New York in memories now

I would have been so happy to come home to all this rain in California, but now I wish it was snow. Geesh, I am never totally satisfied. Andrew finally uploaded all of the pictures from NY so I am adding some to the blog.

It was absolutely wonderful to take the train upstate to visit our friends Carolyn, Dave, and their adorable daughter Elaine. Elaine is the spitting image of Carolyn and I am sure she inherited Dave's great qualities too, but she reminds me so much of Carolyn at this point.

The farm/school was a ghost town and we didn't end up seeing anyone we knew. It was still great to have found my way back to the school. I have such fond memories and now they are even fonder. I am counting down the days until I get back to NY. I hope it doesn't take eight more years.

Andrew just taught me how to create a gallery so here is the link to all the photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hurstdog/NewYorkAlbum?authkey=A3_gB36N1wk

Swollen Ankles

I still love New York, but my ankles are getting a bit tired of walking around everywhere. I think Blake may be looking forward to some down time when we get back. Tonight marks the end of my five day whirlwind through Manhattan and the neighboring boroughs. I am looking forward to visiting my friends up in Cold Spring (an hour north of Manhattan by train) for a day on their farm. We will meet up with some friends and eat lunch before heading back to Green Chimneys School where I was an intern back in 2000. My body is begging for a break from the busy city and what better place to visit than an organic farm!

Here is what I have done since I last posted:

Wednesday
1. Bought an umbrella at the Duane Reade
2. Took the subway into Queens and walked ten minutes in the pouring rain to the Queens Museum of Art. It was great to learn all about the World Fair.
3. Went back to Manhattan (it had stopped raining thank goodness) and visited a famous children's consignment shop. It wasn't as great as the reviews.
4. Met up with Andrew and ate yummy Japanese food in the East Village, of course stopped by a pub for some beers, and then hit the Dunkin Donuts on the way home for some glazed Munchkins.

Thursday
1. Met up with Skyla's sister Cammie in the Upper West Side.
2. She took me all around and showed me where to get the best bagel (it was superb). We then hunted around for the best chocolates and other delicious goodies. She is a good thrift store guide also.
3. Parted ways with Cammie and headed down to the Union Square area to check out the neighborhood/thrift stores. By the way, I pick out a few thrift stores as my starting points and then wander around the neighborhoods. Less fattening than hitting all the Dunkin Donut shops.
4. Andrew and I got ready for our Valentine's Day cruise on the Hudson.
5 Had a blast on the V-Day cruise
6. After eating a fabulous meal and a chocolate cake dessert, we stopped into a Papaya King and ate a corn dog. We don't know what possessed us to do that, but it was very yummy.

Friday
1. Almost didn't make it out of bed, for my legs and unborn child screamed out for a day of rest.
2. Hopped on the subway to check out Brooklyn
3. Wandered around the Carroll/Smith street area of Brooklyn
4. Ate the best lunch ever at a little French restaurant
5. Lost track of time so I missed my appointment to tour the Apollo Theater in Harlem
6. Rode the subway back to Manhattan to visit Harlem. I went into the lobby of the Apollo Theater, but I am a bit sad I didn't get to tour it. Harlem is great and I wish I could have spent more time there.
7. Met up with Andrew for dinner at another brewery/restaurant. This time I had fun with it and made us eat buffalo. I guess they are working with the American Heart Association and are running some February campaign where buffalo is a healthier alternative to beef. I got the buffalo mini burgers and Andrew got the big buffalo burger. They were yummy and tasted just like beef. Blake liked it too.
8. We went to MOMA, but it was 7:50pm and it closed at 8pm so we just wandered around the gift shop before calling it a night.

Here are the pics:

THE CRUISE

THE VIEW FROM THE TERRACE ON THE TOP OF OUR BUILDING

BEER & BUFFALO

Please excuse any grammatical errors since I am writing this at 12:49am and am delusional from walking for five days straight.

