Blogging Fail

I keep staring at my blog reader and seeing our last post here fade further and further into the past.  It finally switched to "two months."  First the excuse was honeymoon preparation, and then the honeymoon itself, and then... who even knows.  One thing led to another thing, and blogging fell by the wayside.  And now it feels like there should be something monumental to say to get back on the blogging wagon.  But after several weeks of resolving to blog again soon, I guess it really comes down to just doing it. 

Since we last blogged:
*We spent two weeks in Greece and London
*We visited my family in Massachusetts
*We went camping upstate with my college friends
*We rented bikes on Governor's Island
*We rearranged the living room, including purchasing a new bookshelf
*We went to the shore a few times, and tried a new ice cream place
*We (especially Becky) worked way too much
*We pondered life changes, like jobs and apartments and schools, obsessively
*Probably a lot of other not blog worthy events

So, we're all caught up, right? 

Ha.

My mom asked for some honeymoon stories, so hopefully we'll get back to a few of those.

The blogging drought has been accompanied by a picture taking drought.  I'm sure there are a few, but Becky has her camera with her while she's lamey-cake working right now, so I'll give you a few Greece pictures in case you forgot what we look like:

 And this is the two of us plus my college roommates swimming upstate two weeks ago:

Hopefully some of you are still out there, and hopefully it won't be two months until you see us again!

Island Hopping

This weekend we went island hopping! We visited the exotic locales of Manhattan and Staten Island. Manhattan fed us, with a brunch at Good Enough to Eat and world famous cookies-as-big-as-your-head at Levain's Bakery. Staten Island entertained us.

Although Staten Island and its ferry have been on our to-do list since we moved here several years ago, we have never gotten around to it. The closest we've come was several years ago when our friend Kara and I made a date to ride the ferry, but at the last minute completely switched plans and ended up tubing on the Delaware River. But somehow, on Saturday, the time seemed right. So we made another date with our friend Kara and headed for South Ferry. The ferry terminal had scrolling ads that at first we thought were advertising liquor prices. We still aren't entirely sure what exactly they were advertising, but after our adventures we remain fairly certain that despite Manhattan's best efforts Staten Island is in fact not a separate country (and therefore there is no duty free shopping at the ferry terminal). I am happy to report that the ferry did not tip over from tourists crowded on one side to view the Statue of Liberty. And also happy to report that we did get a view of the statue, because it's always fun to see even if you've done it before. It is really very random that France decided to send us a statue of a giant green lady, and somehow she ended up on a tiny island of her own just off of Manhattan.

Once on Staten Island we boarded a city bus for an incredibly long bus ride. Whoever designed the bus route was apparently in a contest to see if s/he could design a route that drove on every single street on the entire island. At the end though, we were rewarded with a glorious view. We tried several times to take a decent hold-out picture of ourselves, but apparently I was in an unphotogenic mood. Plus I neglected to bring sunglasses like those smarties. This is the best we managed to produce. We wandered the boardwalk and admired the view. We also decided that we were not too sad that it was not swimming weather: It may be gorgeous, but it's still Staten Island after all. (Hey, I live in New Jersey...there has to be somebody left to make fun of.)

The internet informed us that a common Staten Island beach conversation involves the phrase "meet me at the Dolphin Statue." On our approach to the statue we split up and pretended to meet at the statue. Yes, this is what we do for fun on the weekends. And we wonder why we don't have more friends. :) Kara and Becky practiced meeting while I took their picture.After that we headed back towards the ferry terminal. We attempted to get a drink at a random Russian/Greek restaurant, but they didn't seem to want us. So eventually we ended up at a decent little pub and enjoyed a drink, then tried to get on the return ferry. Due to an issue with the ferry we had a little extra time to kill and wound up wandering in to a high school baseball game at the minor league stadium. The stadium is right on the water and has a really nice view behind the field; we're considering attempting a Staten Island Yankees game this summer.

We enjoyed another drink on the return ferry, because apparently drinking beer on the ferry is "a thing" and that's just the sort of thing we do. We waved to Lady Liberty and returned safely to the island from whence we came. And that concludes another chapter of Weekend Adventures!

Delicious Adventures

Last weekend was another relatively low-key weekend at home and/or enjoying the lovely city we happen to live quite near.

