First full day in the city has come and gone, and my feet are very glad that I’m done walking for the night. We left the hotel around 930 and went in search of a bagel place for breakfast. After 15 minutes of unsuccessful looking we finally found a place (which according to Jeremy is very odd, as usually there are bagel shops on every corner in the city, apparently just not around our hotel). Bagels were good (had my usual everything bagel with veggie cream cheese) and fueled with my cup of coffee for the day we headed to the Bronx zoo.
After a 45 minute train ride we got to the zoo around 1115 and we spent the entire day there. It’s probably the biggest zoo I’ve ever been to. It has a cool monorail and a lot more “cohabitation” areas with 3 or 4 different kinds of animal in one exhibit, so it was cool to see the animals in a bit more of a “natural” setting. After 300 pictures or so we headed out, stopping at Grand Central Station (I’d never been in there before so we stopped in and took some pictures) before meeting up with my friend Mike for dinner at Scarlattos, a good (and reasonably priced) Italian place just a few steps from Times Square.
We split a fried calamari and zuchinni appetizer (it had both the calamari rings and little tiny tentacles deep fried, hadn’t had those before, pretty weird looking but it was quite tasty) and I had a scallop and asparagus risotto for the main course and a saffron creme brûlée for dessert (both also tasty, didn’t really get the saffron flavor in the dessert but you definitely got the color). Had a great time with Mike, catching up and reminiscing about college for about two hours, at which point the manager asked us if he gave us a free round of drinks at the bar would we move from our table because they had a party of 50 (yes, five-oh) coming in in a few minutes, so we moved over to the bar and chatted more and enjoyed a free glass of merlot.
After that we decided to go back out to Times Square and take some photos of there at night (I had not seen it at night before). The city has recently opened this big staircase/platform thing in the middle of the square that provides a good view if the whole intersection so we climbed up there and sat and talked for a while longer, I took a few more pictures, and then we decided it was probably a good time to call it a night. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the hotel.
Tomorrow is museum day and lunch with another friend of mine from college, then dinner at Craft in the evening, fun!
Photo count: 348
NYC day 1
So I figured I would do a mini travel blog again during this trip to New Tork City since I’ve been rather delinquent with posting lately. Jeremy and I decided to come up for memorial day weekend so I’m going to try and document all the goings on, hopefully it will help me remember and catalogue all the pictures I will take too 😉
We left Richmond at 4pm and landed a brief hour later at laguardia. The whole flight I was watching out the window trying to figure out what we were flying over at that particular moment. Noticed there are a lot of circular tracks on the way up here, don’t know if they were race tracks or what but there were dozens on the few hundred miles I was gazing out the window, weird.
Anyway, we landed, hopped on the M60 with just about the entire rest of the airport and took a bus ride through the Bronx, over the bridge to manhattan, where we got on the subway to our hotel. Now here’s the great thing about our hotel, the Cosmopolitan in TriBeCa, it is right next to the Chambers street subway stop, yay for short walks to the subway! So after dropping off our bags, Jeremy and I went in search of dinner. I had been to Chinatown for lunch the last time I was in the city and, since we are within walking distance of there from our hotel, we decided to go pick a random place there to have some dinner. We wandered around a bit, past multiple fruit stands and one smelly fish market and ended up at a little noodle shop that had a huge menu and was relatively tourist-free. I had shanghai noodles with roast pork and dumplings and jeremy had sweet and sour chicken, both were very good. I can’t quite place what the flavor was in the noodle broth, maybe just miso, but it was really tasty. After dinner it was about 8:30 so we decided to hop on the subway and pay homage to the 5th avenue Apple store and walk around and look in the windows of all the über expensive stores of 5th Avenue. By that time we were both getting pretty tired so we decided to head back to the hotel for the night. Noticed on the way back we were “going home” just as most of the folks our age are getting ready to “go out”, am I getting old or what? 😉
Tomorrow if the weather is nice I think we’re gonna go to the Bronx zoo (if not then museums) then we’re meeting up with my college friend Mike for dinner at an Italian place that he highly reccomends, should be a lot of fun. For now? definitely time for bed, g’night all.
status report, crazy weather and gardening
So I’m still working on the belated new year’s resolutions. I was sick one week in February so that set me off a week on the various schedules for the push-ups and sit-ups, and insert other excuses here for just being too busy to do the exercises a few times, so currently I’m starting week 4. Doing better on the sit-ups than the push-ups but I was anticipating that, I’ve always liked sit-ups/crunches more than push-ups anyway 😉
So a week ago today we had quite a snow storm (for southeast VA) down here, 
ended up with 3-4 inches of snow, and now in typical Virginia weather fashion it’s going to be sunny and 79 degrees today. Going to take this warm weather opportunity and try and get my courtyard back together. 
