Merry Christmas Update

Thanks to all the blog fans who have encouraged me to keep it up. I'm sending up a quick holiday blog for you (ahem, Boyles family).

We arrived in Houston on Christmas Eve and had no delays with our flights. Hallelujah! We spent Eve and Day with the Graves side. Some of our favorite gifts were an A&M onesie & matching hat and socks for Bun. I received (drumroll please) maternity jeans from my parents. That may not sound special but after recycling 2 pairs of maternity pants for the past 6 weeks that were dressier (for work) I was about to have a bonfire and torch them both if I didn't get some casual pants to add to the rotation. My new jeans are stretchy and make my legs feel skinny and when you're preggie anything that makes any part of your body feel skinny is a nugget of gold in a world of blubber. Kyle got some clothes and a gift card to Home Depot for that house we're supposed to find....

Speaking of houses we then spent 2 solid days looking at houses with the realtor. I even had dreams of houses and prices and floor plans, Oh My!...that's how consuming it was. But our realtor is so fabulous (Debbie recommended her) and we love her to pieces so she's made the process quite bearable. Nothing to report yet but I feel like we're making progress.

Kyle went to San Antonio to visit Army Scott for a few days and also got to see the Longhorn side of the family who were in S.A. to attend the Alamo Bowl.

We will spend New Year's Day at Christina's to celebrate Christmas with the Bethancourt side so I'm sure there'll be more to report after the New Year.

We hope you all had a joyful and blessed Christmas with you're families!
Love & Hugs from Kyle, Lori, & Bun

Done!

It's over! Today was my last day of work. My last commute to and from New York. The end of this chapter. Hallelujah!

I started off the day quite tired. But almost first thing when I arrived our admin called me into a meeting to discuss Comcast. However, to my surprise, when I arrived in the conference room there was a breakfast spread of muffins and fruit and little gift on the table. It was a very sweet gesture from everyone from our team who had gathered to wish me farewell. The gift was a cute gender-nuetral little onesie and a very generous $100 gift certificate to Baby Gap. How thoughtful! I really was surprised and very grateful. Then at lunch time we all went out to a fun restaurant downtown. It was a pretty slow day with the holiday break and all. So I said my goodbyes around 5:30 and I was outta there. I'll miss the great people and I was told to come back if I got too bored (seems everyone has decided I'm going to be bored to death)....We'll see....

Ok, my favortite show is on so I'm signing off. If you ever get a chance to see Man vs. Wild on the Discovery channel it is the best survival show ever! You know, in case I'm ever stranded in a rainforest or in the French Alps or in the Alaskan country I am going to need to know how to survive. Completely fascinating.

The Home Stretch - 4 Days and Counting

After a long week of studying (for Kyle) it was nice to get out of the apartment on Saturday night (even if it was just a few steps down the hall). We had dinner with our French friends a few doors down. They're always up to something that is interesting to talk about. For dinner we had these gigantic enormous shrimp---maybe they were prawns? But whatever they were they were delish.

Since I'm still on my part time schedule I decided today would be my day off this week. It proved beneficial because I finished my Christmas shopping. I'm also in the home stretch with work. This Friday is my last day! I will be in New York 3 times this week (which is a lot for me). Historically, commuting 3 times in 1 week has led to tears but since this will be the last commute to New York ever I think I can push through. There is a big deadline I'm trying to help out with before I take off.

While I was out today I went to Reading Terminal Market to stock up on more fruits and veggies. It's great going there during the week because on the weekend it's so crowded that you can barely walk without running into people. I picked up lots of oranges and apples. I really love oranges these days. I hope Bun doesn't come out with an orange tint. I'm definitely looking forward to having time to go to the Market more. Everything there is so fresh and cheap too! I had an orange-pineapple (could you guess the orange part) juice drink from the juice bar and it was so yummy. And what great weather to go outside too. I heard it got up to the 70s and it's December in Pennsylvania?! I even took off my sweater as I headed back from the Market.

What We've Been Up To

Well it's been a while since I last blogged. We've been doing a lot lately to get ready for Christmas and prepare to come to Texas for a few weeks. I'm really excited to be back for a while.

In other big news, my last day of work is Dec. 22. I'm taking a break from work for a bit so I can prepare for the baby and for the move back to Texas. If I ever hated the commute from Philly to New York it certainly hasn't been getting any better/easier with the pregnancy. I'm really looking forward to some time off!

We went to the doctor last Thursday and heard Bun's heartbeat again! How precious :) I got to schedule the big ultrasound where they measure the baby and tell you if it's a boy or girl. To my dismay, I had to schedule it for January 10 :( I wanted to find out before Christmas so we could tell everyone but they wouldn't take me before Dec. 24. Phooey! I am feeling much better these days except for feeling a bit "chunky"---not too big, yet not quite my usual size. Somewhere in the unfamiliar middle.

Embarassing Moment of the Week: Kyle and I were Christmas shopping in Target this weekend and while Kyle was checking out video games I wandered into the children's book section. I found a little read-along book and while reading it burst out crying in the middle of Target. I think Kyle was trying to run away from me as I came blubbering towards him with red eyes and this little book clutched in my hand. "Attention Target Shoppers: Pregnant lady melt-down on aisle 5!" A bit embarrassing but it was a very sweet book so obviously, since it made me cry, I had to buy it on the spot.

And that's all for today!

The Holiday Begins!

After many long months of study (and a few still more to come), a grueling summer internship, an early fall interview bonanza, & lots of prayer Kyle has finally decided to accept his offer with DE Shaw in Houston. We are really, really, REALLY excited this is settled and we know what we'll be doing come graduation. So congratulations, Kyle! And to all our friends and family in Texas...we'll be back soon (with a new Bethancourt addition for you to meet)! We should find out sometime before Christmas if we're having a boy or a girl. I'll make sure to post that info here for all the inquiring minds.....

On Sunday Bun and I put up our little Christmas tree and trimmed it with care. (By the way, Bun is the baby--as in "Bun in the Oven"--we had to come up with a name to refer to the baby instead of "IT". I credit this naming style to our friends Steve & Rachel who named their 2 children pre-birth, Dot & Milli. Makes sense to me). The tree and 2 stockings are our only Christmas decorations so "decorating for Christmas" is a fun yet very short-lived affair. I even delayed putting on the tree skirt & buying some candy cane decorations until Monday so it was actually a 2 day affair this year.

Last night I came home weary from New York and was delighted to have the tree lit while watching a Charlie Brown Christmas. Nothing says holiday like Charlie Brown! Speaking of the holiday spirit, my favorite holiday hangout is Williams Sonoma. This is a weekly (if not bi-weekly) outing for me. It's about a 5 minute walk to WS and it's so inviting that I can't resist....I go in and sip on hot cider and eat all the goodies they have out for me to taste. It's like going to visit an old friend....except my friends don't have 50 varieties of knives & cookware hanging on the wall for display? I pretend to look at the same ol' stuff everytime I go in but really I'm just there to eat and drink and feel warm & fuzzy holiday feelings for free.

Happy (late) Thanksgiving!

Hi all! We missed being around family this Thanksgiving but having the web cam sure made the distance seem less. It was great to be able to call people up...that is...until our Comcast internet went kaput yesterday. With our slooooow internet connection you'd think we were The Slowskys or something? Not having Internet is quite annoying but even more annoying is the cable company telling you that you are chained to your home until the cable man arrives "sometime between 9 AM and 1 PM". Translation: "Sometime between 9 AM and whenever we feel like it". We finally get a guy at our door around 2-ish wearing gold rimmed sunglasses (yes, sunglasses indoors??) explaining to us that our connection issue was a problem in the main apartment building box and would be fixed this afternoon. So there was no need to wait around all day....great. I love cable repairmen.

Despite the cable hiccup we're enjoying the long weekend and I hope you are too! I think it's time to start making pumpkin bread and setting up our mini Christmas tree...my favorite part of the Thanksgiving weekend!

I Smell A Rat!

So I saw it today....I was walking to the store during lunch to grab
some chips to go with my sandwich. I looked down the block and there
was a giant 40 foot tall gray inflatable rat outside an office
building. This sight was very unusual to me although I'd heard of this
practice. Whenever a building is doing renovations and does not use
union labor the unies protest by sitting this big ugly rat in front of
the building so all the world will know that they aren't using union
labor...THAT'LL TEACH 'EM! It was pretty funny because I can't imagine
grown-ups doing something like this?? But apparently they do...

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera or camera phone to capture the
rat on film because it kinda looks like a rat that is in the
rigor mortis phase of death with it's hands and feet stretched out
rigidly....very scary but an interesting lunch time find. So if you see
the giant rat when you're in New York, it's not preparation for the
Thanksgiving Day Parade...it's the union protesting the wrongs of
society.

Hello? Anybody Home?

I know! I know! Where have we been? It seems we are quickly becoming "those people" that only blog once a month or something? What's happened to us? Well, hopefully you'll forgive us but the reason the blogs have been delayed is that we have exciting news and now that we've told everyone we can finally put it on the blog and stop being Mr. & Mrs. Shady.

Kyle and I are expecting a baby in May! Yes, May! If you can think of any other life changing events besides finals & graduation, having a baby, moving across the country and starting a new job, by all means let us know and we'll try to add that to our May calendar. We're trying to jam-pack May with as many stressful events as possible ;) With all kidding aside, it will be a fun time for us and we are very excited. I am 14 weeks along and at last Thursday's doctor appointment we heard the baby's heartbeat! I felt joyful, scared, excited, and awestruck all at the same time. Kyle was there too so we both got to experience it.

And when I was at the doctor they FORCED me to get a flu shot and now I am sick and on top of that when we went to Houston this weekend my allergies flared up so I am just feeling wuuunderful. Good night...I'm headed to bed

Return to Longwood!

