A Fun Filled Weekend with Almost No Rain!

If it has to rain all the time at least we can enjoy the skies afterward!The view from the Empire Hotel Rooftop Party

I have started meeting people and making friends!

Look Maw, No hands! Taking pictures while on a roller coaster requires serious skill.

I think the reason I like New York so much is because there is always something to do! If you are bored in New York you have a serious problem. I started making a list of all the things I want to do or see while we are here. The list looks more like something from a ticker tape parade (ooh... that is something to add to the list! When is the next ticker tape parade?) than the original list of the obvious tourist sites. While looking on the internet for the days and times of the different attractions, I constantly come across other things to do or see. Did you know they have a numismatic museum here? I don't even know what a numismatic is but the museum sounds fun! When doing my tourist research I found out that the Cirque de Soleil show here was only going to be in town for one more day. Since it was on the list we made sure to get tickets. We got great seats right in the middle of the stage only a few rows from the front. Our seats were at the very end of the row and the seat next to Blake was empty. During the show when one of the main characters is running through the audience he sits in the empty seat next to Blake and tells him to hold him! It was funny and I wish I had been able to get a picture of it. Getting a picture of the Easter Bunny would be easier. Unfortunately cameras are completely prohibited, you can't even take pictures of the stage during intermission. The show was incredible and Blake and I were very impressed with the characters and their acts. It is completely amazing what these people can do!
Friday night there was yet another large storm but after it passed the skies were beautiful! It worked out well because we went to the Empire Hotel Rooftop Party. We had great views of the skyline complete with very interesting clouds (I read somewhere they were alto cumulus clouds) and a gorgeous sunset! We had a great time but unfortunately we had such a great time it took most of Saturday to quit fully enjoying it.
After spending Saturday recov...ummm... resting, we were ready to go enjoy the first non rainy day in a while! We decided to go to Six Flags to take advantage of the nice weather while we had it. Six Flags is in New Jersey and to get there we have to take the subway to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and then take an hour bus ride. Blake and I consider ourselves Theme Park connoisseurs as many times as we have been to Orlando. We ranked this Six Flags a couple of notches above Liberty Land and a few notches below Disney World. The park lacks the awesome settings and theming of Disney World as well as the great customer service. We were a little nervous by the fact that median age of the employees looked to be about 15. The park is definitely showing its age and is set in the middle of nowhere surrounded by forest. Apparently the forest animals come in at night and enjoy the rides because there was animal poop everywhere. If I could see a raccoon on Bizzaro roller coaster I wouldn't mind the poop so much. The rides however were very fun! They have a ton of roller coasters which are my favorite. The ride back took over two hours and we were completely exhausted but we had a great view of New York City from the bus. It was fun and got us excited about our move to Orlando.
Well it is almost 3 a.m. here. I procrastinated on this all day, which is so very out of character for me (hahaha!!). I still have a ton of picts to go through ( I try to weed out the bad ones for your sake! I know you are thinking "That's weeded out?!?). Considering I have to take the dogs out in 5 hours, I am calling it a night! But I will have the next Album up tomorrow. And I promise there are no picts of raccoon poop!

Warning: Reading this Blog may Cause Hunger Pains and Drooling!

I love to get P'inch'd.....

.....and S'mac'd!!!!!

Made in New York City?!?!

