friends for a few days and had more than a good time. I’ll only give highlights. My favorites included:
*Karaoke and Chinatown bar day w/ Shawn, Paul, D and Michelle in San Francisco. *Hanging out with old friends, Noah and Kelly.
*Bocce ball in Napa.
*Oysters by the dozen.
*Bikes in Sonoma (until D fell and broke her face).

Our Decent Weekend in Feb

2010-02-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was Valentine’s Day, Nate’s birthday AND Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, so needless to say, we were pretty jam packed with celebrating all weekend. I took Nate to see Judah Friedlander (the guy with the trucker hat and thick glasses from 30 Rock) who was doing stand up here for his gift. This was a nice little gift to myself as well, as he was incredibly funny. We had dinner at Bills Burger and Bar before the show and seeing that I’ve decided to lay off the red meat for Lent, it made for a nice farewell to my favorite animal. I highly recommend this place as the service, atmosphere, and most of all, burgers, were awesome. I also had an “adult” milkshake (featuring booze) that I managed to suck down in approximately 2 minutes. The rest of the weekend was spent trying for a sweet, sweet Valentine’s Day baby. Just kidding. That was for my sister-in-law.

Donde Esta El Jones Clan-o

2010-01-11T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hey friends, sorry for the huge gap in posts. The two of us have been pretty slammed with school, work, and day to day life. As a result we've not been on here much lately. I'd like to promise more regular postings, but I'm afraid I can't at this point, although we'll give our best effort. Our most recent adventure was a trip to Spain, most of which was spent just Anne and I, but we met up with some friends for the last few days in Barcelona. This trip, coupled with my break from school, felt like the right time to break our streak of no posts. Anne and I found a ridiculous deal on some flights to Spain last year, and left for the trip on Christmas Day. Flying out of JFK to Barcelona, via Madrid, we departed after a lovely Christmas dinner at the airport, where we shared laughs and all around merriment over some sandwiches and beer. The flight had a rather inauspicious debut as we were seated behind a couple who had a 3 year old in tow. Needless to say we were both worried about the prospect of sitting behind an inconsolable screaming youth. We were not disappointed. I'm no expert on parenting, in fact I'd probably be lousy at it, but it seems fundamentally wrong to expect a child of that age to behave appropriately on such a long flight. Afterall, I'm 31 and it's all I can do to not go crazy when confined to a seat that long. This little dickens appeared to only have two settings, sleep and full throated scream. Sadly, the sleep setting was rarely dialed in. This made the 8 hour flight feel more like 80, which roughly equated to the number of beers I consumed. We did our best to not murder the parents, and make the best of the flight, but were both pretty glad to be off of the plane when we got to Madrid. After a sleepless flight, we connected to Barcelona, squeezed in a 45 minute nap on that flight, and settled in for our trip to really begin.
After getting off the plane in Barcelona, and failing to find an airport vasectomy clinic, we hooked up with our rental car. Our plan was pretty loosely made, we had booked a room for two nights later on, but had a few days sprinkled around to wing it before we were to be back in Barcelona on the 31st. We had booked something along the lines of a roller skate, but were pleased to recieve a complementary upgrade to a car with actual tires instead of shopping cart wheels. We scooted out in our hatchback Peugot 5 speed, with a plan to cruise up the mediterranean coast and find a town that seemed cool and stay there for the night. A few wrong turns later we were on the coastal highway, heading north towards France and thoroughly enjoying our drive. Initially, the drive was a straight shot up the coast with the beach bordering the road on the right, and various shops on the left. The ocean was as near as pulling off and walking 30 yards from the passenger door. Needless to say this was quite scenic, but nothing like what we had in store.
We stopped off for some snacks and caffeine to fuel ourselves to the night. Neither of us had slept much but were feeling pretty good with the excitement of "getting there". I always try to buy snacks that are unavailable at home, in this case some potato chips flavored like ham. I'm not sure why America hasn't embraced the meat-flavored potato chip but this is the second trip in a row where we've had them (sausage pringles in Japan), and they are the most delicious chip flavor. We also had something called Boca Bits, which I bought because I didn't know what they were. They turned out to look like pork rinds a bit, but they tasted more like Bugles. With a light snack on board we made our way farther up. For a time reference, this last part took about 3 hours, and it's roughly 4:00 pm local time now. As we drove farther up the coast, the towns became fewer and farther between, and the road climbed up into some small coastal mountains/hills. This road evolved from a nice scenic drive, into the most beautiful drive either of us had ever taken. It curved around every turn and bend of the mountains and followed the coast. Now the ocean was still roughly as close as pulling over and walking 30 yards from the passenger door, only now you would need to travel about 1000 feet straight down to the water. Initially I was having a field day stress testing the Peugot on the curvy roads, but it turns out that Anne has all of the intestinal fortitude of a newborn, so I was forced to slow to a crawl which pleased all of the locals piling up behind me on the road. As evening came on us, we were both ready to stop anywhere to eat and be done traveling for the first time in over a day. As the road gradually wound down to sea level, we entered the town of San Feliu. We decided this would be a fine place to spend our first night since we didn't want or need to press on, and we knew it would be a short drive to Begur, our pre-planned destination for the next night, the next day.
The nice thing about traveling when we did to the coast of Spain is it is the offseason, neither of us are real "beach" people, and that is the draw here for most tourists. As a result, most of the people around are locals, prices are very cheap, and you basically have your run of the place. The downside is that many hotels are seasonal, and the resulting accomodations are limited. Our first stop was at a restaurant, where Anne ran in and got a couple of recommendations for places to stay. The first one we tried was closed for the season, however there were people working there, renovating etc., and the owner happened to be there who recommended another place, different than the one recommended by the restaurant. We decided to try the restaurants recommendation first since we knew where it was, and its proximity to the water, and several restaurants. We drove over to the hotel which proved to be a huge challenge, so much so we never actually made it. We could see the hotel from the street we were on, a one-way, and drove down to circle back around to the street where the hotel was. We crossed several one-way streets before we could make a left. My thinking was, another left and we'll be headed the right way. However, after the first left we were now too far behind, so I'd need to make two more lefts. I took the first one I could, which was an extremely narrow street, so narrow that cars were parked on the sidewalk literally inches from buildings while the other half of the car still blocked half of the "street". I had to drive half on the sidewalk with literally inches to spare on either side of the car to pass. Oh, to make it easier, I'm in a stick shift and this street is going straight up a massive incline to the top of a hill. Finally, we reach the summit to find, yes! - a dead end. My two options were to try to turn around in a little path with an incline far steeper then the one we had just climbed, or try to back down this roughly mile long hill on the sidewalk avoiding parked cars. My plan was to back down the ultra steep side street (also a dead end, FYI), and then pull back up onto the original street, only I didn't have room to back down it, so I had to go nose first and then reverse up the massive incline. With my knees literally shaking, and the strong aroma of burning clutch in the air I successfully executed the turn. So with Anne looking through her fingers and me spewing a prodigious stream of expletives at the road design and lack of signage, we abandoned hotel 1 for the other recommendation. Fortunately, the sailing was much smoother from here on. No more harrowing road experiences, and other than getting lost a bit, the rest of the trip wasn't too bad. Although we did find it annoying that everywhere we went, there was excellent signage directing you to your destination, until the last couple of miles. It's like they're thinking, "hey we got you this close, you can find it from here". This was a bit frustrating, but all in all a minor glitch.
That first night we landed in a really nice hotel, turns out the recommendation was a good one. Our room had a very large balcony, and the bathroom featured both a shower and separate bathtub that was long enough for me to totally lay down in with legs straight out.
We took a 2 hour nap, and went out for some dinner around 8pm. Based on the hotel's recommendation we drove to nearby town, which was quite busy. We parked the car, and set out on foot. We were both basically starving so we had a coffee at one place, and then the next place we saw stopped for some food. We ordered two traditional Tapas plates, manchego (spanish cheese), whihc is served with sliced up baguette that has olive oil and fresh tomato spread on it (they basically slice the tomato, and squeeze all of the "guts" out of onto the bread and spread it that way). The other dish we had was fresh anchovies served in a similar fashion only without the tomato guts on the bread. This place was off the beaten path a bit, and the food was really good. Anne ordered a "glass" of wine, which turned out to be a bottle of wine (this is when we learned wine is cheap there), and I had a beer...and half of Anne's wine. With some sustenance on board and a little drink we stopped off at this little arcade where we played some games, one of which was an old timey animatronic shooting game where the machines reacted when you "shot" the targets (very much like something you would see at Silver Dollar City), only the reaction was me getting shot in the face with a squirt gun and then later me getting shot in the crotch with a different squirt gun. Good times. So with a wet crotch and full belly, we decided to head back to the hotel and take it on foot from there. We wound down the evening with a bottle of wine at our hotel, some delicious olives and hit the sack for some much needed sleep.
Our hotel included breakfast, a pretty heavy self serve deal, that included a griddle where you could fry your own bacon, I thought that was pretty cool so I fried up a few strips, which was really delicious. Then we cruised over to an open air market where I couldn't figure out how to work the parking meter, so we moved on defeated but not discouraged. Our drive took us on to Begur, a city right on the coast but up in the hills so not a beach town. After round two of signage that almost gets you there, stopping for directions once, we found our hotel, the Aiguaclara. A really cool old hotel, which was one of the nicer places we've stayed. Again, being the offseason, the hotel was relatively empty so they gave us a nicer room than we'd paid for, on the house. It had a sitting room, a big terrace right in the middle of the city center, and of course bedroom and bath. We settled in, and took a recommendation from the hotel owner (a really nice husband and wife) for a great place to get seafood right on the beach. About a 20 minute drive later, we were in a really small, secluded beach town called Tiamar. This is where I established myself as "most likely to forget essential items" by starting a trend of heading out without our translation book. I ordered some of the freshest calamari I've ever had served with a squid ink risotto, and Anne blindly order some fish dish which was phenomenal. As it is customary to have wine with a meal there, we ordered a nice bottle of white wine, and had a delicious lunch. The weather was cool, but clear and very beautiful. We then headed back to our hotel for a nap. I slept about 20 minutes but Anne was down for 2 hours. Bored I wandered around the city center (Begur was very small and very quiet), drank a couple of coffee's (you get espresso if you order coffee there) and then met back up with Anne. We again, decided to wing it for dinner. Ended up at what we later learned was a highly recommended restaurant. We had a phenomenal tuna carpaccio to start, Anne order an equally delicious seafood paella, and I had a maybe the best roasted duck I've ever tasted topped with foie gras (like the wine, foie gras is served almost everywhere and is infinitely cheaper than here). This is one of the best meals we had on the trip. We finished the evening at a very local bar called Callos, which was the name of the owner and, it turns out, the bartender that night. We had a nice conversation (as nice as possible given the language barrier), with the only two patrons and Callos (who was extremely drunk, that transcended the language issue without problem), while death metal played over VH1 rocks on the big screen (none of these guys was less than 40 years old and Callos was probably more like 60 so the music didn't exactly fit the atmosphere). We made brunch plans with these guys, and then forgot about them the next day. We finished the evening in the basement of our hotel which was set up as this cool "living room" with sofas and a self service bar.
The next day we also spent in Begur (two nights here), this time walking around since neither of us felt like being in the car. There was some really old ruins and lots of cool spanish architecture (my running joke was to note the brilliant spanish architecture, which I ran into the ground by day two but didn't give up on). After walking around for most of the morning, we had lunch at a really good restaurant called La Galena. We sat by an open fire place, and ordered some octopus to start, which was beyond amazing. Actually they started us with a little bite of some unbelievable chorizo (different than Mexican chorizo, more like the consistency of salami normally, but this was fresh and served hot, rather than cured and cold). I had braised oxtail which was good, but Anne had some monkfish stew (monkfish was very popular there, served almost everywhere) that was unreal. Again, a bottle of wine with lunch, and again we followed up lunch with a nap (real go-getters). We were both feeling pretty beat so we watched a movie our room. After showers, we headed out to a dinner place that we had noticed while walking around earlier in the day. They seemed to specialize in fire grilled meats, so this sounded very cool. Sadly it was pretty disappointing. We had manchego as a starter, which the bread was marginal, and sadly this was the best part of the meal. We had some rabbit and pork cheeks which weren't too great. The pork cheeks were so salty I could barely eat them, and the rabbit was tough. Undaunted we headed back to the hotel for a bottle of cava, and made (g-rated) movies with the flip cam.
The next day was again to be decided on the fly. We woke up to another excellent breakfast at Aiguaclara, lots of really good fresh fruit, bread, cheeses and sausages. We checked out and decided to head up to Cadaques, which looked like a cool small beach town, at the foot of the Pyrenees and near the French border. We booked a room online before we left Begur and headed up. On the way we found some ancient ruins (2nd century BC) that we decided to stop at. Really cool to see such an ancient city (very small), and there was even a cool statue that they had found. We pressed on and stopped off at a small bakery in a town that I don't remember the name of, for a snack. We arrived in Cadaques in the early afternoon, and checked in to the Hotel Rocamar. It was a cool older hotel whose heyday had probably passed a couple of decades ago. It was clean though, had an indoor pool which was a nice surprise, and overlooked the entire bay and town of Cadaques. Also, Cadaques was the home of Salvador Dali, or at least where he lived most of his life and where is home was. So we walked over and checked that out, it was cool but we didn't wait to take the tour since neither of us are really art buffs (or know anything about it at all would be more accurate). We went into the town on the way back and picked up a couple of swimsuits, fortunately mine wasn't a banana hammock, but Anne wasn't as lucky. Hers looked like the thinnest piece of a cotton band for the top and the bottoms weren't the best either. She hesitated but decided we would never see these people again anyway, so who cares. After a nice swim in the evening we went back to shower and get ready for the evening (no nap today). We started with some cocktails by the fireplace in our hotel which was really nice. Afterward we went out to a very local restaurant, buried in the intricate pathways of the city center, called The Mermaid. Again, more amazing seafood, so fresh, and this time two bottles of wine and desert. We stayed so late and had a wonderful time.
After a good nights sleep, we got up to find the best weather of our trip. It had been sunny everyday, but cool. Today, the 30th, was the warmest yet. Clear blue skies and around 70 degrees I went out in short sleeves. Without a doubt, Cadaques was the most beautiful place we stayed. The city is absolutely amazing, it feels like what my stereotype of a mediterranean city has always been. White buildings with helter skelter cobble stone streets, tiny pathways and with the ocean always as a backdrop. We spent the morning wandering around, eating a snack at a restaurant right in the beach where we sat outside. Then made our way back to our car, to head on to Girona. Girona, is another place where we planned our stay. This is the biggest city we had stayed in to that point by far. It has some really cool midieval architecture (spanish no doubt), and felt very old in the city center. We saw a really cool cathedral, dating back well over a thousand years. We stayed in a really cool hotel here too. The hotel had apartments you could stay in which we did (these were actually cheaper than a standard room), although we didn't utilize the kitchen really. It was nice though, and would have been ideal if you were staying for an extended period. We snacked at a crepe place where we each some really excellent savory crepes, which felt more like a dinner than a snack. Later we had churros and hot chocolate, a very traditional Spanish dish. These were awesome, deep fried dough with sugar on them, and a cup of hot chocolate to dip them in. Only, the chocolate is thick like hot pudding when you make it on the stove, and not super sweet. So good. We tried to meet up with a few of our friends who we were staying with the next few days in Barcelona, that were in Girona that night but were not able to find one another (made us wonder how we lived without cell phones). We were pretty beat and decided to not get too crazy that night (we are getting older for sure), and ended up having a quiet night, and catching up on some rest. The next morning we had a message at our hotel from our friends who had missed us the night before, and we met them that morning for some breakfast outside (nice again). They had rented a car as well, and were going to the same place as us in Barcelona. We caravaned down, dropped our cars back at the airport and took the bus into Barcelona city center to meet the rest of our group.
About dozen of us had rented a huge apartment in Barcelona, which was super cheap when divided up, for the few days. This is totally the way to go with a group, especially when phones aren't readily available. It eliminates the hassle of meeting up with people, it allows for some light cooking and drinking at a convenient place. Plus people can do their own thing if they want and know where to meet up later.
The rest of our group had just arrived that day, the 31st, so they were all pretty beat. But, to their credit, they powered through on limited sleep for a great night. Our first priority was to stock up on some provisions for the next few days. The ladies were charged with getting food, wine, and other essentials while myself and the boys and went to pick up beer and get a bite to eat. Predictably the place we stopped for a sandwich doubled as a bar (everywhere serves alchohol here, I mean everywhere), and so a few mugs of beer later we resumed our quest for, ahem, more beer. We didn't find a supermarket, so we literally cleaned a shop out of all of their beer, which the workers found to be comical. We met back up at the apartment with everyone and began getting ready for New Year's Eve in Barcelona. We played a few rounds of Apples to Apples (fun with the right group), had a few beers and passed out the party favors the ladies had purchased (noise makers, clown noses, masks etc.) Like Anne and I, our group was very casual, and not into over planning things. So we had no set plans for New Year's except find a bar where we could all fit comfortably and that wouldn't charge us through the nose for drinks. We walked for a few blocks, and I began to get the feeling we were going to wind up spending midnight on the street looking for a place, luckily we found a small pub which wasn't terribly busy and could accomodate all of us. Drinks were reasonable, and there was no cover which suited all of us just fine. As midnight approached champagned, or more likely cava, flowed and they had the Dick Clark equivalent up on the TV. In Spain the tradition is to eat grapes as mignight approaches, 12 to be exact and you're supposed to eat one every second for the last 12 seconds of the year. Anne and I both got them down, but the last 4 or 5 I was basically swallowing whole. Afterward, there was some dancing, more drinking, and I basically paid for the rest of my beers wagering on some games of foosball. We reconvened at the apartment, and drank until the wee hours, though none of us made it long enough for the American New Year's (6AM local time).
The next day we spent seeing various sights in Barcelona, including the famous works of Gaudi, notably the still-to-be-finished Sagrada de Familia. A massive cathedral that has been under construction for over 100 years and isn't scheduled to be finished for another 20 or something like that (still under active construction). These were the most impressive sights, we thought. We went with the group through the city center, and had some lunch with our friends. Notable dishes from this meal were cuddlefish with bacon and peppers, and some excellent Iberico ham. After a trip home and a nap, the group split up as some people went to see a Flamenco show (not us), and we went to dinner at a restuarant with some excellent seafood paella. We then went out to a bar called, oddly, Obama bar. Nothing inside appeared to have anything to do with our president, but the bar had clearly been recently renamed. The beers were cold and the group got into a wildly entertaining (and inappropriate) game of going around the circle and saying different euphemisms for male and female genitalia, this was hilarious.
The next day, Anne and I broke off from the group and went to Guella Park. An entire park designed by Gaudi. The city is wild over Gaudi I might add, and rightly so. His architecture is incredibly unique and interesting to see. The park is really cool, a great view of the city of Barcelona and the park itself is beautiful. We headed back to the city center afterward and went to the central food market, a must for Anne and I in any city. Such a cool way to see what the locals eat, and the places are always so interesting. We ate at a small restaurant in the market where I had a rare steak topped with a massive piece of griddled foie gras, absolutely delicious. Anne had some excellent meat balls in a savory sauce that was wonderful. We headed back to the apartment, and met up with the others.
For our meal on our last night we went out to white table cloth type place with the two of us and our good friend Anni (she had been before and recommended this place). This meal was again amazing (and surprisingly affordable given the atmosphere). We started with some flash fried baby calamari and a salmon carpaccio. The baby calamari were awesome, so tender and rather than sliced up they were whole and little bite sized pieces of heaven. For entrees we had veal, pork, and all sorts of delicious stuff which we shared with each other. It was truly an excellent meal. We met up with the others and ended up at a small bar called Dow Jones, which was very weird and had a picture of the New York Stock Exchange, only it had been photoshopped to look on fire. Slightly unnerved that maybe we weren't welcome there (although everyone was friendly and nothing else made us feel that way) we didn't stay terribly long. It was off to bed afterward, and on our way back home.
Aside from a really long line through security (thanks to the terror attempts the week before) the flight home was infinitely better than on the way there. No screaming baby's, and nice and quiet. Top to bottom, it was an excellent vacation. Going in the offseason made it extremely affordable, and much less hectic. I would recommend to spend it like we did, with the majority of our time exploring outside of Barcelona. Probably the best eating experience we had overall was our time in and around Begur, save the one meal, everything was outstanding. I apologize for this being so long, hopefully I didn't bore everyone to death. Until next time...