I know you're not sick of Longwood pictures yet so here are some pictures from our trip out there this weekend with Kara. She graciously offered to drive us and we all went together after church. Unfortunately the flowers had been dug up in the big flower beds outside so there wasn't much to see unless it was in the conservatory. But there's always something new going on so it was still fun!


Click here for the pictures

Wall Street Leprechauns

Today I was determined to eat a good lunch, more specifically: a good down-home burrito. I tracked down a Chipotle and walked 30 minutes round trip for the occasion but it was worth every chilly step. Mmmmmmm. Yumm-erific. Not as good as Freebirds but SO much better than nasty burrito from last week. My taste buds have avenged the sensory offense dealt upon them. Victory!

I also saw some semi-famous people. Those people you see on CNBC wearing green jackets that scream and point and stomp their feet and throw little papers in the air. I believe they're traders on the NewYork Stock Exchange. Although I work across the street from the Stock Exchange I've never seen these mysterious green-jacketed men until today. It was like seeing the tooth fairy or some fictitious character that you weren't sure existed....I looked at them in awe. And I am here to tell you the green-jacketed men do exist. And they shall henceforth be known to me as: The Wall Street Leprechauns.

Kyle Update: My dear hubby had a succesful round of meetings/interviews with several companies in Houston. We're really excited about the possibilities and know that the Lord will lead us to the right spot! How exciting

Fall Foliage Is Breathing Down My Neck!

It seems that Fall Foliage is nipping at my heels! The report shows that peak leaf color is NOW! There is no time to waste! The Poconos are in the northeast corner of PA. Which means the Pocono trip could be foiled for good! I am determined to see color this weekend so if we're not in the Poconos we'll be heading west to see something....anything colorful!

Our trip to Houston was great! Saw family, saw friends....ate some good food. It was a successful trip.

On a more sobering note: I received the grave news that I didn't pass the arch. exam I took last Thursday. I'm really bummed about that. I wasn't even expecting to find out this early so I was shocked when I saw the results posted on the Internet already. So I'm keeping up my rhythm of pass, fail, pass, fail...which means the next test I'm due to pass!

How in the world....

....do you mess up a black bean, rice & chesse burrito?
Let me tell you how:
#1 Drown the burrito contents in 4 heaping tablespoons of cheap salsa
#2 Use mealy, mushy white flavorless rice
#3 Use completely too much onion proportional to the size of the burrito
#4 Wrap the burrito loosely so it feels like a trash receptacle for left over food that didn't make it to the garbage

My experience at lunch was less than happy. I really wanted to take the burrito downstairs and give it to the person who made it and ask if she would ever eat something that looked like what she gave me.

I set out for my SECOND lunch of the day and ended up at Quiznos where I grudgingly overpaid for my sandwich but after the bad burrito I was so happy to have something that looked edible I didn't really care. Freebirds, where are you when I need you?!

Kyle and I met up with his parents for dinner in New York on Tuesday night. We had a nice time visiting with the fam. Debbie recounted her harrowing tale of being hand-cuffed and patted down on Canal Street for buying fake merchandise and participating in general criminal mischeif. OK, not really. She and some friends just witnessed a police raid on the stores down there. But still....very COPS-ish and exciting.

Of course no visit to New York would be complete without a celebrity sighting by yours truly. At first I thought the man sitting in the table across from us was a newscaster or someone who....would be.....on the....news?? I couldn't put my finger on it and then after Kyle said he looked like a politician it hit me like a "potatoe"....that's Dan Quayle....our beloved, spelling-challenged former VP. Imagine that.

Strike Two!

So it’s been a while since my last blog. I suppose I’ve been distracted. I was in New York 3 days this week. We had a big deadline Friday so I’m glad that’s over. I’m also studying for my next test which was supposed to be yesterday (Saturday) but I postponed it until Thursday. I’m glad I did because there was NO time to study this week.

Kyle had another backpack/food incident this week. He was at an evening test and reached for the calculator in his backpack and pulled out a ziplock bag with a scary orange liquid. It appears the carrots he had stashed for his trip to Houston had liquefied within the week. As you can imagine, the discovery was quite distracting happening in the middle of his important test. Hmmmm…..I’m not sure what’s going on but maybe this is a strange attention-getting illness? Moldy food discoveries at school? Strike two.

We had some friends over to watch the Aggie game last night. Fun times were had and most importantly, we won the game!

Longing For Longwood

Well it's over. I took my next architecture test today and I think I did well enough to pass even though I was crunched for time which forced me to hastily answer some calculation questions. I had hoped to double check them....so let's hope those don't do me in! Tomorrow I'll begin studying for the next test which is next Saturday. Same time. Same place.

As I took the bus to my test this afternoon I realized what a hermit I've become. It seems every weekend I'm crammed up in the apartment studying. I'm missing out on all our neighborhood activity! Unfortunately my tests & Kyle's studying have put a damper on our outings....especially to Longwood. We are dying to get back there soon and see the water lillies which are only out for a few weeks in the fall.

The Pokey Nose

It's October....finally.

Kyle was in Houston Tuesday through Wednesday to visit the local office of the company he worked for this summer. I was jealous because I really wanted to be in Houston too but I'll just have to wait until Oct 20th. Kyle has fall break and we will be headed to Houston that weekend so Kyle can interview with some companies he is interested in. It's very exciting to wonder where we will be after graduation....

Kyle and I are planning a much anticipated trip to the Poconos to see the leaves turn at the end of October. I'm so excited about this because we missed the leaves turning last year. The Pocono countryside should be a prime location for viewing good color. The Poconos are to Pennsylvania as the Sierra Nevadas are to Californians and the Blue Ridge Mountains are to the North & South Carolinians. The Poconos are our "mountains". So hopefully this trip will materialize and we'll have fun pictures to share.

Birthday Wishes

I've been meaning to post a big Happy Birthday to Christina and Debbie whose birthdays were this past week. Hope you both had super birthday celebrations!!

Kyle and I don't have much to report so you'll have to wait until next week for some new stories....

Does That Hotel Come in A 10-Pack?

So Saturday was my first day to relax since the past 2 weeks and last weekend all mushed together like one extra-long torturous 12-day week, what with my seminar last weekend and all. To celebrate my day of liberation we ventured out to Costco, seeing that we were in desperate need of bulk items like 48-count granola bars, 18-count yogurt cups, and our personal fave....36 rolls of quilted T.P. (toilet paper). Gotta love Costco. We also ate at the Cheesecake Factory at the mall....mmmm....Tex-Mex Eggrolls....

It has become tradition for us to invite Kara over for dinner, listen to the Aggie game on the internet, and play dominoes and cards. So we did that Saturday evening.

In the ongoing saga of my company trying to find a decently priced hotel room for me to stay in, a recent development was the travel department suggesting the following "hotel" (and I use the term "hotel" quite loosely)

www.hotelchelsea.com

Now I don't know what your hotel standards are but this place looks like it may be part of some shady goings on. Just the tag line on the front page:
"A rest stop for rare individuals" (what does that even mean??)
I can't decide if it looks like a haunted house, a prostitution hub or a druggie commune....or maybe a 3 fer 1 combo.....but after I spent about .0005 seconds on the website I fired back an email simply saying "Is this a joke?" Because, honestly, that's what this place looks like...a big joke. Why would you stay anywhere where there aren't pictures of the rooms??

So for now it's back to commuting. If only I could buy New York hotel rooms in bulk from Costco.....

Philly Trauma and Box-Toting Drama

Yesterday downtown Philadelphia was rocked by three transformer explosions underneath the building I work in. Dee emailed to ask what was going on in Philadelphia and I was confused because I was working in New York yesterday. She sent me this news link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5369016.stm

Apparently my building shook and everyone fled the building and it filled with some smoke. No one was seriously hurt but it was a little freaky as you can imagine. So today I'm back in Philly and everything/everyone is fine but I'm glad I wasn't here for the drama.

So as I was leaving the office yesterday I was asked to bring a box back with me to Philadelphia. Let me explain that this is no ordinary box. It measures about 4 feet long by 3 feet high and 8 inches wide, made out of foam board material. (It houses a model of one of the floors on our project but it was empty so it was very light)

I quickly learned my box was going to be cumbersome to carry onto the subway. At rush hour. When the trains are backed up and there are hordes of people trying to get on. So I waited patiently for the second train to show up lest I start a riot on the platform trying to shove in my big box AND my big booty. I looked really cool carrying my box and once I got to Penn Station I realized how many other people had suitcases with them. I thought to myself how funny it would be if people thought this giant foam board box was my suitcase....like maybe I couldn't afford a suitcase so I made one out of foam board. Carrying it by the little double handle made out of tape. HA! So, of course, my funny thoughts made me laugh and I'm sure there was more than one person stepping out of the path of "the girl with the big white box laughing for no apparent reason". Needless to say, my box and I made it to Philly just fine and I got a good chuckle out of it all.

Living for the Moment (of inertia)

WOW. Have I been a busy bee. I'm taking a review seminar in preparation for 2 of my architecture exams: Structures & Lateral Forces. Yes, I can feel your jealously through the screen....delicious topics, I know. The seminar is Fri, Sat, & Sun 8 AM-7 PM. YIKES!

And the class is near Trenton, NJ so I get to drive my smokin' hot rented PT Cruiser 45 minutes each way to get there. Yeah, that's me toodling down I-95 in a purple-escent PT Cruiser. Or shall I say: my truncated hearse. No offense against those who may own that car but, come on, I feel like I'm hauling midget dead people between Pennsylvania and New Jersey and that's all I have to say about that.

The seminar is really informative and I feel I'm getting a lot out of it. It's affectionately known as "Structures Bootcamp" which I think is a deserved name since I've spent a cumulative of 24 of the past 36 hours calculating axial and perpendicular loads on beams and trusses....I mean, when was the last time you ever heard the term "moment of inertia"? Hopefully never but if you have it's probably been over a decade and you forgot the term anyway.