Had to take stuff apart when I had my AC unit replaced (when they installed it 2 years ago they only installed an AC unit, not heating and AC, so yes I didn’t really realize I didn’t have heat upstairs for 2 years but it hadn’t ever really gotten particularly cold until this year. Thankfully they replaced it with the correct model at no charge), so things were kind of a mess down there all winter and on New Year’s Eve there was a lot of wind and it knocked over the screen all-together and dumped a lot of dirt everywhere. Amazingly none of the pots completely broke, but I’m going to try and get a better soil mix this year so things don’t dry out so quickly and maybe I’ll be able to actually keep my plants alive this year. Also bought some bulbs over Thanksgiving out at the pottery, and I know I should’ve planted them when I got them, but they got stuck in the garage and I forgot about them. So even though they won’t bloom this year I’m gonna plant them anyway just to get them in the ground, I can enjoy them next year.
Pondering what flowers/plants I should go with for the courtyard this year. The spot only gets 2 hours-ish of midday sun for the pots on the screens and the planter box gets even less, maybe an hour. So what are some good, hearty (I know I will forget to water stuff) plants to pick? Unfortunately cactus need a lot of sun otherwise I’d opt for that 😉 Suggestions?
belated new years resolutions
So yes, I’ve survived the holidays and no, I haven’t given up on this blog, I promise. Things have just been super crazy busy the past few months between work and social stuff (this is 
starting to sound like my standard excuse but it’s true!). But I wanted to post on this new exercise thing I found out about, it’s two sites,
One Hundred Push Ups and Two Hundred Sit Ups. For each of these the goal is to be able to do that total number of the exercise at one time (with rests in between reps). You start out with an initial test to determine your fitness level and then each week you do this pre-set group of reps three times a week and each week the number in each rep increases until you’ve reached the goal. Both are six week programs, Jeremy started doing the push up challenge a few weeks ago and is seeing some great results so, not to be outdone, I figured I would try it too 😉
So now that I’ve written about this on the internets I’m hoping this will make me more accountable to actually complete it. To start, I can do 10 (knee) pushups and 35 crunches/sit ups, we’ll see where I end up in 6 weeks…
fall in va
So apologies again for being a delinquent blog author, things have been pretty crazy the past few weeks. I hosted a Halloween party on the 31st, costumes were encouraged but optional and we ended up with lots of “Liz Specials” plus quite a few fun characters, Dr. Horrible, Duff Man, Supergirl, Harley Quinn, Batgirl (that was me), Blue-Footed Booby, Windows Blue Screen of Death, a Stocking and the Stuff-R…here’s the group shot. Also carved pumpkins for the party and roasted the seeds, very tasty, I used a great recipe from Simply Recipes. I got the pumpkins from Bethel’s pumpkin patch, the biggest one was over 35 pounds. 
It was quite fun carving them even though I couldn’t find my pumpkin carving knife I got in a little kit one time, instead I used a flathead screwdriver and a tomato knife, gotta love improvisation.
Also went on a nice weekend getaway with Jeremy to Charlottesville last weekend. We stayed at this nice bed and breakfast right in downtown called 200 South Street Inn. It’s in a big old house and we were on the top floor so the ceiling was all sloped and slanted in various directions because it used to be the attic. Very unique and very fun since I hadn’t been to a bed and breakfast in a really long time. We walked to dinner both nights and even though we were only a block away from the pedestrian mall we didn’t go farther than a few hundred fee from the inn because there were two really good restaurants literally across the street, Bang! and Mono Loco, recommend both if you’re ever in the area. 