The first of fall

2009-10-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

Fall is here and we scrambled to enjoy those last few warm weekends in August by getting out of the city during Nate’s time off. We went white water rafting in PA with Jackie and Rio and a few others. This was something that I’ve wanted to do for years and though Nate’s not exactly pulling canoes Jack Lalanne style, he cursed far less than I did and now ready for level 5. This was total awesomeness and a great way to end the season.

We also found this amazing farm in the middle of nowhere in Queens of all places, where you can feed farm animals, buy fresh produce and visit a maize maze. We happened upon it by taking the longest ride in public transportation history, but it was worth it to find the Queens County Fair that weekend. Fried food was consumed, old fashioned rides were rode, pig and wiener dog races were watched and an arm wrestling contest that brought out only the finest in the borough…and their groupies was possibly the best event ever.

Last weekend we spent some time with friends in Jersey to cap of horse racing racing season at Monmouth Park, eat some seafood and enjoy all that the Garden State has to offer.

And finally, we went to the new stadium for the first time last week to see the fancy new digs in our un-fancy seats. Royals beat the Yankees in the last game of the season. Go MO!

Fall is almost here.

2009-08-31T19:52:00.001-07:00

It now feel like fall in nyc. What better way to spend our week than to:

1. Go bowing...had the best game of my life.
2. Try out best BBQ places in the city.
3. Make a meatloaf and shape it into a heart for those you love the most.

Boston & Cohasset

2009-08-18T19:11:00.000-07:00

We had Sarah and Mike's wedding in Cohasset, Ma on Saturday, so we decided that we'd make a weekend of it and head to Boston on Friday afternoon. My cousin hooked us up with her employee discount at the Marriott at Copley Plaza, which was a sweet hotel and in close walking distance to a great place in the South End, Deluxe for diner and a few champagne of beers. The next morning we met a couple of friends for the Sam Adams tour and then on to Cohasset for the wedding. This was truly the quaintest towns and such fun wedding at The Red Lion Inn with lots of good friends and plenty of rug cutting. Congrats to Mike and Sarah!

Saratoga Springs

2009-08-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

Nate and I would go to the horse races in Saratoga every weekend if we had the money to burn. During opening weekend, we took the train up (it's about 4 hours from the city) and I threw my hat on just in time for the first race. Nate didn't tell me, but he splurged on a suite, which had included our own table in air conditioned goodness and a rooftop deck to watch the horses up close and personal. It's not too much extra and the way to go. We had an awesome time betting (and mostly losing) on all of the races and later going to our favorite fried chicken place, Haties, for some insanely good eats.

Fruits of our labor

2009-08-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

We've been spending tons of time on our back patio and while Nate does all of the grilling, I'm trying to defeat my black thumb. I'm still a semi-pro at killing any pretty flowers, but my herbs are flourishing where they get any sun (we're in between buildings, so there's not much). We decided to try our hand at tomatoes and I'm tending to them like a baby. We picked and ate the first (and very tiny) one this with our own basil in a Caprese salad that was incredible.

You betcha

2009-07-29T20:10:00.001-07:00

Just returned from a business trip. It’s was pretty much and all-work-no-play kind of deal, but I honestly can’t say that I was upset with this too much for a few reasons. One is that we stayed in a fabulous hotel. If you’re ever in Minneapolis, you must stay at the Graves601. The service is unmatched, the food is insanely good, and the rooms are awesome (rain showers, Hermes products and a bed that makes me sad to go back to my own). I wish that I had more of a chance to hang out in downtown Minneapolis, because I had only went one other time when my mom and I spent two days touring the Mall of America.

There is something that I did realize on this trip while I was boarding my flight back and saw the bright florescent lights of the DQ. Sometimes traveling is not always about experiencing the unknown; it can also be about enjoying the comforts of the past. When all of my colleagues went out to a swanky rooftop bar on our first night in the city, I passed in exchange for the chance hit up Target. I relived my evening with tales of a glorious night spent in wide aisles, throwing unnecessary items into my cart with recklessness abandon, most them (unless they lived in Manhattan or the middle of BFE) could not understand why on earth 1. We don’t have a target. 2. You’d not want to go to a rooftop bar? I simply smiled but knew that those who went to the rooftop bar did not come home with an array of travel-sized toiletries, Target designer clothing or Pet Sympathy greeting cards.

Ween and our Gaycation

2009-07-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

Seriously blogging hiatus. Thanks to those who actually care about our lives and ask about the status of this thing. I’m (maybe we’ll, since Nate’s the funny one) take a crack at this again. I like to come back and read it every 6 months or so to remember what the hell we did with ourselves. I know that excuses suck, but I’ve been working mad hours and Nate’s working as a male nurse while going to CRNA School at Columbia in what we like to call his “spare” time. We go days without seeing each other, so in the rare occurrence that we do, we actually like each other quite a bit. I won’t try to bore you with what we’ve done since the last entry and just get on with a start fresh.

This last weekend we went to a Ween concert in Asbury Park. If you don’t know, Nate is rabid Ween fan and I like them quite a bit myself. I have a crush on the piece of eye candy guitar player and I’m all for jam band kind of show so this was right up my alley. The concert was at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park-home of Bruce Springsteen, and is now on my list of favorite venues. Its right off of the beach and small enough to see no matter where you’re at -plus, no seats, so everyone is rocking out.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Asbury Park, but in case you’re not aware, anyone on the East Coast, especially New Jersey residents, have a real soft spot for The Boss-race, income or age seems to turn a blind eye for this middle age man from the Jersey Shore. I knew that the run-down shore town was being revitalized, but had visions of a once-decrepit beach area mixed with rabid Bruce fans. My only correct assumption is that the town is being revitalized and when we decided to check for a room in at the Empress Hotel upon arrival and decided to stay the evening, we were greeted with a jovial lesson on the all-thing-Asbury, which is now becoming known for the recent influx of the gay population and is now home to the ever popular Gaycation. The Empress Hotel has does an amazing job of catering to this clientele. After a few drinks on the boardwalk with friends that live nearby and scoring some cheap swimsuits, Nate, and I learned that the Empress Pool was quite the hot spot. Disco ball and drag reigned supreme. I was the only lady to be found and Nate was the only gent not in hot pants or a Speedo. I’m still working on getting him into a pair of those. The concert was even more fun and seeing an insanely good band in the open air is unparallel. We capped off the morning with a swim in the ocean. Both of us highly recommend a concert here and staying at the hotel if you get a chance (it’s right next door, with a fun club, pool, awesome service).

vermont

2009-03-23T19:11:00.000-07:00

went skiing in vt this weekend. nate stayed home to watch bball and hang with boyz. i wanted to overcome my major fear of skiing b/c i had a terrible experience the first time...mission accomplished. i'm over the moon about this sport and can't wait to go again. beautiful weather, a soft snowfall and only a few bump and bruises. i'm already looking for a cute ski outfit.

feb

2009-02-23T19:22:00.001-08:00

Since our trip to Belize, we've been trying to survive this brutal winter. Last year was a tease because this one’s been completely freezing. Nate’s the type of person who can walk around in below zero temperatures while wearing denim cutoffs and a wife beater (his Sunday best), and he’d most likely break a sweat. But, even he is ready for spring.

We did move uptown on Feb first (again) because we found a too-good-to-be-true find on a 2 bed/2 bath, in our old hood. The best part is that it has an outdoor space that we will not be sharing. Nate is insanely excited to put patio furniture and a grill out here, but I’m thinking of trashing it out with a baby pool for those sweltering summers I’m looking forward to. I must say, I miss the great restaurants and bars in our old hood (we’re across from Brother Jimmy’s) but it’s nice to not live in dead-end projects street and I’m afraid that Nate and I were just not hip enough for the East Village on so many levels.

We also had a party for Nate’s bday last weekend and successfully did not get evicted our first weekend in our new place. We ended the evening at our old watering hole and then spent the following V-Day at our old uptown Italian dive. The rest of the weekend was spent catching up on Oscar nominated flicks. Nate and I both loved The Wrestler and Mickey Rourke. We both liked Benjamin Button (me more so than him). Same for Slumdog Millionaire. I loved Milk, but went with a friend, so Nate has not been able to see it yet. And we both saw Revolutionary Road and although the acting was good, the movie was kind of boring (but still good-ish). It was a Debbie Downer, so although we planned to chill, we ended up at a bar riding a mechanical bull at the end of the night. Maybe there was a need to prove that were not the old boring married couple headed for a life of disaster. I’m sure the bull saved us.
,

Belize It

2009-02-10T14:35:00.000-08:00

Nate and I, along with 7 others, took a quick trip to San Pedro, Belize at the end of January. After a ride on the worlds teeniest airplane (only about 12 seats), we arrived to the island of Ambergris Caye. I’m told (by non-Belize expert, Nathan Jones) that this is defined as whale vomit, although the place resembles what I imagine heaven to look like. I made sure to soak it in because I’m pretty sure that I’ve punch my ticket to the other side.

The house that our friends found was palatial and had a hot tub on the deck, as well as an infinity pool that overlooked the ocean. The best part was that it was on the outskirts of town so our golf carts came in handy for getting to and fro. It didn’t take us long to realize that the girls did not appreciate riding with NASCAR wannabe’s, Nate and Eoin.

