turning the BIG 3-0 in the BIG APPLE

Two weeks ago I turned 30!  Although I had not been dreading this milestone as much as some friends have, I was bummed that I was in NYC and away from some of closest friends & family.  So to help me cope, Nick made me a video montage of all of my friends & family to wish me a happy birthday!  I had breakfast & coffee in bed and enjoyed the show.

Isn’t my husband the greatest?!?!  AND a BIG thanks to all of my friends & family too for sending me your birthday greetings!  LOVE you all!  (Don’t kill me Mom!!)

Later in the day, I went to the airport to pick up my old roommate, Michele.  She came into town for the week, I was so thankful to have her here to celebrate!  We hung out that afternoon and then rallied to get ready for my birthday dinner.  Nick had class that evening, so Michele & I got ready and headed into Soho to find a restaurant and then Nick met up with us when he was done.  We settled on Diva, which had a great atmosphere and a storefront that opened up to the street.  The food was so-so, but the company was great!!!  During dinner, Nick presented me with my present – birthstone earrings (aquamarine), they have this neat setting that looks more like the stones are set inside of a crown.  He got them at (Doyle & Doyle) a local jeweler here in NYC.  A fantastic memento for my 30th and our time here in the city!  After dinner we came home and had cupcakes from Crumbs bake shop!  Yummy!!!   

The rest of the week consisted of ramming around the city with Michele.  We went to the Lincoln Exhibit at the NY Historical Society, waited in line at Regis & Kelly (didn’t get in – you have to get tickets 12 months in advance, so we waited in the standby line, the guest co-host was Jerry Seinfeld & Donald Trump was the guest – we NEVER had a chance!), went to Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes & banana pudding (I am hooked to the pudding!!), cooked dinner at her swanky quarters in Columbus Circle, shopped, got our hair done, and lots more! 

Friday morning we went to the TKTS booth on South Street to get tickets to a Broadway show.  It was raining and mucky out, but there were still enough people already assembled in line.  Our schedules were flexible & we thought we could either see a Friday night show or a Saturday afternoon matinee and got tickets for Saturdays matinee of:

Saturday turned out to be quite eventful!!  It was POURING down rain out all day.  I met Michele in Times Square for lunch before Mary Poppins at Applebee’s.  Can’t believe we ate at a chain, but the weather was so horrible and it was right next to the theatre, it was just easy!  We went over to the drug store to get candy to take into the show and met Nick outside the theatre.  The play was AMAZING!!!  My favorite scene was “Step in Time”, it was a tap dance routine and one of the guys walked up the wall, across the ceiling, and down the other side of the stage all the while tap dancing!  We got a picture of Michele & I by the Mary Poppins sign as we were leaving, but I don’t have it yet. 

On Saturday night Nick organized a birthday dinner at Buddakan in the ubercool Meatpacking district .  Our table was downstairs and off to the left of the room pictured immediately below (This is the table that Carrie & Big sat at for their rehearsal dinner in the Sex & the City movie.)

our group: Michele, Nick, Missy, Jordan, Maria, Lindsay, & Kim

After dinner we went across the street to a hotel that had a bar downstairs to hang out. 

So thankful that Kim & Lindsay were here!!!  LOVE you girls! :)

My college friend Katy now lives in the city so she came out!

Old roomies!  I LOVE this girl!!

Nick was commenting that on my profile picture for FB that it was basically a picture of him with me in it.  So I had Michele take a few shots of just me!  :)

I wasn’t as good about taking pictures as I should be.  More of our friends that went to Law School with Nick at U of A also came out,  but I didn’t get pictures! 

On Sunday morning Kim, Lindsay, Michele, Nick, & I had brunch at the Bowery Bar in the East Village.  We went with Kim there a few weeks ago and it was so yummy!!!  I got the bacon, avocado, lettuce, and tomato (don’t really like tomatoes usually on sandwiches but with avocado and bacon you can’t go wrong!!!). 

Thanks to my hubby for organizing everything and making sure I had a great birthday!!!  Love you!!

three LONG weeks

So last Friday we bottled our first batch of beer (a Golden Lager) into liter bottles & have been waiting for them to carbonate.  All week the bottles have been resting  atop of our “armoire” & at least 6 times a day Nick will go over and squeeze them to check their progress.  Today we put two of the bottles in the fridge to enjoy tonight with dinner!  I will let you know how they turn out.

I think a drink might be necessary as I am ripping out my 10+ rows of knitting tonight /  this afternoon.  I decided that I would try a different pattern on this baby blanket for Caleb.  I have been SO concentrated on making sure I knit the right stitches & purl the right stitches that I guess I must have done one too many rows because the pattern is off.  Now to the normal “untrained” eye it might be undetectable, but I know it’s there & it’s going to drive me nuts.  The pattern is a basket weave and you knit & purl in series of 4 stitches in each row and then after 5 rows you knit an entire row, apparently it’s this entire knit row that I screwed up on because normally this row would be on the back *wrong* side of the blanket but in one section it’s on the front *right* side.  UGH!!!  I might have to switch over to Paige’s blanket for a little while and take a break.  Wish me luck!