I'm almost into my 3rd decade of life....why am I dealing with this stuff? If I need to know what the moment force is about a cantilever beam I will dial my trusty structural engineer to get the answer and be done with it.....but let me step off my soap box.

We're watching the Aggie game but I'm going to have to turn in because tomorrow is the last day of Structures Bootcamp and I must get some sleep. I'll let Kyle finish off the game.

Business Trips and Webcam Fever

So this week marks a year of me doing this Philadelphia-New York work thing. I must say it's been exciting to get to be in New York so often and what a blessing it was for me to continue working during the summer while Kyle had his internship. I can't believe it's been a full year already!

I was in New York Monday through Wednesday this week. My 3 day "business trip" started off with a bang since they evacuated Penn Station due to a tunnel fire or something so my train was held up in Newark for about 10 minutes. When we started up again we coasted into New York at a break neck speed of about 5 mph.

Going thru any tunnel is painful enough for me because I get calustrophobic---but especailly the tunnel from NJ to NY gets my head spinning with thoughts of the weight & water of the HUDSON RIVER ABOVE & AROUND ME!! And did I mention Monday was Sept. 11? So a tunnel ride that is normally 2 minutes took about 10 minutes. For a brief moment, I thought I might turn into "that lady" that hits her claustrophobic limit and rampages down the train-car aisle, wild eyed and spitting hysterical nonsense, needing to be subdued by passengers and crew. Thankfully "that lady" didn't surface due to my fervent prayers keeping my fears at bay. I was on the verge, though.....

While we were in California Debbie bought herself and all the kids webcams as an early Christmas present. Now we can all video-call eachother---this is especially useful in talking with (and seeing) the recently transplanted Bethancourts in Indonesia. This morning we talked with Justin, Erin and Debbie in Jakarta via our trusty webcam. Now we can chit-chat with them from the other side of the globe through our computer. Technology is amazing.

The Pictures Are Up!!

Click HERE for the California pictures......

Moldy Mystery Meat Makes Man Muse

Breaking news brought to you from the front lines at The Wharton School of Business.

I received this email from Kyle today and was literally laughing out loud upon reading it:

"Class was a lot better this morning.
When I got to the computer lab I reached into my backpack to get out a
granola bar and there was what appeared to be a chicken breast in a zip
lock bag in the back pocket. I did not see it there yesterday, and I
can't imagine why it was in there or how old it was, but it was nasty.
Covered in mold and some sort of marinade. I threw it out, but I am
really confused how it got there. Was this another one of your dirty
tricks."

Just for the record let me state NO this was not another one of my "dirty tricks" (I'm highly offended). I don't play dirty tricks and I certainly wouldn't put an uncooked chicken breast in my husband's backpack? Kyle reported the chicken breast looked like it had been there since before we left for New York. And the backpack was just sitting in our Philly apartment all summer. Weird. Another case for Unsolved Mysteries.

Swimmin' With The Sharks

Hi all! Just a quick blog to say this was my first day back in New York....this time at the Wall Street office location. I'm a "Wall Street Shark" as Kyle puts it. I didn't have too much trouble finding the place despite the spaghetti-like layout of the streets in the Financial District (where is the trusty grid system when you need it!) Also, one of my co-workers introduced me to the good lunch spots today and we happened upon a Japanese restaurant that sells my beloved CALIFORNIA ROLLS! And they're $1.50 cheaper than the little market by our old apartment. SCORE!

Today was Kyle's first day of school and he was happy to get all the classes he wanted.

Well, it was quite exhausting hearing that alarm go off at 5:30 AM. Haven't done that since May and my peepers are slowly falling shut....Good night!

The Vacation's Over

Ahhh...we're back. Back in Philadelphia where the rain has come out to welcome us home. Sunny California is now just a fading memory....

We had a great time in California. I'll post the pictures soon so you can see them. After Carmel Kyle and I snuck away for one night to Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa--the most relaxing environment. Everywhere you look people are strolling around in their robe and slippers. Not a care in the world. I spent 2 straight days parked by the pool and I'm not ashamed of that fact. The second day I got an Herbal Body Wrap that was so hot I thought I was going to pass out! I'll have to remember that wraps are not for this girl! I am a person, not an enchilada. I'm sure I sweat a gallon of water out.

By the time we got back to Alamo, Justin & Erin & The Boys were there. We got to hang with the triplets and Jack who are avid golf fans, we have discovered. They can spend hours entertaining themselves with the practice putting green. We also took them rock climbing on Mt. Diablo. They were so excited to be climbing the BIG rocks. Justin & Erin sure have their hands full with 3 three year olds and a 1 year old. We said good bye to them since they will be going to Jakarta in about 5 days from now. You can check out their new blog about their adventures moving to and living in Indonesia at www.JavaFor6.blogspot.com (cute name, huh?)

The fun part was having everyone together at Kyle's parents house even if it was for a little bit. Phillip & Cami and Christina & Chad showed up on Friday night. We got to visit with them for a few short hours since we left early Saturday for a wedding in Denver.

...And Kyle starts school tomorrow and I started work today....tomorrow I'll be in New York....and it all starts over again. 9 months to go!

Still in Carmel...

This morning Kyle, John, & some friends played golf at "Clint's Place". That would be Clint Eastwood's spectacular golf course/compound named Tehama, about 15 minutes from Carmel. While the guys were out Debbie and I went on a long walk to visit some art galleries and home furnishing stores this morning before stopping off for the morning service at Carmel Presbyterian Church.
Debbie and I met up with the guys at Tehama for lunch and toured the clubhouse which was featured in last year's Architectural Digest magazine so I was excited to get to see it up close. We ate on the patio and had this gorgeous view of the course....

The picture doesn't do it justice. If I were a serious golfing gal I would try to be here as much as possible. The weather....the views....just perfect!

Kyle, Debbie, & I spent the afternoon looking at open houses in Carmel which was a lot of fun. There are so many new houses and remodels, it was interesting to see how different each home was fixed up. And, once again, there's no way I could pick a favorite because they are all so cute!

I think tomorrow evening we'll be heading back to Alamo....it's going to be hard to tear me away from beautiful Carmel but I suppose the vacation has to end at some point....

Greetings from Carmel, CA!

We arrived in Carmel on Wednesday and immediately went to play on the beach. This is our picture with Pebble Beach golf course in the background. We saw some sea otters and sea lions poking their heads up while we were playing on the rocks there.

The next morning Kyle played some golf at Cypress Point golf course. Check out his swing and the amazing cypress trees in the distance.....

That evening we made a fire on the beach, roasted marshmallows, and made s'mores. That was one of the most relaxing things EVER! I could do that every night of my life and be happy :)

Today we visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium and saw this adorable little sea otter sleeping in the water. Ah, the life! I had to share this picture because he was sooooo cute!

This afternoon Debbie, Glenda, & I walked around the little shops here in Carmel. There are so many art galleries and antique shops and clothing stores. It is just the cutest little town and everywhere I turn one house is cuter than the next! It drives me crazy....but in a good way!

More to come.....

Technology: A Love/Hate Story

So Wednesday night we moved from New York back to Philly. I never want to move again!!

Our arrival marked the beginning of a 2-day technology meltdown. We arrived home to find the trusty wireless connection we'd been leeching off all last year had forsaken us. The people who had the wireless must've moved because our apartment is now a dry zone. So we signed up for our own wireless Internet and upgraded cable through Comcast "We're Taking Over the Universe" Cable.
Sidenote: Is it just me or is Comcast soon going to form a sovereign nation and become the next superpower in the world because they are EVERYWHERE lately.

Then, part 2 of the technology meltdown happened when I came to work on Thursday to find my computer (which had been FedEx'd from my IT people in NY) had arrived without THE POWER CORD!!! I love our IT department. Brilliant. The power cord is kinda important here. So I had no computer access which was a nightmare! Today my power cord arrived and I am back online.

We leave this afternoon for a 2 week vacation to Houston and then on to California so the blogging may be sporadic. I can't wait to get outta here!

Things'll Be Great When You're DOWN TOWN...

Our studio (the team of about 15 of us headed by a Principal) is getting ready to move down to the Wall Street office....goodbye Rockefeller Center....goodbye Today Show Concert Series.....goodbye crowded midtown & 5th avenue....we're headed downtown! The move officially happens on Friday but I will be moving back to Philadelphia on Wednesday so these are my last few days to work in Rock Center.

Speaking of moving, I started packing last night for our move back to ol' PA. This morning as I rat raced myself to work I dreamed of how nice it will be to get back to the slower pace of Philly. I can enjoy the nice fall weather as I commute the few short blocks to work. No subway to deal with, no masses of humanity in my face. And.....our spacious, SPACIOUS apartment is waiting for us!!! That's one downfall of NY. We can't spend much time in The Rectangle together. We're like cooped-up experimental mice and the extreme close quarters ignites our volitile behavior. And the little mice get angry!! The solution: The little mice try to go outside as much as possible. To celebrate our final weekend we went to see our last Broadway show, Spamalot. It's based on Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail. Some of that British humor was a little weird but overall it was a good show and we laughed.

We went to brunch with some friends on Saturday and afterwards stopped by the renown & exalted Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker Street where they sell to-die-for cupcakes and there's a legendary line out the door at all hours of the day. Dinner was at Del Posto owned by Mario Batali, one of the Iron Chef's on the Food Network. (Apparently Kyle has become a "foodie" and insists on visiting all the Iron Chef restaurants)

Sunday we met up with some other friends for lunch at this place called The Burger Joint. The Joint is a very secretive place. The only way you know it's there is a little burger-shaped neon sign tucked in a corner of the Le Parker Meridien hotel lobby. You go behind the curtain and you're in an old, graffiti-ed burger joint....in the middle of this fancy hotel? Weird but the burgers were delish!

