Best of 2012

The highlights of 2012. We had an eventful year. Looking forward to the quiet of the winter and planning new adventures for 2013.

January: We started the elimination diet

February: We saw Book of Mormon and loved it.

March: We completed the elimination diet

April: Aaron and Miriam and Lou and Tyler came to visit

May: We went to Michigan twice which gave us the opportunity to drink lots of Oberon

June: I turned 25

July: We visited the Finger Lakes for the first time and loved it. We went to Michigan for Mary and Ben's wedding.

August: Hawaii. Easily the highlight of the year.

September: Sean started his MPH at Columbia and we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. We went to Chicago for Kyle and Katie's wedding.

October: I visited Miriam and Aaron in Madison. Sean and I took a weekend trip to Boston to celebrate his 26th birthday. At the end of the month we survived our second hurricane in NYC.

November: We voted in NY for the first time and attended two wonderful weddings of good friends. We celebrated Thanksgiving in NYC.

December: I went to my first opera at the Met. We took an epic trip to Michigan for Christmas and enjoyed seeing our families and many friends.

Christmas Spirit

Sorry for the lack of posting. I have been angry at Blogger for telling me I have filled my photo limits and can't put any more up without paying them. I didn't even know there was a photo limit in the first place! I haven't had time to figure that one out so just decided to stop posting anything.

December has been a busy month, even with that extra week after Thanksgiving to get ready for Christmas, it still seems there hasn't been enough hours in the day. A few great things that have happened this month:

-Our good friend Michael came to visit New York (we are trying to convince him to move here). This gave us a great excuse to visit all our favorite restaurants and spend a lot of time at the Union Square holiday market.

-I went to my first opera at the Met. It was pretty cool, although I can't say I recommend a three hour opera on a Tuesday night when you are exhausted. I do recommend seeing it with an opera enthusiast who can confirm your suspicions that the soprano is really good. (Thanks, Sarah!)

Holiday parties! We have had the right mix of fun and low key events to celebrate the season this year with both friends and coworkers.


Still, it has been very BUSY. Lots of gifts to be shipped or figure out how to pack, lots of planning for our trip to Michigan, and lots of studying for Sean as he reaches the end of his semester. I have not been feeling the Christmas spirit this month. Determined to change that, this week I am listening only to Christmas music and have prescribed a Christmas movie for myself to watch tonight while packing. Here's hoping it does the trick!

Thanksgiving in the City

This year we spent Thanksgiving at our apartment in New York. Consider this a PSA that this was not done by choice, but was due to financial constraints (have you looked at flight prices recently for the holidays? It is insane). I was extremely sad to not be with my family on Thanksgiving having the best mashed potatoes made in Michigan and checked in throughout the day to see how much wine every had and who was winning the best Bingo prizes. We still managed to have a festive and fun holiday though, cooking dinner in our apartment with Jocelyn and Cory and their friend from Michigan, Than, who is in his last year at Yale Law.

We had some minor mishaps (the turkey turned green from a combo of garlic and lemon, Google it) but all in all it was a very successful and delicious dinner. Complete with homemade apple and pumpkin pies. It was nice to spend the holiday with friends and not face the craziness that is an airport the day before Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin scone dance party

Baking up some sweet potatoes and baked brie with Monica's recipes

Thanksgiving breakfast

What cooking should look like

The dinner table

Carving our green turkey

The best part of Thanksgiving in my opinion

All of us

Sean was a little tired at the end of the day

The Blender's Back!

I've got to hand it to Breville USA. They have amazing customer service. After attempting to call their help line to find out if I could purchase a replacement jug for my broken blender, I gave up after being on hold for nearly 30 minutes. Frustrated, I sent an email to their customer service center with y question. They replied quickly, saying that they had changed the model slightly and would like to send me a free "jug replacement kit." I wasn't sure what that meant but figured I'd take my chances and sent them my shipping address. They let me know to expect it within 7-10 days.

Hurricane Sandy happened so there was a bit of a delay but I was very excited when I received a package from Breville holding a brand new blender jug and blade. Our blade was getting kind of gross, so this was even more amazing then just the free jug. They sell replacement jugs for some models on their website for $100. I was so thrilled, I had to take photographic evidence of my first green smoothie in the new blender. Sean was not so amused. What can I say, I love my blender!

Kristen and Nate's Wedding

Last week, Sean and I had the pleasure of attending our first ever Monday wedding. It was for our good friend Kristen and her fabulous guy, Nate. Sean and I met Kristen at MSU when we lived in Mason Hall together. Since moving to Astoria where Kristen also lives, we have enjoyed getting to spend a lot more time together. We were so thrilled to celebrate their wedding and share in their radiant happiness. (What can I say, Sean and I absolutely love weddings, because we love seeing people in love.)

The ceremony took place at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria. I have been once, when it was packed full of people trying to see a Jim Hensen exhibit. It was a beautiful venue for a wedding and afterwards we got to spend some time exploring the museum and making flip book movies, much more fun when not super crowded. The reception was one block away in an event space at Studio Square, a beer garden that Kristen took us to when we first moved here. Great drinks, food, and a ridiculous Gangam Style dance-off completed the evening. Absolutely the best way to spend a Monday.

Adam and Lisa's Wedding

Our post Sandy weekend plans were no small task. We needed to get to a wedding in Long Island in the midst of power outages and a gas shortage. Luckily, after a rental car cancellation and a mistake in our hotel reservation we were able to get help from our very generous friends, Mike and Jen, who drove us and shared their hotel room. I'm glad we were able to help someone who didn't have power by giving up one of our rooms and it made for some entertaining moments.