On Friday evening the weather was lovely, and thus (the quickly approaching expiration date had nothing to do with it...nope...nothing at all) Becky decided to talk a meandering walk to the Lower East Side to spend a Livingsocial coupon we had purchased nearly a year ago. For the unfamiliar, Livingsocial is a lot like Groupon, where they have one really good deal a day. You pay the coupon site, and I assume they pay the company that offered the product. And then eventually (if you remember, and have the energy to, say, walk to the Lower East Side) you take the coupon to the store and redeem it for your merchandise. So our coupon was for a dozen mini cannolis from Stuffed Artisan Cannolis. Yum. Birthday cake was the most delicious to me, but Becky said it was too sweet. Cinnabun tasted like a giant stick of Big Red gum. Most predictable of all, Becky loved peanut butter cup.

Sunday we decided to play NYC tourists. We met up with our friend Stephanie and her adorable 2-year-old daughter for lunch at Ollie's Noodle Shop. Watching a little person slurp udon noodles is pretty freaking adorable. After Chinese food we strolled down 9th Avenue and ended up at Chelsea Market. It's an awesome urbany warehouse space that used to be a big industrial bakery and then some industrial railroad thing and has now been reborn as an upscale collection of bakeries, restaurants, and a few stores. A few delicious bakeries, including Sarabeth's and Amy's Bread, have both storefronts and giant glass-enclosed kitchens where pastry chefs are held captive like zoo animals.

After enjoying ice cream and the children's section of a book store (at which our 2-year-old friend "read" stories to us...aww...) we left our friends at a subway stop and continued the wander down 9th Ave. We picked up ground coffee from an awesome old-school coffee shop that is crazy expensive but we don't care because we buy so little coffee and it's just so damn cool, bought camera lens cleaner from Orthodox Jews, and ended up over at the High Line. Verdict for old elevated rail platform turned urban garden: pretty cool. I think we'll have to return when it's not so frigid out, as it was by this time of the evening.

Bad picture of me, and bad picture of us, but I wouldn't want you to forget our smiling faces. Or worse yet, disbelieve our adventures!

All in all it did not turn out to be as epic as we had hoped, but much fun was had. I would definitely still classify it as an adventure!

Zee Weekend

Last week felt a little bit like it would never end. I think this might be the unfortunate but inevitable result of an extended vacation. But the weekend did finally come, and we did our best to enjoy it.

Friday night we met up with our friend Kara, who is usually up for the wackier of our entertainment choices. For dinner Becky wanted to try something new (Shake Shack overload I guess) and suggested a Bosnian restaurant called Djerdan. I was doubtful, but agreed. Since I was running late Becky and Kara ended up first having a drink at a Spanish place down the block. Suffice it to say that the sangria was made with Carlo Rossi's finest. Alas. But Djerdan was excellent! We shared an appetizer of some doughyness in yogurt sauce that was decent. The highlight though was the main dish, the house speciality, burek. Becky and I shared, so we got to try slices of cheese and meat (spinach is the third choice). Burek is apparently a scrumptious stuffed phyllo dough pie. It was savory and greasy in the most delicious way, and each slice only cost $5! I'm quite excited that we now know of another tasty and inexpensive option that is convenient to Port Authority and most Broadway theaters.

We then headed over to Madison Square Garden for the entertainment portion of the evening: the 2011 Professional Bull Riders Invitational*! I had no idea there would be so many cowboys in New York City. The festivities started while Kara and I were buying pretzel beer (pictures of which are sadly on Kara's camera and therefore not currently available to me). But, as photodocumented by Becky, they poured gasoline on the dirt and lit a giant PBR on fire.
Good start, good start. An invocation was prayed, and then we sang the national anthem while saluting a giant waving American flag stitched together by tornado survivers from flag pieces somehow associated with 9/11. I think that speaks for itself.

