snowicane feb 2010

This week NYC got slammed with what weathercasters were calling a “snowicane” for the majority of the week.  It started on Thursday morning with a wintery mix of snow & rain which continued for most of the day.  I have been helping a friend out with errands and paperwork and had scheduled to go over Thursday morning to do some work.  She lives in the West Village less than a mile from our building (and not conveniently located near any subway stops – UGH!) so I have been walking over, which proved to be not so fun.  I bundled up, put on my rain boots, grabbed the umbrella and headed out.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if the weather would have made up it’s mind whether it wanted to snow or rain, but instead it did both!  Yuck!!!  Luckily all of my work was inside and I didn’t have to run around in it.  I walked back home and ate lunch before going to volunteer that afternoon.  With the weather not cooperating, I took the subway in to volunteer and was hoping by the time I was done that the rain would be done so the snow could stick.  This proved to be the case and by 4p the snow was starting to accumulate on the ground so I took the opportunity to walk home.  At the time this seemed like a good idea, I could walk home leisurely and snap pictures of the freshly fallen powder.  :)  But halfway home I thought my fingers were going to fall off, I was having trouble taking pictures with numb phalanges that couldn’t feel the trigger on my camera.  I did manage to snap these…

 

 

The storm continued to gain strength and threw the night dumped about 12” of snow in Manhattan.  Nick and I stayed inside for most of the day on Friday but I was able to convince him to take a walk with me to Washington Square Park and through our neighborhood. 

  

arch at Washington Sq. Park, Nick making a snowball

Nick making a snowman, another snowman

in the park

me

Christopher St. in the West Village (LOVE the look of the arching trees!!!)  Would take a picture of every street that looks like this!!!

We are supposed to have a few snow showers continuing through the weekend, but the worst is over.  February set a record for most snowfall in a month, breaking the previous one set back in the 1890’s!!!  In the city we got between 18 & 24”.   

There might be another storm headed our way this coming week, fingers crossed!!! 

purl

Over Christmas I started a blanket for Rachel’s daughter Paige.  I decided that since I would be making a blanket for their newest addition, Caleb, and had already made one for Layla 4 years ago, I didn’t want Paige to be left out! 

This pattern is all purl stitches.  Each row you decrease a number of stitches by purling two stitches together and then increase by that same number of stitches by doing a yarn over, the result is this gorgeous twisted lacy pattern.  Perfect for a little girl!  I am knitting 3 different yarns together once, all are delicate & very soft: one is a pink variegated yarn that I have used before in my baby blankets (it comes in this huge skein, about 600 yards, and I can usually get at least 2 blankets out of it), the next is a light pink & white yarn, and lastly a super soft white one. 

the yarn

 

the blanket

So far it’s about 2 feet long, I want to take it out when I visit at the end of March which means I need to get cracking (I keep getting sidetracked though with other projects)   :)  

want to make this scarf

directions can be found here:  http://www.purlbee.com/easy-hand-knit-scarf/

Valentines Weekend

We had a leisurely four day weekend, since Nick doesn’t have classes on Fridays and Monday was Presidents Day.  We spent most of the weekend just hanging out. 

We have been trying to go to the Museum of Natural History since we arrived in August, but every time we set off in that direction we get sidetracked.  On Saturday we attempted again!  We made a pit stop for lunch, tried to stop at the Shake Shack that is famous for their yummy shakes, but the line was too long.  So we walked around the neighborhood & stopped at the Chirping Chicken.  I got a burger which was so-so and Nick the roasted chicken which was delectable!  After lunch we headed over to the Museum and the line was snaking around about 1/4 of the foyer so we decided to postpone the trip once again.  Since we were so close to Central Park we walked through the park.  Wednesday was the big blizzard so the park was covered by a blanket of snow still – it was BEAUTIFUL!!! 

We had about $400 in gift cards at Macy’s, so we stopped there on our way back home from Central Park.  Up until this point every time we have visited the store we have left empty handed!  :(  This time we purposely went in with two things on our list:  1. a winter coat for Nick so he can look like he belongs here (he has been sporting his windbreaker & freezing!!), and 2. an immersion blender.  Since it was a holiday weekend, they were having MAJOR sales, Nick’s jacket was 60% off and the blender was marked down to $50 from $70.  I think we did pretty good!!  Armed with our new kitchen toy, we went home to find a delish soup recipe – creamy broccoli cheese!  We ventured back out into the cold one last time to get some supplies for our Valentine dinner (the next night) & to pick up some wine!  :)  The best of shopping, since we didn’t have to spend our own money! 

On Sunday morning I made crepes with caramelized apples & honey for breakfast.  For lunch we met up with Kim in the East Village at B Bar & Grill.  Nick let me choose what we he made for dinner on Valentines Day – for something different I chose lamb.  He slow roasted lamb shanks in the slow cooker with tomatoes, garlic, and onions and made polenta to go with it.  I made individual molten chocolate lava cakes for dessert.  Everything turned out so tasty!!! 

While we were waiting for the lamb to finish cooking in the crock pot I gave Nick his gift – Mr. Beer home brewing kit.  He loved it!!  We got everything ready while we were waiting for our meal and have our first batch fermenting!!  Now we have to wait 3 weeks until it’s ready, in about a week we can test it and dispense it into bottles but then we need to wait another two weeks for it to carbonate.  Nick has already asked me about 40 times if his beer is ready yet!?  :)  Nick got me some chocolate covered strawberries (MY FAVORITE) and a box of chocolates from Dean & Deluca!  I am trying to savor them, but my sweet tooth is getting the best of me I am afraid!

I bought some brown paper and stamped out my own wrapping paper for Nick’s present.

