Pictures

I have been getting hounded for a new blog, so here it is. I really haven't written because I had no new pictures to share with you. I now have some and hope you enjoy them all.

The first major snow storm hit New York on Friday. This is the view out on the ledge of the building where CB Radio and I work. I was also trying to get all the snowflakes coming down, but you can't really see that too well.

Another view out of the window at work. You can tell how fast the snow was falling because it just looks cloudy.

CB Radio hard at work on Friday. She was eating a left over cookie from our "holiday party" the day before. The holiday party was just a get together in our conference room during work on Thursday. There was also some more karaoke, but not as much as last time. I ate way too many sweet treats at the party, but I also got to drink some egg nog and rum!

Me also hard at work on Friday. Look it was snowing and the day after our party at the office. We just needed a little down time. I was also hit by a snowball at work, but don't worry I got BSIII back with my own snowball. Well really it was what was left over from what he threw at me, but still I got him back.

Friday night Coriander, Mateo, DKNY, BH and myself went out to dinner around Union Square at a Ramen Restaurant. Our original plan was to go ice skating, but the weather was so bad it closed the rink. The food was very good, and just what was needed on a snowy night.

After dinner when we were waiting for our check. I bet BH will love that I put this picture up. We also saw a movie after dinner. I haven't seen a movie in the theater for quite some time.

On the walk home from the L train. As you can see it was starting to snow again.

BH & DKNY walking in front of me on our brisk walk to our respective apartments. This is just before a girl that was wasted in high heels, in the snow mind you, fell in the middle of the street. DKNY was nice enough to help her out of the street and home, along with another person from the restaurant she fell in front of. I was going to take a picture, but I felt bad since she had just fallen.

I was told that the snow gets nasty and gross quickly in New York so I took a picture of it. I was a little disappointed in how gross the snow got; to me it looked the same as it does in Cincinnati after a ton of cars drive on the snow. It may be different in Manhattan though, I wasn't there late enough after the snow to test the theory.

On Saturday DKNY and Mateo went with me to the Xavier game in New Jersey. I was my first time getting on the New Jersey Transit system and boy was it a blast. They don't assign a gate for the train till 10 minutes before the train is scheduled to leave so you just have to wait around till they call the gate. Then once they announce it everyone hurries to the gate and you feel like you are being herded through the doors to your train. On our way down to the platform the escalator stopped working. I have never been mid ride on an escalator when it stopped working before, it is a fun experience. You slowly come to a stop, but your body kind of wants to keep going at the speed you originally were going, fun times. Really the transit out the Meadowlands isn't all that bad. They have a nice system, other than the original boarding at Penn Station.

Our seats for the Xavier vs. Duke game. Great seats too bad Xavier decided not to show up and play basketball that day.

The game was so far out of reach, after the first 5 minutes, I had time to take some pictures of the game. I also bet Mateo and DKNY and if Xavier came back from down 31 at the half and won the game I would pay for both of their tickets. Let's just say I knew it was a safe bet and I ended up winning.

Sunday was Christmas cookie baking time. BH being very domestic with her cookie skills.

Me doing some baking as well.Here are some of our fine creations. We made five different kinds of cookies all together.

More cookies, I will be bringing most of them home with me.

Our fourth variety of cookie for the day.

And our last cookies, I hope everyone will enjoy some cookies at Festivus or my family will enjoy them on Christmas because we made a ton of cookies.

Jenny even threw some on the floor and we have a ton. We put those back in the pile of cookies so you better hope you don't end up with a floor cookie.

Coriander cutting Mateo's hair. He said he had a mullet and wanted to get rid of it.

It all started innocently enough with a trimmer.

But then it got serious with some huge scissors. In the end it looked fine and now Mateo doesn't have a mullet.
This is my wall of Christmas cards. It may not look like much, but it is at least some decoration in my otherwise bland room. Thanks everyone who sent me a card!

I will be traveling on the 23rd to go home to Cincinnati and I will try and take more pictures of all the Holiday goings on that I will be attending, especially Festivus. And I will try to write a blog more quickly this time around.

I am getting ready for the Holiday's; I don't have any pregnancy news to give as a present.

Coldness

Well it has been another week, so I guess it is time for another blog. Plus I am drinking some wine by myself and listening to Christmas music so that seems like the appropriate time for some blogging in my book.

Once again I don't have many pictures to go with this blog so I am going to try and keep it on the shorter side. I know "people" would much rather see pictures than read my horrible writing. I have never been a very good writer and I know it too. So here are some highlights from the week that was.