Nobu.....WAHOO!

Having a hard time keeping my head from slamming the keyboard. Last night was late. Came home near 1AM....

This is how the evening went down: We had plans to meet Kyle's co-worker & his girlfriend for dinnerat Nobu 57 at 9 PM. We arrived and I enjoyed getting to meet this guy that Kyle had spent most of his summer with and his girlfriend was really nice too. Since Kyle and I are newbies on the sushi scene we let John order everything for our table. If we were ever going to try sushi Nobu is the place to do it. Just so you understand---John and Kyle are on opposite ends of the adventurous eating spectrum. John was fresh off vacation from Korea describing to us his adventures in eating a live, squirmy octopus and throws into the mix that sea urchin is also one of his favorite dishes. Kyle, on the other hand, well---you know Kyle.

John did a super job on selections. Hold on to your seats---we tried edamame and spicy peppers, raw oysters, some yellowtail sashimi, lightly seared tuna for appetizers along with our first bottle of sake. For the main course we sampled rock shrimp tempura, soft shell crab tempura, some toro (raw fatty tuna), live scallops, barbequed eel, spicy tuna rolls, and some black cod with miso that was so amazing we ordered a second round....and washed that all down with a second bottle of sake that--again John ordered and--was the absolute best sake the restaurant had in stock. Kyle and I looked it up when we got home and it was (no kidding) $400 for that second bottle of sake. We didn't know that at the time but we knew it was expensive so, needless to say, we kept drinking it so as not to waste one single drop. Talk about being light headed...

We finished off the meal with 4 different desserts! I'm feeling full just writing about it. We enjoyed most everything but the texture of the oysters was hard to get used to but we both tried it at least. Bet you didn't know Kyle was a sushi man??

We each discreetly caught a glimpse of the final bill (we later conferred in the cab) and surmised that our freewheeling sushi experimentation exercise topped out at over $800 (that's before tip, folks). Now that's a New York story if I've ever heard one. As exciting as the evening was I'm sure it will never be duplicated so we enjoyed the moment while it lasted.

So tonight Kyle is out again. This time it's just the boys and they are going out to Craft Steak which is definitely more up Kyle's alley. I'll let you know how that one turns out. Should be another good meal since the big boss will be at this one.

A Reunion A Decade In The Making

I knew it was bound to happen. This whole summer I knew I would have to see actor Tim Robbins (of Shawshank Redemption fame) at some point. Earlier this summer I spotted Susan Sarandon and I knew that Tim Robbins (her "life partner/common-law husband/whatever they are") couldn't be far behind because they live on our street. And yesterday morning was the moment...as I walked out of my apartment heading to work there was a gigantically tall Tim Robbins walking down MY street toward me wearing gym shorts and a Mank Top (that's a man tank top). He was with his son headed in the direction of his brownstone home. The movies I've seen him in he's either really nice or really scary but he looked fairly regular and non-menacing yesterday.

The highlight of the day was meeting up with a friend of mine from high school that I hadn't seen in a full decade! Aimee lives in New York and had found out I was in New York also from a mutual friend at our 10 year reunion. So Irene passed along Aimee's email and we got together for our own little reunion session at the Chat N Chew restaurant here in the city. It was great to catch up with her and know what's going on in her life. Plus she gave me all the juicy scoop on the reunion! I hope we can continue to meet up when I come back to the city for work. There's just something comforting about seeing someone that you've known since you were 8 years old in a big city like this and being able to reconnect!

Free As A Bird...Or Is It Weird As A Bird??

I’ve noticed a certain thing about people here. They are so free….free to be themselves….free to do whatever….free as the wind blows….free as the grass grows…here are two stories from today’s Free People File.

So the subway’s always a breeding ground for people behaving freely/weirdly and today was no exception. I was sitting across from a young woman who appeared perfectly normal until I noticed she was talking to herself….no big deal…. I’ve grown used to plenty of people talking to the air. She was really serious about the conversation, though, and then I noticed the script book she was holding. I brilliantly deducted it was an actress (I’m guessing a newbie) practicing for an audition. You should’ve seen this emphatic, dramatic, imaginary conversation going down, eyebrows and lips moving around angrily. I was perfectly intrigued although I could hear no words. It was like something sick that you don’t really want to watch but are compelled because you never see stuff like that. Adding to the funniness (is that a word?) was the giant burly man squished and overflowing in the seat next to her. He was practically sitting on top of her but seemed either scared or intrigued by the whole script. I couldn’t tell because his expression looked like both. I really wonder what that script was about but I had to get off at my stop and go to work.

I’ve noticed that iPods have really freed people also. As soon as people have those earphones in the ears it’s like personal karaoke time and the world is my stage. I have seen/heard more people singing along with their iPods as if their voice somehow magically dissolves away when the special white earphones go in. This evening I was walking home from work and a dude a few steps in front of me was just singing his little heart out, jamming to his tunes. I can relate though because sometimes I want to sing along with my iPod too so sometimes I walk around and just lip synch and people probably think I’m weird but that’s OK because I’m freeeeee too!

Have I Got A Book For Ya!

Below is a blog entry about Kyle & I's weekend but I thought this next piece of info deserved it's own blog title.

I am so proud to announce my dear Mom has published her first official, real live book! This accomplishment is so exciting to me. The book has been coming together for many years as a result of her experience in family counseling and with loads of prayer shaping it into the final format. The book is available at major online bookstores like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, & Borders. (Can you believe it?)

The name of the book is
Letters From Your Father God by Maya Graves
so check it out!

Here is the link to the book at Amazon.com

YAY, MOM! XOXO

Time is Ticking Away in Ol' New York

This is our second to last weekend in New York! Can you believe it? We'll be packing up soon and heading back to our little sanctuary in Philadelphia. I'm kinda looking forward to being home again even though I will miss NY a lot. I will just have to come back to visit.....

Friday night we were cruisin' the Meat Packing District and saw filming taking place of the TV show Law & Order. It seemed exciting at first with all the lights and equipment and cameras occupying an entire block radius BUT when we realized we were watching the film crew sitting around eating catered food we decided it wasn't that exciting. 3 hours to shoot 2 scenes.....talk about a snail's pace......

Yesterday we took the Staten Island Ferry and here is my

Top Five List of Reasons to Take the Staten Island Ferry

#5: Feeling the wind through your hair

#4: Feeling claustrophobic alongside all the fellow hot and sweaty passengers

#3: Great views of Manhattan & the Statue of Liberty

#2: The peg-leg pigeon (he was missing all toes on one leg) standing at the helm of the ferry as we crossed the water. The “ferry commander”, if you will. We affectionately labeled him “Pirate Pigeon”. Arghhh!

And the #1 reason to take the Staten Island Ferry…..It's FREE!!!

Here is a shot of Kyle pondering what it was like to be an immigrant coming to America. (that's the statue just south of his nose). Here's a better shot of Lady Liberty......

Here is a picture of the skyline.....

One Year Philly-versary

This is a quick post to mention that today marks our 1 year anniversary of moving to Philly. With only 2 duffel bags and an air mattress we checked into a hotel before grabbing our apartment the next day and Kyle starting class the day after that. It's been an exciting year and it has flown by so fast. Only about 9 months left until this school thing is finished! I can't believe it :)

And for those that are concerned that we are roasting like turkeys on Thanksgiving, we are surviving the heat but just barely....thankfully a cool front came in tonight....

I'll blog more tomorrow....

Walkin' Da Bridge

This weekend marked Kyle's first weekend without the ol' ball and chain Blackberry. What a relief....

We had dinner with Sean & Sarah on Friday night. It was really nice to see them. They were in town for a wedding in upstate New York.

Saturday evening we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.


Lucky for us we picked the day the bridge was overrun with crazies attending the coo-koo parade (thankfully they didn't ruin our picture). It seems that red and yellow stripes make up the international flag of Crazy Land and the town square was the Brooklyn Bridge. Kyle asked several people what was going on.....it seems the self proclaimed "freaks and deviants" were assembling for an evening-long wandering party with a discreet undisclosed destination. They invited us to join them to this undisclosed destination.....we politely declined the invitation. Despite the odd-ness of the situation, it was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed the exercise.

Sunday we tried out a new church called Mosaic Manhattan. We enjoyed the teaching but we'll probably be back to our usual church, The Journey, next Sunday. Mostly we tried to stay indoors while the sun was out because it's almost unbearable to walk around in that heat.....

And The Job Is Complete...

Today is a banner day! It was Kyle's last real day of work! Can I get an amen? Tomorrow he is out playing golf with the team so it doesn't count as a work day....
(You can't see us but Kyle and I are dancing an End-of-the-Summer jig)
We survived! Albeit, with a few extra pounds...no, scratch that....We survived despite dry cleaners that have relentlessly conspired to shrink our clothes?!
Those dry cleaners....

Anyways, I'm hoping the next few weeks go by fast. Vacation is dangling in front of me like a carrot on a stick. My spirit has the bags packed and plane tickets in hand but my body is firmly planted in Manhattan.

Speaking of carrots on a stick.....Kyle received his official offer today for a job after graduation and it was an enticing one. It's always nice to have your work recognized and appreciated however I think it must really take a family commitment to do something like this long term so we'll hold onto the offer and see what happens....

Tomorrow our friends Sean & Sarah will be in town and we're going to have dinner with them. I'm hoping to take them out on the ferry ride we did with Kara. That was the coolest thing ever but I didn't have my camera with me?!

Later gators - tomorrow is Friday!!

Celebrity Radar -- Back In Business!