San Pedro is a lovely little town and highly recommended, but the best times were spent during the day on the water. We hired some locals to take us out snorkeling (Belize has the 2nd largest Barrier Reef in the world) and while our teams speared a few fish, dove for conch shells (I brought up some lousy empties), the crew made up for the rest by expertly grabbing lobster and some massive underwater creatures for our lunch. We found a beach and while our clan climbed trees for coconut milk I quickly realized that we were not actually deserted on an island and decided that I would rather drink the provided beer instead. All said, it was a rather great day and absolutely fantastic trip.
During the last part, Nate and I stayed at Tranquility Bay (I came here for an article that I was writing), a secluded place with only 11 cottages on the beach. Not a television, radio or nary a person in sight. This would have been completely romantic if it were not for the Middleton’s-a charming couple in their mid-70’s from the Carolinas that we made fast friends with upon arrival. From sun up to sun down, the Middleton’s managed to find us on the secluded property within minutes of stepping out of our private patio. Dinner at 7, Jones’? Sure Bill. Headed to breakfast? Of course, Ruby. We parted with a goodbye and promised to keep in touch. When I returned I found an invite to their place this summer. I'm sure it will be a rager.

Home

2009-01-18T18:38:00.001-08:00

We were able to ring in the new year in our hometown of Springfield, MO with our amazing friends and family. A bitchin’ NYE party and Matty’s 30th equaled incredibly good times, while the rest were spent with family-including our adorable niece and nephew. A canceled flight led to an unexpected detour in Columbia to see Tory and visit Jona and Ryan’s beautiful new baby, Ryder. He is perfection and I am completely in love. How I have missed my family’s cooking. Included are photos of a proper gravy lesson with my mom and Mimi, as well as a typical Midwestern breakfast at my grandparents.

How the Jones Clan Tuned in Tokyo

2008-11-24T11:44:00.000-08:00

Well, as some of you all know the Mrs. and I recently took a vacation to Japan. We went in the beginning of October and stayed about a week. Good times to say the least. We started our journey around the globe on Saturday morning and arrived in Japan on Sunday night, about 16 hours or so of flying so that includes a notable time change of 14 hours. Needless to say this was a recipe for really f-ing our sleep schedules. We did our best to avoid that little trouble spot by taking an Ambien on the flight out. This helped somewhat, but we were still a little bit off.

Prior to leaving, we had purchased a week long Japan railpass which allowed us to ride the bullet trains and other trains in Tokyo. So when we landed we learned that we still had another hour and a half on a train before we got to our hotel in Tokyo. One thing we quickly found out about Japan is that trains are very well scheduled, and extremely punctual. So when you are waiting for a train there are signs that say the next train will arrive at 5:17 for example, and they most certainly arrive at that minute. So it's nice to know exactly how long to wait, however if you are running late you will most definitely miss your train. We went from the airport to a train station called Shinjuku. This is known to be one of the busiest, most complicated and biggest train stations in the world. So that was a nice little test for us right out of the gate. English is not widely spoken at all, and very little signage is in English. I quickly learned how to ask if someone spoke English in Japanese, this was moderately useful as invariably the response to my query would be the person holding up their thumb and forefinger near one another to indicate "little". Little, varied from full English sentences to no English at all. Luckily for us, Japanese people are without a doubt the nicest and most patient people we've ever come across. So people were very willing to try and help even if communication was difficult. Eventually, we found our way out of the trainstation, but not before exiting improperly and being verbally reprimanded (I think) by a security officer at the exit.

After a little difficulty, we did find our hotel only a short walk away. The rooms were predictably small, but not crazy and very clean. Cleanliness is unbelievable everywhere in Japan. Also, the toilets there are worth telling about. First the "western toilets", aka toilets like we have here are extremely high-tech. They almost always have a seat warmer, and they typically have a little nozzle that extends/retracts to offer bidet/shower services for your back-door. What a great treat I found this was. I was little skeptical of the shower/bidet feature initially but quickly became spoiled by its benefits. If given the opportunity to use one, I highly recommend it. The other toilet style, typically found in older buildings or public buildings is a traditional Japanese toilet which is essentially a rectangular hole in the ground. You just squat over it and go, it flushes and everything. Very weird to me, and not something I'm interested in trying again. So enough about the toilets.

The first night we were there, we went for sushi, naturally. This was the best sushi I've ever tasted, unbelievably fresh and delicious. Ordering is sometimes an adventure. There were some items we didn't recognize and had to look up later on. For the most part everything was delicious though. I also found a vending machine that sold beer. What a grand idea this is. If only americans could adopt this, it would be great. Also, vending machines are everywhere, and nearly anything you can think of can be purchased in a vending machine.

The next day we woke up very early and went to a fish market. This place is crazy and tons of people everywhere. It is essentially the main fish market for all of tokyo and there is every kind of fish you can imagine freshly caught on ice to be purchased. Many items are still alive even, this was a really cool experience. Giant section of bright red-tuna necessitating a band-saw to even begin cutting them. All kinds of stuff that neither of us recognized. It was cool though because while there were certainly tourists here, it was most definitely a blue collar place of business first and foremost. Tourism seemed more of an aside, rather than the focus of the whole operation which was to catch and sell fish. In order to get here we took the Tokyo subway. This was very much like the bullet trains in that they were extremely punctual with posted times for when the next train would arrive. These were entirely different than New York subways. First they were extremely clean and extremely quiet (both the train itself and the people on it). So you can imagine the odd looks we got when Anne kept farting loudly and laughing about it, just kidding. The rest of the day we spent wandering around different parts of Tokyo that were near our hotel. We to the Tokyo equivalent of a red light district. This was interesting, and somewhat frightening because there was a pet store located right in the middle of this place (take that where you will).

After that, we headed back to our room for a quick nap and then it was out for the evening. We went out to eat at a place that served shabu shabu. I hadn't ever tried this before, but I definitely will again. It's sort of like fondu. You sit at a table and you have this big bowl of broth on your table that is on a burner. You go to a buffet style counter and pick out all of these vegetables and herbs and things like that. Then you bring it back and dump it in the broth so they cook and flavor the broth at the same time. Then the server brings you trays of raw beef and pork that is sliced really thin. You drag these slices through the broth to cook them and then you eat them. This is awesome, I loved this meal. So we (I) embarassed ourselves (myself) by eating a ridiculous amount of beef and pork. So good, I couldn't quit. Afterward, we headed out and happened in a very local restaurant/bar that we decided to pop in. This place was really cool, and certainly not a spot where tourists would normally go. We had a few beers here and were clearly fascinating the other patrons. Eventually we took some pictures and attempted to communicate with these guys, but didn't have much luck. One of the girls at the bar, clearly wasted, stopped to bow to us about 100 times on her way out. After this, we were doing pretty good and decided to attempt one of the quintessential Japanese experiences, karaoke. They have clubs devoted to this all over the place. However, they take it extremely seriously, unlike us. Fortunately, a lot of the clubs are set up where you have your own private room. This is what we did. In the room it was just us, and they have the machine, two microphones, and even a tambourine. They also bring you beer by just picking up a little telephone and asking (or in our case, mumbling some attempted Japanese and them just giving up, coming to our room, and letting us point at what we wanted). This was surprisingly fun. We had a serious blast doing this.

So the next morning, hung over, and a little worse for the wear we awoke early and went to Nara. Anne wasn't feeling well, so she slept on the bullet train and I enjoyed the ride. If given the opportunity to ride on one of these across Japan, I highly recommend it. I think uttered the phrase, "holy shit, we are hauling ass" about 50 times. Every time you think it's at top speed, you feel another gear kick in and it takes off even more. The amazing thing was it was the smoothest ride, no noise other than a little wind, no bumps or jolts, just smooth as butter at about 180-200 miles per hour, amazing. Smooth enough that I could set my beer on the window sill and never worry about it tipping on me (that's right, they sell beer everywhere here, and everyone takes advantage, when in Rome...). So we arrived in Nara a few hours later and headed to our hotel. This hotel was extremely old, and extremely cool. Nara is a relatively small place. OK, really small. But it is cool and we really had a good time here. The big attraction in Nara is the huge park. There is a giant park here with lakes and things, and a HUGE population of deer...that are tame. I was led to believe that this is the only place in the world with deer that are of this nature. You can buy these little crackers and the deer will eat them right out of your hand. Anne was, needless to say, in love with this idea. It was cool. The other thing we tried here was conveyor belt sushi. I'm sure there is a proper name for it, but that's what we called it. A little belt goes around with various sushi on the plates and you just pull off what you want and eat it. They bill you based on how many plates you have, and each color of plate represents a different price.

The next morning was a short train ride to Kyoto. Kyoto, is a massive city as well, not as big as Tokyo, but big. Here we stayed the first two nights in a traditional Ryokan. This is very old school. You have to leave your shoes at the door, and then there are slippers you have to wear. One set of slippers is for one part of the house, and the other is for another part. Then, in your room, no shoes at all are allowed. We promptly made this faux pas, and were reprimanded accordingly. The rooms are all very traditional. They had a handly little info. booklet, and each room in a Ryokan (any Ryokan) has to contain certain elements like a little sitting area, plants, and other stuff that is very detailed. The people that ran this were a married couple, extremely nice, and the wife was dressed in traditional Japanese attire with the robes and her hair up etc. She was perpetually saying thank you to us in Japanese. When I say perpetually, this is not an exaggeration, she would just thank us for no apparent reason at all times. We had a traditional home cooked breakfast and dinner, this was delicious. Some of it weird, but it was all really, really good. They also had a traditional bath here, with the rock pool and extremely hot water in it. Oh, and you have to shower before you get in the bath so as to keep the bath clean. The bath was refreshing, and cool to experience. Also, one night, Anne got up and went to the bathroom in the middle of the night (a shared bathroom here) and saw a spider that she described as being about a foot across in diameter, crawling on the floor, good times.

During one of our days in Kyoto, we took a train to Kobe, home of the famous beef. We went to an amusement park, rode a roller coaster that was clearly for youths as I could barely fit in it. We went to a haunted house, also clearly for youths. Then we got our pictures made in these photo booths, where I was the only nonfemale involved. Also, everyone was 13 or younger, except one pair of women who were 60 and 100 respectively. Speaking of young girls. I was quite the attraction, in Kobe and everywhere we went. Evidently a male over 5'6" with pasty skin and large red beard = hilarious. Scores of tee-hee's and giggle's followed me around, I thought this was pretty awesome. The main thing I wanted to do in Kobe was eat some beef. So we ate at this restaurant where I had undoubtedly the best steak I've ever tasted in my life. It was literally like a piece of beef flavored butter, so freakin' delicious. Totally worth every penny, and the pinnacle of beef as I know it.

After our day in Kobe we went back to spend the night in Kyoto again. We went to out an area of Kyoto that is famous for Geisha girls. We did in fact several of them, they weren't keen on having their picture taken, so I only got a couple of them from the side or back. That night we went to this performance which was a medley of acts where each one demonstrated a traditional aspect of Japanese culture from a tea ceremony, to various musical acts, to puppet shows and all sorts of things. Overall, we thought this was pretty lame. Oh well, an experience anyway. We decided to eat shabu shabu again in this geisha neighborhood. This was worthwhile because we saw an extremely drunk old man wobble out accompanied by two geisha's notably younger than him.

Finally, the next day it was back to Tokyo for our last night. We checked into a different hotel this time in a different neighborhood. We were almost directly on the corner that is often shown in movies where a few streets intersect and when the crosswalks stop the traffic a ridiculous mass of humanity crosses the street all at the same time, literally thousands of people. We let luck guide us for food and drink tonight, mostly drink. We went into a really cool small jazz club, with only about 10 seats. This was extremely cool, but also was closing shortly after we arrived so we only stayed for 45 minutes or so. We happened in 3 or 4 really cool places, including a small bar that was younger people mostly so that was interesting to see as well. Finally, we had to get food at the end of the night. We found a traditionaly noodle shop, very divey, near our hotel. This was a perfect cap as it was cheap, and the one type of food we hadn't tried yet but wanted to. The men working were all extremely nice, and the noodles were amazingly delicious. It was a wonderful meal, and a great way to go out. The next morning we woke up, did some brief shopping and then it was back to the U.S. after another lengthy flight. Japan is a great place to visit, and an experience so unique from anything we've ever done. We both recommend it for the amazing food and the culture.

Eats

2008-11-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

We’ve been to a couple of noteworthy eating establishments in our neighborhood lately and it’s even better that they both happen to be quite easy on the pocketbook.

Porchetta is a new addition to our neighborhood. The menu has less than ten items and even less seating space. We both had the porchetta sandwich, which is simply a delicious crusty piece of bread, stuffed to capacity with roasted pig and crispy skin bits that are seasoned to perfection. It’s a greasy good mess and the bread soaks it up nicely. The two of us shared fried potatoes with burnt ends and a serving of steamed greens for good measure.

Date night numero two, last Friday was at Cara Cas. It’s a cozy Venezuelan place with a perpetual wait. They’re known for the arepas and winning a thowdown with Bobby Flay. We chose to have a drink at a new bar (and what I thought was a sushi restaurant) across the street, rather than enduring the freezing temperatured for an hour. We were informed by the chef that it is called a cevicheria. Only in New York. Anyway, it was worth the wait. We had a couple of local beers and a dinner consisting only of arepas (shredded pork and mango sauce, whitefish, chorizo, chicken and cheese) that were truly awesome. And the owners are truly lovely people, as well. Actually-at both places. Those are the ones that make you want to go back again-even with so many choices out there.

Rock On

2008-11-18T17:04:00.000-08:00

I’m not really big on my birthday and as far as a gift, when Nate buys mine, I only ask that it’s neither lavish, nor practical. I usual like to be surprised, but this year I had something in mind months before October had rolled around and since it was a tad on the spendy side, I dropped a few not-so-subtle hints about what I wanted for my bday. Two words…Rock Band.

It’s been a month since we’ve owned the game and Nate and I have found a new way to spend freezing winter nights here in NYC. We have our imaginary trashy rock band and I am now that rock star that I’ll never be in real life. An occasional date night has even consisted of the two of us and our faux instruments or maybe even a little microphone if we’re feeling sassy. It’s even better for parties.

October

2008-11-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

October was a beautiful month here in NY and I’m sad to see it go now that the brisk is turning blustery in what seemed like only a week. It was also a busy month for us-but busy in the fun way-not in the obligatory way. We took a vacation to Japan, which deserves a full trip report. It was beautiful and amazing. I celebrated my 29th with some low-key celebrations with friends. Nate and I also took a cooking class at De Gustibus, which was totally awesome. We’ve done this once before on a visit to NYC about 3 years ago and the guest chef teacher has now made his mark on the NY restaurant scene.

Over the weekend of the 18th we took a short road trip with our friends, Mike and Sarah, to yet, another Jersey Shore town for Kat and Dave’s wedding. I believe the name was Redbank and it was deserving of a visit over the summer for its cute shops, nice beaches and the famous Jersey hot dog (highly intriguing). The four of us managed to not take any advantage the quaintness and decided to make it a weekend of chain restaurants instead. I can confirm that oblong shaped chicken sandwich from Burger King was every bit as satisfying as I once remembered and that Applebee’s really is my neighborhood bar and grill.