You know, with all the walking and stairs in my life now you would think I would be in great shape. Of course that might be the case if I wasn't enjoying all of the great restaurants here. There are so many places to eat here and so far everything has been delicious! Every block has at least 5 restaurants and they all have those cute outdoor areas on the sidewalk (I guess no one eats at home because cooking in a broom closet isn't real fun). Between the sidewalk cafes and the very, very different atmosphere I sometimes forget I am not in Europe. Of course some might argue that the south is its own foreign country and should require a passport for entry. I wanted to eat at the outdoor restaurants since we got here and have several times (when it manages to go an hour without rain). Now that we have done that I am ready to step it up a notch and try doing what the locals do, eat at a sidewalk cafe with your dog! Of course the locals don't have dogs with the odd (but cute) personality traits of our dogs. Of course Wrig being a rather sizable dog would be the most difficult. Most cafes have little stanchions that they put around their outdoor area and the customers tie their dogs to it. Now their dogs could be mistaken for rats, granted the rats here are large but still a bit smaller than Wrig. Their dogs lay on the ground and just wait patiently while their owners eat. The problem with Wrigley is he drools when he watches us eat. I can only imagine the looks that this would cause, not to mention, the loss of everyone's appetite. And instead of sitting patiently for us while tied to the stanchion, Wrig would try to run up to every person or dog that walks past. Considering he is 70lbs he would drag the stanchion down the block while Blake and I hide under our table. I can't blame it all on Wrigley, even though Milo is much smaller, he wouldn't work out either. God forbid someone sneezed while we were there! For those of you that don't know about Milo's little oddities, he really doesn't like it when people sneeze. If it even sounds like you are about to sneeze, Milo will run around in circles while barking. I can only imagine Milo running around a poor sneezing victim, tying up their ankles with his leash while barking hysterically. On second thought maybe I should just borrow someone elses dog.
A couple of the more notable places we have eaten are P'inch & S'mac and Brother Jimmy's Barbeque. The first time we ate P'inch was comical because when the delivery guy pulled the box out of his bag it just kept coming and coming (see above pict of P'inch pizza to see what I mean). We didn't realize the pizza was measured with a yard stick! We ate the 4 cheese macaroni from there also and it was the best macaroni I have ever had! Of course leave it to Blake to find a rib joint in New York!? Having been spoiled by Memphis (the best) bbq, we were reluctant to try bbq made in (gasp) New York City (I couldn't get that stupid commercial out of my head all night). The restaurant was well decorated to look like a southern bbq joint even if I did feel like my background was being made fun of (Wednesday is White Trash Night). The ribs were pretty good to not come out of Memphis. Blake thought it was the best food we have had since we have been here but I think he was just so happy to have ribs for the first time in over a month.
We also ate at ESPN Zone mainly because Blake can't pass one without going in. It is in Times Square so it is over priced and the menu is not as good as the one in Disney but it had great views!
Looking at all the food I have been eating, I'm thinking I should head to the gym! You guys have a great day. I'm going to eat, I mean, make my way to the gym! Ciao(pun intended)!

Did we make a wrong turn at Albuquerque? Is this Seattle or New York?

The subway stop for the Bronx Zoo. Sadly this is the closest we got to the Bronx Zoo Watching a movie about jets and aircraft carriers next to jets and on an aircraft carrier!

I wish I could say the reason why I haven't posted in a week is because I have been so busy doing fun stuff. Sadly it is the complete opposite. It has rained here all week long. The rain is getting tiring but at least it is not accompanied with gray, depressing skies like I am used to in Memphis. However, it still has kept me pent up in our apartment. As much as I want to play tourist, the idea of umbrella to umbrella combat is not very enticing.
Last Saturday Blake and I took the dogs to Central Park and it was such a beautiful day we decided to go to the Bronx Zoo. We got on the subway ready for a fun day at the zoo and I noticed people getting on the subway were wet and had umbrellas. Sure enough when the subway went above ground we saw the beautiful day from 10 minutes ago had turned into a cold rainy day! I know all of you guys in the heatwave they call the south are jealous! We were both wearing shorts and had no umbrella. The subway ride was adventurous enough (you go through Harlem) so we decided to go back home and try it again when it wasn't raining. Of course we didn't realize at that time we were in monsoon season in New York.
While we were at the park we learned something new about Wrigley, apparently Wrig has a serious fear of bagpipes! A guy in the park was about to start playing his bagpipes (in a full on kilt) so we stopped to listen. About 5 seconds after he started Wrig turned around and ran about 200 yards with his tail in between his legs plowing through people with Blake running behind him! The whole time he kept looking back to make sure the evil bagpipes were not chasing him! People all around were laughing hysterically at a 70lb dog running from bagpipes. When he finally stopped we had to pet him for 5 minutes before he would dislodge his tail from in between his legs! You don't know how bad I wish I had a video of that!!!
For those of you who think a guy playing bagpipes in a kilt sounds odd, let me tell you that really is not here. Matter of fact he was probably one of the more conservative "entertainers" you will find here. I'm not sure who all I should include in the "street entertainers" category because there are the occasional people who really just want to warn you of the dangers surrounding you! For instance, there was the guy in the subway yelling "Obama can't save you! Obama can't save you!" He never did inform us of what Obama can't save us from but at least I know not to call Obama when it happens! Another nice person warned us on the subway that meat is murder and we were all going to die. That was not all that informative since I already knew we were all going to die. If she could have pinpointed a date now that would have been informative! And of course there are the entertainers with all different kinds of instruments. I have to say playing while on a moving subway is impressive. So both types of entertainers are enjoyable in their own fun way.
We were able to squeeze in one day of fun without any rain! On Friday night Blake and I went to the USS Intrepid, which is a U.S. Naval Aircraft Carrier, to watch Top Gun. The Intrepid was decommissioned in 1982 and parked in the Hudson River and now serves as a museum. During the summer months they host a movie on the top of the carrier! It was real neat to watch a movie like Top Gun while sitting on a carrier. If you pretend the planes flying into Newark are jets you really feel like you are a part of the action!! Thankfully Tom Cruise wasn't there jumping on couches! I'm glad the rain held off for the night because it was beautiful to watch the sunset from there. It was just as beautiful when it got dark and all the buildings were lit up.
Hopefully the weather will clear up allowing me to explore the city more and in turn give me something to write about it. If not I am just going to have to put on scuba gear and go check out the sites. Sadly, I would probably fit right in with the “street entertainers”!

