If only Alex had been there too...

Bonding over organic produce and our favorite goalie gloves.

That just happened.

NYC Post 1

So.. after months and months of keeping y'all waiting, the New York City trip is finally here!  I had to go up to New York for a short business trip on one Friday so Lia and I decided to take off Monday and Tuesday and turn it into a fun little vacation.  

The trip started at good old MIA.  I flew back from Orlando and Lia met me in the airport.  My flight was delayed from Orlando so I was pretty scared that I was going to miss my connection to New York.. but of course that flight was delayed too.  Lia and I then proceeded to fly on up to NYC together.  Flying with Lia is a lot like flying alone since whenever the seat belt touches her she immediately goes into a coma and can only be awoken by landing at her destination.  I did sit next to a cool Jewish guy who decided to dispel stereotypes and live in Miami and New York.  On to the trip...

Thursday night was exciting.  We landed at La Guardia and rode into Manhattan with some sketchy lady driving her own suburban and hand choosing her victims out of the taxi line.  The line you had to wait in to get a taxi had to be over 2 hours... I guess New Yorkers don't move at the pace I thought they did.  

Friday was exciting... for Lia.  I woke up early and went to work while Lia slept in and then went shopping.  5th Avenue was exactly as dangerous as every husband in the country thinks it is.  After work I met Lia and we went and saw the Chrysler Building and then hung out in Bryant Park for a bit.  I would have to say that the Chrysler Building was probably my favorite building in NYC.  It's also pretty cool how they were sneaky and made it the tallest building in the world without anyone realizing it would be.  Google it.

And now we are getting to the point in the story where I start showing more pictures and saying less boring stuff.  Friday evening we took our maiden voyage on the New York City Subway.  It was a semi-disaster.  Lia doesn't like to travel without her entire wardrobe, so I was lugging a 50 pound gigantic suitcase down stairs and trying to get it through the turnstiles.  I looked like quite the idiot until some lady felt bad for us and opened the handicap door which I then proceeded to walk through with the bag.  I may or may not have forgotten to pay for my first subway ride... oops.

We made the voyage from Midtown to the Upper West Side to meet up with one of Lia's best friends from high school, Sam.  Sam was kind enough to let us stay in his very nice apartment for the weekend.  We had to spend a ton of money on food at some point, so we decided to go to a small restaurant in the West Village that got good reviews.  The food and wine was fantastic, and I learned that a Char was a kind of fish. Go figure.

The next day we woke up and walked over to Central Park.  I brought along my camera, so prepare for some awesome pictures. Before you critique my use of a certain lens or comment on my exposure rates, please realize that I just see something that I think would be cool to take a picture of and then point the camera at it and press the button.  If something appears artsy, I apologize as that was not my intention.

Central Park had some beautiful views combining nature and architecture.

One thing that I will say is that New York City has to figure out what to do about that algae.  Their ponds were forest green.  Not green like Florida pools in the winter.. I am talking about a rich shade of green that even Augusta National would envy.

Fun fact for you knowledge grabbers out there:  Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed Central Park, also designed the gardens at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC.  This particular fact is fun because that is where I proposed to my wifey way back when we were immature college kids.  Go Dores.

According to Lia, this picture is evidence that she is taller than any of the buildings in Midtown Manhattan. Spatial reasoning is not necessary to be a good baby snuggler, and it is a dang good thing.  Lia tried to convince me multiple times that 10 story buildings a block away were taller than 100 story buildings 10 blocks away.  I have decided to not be frustrated by this and instead accept Lia's beliefs as a unique perspective that has just as much merit as my own views.  I am applying this "Why Care About Anything?" philosophy in all aspects of my life.  I am not quite there yet with Scientology, but I am trying.  Watching the new Star Trek movie was a surprisingly enjoyable first step.

Lia stopped playing with random people's dogs long enough for us to snap this picture together.  Please note the contrast between the green of the water and the green of the trees.  Oh wait.. there is no difference. Never mind.

This picture shows Lia posing on a balcony of Belvedere Castle.  This castle is where the Shakespeare performers hide whenever drunk frat stars start heckling them.  I am pretty sure it serves no other purpose and you really should not care about it.

Please give credit to my artsy side as I took an extra effort to capture the garbage can within this frame.  It really helps set the mood for this picture.  Also, garbage cans are just for show in NYC.  Only tools and tourists actually use them.

After our wonderful morning in Central Park, we met up with one of my good friends from high school.  Marianne, who was actually attending grad school in London at the time, heard that we were going to be in NY so she made the flight all the way over the Atlantic just to have lunch with us.  It also turned out that her sister was getting married in town a few days later.. talk about a lucky coincidence.  

After lunch we met up with Sam again to go take a look at the American Museum of Natural History.  They have the neatest racket there when it comes to buying tickets.  I am not going to tell you all and spoil their scheme, but let's just say that if you pay for your entrance you are being generous... whether you know it or not.  