Halloween was as memorable, as always. I was left up to my own devices on Friday and went to Courtney’s party as Baby from Dirty Dancing - complete with a watermelon and the corner that I had fashioned out of a cardboard box. No one put Baby in that corner for long, because it was impossible to use the restroom, not to mention, work a crowd. Nate joined me on Saturday for a party at a bar in Hoboken with Anni’s friends, where he wore, “the usual” that is now dubbed “Urban Cowboy” and looked as handsome as ever. He must have shed a few lbs this season, because there was not the usual need to lie on the bed to zip his britches.

The following Sunday we dragged ourselves out of bed for the NYC Marathon. We’d heard from everyone what a fun day this is in the city, so we didn’t want to miss it again this year-and we are so glad that we didn’t. One of the best parts is that the race ends in Central Park, and the park in the fall is about as beautiful as you can get for scenery. The other most amazing and inspiring scene is seeing thousands of runners being cheered on by thousands of strangers to push it to limits that I cannot even imagine are possible. Whoever still believes that New Yorkers are assholes should come out and watch this event. Not to mention - 1st Ave is one gigantic party and the bars are filled with racers, bands and everyone having a great time. We met some friends and made a regular Sunday Funday of it.

Lil' Mitchell

2008-11-03T19:24:00.000-08:00

This is not Nate poking fun at Keith's under region, but rather to announce that our other Mitchell BFF's - Max and Mandy - have had their handsome bundle of joy. Hunter Jace Mitchell is here and look how gorgeous he is! I absolutely love the pic of his little Halloween outfit and the crafty pumpkin project (did you do this, M?). Congrats to the new family!

Floaters

2008-10-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics from a harbor trip that Nate and I took a weekend or two ago. It was a beautiful evening and the views were amazing . The boat was an old 1920’s schooner and you could pay an extra $20 for the open bar (no-brainer). At one point the two of us were persuaded in to walking out on the (not hip on boat shop talk) diving board-esque type thing by the first matey. I can’t safely say that the sea wind blowing in my hair was worth either of us nearly crashing our pants. When we safely got back to the deck, we were lucky enough watch a lovely sunset, which naturally equals major heavy-petting in front of total strangers for this old married couple.

The VGT's Omnivore's Hundred

2008-09-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

I saw this on another blog and stolt it--here's how it works:

1) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
2) Cross out or red any items that you would never consider eating.
3) Optional extras: 2 stars for your favorites!

The VGT's Omnivore's Hundred

1. Venison* (I’m from the Midwest so I’ve had this every which way and it’s very good)
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros*
4. Steak tartare**
5. Crocodile*
6. Black pudding*
7. Cheese fondue*
8. Carp*
9. Borscht*
10. Baba ghanoush**
11. Calamari*
12. Pho**
13. PB&J sandwich*
14. Aloo gobi*
15. Hot dog from a street cart* (probably more often than I should)
16. Epoisses*
17. Black truffle*
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes*
19. Steamed pork buns**
20. Pistachio ice cream*
21. Heirloom tomatoes*
22. Fresh wild berries*
23. Foie gras**
24. Rice and beans*
25. Brawn or head cheese* (about the only thing on this list that I didn’t like)
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche*
28. Oysters**(my dad and I used to have oyster eating contests)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas*
32. Clam Chowder in Soudough Bowl*
33. Salted lassi (Tried sweet, but never salted)
34. Sauerkraut**(everyone knows this, but I won a sauerkraut eating contest in high school)
35. Root beer float*
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (I can’t say that I’ve had the two together, but I’ve definitely had them both).
37. Clotted Cream Tea (is this clotted cream? had that, but never in tea)
38. Vodka Jelly/Jell-O*
39. Gumbo*
40. Oxtail*
41. Curried goat (I love goat meat, but have never had it curried)
42. Whole Insects
43. Phaal*
44. Goat’s milk* (I even milked the old gal)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more*
46. Fugu (maybe on our trip to Japan next month?)
47. Chicken tikka masala*
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut*
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer*
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal*
56. Spaetzle*
57. Dirty gin martini*
58. Beer above 8% ABV*
59. Poutine*
60. Carob chips*
61. S’mores*
62. Sweetbreads**
63. kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs*
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (whohoo, Ozark Empire Fair!)
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho*
72. Caviar and blini**
73. Absinthe*
74. Gjetost or brunost**
75. Roadkill*(I’m sure there has been a squirrel one my plate somewhere along the line)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie*
78. Snail**
79. Lapsang Souchong
80. Bellini*
81. Tom Yum
82. Eggs Benedict**
83. Pocky*
84. 3 Michelin Star Tasting Menu (someday, French Laundry, someday)
85. Kobe beef*
86. Hare *
87. Goulash**(Mimi makes a mean one)
88. Flowers*
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab*
93. Rose harissa (I love harissa, but don’t believe I’ve had a rose variety)
94. Catfish*
95. Mole poblano*
96. Bagel and lox**(one of the greatest reasons for living in nyc)
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta*
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee*
100. Snake (although I would try absolutely anything, if this were in its original form, I would pass (out))

9/11/2008

2008-09-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics that Nate took on September 11th from the rooftop of our building.

Reach Out and Touch Faith

2008-09-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

When the last neighbor moved out of the building, this statue was placed in their garbage outside of their door. Someone must have found great beauty in this figure because it was placed in the corner of our 6th floor walk-up where it now calls home. It seems that this one, who, although clad in a peace sign get-up, doesn't appear to take kindly to the person whos head he is stepping on.

Where’s the beef?

2008-09-10T15:53:00.001-07:00

Betcha can’t guess what Natie’s eating in this photo? Friend and co-worker, who happens to be as fascinated by grease-ladened goodness as the Mr., once read about a “skin sandwich” that consisted of chicken skin that was sandwiched between white bread and slathered with mayo. Nate and I have been completely fascinated by idea since Jen proposed it. I happened to have a roasted chicken on had on hand and thought that in these times of economic hardship, what better way to use the crispy skin of my birdy? When the Mr. came home from a hard day at the hospital he was greeted by his very own delicious skinwich.

Tourist

2008-09-07T19:23:00.001-07:00

Saturday we woke up to take a West Village food tour of NYC. We’ve never been tour type of people, but will hands-down recommend this little gem of one to each and every guest that comes to the humble Jones’ abode. Our guide was a cool and younger native, who filled my brain with totally useful NYC knowledge. But the best part is that my belly was filled with culinary delights from a mostly Italian neighborhood. We stopped at 2 pizza places, Murrays Cheese Shop, Rocco’s Pastry, O&Co Olive Oil, Amy’s Bread, Faocco’s Pork Store (best rice balls ever!), Aphrodisia Herbs, Milk and Cookies and for a Turkish swarma at the end (I forgot the name). There is so much food on this tour that my pants were unbuttoned by the pork store. Nothing was short of phenomenal and it was nice to give these local shops business. Plus, I love being a tourist. We looked awesome in our I Heart NY t-shirts and Lady Liberty foam hats.

Boatface

2008-09-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

While trying to salvage what’s left of summer, Friday evening was met with an unintentional boat theme. We met our lovely lady friends, Sarah, Hye Yeon, Beth and Katie for happy hour at Lure. Lure is supposed to look like the inside of a boat and has great happy hour prices and some decent oysters for only a buck. We then moved on to my new favorite place in NYC, The Frying Pan. It seems that we spent half of the time talking about how cool this place was and the other half about why we didn’t spend our summer drinking here and the other half about how great the mussels and garlic fries are. Wait…that’s just bad math. Anyway, the old barge is pretty bad-ass and of course, the resident shutterbug was in full force.

Lazy Sunday

2008-08-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

After leaving the city the last couple of weekends, it was nice to stay home and relax this past weekend. Nate has been on an ass-kicking 2 week rotation in the ICU, so this the past weekend was meant to be a chill one. Friday night was spent watching a movie, which we never seem to have time to do anymore. On that note: put Darjeeling Limited in your Netflix queue. I spent my day shopping and at the Union Square Farmers Market while the Mr. worked on Saturday. By the time the evening rolled around, our plans for a quiet weekend went out the door and I had a glass of wine in my hand before the hubby had even made it home from work (at least we’re out actually to spend quality time together). We decided to try out this BYO sushi place, Cube 63 and since it was in walking distance, we could grab some booze on the way there. Our liquor store of random choice offered a walk-up style window. The convo went a lil’ something like this:

Gentleman behind the Glass: How much you wanna pay?
Nate: I’d like a Pinot Noir if you have it.
Gent: How bout $8 bucks?
Nate: Um, what brand is it?
Gent: (brings over a bottle) Looks like a Woodbridge Merlot…
Nate: Do you have anything else? We’ll pay more.
Gent: What do want?
Nate: Whadda have in the $15 dollar range that says Pinot Noir on the bottle?
Gent: (brings over a bottle) This is the $15 wine. It says that.
Nate: It’ll get the job done.

Nate puts the cash under the door and out comes the $15 wine that did the trick. The wait for Cube 63 was a little long, but totally worth it. They poured our wine while we waited. We requested to sit at the sushi bar and ordered the Omakase. It’s so cheap here that it’s almost scary. We sat for hours and ate some of the best parts of a fish. Ken, the sushi chef definitely treated us right, so we’ll be back sooner than later.

Sunday we discovered the river walk along the FDR just a couple of blocks from our apartment. It’s crazy that such places exist and we are just discovering them now. We bought 75 cent coconut frozen ices from the woman in the park and watched a pair of senior citizen men puff a blunt after a nice long jog. Ahh, lazy Sunday.

Jersey Girl

2008-08-25T16:43:00.000-07:00

About this time, I’m dying to get out of the city on most weekends, mainly to find a body of water. Lucky for me along and with 2 of my friends from the office, we had reserved part of a share house on the Jersey shore. I also feel pretty lucky that out of the 3 girls that make up our department, I am fortunate as to not only like both of them, but like them enough to go away for the weekend with the two of them.

Anyway, back to Jersey. I’d been hearing all of this hype on the whole Guido experience and I was on a mission to get the full effect on our weekend getaway. Unfortunately, Anni took us to the most idyllic town on the shore and upon arrival I was uncertain that I’d never find what I’d set out looking for. We happened to be in Manasquan where adorable Cape Cod style houses set next to palatial homes that set across from our rather “rustic” cabin-esque digs. But, it was on the water, had a bed (well, Anni had the floor and a towel) a cool porch and...it was a place to sleep.

It seems that this beach town has a bit of a split personality. Each morning we sat in the park and had our bagels while we watched the kiddies play, we went to a garage sale and walked around the quaint neighborhoods. We sunned on the beach and swam in the clear ocean. But it happened to be at night where the real shore life came to action. The bars were a whole different style than anything in here and exactly what I’d come to find. My research on NJGuidos.com had paid off and I saw more tan, roided-out and shaved men I’d ever had and probably ever will in a lifetime. It was awesome. I like a little trash with my class. This comes from the girl who is currently wearing a dragon and cross tattoo that was purchased for 50 cents too much at the Key Food Grocery.

Table for 2

2008-08-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

If you think it can’t get any cheaper than buying a table and chair at Ikea, it does. Buying a used table and chairs from Ikea on Craigslist.

Nate and I picked up this little (that being the key word) gem for 40 bones, after some serious email negotiations. The real bitch was the 45 blocks in the cab peering out the back window and watching our new purchase almost drop out of the trunk at every turn. Carrying the shoddy purchase up our 6th floor walk-up wasn’t a real day in the park either. But I don’t think anything in the world could have made me a happier than this table. It’s the little things sometimes.

Wine Country...Long Island Style

2008-08-12T18:47:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Anne and I made a trip out to Long Island to take a tour of some wineries. Like most, we were only there to learn about the process of wine making, the type of grapes utilized, and the climatic differentials that impact the harvest and its respective yield. Oh wait, that wasn’t us, we just sampled a lot of wine at some different places. We started off with a lengthy train ride from NYC, roughly 2.5 hours. Some light reading passed the time and before we knew it we were stepping off of the train in a rather rural looking area, very green, and very different from the city. Some fresh air was nice, and our bus/van was waiting. Everyone else on the tour, about 10 people, was already on board so we made haste to the first winery which was only a few minutes away. The first place was really nice, I don’t recall all of the details, but suffice it say they did serve wine, and they had a really nice deck outside overlooking their vineyard. This was certainly an enjoyable way to start the day. Next we cruised to a winery that boasted of how they were approximately 95% organic in their wine production. We took a walk through their vineyard with the lady who ran the place as she talked all about organic and being green etc. My thought process went something like this: hmm, this walk could be neat (3 seconds later) I wonder if there is wine out here somewhere, (5 seconds after that) not seeing any wine, what is this lunatic talking about?, (2 seconds after that) less talky more drinky. So anyway, I’m pretty sure this was the most earth friendly wine I’ve ever had. It was all some of the least flavorful wine I’ve had. Basically my lesson learned is that pesticides are our friend, let’s not anger them any further. The next stop on our road was at a really cool place, where we had some lunch. There were picnic tables out on a patio with some nice umbrellas for shade (pasty says: I like that!). The place also had a pretty decent band playing so coupled with the wine this was really good. At this point, it was getting relatively late in the day and only one more winery remained on our tour. We only had about 30 minutes to burn here so after many tastings, we were all business at this point. It was taste, choose, repeat as quickly as we possibly could. Needless to say, we weren’t too eager for a second 2.5 hour train ride back at this point. Now, we were doing just fine at this point, and really the only sensible thing to do was keep it going. We spotted a group of folks drinking something out of red solo cups, so I was happy to bum a couple of empty cups off of them. Long story short, only 2 of the 3 bottles of wine we purchased made it back to the city with wine in them. We however, had plenty in us, and as a result our evening was over after a slice of pizza.

Fosters Footing Around

2008-08-05T17:06:00.001-07:00

Matty and Beth came for a visit at the end of July, exactly one year from their last trip out to NYC. The time apart from our BFF’s goes by so slow but when they were here it just flew by, which might seem impossible considering that 4 people were sharing a 500-square foot space for a week. We fully indented to experience New York’s finest in culture and history, but ended up spending most of our week in bars and, um, bars. The boys went did go to Ween while Bethy and I had ladies night. We also had a BBQ in the Fosters honor and went on a gastronomic tour of Manhattan, all for Matt’s adventurous stomach. WWAD? Ahhh, I miss my friends already. I don’t think that I will ever convince them to move the basset farm to Manhattan but I’m trying to convince Matty to do an internship. Get your asses out here, Foster’s. You complete us.

Kickball

2008-07-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

There's a blog called, What White People Like. One of the things listed is kickball. We're on a kickball team here in NYC and so far it seems to be a ton of fun. We're 2 and 0 thanks to one forfeit. Our team name is the Balls and Dolls and as you can see from our picture, we're made up primarily of white people (and Nate's the really white person).