Then came the bull riding!
Trusty Wikipedia, via the Motorola Droid, filled us in on the rules and various controversies related to the sport. Basically, each rider climbs on a bull and has to hang on with only one hand for eight seconds. If he (as far as I can tell, they're all men) succeeds, then his performance is ranked 0-50 and the bull's performance is ranked 0-50. The scores are combined, and the rides are ranked. Watching the bull-riding was moderately exciting for eight second increments, but overall a bit slower paced than we expected. At one point a rider was dragged behind a bull for a few seconds, and at another point a bull with a lasso around his neck pulled free of the cowboy who lassoed him.
Saturday we planned to do errands and all kinds of boring stuff around the house. We debated about whether to walk to the closer grocery store or to dig the car out of the snowbank and drive to Target and Trader Joe's. Digging out won. That is, until we went to start the defroster and found that the car didn't start. I spent nearly an hour on the phone with AAA and another hour idley waiting for the tow truck to come. Despite fears that it would be worse, we're fairly sure that the car is fine, but that the battery just couldn't hold a charge while parked in once place for three weeks in cold weather. Friendly tow truck operator jumped us and away we went. Except for one catch. The hood of the car will not completely latch, which seems to be related to some fraying of the cord near the hood release switch in the car. Becky and I know pretty much nothing about cars (a cause for some concern), but the tow truck man told us not to drive on the highway until it somehow starts latching... Troublesome.

Sunday we headed to Queens for brunch with our friend Stephanie. She made the most delicious baked French toast, eggy casserole, coffee cake, homemade hot chocolate, and served us mimosas. Yum. We provided raspberries, blackberries, and thawed strawberries from our summertime adventures. We had a lovely time chatting with Stephanie and playing with Stephanie's two-year old.

This evening we watched the Packers beat the Eagles - go yellow pants!

*No Friends of Animals protestors were injured in the writing of this blog entry.

Catching up

Sorry for the long absence, but here's an update for all you adoring fans out there.

Carrie and I spent last weekend in Vermont. While we were there, the pumpkin hats that I'd been working on furiously for the last few weeks made their debut, modeled by the most adorable infants in all of New England.


What could possibly be cuter than that? :)

We had a grand time revisiting some of our favorite sites: Cold Hollow Cider Mill, King Arthur Flour, the Cabot Annex...and I got my annual Lake Champlain hot chocolate (with REAL whipped cream!) We also went to a couple new places: Wellwood Orchard (site of the above pumpkin picture as well as the most hilarious hayless hayride in history) and the Vermont Country Store, which in good VT tourist tradition, included a plethora of free samples.

The weekend before that, a friend came over for a field trip to the nearby Mitsuwa, followed by a sushi-making extravaganza. She taught us how to make inside out rolls (see my mad rolling skilz below):


We ended up with FAR more sushi than 3 people should ever consume in one sitting, but all of it was delicious!


This weekend was mercifully much less busy. We saw a couple friends on Saturday and then spent yesterday hiding out in the house avoiding the awful weather outside (thank goodness for Netflix, knitting, and the internet).

Weekend--Yay!

Why is it that weekends are always so short and work weeks are so long? It's really not fair. This weekend was filled with good friends and far too much delicious food.

Last weekend I declared that this would be a good weekend to spend some time sorting through all our stuff and donating/throwing away a bunch of stuff. We have accumulated far more stuff than two people could possibly need. Our recent efforts to keep the apartment cleaner are going well, but I think a good crap purge could go a long way toward making us both happier and more organized.

But instead, we went to Target on Saturday and bought more stuff. Oops. To be fair, it was mostly stuff that we "needed", but it was a bit of a contradiction with my plan to get rid of stuff. Oh well--next weekend.

We spent our Saturday evening with a friend and her 11-month-old daughter, who we hadn't seen in far too long. She's already walking and has much better balance than I've ever seen in a baby her age! But I remember when she was only a few weeks old! Our friend made a full-on Thanksgiving dinner--think turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, the works. Our seven-layer bar contribution didn't really fit the theme, but that didn't stop me from polishing off half the pan all by myself. Oops.

Today another friend came to our place for dinner. She's still in the process of moving to the city, so we were able to entice her with the prospect of beef kebabs. We cooked the kebabs (marinated delicious steak from Trader Joe's, green peppers, onions, and potatoes) under the broiler, and they were DELICIOUS. We also made chocolate chip bars (a la Phoebe's Nestle Toulouse), and I again did my part to inhale half the pan.

Oh yeah, and we went to Outback for dinner on Friday night. So yes, much too much food this weekend. But good times all around. :)