The sign said that this was a dinosaur.

Lia posing with one of her ancestors, a very primitive donkey.

This dino reminded me of an Italian mobster for some reason.  I feel like he would never have to ask for his money twice.  Also, in a completely unrelated weird fantasy, I imagine him wearing glasses.  Big round Harry Potter style glasses.

Possible Fact:  A video of Lia playing soccer in middle school was used to model the movement of the raptors in Jurassic Park.

After our time at the museum, we went back to Sam's place to change before heading to the Theater District to see the greatest movie of all time performed on stage.  

Considering that my idea of cinematic genius is Role Models, you can probably assume that it was an uphill battle for Lia to convince me to see a Broadway play.  But how can you turn Simba down? 

The Minskoff Theater also had really cool views of Times Square. 

We also made a delicious discovery before the show, and its name was Shake Shack.  Just a burger joint with fries and shakes.. and some kind of secret illegal ingredient that makes everything taste amazing.  After the show I was intent on getting some authentic New York pizza, since really the only point of traveling for me is to eat cool stuff I can't get at home.  I was so excited to test out some New York Style Pizza against the Chicago Deep Dish Pizza that I love so much, that in my haste I probably did not pick the best place possible.  It was pretty mediocre pizza.  Granted, it was a hole in the wall place serving reheated pizza and I had not been drinking.  Oh well, it wasn't that big of a deal because there were much better pizza experiences to come.

After that, we went back to Sam's apartment.  That concludes our activities for Friday and Saturday.  If you would like to continue, please deposit another quarter now.

About that time we went to NOLA and did the Wobble

Hey there faithful readers! Lia here...

Time to blog about another awesome city we visited (and if you were wondering yes we travel every weekend I am not working). Soooo, we are skipping New York again... it is too overwhelming to explain what we did in that place! I'm heading straight into the New Orleans trip. It is a good one!

So as you all know by now, Sean is a fancy consultant person. I take advantage of that and when they are like "hey Sean go to New Orleans to talk about important things" I make him buy me a ticket as well and we make a trip of it. This strategy is working splendidly so far. This time some other fancy consultants stayed behind to play with us too which made it even more fun.

I  flew in on Friday morning during a monsoon just in time to meet up with Sean as he got out of the important person meeting. I came bearing gifts, freshly baked cookies. As all of the fancy consultant people came rushing out of their meeting to go to the airport I'd offer them a cookie and introduce myself as Sean's wife. This is how we make friends and influence people...I'm working on writing a book on my technique. After I made everyone fall in love with me, we grabbed a quick lunch at a little sandwich shop with some of the cooler people who were staying for the weekend. After that Sean and I slept for 5 hours because I'm a vampire. Oh and I should mention that we were staying at the JW Marriott in the French Quarter and it was a very nice hotel but the Grand Bohemian beds in Orlando are much softer. I'm quickly turning into a Marriott brand snob.

After the sun went down and I stopped sparkling we went to dinner with some peeps at Yo Mama's Bar and Grill in the French Quarter. They are famous for a peanut butter bacon burger that none of us were brave enough to try. The other burgers that we did eat were quite delicious though. My favorite part of our experience was the fact that the bar had its very own cat. It was sitting at the bar having a drink and picking up the girl sitting next to it. Only in New Orleans?!

After dinner we went to an outdoor bar on Bourbon street and tried some New Orleans drinks (hurricane and something that we called the "blue drink"). It was all delicious. So the crazies start coming out on Bourbon street at like 10 pm. It is just insane there. I'm glad we experienced it once but I don't think Sean and I will be spending another night on Bourbon Street soon. As he put it "it is one of the most sinful places I've ever seen". Definitely not for Mema's eyes.

We had an awesome time though and the highlight was definitely learning how to "Wobble" in a bar. None of us knew what the heck was going on but a kind girl next to us showed us the ropes and in no time we were all wobbling like pros. You can learn too!

One of my fav ladies ever teaching you how to wobble

We ended the night at Cafe Du Monde eating beignets. Yum in my tum! Also on the way home we witnessed a fight...interestingly enough it was all women involved but it was probably the scariest fight I've ever seen. We moved along quickly but not before noticing the amount of weave laying in the street.

The next morning we needed FOOD! Tracey, one of my new favorite people, found a delicious brunch spot called Ruby Slipper Cafe. We had to wait to be seated for what seemed like forever but it was worth the wait. I of course ordered cinnamon apple pancakes (predictable) and they were awesome. All of the food was great. I forgot to document because I was so hungry. 

Next up? Riding the street cars.  Our route took us from the French Quarter to the Garden District. We got to see all of the beautiful old homes on the way. 

