May 2nd: What a Day!

Yesterday was a day I am going to remember for a very long time. We woke up at 4am to drive the car back to the airport in Louisville and fly home. As soon as we were ready to leave it began pouring rain outside and I had to put the wipers on manic speed. The flight was fine and I took pleasure in finding my way around the tiny Louisville airport. When we approached NYC I saw a huge cloud of smoke just over Manhattan. Did I ever see this before? Must be a huge fire. Took the airtrain to Penn Station - I went right to work and Erik went home to check on the kitties. He called as he was walking over the Pulaski to see if I could go online and see where this fire was because from his angle it looked like it could be our street. Thank god it was not, but it wasn't very far off.

Work was going well, although I was a little distracted by the possibilty of good news I'll mention later. Around four there was some other shocking news related to a coworker. I don't want to write anything about it because I have since learned that this can be very tricky.

As for my good news... At the end of the day I was offered a job that I had applied for. Yeah! I will be very sad to leave where I am now since I work with such great people who are also close friends, but I am so excited about this new opportunity.

The other great news of the day: Josephine finished her first year of graduate school and Erin had her senior show opening at Cooper.

Who knew May 2nd would be this memorable?

Louavul

Monday and we are still in KY. It has been a lot of fun although the weather has been mostly rainy. Saturday we went out with my fried Carrie to see her band play and then to a art opening/party at a local winery downtown. I ran into lots of friends I have not seen since high school and even middle school. Sometimes you think that people won't recognize you, but it is usually is not the case.

Yesterday we went down to Churchill Downs (where the Derby is held) and saw some horse races and visited their museum. It is amazing what a big deal the Derby is here. There are two weeks of festivities including: a marathon, a hot air balloon race, a bed race (complete with wheels and steering), fireworks show, and concerts. Our guide at the museum said "Hi, I'm going to be y'alls tour guide." Haven't heard y'alls in a while.

Today we had a heavenly Target experience. Since it was a weekday hardly anyone was there and we were free to look around at everything. I got a bathing suit and some sunblock and Erik got a cute grey suit. Target has suits now...amazing!

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?

Friday and 70º

Love Fridays. Today is a big moment. I will be wearing my first skirt of the seaon. Today is the day I will be asked if I am weaing tights because my legs are so white. I should ask the question to someone who's been to the tanning bed, only, "Are you wearing panty hose? Because your legs are so orange." I don't think that comment would go over well. The weekend ahead looks busy and fun-filled. Friday - Poker at Henry's, Sat - trip to see Josephine's open studios at Columbia, Sunday - Try on bridemaids dresses with Isabelle and her sisters. Hopefully between all of this we can watch some of these Netflix that we have had far too long. I thought I wanted to see Gone with the Wind, but I just keep ignoring it.

At home and my magazines

Home sick today. Ate what I thought was delicous Korean food last night, but not so sure about it today. Especially not when I woke up and felt so bad. Hope that I am not getting a cold or flu.

Erik's older sister Amke and her husband Niels are visiting this week with his parents. They bought the new Michelin restaurant guide for NY (had the Korean place listed). What an amzing guide. I like it so much more than Zagat. Zagat infuriates me with its "overuse of quotations" and "silly numbering system". It seems that Michelin only has really good restaurants listed and that's what I am usually going for when I take the time to browse through a guide.

It is strange to be at home on a weekday. The apartment is so quiet, the sounds outside are different, and I finally see how the cats spend their "work week". Basically the same as the weekend: lots of sleeping, looking cute and begging for food. Max and Meisje have such different personalities. Max loves to sleep on top of my pillow, while Meisje likes to crawl under the covers or hide right next to the heater on the floor. They have done really well with guests lately. No presents in the bathtub.

I was happy to see my New York Magazine had arrived in the mail this afternoon. The "Forever Youngish" article features photograph from the great Dutch team that put together the book Exactitides. Their website has all of the pages from the book. I love their simple layout and photography and the the variety of style/group collections they have found. I think it is such a wonderful record of fashion and culture today. NY Mag is the best. It is beautifully designed with the great articles and makes me feel more in touch with the city I live in.

Aside from NY Mag, I also subscribe to Everyday FOOOD (to pretend I can cook) , REAL SIMPLE (for my OCD side), EYE Magazine, Aperture, and also an 8 week free trial subscription to US (thank you Best Buy). My Budget Travel subscription should also be arriving soon. I am a magazine junkie. I love nothing more than taking a trip to B&N and grabbing a huge stack of magazines to devour (and then not buy) over coffee. I saw recently that Martha (you know which one) is coming out with a new magazine called "Blueprint". Looks like it will be a good one. Where will I find room for all of these magazines? I try and cut out my favorite articles and I have even made a binder with SELF magazine workouts, but even that takes up room.