Life in Gotham City

(Holy Crap Batman! This city has a lot of nicknames!)

I'm thinking of doing a poll- What is more numerous in NYC: rats, people, or taxis?

Wrigley likes to laugh at the street performers in the park

Who doesn't eat their sushi from a bowl of fog?

A new day = A new challenge! It seems that with each day I learn something new or learn how to adapt to new experiences or challenges. My latest lesson was how to navigate the sea of umbrellas. The Big Apple was a bit soggy for a couple of days so we bought a couple of umbrellas. Us suburbians don’t walk in the rain to much as we spend most of the time in our cars. But here, even if you take the subway, you are going to have to walk at least one block. Walking down the street with an umbrella is not as easy as one would think. Here there are hundreds of people also walking with umbrellas on small cramped sidewalks. It is not as easy to bob and weave around people when they have a large canopy over their head and your large canopy is getting entangled with it! Also being of short stature, like I am, your umbrella risks gouging out the eyes of everyone you pass. I learned when passing people you have to hold your umbrella up really high so it will be above everyone else’s. Well, that is how it is supposed to work when you are not vertically challenged!

One of the things Blake was real excited to do in NYC was to go to a restaurant called Ninja. It is like a more sophisticated Disney restaurant. The restaurant is themed like a Japanese village, the waiters dress like ninjas, and meals have presentations to go with the theme. Some of the dishes were chocolate mousse with a bread bonsai tree, a chocolate cake shaped like a ninja star that appears from flames, and sushi over a bowl of fog. There is also an act at the end. Our waiter was very funny and the food was great. However, it is very pricey and one of those things you only do once for the experience. For 5 people our bill was $500. To quote our waiter "Ninja please!"

Being an Architecture and Design buff you will see a lot of pictures of random buildings in my “photo albums”. Anyone who has ever suffered through our photos from a trip knows I take a LOT of pictures. Most of the time it is of beautiful but random buildings (so just be warned when looking through our photo albums). This isn't so easy when following Blake down a street. When Blake "walks" it is the equivalent of a sprint for me and when he power walks I have to run to just stay on the same block. So many times I have stopped to take a picture of a building only to find he is 2 blocks down! To make matters worse he can look on google maps on his phone and know when the next train is coming. He is always saying "Come on, the next train arrives in 2 minutes! We can make it!" Problem is I cant run 10 blocks in 2 minutes! It is even worse when we are at home and about to leave. I am brushing my teeth, half dressed and I hear "The train will be there in 40 seconds! Come on, we can make it!" He has become one of those rushed New Yorkers while I have stayed true to may Southern slowness! That blackberry may end up becoming part of the tracks!

We haven't done much sightseeing as the weather hasn't been cooperating. Hopefully soon I can post about some of the cool New York things we have done. Thank you so much to everyone that has told me they are enjoying the blog! I didn't realize it wasn't set up to take comments but that has since been fixed by my technical support department (Blake) so feel free to comment now and thanks again for checking it out!

Life in the City that Never Sleeps

(could it be because of the noise?)

The "curtain" from Wicked

The house that Babe built

The house that Steinbrenner built

New Yorkers have all kinds of crazy fashions!

So within 48 hours of our moving in Wrigley had already gotten two complaints. Did I mention he has a slight bit of separation anxiety? We knew he whined when we left but thought he stopped as soon as we were gone. Apparently not. Our landlord gave us a call after the second complaint to tell us neighbors said it sounded like someone was being murdered in the apartment! We decided to get a bark control collar that will shock him whenever he barks. We felt so bad putting it on him but we were close to living in Central park instead of near Central Park! I told Blake I finally understood when my parents would say “This hurts me more than it hurts you” I always thought to myself “Are you kidding! I’m the one getting spanked!” Now, having to look at those puppy dog eyes and knowing you are about to get the shock of your life (literally), I understood.
Just as incessant as Wrigley’s whining is the honking of New Yorkers. I don’t think I will ever understand it. They will literally honk at a car in front of them that is trying to turn left but can’t because of oncoming traffic. Do they think it is a magical button to make people and other cars disappear? Many times I have thought about informing them that the car can’t go anywhere so honking is pointless but I am pretty sure their response will just be to honk at me. I think it is a form of language here.
Rats, raccoons, and bums! Oh my! The dogs are enjoying the park and the abundance of wildlife, mainly rodents, but wildlife nonetheless. They have already tried to chase a rat across the park, I think they thought it was a cat, and Wrigley almost got his face removed by a raccoon he tried to follow in the bushes.
Blake and I are starting to take in a few of the sights around town. We went to a Yankees game which was fun but didn’t hold the same excitement as a game at Wrigley Field. Maybe it had something to do with Blake not drinking 20 beers, hmm… We also saw the play Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre. I can’t begin to tell you how great it was! If it comes to a stage near you definitely go see it! I think I have bored everyone enough for one day! Thanks again for checking out our blog!