Mr. Joe says street car rides aren't a good idea after a night on Bourbon street!

We got off the street car and explored Tulane and a big park across the street. We caught a cab back to the JW because one of our gang members had to leave and go back to Chicago :( 

I made everyone pose for a picture before she left...It was awesome hanging out with you Pam!

After her sad goodbye, we napped as usual. When we got up it was dinner time with Tracey and Joe at Arnaud's. Yum Yum Yum!!!! Only complaint from the whole night was how long it took the server to bring us bread - we got over it though. Check out these crab cakes and crabmeat karen. MY FOOD WAS SHAPED LIKE A CRAB! I am 5 years old and thought it was the coolest thing ever.

I should also mention that there was live jazz music during dinner which was pretty fun! 

After dinner we decided to hit a casino and they were kind enough to prepare my very own slot machine for my arrival.

The next morning we ate at the most amazing little restaurant called Surrey's. It was a bit hippyish and a whole lot hipsterish. I was in heaven! The food was so good and they brought me a big fat mug of Earl Grey. Our waitress had a tattoo of a chain saw on her arm - still haven't figured that one out. 

 The largest and most delicious banana pancake with peanut butter. I did not pay the $2 extra for organic syrup - it was still awesome so have no fear.

After eating way too much of that pancake we went to the World War II museum and saw a 4D movie. It snowed in the theater! Fun fact: almost all of the landing boats used during WWII were made in New Orleans and that is why they have such a fantastic museum there. We learned A LOT about about the war and especially D-Day.

We had one last awesome meal at a place called Butcher. We ate muffaletta and the best homemade potato chips. I think I gained like 20 pounds in one weekend. Overall it was a fantastic trip and so so much fun. 

Take away's = The food in New Orleans is phenomenal and I love my new friends.

I'll be back some day to write about NYC. Peace and wobble, wobble wobble.

Wedding Trivia

I realized you all do not pay me to write this stuff, so I give no apologies for the delay this time around.  Unless Mema is reading, in which case I am terribly sorry and you are the best Grandma ever.  If i was to apologize to the rest of you, it would have been because I have prioritized wedding gift thank you's over blogging.  They say you have a year to write these but really... taking a year to write a 5 minute thank you to someone is pretty pathetic.   Our government doesn't even work at that slow of a pace.

That being said, this post will be short.  I just thought it was neat where I am mailing all of these thank yous.  It really does seem like our friends have scattered a bit.  Here is a list of some of the more exciting cities, in no particular order.

Miami, FL
West Palm Beach, FL
Orlando, FL
Inverness, FL
Naples, FL
Tampa, FL
Sebring, FL
Jacksonville, FL
Destin, FL
Augusta, GA
Atlanta, GA
Sandersville, GA
Washington D.C.
Nashville, TN
Memphis, TN
Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX
Houston, TX
Boston, MA
Philadelphia, PA
New York City, NY
Falmouth, ME
San Fransisco, CA
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
London, England
Some City in Brasil (I married a Brazilian so I can spell it that way)

If I forgot your city, feel free to hack Lia's gmail and make any necessary changes.  Her password definitely has nothing to do with babies.

On to Wedding Awards:

Lia's uncle Dr. Geraldo Abreu wins the award for traveling the greatest distance, flying all the way up from Brasil.

I am keeping the competition for the most expensive gift open until April 2, 2012 in the hopes that I will spark some kind of gifting war.  Official Rules: the spot price at the time of receipt of any precious metals will be used in the valuation (Gold is hot right now...), the present value of any future costs associated with keeping something alive will be deducted from its current value (If Lia asks for a Goldendoodle, just say no) and sentimental value in tangible terms will be valued at a maximum of 8 cents.

Back to writing thank you notes... and in case anyone would like to outsource their notes to India, it costs about 25 cents a piece for hand written notes including overseas shipping. I definitely did research it.  You would have to be OK with them using non-union labor though.

Return of the LIA

Lia here...I decided to finally return from my blogging hiatus. I am sure you have all been missing me wildly and have been waiting for my return with bated breath. Well, fear no longer dear readers, for I am back!

You may be wondering what I've been doing while NOT blogging. The answer, some pretty awesome stuff. I successfully baked cinnamon rolls from scratch on my first attempt. I only had a small meltdown in the midst of the baking where I realized I didn't know how to knead dough. I sent out a SOS call and my dear husband came to the rescue and pulled up a youtube video on "how to knead dough". Doesn't everyone bake using youtube?

Recipe credit: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/06/everyday-cinnamon-rolls/

Yum in my tum, you should be sad if you didn't get to try one.

I used these to bribe my husband for snuggles and a goldendoodle. I also bought friends at work with them. Mission accomplished. 

