Off to KY

It is 5:30 am and we are awake to get to Newark this morning and head to Louisville. I am looking forward to visiting my Mom and to driving a car and seeing the old town.

This past week has been a little stressful so a break will be nice. Yesterday I went to see the film "The Bridges" at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was a documentary on all of the suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge (20 a year usually).This director filmed the bridge every day for an entire year and captured many of the suicides on tape. What a horrible thing to watch. The film was interesting though and did raise awareness and hopefully in the future they will add a barrier on the bridge.

The sun is not even up yet...why I am?

Happy 25th Kathy!

Last night Kathy (photo I found of her online above) and I celebrated her 25th birthday with a dinner at Friend of a Farmer. We took advantage of the nice weather by eating outside. Delicious steak, peach ice cream and some red wine that made both of our eyes a little smaller. Amazing to think we've already been friends since we were 18. Kathy was my dorm roommate freshman year and one of my first NYC friends. A funny coincidence was that Erik was having drinks with Joana and Michael at La Quinta on 32nd street. After a while they got hungry and decided to head down to Shake Shack. It happened to be closed when they got there, so he calls me around that time to say they are heading over to Pete's Tavern which was right across the street from where we were. Of all of the places to end up across the street from one another!

Tonight we finally made it to the Greenpoint eatery "The Queen's Hideaway". It is only a block from our house and we have been meaning to check it out after reading a review of it in New York many months ago. Great atmosphere, and a very cozy space.

Is it a bad thing that I am writing so much about restaurants?


Last Tuesday we went to see Three Penny Opera with friends from work. It was a really fun show. All of the singers sounded great and it was wonderful to see Alan Cumming. He even had his own "Cumming" perfume for sale there. Hate to think of what that smells like.

Sunday

Today we were invited to a family lunch with Isabelle and Nick at their Uncle Colm's and Aunt Robin's house. It was really nice to spend Easter with a family and such a nice one on top of that. It means a lot to us to feel welcomed when our families live so far away. We dyed eggs, ate ham, and enjoyed the beautiful spring weather.

Went home to finish the taxes. HandR block was not budging and their interface was annoying to use. When it calculated our state it said we owed an additional $750. Decided that would just not do and put all of our info into Turbo Tax instead. We ended up getting a refund! It's not huge, but I think we want to put it towards this couch we saw at Design Within Reach.

Photos:
1. Easter eatin'
2. DWR couch we are hoping to buy sometime in the near futuree

Saturday Continued

Yesterday we met up with Darla at the Moma to see the new architecture in Spain exhibit as well as the Edward Munch show. I highly recommmend both, especially the architecture show which was very interesting and well designed. Such a variety in the models–some used wood, others foam board, and one Christmas lights. An unexpected plus to the show was seeing Ed Norton walking around. He was very regular looking. Bought some great notecards at the gift shop by this "icon" artist
who created the classic watch, bomb, and smiling mac logos.

Met up with Josephine afterwards on the Upper West Side. She rode her pink Brompton bike down and Erik and I took turns test riding it. It biked great and has an ingenius folding system. I am on the lookout for a folding bike. We had a delicious Italian dinner and wonderful conversation. We ate outside which was a first for the year. We were hoping to go home after that and then head back in the city to meet up with Darla at the Hotel Gansevoort for a party. No surprise that as soon as we got home we realized we were too pooped to go back out and decided to stay in. What we did not expect was that the two cups of coffee we each had earlier would keep us up so late. I couldn't fall asleep until 4:30 am! I killed the time by looking at hundreds of apartments on Craigslist (pathetic since we aren't even moving).

Photos:
1. Plants on the Deck
2. Chris, our Christmas tree on the left
3. Max getting his first day of sun
4. Me and Josephine on the UWS
5. Josephine with her one of her new paintings (that I love!) in her studio

Beautiful Easter Weekend

Took the day off yesterday for Good Friday and did some things around the house and talked with family over the phone. I love walking around during a weekday. It is so much calmer than the weekend.

Last Wednesday I met up with Belle and her dressmaker Rae to look at fabric for Belle's wedding dress and also for the bridemaids dresses. We went to some shops on 40th street that had the most beautiful selections of laces, silks, ribbons. It will be hard to go back to shopping at the dingy fabric stores on Canal Street.

Last night I met up with Nicole and Kathy at the Comfort Diner to catch up and to discuss the possibilty of forming a freelance company togther. We all want to keep our day jobs for the time being, but want to see how working together might be.

This morning Erik and I planted herbs, geraniums, and some nasturtium seeds out on the deck. We also brought all of the plants from inside the apartment outside. I think my rosemary plant was especially excited. I believe it has already grown a few inches. Took some photos that I will post later today.

Pride and Prejudice

Just finished watching the DVD for this film. What a treat. Beautiful cinematography, classic love story, good ol' English accents, and, of course, the great dresses. Erik even admitted to enjoying too. Netflix took about a month to send this to me, so it was a highly anticipated viewing.

Dance fever

Saturday night we were invited to a delicious dinner at Nick and Isabelle's house. They are such great cooks. There were even two kinds of enchiladas. We enjoyed playing a balderdash type game with phrases/sayings. After that the music came on and Robin and Colm showed us all some dance steps - the two step, the waltz, and the swing. What fun! Erik and I have never taken a dance lesson and this was a great introduction. Now hopefully I can expand my choreographed dance moves beyond the electric slide.

Speaking of things from high school, three friends from my h.s. recently emailed me through myspace. It is funny to see pictures of them now "all grown up". That was already 7 years ago. I wonder who all will have kids at the ten year reunion? Scary.

No Mets

Yesterday we had tickets to the Mets vs. Marlins game thanks to David at work. It was raining like crazy when we woke up but decided around noon that we would try and make it there since the weatherman said it would clear up. Wow, was it freezing and wet outside! We arrived at our gate entrance, had our bags searched, and were just about to go through when the guy gets a message on his walkie-talkie "The GAME IS CANCELLED!!" Turned right back to the 7 train and headed home. I don't think we would have survived 3+ hours in that cold anyway. The rain date for the game is July 8th. Took a much needed nap at home and when we woke up the rain was gone.

Cat update: Bought the kitties a new cardboard scratcher with "Krazy" catnip. They had scratched the previous one to cardboard mush. It's hilarious that the catnip comes in a little plastic baggie.

Taxes...yikes

Erik and I are attempting to due our taxes ourselves to save some money. We were expecting an easy refund, but now after spending two hours online filling in these forms it says that we owe about $500! Are they right? Should we go back to the accountant to see if she can do better?