Kyle came home pretty early tonight. We decided to head out and explore Greenwich and maybe find something to eat at a corner restaurant. As we left the apartment I declared it was about time I saw a celebrity. My celeb antennae have been receiving static lately and no one has popped on the radar. Little did I know my wish might come true tonight….

We landed at a decent Italian restaurant in Greenwich and shared a tortellini dish. Nothing special but we got to sit outside and people watch. Afterwards we walked quite a bit and ended up in the Meat Packing district. We started down 14th street which is lined with many upscale stores and we came across a photo shoot. When we got closer I spotted “Noted Fashion Photographer Nigel Barker” !!! (henceforth to be referred to as NFPNB).


If you don’t watch Tyra Bank’s show “America’s Next Top Model” then you probably have never heard of NFPNB. (I use his extended name because for some reason he is always introduced with the full blah blah blah in front of his name??)

He is a former model, a judge on Tyra’s show and he always photographs one of the photo shoots with the final Model contestants. Kyle and I are big fans of the show and Kyle didn’t believe it was him until he finally heard him speak with his British accent. Then Kyle was intrigued. And then he stated NFPNB looked fatter in person (quite the critic, eh??) --I'd have to disagree with that.

Anyways, we stood there for about 10 minutes watching the gangly toothpick model (who, ironically, I did not recognize at all) pout and look bored and glare evil-y into the camera while NFPNB snapped, snapped away. Click! Click! Tyra would be proud. Model-girl looked “fierce”. (Looking “fierce” is the mantra of the show).

So I got my celebrity spotting wish after all....YEE haw!

It's My Party....

.....And I'll Smile If I Want To!!!

Today was a pretty good birthday considering it was a work day and a Monday at that. My co-workers discovered the secret I was trying to keep quiet when my parents lobbed a secret flower-bouquet bomb to my office. My cover as incognito birthday girl was blown instantly.

My parents wanted to see what the flowers look like so I'm posting the picture for their benefit. Thanks, Mom & Dad! They are very pretty and they smell divine. Love, luuuuv the calla lillies.

My hubby just came home from his day in Houston. The company flew him there for meetings today and thankfully he was able to catch an early flight home. Only 4 more days of work left for Kyle. Hallelujah! This crazy schedule is coming to an end, our vacation to California is within reach and all is fine and dandy in the Land of Bethancourt....

Four Seasons & Other Weekend News

I was sitting on the couch when Kyle came home last night. He was on the phone and all I heard was: “That’s great news…you just made my day!”…..with only one week of work left, Kyle’s boss verbally extended him an offer for work after graduation. Details on the offer will come next week. So all those late nights/early mornings was well worth the major effort Kyle put into it. Congrats, Kyle!

Last night we went to see the movie “The Devil Wears Prada”. I’ve been looking forward to seeing the movie since reading the book. The book (and the film too) was set in New York and it was fun to recognize the background scenery in the movie as places around my office. The building where the lead character works is an actual building one block away from my office. Whenever I commute in from Philly I pass by that building. In fact, the friendly bagel men I buy breakfast from have a food truck set-up in front of that building.

Tonight we celebrated my birthday a few days early. We went to a restaurant called Four Seasons (www.fourseasonsrestaurant.com).

Warning: Architectural nerdy details...this restaurant is in the famous Seagram building designed by Mies van der Rohe and the interior of the restaurant was designed by Philip Johnson (architect of the Bank of America, Pennzoil Place, & Transco Tower buildings in Houston).

Four Seasons Recap

This place is such a classically elegant restaurant and thanks to Kyle’s 10 week in advance reservation we were escorted to one of the best tables in the house.….right next to the white marble bubbling pool in the center of the restaurant. The rock star table! The pool looked like a Jacuzzi hot tub…very inviting. But since I knew the paparrazi were just waiting for me to embarass myself so they could get their tabloid pictures I restrained myself from diving in.

Kyle observed that a lot of the people in the restaurant looked like they didn’t have a pulse….meaning, once again we targeted a restaurant with a clientele median age of 95 and one foot in the grave but nonetheless the food and ambience was EXCELLENT. I wasted some calories on a foie gras appetizer thinking I would enjoy it but, frankly, it left much to be desired. Note to self: foie gras ain't all it's cracked up to be.

The people behind us ordered something that looked like ground up hamburger meat and the waiter was mixing it up and seasoning it and adding a bunch of sauces and spice junk to the meat. Kyle and I kept thinking he was going to light up a fire and cook up the meat tableside. NO. Those brave souls ate the meat RAW! Steak tartare. RAW as a cow grazing in the pasture! It was frightening. We couldn't believe our little eyes. Would you eat a hamburger patty before it hit the fire? No thanks.

This is a big special occasion restaurant so a lot of people got what I got at the end of our meal….a giant humongous ball of pink cotton candy with a teeny weeny birthday candle on top. The ball of fluff was bigger than my head. I've never been intimidated by a sugar puff but this did it.

Overall we had a really great time. I'm thinking today will be one of my best birthday memories for a long time!

Holy Toes! Kyle's Home Early

Speaking of dressing disasters....I met Kyle for dinner last night and
noticed his socks just didn't go with his outfit. He claimed he knew
what he was doing but I have a sneaking suspicion that the weird
lighting in our apartment was the culprit.....Strike Three! in the
dressing department. Kyle and I will have to be eachother's mirrors
from now on.

So yesterday was a great day. It turns out Kyle was able to leave work
after we ate. Rare is the occasion when he is free at the early hour of
7 PM so I was happy to have him come home instead of leaving him to
finish his work. We had a fun, relaxing sunset dinner by the Hudson
River....I almost forgot how much fun Kyle and I have when we're
together. He cracks me up!! We headed home to watch Project Runway
(which has become one of my favorite TV shows).

On the way home I stopped in this store across from our apartment called Sabon (www.sabonnyc.com). I am obsessed, OBSESSED with their products. You can smell the store about a 1/2 block away. They sell soap, body scrubs, lotions...girly things galore...the ingredients in the products are all from the Dead Sea. When you enter the store the sales people make you wash your hands with the scrubing salts and BOY is that the best sales technique ever! I could've bought the whole store but I settled for a body scrub so I could give myself home pedicures. Straight from the Holy Land to my little toes! Feet get gnarly in this city and a girl's gotta do something about it!

Dressing Disasters & Retailercising

So I had a couple of dressing disasters in the last few days. I’ll attribute this to the fact that there is not nearly enough light or full length mirrors in our rectangle of a living space. As a result, I have no real way of knowing to what degree of clown-y-ness I appear as I head out into the world each day. From makeup to apparel...it’s a real toss of the dice here.

Monday morning I was looking forward to wearing these new pants I bought the week before. I put on my pants in the morning and head to work only to realize (3 hours later?!?!?) that, in fact, I had not donned my super cute new pants. No. I had hastily put on the old tight nasty pants I was avoiding. The pants that are on the verge of eviction (the hit list, if you will) from my closet. Then today I visited the restroom at work (a habit that has become part of my morning routine in an attempt to avert these types of disasters) and noticed a sticker declaring the size of my shirt was still stuck on it. This whole ordeal triggered a flashback of when I was 7 years old. I was at school. I went to put something in my pockets when I noticed my little red elastic waistband pants were on backwards. How embarrassing. So apparently dressing disasters are nothing new to me...but it’s been a while...

Today I started my new exercise routine...I call it retailercising (a combo of retail window shopping and exercising). I got off the subway one stop before my regular stop which put me 10 short blocks & 2 long blocks away from the apartment. I walked down 5th Ave and since it’s blazing hot I would go into the stores to get air-conditioned then leave for the next store until I slowly made my way down to the apartment. It was nice and I didn’t buy a thing. It was purely about exercise. Maybe I’ll try a different street tomorrow?

Kyle is out at a bonding event...a cooking class with his fellow NYC Wharton interns. He should be home soon...maybe around 10 PM? That's early by our standards! :)

Kara is IN, Kyle is OUT

What a weekend! It was really great to see Kara this weekend. It was the perfect weekend for her to come because Kyle worked the most he's worked on any weekend since we've been here. Friday night he didn't come home until 5AM Saturday morning. Yes, that was very nearly a full 24 hours he was at work....

After brunch on Saturday, Kyle headed back to work and Kara and I saw a Broadway show, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which was SO funny. We really enjoyed it. I laughed and laughed till the tears were streaming! In the afternoon we joined Kyle near his office and went on a ferry ride that took us out into the Hudson River and we had an AWESOME view of the skyline. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so I don't have pictures to post but the view was beautiful....you'll just have to trust me. It may be one of the best things we've done so far. We had dinner with Kyle then left him to finish his work while we went home.

Sunday Kyle joined us for church and then went back to work....surprise! Kara and I entertained ourselves at the Museum of Natural History which neither of us had visited before. Kyle wrapped up his weekend when he rolled in this morning at 3 AM.

All in all it was a fun weekend. I just wish Kyle could have enjoyed a few more things with us or at least just had some time to breathe for one moment. Only one more weekend left in this gig and I think we'll all be happy when it's over!

A New Blog on the Block

Happy Bastille Day, Everyone!

You probably had the same reaction I did upon this declaration in our morning meeting. What? Are we in France? That's like someone in China saying "Happy July 4th!" Doesn't carry quite the same excitement.....
But it is Bastille Day so enjoy some French fries or French toast or French roast coffee in celebration!! Oui, oui!

Kara's coming to visit this weekend!! I'm excited to have a friend in town. Tomorrow she and I are going to see "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" on Broadway. Jonathan Pryce is in the show. He plays Keira Knightley's father in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies so I'm excited to see a movie star on stage.

Kyle and I haven't done much at all to speak of. Our lives are super duper boring these days so I'll redirect your attention to Cami's blog. Phillip and Cami just moved to Lou-a-vull, Kentucky and Cami has a great blog going about their adventures in thievery and questionable "blue" cinema....

www.bethancourt.blogspot.com

M' Harz on Far!!!