6 months

Hard to believe last Monday Nick and I have been married for 6 months already.  *Truthfully, it had slipped my mind what the day actually was.*  I don’t know where the time has gone!  Doesn’t seem possible.   Maybe it’s because of the change in location or how different life is now, I don’t know. 

Nick surprised me with taking me to dinner to “One if by Land, Two if by Sea”.  This is a saying made famous by Paul Revere click here for the story (as you remember from my previous post, Nick is obsessed with American history), so this was very fitting.  We have walked by this restaurant before when we’ve been out walking in our neighborhood, it’s located in the West Village.  The ambiance inside was rustic & very romantic!  Just to the left of the door is a grand piano with a pianist playing classical music that guides you in to the bar area where a fire is roaring.  The tables are cozy and stained glass colors the walls and leads your eye up to the vaulted ceiling.   

We decided that this would sort of be our Valentine celebration since I don’t like paying an inflated price for a meal on Valentine’s.  It was also “restaurant week” in NYC, so they had a prix fixe menu developed for a discounted price.  You had a selection of appetizers, main course, and dessert. We both got the duck tureen (me not knowing what it REALLY was) for our appetizer.  I made this decision from process of elimination – I didn’t want the bean soup & I hate micro green salads so this was the only thing that sounded remotely appetizing to me.  When it arrived it looked amazing, a little brick of pressed duck meat accompanied by a pear chutney, but my tureen had about 1/4” of a waxy white coating top it.  I glanced at Nicks and noticed that I couldn’t see this on his, so I asked about it and he said do you know what it is?  I said no & that I should probably wait to find out until I was done eating it.  I tried to eat that top layer, but was finding it hard to digest -it had this greasy texture to it.  So I finally just flipped the brick over and ate from the bottom up, leaving the white top on my plate.  Apparently this waxy layer was duck fat and it’s coveted for being delicious!  I was not impressed!  :)  For our main course selections:  I had the cheese ravioli (this was by far the best I had EVER tasted)  & Nick had red snapper, and then for dessert I had the chocolate cake & Nick the crème brulee (for a change – this is my favorite dessert).   

Typically I eat about half of what’s on my plate at a restaurant (and Nick will usually finish my scraps before we leave), but I LOVED the portion size at One if by Land – it was perfect for me!  I cleaned my plate! 

Such a great night!  So thankful for such a thoughtful husband!  xoxo     

snow day 2.10.10

Last Wednesday we had our first big blizzard of 2010.  I was so excited!  Tuesday night I kept waiting for the snow to start falling, I woke up multiple times during the night to peer out the window to see if the storm had started.  After spending all day inside at 2p I got all bundled up and went out on a walk through our neighborhood and Washington Square Park. 

 

view from the window of our apartment in the morning

 

walking on the east side of Washington Square Park

 

 

tree in Washington Sq. Park / tree outside of the NYU Stern Business School

 

Washington Square Park

 

I am so bummed, last week when I started this entry I had so many pictures included and then my computer crashed and I lost the entry.  Today when Nick and I were working on clearing off files of my computer I guess I deleted most of the pictures I took from the storm. So this is all I have.  :(

Boston weekend 2.5.10

The first weekend in February we went with Kim on an impromptu road trip to Boston to see Lindsay.  Friday morning Kim called and said she was renting a car to drive out to Boston (and to dodge the blizzard that was *supposed* to hit the city over the weekend) & wanted to see if Nick and I wanted to tag along.  We thought it was the perfect opportunity for a Jensen sibling weekend & to get out to Boston without having to ride the lovely Fung Wah.  And we were excited to see Lindsay since we didn't get to see her over the Christmas holiday.  

We got out of the city early in the afternoon to avoid the rush hour mess and were to Boston for dinner.  We ordered Chinese take out from a nearby joint and Lindsay and I walked to the store to pick up some wine.  We had good intentions to go out that night, but out lack of motivation got the best of us (and we laid on the couch and watched the Hangover (and by WE I mean Nick & I, Lindsay and Kim were zonked out before 9p)).

We had planned on coming back to the city on Saturday morning, but after a late breakfast and going to see Lindsay at work, we reconsidered.  After discussing some ideas of what to do with our afternoon, Lindsay suggested that we go to Plymouth Rock.  It took some coaxing on Nicks behalf (he is really into American History), but he convinced Kim to drive us out there.  By the time we got out to the rock, it was snowing and was so cold that we couldn't stand to be out of the car.  We ended up walking around for 10 minutes and then getting back into the heated car and driving around to find a place to get chowder!

 

After lunch we headed back to Boston and did some shopping in the Back Bay neighborhood, an upscale residential area that has a row of retail shops.  We went to the mall and Nick got a book on The Mayflower (so thankful he has some reading material - for days he was complaining that he had nothing to read after he left his book in AZ over Christmas break).

We grabbed dinner at a brewery and headed back to Lindsays to have some wine & watch tv.  Once again we planned on going out, but the cold kept us bundled up in blankets on the couch all evening!  Not that any of us were complaining.  We left to come back to the city early on Sunday morning and we (I) were pleasantly surprised that it looked like that we didn't miss the big snow storm!  It hit on Wednesday!!

playing catch up

It's been a while since I last posted, but it's not all my fault...  My laptop is short on space, so everything has been taking more time than anticipated & I had an entire entry written last Wednesday with pictures of the snow day and I keep getting a strange message when I try to post it.  So I am going back to the old way, and trying to enter my blogs in the blogger program provided.  So bear with me, I hope this works. :)  Here it goes!

baby it’s cold outside

We got a light dusting of snow overnight and woke up with a few inches covering our street. 

view from the elevator lobby on our floor looking out at Mercer St.

view from the Courtyard

 

so we are having this for dinner…