The town the wedding was in did not fare well in the storm, with many downed trees and wires and people not expecting to have power returned for a few weeks. It's a bad situation to be in with the way the temperature has recently dropped. The hotel was doing all they could to help people and also kindly tolerated our late night lobby hang outs.

The wedding was beautiful and I am so glad it was still able to happen. After a touching ceremony, we enjoyed some amazing food (lobster mac and cheese, calamari, mahi mahi, and deep fried oreos were involved, and that's barely scratches the surface), delicious beverages, and a crazy fun dance party during which shirts were removed and chairs were lifted in the air. It was a night to remember! We didn't take many photos because we were too busy having fun but here are a few.

Enjoying Bailey's on the rocks as gentlemen do

Cocktail hour

Why yes, this is our grand piano

Cake cutting

The amazing band

End of the night

Congrats Adam and Lisa! We are so happy we were able to be there and celebrate with you! If you can handle a hurricane the week of your wedding, I'm sure that together you will be able to handle anything life throws at you.

The mess

Well everyone, we made it through another hurricane smacking into New York. We felt sure we would lose power, our lights were flickering, power was going out around us, and the wind was really  howling. But our building held out. It seems most of Astoria was better off than other parts of the city. Our biggest problem seemed to be cabin fever. Many of our friends and coworkers are still without power and we are all trying our best to be patient with slow returns to subway service.

On Tuesday afternoon we went for a walk around Astoria and to the river. We avoided all puddles!

30th Ave

Water levels were already down

On our block

Now we are faced with a fuel shortage and trying to get to Long Island for a wedding tonight. This is sure to be interesting.

Hurricane Sandy

Sean, enjoying the hurricane playlist

Hurricane Sandy is on her way to the east coast and both Sean and I are stuck at home. Since there is little work we can get done from home we are using today to be uber productive. Clean the bathtub, wash the dishes, change the sheets, take down our summer/ac unit friendly curtain, make applesauce, make burritos for the weeks lunches etc.

I also took some time to make a hurricane playlist. You're welcome.

Scorpions, Rock You Like a Hurricane

B.J. Thomas, Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head

The Carpenters, Rainy Days and Mondays

Modest Mouse, Float On

The Belle Stars, Iko Iko

ABBA, Waterloo

R.E.M., It's the End of the World As We Know It

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Have You Ever Seen the Rain?

Blondie, The Tide is High

Etta James, Stormy Weather


And to all our concerned family members, nothing to worry about here. The worst of the storm hasn't hit yet, but our apartment is on the third floor of a small building that is outside of all flood zones. At the worst, we will lose power, but we have a gas stove and plenty of emergency friendly food. And several bottles of wine.

Boston

Last weekend Sean and I took a quick trip to Boston. I have been wanting to go for several months and am so glad the trip finally happened thanks to a cheap car rental and credit card points that got us a free hotel stay.*

We had such a fun time hanging out with Melissa and Eric and celebrating Sean's birthday. Boston is a great city and the weather was perfect (even a little too warm, I had to wear shorts!). We took a walk around Harvard, watched some crew on the Charles, had delicious italian food in the North End, walked all the way across the city, saw the harbor, and went on a tour of Harpoon Brewery, where I discovered my new favorite beer that of course will be very difficult to find in NYC. We also made time to watch the MSU-UofM game which was to say the least, torturous. Despite the loss, it was all in all a wonderful weekend!

Riding the T

Harvard Yard

We enjoyed the costumed tour guides

Waiting for our turn to get a photo with John Harvard

John Harvard is the school mascot, which I still think is silly

Winnie the Pooh's house!

Wild turkey in Cambridge

Head of the Charles

Head of the Charles

Chocolate fondue

At Max Brenner

After a delicious seafood lunch

No caption necessary

Harpoon Brewery, yum

*Yes we drove and yes we were stuck in traffic leaving NYC and leaving Boston. Such is life on the east coast. The fun part was trying out turn by turn directions on our iphones. It worked great but we did have to learn not to listen too closely to Siri, she is not completely up on her NYC highways and bridges.

Rest in Peace Breville

Today is Sean's birthday. Today is also the day my favorite kitchen appliance died.

I was going to make a delicious spinach smoothie after a weekend of over indulgence in Boston celebrating Sean's birthday. I was really looking forward to the smoothie.

Of course, if I were to do a study of the mornings I break glass in the kitchen, I bet the majority are Mondays. I should have known better.

The blender cord was stuck underneath making the blender tilt. I tried to move it, the blender jug fell, in slow motion obviously. And I stuck out my arm to catch it but the handle still hit the counter and shattered, taking my favorite Moosewood pint glass with it to a broken glass grave.

It has been a long day of mourning the loss of the blender and picking glass shards off the floor (they are literally EVERYWHERE!).

I put in a request to see if we can order a replacement jug but Sean brought up the excellent point that now could also be the time to invest in my dream blender, the Vitamix. Every cloud does indeed have a silver lining.

Thanks for all the memories, Breville blender. You got us through smoothie fasts and pureed our soups. You will be missed.

Madison

Last weekend I went to visit Miriam and Aaron in Madison. It was my first trip to Wisconsin and while the weather was quite cold, the fall trees were beautiful and the cheese was abundant. We went to the farmer's market at the capitol, the UW campus, and many of Miriam's favorite restaurants and bars. I tried a few Wisconsin "delicacies" including fried cheese curds, a Bloody Mary with a sidecar, and an Old Fashioned. Madison seems to have a lot of good things going for it and I hope to be able to visit again with Sean!

Vegan pizza yum

Capitol

On top of the dome

Inside the capitol

Fried cheese at the farmer's market

Fried cheese curds!

Union Terrace