You may have heard of the Upper East Side building explosion/fire yesterday....well, I almost started my own Chelsea area fire this morning. I was using my combo brush/hair dryer when I noticed smoke in the mirror. At first I thought my hair was on fire but then realized the cord on the hair dryer was bubbling and melting off. Definitely something wrong....so I turned the machine off and was left with ratty hair. At least I didn't electrocute myself.

Back to the weekend recap: I had Kyle to myself all weekend. It was nice that he didn't have to work either Saturday or Sunday. An amazing thing to note, indeed. On Sunday we went to the MOMA. Kyle gets free tickets at several major NY museums with his corporate ID badge so that's a nice perk. We also saw the lastest Pirates of the Caribbean movie which was not as good as the first one but it was still worth seeing. I would recommend it.

I am sure enjoying getting off work at a decent time these days. I didn't know what to do with myself when I left at 5:30 yesterday. The day seemed too short?! But I'm not complaining. This weekend I'm looking forward to Kara coming into town and possibly our Philly pastor's wife will join us on Saturday. It should be a fun weekend!

Shopping at Barney's & Seeing 'Pirates'

So Kyle FINALLY had a Saturday where he didn't have to either work from home or at the office. It was nice having him around. We went to the Guggenheim Museum and then we walked along Madison Ave. and went into some ritzy stores including Baccarat, Hermes, & Barneys. We were up on one of the Barneys floors and Kyle spotted one of the Olsen twins from the 90s sitcom Full House. Not sure which twin it was? She was browsing the Jil Sander section. We were two of about 6 people on the floor with her and I noticed a big burly guy by the elevators with an ear wire behind his ear who was watching her closely which must have been her bodygaurd. As we left the store we saw a paparazzo hanging out by the entrance ready to pounce her, I'm sure, when she left. There must've been several famous people in Barney's b/c there were about 5 black Escalades lined up outside. So that was a pretty exciting celebrity sighting for the day.

I better sign off for today. Kyle and I are off to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at the movies tonight. I'm SO excited. I'm a big fan of the first movie so this one better not disappoint!

A DAY OFF!

What a relaxing day! My team at work had the day off since we had already worked a 60 hour week by yesterday evening. I slept until 11 AM this morning and enjoyed every second of it! I did a bunch of laundry then walked around for about 4 hours. Somehow I always end up in Soho when I go out but it was a really pleasant day today so I was just happy to be out walking. I did make one purchase....only one. I bought myself some diamond stud earrings to wear for this evening's dinner at Del Frisco's Steakhouse. Yes, fancy $8 CZ earrings but we can keep that between you and me.

So when I got home a little after 6 PM Kyle was home and told me he saw a news crew filming in the subway station by our house. Apparently ANOTHER person (besdies the chain saw wielding maniac from yesterday) slashed a guy's face in the subway about a half hour earlier. EEEKS! What is going on here?! So I felt safer taking a cab to dinner (which was excellent by the way). It was about time Kyle got some steak in him. We ended up going to Morimoto on July 4th when Scott was here instead of going tomorrow as originally planned. I'm glad we did too because Scott likes sushi so he and I pretty much ate most of the food but Kyle did try a little bit of everything so I was proud of him.

But back to tonight....we took a pedi-cab home from Del Frisco's since the subway wasn't an option for me at this point. I was always a little leery of pedi-cabs (they're the bikes with covered seats in the back). They don't have any sheilding between you and the street and the people who bike the pedi-cabs go in between the cars and it's a little freaky. But I must say it was really pleasant riding home in one, we went through Times Square and had a lot of cabs honking at us which made me laugh and laugh but overall it was great fun!

Sweatshop Saturdays & Restroom Follies

Well it's been an exciting weekend...sort of? Scott came into town Saturday morning. Unfortunately Kyle and I had to work both days this weekend so Scott has been along for the ride. I spent both days working in a sweatshop....literally. The building doesn't have AC on the weekends so I really thought I was going to die a slow, heated death. Even having the windows up didn't help. Next time I'm bringing a fan.

One of the first things I did Saturday morning was go to Duane Reade, our local drug store. As I was getting a price adjustment on my Vitamin C an employee from the back of the store paged the manager in a panic. Next thing I see is the manager chasing a guy out of the store with the clerk yelling that he had something stuffed down his pants. As I stand there dumbfounded watching this COPS moment unfold, the clerk who was helping me barely batted an eye and just rolled her eyes and declared that it was "way too early in the morning for an emergency like this". OK?!

So I have been given permission to share this next story involving my dear husband:
After dinner on Saturday night, Scott, Kyle, & I walked past Morimoto (the famed sushi place we have reservations for this weekend). Kyle wanted to go inside the restaurant to take a look. As we step inside Kyle declares he's heard they have heated toilet seats so he wants to visit the restroom. Sure, it's Saturday night, what else do we have planned but to quality test restrooms in the Meatpacking District?? The three of us head to the restroom. I was intrigued by the toilet I encountered. I think it was the most complicated toilet ever. As I sat on the toilet I was pleased, indeed, with the heated seats. There was a little machine on the wall with lots (and I mean LOTS) of buttons. Thankfully I pressed the right button for flush and I was outta there. So as Scott and I are waiting for Kyle to emerge, he comes out a little frustrated. Kyle apparently got a little crazy with the buttons, pressing every one to see what happened. Little did he know that one button activated the bidet function which sent Kyle leaping off the seat with cat-like agility only to soak his pants and shirt in the process. I think I quit breathing for about 5 seconds I was laughing so hard.

I have scored reservations to Iron Chef Morimoto's restaurant. Sitting at the coveted Sushi Bar, no less. It is supposed to be one of the hottest sushi place in NYC (maybe tied with Nobu). The word on the New York streets is that one must call exactly one month to the day at 9AM for reservations to get in. I think it was easier to get reservations since it was the weekend after July 4th. We're told a lot of people go to the Hamptons during summer weekends so NY is less crowded with locals these days. Good for us! We'll see what the hype is about and report back. Neither Kyle and I are terribly big sushi fans but why not start now? Especially if you're eating the best & freshest sushi in town...

I have recently developed an addiction to California Rolls which I think is not technically sushi since there are no raw fish components?? I absolutely luuuuv CRs. I eat them for dinner almost every night. The market on the corner makes them fresh daily and my mouth starts watering for them. It's fast, easy, healthy, no mess, no fuss and no prep required. EXACTLY what I need when I get home late these days.

Not much else going on. I'm going to Philly on Thursday for work. I can't wait to see our apartment. It seems that our Philly home is so large compared to our little rectangle in New York! Kyle is working hard....only 4.5 more weeks for him. His friend, Scott, is coming into town this weekend for the 4th of July holiday so I know Kyle is looking forward to seeing him and taking a break from work hopefully!

Well hello there! It's been a while!

We are alive. It's been a crazy week as usual. Unfortunately I got sick this week and had to miss work on Friday. It was really a bummer I was sick this weekend because my dear childhood friend, Veronica, was in NYC this weekend. Now here's a good believe-it-or-not story for you: Veronica told me she was coming up to New York with her boyfriend to visit boyfriend's sister for her(the sister's) birthday. To make a short story short, it all comes together that Veronica's boyfriend and his sister went to high school with Kyle and his older brother and everyone knows everyone so what a teeny weeny world this is, huh?!

We all got together last night and then went to a Yankees game today so we had a good time despite the rainy forecast this weekend. Tomorrow is a work day and we have a big deadline coming up on Friday so I may not have much to say this week but I just wanted to check in. Kyle is up at work as I write this. He is doing such a good job and I'm proud of his commitment to do his best even though the hours are quite demanding.

Here's Kyle and I at Yankee Stadium

and Veronica and I in da Bronx after da Yankee's game

Weekend In a Nutella-shell

I've been delinquent! I have been working late nights lately. Not as late as Kyle but late for me. 7 or 8 PM-ish. Call us Mr & Mrs Serious during the week but come Friday Mr & Mrs Funtimes come out of weekly hibernation.

On Friday night, we went to this restaurant called Buddakan in the Meatpacking District. It was a very hip scene. Super cool interior. Lots of beautiful people. Naturally, Kyle and I felt right at home ;) Actually, our waitress told us there were a bunch of models there that night...I guess that explains the beautiful people....

Saturday I took part 2 of my ARE test. I think it went OK? Hard to tell. After that Kyle and I went to the discount theater ticket booth in Times Square and got last minute tickets to see The Producers. It was a pretty good show. However, Wicked and The Drowsy Chaperone still rank at the top for me. Also Kyle's cousin, Jim, and Wendy were married on Saturday so we were thinking about them and wishing we could be in Houston. Congratulations to them!

Sunday we went to church and Kyle had to go into work. I should've gone into work too but I locked myself out of the apartment while running up and down between the apartment and laundromat. So that turned into a mini-fiasco and I got fed up with trying to make it to work so I went shopping in Soho instead. I know, tough choice: work or shopping....but after all my studying I deserved a little break, right?

Last night I left work around 7PM yesterday evening to go meet Kyle for dinner. I noticed a police officer riding the subway with all his gear on which is weird b/c they normally don't ride on the subway. I thought something was up because he appeared to be vigilant, not just hanging out for the ride. So this morning I freaked out reading this news article. A crazie went on a subway stabbing spree yesterday. One of the stabbings was at the Rock Center platform which is the one I take to get home! Yowsers! Yeah, not feeling very safe so I took a cab home tonight. Hmmm....come to think of it, one also puts their life in mild danger riding in a NY cab. I suppose you're not too safe anywhere. Anyhow, I just saw on the news that they caught the stabbing spree guy so tomorrow I will be riding the subway again.