I am posting some photos of our apartment. We did a major cleaninig and reorganizing recently and I am really happy with the result. Half of the furniture in our apartment is from IKEA and the other half is great street finds or hand-me-downs. The former tenants left us a desk, bookcase, and dresser for the inside and a table for the deck (not pictured, looks to wintery now). The two purchases we were most excited about are the IKEA Pax wardrobe and the 4 drawer filing cabinet from staples. I have no idea how we will ever be able to move these!

SF photos

Photos above:
Turtles at Golden Gate Park
Alcatraz
Erik and the Coit Tower Murals
Metro theater on Union Street
Jenny in an Alcatraz cell
Erik shopping at Timeless Treasures
Wharf Ferry Sign
Jenny and the Painted Ladies
J & E under heat sensor camera at the Exploratorium
J & E in funhouse mirror
"Escape from NY" Pizza

san francisco details

What a wonderful trip. Well the 6 days certainly flew by, but not without noticable leg pain from all of those hills. We saw almost everything in our guide books. Here's a breakdown of our day to day adventures:

THURSDAY 3/16: Leave NY at 9:00am. Took subway and airtain to JFK to feel like we were saving a bit of money before our big splurge. Flight was easy enough. American is no longer offering any kind of free snack or meal, only one beverage. What is the world coming to? Watched Netflix on laptop, first disc of Season 1 Entourage. Pretty good. Has to be, being HBO and all. SF looked beautiful from the air. Crazy coincidence.... Josephine was also flying from SFO on the 16th. She and Peter had spent the previous week in Santa Rosa painting and biking. We knew that we were all flying AA and that we arrived an hour or so before they left. So, I call when I arrive "We've landed. What gate are you flying out of?" "63" A minute later our plane parks at gate 63 and we deboard. We find Josephine and Peter shortly after and compare tickets. Turns out they are heading back to NY on the same plane and are going to be sitting in the two seats directly in front of ours! What are the chances?
We find baggage claim and, voila, our suitcase is almost first. Hopped into a shuttle van and we are off to the city. First impression, I cannot believe the hills and the houses built on them and the gorgeous bay water. We arrive at the York Hotel. Not a fancy chain, but has a lot of character and the room is spacious with a walk-in closet (live it up suitcase, this is the most space you'll ever have!). We are right back outside in a few minutes. Decided to walk to Fisherman's Wharf to pick up our City Passes for the next few days. Passes were there no problem and we walk to Boudin Bistro for lunch. Nice place, They have a sourdough bakery and shop on the first floor. After lunch we stumble into Musee Mechanique which is this awesome large tent filled with video and carnival games from the last 100 years that have all been restored to working order. We take our photos in a booth, face off in Skee Ball (I won) and slung quarters into mechanical gypsies that dispensed "Big" movie like cards. On to the Cannery for some ice cream, which is the refurbished del Monte factory that now has lots of shops, eateries and general tourist traps. Walked to the end of the cable car line and watched the workers manually rotate each car around. It began to rain hard by the time we got a seat on the Cable Car. After a few hills, it began to pour! People were actually coming out of their buildings to see how strong the rain was. Inside the crowded cable car with its dim bulb (now dark outside) and the rain coming down, I felt like I was in some WWII movie scene.

FRIDAY: Up early to enjoy the free "European" breakfast at the hotel (toast, coffee, juice and assorted mini carb things). Erik found it a bit insulting to call it European. The only difference I saw was that you could take this to go :)
We have an 11:15 ferry tour to Alcatraz. We take our time getting there and briefly see Union Square, Chinatown, and the City Lights Bookstore. Bookstores are my biggest vice. I find it impossible to pass one up and usually harder not to buy something. The weather has turned out to be amazing. Perfect actually. It's the kind of weather that is warm in the sun, crisp in the shade, with the prettiest clear blue sky. Couldn't ask for a better day to go to prison!
Alcatraz was great. Such mystery, such history. The audio tour was very well done. It was beautiful to see how the landscape had grown over the run down buildings. Took tons of photos, made a few drawings together and sat on a sunny bench for as long as we could.
Off the boat, walk to Ghiradelli Square and then to the Exploratorium. Not on my list of things I needed to see, but part of the city pass, so why not give it a try? They claim to be a science museum for all ages, but we were quickly bored and went out for some shopping on Union Street. I loved that SF did not have a Starbucks on every corner, but instead had a variety of coffee houses and cafes. How have they avoided this invasion? Another thing we really loved was that there were so many vintage metal signs with neon lights and vertical type. We came upon one such sign and it was a theater that happened to be showing only V for Vendetta. We had both wanted to see this movie, but assumed it might sell out. Not a problem here. We got right in. I found out later this was the largest single theater in town (seats over 500) and had been recently restored to all of its lovely art deco glory. I love these future movies that feel retro. What, no flying cars?