Movin' on Down

2008-07-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

With a nod to The Jeffersons, the Mrs. and I recently moved downtown. Not "downtown" per se, but much closer to it than we were before. Since this is a pretty belated post, most of you likely knew that already but nonetheless I'm covering it anyway. We moved from 91st street to 5th street (crunch the numbers if you need to), on basically the same street (only 3 blocks farther east). Lucky for us, the day after we moved a giant crane fell on the building we used to live in. As many of you probably know from my numerous tirades, I absolutely hate it when crane's fall on buildings I live in, so this was fortunate. We paid someone to do the moving for us (handsomely I might add), this was the first time Natey was willing to dig deep enough to do that. Let me say, if given the option of doing it yourself or paying someone else, the latter is far superior. Particularly since we moved into an apartment on the 6th floor of a building without an elevator. Watching 4 guys, each at least double my size, huff and puff their way into a sweaty oblivion, made me very happy that I decided to pony up. In fact I sat in a chair with my feet up, puffing a cigar and laughing at them, while telling them very specifically where I wanted each object. They got a real kick out of this. Actually I felt kind of bad for the lads, but then I reminded myself how pissed I would have been if I was the one doing this, and all of my sympathy melted away.
Anyway, so we are now living in a very different neighborhood. It's much more diverse, and the restaurants and bars are far cooler. In fact, this is where we typically went out prior to our move so it's a real time saver for us. Our apartment is considerably smaller. We still have a bedroom, but our living room is a fraction of the size of our old one, and a small fraction not like 99/100 or anything. We are all settled in now, so we are warming up to our new place. We miss the space we had before, but we don't miss paying a ton more for it. So for those coming to visit, be prepared that we now accomodate guests much like the grandparents in Willy Wonka. Weather permitting, we both walk to work now, so that is nice. Plus with the stairs factored in, I no longer have to go to the gym, which I never did anyway. Basically there are pluses and minuses to both apartments we've lived in, and we are happy with the new place. Peace out beeeyotches.

Apt Pics for all who have asked..looks can be deceiving

2008-06-08T14:43:00.000-07:00

Happy B-Day, D!

2008-06-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

My gorgeous friend, Diana, turned 30 on June 1. Happy Birthday, my dear friend! And this year….you can be the Mary. Much love to you. Can’t wait until Fashion Week. See you then! XO

Matt, Em, Amos and Brooke

2008-06-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to have Matt and Em visit us a couple of weeks ago and had an absolute blast. Amos and Brooke stayed nearby so that we could all hang out and in a short amount of time we managed to fit in a Yankee game, sightsee and put a massive dent on our livers by the time our friends left. Tear. My side still hurts from laughing.

Le Derbe du Kentuque

2008-05-16T04:13:00.000-07:00

So maybe my French is a little rusty, but that's my take on Kentucky Derby in French. The Mrs. and I recently had a little shindig for the big event. Several of my coworkers, Anne's coworkers, and other folks we are friendly with came over to our apartment for drinks, food, the big race. It was a solid turnout, roughly 20 or so people, most of whom and had never watched the Derby (if a horse race at all). Anne whipped up some delicious Southern foods like pigs feet, tripe, and a delightfully delicate braised opossum. Do I need to say I'm kidding here? I'm not sure. Actually she made some homemade potato salad, a chocolate pecan pie with bourbon whipped cream, some bourbon balls, jalapeno cheese grits, and some roasted pecans, all of which was quite delicious. I contributed some sliced beef and the mint juleps. The mint juleps were, as expected, bourbony (to invent an adjective), but they went down like coca-cola. Of course there was plenty of wine and beer to be had as well.
Aside from food and drink, we set up a rather fun betting pool. Basically we auctioned off horses in each finishing position (69, missionary etc.), OK, OK, stop, I'm here all week. So, the person who purchased the horse to win, won all of the money bet on the horses for the win column, and so on for place and show. The auction turned out to be a great time I never knew my inner passion for auctioning things (Alert: Springfield reference coming), by the way my new dream date is Billy Long. On a side note, Anne is now scheduled for rotator cuff surgery from her arm flying up during the bidding. So all of these festivies resulted in a pretty exciting race. The winner for each position took in well over $100, so some decent money was had, alas none of it by Anne or I. Also, the Eight Belles tragedy didn't slow us a bit, although it did lend a moment slightly less joyous than the rest of the party. We decided it was pretty awesome that an unknown like that really went above and beyond (literally) in her last race. All in all, the event was a great time. We got to lend a little southern Missouri hospitality to NYC, and had a great time doing it. We will definitely be doing it again next year.

Stuff old people do

2008-04-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Victoria’s parents were kind enough to send us tickets to the NY Philharmonic last weekend. Nate claimed that we lowered the average age by 20 years, but non-the-less, it was amazing. I am pretty sure that getting old means not wanting to leave during intermission of a classical music performance, but waiting in line with all of the blue hairs for the restroom and talking about how amazing the pianist is, instead. We both thoroughly enjoyed the performance and the amazing seats that were given to us.

*Before this, Nate decided to make it a full-on date night and find a nice little wine bar near Lincoln Center where. We stopped off at Bin 71, and enjoyed some nice charcuterie and wine before they nearly closed the doors on us. A nice date, if I do say so. I’d go out with him again.

Happy Day

2008-04-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

Some of our dearest (but unfortunately, not nearest) just announced that they are with child. The Mitchell’s are having a baby! I received an email from my friend Mandy, who told me that their first born would be due on their anniversary and that she was absolutely ecstatic because she didn’t have to give Max a gift since she would be birthing his child this year.
Congrats, my friends! We are so incredibly happy for you and the new addition that will be coming in November! There’s a 50/50 chance that you’ll be having a laid-back rock star or a real estate mongrel with the sweetest Arkansas accent. We’ll baby-sit for you either way.

* This picture in no way depicts the Mitchell's in their current state, but is quite funny, non-the-less.

Earth Day

2008-04-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

In a recent act to do more unselfish acts on a daily basis, we decided that we would make some environmental changes in our lives, as well. I was reading a newspaper article and in honor of earth day, suggested to the Mr. that we choose a couple of items off our list that we could add to make our lives more eco-friendly and he (surprisingly) agreed. I completed a quiz to see how “un-green” the Jones' are and as it turns out, this former litter bug, is practically a tree hugger.

Here’s what under our green belt...unbeknownst to us:

Recycle- Our great city so kindly recycles everything we discard, bless their hearts.
Using public transportation- I would have died from a heart attack and probably injured an innocent pedestrian had I brought my beloved stick shift to Manhattan, but being that both of us are believers in older and smaller cars, we scored some bonus points here.
Cloth napkins- I’ve used these since college for aesthetic reasons and buy many of them from vintage shops. I wish I could claim that my reasons were environmental.
Controlled heating and air- gotta pay the bilz.
1.6 gallon flush toilets- Thanks again, NYC!
Do laundry once a week- Not having a washer and dryer is not a luxury.
Eating vegetarian once a week- The energy it takes to produce a pound of meat greatly exceeds the energy demands of growing vegetables. Exclude Nate from this one, and although I love my meat, I definitely eat veg. once a week and shop locally for it.

So our new contributions will be to wash in cold water and to change all (we only have a few) of our light bulbs to LED bulbs. I also brought my own ceramic mug to work today since the office has cardboard. Word to your mother…earth, that is.

Il Vagabondo

2008-03-13T19:29:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday night, Anne took me out to the coolest Italian restaurant. It's in the E 60's and has been there forever pretty much. The food was amazing, all home cooked Italian food that was delicious. I had some really good ravioli, and Anne had maybe the best gnocchi I've ever tasted. However, that wasn't even the coolest part. The restaurant has a full size bocce court in it. You sit right next to it and can watch anyone playing while you eat. It's totally free to play, and super fun. We played a couple of rounds after we ate and drank some wine. Anne whipped me both rounds, it wasn't even close. I can't wait to go back there again to eat the good food, play some more bocce, and hopefully even things up in the win-loss column versus the Mrs.

Something's in the oven

2008-03-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for this call...and got it 2 weeks ago this Saturday. Jona is pregnant!!!!! She and Ryan have been trying to have a baby for quite sometime now, a little baby Garrett will be here this fall...I am happy beyond words. Jona and I have been best friends for 23 years and when the closest thing that you have to a sister is having her first baby, words cannot express how amazing of a feeling this is.

I was on the subway the Monday after Jona told me the news and my wandering mind began thinking about this baby and what's in store for it's life. Who will it look like? Obviously, it will have both of their big beautiful blue eyes and gorgeous dark hair. It will definitely have good taste in music and a hilarious sense of humor. Will it have Jona's laugh? Ryan's phenomenal business sense? Will Ryan raise the baby a Republican? I also thought about my role in this baby's life. If it's a girl, she will surely be the most well-dress little lady in Columbia. I thought about how I hoped that the parents would let Nate and I take him or her on a trip someday and visit us wherever we are at the moment.

At this point, I'd actually bypassed work by three stops on the train when I started agonizing about if Jona and Ryan's (now in my mind) teenage girl would be going on Spring Break trip and that I would need to talk to them about having her ultra-cool Aunt Anne take her to someplace like, Europe instead, because I'm sure she would never behave anything like her mother and I did on our Senior Trip, but it's other people you have to worry about these days and Europe could be educational, but still really cool for her.

Before I could have an anxiety attack over their unborn child, I finally made it back to my stop and to work only a half-hour late, still basking in the good news. Congratulations, my dearest friends!

International Day

2008-03-03T12:58:00.000-08:00

Recently, the Mrs. and I had what I called an international day. Basically, it's a little invention I came up with where we walk through our neighborhood and stop at restaurants/bars of a different national theme. The rules are you have to order a drink native to that country, and you have to toast that country while you're there. A pretty simple idea really, but it was a ton of fun. We started out at the Irish Pub down the street from our apartment. I had a Guinness, and Anne had a Bailey's and coffee. From there we went around the corner to our favorite Mexican, Taco Taco. I had a Sol and Anne had a Mango Margarita, we also had an order of guaucamole here since we were both pretty hungry. After polishing off those tasty treats we moved on to a German biergarten down the street from us called Heidelberg. This is a pretty cool place, the bartender is a rather intimidating German lass. I had a gigantic mug of some sort of German beer and Anne had the same thing, only in a smaller mug. We popped into a greek restaurant. Next stop was a Japanese restaurant. We both had Japanese beers and we also ordered some sushi. We decided to sit at the bar and watch him make our sushi. Chung, our sushi chef, was a hell of a nice fellow. After finishing up at the Japanese place, we head down to a carribean themed bar. Here we had a couple of more beers and pretty much decided moving back toward our place was the best bet. My plan had pretty much been a success up to now, so we stopped off at a regular old bar for a couple of games of Big Buck Hunter. The Mrs. was suprisingly natural wielding the faux gun and taking down some lovely game. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty fun evening. One that I'm sure we will try to replicate at some point in the future, possibly in a new neighborhood the next time.

Valentine's Day

2008-02-20T18:42:00.000-08:00

Hey friends, it's my turn to post again and this one is going to be pretty x-rated by the end. Just kidding. This year on Valentine's Anne and I went out to eat at a restaurant called Anna Maria Trattoria. The appropriately named (for us) restaurant is becoming a bit of a Valentine's tradition. Last year, while visiting NYC from Spfd we were staying in a hotel around the corner from where we now live. I know, weird. Anyway, we happened to be here for my birthday and Valentine's. On Valentine's night there was a massive blizzard and we were determined to go out to eat. However, with essentially no knowledge of the neighborhood, and very little money, we started walking in the raging snow to wherever we might find. We walked for about 10 blocks, repeatedly finding most places closed for the weather. Eventually, as you might have guessed by now, we happened upon Anne Maria. The atmosphere is pretty nice. Not fancy at all, but not cheezy or cheap looking either. When we were there we had the best service from a nice italian man, he ended up giving us free desert and took good care of us as we were one of the only idiots out in the snow. So this year, we thought it would be fun to go back to the same place. I was off so I picked up a little wine and whipped up some sweet/savory appetizers in...you guessed it, the panini maker (I would make cereal in that if I thought I could). We listened to a little music then headed on to our spot. We decided we would walk no matter the weather for the sake of tradition. It turned out to be pretty nice though, so the place was quite a bit busier. In spite of the bustle, we ended up with the same waiter, and the same excellent food and service. I had a delicious pizza, and Anne had the some really good pasta, and I'm not really that young anymore anyway. It ended up being a fantastic evening, and one of the best Valentine's the two of us have had yet.

Not exactly wildlife

2008-02-16T15:35:00.001-08:00

We spent last weekend celebrating Nate’s birthday with our NY friends at a bar in the East Village called, Kabin. The bar was supposed to be like a cabin, with the faux logs and fireplace and the deer hunter game. It seems that New Yorkers use a fieldtrip to Bass Pro for a lesson on wilderness décor. As far as I recall, most cabins to not have d.j. spinning Prince, velvet banquets or signature cocktails (I’ve even stayed in the fancy ones at Big Cedar Lodge). Either way, this cabin was cozy enough to keep us until last call and great times were had.

On Nate’s actual 30th birthday, we went to a hamburger bar and restaurant, JG Melons, that’s know to have some great burgers and since Nate is on a mission to find the best in this city and we had not tried this place yet, it was the perfect time. The atmosphere has a great neighborhood feel (bonus that it’s in our hood) and the burgers lived up to their reputation. Great fries too and cheap beer. What more can you ask for? If I can’t locate my husband, I’ll look here first.

* Photo is of the cake that I baked and decorated for Nate. I even bought one of those icing bags with the attachments. I am so out of shape that my arm hurt for three days from squeezing that icing out.