During the small amounts of time we are actually home I've been cooking scrumptious dinners. I basically had cooked like 3 meals in my life before getting married so Sean was pretty nervous about the fate of his belly. Thanks to my great resources (blogs, blogs and more blogs) I've discovered some excellent recipes.    So I use all my reading comprehension skills and create masterpieces like this...

 

Mahi Mahi and rice. Sean liked it! Score!

So it being 4th of July and all I had to bake something patriotic. If you don't bake something red, white or blue (apple pie also counts) on the 4th then you AIN'T MERICAN'. Hence the red velvet brownies. 

So, moral of the story is I spend my time either out of town exploring the lands (NYC post coming soon), snuggling babies at work, researching the goldendoodle we won't be getting for at least a year and ensuring that Sean and I stay happy and plump.  

Cheecago

So.. in keeping with the theme of me never being home I decided to fly up to Chicago last weekend and attend the bachelor party for one of my best friends/roommates from college, Tyler.  He is marrying a girl from college named Mallory in Ohio on July 9th, so be happy for them or something. That is my next destination in line with my strategy to reduce my power bill by never being home.

Tyler's lil brother and the best man in the wedding, Alex, was kind enough to host me for the weekend.  We did lots of fun things, and what things we did that really should not have been fun were made fun by the combination of our incredible intellect and striking lack of maturity.  Since I am bound by section 34D of the Bro Code not to openly discuss the bachelor party, I will tell you about the other fun stuff we did up in the frozen tundra.

One of the highlights of my weekend was definitely watching the Cubs stomp the Yankees at Wrigley field.  This is one of the highlights of the game, as ARod is about to strike out right when the Yanks need him most. Alex had an extra ticket so I convinced my boss to let me wake up and start working at 6am so that I could take off early and head to the game.  Definitely worth it.  The weather was perfect and Wrigley was an awesome experience.  I highly recommend the North Side Twist pretzel... just don't try to eat it alone.  I also got to meet Alex's little in BYX and his girlfriend.  Both cool people. I'm glad BYX is still recruiting the best and brightest Vandy has to offer!

The Whitmores have always been more than generous in hosting me on my trips to Chicago, so I try to chip in on the chores while I am bumming around the house.  Last weekend they happened to get some new furniture delivered for the beach house, so Alex and I remained strictly professional as we unpacked the boxes.

We did not begin work on our real masterpiece until all the other silly work was done.  Alex and I were quite proud of our creation, and I can personally attest that absolutely nothing was used in the construction of this magnificent tower except the boxes themselves and ancient Egyptian building techniques.  Tape is for losers and nails are not environmentally friendly or something.

After all of the hard work was done, we proceeded to knock down the boxes by throwing a volleyball at the tower repeatedly.  It was so solid that this technique barely got us half way.  The rest was disassembled safely using certified union labor and proper Chicago building permits.  It took 13 years.

So the one downside to staying with the Whitmore's is their ferocious attack dog, Biscuit.

Now I know what you are thinking... awww, isn't she adorable?  I could see how you would think that.  The wonderful youngest Whitmore, Olivia, nearly had me convinced that this animal was perfect in her weekly newsletters.  I can't keep up with many sports or whether or not Obama has decided Keynesian economics are stupid yet, but I always find time to read Livvy Weekly.

Anyway... enough with the pleasantries re: Biscuit.. I now reveal to the world the real Biscuit!

This attack left me in agony for hours and I still carry with me the psychological damage.

Anyway, the final thing I would like to discuss is the Baha'i temple randomly located in Wilmette, IL.  We drove by it and it is really cool looking.. but kind of strange.

In line with my laziness-induced ignorance, I had never heard of that religion before but apparently they have built some pretty spectacular temples all over the world.  Take a look for yourself: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-temple/bahai-temples-around-the-world/  I don't endorse their beliefs, but I do support their idea of building cool random stuff all over the world.

Oh yeh, the bachelor party was a ton of fun too.  Jon, Scott, Tyler and Myself won.  Winning.  That's all you get.  Stay tuned for NYC!

Work Place

Hey Strangers,

I am once again way behind, so forgive the lack of timeliness on this post.  Anyway, I am staying at a hotel in Orlando for work which happens to be a block away from the Orange County Courthouse.. which some of you weirdos may realize is the site of the Casey Anthony trial.

The place is an absolute media zoo.  I can't walk to get a calzone or pita without weaving through all of the reporters.

Unfortunately, my lovely wife is the cause of all these problems.  She finds the case fascinating.  I will admit, Casey is one crazy lady, but how people can sit there day in and day out and watch lawyers say a bunch of words that don't mean anything is beyond me.  It would have been more interesting if she would have testified.

Anyway, I just thought it was cool that I sleep a block away from the psycho mom herself.  If you would like me to yell a message at the gigantic building where she is kept while not looking crazy on TV, I might consider it... but then again, that is a pretty tough judge.