Off to see Mickey!

Ethan and I leave for Walt Disneyworld tomorrow afternoon! We'll be there for a week with our friends Jim and Amy. We are looking forward to time off work in warm and sunny Orlando. This will be Ethan's first visit with Mickey and the gang and he is super excited. Thunder Mountain Railroad, here we come!

Have a great week and we'll post photos when we return to NY.

Snowy Day

It snowed almost all day. Ethan was lucky enough to have his office close down for the day. However, I was not that fortunate and made the trek into work. Here are some photos of what campus looked like in the morning:

Avery Hall - This is my building

a cute little place down the street

For our Valentine's Dinner, we decided to splurge a little and go to applewood, a restaurant at the end of our street. Whenever we walk by, it looks so cute and we'd say, "we need to try that place sometime". We've heard great things about the food and liked the idea even more when we heard they support local farmers and use wild fish. We had a yummy duck bolognese with gnocchi for an appetizer. Ethan had the rib-eye and I had the bass for the main course. For dessert, Ethan went with rice pudding and I had the chocolate souffle. I normally don't get too excited about food (except if it's homemade mac n cheese, Madame K's or Blue C) but our meal at applewood was awesome. The dessert was my favorite, there was yummy, gooey chocolate pudding in the middle and I loved it. This is definitely a place we'd like to take our visitors to (I know Warren would be in heaven).

Something Cute for V-Day

Uno, the beagle, won the Westminster Dog Show here in NYC - the first time ever for a beagle!

Message to the Q's: This could be Charley one day.... :)

A Broadway Night Out

We had a fun Saturday night with our friends Chad and Sarah. It was quite an adventure - we went to Hell's Kitchen for the first time (had burgers at the Mercury Bar), went to see a Broadway show (The Homecoming) and saw an actor from Grey's Anatomy/Private Practice (Kate Walsh) as we picked up our tickets. The play was odd. We seem to be on a roll when it comes to picking off the wall plays. Still it was neat to see...

Ian McShane (Deadwood's Swearengen)...

...and Michael McKean (Best In Show, Lenny from Lavern & Shirley) up close. "Up close" of course meaning from the balcony.


Celebrity sighting: Kate Walsh at the Cort Theater will-call. We just missed seeing Ricky Martin by one night; at least that's what the coat check/concession stand guy told us.

My NY Voting Experience

Last night, I voted for the first time as a New York State citizen. Since I voted absentee throughout most of my voting years, a trip to the polling center is very unfamiliar. My friend Sarah (who moved from Seattle to Brooklyn with her fiance) lives a block away from us, so we decided to go embark on this adventure together. We walked down the street to P.S. 107 and entered the lunch room polling center. It was like stepping back in time. The voting machines were the lever kind with the black privacy curtain. I pulled back the curtain and found myself looking at lots of little switches and a big red lever. I had never used one of these before and when I asked the nice old man at the table how to use it, he looked at me like I was crazy. I told him I had never voted using this kind of machine and I needed help. He told me what to do and I cast my vote. While I was voting, I could hear him say, "That young lady just asked me how to use the machine! No one has ever asked me that!" I was the strange one in the room last night. People have said those machines were used in the rest of the country as far back as the 60's! For some reason, New York hasn't caught up with the latest voting technology....maybe next time.

Out and About

On Saturday, we took the F to the 42nd-Bryant Park stop. Fashion Week started on Friday and the famous white tents are up once again. There wasn't much going on outside when we walked by, just a few camera people waiting for something to happen and curious folks like us. We kept on going to the AMC Times Square Theater and saw a movie (There Will Be Blood). On our way back to the subway, we had the Chrysler Building in front of us and the Empire State Building to the right. The ESB was glowing blue over the weekend for the Giants. Someday, I'll get a picture of the Chrysler Bldg during the daytime...

Giant Upset

What a game! The Giants shut down the Pats and won a great one! The city went nuts when the game ended - honking cars, screaming fans in the streets. The victory parade is tomorrow - starts in Battery Park City and ends at City Hall Park (which happens to be right by Ethan's office building). Maybe he'll see Eli or Plaxico...