Back home

2008-02-10T15:36:00.001-08:00

Nate and I recently spent 5 days back home in Springfield. Since we didn’t spend any of the past holidays there, it was so great to get to finally see our family and friends. We also decided we would celebrate the Mr.’s 30th birthday while on the trip. With the help of some of my friends, we had a nice little surprise party at the top of Ebbet’s that was the best of times. Really though, it’s impossible to go wrong with free flowing pitchers of beer, fried food and a room full of the people that you love the most. Nate had the best time and even scored a dirty mouthed parrot, a sweet pimp cup, that he’s drinking his morning coffee from, a winning $25 lottery ticket and beer-of-the-month membership. My best gift was the look on my grandmas face when she found Nate in had somehow woke up in the middle of the night, wandered around and finally chose to pass out in the living room in nothing but his underwear. She told me that she didn’t even know if he has those on because it took her a moment to see that they were actually a light shade of yellow. Ahh, to be 30 again.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve, another one of my favorite times of the year…always filled with so much hope and excitement, yet somehow, each and every New Years Eve is always just a little bit disappointing. It’s really no ones fault but our own, actually, my own. The holiday gets so built up-what party go to? What dress to wear? Who will we spend it with? Who do you kiss? Everything has to be just right-the pressures almost too much and it never seems to live up to the hype that I build it up to be.
Don’t get me wrong. Nate and I never have a bad time at a party, but it seems that so many NYE’s just wind up being a glorified Saturday night with a sequined dress and noisemakers. We’ve had the years that we’ve procrastinated to plan anything, and by default, ended up at the same bar that we spent every other Saturday night (Highlife), with the same people, only looking spiffier and waiting longer for drinks. We had the years when we did the prix-fix NYE dinners with other couples, complete with party favors and a champagne toast. For one of those parties, I had even designed and sewed my own dress to wear for the occasion. The 2007 year was brought in a la Francis in Paris at party with champagne flowing and new friends being made. Tres bon.
This year was our first in New York and Nate had to work until 8pm that evening and at 8am the next morning, so it looked like our typically our raging NYE party was pretty bleak. We didn’t really set plans because of this and thought we might just stop by friends or have dinner and a drink somewhere. I didn’t buy a dress, didn’t get a blow-out or have my nails done, but I also didn’t throw myself a pity party, like I might typically do if I would have missed a NYE celebration. I just didn’t feel the hype for some reason, even though we were in NYC of all places.
On NYE, the beginning of the night was spent at a neighbor’s dress-to-impress party with close friends and happened to be a great impromptu way to start the evening. Shortly after, our friends Itamar and Sam met at our place for a drink and so graciously brought over a very nice bottle of bubbly for the occasion. One bottle turned into two and we parted ways (in a very classy manner on the subway, I might add) while they went to a club downtown to ring in 2009. Nate and I decided to head over to a party at a friend’s from NYU that turned out to be a really great time. Needless to say, Nate didn’t get much sleep and the next day was a little rocky. I woke up and promptly hiked it to the nearest open drug store for Gatorade and aspirin, and spent about 6 straight hours on my neighbor’s sofa eating junk food and watching football, but despite the fact that I spent my first day of 2008 with a wicked headache and feeling lousy overall, it was the best night going out of the previous year to date and we didn’t even have to try.
Happy New Year Everyone!

Our Christmas in our home away from home.

2007-12-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

Nate and I spent our Christmas in New York and it really is a beautiful place to be this time of year. Although we missed our family and friends, we spent our week enjoying all of the cities holiday festivities. Sunday we saw the tree at the Met and spent some time exploring there.
Our friends, Scott and Jamie hosted a dinner on Christmas Eve dinner and since Scott is originally from Poland, they had a few really nice traditions like a 12 course Polish dinner with a healthy amount of vodka shots in between courses (something my Southern Baptist family might need to be introduced to), breaking bread with well wishes to each guest as well as some others that were really nice to experience. It made for a special night and a lovely holiday eve.
Christmas morning the Mr. and I woke up and tore into our gifts. I bought Nate a panini maker and he has since made approximately 20 paninis since the 25th of December. I’m afraid I’ve created a monster…you give Nate a gadget and a manual and he is easily amused to say the least. Yes, my friends, all meals, snacks and even desserts can be made with a crispy outside and hot and delicious middle filling.
We worked off our traditional Christmas day panini breakfast and panini lunch by ice skating in Bryant Park. Despite the wait, it was beautiful and such a NYC Christmas thing to do. We ended our evening with a long meal at a little Italian place in our neighborhood and called it a nice first holiday here.

Holiday Parties

2007-12-20T17:18:00.000-08:00

A picture with my girlfriends from our work holiday party. Sangria, tapas and flamenco dancing was a super fun time.

The Knicks at The Garden

2007-12-11T18:54:00.000-08:00

Last night, Anne took me to my first NBA game as an Anniversary gift. It was an awesome gift, and I had a fantastic time. We saw the Knicks take on the Mavericks at Madison Square Garden. I have to say I'm not a huge NBA fan as a rule, but I have really been wanting to go to a Knicks game and it was awesome. The players, overall are unbelievably good. Also, I couldn't help noticing that the Knicks as a team, are really terrible in so many different ways. However, in spite of this fact, the crowd was solid and really into the game. That atmosphere made it awesome. I can only imagine what it must be like when they are competitive, or even in a playoff game. The fans began multiple chants calling for the firing of both Isiah (the coach) and Dolan (the owner). While tough to fire the owner, it demonstrates the purity of the hatred for these two the fans have. If you haven't been to an NBA game, or if you don't really follow any particular team, don't let this sway you. They really are a good time, and if possible seeing it in MSG, arguably the most famous arena in the world, is a plus. I certainly plan on seeing more, and am lucky that Anne is willing to take me to things like that in light of her overall disinterest in sports. I think though, that she could get into basketball. It was the most attentive I've seen her at a game in a while. I'm definitely pumped to see another, and plan on doing it again soon.

Our Charlie Brown Tree

2007-12-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

We were pretty sure that when we moved to New York we'd be living in something that resembled a shoe box, so we left the unnecessary items like ornaments and a fake Christmas tree, in our storage unit in Springfield.

So this year, we decided to buy a real tree, my first ever and I'll never go back. She's a beauty (and smells so good)...but that's really where the eye candy ends. We really went for the "budget look"and decided to string popcorn and throw on a little garland. Stringing popcorn is fun for all of about 5 minutes-until your hand are greasy and then poked with the needle and salted and stinging. 6 hours later and you've produced enough ropes of popcorn to cover about a third of a 5 foot tree. In addition for the decor, we had one sting of colored lights that randomly worked, 12 colored balls and although Nate claimed that they were the ultimate in ghetto, those messy icicles completed our Charlie Brown tree. Despite it all, we are probably more proud of this tree than any other.

Year 4

2007-12-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

4 years and happy anniversary to the Jones'. 11.29 marks 4 years of the roller coaster we call marriage. Each year we exchange the traditional anniversary gift and it's been easy to buy for each other up until this point...
Year 1 is Paper-I gave Nate a bound book of all of the thoughtful things that he had written over our years and he wrote, and framed, a poem.
Year 2 is Cotton-I gave a cashmere scarf. Nate gave me a blanket with our monogram and wedding date.
Year 3 is leather-I gave a passport wallet with his monogram and he gave a leather watch.

Year 4 is Flowers and Fruit. WTF? Maybe easier for a man, but for a gal? What guy wants a flower or even one of those new found fruit bouquets sent up to the office, even if he is a male nurse?

Final outcome... Nate finding a nice little lady in Maine who presses real flowers into necklaces. It's really special and has our wedding date engraved. I bought him a "pair" of Knicks tickets and attached them to an actual the pear fruit. Turned out real nice.
The tickets were bought off of Craigslist's and I talked to someone who told me their "bro" would meet me at a specific bench in Union Square and that he would be wearing a black sweatshirt and hoodie over his face to exchange the tickets (um, okay?). I felt like a real crack deal was going on. I took my tickets, he took my cash and I walk home feeling so utterly street.

I'm The Mary

2007-11-28T20:20:00.001-08:00

I have been looking forward to turning 28 for as long as I can remember-mainly because it’s the year of my high school reunion. I have this vision of reliving my favorite Romy and Michelle moment and driving from NYC to Springfield in a convertible, listening to the music of my high school youth and daydreaming about lame dances and even lamer boyfriends. I will be stopping for the “business woman special” and even though I won’t claim to invent Post-it’s there is a good change some sweet interpretative dancing might be involved. Anyway, the reunion subject was broached when Riss and Curt were here this weekend because the three of us were in the same graduating class. Curt and I being social butterflies and psyched for this day and Riss being the one who has adamantly refused to go since graduation believing that it’s merely a brag fest and a waste of a place ticket. It’s a subject we’ve been chatting about all year, mainly because I want her to be my Rhoda. As it turns out we may have talked her into it on one condition- we’ll be the better halves to Nate and Curt, our dates, who will be dressed in non-other than Billy-Bob teeth, cut-offs, mullets and prepped with fresh outta the pokey stories for pure entertainment value. Surely nothing to brag about in our books. Nate even went as far as to try on this little number for size.
It looks like I may have a back seat driver on my way home this summer after all.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-28T19:46:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving we were in NYC and hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner as a couple. Our good friends Curtis and Sarissa came in from Florida so we had someone to spend the day with. It was an excellent time, and the meal turned out pretty good I think. I’m always nervous cooking anything for Curtis since he is a professionally trained chef. However we had a chef of our own in the kitchen, Chef-Boyardee. Just kidding, Anne made the majority of the meal, I stayed with the stuff I knew mashed potatoes and homemade hot rolls. I did take a try at the Turkey which turned out pretty decent for my first crack at it. Everything the Mrs. made was, predictably, delicious. We had a little wine, a little champagne, and a little beer which all spelled a good time for the four of us. Football was watched, and good times were had. The menu top to bottom was great I think it consisted of as follows:

Traditional brined turkey with thyme gravy
Cornbread, sausage and apple stuffing
Buttermilk mashed potatoes with gorgonzola white wine sauce
Sweet potato pancakes with ricotta
Garlicky green beans with pine nuts
Goat cheese and Monterey Jack mac and cheese
Three piece hot-rolls
Pumpkin and apple butter pie with gingersnap and pecan crust
Chocolate chestnut mousse

Everything turned out great, although I can never make the rolls quite as good as my mom does. Basically it was a great day, a lot of relaxing and enjoying the food and drink. Hopefully everyone else had a great day too.

Also, here is where we chowed down:

Eleven Madison Park- heavenly and worth every penny.
Bouchon Bakery-Great start but lost a little gas. I’d go for pate and wine and stop there. I’ll starting saving right now for the real deal-Per se, so maybe when were 64.
Katz- still thinking about that Rubin, much better than Carnegie with a cool atmosphere.
Momofuku-3 against 1-Still dreaming of pork buns and the best sweetbreads, with brains at their finest.
Gus’ Pickles-Some places really are worth the hype.
Babycakes-Fooled the boys with these healthy babies.

Football in the Park

2007-11-28T18:04:00.000-08:00

I recently met a fellow in the building who, like me, enjoys football. Not just watching, but playing as well. A few weeks ago after we'd had a few beers we decided to set up a game in Central Park. What a concept, the rolling green meadow of the park, ladies nowhere to be found, just some guys out throwing the football around, drawing plays up in the dirt, etc. Well, it was a good time but some of the romance was lost on the fact that it was about 30 degrees, the field was rather rocky and uneven, and a veritable dog-crap mine-field. All of that aside it was a really good time. There were only five in the building who had both the desire and the time to go and play. It worked for a full-time QB and two WR's and two DB's. I was the youngest guy playing so that felt good. Good, until I was sucking wind about two minutes in, as I was not only the youngest but also the only one who doesn't exercise regularly. Nonetheless, I like to think I held my own. About 2o minutes in, our episode of Thirtysomething hit the cutting room floor when one fellow tore his knee up. He could scarcely walk and, though I haven't seen him since, I wouldn't be at all shocked if he required surgery at some point. We still managed to get a good hour in before we all decided we'd had enough. Afterward it was just like after a pick-up game in college, we all went out and had a ton of beer. Except for instead of going out for beer I decided to go home and soak in a hot bath. The only thing missing was a tube of ben-gay and a Matlock marathon. Just as a little icing on the cake, I was barely able to move any appendage on my body the next day, and none of them with any speed. In spite of it all, I'm more than excited to go back and play again, it was tons of fun and the first time I've gotten out and played football in ages.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

2007-11-17T06:56:00.000-08:00

There are people in life that you mesh well when traveling together and people that you don’t. Nate and I travel well together. We’ve somehow made our completely different personalities and interest work nicely when it comes to what we like to do when seeing new things. Nate’s historical/tourist stops are kept at a speedy 5 minute intervals and his anal-retentive triple check method has accounted for many of my scatterbrained misplaced passports, handbags and cameras. We always have tons of fun together.
But traveling with my mom is travailing with no compromise, so I was ecstatic when she came for a visit and had I had absolutely no reservations when I told her to make a list of everything that she wanted to fit in her 4 day trip (I’m learning that this can be dangerous) .

These were her essentials:
-Tour only the fashion and furniture section of the Met (check)
-Find new flat boots (check-she bought me the same pair)
-Stalk Anthony Bourdain (we’re A LOT alike-half a check)
-Have a delicious Italian dinner (check)
-Find the best cupcakes in NYC (check-it took 6 bakeries)

We’re the kind of people who like to check things off of a list.

Halloween

2007-11-11T12:13:00.000-08:00

Halloween-maybe my most favorite holiday of the year. I start getting excited about it before the retail stores can put their merchandise out on the shelves and I begin to drive Nate crazy about what kind of costume (usually involving some type of 80’s celebrity couple) that we will be, right around the end of July. But, in my usually fashion, I don’t actually put a plan into action and get a costume and Oct 29th rolls around and yet again, I’m sans costume just days before Halloween. Lucky me, a friend from work brought me her famous recycled costume that she wore last year and although it appeared to be nothing special, she said that it produced rave reviews. The costume consisted of wearing all black, green glow wings, some antennas and a green Tupperware bowl filled with glowsticks and fashioned around my bum. Voila-lighting bug.
This would be my first Halloween in NYC and the good news was that this city hosted one of the best costume parades in the country that I really wanted to see, but the bad news was that Nate had to work until midnight. Our friend, Kevin works at a studio that produces commercials in Soho and happened to have one of the best views of the parade has one of the most fun parties. He and Courtney were gracious enough to add my name to the guest-list and invite me to this shindig, so I went with those two and Courtney’s roommates, Rick and AJ. The space was huge, with plenty of bars, scary movies playing on the walls and some pretty great costumes, one of my favorite being the Wham boys. And, to give Jen credit, the costume was a huge hit, the black lights made my fanny glow like mad and it will probably be the only night in my life where I would have let so many people take pictures of my backside. I spent the party on the dance floor and finally had to call it a night, and one of the best Halloweens Eves ever, after the Thriller.

Tory's 30th

2007-11-11T11:59:00.000-08:00

Anne and I recently flew back to Springfield for two days to celebrate the 30th birthday of one Tory Jay. The bash was held at Bijan’s Under the Tower. Needless to say, a good time was had by all. This good time was ensured in no small measure by the planning of Justin and Bob, who spared no expense in putting on a first class affair complete with an ice sculpture made into a giant “T”. Flame catered with some tasty mini burgers, beef sashimi, seafood ravioli, and some other finger foods. The food tasted just like it smelled…delicious. Tory was given an excuse and while he “suspected” something was up, had no idea that the guest list would be so lengthy and was appropriately surprised by the whole deal. I have to say it got a bit dusty in the room when he arrived. I’m not sure why this was but I heard tell from several of my friends that they too thought it got dusty, so it wasn’t just me. After he arrived things got underway in a proper fashion. The bartenders earned their tips for sure, and the DJ put on an excellent array of tunes, with no shortage of Beastie Boys tracks. Some rapping was done by Tory, Matty, and myself which was a lot of fun. I also have to say that everyone in attendance had as many drinks as I’d seen them have, for some this was par for the course, for others they just decided to throw down for the occasion I guess. Anyway you slice it, it added up to a fantastic time. By the end of the night things were getting quite hazy for many of us. It was a hell of a lot of fun, and everyone was glad that we got to do something nice for Tory as he is the first to do it for anyone else. While the stay was short for us, it was awesome nonetheless and in my opinion, couldn’t have been spent any better.