We also did some winery and brewery visiting while we were up there, Cardinal Point (visited Saturday afternoon, quite good), Horton (first one we visited Sunday, offers way too many wines, none of which were all that great), Barboursville (second visted on Sunday, fun tour, $4 tasting fee but you get to keep the glass, new favorite), and Prince Michel (last one we visited, heavy pours for the tastings, also good), and on the brewery side we visited Blue Mountain Brewery where we had lunch on Saturday and enjoyed a flight of their beers, my favorite was the one at the front of the picture, the Blue Mountain Lager. Before we visited Cardinal Point on Saturday we drove down the Blue Ridge Parkway and lucked out with some really pretty weather for driving, yielded some nice shots that I have up on my flickr page. 
We were a bit past peak on the leaves but I’d say probably half were still holding on to some great color.
And last but not least I started a new job at the beginning of November at Solertium Corporation in New Town. I’m working with a great group of people and get to work on lots of different projects where I can do both web design work and programming so I get to exercise both “sides” of my computer interests, plus I can walk to work now so that is an extra bonus.
So there you go, my life updated in approximately 500 words 😉
never grocery shop hungry
I know better than to go grocery shopping hungry, but today it couldn’t really be helped. I didn’t have any milk, therefore couldn’t have any coffee or have an english muffin with peanut butter (which has been my breakfast trend this week, and something topped with peanut butter and only orange juice to wash it down? no thanks) so a trip to the store was required. Decided to roll a bunch of errands into one trip and stopped by the Williamsburg farmer’s market where one of the Williamsburg Winery chefs was doing a demo and offering a “fall salad” and oyster stew. I was really excited about the stew but they didn’t have any prepared while I was there so never got to taste it, oh well, now I kind of want to make some though, my mom makes a really good version, lots of cream and butter, how can you go wrong? Stopped by Bloom to get coffee filters and dishwashing sponges (one thing Trader Joe’s lacks, home cleaning stuff, although I did notice today they had one variety of paper towels and toilet paper) then headed to my friendly neighborhood Trader Joe’s, initially just for milk and soymilk, or so I thought.
I ended up with 5 bottles of wine (all under $5 each!), frozen gnocchi, 2 bags of frozen vegetables, a bag of frozen chicken, torteliini, Trader Joe’s version of Cherrios, blood orange italian soda (excited to try this), soy milk, soy creamer (wanted to see if it was any good since it lasts longer in the fridge I may be able to avoid my no-milk-no-coffee issue), milk, a strawberry-rubarb pie (so excited for this! I was watching Pushing Daisies last night and was totally craving pie afterwards, and according to one of the Trader Joe’s employees the strawberry-rubarb is very hard to come by if you’re not there really early in the day, yay!), and a spinach and mushroom mini quiche which I just finished for brunch with my coffee and soy creamer (conclusion on the soy creamer, not as good as milk-based creamers, thinner and tangy-er). So thus the danger of shopping hungry, be warned! 😉
horray for fall tv!
So the past few weeks have been the time for season premieres for most of the networks, here’s everything I’m watching right now in no particular order:
- Project Runway (Bravo)
- Top Design (Bravo)
- Feasting on Waves (Food Network)
- Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
- Bones (Fox)
- Heroes (NBC)
- America’s Next Top Model (CW)
- Ugly Betty (ABC)
- Pushing Daisies (ABC)
- Desperate Housewives (ABC)
- Amazing Race (CBS)
- Survivor (CBS)
- Smallville (CW, just started watching this season after a few years hiatus)
And out of all those, only two conflicts where my DVR can’t tape three shows at a time 😉 Horray for online episodes!
So am I addicted to tv? yes just a bit, but when you fast forward through all of the commercials you get 20% of your time back, so that’s good time management or something right? thank goodness for the DVR 😉
Anything I’m not currently watching that I should be? Always happy to add another show to the queue.
talk like a pirate day, arrr!
Avast! For those not aware of fun random holidays, today is “International Talk Like A Pirate Day”. Here is a quick rundown of the basic phrases in case you need it courtesy of the International Talk Like A Pirate Day website:
Ahoy! – “Hello!”
Avast! – Stop and give attention. It can be used in a sense of surprise, “Whoa! Get a load of that!” which today makes it more of a “Check it out” or “No way!” or “Get off!”
Aye! – “Why yes, I agree most heartily with everything you just said or did.”