Day 2

Day two is almost over (whimper, whimper) and I have fallen even more in love with NY since it snowed all day long. It has been eight years since I have seen this kind of snow, but I was working outside on the farm so it wasn't as fun to be in. Andrew and I are both surprised at how much we are enjoying the cool weather.

Today, I slept in (walking all day takes a toll on a pregnant woman) before heading out into the snow to a few hot spots I had picked out that would send me uptown, downtown, and all around. I saw: some thrift stores (who knew prices at the Goodwill start at $7.99 here), West Elm (even better in person than the catalog), a yarn shop in the Fifth Avenue Plaza, and stopped in at Crumbs for a famous and delicious cupcake. When Andrew got off work we went to B&H photo and video and enjoyed walking amongst the isles and isles of electronic equipment. After that, Andrew wanted to stand in the snow for an hour taking pictures of Central Park. I lasted half way through the hour, but ended up wandering around Borders bookstore to avoid completely freezing. It really doesn't feel that cold, but my toes started getting wet.

Now for the pictures.

THE AIRPORT WHEN WE ARRIVED (snowing)

HOW EXCITED I WAS TO SEE SNOW

THE WEATHER WHEN ANDREW AND I SET OUT THIS EVENING

ANDREW ON THE SUBWAY

FUELING UP AT A PUB BEFORE HEADING BACK OUT IN THE SNOW

ON THE EDGE OF CENTRAL PARK

MOM AND DAD TO BE

NO WATER JUST SNOW

WHERE DOGS GO TO GET OUT BEFORE BEDTIME

NY, NY

Andrew and I are living it up in the Big Apple. Andrew is working from the NY Google office and I get to explore all this city has to offer. It is super cold here and was only 11 degrees when we woke up this morning. Along with the cold temperature, there were 30 mph winds that made the wind chill factor feel like it was -4 degrees outside.

Today I:
* visited the Guggenheim museum
* braved Times Square

*HERE'S THE M&Ms STORE I VISITED*

* shopped in SOHO

When I was shopping, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart called me letting me know Andrew and I were in the drawing for studio audience tickets. I had signed up online a few weeks ago, but didn't hear back from them so I assumed we wouldn't be able to get tickets. I told them I was eight months pregnant and they ended up giving us VIP tickets and moved us to the front of the line. We showed up around 4:30pm and by 7:15pm the show was completed. Jon Stewart came out to start filming at 6pm and was an excellent host. That man has his routine down pat. I am glad that Andrew's "surprise" Jon Stewart tickets actually panned out because we had a great time.

Stay up and watch the show and listen for our laughing!

I added a bit of COLOR!

I went to a very chic quilting shop in Los Gatos yesterday to buy some fabric for the rest of the nursery. I really thought I was going to coordinate baby prints, but I ended up choosing some bright prints. I started this project last night at my last sewing class. Maybe this is where ADHD starts in kids, who knows? I hope Blake enjoys being stimulated in his Moses basket.

More Soft Goodies

Today, I finished another round of sewing projects. We had another prenatal appointment on Friday which went well. I have round ligament pain in my right leg, but besides that everything is how it should be. My midwife and her assistant felt around trying to see if they could feel the head versus the rump. I guess Blake has a few more weeks of growing before they can really tell. He sure tried to get away from the probing hands by hiding near my back. That wasn't very comfortable! Since we hit the 30 week mark we will now start having prenatal appointments every two weeks. We talked about getting all of our layette supplies handy and my midwife's assistant said that I could buy a few yards of soft, cotton flannel at the fabric store and sew the edges instead of buying expensive receiving blankets. For $6 total, I now have three new receiving blankets ready to swaddle Blake in on his first days.

My crochet group had a yarn swap the other evening and I acquired some brown, fluffy yarn. I didn't know what to do with it so I just started crocheting a big square. When I ran out of yarn I figured I could buy some blanket binding and sew and edge on it for a lap blankie. Here is the finished product.

I know my poor child is going to be sick of brown, cream, green, and blue by day two. I have some adorable, colorful fabric coming in the mail soon that I am going to use for his Moses basket. I am still holding out for just the right fabric to make the bumpers for the bassinet.