Life in the Big Apple

Do I look like a bag lady? Because I feel like one!

The very yummy Jerry Seinfeld!

It is easy to tell who is a tourist and who is a local. Tourists are always looking up, have cameras, look lost (because they are lost). Apparently the same can be said for dogs! It is easy to tell New York dogs from all others. New York dogs walk straight, focused, not stopping until their owner stops. Our dogs stop to smell every curb, bench, tree, pole, fire hydrant, etc. They want to smell every scent and there are a LOT of scents here. A 10 minute walk will take them 40! New York dogs do not go up to other people for attention because they know no one is paying attention to them. Our dogs try to go up to everyone assuming they will get pet! The poor dogs are not used to this amount of rejection! A walk through the park is not a simple task as they are both trying to go in different directions to different scents or people and I am trying to wrangle them both in before they get trampled by people, bikes, cars, you name it! I quickly learned the best investment so far was the harnesses we bought for the dogs. Unfortunately I learned it the hard way! As we were crossing a fairly busy intersection, Milo’s collar came right over his head! We were in the middle of the street with the light flashing and a million taxi drivers ready to plow us down and my dog has become separated! I forgot and snapped his leash to his collar instead of the harness. Thankfully it was Milo and not Wrigley because I just picked him up and ran across the street! Forget caffeine! I am awake now!

Living in New York is so different from living in the burbs and what used to be simple tasks take more planning. Doing laundry used to be carrying a basket down the hall, now it is carrying it down two flights of stairs and around the block! Grocery shopping is not so easy when you only have two hands, a limited amount of strength, and again 2 flights of stairs, and at least one block! To help with this new dilemma, Blake bought me a cart which will definitely help lugging all that stuff around! Now if I can just convince the landlord to put in an elevator I will be set!!

While we are out we ate lunch at Peanut Butter Company. I had the Jerry Seinfeld which is a toasted bagel with peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon. YUM! Blake had the Elvis which, as you can imagine, is a toasted peanut butter and banana sandwich! Our meals were very simple but you should check out their menu! They have more adventurous items, like the Pregnant Lady! We will definitely make a stop there for those of you that can come visit us! We don’t have many good stories to tell yet as we are still getting settled and buying things for the new place. I’m looking forward to checking out all New York has to offer! There are so many sights to see and as we see them we will share the fun with you guys!!

The Journey to NYC: Day 2

The dangerous job of going downstairs!Our first trip to Central Park!The living room, kitchen, and loftWrigley has already made himself at home in the bedroom!

Within the first 10 minutes of our journey I realized we were going to have a problem before returning the rental van. The inside of the van, after 18 hours with 2 dogs, looks like a wooly mammoth died. During the trip I have Blake buy a couple of lint rollers. So here it is 4 in the morning, after a 15 hour drive, cleaning a minivan with a lint roller in the streets of Manhattan!
Once the van has been defurred, Blake returns it and I decide I am too tired to unpack tonight. Two hours later Blake finally returns and I have everything unpacked! That was some serious sugar! When he gets back we decide to take the dogs to the park in fear they may make the fatal mistake of waking us up when we finally do crash and burn! Still in our sugar and caffeine induced second wind we are excited about the dogs first visit to Central Park! That is until we realize the logistics of it! Wrigley tends to be in front pulling you helplessly behind him while Milo saunters along a few feet behind you. This doesn't work to well when walking down a flight of stairs! You end up becoming Gumbi with your arms stretched out in both directions! Poor Milo has already been stepped on numerous times from the sheer force of Wrigley pulling us forward from his momentum!
Our apartment is whopping 700 square feet, in Manhattan standards that is palatial! The apartment is literally steps away from Central Park. Our landlord told us Jerry Seinfeld lives in the building next door, John McEnroe in the building across the street, and Matt Dillon in the building behind us. We have definitely come a long way from our neighbors on Estacada!
I quickly learn that suburban life has spoiled me! Did you realize there are people in this country that do not have dishwashers! It seems so preposterous!! How in this country do people not have dishwashers! I also do not have a washer or dryer, however, there are laundromats where you can drop all your laundry off and pick them up clean and folded. Now if I can only find a dishomat to drop off all these dishes!