SATURDAY: Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market, where all of the locals go (yes, those who who need $20 lb organic beef and caviar) Rode historic street car (this one from Milan) to the water near Coit Tower. Climbed neighborhood steps that lead to the tower and beautiful houses on the cliff. Coit Tower was built shortly after the depression and had amazing murals on the ground floor. We were expecting more steps to the top, but thanfully there was an elevator. Lunch at Divine Cafe (yes, indeed) on Washington Square Park (minus the NYU kids of course). I was in full toursit mode and took out my guide book while waiting for our food.. We decide to make this our day to see the museums. Head to the SFMOMA. Great photography show marking the 100 year anniversiary of the big earthquake. Strange to see women in Victorian dresses surveying piles of rubble. Also a wonderful William Kentridge video/drawing. Which is it? Does it matter? Walk to Asian Art Museum. Outside there is a general protest "Stop War, End Racism, Insert Anti-Bush cause here". Great that they were able to protest, but wasn't moved by some of the speeches. One girl "We need to stop this war. And my tuition at UC Santa Something has gone uo every year and the cost of books is outrageous". Cost of Text Books vs. War.? Quickly browsed museum and then took bus over to Fillmore Street shopping district. We had seen a write-up for a little store called "Timeless Treasures" and wanted to check it out. It was wonderful. We bought all kinds of vintage sign letters and had a great chat with the shop owner. Thai for dinner (sligjtly different than NY thai) and home to soak our feet. Phew.

SUNDAY: Yet another perfect 65 degree day. Fantastic! Rode bus to Golden Gate park to see the recently opened de Yound Museum. Very cool building and nice mis of work. Rented bikes to check out more of the park . First stop was the Queen Wilhelmina Windmill and Tulip garden. Everything was in bloom. Erik was happy to see a little piece of Holland. Biked a little further to the ocean. Our first time in the Pacific! Didn't go in, but did touch the water. We attempted to ride bikes on the sand, but soon realized this was not possible. Returned bikes and walked over to the famous Haight-Asbury District. Hippies abound-old guard and new. Erik bought a hilarious t-shirt that sais "Booyah" in scrabble letters. He has been saying this phrase a lot lately and I thought it was great spelled in Scrabble pieces since I am pretty sure that is not a bonafide scrabble word.

MONDAY: Ahh, finally some crap weather. rain rain rain. Luckily, today we are taking a van tour to Sonoma County to taste some wine. We were originally scheduled for a "Wine and Woods" tour, but were called the day before to be told that driver was sick and that we had the option of a Wine only tour. We went for it, sympathetic of the driver. After the tour though I am pretty convinced that they were just consolidating the two groups and I am a little bummed we missed seeing Muir Woods. The tastings were quite an experience though. We learned how to swish, sniff, and get really red-cheeked and tipsy. We had lunch in "downtown" Sonoma and went to three wineries in all. The last place was super cheesy (Macoroni Grill makes wine) and the lady accidentally spilled a glass of red wine on me. Luckily, I I was wearing my trusty NY blacks. She wasn't very apologetic and made some lame excuse that she was looking at Erik's rain coat and got distracted. OK. When we got outside Erik pointed out that I had red wine splatters all over my face. So classy.

TUESDAY: Our last day. Skip the Euro Breakfast, pack up and walk to the Lotta Jansdotter store. I love her staionary, but was a little disappointed with her store. Decided to explore South of Market today, the Castro and Mission Delores neighborhoods. From our hotel we walked through some shady (not the sun I'm talking about) streets. At least three crazies at every intersection. It looks like they came here 20 years ago and never left, or changed clothes. We made it through and were happy to see that the trip south of market proved to be really nice. Stopped in another bookstore and overheard two employees talking about their friends who have an apartment in Brooklyn and how they might move there. They were stuck at one point on the name of the park between Williamsburg and Greenpoint. I was tempted to jump in and tell them that we were visiting from Greenpoint, but thought my eavesdropping might be a little awkward. Definately funny to hear about your neighborhood all the way across the country! On to China town for a quick peak into the Fortune Cookie factory. It was tiny, but very cool to see how they were made. I always thought as a kid (and until that day) that the furtunes were somehow stuffed in the cookies. Bought a bag of "adult" fortune cookies for friends at work. Thought they were be raunchier or funnier, but they had messages like "Woman must make use of what mother nature gives her before father time takes away". Yawn.
Had early dinner and drinks at Enrico's (recommended by Sara and Josephine) and then off to the airport. We took the night flight so that we could go into work the next day. Now I am up at 1:30 am jetlagged and happy to be telling all about the trip. We had a wonderful time and it was so great to take our first trip as a married couple together.