Wednesday I went to the bar with Mateo to watch the Xavier game. It is hard to find bars in Brooklyn that show Xavier games; we tried, but ended up back in Manhattan at bar XII where you always know the XU game will be on. DKNY and BH considered coming with us, but backed out at the last minute. When we got to the bar and ordered some beers they said they were having trouble with all of the taps and we had to go with bottled beer. Then we ordered a bottled beer and they were out of it, on to something else. I told our waitress to just bring me whatever they had because it really didn't matter at that point; I didn't want to strike out three times. I got a nice refreshing Michelob Ultra, but hey it was free since they didn't have our first two beer selections. There were some other X fans there as well, but we didn't talk to them. I'm glad I have someone who wants to watch basketball with me in NYC, thanks Mateo! You will probably get to hear all about another Xavier game in the next blog too, in fact the crosstown shootout is on Saturday.

Friday night after work CB Radio and I met up with Goose to help him light the green screen for his Saturday movie shoot. We didn't have to meet till 7:00 so CB and I went and got some dinner after work before meeting up with Goose. We went to a Thai place right across the street from SVA, and we were going to get some "drinks", the only thing on the menu was a generic Thai beer. What the hey, how bad could a Thai beer be, but of course they didn't have any; we were denied our beers.

Lighting didn't take too long so we went to a bar for a couple of drinks, where DKNY met up with us, before heading home for the night. It was going to be an early morning, 6am, on Saturday for the final day of shooting.

Saturday morning was freeeezzzing! We were out in the bitter cold right by the water for about 3 hours in the morning, where there was no sun either, freezing our butts off to help Goose with his movie. Luckily CB Radio and Goose brought some hand warmers, the little packets you put in your gloves to keep your hands warm, for everyone so we would have our extremities freeze off. I put the hand warmers in my shoes too; my feet were so cold I thought my toes were going to freeze off. Let's just say I never wanted to be running on a Saturday morning as much as I did that day.

After freezing our butts off we finally got to go indoors and finish up all of the shooting. It is now official that the movie is finished shooting, unless of course Goose finds something he needs to pick up while editing. When I got home from the long morning/afternoon only one thing was in order, a nap. I got in a nice 2 hour nap before heading out for the night.

When I left with Goose on Saturday night , much to my surprise, it was snowing! Ok, really it was flurrying, but hey it was my first NYC snow so I took it all in. We met up with Joel, TB and Ice and headed out to some bars in the Park Slope neighborhood. Nothing overly exciting happened yet we managed to still be out till 4:30am.

Which brings me to my Sunday, well it was already Sunday at that point. I did nothing on Sunday. I didn't even leave the apartment that is how little I did. It was just laying around doing some reading, netflix watching and Christmas shopping. Hopefully I can finish all of my Christmas shopping tonight and be worry free till Christmas.

It was a longer blog than I was expecting; I'm not expecting a long time of child rearing ahead.

Cincinnati Thanksgiving

Well as you all know I went back to Cincinnati for the first time since moving to New York this weekend. It was my turn to go see Ando and since it was Thanksgiving now was as good of time as any. Really I haven't been able to go before because I don't have the time off work. Luckily the day after Thanksgiving is considered a holiday at our company and I didn't have to take any days off to head to Cincinnati for 3 days.

I flew out of JFK on Thursday morning and was expecting some long lines to get through security since that is all you hear about this time of year, and I have never flown around Thanksgiving, but I was mistaken. I didn't need to leave myself two and a half hours to get to the airport and through security. It only took a half hour to get to the airport, with my gabby driver, and even shorter to go through security. Lets go back to my car driver though. He was quite a talker and didn't shut up the whole car ride. I found out all about him and his family as well as how he like Thanksgiving more than Christmas because he can work more. It was 6am too, the last thing I felt like doing was talking to my driver the whole way to the airport, but you can't win them all.

When I got to my gate I talked to the gate agent about not needing my connecting flight anymore. I thought I was going to have to make up a story about how I needed to get off in Cincinnati because it would be quicker for me to drive to Dayton than wait two hours for my next flight to take off, but that wasn't the case. He said it was fine and he unchecked me from the flight right away. Thank goodness I could get off Cincinnati and not waste time waiting around for a flight to Dayton and then have to drive an hour back to Cincinnati.

My plane landed an half hour early in Cincinnati and I called Ando to see if he had left yet to pick me up, but he hadn't. I told him to leave right away since I was so early. Luckily I came into the C terminal so I took my time walking back and didn't get on the tram, which I really don't understand why anyone would need to.