Aye aye! – “I’ll get right on that sir, as soon as my break is over.”
Arrr! – This one is often confused with arrrgh, which is of course the sound you make when you sit on a belaying pin. “Arrr!” can mean, variously, “yes,” “I agree,” “I’m happy,” “I’m enjoying this beer,” “My team is going to win it all,” “I saw that television show, it sucked!” and “That was a clever remark you or I just made.” And those are just a few of the myriad possibilities of Arrr!
There is also a handy video tutorial available 😉
Perhaps a bit of grog is in order tonight, yarrr!
fun stuff to come back to, not
So transitioning back to the “real world” post-vacation hasn’t been too bad in terms of workstuff, back to homeownership however is a different story. Although as we were driving back to Williamsburg I got a text message from Jim, who was watching the cats and the house while I was gone, to call him when I got near Williamsburg. I think “odd, but ok” and call him when I’m about 15 minutes away and he tells me that three things have gone wrong with the house while I was away, the light in the master bath won’t turn on (suspected a loose wire in the switch), the air conditioning on the 2nd and 3rd floors isn’t working (and it was crazy hot when we got back, ick), and to top it off the master bath toilet sprung a leak which caused water damage to the ceiling downstairs (he had to drill holes in the ceiling and drained about a gallon of water out), a lovely set of problems to come back to 😛
As of this morning the AC has been fixed (was low on coolant, according to the repairman it is a common problem in this neighborhood, the builders never fully charged the AC units to begin with) and the plumbing and electrical issues are tentatively scheduled to be fixed, with friends-as-contractors, this weekend, so hopefully things should all be in working order next week.
Paris – day 3
Today we visited the grand palace at Versailles about ten miles outside of Paris. I think it takes the prize as my favorite spot in France that we visited (with St. Chapelle coming in second). There were seemingly miles of sumptuously decorated rooms in the palace, then literally miles of exquisite gardens with perfectly manicured shrubs and flowers dotted with various sized fountains (which were on at various points today as it was a weekend, they were a beautiful sight). For lunch I had a cheese sandwich on a baguette and a butter-sugar crepe for dessert, yum! (and yay for getting in a few “typical” French menu items).
So lots of pictures were taken today (around 200), I was just blown away by the sheer magnitude of it all, just one of the gardens we saw was more varied than a botanical garden, and there were ten other gardens to see. Each had it’s own style, some very simple and small with an acre of shrubs and grass and a fountain, while others were many acres with dozens of different flowers planted in various patterns and groupings.
The palace closed at 1730 and so we headed out around 1700, but wanted to stick around town and have dinner, unfortunately in Europe that means waiting around until 1900, so we meandered about the area near the restaurant recommended by our guidebook Chez Lazare, and boy am I glad we waited around.
The food was great, classic French, cozy atmosphere, and not intimidating like the place we ate the night before. The place specialized in grilled foods and fish, they had an open charcoal grill just inside the dining room so you could watch everuthing being cooked. We split a half liter of white wine (light, fruity, but not too sweet, very good). Jeremy ordered a mini ravioli appetizer that came in a tasty butter-cheese sauce (very good for dipping chewy French bread into), then we both had grilled Atlantic salmon with buerre blanc sauce, yum! For a side I ended up having a baked potato (I saw “pommes” something on the menu and figured, I like potatoes, can’t go wrong with that), which was also really good, different than one in the states, it wasn’t a typical “baking” potato but a large white potato with what I assume is the French variation on sour cream, it was a bit thinner and had more of a citrus-y tang to it than American sour cream, but very tasty. And to finish things off jeremy had the creme brûlée (which was excellent) and I had “fromage blanc” with a berry coulis, which was really good, the cheese was very creamy, like thick yougurt, and similar in taste to plain yougurt, a little tangy and not too sweet, a very yummy end to the evening.
The train ride back had some good people watching, there was a cute two year old that was bouncing and jumping on the seat in front of us just giggling away and next to us two college kids were chatting, him in French and her in English, so that was fun to listen to the multi-lingual conversation.
Overall this has been a fantastic trip, got to see lots of stuff, have some tasty food, take lots of pictures, and have a really fun time in the process.
Tomorrow our flight leaves Charles de Gaulle around 1230 and we will say au revoir to Europe, until next time 😉