Correction: I will excitedly be riding the subway tomorrow to receive my June bonus which is the best and most delicious bonus of them all. It's the one based on performance and profits and this year we're told, with an abundance of graphs and charts, was the most profitable in the firm's entire 40-odd year history so I'm expecting good things. My company is having the Bonus Day party tomorrow evening at The Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. Good times. The theme is "Rock Star" so we're supposed to dress like rock stars.....only my company would come up with this cheese....not sure about seeing the veeps all dressed up like Billy Idol but if my company can do anything it's throw a rockin' party!

A Message from God....(literally)

So I haven't had much blog-worthy info these days. It's been a pretty hectic week with work and studying and after a few downer rainy days I just was feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.

So I trudged onto the subway tonight after work (possibly a teeny-weeny bit mopey) sat down on the plastic seat and when I looked up there was a girl sitting straight across from me wearing a black t-shirt with bold white lettering that read "Too Blessed to be Stressed". Hello, Lori?! This message is for you! That t-shirt put an instant smile on my face and was plastered there the whole way home. I hope the girl didn't think I was all nutso smiling at her goofily but whatever...it's the subway and people are goofy (and nutso) on the subway. Funny how the Lord puts things in our path right when we need them. I am too blessed to be stressed so "get over it!" I said to myself. Things could be much worse. And that was the end of my mopey-ness.

So that got me thinking...wouldn't it be so crazy if you went through life and every once in a while you'd spot people wearing black t-shirts with white-letter messages written specifically for you? Like this morning when I was going to work it would have been helpful if I would have passed someone wearing a t-shirt that read "You left your cell phone at home". That would have been useful but admittedly not quite as encouraging as the subway T-shirt.

I hope you are blessed today!

Le Cirque, Le Rectangle, & Le Nutella

It's been a long couple of days....

We escaped The Rectangle and had a great dinner at Le Cirque on Saturday night. Kyle was able to secure reservations for the grand opening weekend. He was really excited because it's supposed to be one of the fanciest restaurants in New York. The original Le Cirque closed 2 years ago and re-opened last week in the new Bloomberg Building on theUpper East Side. The chef was Martha Stewart's personal chef while she was under house arrest (what a thing to have on your resume? I guess??)

We spent a leisurely 2 1/2 hours (yes, when you live in a rectangle you will prolong any time spent outside the rectangle) dining under a chic fabric-draped circus-inspired tent top (if that makes any sense??). One reason Kyle wanted to get reservations is that the restaurant reportedly is the most expensive restaurant interior design construction cost at $15 million. After seeing the place I figured most of the $$ was in the exotic wood paneling and Baccarat chandeliers because the place was quite tiny.

So now it's back to work. Kyle is on a project that is keeping him busy and up at the office late. I miss my Wall Street hubby. No fun when he gets home at bedtime and then leaves again early. My new evening best friends are my ARE study guide and Nutella. I think I'm gonna cut Nutella out of the picture soon because who wants to be best friends with anything that makes your hips bigger? Not moi....

Good news: I met Kyle for dinner down in the financial district. It was nice to see him for a little while, even if it was just dinner. We sat outside by the harbor and watched the sun go down and the dinner ships sail by. It was actually quite pleasant except for the fact that Kyle didn't come back home with me!

For your enjoyment I jotted a sketch of The Rectangle where I live....(this is the most accurate representation since Kyle is usually at work)

It's cuddle time with my study guide.....and.....where's that Nutella???

Rainy Days Are Laundry Days

Today is a very rainy day in New York. I decided to do laundry for the first time here which meant going to the Laundromat. Thankfully the Laundromat is basically in the same building so I didn't have to go far but it was a pain lugging all my stuff down there and keep checking on it periodically. And it was $4 (in quarters) per load. YIKES! why? but whatever....it's imperative that we have clean bed sheets and undies, right?

Oh, our friends Brian & Tammy had their baby yesterday.....CONGRATULATIONS!!! They named their little bundle of joy Kendall. It's a beautiful name just kind of ironic....that makes 2 different friends of ours who had their babies in the span of 2 weeks and named their babies Kendall. Any other of our preggie friends, if you're reading this and have yet to come up with a name, how about we suggest Kendall? That way we don't have to commit too many new names to memory. Streamlining the process is good. Because it IS ALL about us?!

That's all folks. Kyle just got in right now. It's a little after 11 PM. So I'm going to say goodbye to you and hello to him.

Memorial Day

So I woke up Memorial Day with the romanticized idea of jogging to the Chelsea Piers since it's a few blocks from our apartment. I would jog with the wind in my hair along the Hudson river and enjoy the park by the water. I would jog and jog for miles because that's what joggers do. However there is one teeny weeny fact---I am not a jogger. As soon as I started my jog I realized I made a bad decision. Running is painful. Running is NOT fun. Why did I even think it would be a good idea to pound the pavement, jarring my bones. On top of that, why did I think it was a good idea to do this at 10:30-11:30 in the morning when the heat of the sun on the first really hot day is blazing fiercely? What was I thinking? Kinda like the lady with the shopping cart in BBB but not as embarassing. (If you don't know this story scroll down to the post from a few days ago)

Anyways, despite the morning trauma yesterday evening was delightful. We went to a restaurant called Vento in the Meatpacking District with our friends James & Adelene. We stayed at their place the first few nights we were in NY. The restaurant is situated on a triangular island in the middle of an intersection (kind of like Times Square has the part where you can stand in the middle of the street) and we were seated at a prime people-watching location right at the tip of the triangle. We didn't notice anybody famous but my celebrity antennaes were down because I was trying to be polite and visit with our company.

I'm off to Philadelphia this afternoon for a meeting but I'll be back this evening. Toodle-loo....

Celebs in the Meatpacking District

This morning started out on the very wrong foot. Kyle turned on the shower and there was no hot water. We periodically kept trying out the shower over a period of about 45 minutes with no luck. Finally, we decided to ferry in microwaved water bowl by bowl so that we could shower. What a nightmare. I was so annoyed.

We tried out a new church called The Journey which was really great. I enjoyed it a lot. Lots of young people and a very hip praise band. Although a bit loud but we tried to sit far from the speakers. Since we're nearing our 30s we need to protect the hearing.

This afternoon we walked around Battery Park and watched all the sail boats running around in the harbor. It seemed everyone was enjoying the holiday weekend. There is a nice long meandering tree-lined path we walked on to enjoy the harbor views.

After dinner Kyle and I went to explore the fashionable Meatpacking District.....where everyone is way, WAY too cool for their britches and every type of fancy car imaginable is lined along the cobblestone streets. We stopped at a bakery to grab a dessert and then strolled up 9th Ave taking in the scene and people watching (the celebrity attenaes are always up for me) when all of the sudden I spotted Julianne Moore, her husband, and their little black dog eating at an outside table at Jean Georges' restaurant, Spice Market.


I tugged on Kyle's arm that I spotted her and he seemed to be confused and stopped and stared and wanted to about-face and walk right past the table again but I maintained that in order to not look soooo painfully obvious we had to continue down the street at least a few blocks more and then turn around. After all, I AM a professional celebrity stalker?! Hello....celebrity stalking ettiquette?! She has way more freckles than you see in the movies and was wearing zero makeup but it was definitely her. Kyle was more amused with a fancy Ferrari that was sitting outside the restaurant....go figure.... to each his own....

Two celebrities in two days. I'm on a roll!!

Our First Saturday in The City

Ahhhh, home at last....I feel like I've been walking all day. hmmm...probably because I have been! I realized today that I could not live in NY without baby wipes and Yankee Candle air fresheners. The air fresheners are working REALLY well. It smelled beautiful in our place today. Also, I love the baby wipes because I come home and wipe down my little feet from all the dirt and grime of the streets and slip on my pink fuzzy house slippers....good smells and fuzzy slippers....this must be heaven......small pleasures but that's all I got here.

So this morning I walked down my new street to the hair dresser to get my hair cut. I was walking on the sidewalk and I noticed a woman taking her dog for a pee. I was trying to avoid the pee and as I got closer I thought the lady looked quite familiar. Just as I was passing, I heard her talk to her dog and my suspicions were confirmed...it was Susan Sarandon. Hey neighbor! I almost stepped in her dog's pee and walked right by her. I played it cool. She had big white sunglasses on and kinda turned sideways as I passed. I'm sure she wouldn't want to be bothered looking like The Grunge at 9:30 AM. I know I sure wouldn't. That's my first official celeb sighting (no the Today Show people don't count anymore).....at least a real movie star within a 2' proximity. So this one counts big.

Kyle worked from home until about 5PM and then we went up to Central Park to walk around since he was getting a bit stir crazy being inside all day. There was a little street fair going on down the street which we enjoyed. And that was our first free non-working day in NY.

When Shopping Carts Fly

Oh boy…do I have stories to tell.

First off, I must say the glamour of living in our fantabulous apartment is wearing off. The experience is still fabulous but the living is a bit below Kyle and I’s posh standards. Our apartment is still OK. I think I had over-hyped it in my head after seeing so many dud places. The building smells like the funk and the highlight of my day was buying about $30 worth of Yankee Candle air fresheners and candles. Last night the cable went out and as I write this 24 hours later still no cable. At 11 PM last night there were firemen going into the building across the street and a fire engine parked out side our building which had us falling asleep to annoying red flashing strobe lights in our room. The loud obnoxious garbage men & their trucks woke us up periodically throughout the night, as usual. And this morning poor Kyle took a cold shower. I haven’t had a cold shower experience but I sure felt bad for Kyle.

I’m sure it sounds like I’m complaining but I’m really not. This is only a ten week gig and it’s definitely worth the cramped, old environment for the experience. It’s like CAMPING! “Roughing it”, I’d say…..

Ok, so go to the bathroom now because I have a story that may make you pee your pants.