BFF

2007-11-02T07:37:00.001-07:00

Ahh, girlfriends. I’m so lucky to have the one’s that I do and this year I got the best 28th birthday gift ever and was able to spend it with a few of them. Justin, a friend from Springfield, flew us home for less than 48 hours for Tory’s big 30th bash (more on this later). We share the same birthday; in fact, we were even born within the same hour, only 2 years apart. A few of my best gal and I celebrated on Friday, so we could do Tory’s up right Saturday night. Les, Mandy, Beth, Jona and I met at Kai, this swanky new sushi restaurant and bar downtown (that was soooo good) to find a bottle of wine sent over special from Riss in sunny Florida-what a sweetie! We had a blast and partied the night away until the birds started chirping at Beth’s after-bar party and Jona and I stumbled into my grandparents to find Mimi waiting up for us like the mother hen she is. The only thing missing were all of the rest of my gorgeous girlfriends that I will surely get to see during the holidays (Liz, will you be there? I miss you to death!).
After Beth and I cried like babies at the airport and Lesie and I said our tearful good buys on the phone, I said to her, as I did to Nate, is that, it is at times like these, when I find that it a struggle as to what’s more important in life; being surrounded by these amazing people that I am lucky enough to have as friends (and people that many women will never have one friend in their life such as this, yet I have over a handful of and have had for over 20 years) or that I go and travel among strangers in places that are new, that we do what we are passionate about and leave behind what we know and love? When I came home to Springfield, I realized that I loved the city less and my friends more (if it were even possible). But for now what I am realizing is that it doesn’t really matter where I am-be it New York, Africa or Missouri, having friendships like the ones that I have with these amazing people in my life really have nothing to do with where I am at, but only with who we are. So…we’ll do our thing for now, but I have every intention of growing old, not only with my husband, but with these ladies, as well.
*Photo taken during 12 hours of blondish/red hair. I was under the impression I would resemble Gwen Stephanie and brought in a picture of Nicole Richie. Not so much. I was a brunette again by morn.

Cheesesteaks and Hugs for Rocky

2007-10-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hey friends,

My second venture into the world of blogging is in regard to our weekend in Philadelphia. Anne and I headed down to celebrate her birthday (a little early) and get a little brotherly love, oh...I mean...see the sights. We took a bus from NYC which is a cheap, easy way to get there and only took about 1.5 hours each way. We checked into a positively darling little B&B, chock full of antiques, curios, and other little trinkets that just melted our hearts, I think my comment to Anne was "Better watch it, or I just might marry this precious little house!" Oh how we did laugh at that one for nearly the entire afternoon.

OK, I think I've successfully ridden that into the ground, so moving on. The first place we went was Jim's Cheesesteak's, on the recommendation of several people who said it was better than the other, more famous places (i.e. Geno's and Pat's). I have to say we agreed that these were quite delicious, and no doubt the best cheesesteaks either of us have tried by far. After that we walked past Independence Hall on our way to Reading Terminal. We didn't stop in to see the Liberty Bell as it was quite a line, and neither of us had a real interest in waiting through it. Reading Terminal was a pretty neat place. It's an old train terminal that they've turned into a giant sort of food court. Pretty much any kind of food you could want is available, so we cruised through there and had some homemade pickles and cookies, etc. which were tasty. So at this point we had already eaten twice in the span of about 2 hours and were feeling pretty fit. Next we walked through downtown on the way to the art museum. Everyone claimed this was a crazy far walk, but it really wasn't that bad, and we got to go past that (evidently) famous LOVE sign arranged as a square. This is often seen on t-shirts, and I am probably the only person who didn't know that it was actually art somewhere. So we got to the art museum and each did the obligatory run up the steps and throw your hands up as in Rocky. Personally, I wanted to take a page out of Rocky 3 and climb the steps and throw my motorcycle helmet at the statue of Rocky, but regrettably the statue is on the ground not at the top, and I had no motorcycle helmet at my disposal. We did get some photo's with Rocky's statue, that was pretty cool and after about 20 minutes we had both seen all of the world famous Philly art museum that either of us cared to (we're very culturally savvy). After this we walked to Rittenhouse square which was absolutely my kind of place. Sort of like a giant shopping mall, only outdoors with fancy stores. Needless to say the potential amount of shopping a person could do there had me dizzy with pleasure. We did shop around for a bit, the Mrs. picked up a new outfit and was very gracious in limiting her time spent for my sake. I have no doubt she could have stayed several consecutive days in a place like that, in this case though it was only a couple of hours. Next we went back to the room, showered up and got ready for our evening. We went and had a couple of drinks outside at a place that was evidently a house at some point in time. Oh boy, not just any house though, the birthplace of original stooge Larry Fine, this pleased me for some reason. Next we checked out another establishment that was pretty good, all of which were located on South Street which is a shopping/restaurant/bar type of street. After that we went to dinner at a place called Beau Monde. It was a creperie and had a really good atmosphere. The food we got was absolutely fantastic as well. This place I would highly recommend if ever in Philly. After dinner it was getting later so we had a few more drinks and called it a night. A great day top to bottom, and we definitely had a good time.

Sunday, we got up and walked through the Italian market, also a famous Philadelphia landmark. This was a pretty neat area, although it seemed to be more deserving of the moniker Hispanic Market, but that's really neither here nor there. At the end of this street we happened upon Geno's and Pat's world famous cheesesteak places. Each claims to be the creator and the best etc. We decided to get one and share it to see how it stacked up to Jim's. We chose Pat's because it looked a little more old fashion and the line was longer there (which it got longer at the other place while we're eating, so who knows). Jim's was definitely better, not even close really. Afterward we went and got some breakfast (I'm not sure why I'm not obese), walked around a bit more and then went to catch our bus home. Overall, Philadelphia is a really cool place. We will definitely head back sometime and see more of it.

Festive

2007-10-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

It seems like the Germans and the Irish are pretty seasoned when it comes to throwing down a few cold ones. A couple of weekends ago we started the day (possibly morning) off in our hood on the Upper East Side at the German festival complete with brats, kraut (extra for me) and brew. We made our way over to Jersey City and met up with Courtney, Karina and friends for the Irish festival for an extra-long fete of all things Irish. Court and Nate's good looks managed to score us free Guiness all day long, which made for a great night-the Hathcock's throw a swell party, it appears that we are pretty seasoned at throwning back a few ourselves.

Kickin it Old Skool

2007-09-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

This last weekend was full of new discoveries. First off, the place down the street where we rent movies gave us the Sopranos DVD when he found out that we had never seen the show. What a smarty pants-we are since fully addicted and will probably spend more $ renting these than a lifetime of HBO. Anyway, we decided to have Italian night. We went to Little Italy for the San Gennaro festival, that evening I whipped up a little pasta with scallops, had some Italian vino and watched an episode or two of our newest addiction. We also decided to pull out the portable gambling table and shoot some craps. Somehow this fit our theme, right? I ended up poorer than before, it’s a good thing we share money.
On Saturday we wanted to check out this hidden bar inside of Crif Dogs hot dog shack. The entrance is located in a phone booth on the right and there is a video screen and a telephone where you can get buzzed in. It’s was a pretty cool spot, all candlelight and romantic with great cocktails and good music. We had a few drinks there and moved on to Ace Bar-main attraction…ski ball, so much fun! Then on to Lunasa Bar, which had a nice outdoor patio. Finally on to some place (don’t remember the name) that was about the diviest place I’ve ever step foot (and that's saying alot). There were booths where the seats were either made or held together (I think the latter) by duct tape, I’m pretty sure you could smoke and the patrons highly resembled the cast of Cocoon, just a little harder around the edges. Best part of this place, other than feeling like a spring chicken, was that it had the old skool juke box. Old being the theme here….

First Date and Just Another Day on the 6 Train

2007-09-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy riding the subway and for those who know my track record on the road, it's really just better for everyone. Riding the subway on a weekday is surprisingly peaceful, people coming to and from work, quietly keeping to themselves. Tonight was unlike any other, I'm minding my own business standing up and leaning against a row of seats, when the young man sitting beside me starts ferociously flipping through his magazines, ripping the pages out and flinging them to the ground. Mind you, this guy looks like he could have been someone we would hang out with or perhaps one of Nate's fraternity brothers, he just happen to be violently throwing around the pages of his computer magazine. I then catch him looking down at my legs and shoes and then up at me, while I, of course, have my eyes fixed on the ground. He repeats this a few times and when I was convinced that this litterbug was going to punch me in the face or stomp my feet, he stared up and me and it went a lil something like this;

Litterbug: "Hey."

Me: "Yea?"

Litterbug: "Wanna go to the movies this weekend?"

Me: "Um no, thanks for asking."

Litterbug "Cool."

And then the train pulls up to my stop and I walk off.

Free Beer = Good Times

2007-09-20T09:02:00.000-07:00

Anne and I went to the NYC brewfest last Friday, good times to say the least. Basically, it was a bunch of tents set up at this seaport place (which I smoothly got us lost on the way to), where each tent housed a Northeast brewer offering samples of their beer. This plus a BBQ tent equaled a darn good time. Anywho, all of it proved to be a real nice time. We sampled many beers, and in turn we met several people who we ended up chatting with, further improving our evening.

Last Weekend

2007-09-11T12:00:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was great fun. Nate planned the night and took me to Trailer Park, because that’s the kind of classy girl that I am, for margaritas and tots and on to a Damien Rice concert. Saturday was fashions shows all day and nothing better could have filled my day. Sunday Nate and I went to a party at Henri Bendel and took full advantage of the open bar and prime C-list celeb spotting.

New Additions

2007-09-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

New Favorites

Panna II- http://www.panna2.com/
This crazy Indian joint in the East Village is quite the experience. There are three other Indian places next door and underneath and when you walk up, they all hassle you to come in (the kind gent of a host gave me a friendly shove in on our last visit). Panna II is known the be the best and always packed. It’s tiny and surely a fire-hazard because of the bazillion chili pepper Christmas lights that hang from the ceiling. Soup, naan, appetizer, entrée and ice cream cost $10 and if you tell them it’s someone’s birthday, they turn of the lights, turn on the disco ball and go bananas. Oh, and it’s BYOB-last time we went with Tory and Diana and they happily opened our 12 pack and two bottles of wine at no charge.

The Other Room- http://search.cityguide.aol.com/newyork/bars/the-other-room/v-106919427
This candlelight bar is on an almost hidden cobblestone road in the West Village. This is the perfect date bar with plush seating, a dark atmosphere and candles everywhere. We stumbled upon this gem and it’s now a favorite. Great beer selection and a nice wine menu.

Trailer Park Lounge- http://www.trailerparklounge.com/home.asp
This bar in Chelsea looks like an actual trailer but it’s obvious that they didn't really do their proper research on WT. It’s definitely the epitome of kitsch though with knocked-up and smoking mannequins, Elvis Memorabilia and a tiki bar. They boast strong margaritas and deliver- enough to have me inhaling tots and moon pies by the end of the night. This place knows how to treat a Missouri girl. The featured Tonya Harding story is a nice touch.

Babycakes- http://www.babycakesnyc.com/
I love this place and its walking distance from my office, in fact, I just had it for lunch. Their baked goods don’t have any of the bad stuff and therefore I never feel guilty for consuming the likes of a chocolate cupcake, brownie bite and chocolate-chip cookie in one sitting.

Fat Camp

2007-09-05T11:19:00.001-07:00

My brother, Austin, came for a 5 day visit this past weekend and it was our first time to have family here. Austin’s fun to hang out or travel with because he’s open to new experiences and loves to try new food. He had never been to NYC so we didn’t stop the entire time.
My typical Labor Day weekend has usually involves all of our friends, a boat, many cans of beer and a drunken goodbye to Tablerock Lake. This Labor Day felt more like a stay at La Jolla Fat Camp. We walked, we ran, we went to the gym (I bought myself a new sweater in honor gracing a treadmill on a holiday weekend), we rented bikes and huffed and puffed up the hills in Central Park.
We also ate at some very cool places. Panna II is a must on our list to take every visitor; it’s a crazy Indian joint that goes wild for birthdays. Austin wanted to try an good Chinese , so we found a great noodle shop where you can choose to add culinary delights such as: fried gluten, pigs blood squares and animal feet, tofu, greens and curried squid. It was delicious and ultra cheap. We did a tea ceremony at a Japanese Tea House and I finally found Babycakes, this darling retro bakery that serves healthy (as in no sugar, flour, gluten etc.) cupcakes, cookies, muffins etc. Sounds impossible, but there is a reason that they won “best cupcake” last year. And since they are so healthy, I had one cupcake, a brownie bite, a scone and a cookie for lunch. I figured it equaled approximately one regular bad-for-you-cupcake.

Run Forrest

2007-08-31T08:43:00.001-07:00

Nate and I have starting running again. I’m not sure why because I was determined not to exercise my entire time in NYC. Unfortunately, we’re suckers for challenge and a goal. I asked Nate the other night why, after all of these years of running, am I such a slow runner. His simple reply was, “You’re just not a natural runner, sweetie.” Thanks, coming from someone who looks like a jogging gazelle, I didn’t take that as a compliment. Now, I know that I’m not winning athlete of the year, in fact, if it weren’t for Beth being my BFF and the best athlete in grade school, I would have always been that last person picked for the kickball team. Actually, the only “sport” that I’ve been considered decent at is swimming, which I learned because apparently parents of the 70’s were taught that if you threw a newborn in a pool they would miraculously become the next Olympian. My dad was half-way right. I know how to swim well but in my opinion, it’s only because it doesn't involve a ball or any hand-eye coordination. And you get to float, so if you’re going through a chunky pre-pubescent stage or freshman 15, it’s not a deal breaker.
Back to running--That evening I went to the gym to find that the equipment had been rearranged and the treadmill was now placed in front of a mirror. Lucky me, I now have a chance to see my not-a-natural-runner self in action. What I witnessed was not a runner, but what I described to Nate as someone who looked as if they were running after they had been shot. Or kind of like what Forrest Gump looked like with those braces on his legs; but I had no excuse. No wonder I run a 12 minute mile! How did I make it through those races and oh my god, people actually saw this spectacle! Needless to say, Nate is showing me proper form and it is truly amazing what a difference it makes in speed, comfort and most important, how I look in that mirror.

All about Nothing

2007-08-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was so nice and all because we did absolutely nothing! We’ll not completely nothing-but just whatever we wanted. Slept till noon, saw Williamsburg the Musical on Friday night (that's the picture) and lounged about in a bookstore all day Saturday. We saw Superbad that night, which was superbad-ass. So funny! Sunday we did some neighborhood exploring and about nothing else at all. It’s nice to have one of those weekends.
As for this week, my baby (as in 6 foot 4 and 19 years of age) brother is coming for a visit on Thursday for 5 days and I’m ecstatic!