That afternoon Ando and I went to his family gathering and then at night we went to my families Thanksgiving. This year we only ate one Thanksgiving meal; with Ando's family and that is what I am most grateful for. Last year I was so stuffed from eating twice and I am glad that we decided not to make the same mistake again this year. I also got to see my nephew whom I haven't seen in quite some time. He is really starting to come out of his shell and is becoming just what you would think a 3 year old little boy would be. Christmas should be exciting with a child around this year.

On Friday Ando and I met my dad downtown for lunch; it is just something my dad and I have always done since I can remember. Really all of my sibling will go down and meet my dad for lunch. We used to ride the bus downtown when we were little to go meet my dad for lunch and somehow it has continued on all these years. After lunch Ando and I went to the Contemporary Arts Center. We still had not been to the new space and we had the whole day off and were downtown so we decided to go. I'm glad I finally went and got to see the space as well as see the art. Nothing blew me away in the exhibits, but I still enjoyed them all.

Friday night was some dinner at Asiana with Ando, Jenster, Teed, Mo, Wint, Wenda and ED. For some reason it took longer than usual for us to order and get our food so it was a good thing we had some back-up adult beverages in the car. And after everyone got their meals Ando and I realized that they forgot our sushi boat. We decided to just split some sushi as our dinner, but they forgot to look at the back of the sushi menu and missed our boat completely. We finally got our sushi after everyone ate and Teed and Mo had already left for the night; Mo wasn't feeling well.

The night was topped of with Ando, Jenster, Wint, Wenda and myself all heading to Molly Malone's for some good beers on tap; TD met up with us as well since she was in the area, or Cincinnati for her.

Saturday Ando and I had an appointment to meet with a florist and cake person to discuss wedding plans. Well really I had some appointments and I just drug Ando to them. The appointment was supposed to be for 11am, but the cake lady didn't show up till noon, I think. It felt like we were sitting there forever talking to the flower lady with nothing really to say. After sitting and agonizing for an hour the cake lady finally showed up and we talked about cake flavors and price, don't worry I worked in a coconut layer. We haven't officially gone with this place, so I will let you know when the final decision has been made and what to look for when selecting a piece of cake at the wedding.

When we finished the appointment we met Rando at his place and walked down to Skyline for some lunch. I realize that I don't really miss Skyline that much. Yes, I like it, but I wouldn't say that it was so awesome while I was eating it. I can definitely go two months without eating Skyline and not have a craving for it.

That night was my 10 year high school reunion, which I hadn't decided if I was going to go to or not by the time the night rolled around, but in the end I went. I kind of only went because Jenster was feeling sick that day and couldn't go any more. She already paid to go, so I was just filling in for her which didn't matter in the end. They weren't checking anyone in or making sure you paid to be there. The reunion turned out to be a little disappointing as well. All the people I was hoping to see weren't there. In the end it was just a strange mix of people that you wouldn't think would be at the reunion and not many people who you thought would. In fact I have no really good stories to share with you.

After the reunion we headed over to BW's and met up with Ando for a little hanging out amongst ourselves. I didn't want to stay out too late since I had to get up early for my flight the next morning, plus I had a huge headache, so we left around midnight to head home. My flight was out of Dayton this time around and we left out house at 6:30am to get me to the airport on time. When a flight is early in the morning is when you wish you could just fly out of CVG for cheap.

There were no problems with my flight on the way back either, in fact I got in about 20 minutes early this time around. Of course my cab driver had no idea where he was going to get me home, so I had to lead him in the right direction, or really just lead him the whole time. It was a crappy day out in New York as well, but there were things that I just wanted to get done so I pushed myself out the door, after a quick nap of course, to get some laundry and grocery shopping done.

That pretty much sums up my trip back home for the long Thanksgiving weekend and I am sorry about the lack of pictures, but I just didn't think about pulling out my camera ever.

I flew back to Cincinnati for the first time since moving; there was no baby flying with me.

Registering

Look, it has been less than a week since I last wrote a blog and I am writing yet another one. Am I on top of things or what.

Not much happened during the last week. I am pretty sure it was just going to work and coming back to the apartment to chill out for a bit. The only exception was Thursday of course. I went to BH and DKNY's for my weekly TV watching ritual. BH made some awesome lamb chops that she got from Trader Joe's', I have noted to try to make them myself sometime, and I made a couscous salad/side to go with them. I even made a cucumber, dill, mint sauce to go on top.