Kyle and I are at Bed, Bath & Beyond buying the smelly goods to keep this place from smelling like the funk. We’re looking at some items and I round the corner to look down to the lower level of the 2-story store. In front of me is a lady at the top of the escalator who apparently needs to get to the first floor. Well, instead of looking around for an elevator that could accomodate her and her cart I guess she decides to make an executive decision to try out her own method of transport. I notice she’s balancing her shopping cart (as in the large grocery store-style push carts) ever so delicately on the first escalator step and before I knew what was happening she just releases the cart as it is balancing 2 wheels on the escalator and 2 wheels in mid air. My jaw drops to the ground. Is this woman an alien from another planet?! I see her hand fly to her mouth (she must've realized at this moment sending her cart down an escalator was a very bad idea) and my hand flies to my mouth in horror. We watch the cart go handle over wheels down the escalator …BOOM….KABOOM….BOOM….SPLAT! Everything in her cart AND the cart itself tumbles to the 1st floor. Thank goodness no one was on the escalator or at the bottom! She was super embarrassed and I was trying OH SO hard not to laugh as she turned to see if anyone saw her. Oh, yeah, lady...I saw the whole thing!. All the BBB employees were rushing to the scene of the stupidity and as I slinked away I started laughing so hard I was crying and one of the employees who passed me knew exactly what I was laughing at and started laughing uncontrollably as well.

Kyle and I laughed and laughed all the way home…the things you see in New York!!

A Fishy Experience

Yesterday Kyle got off work at 6 PM (miracle of all miracles). It was a good thing too because Aunt Jan was in NYC for a convention so we got to have dinner with her and she saw our place. We enjoyed visiting with her and we went to a restaurant on Union Square called Blue Water Grill. I've been hearing about BWG from so many different people in the span of one week so I was curious to try it out. Now I'm not a big seafood fan but the waiter said the Chilean Sea Bass in Ginger Soy Sauce was a best seller so.....when in Rome.....

I'm glad I ordered it because it was the most excellent fish I've EVER tasted! Take that for what it's worth since I don't eat a lot of fish I probably don't have a large pool of selection but this was amazingly delightful and I couldn't stop talking about it. Every bite was delish. Even Kyle liked it and he is not a big fish fan either.

Speaking of Kyle....he ate sushi which is amazing considering his narrow food selections. Granted, it was a type of steak sushi, no fish involved....but still it was on the menu as sushi wrapped in the tempura rolls with veggies. We're all branching out these days!

So today there was a big power outage on the trains up here. Good thing I wasn't travelling today. My boss was stuck in this jam (click here for the story). He was in one of the trains that was stalled under the Hudson River....uh, can you say claustrophobic?! I almost had a panic attack driving into Manhattan on Saturday when we had to just drive through the Holland Tunnel. It seemed like the tunnel went forever. My worst nightmare would be to get stuck on a train in a tunnel. Let's hope that never happens.

These Vagabond Shoes....

Let me just preface this blog by saying...how did I get wrapped up in this situation?? Moving around like a homeless woman? What kind of sideways adventure has my husband conned me into? I realize back in the day Kyle flew to London with nothing but a suitcase and no place to live. But that's when Kyle was taking care of Kyle. Now there's a Lori in the mix and somehow I got suctioned into the vortex that is my husband's wacky lifestyle....but so be it....I am amused and I am spreading my wings....like a mighty eagle....(but I am not bald, let me clarify)
Now to the story:

The vagabond gig is up!! We made our FINAL move last night and are now in residence at our REAL summer sublet! I spent yesterday evening packing up our stuff. Kyle got off work around 11 PM so that's when we made the move. We had made it at our temporary place without seeing any of the neighbors these past few days. Which is perfect because I don't like looking shady and a woman carrying all sorts of suitcases and bags up and down the elevator 4 or 5 times just looks like Shadyville, Population: 1 (that would be me). So last night just as I was moving out our stuff the neighbor across the hall came home at the same time....BUSTED! I really didn't want to explain why I was making 5 trips in and out of the apartment to line our stuff up in the lobby. Thankfully, he didn't seem to care even though by appearance it seemed as though I was wiping his neighbor's apartment clean....but whatever....

However I'm not sure if I would rather trade one more night in the creaky, rickety strange-noise apartment or being driven to the new apartment by a crazy, and I mean CRAZY!, driver. Kyle's company orders a car service to drive him home if he has to work late (which will probably be every day). So last night the car driver that brought him home also moved our stuff to the new place and I believe this driver came in on the first bus from Wackyville. I guess we were a good combo.....the lone resident of Wackyville driving the lone resident of Shadyville (and her husband) the heck outta Dodge! It was like we were in a terrifying real life video game. He kept jerking the wheel around and making bizarre lane changes. It was scariest when we were in the tunnels....more than once I thought we were going to ram the sides of the tunnel. And who goes 40 MPH down a tight one lane street with cars parked on either side?! Let me count the opportunities for disaster.....oh, wait I don't have that many fingers.

Kyle and I were genuinely frightened for our lives and I hope that driver never ever drives Kyle home from work again.....EVER! I've ridden in NYC taxi cabs and this was 10 times worse. There was something wrong with this dude. But we did make it home safely only to freak out because we had 4 keys and none of them seemed to open the front door of the apartment. A situation that I could have done without at this point in the story. After all it's past midnight now and key problems aren't making the Lori happy. I did not get this far to sleep in the hallway of some old brownstone with 20 bags around me. But we finally figured out the locks and all was fine in Casa de Bethancourt. Today I am super tired and praying that Kyle has lots of energy because we barely got enough sleep last night with the whole fiasco.

Creaks, Bumps, & Noises!

So all homes and building structures have their own personality & quirks. Especially if they are older, as are most of the places in New York. The place we're staying now is particularly interesting because you can hear other people moving around on the creaky wood floors in other apartments. It sounds like they're in our apartment.

Last night I came home late and Kyle wasn't home yet. I am paranoid in unfamiliar spaces so I checked all 3 levels of this little place (yes, 3 levels....sounds spacious but they are 3 very tiny levels). I checked in the bathtub & closets for boogey men, up in the loft sleeping area, and downstairs. I was in the clear. Kyle came home and BOY was I glad he was home because we were sitting on the couch and this horrible noise started which sounded like either:

A) Someone trapped in the wall trying to get out with an ice pick
B) Someone shimmying up a very unsteady and loud fire escape outside
C) Someone trying to hack themselves out of the wardrobe dresser that is upstairs in the sleeping loft

Seriously. Those were the only 3 feasible options to me. Kyle and I sat very still on the couch and were looking at each other with shifty eyes. We weren't sure what was going on but we were quite distressed for about 30 seconds. My brilliant husband realized it was the heater/AC unit making noise (yes, it's those smarts that got him to Wharton). I guess it was the pipes in the wall that were making the horribly loud racket like a trapped Big Foot in the wall? It was scary for a brief moment but thank goodness Kyle was with me otherwise I probably would have thrown my jittery self from the fire escape in a panic because apparently I do wacky things when faced with stressful situations. It's something I do need to work on. So try not to have any serious medical issues when you're alone with me. I can't guarantee sane responses.

AND....OH MY GOODNESS...wouldn't you know as I'm writing this blog at 7:30 AM, the noises just started again?!?!?! Thank the Lord I knew what to do and didn't freak out this time. It really does sound like a large animal is trapped in the AC/heating unit trying to get out!! I'm so glad we're outta here tonight!

We're Heeeeerrrrreeee!

We made it. We left Philly early this morning and made it to New York by 11:00 AM. Let's just say driving a car in Manhattan is quite a challenge. I'm glad it was Kyle doing it and not me. It appears that standard driving procedure is making right and left turns from the farthest lane. We saw plenty of buses and taxis crossing all lanes of traffic to make a turn! Totally illegal....

We dropped off our stuff at the temporary place we're staying until our place is available on Wednesday. We're on the Upper East Side right now. After dropping off our bags, we went to a Chili Cook-Off sponsored by the NYC Aggie & Texas Exes Clubs. We met a few Ags and had some chili. This evening we walked around Central Park and discovered a nice little area called the Shakespeare Garden. It was really cute...my favorite new place in Central Park....I hope I can find it again. CP is enormous. We've been watching and 8-part DVD series on the history of NYC (looove Netflix!) and they said something like "NY would not be a livable place if there was no Central Park" and I totally believe that. It's so nice to see grass and ponds and water and trees. How sad would New York be without the Park?!

We're going to turn in for the evening. Tomorrow we're going to try out The Redeemer Church. Good night!

Start spreadin' the neeeeeewwwws.....
....I'm leavin' todaaaaaay.....
....I want to beeeee a part of it!
New York, New York

(You can't see us but Kyle and I are doing "jazz hands" & leg kicks at this part)

These vagabond shoooooes.....Are longing to straaaaay......

And make a braaaand new staaaaart of it!!!!

NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!!!!

Yankee Stadium

Today was one of the most difficult working days I've had so far. I know you'll feel great pity for my harsh schedule......I worked half a day in NY this morning and then at noon I absolutely had to leave to attend a Yankees game with our consultant and 2 other co-workers. I must say it was a beautiful day for a ballgame.

On the way to the game I discovered the art of walking down a crowded street very quickly while having a conversation with my co-worker and dodging people all at the same time. For an uncoordinated soul such as myself I was just happy to not trip and hit the pavement or body-slam someone on the street during the rush.

But back to the game....the Yankees played the Texas Rangers. Last night Kyle struck the fear of Moses in me to not root for Texas or even have the slightest appearance of being a Rangers fan or I would surely get beaten up. Apparently the Yankee fans are a tough crowd. So I was very quiet during the game, cheering silently inside. I'm happy to report the Rangers won the game 6-2 and I left the stadium with no black eyes or profanities yelled at me. I would say it was a successful game.