Regrets

2007-08-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Are the worst! Since moving to NYC Nate and I have had a chance to spend lots of quality time together. Lots. When we were living in Spfd. it was a rare night when it was just the two of us and although I will miss the birthday parties, showers and dinners, it’s nice to feel like newlyweds. But…there is such a thing as too much quality time. I think the hubby and I have become too attached at the hip. Where he goes, I go and vise versa. We were even walking down the hall with each other to change the laundry. So we decided that we would spread our independent wings and do the occasional chore by ourselves. For example, going to the grocery store. I was on my way to the market and asked my beloved if he would like to join. After carefully weighing his options he regretfully stayed home to finish some paperwork he had been putting off all week and shooed me out for some “me” time. Now if there is one thing that I have and will always say that I miss about living in Missouri is that anyone will chat it up with you in the line or aisle at the grocery store. Low and behold I found someone to listen to me ramble about and it was non-other than MCA from the Beastie Boys. The paperwork could have waited one more day.

I hate good-byes

2007-08-20T11:31:00.000-07:00

It’s a tearful Monday because our visit with Tory and Diana has ended. Our friends came to for five glorious days and it flew by in no time. The four of us had a blast together. Wednesday, we had our first little get-together and had dinner with friends at our house and out for drinks until late in the night. We spent Thursday as “Dive Bar Day” in the West Village. Friday we had cocktails at Blue Owl and dinner at world’s craziest Indian restaurant and then to a comedy club and Saturday, Diana and I shopped, saw The Color Purple and bar hopped after dinner at L’Ecole while the boys had a day at McSorley’s and Yankee Stadium. Miss them already. I’ll post pictures as soon as they’re sent my way.

Can I get a witness?

2007-08-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

Diana got us tickets to The Color Purple for last Saturday and oh, it was good. The cheapest seats in the house are more than a Benjamin and when we presented the lady usher our tickets, she replied in a daze, “You’re up with Jesus, young ladies.” Indeed, we were in the top row, but little did we know that this was any indication as to what was to come. Seeing The Color Purple on Broadway was as close as I have come to being saved from the devil. Who knew that I would be so close to Jesus in the sinful streets of New York City? There was hardly a moment when you didn’t hear someone yelling out, “Oh no he didn’t, child!” or “Praise his name, Lord above!” The music was pure Southern sweetness and the premise was what I had remembered loving so much in the movie and book from Alice Walker. The bond of sisters that made me miss my lovely girlfriends and the strength of women that surpass time and race. Halleluiah!

B Boys

2007-08-13T16:09:00.001-07:00

Nate and I missed out on tickets to the Beastie Boys concert in Central Park—they sold out in 2 days, so we decided to see if we could bring a lil’ cash money to the park on the day of and score ourselves some tickets. Brilliant idea, only about a thousand other people had the same one. It ended up being so much fun because all of the people who didn’t get a ticket had their own little party outside of the concert. We could hear it just as well being that it was all outside. I must say, dancing under the stars in Central Park to the Beastie Boys for zero dollars was definitely a priceless night!

Yankers

2007-08-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

Nate and I went to the Royals vs. Yankee’s game last Saturday. I think that somehow the Poor God’s were smiling upon us that day because the Upper Deck, a.k.a. Cheap Bastards Seats were some of the only ones in the shade that day. Lucky us, because it was as hot as blue blazes, as my mama would say. It was a blast too! The Royals started in their usual fashion down 4-0 in the first inning, but managed to tie it later in the game. Despite their best efforts, they lost. Nate and I had no shame and cheered proudly for our team and made every effort to represent. And about New Yorkers being really nice…this does not apply to their baseball fans.

Road Trip

2007-08-07T14:19:00.000-07:00

Nate and I decided to take a little road trip two weekends ago. After a last minute trip to the car rental lot in our neighborhood, we took off in our sweet Hyundai and hit the road for Vermont at about 9 pm on Friday night. The two of us love a good road trip and even though it’s only been about 2 months since we been in a car, it felt more like two years. There’s something so fun about being in the car with the sunroof open, finding the perfect songs on the radio and stopping at gas stations your dinner, crossing your fingers that the bathroom doesn’t involve an outside door and a key. We made it to Vermont about 1 am and were staying on a property that boasted 25 acres of beauty. Unfortunately, Nate and I had spent the last hour of the trip discussing In Cold Blood and The Amityville Horror and I what didn’t freak me out by nature, was taken care of by ghosts. Anyway, I was armed with my tall rubber boots, that were worn the entire weekend (snake protection) and ready for anything. Anything but NO air conditioning and a fly infested love nest. Luckily we were prepared with our usual outdoor gear-a case of beer- and promptly cracked one (after another) open. The outdoor area was gorgeous with maple trees everywhere and swimming holes gushing with crystal clear water that was explored the following morning. We ventured into 5 different states that weekend and stopped whenever and wherever we felt. One thing is for sure, the East coast country is beautiful. And it was an adventure, as always. In fact, we’re going back this winter to ski.

The Beast

2007-07-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

our atypical morning is as follows:

1. half asleep in the shower, in the process of shampooing, see something near the ceiling out of the corner of my eye.
2. that something appeared to be a gigantic brown cockroach approximately the size of my palm.
3. fly out of shower. scream to nate that there is a major emergency in the bathroom.
4. say silent prayer that nate doesn't take his normal 20 minutes to "wake up."
5. thankfully he's out of bed, promptly proclaims, "sweet mother! did it eat franny?"
6. nate grabbes tissues. i stand guard behind wet and freezing. (luckily neither of us are afraid of bugs, but the sheer size of this beast was enough to fire anyone up).
7. nate attempts to stand on tub and smash beast on wall.
8. apparently beast has wings and can fly, straight for nate's man goods.
9. nate has a hole in his boxers. causes serious turmoil.
10. when the beast landed, so did nate-breaking the towel rack and right back into to soapy, neked me and on to the floor.
11. beast must have witnessed this comedic mess and hid under the scale where nate finally smashed it.

thankfully, nates goods were undamaged and i returned to my warm shower with only a few bruises. the beast is smashed and the super was called immediately. nate still won't throw away the holey skiveys.

Farm Girl

2007-07-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

Nate and I both work downtown and we live uptown. You could consider this inconvenient, but being new transplants, it allows, or rather, forces us to roam other neighborhoods. One of my favorite places to be in the city is at Union Square Farmers Market right near my work. I have always had this long time love affair with a farmers market. There's something so great about all of the beautiful colors and smells and then there's the fact that you are supporting an ongoing effort to eat local. The Union Square market is open year round, 4 times a week. I spend my entire lunch strolling and eating. Every fresh fruit and vegetable are requisite, along with gorgeous flowers, meats, cheeses, organic baked goods (makes me feel better about the double chocolate cookies) and a very special seafood tent that brings the fish in each morning from their boat. You can also find local artist that sell anything from homemade clothes to homemade porn. Just kidding, but there's some fascinating art that could pass. This afternoon in particular, I found a new stand that made homemade pies and happened to have rhubarb (not strawberry-rhubarb) which happens to be both Nate's favorite and out of season (they are in a cooler area so there is a small amount to be had). I'm not above admitting that I briefly considered unwrapping it and throwing a little flour on my apron when he comes home for dinner. My Mimi would be ashamed.

Bands

2007-07-23T10:04:00.000-07:00

My cousin, Nick, and his band, the Umbrella's http://www.umbrellasmusic.com/, are on tour this year and were in NYC at the Knitting Factory on Friday night. http://www.knittingfactory.com/ This is a good place to see live music, lots of different rooms and smaller spaces with their own bar. His band is super good and it was cool to see him play. We also saw Lola Ray http://www.lolaray.com/, who totally rocked out. We also went to this really great bar, Nancy's Whiskey Pub-a total dive, with cheap drinks and shuffleboard.

The rest of the weekend was such a great time. Saturday, Nate and I went on a pub crawl centered around finding the cheapest drinks that we could find. $3 margaritas and $2 Guinness made for a savvy bar tab and plenty of celebrating. Sunday we found a free pool on 77th that overlooked the East river. Prime people watching that only a public pool can provide, but it was big, clean and had a diving pool that, sadly, was closed that day, as well as a park, basketball and handball courts. This should provide a nice relief to the summer heat. One thing worth mentioning, if you've been to NYC you will notice the lack of overweight people, it's hard to be heavy due to the amount of walking you are forced to do everyday in the city. It seemed that every chunky individual in Manhattan, including a dozen or so men with breast larger than my own, made it to a place where the least amount of clothing possible is worn, Speedos seemed to be in abundance as well. Oh well, it made for nice waves.

Our Favorites

2007-07-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well, we already have some places that we've made our favorites, here's a little about where we like to hang our hats.

Biddy's- This is an Irish Pub just a few doors down from our apartment. I'm not sure if they ever close, but they have great people, all from Galway, who work behind the bar. It's a dark, cozy small space and really, the perfect neighborhood bar. Nate likes to play Connect Four and I like to crank up the jukebox. http://biddyspub.com/

Blue Owl- This is our favorite place to get drinks in the East Village. The owner, Ashley and bartender, Charles, are the most wonderful guys ever. The drinks are so so delicious and even made me a whiskey drinker (on occasion). They have a great happy hour and good noshes. Oh, and a kick ass hidden private room. http://www.blueowlnyc.com/#home

John's of 12th- Just around the corner from Blue Owl and nods to Ashley for the intro is John's. Simple and perfect Italian. The place is an old speakeasy that dates back 100 years or more. Old school with great service and my favorite veal parmesan. Heard it was in last seasons Sopranos but we don't get cable. http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/45215614?marqueeType=vote_duplicate&specialtyId=32

Cavatappo Wine Bar- This little gem is right down the block and we end up here quite a bit. Mostly because they have a great outdoor space with tables along the sidewalk. They have a nice wine list, not to mention lots of good cheese and the owner is a really friendly guy with lots of good suggestions. http://www.cavatappo.com/locationhours.html

Taco Taco- Also down the street, delicious pork tacos and made-by-your-table- guacamole. A cute space with twinkle lights and the best passion fruit margaritas ever. Also, noteworthy flavors include the coconut and mango. http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/taco-taco/

Ottomanelli's Cafe- This is a tiny little red-checked tablecloth Italian cafe is a few blocks from our place. There's one outdoor table that we wait for and the pizza is cheap and good. The best part is that it's BYOB. Last time we brought a huge jug of wine and our dinner was less than $20.

Five Front- We have been here only once with Keith and Amy and it was great. A must for the Brooklyn Bridge tour that we will take people on, no doubt. Fresh, so good and affordable food with the best outdoor space, set right under the bridge. http://www.fivefrontrestaurant.com/

Pinkberry- After what I thought would be a tearful goodbye to my beloved TCBY, I rebounded and traded her in for a newer model. Pinkberry! This is some crazy cult craze that started in LA that seemed kinda silly and there are lines that snake down 2nd Ave near my apartment but I since I am a frozen yogurt connoisseur, I felt the need to give it a whirl. I like the plain with fruit and cereal toppings, preferable mango, coco pebbles and yogurt chips. The yogurt is sour and like nothing else. I don't mind the line. http://www.pinkberry.com/html/product_1.html

Yoga Works- I did yoga once a long time ago and had it in my head that it was not for those with ADD, like myself. I was wrong. One more try and I am a devout to Yoga Works. I leave with a sense of peace, fulfillment and not to mention, dripping with sweat. http://www.yogaworks.com/newyork/

Balthazar- The drinks are pretty good but the bartenders are super great and it has a really cool atmosphere where there is bound to be a celeb or two, but not pretentious at all. http://www.balthazarny.com/

Pravda- Cool, underground Russian bar with really good drinks and good snacks like potato chips with caviar. http://www.pravdany.com/home.html

Nick's Pizza- Another good one in our hood. This is more of a sit down, than grab-a-slice and go place, but it's so good. It's also not too expensive and serves it's house red wine cold in a carafe. http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/nicks-pizza00/

Enough for now, we'll share more later. Love to you all.

Girl's Night

2007-07-19T09:29:00.001-07:00

Slowly, but surely, we'll try and write about the place we've been checking out around the city. Spotlight Live is this great karaoke bar in Times Square (a place that I would normally avoid like a pair of tevas) and so fun, especially for a girls night. There's even a screen outside that will broadcast your performance live. It sounds terrifying, I know, because I'm tusually about a six pack and 3 tequila shots in before I'm even thinking about karaoke and that typically will only involve a skanky dive bar and a few of us screaming "Like a Virgin." This place not only looks swanky, but people can vote on their favorites and text to other tables. No worries though, our girls performance was so MTV worthy thanks to the back-up singers and dancers. Seriously, this place really does make you feel like a rock star. If I could only bring them home while I sing in the shower. http://www.spotlightlive.com/index.php

Calling Nurse Jones

2007-07-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Day! After some grueling weeks of hard core studying, Nate passed his nursing boards! This calls for a reasons to celebrate and I'm sure a glass or two will be raised in his honor this weekend. Congrats, hubby!

Mitchell Visit

2007-07-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Keith and Amy just spent their first week in NYC! It was a hot one but we think they liked the city. Definitely different from OKC, but that's what traveling is all about, right? We did lots of stuff that deserves a space of it's own, so Nate and I will write more on each later, but the highlights definitely included Comedy Cellar (went before with Court and Karina, laughed our faces off), Central Park (Boathouse is my favorite) Yankees Game and Rent. We feel so lucky that we have friends who want to visit. Thanks all!

Welcome Baby Sophia-Have you ever seen such lovely ladies?

2007-07-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

congrats krupas! sophia elanor krupa is here! she weighed 7.34, 20 inches long and had a full head of black hair. she's beautiful! just like her mom and sister (matt's okay too). we love you all and are so happy for you new addition to the family.

We made it

2007-07-13T07:56:00.000-07:00

our trip out was an adventure to say the least. we flew home from mexico on wednesday, my bff''s sent me off with a tearful farewell and nate, tory and franny set off in the uhaul the size of something that might require a special license. 24 hours, two cheap motels, a hail storm and plenty of broken dishes, they boys made it. i arrived shortly after, hung-over on an hours sleep. even with two tranquilizers, kitty fat pants managed a ear bleeding cry the entire 7 hour plane trip. that being said, once we were home, having tory in nyc with us was the best time ever. we had no idea that the bars here never even close and needless to say, you kinda start to feel like a real alchy when you have a beer in your hand and the birds are chirping. anyway, tory was such a peach for helping us move, letting us move in for a month and we are so happy he loved the city so much. in fact, he's coming back out next month. can't wait. love you, t!

Been So Long....

2007-07-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

Well, the Jones' have settled nicely into NYC and love it here more than we could have imagined (and we imagined that we'd love it alot). We will write lots more to keep our family and friends, who we love and miss dearly, about our adventures, big and small. More post and pictures will follow to let you know about the summer. xoxo