Blizzard of 2006

So, I know this is a like a week late, but what can you do?? I should have written earlier, but it was a busy week last week!!

Brad was working all weekend on this big data migration project, so I decided to go up to NY to visit my friend Dawn and her fiancé Keith. (They moved to Long Island from Chicago about three months after Brad and I moved here.) I drove up to Hamilton, NJ (about 55 minutes) to catch NJ Transit into the NY Penn Station to meet Dawn and Keith. For some reason, I thought that train station was at Exit 52, when it is actually at exit 65, so I had a bit of a panic, but I made the train and off for an adventure in the city.

I found Dawn and Keith no problem in Penn Station (they took the LIRR) and we went to Keith’s office to drop off my stuff. He has a kick-ass view of the city from his office! He can see the Statue of Liberty! It’s great! Dawn had tried to call and make a reservation at Serendipity for lunch, but they told her they had no weekend reservations until March. But we thought we would give it a try anyways. There was a 2 hour wait!! (This place is so tiny that they can only seat about 5 tables at a time….I think.) So, we opted to eat at another restaurant that was close by since we were all starved at this point. We had a nice lunch, complete with people-watching from our corner table. It was great! We had never seen so many fur caps, coats, vests and ear muffs in our lives. That is definitely a trend that I will not be partaking in! The best was this elderly lady who was wearing vinyl f-me boots, a leopard print coat and a huge fur hat that was perched atop her fake hair. Priceless!!

After our people-watching lunch, we took the Subway to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we spent about three hours wandering through many exhibits including Egyptian Mummies, Frank Lloyd Wright’s house, arms and armour, musical instruments, and of course the European art including Monet’s Waterlilies. We stopped at the bar from a drink and then headed up to Mid-town (I think) for dinner.

We met up with Katie and John ( two people I used to work with at E&Y, who are also good friends with Brian, who was the best man in our wedding) and Annaleise (Dawn’s co-worker) and her husband Tom. We met them at Holy Basil, a Thai restaurant. Katie had made reservations for 6 because they were hesitant to take a reservation for 7 people, but we thought they would just put a chair at the end of the table and it would be fine. However, they gave us some major grief about it, so called La Paella, a tapas restaurant around the corner to see about their availability. We headed over there, and arrived just before two other large parties and got a table in the “death trap basement” (Katie’s words.) We had a fabulous dinner with lots of great tapas and sangria! When we left the restaurant, it was starting to really snow, but we headed out to a couple of bars. We tried to go to this Sake bar, but there was a wait, so we opted for the Red Telephone Booth Bar. After that, we went to a bar where Katie and John needed to go for a birthday party called the Hairy Monk. Dawn, Keith and I stayed for one drink and then headed back to the train station.

Getting on the train was pretty funny! We bought our tickets and then joined the large gaggle of people standing at the board, and as soon as the track was announced, there was a huge rush for the train! We made it on with a seat just fine, thank goodness! When we got to the Bethpage station, there was probably about 6 inches of snow on the ground!!!

When we woke up on Sunday morning, there was A LOT of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. About 9:00, they were saying there was 12 inches of snow in Central Park. At this point, I was starting to get worried about getting back home from the train station. Brad called about 8 and said the weather down there was really bad, so I decided to postpone my departure for a couple of hours. I got a 12:15 train on the LIRR to Penn Station and the snow was coming down pretty fast when I left. I was impressed, though, they were shoveling and salting the steps and platforms at the train station. We were going along fine until we got to Jamaica (who knew there was a Jamaica in New York??) when the train stopped and they announced there were no LIRR trains going east or west out of Jamaica. So, I had to get on the Subway to Penn Station, which took about an hour. I made it to Penn Station and had about 12 minutes to catch a NJ Transit Train to Hamilton.

I arrived to Hamilton around 3:30 and I was impressed! The entire parking lot had been plowed and salted! My car was somewhat plowed in, but I had come prepared with a snow shovel! An Air Force pilot from Georgia who was stationed not too far from the train station was so nice and helped shovel while I brushed off the car. I figured it was safe because he was from Georgia! Then, I was off and I didn’t even have to use 4WD! The interstate was pretty much fine all the way home. Then, I pulled out outside of our house and there was about 8 inches of snow in the driveway about 1.5 feet of plowed snow at the end of our driveway, so there was no way I was getting in there. I was not too happy! Brad was still at work, so I ended up going out and shoveling for about 2 hours. It had to look so funny because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I have never shoveled snow before!! One of our neighbors also came over and helped, which was so great!!! I left a little bit for Brad to do. I was so sore from all the shoveling, but it was a good workout!!!

I can’t believe I was in New York when they had the record snowfall.

Super Bowl

Well, we had our first official party at our house for the Extra Large Super Bowl, and I think it was a success! We had about 25 people, mostly Brad's co-workers and their families.

I made veggie lasagna, chicken tenders, black bean and corn salsa, buffalo chicken dip (which is the best stuff EVER!), veggies and dip, cookies and brownies. People did bring some munchies as well, so we have plenty of chips and stuff. I just love entertaining! Our house is perfect for it, especially now that we have a ping pong table in our (unfinished) basement, as well as a dart board in the garage.

Brad borrowed the projector from work, so we projected the game on the big white wall of our great room, which made for a unique game/commercial watching experience. It would have been cooler if DirecTv had installed the right dish the first time so we could get local channels in HD. (But that's another story!!)

The game was not all that exciting, but I was wearing my Miami shirt in support of Ben Roethlisberger, who is now the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, even younger than that Tom Brady, who went to Brad's alma mater. (When I pointed this out, he made sure to remind me that Tom Brady has won THREE Super Bowls, but I have to get excited about a Miami athlete being in the spotlight because it doesn't happen all that often, and Michigan athletes are everywhere.)

I do have to say that I am glad the Steelers won, in honor of my good friend Laura. I can't wait to hear about the parade because she is a diehard Steelers fan, so I am sure she will be in attendance! I will never forget the time her grandparents did the Pittsburgh Polka around Joe's, the bar where we used to go on Sundays to watch the Stillers.

The commercials were only ok, too. The only one that I can really remember is the AmeriQuest one with the lady on the plane who was trying to get out of her seat and fell on the guy that made it seem like they were gettin' it on. Oh, and the FedEx caveman one, and the MacGeyver one. I need to go and find this magic fridge one that I have heard so much about.