Friday after work Ice, CB Radio and I went to a shoe sale. It was a sale on sample shoes, but none of us found anything we wanted. We did find some stuff we liked, but didn't think it was worth the price, even on sale. After our shoe shopping, which did include Payless, we headed to Union Square for some dinner. On a quick side note, I tried on about 4 more pairs of boots, but still couldn't get any to fit over my freakishly large calves. Joel then joined the three of us, and we split a bottle of wine over dinner.

After dinner we hit up a few bars in the area and just kept drinking with each other. The more I go out alone on the weekends the more I realize how much I miss Ando. You would all think it was because I want to share all the fun New York has to offer every weekend with him, but you would be mistaken. I miss Ando's wallet. I never realized how much Ando paid for me drinking when we went out; what a guy! I have to pay and get everything myself now. Well, the getting part really isn't any different, but the paying is.

On Saturday I went out to register for the wedding. CB Radio, Ice, Coriander and BH all came along for the ride too. I wanted to get registering partially out of the way before the Holiday season hit. I hear it is a pain to register during the Christmas season. We all went to SoHo for the CB2 and Crate & Barrel for me to register at. CB2 was the first place on the list, and the store isn't too big so it didn't take too much time going through and picking out what I, I mean we, wanted for the wedding.

After CB2 is was time for some lunch and drinks before moving on. We ate at a Mexican restaurant in the area and split a pitcher of margarita's. The restaurant also had a ton of different hot sauces on the table so I had to try them all of course. I think I am the only one that did too. If only Teed were there he would been with me on the hot sauces. Lunch was good, and it was kind of nice having a slight buzz on to go to Crate & Barrel.

At Crate & Barrel I received a nice gift for choosing to register there. I was excited when the lady told me that I got a free gift because I like so much of what they have in the store, but oh how my disappointment hit when I actually saw the gift. Yep, the lovely heart shaped candy dish was my free gift! What I am going to do with it I have no idea. I want to give it to someone as a joke wedding gift, but I don't know anyone getting married that would appreciate the joke. I have a feeling they would all think I was giving it for real.

Well, after my free gift it was time to take the scanner over all two floors of Crate & Barrel. Going through two floors takes quite a bit of time I found out. I thought I did pretty good with all of the items I registered for, but according to everyone else I better find some more presents I want. I think I got around 100, or less probably, items between the two stores. Ando and I are still going to hit up Target, so that may add another 50 items to the list, but with 300 people being invited plus showers and such that probably still isn't enough. We will see what happens.

Saturday night I went out to a bar in Williamsburg with CB Radio, Goose, TB, Ice, Joel and CB's friend Gabby. It was a nice little place and we had somewhere for all of us to sit around and talk too. The bar also had second happy hour which you can't go wrong with. Between 12am and 2am they do another happy hour with drink specials. We also ordered every fry available in the place to munch on; waffle fries, sweet potato fries and tater tots. It was a lot of fries for one evening, but still tasty going down.

We left that bar at 2 because they made us and happy hour was over and we really wanted to go some place else. We stayed in Williamsburg, but it was nice because we ended up about halfway home on our long walk back to Greenpoint. I think it was 25 degrees out that night, but they said it felt like 12 outside. My first year here and I get January weather in November, of course.

I ended up getting home around 4 or so I think. Not really sure, but it didn't matter since I had nothing to do on Sunday. I could just hang out and do nothing for one whole day, which I don't think I have done since being here, and that is exactly what I did. I did some reading, watched some episodes of the L word, took a nap, and of course watched the Xavier game.

It was a little pathetic how I watched the Xavier game though. I couldn't find it on the internet anywhere, well I could, but you had to have a windows computer to watch it, damn them, so I watched the whole game via google chat. Ando turned the TV to ESPN2 and then put the computer up to the game for me to watch over google chat. Pathetic, yes, but hey it worked and I got to see Xavier upset Memphis.

I think that is about all I have for now. I don't know if I will write again before I leave for Cincinnati on Thursday morning or not. My guess is no, but hey I may write while I am home for Thanksgiving and the weekend. I need to remember my camera in Cincinnati because I am sure there will be plenty of photo ops.

I finally had a lazy day all to myself; that doesn't mean I am pregnant which makes you tired all the time.

Olive Garden

I completely forgot to write about going to Olive Garden in Time Square Friday. It was a work lunch, so 5 of us went out and what better place than Olive Garden! Three of us at the lunch all hail from Ohio originally and so we headed back to our roots where we could feel like "family". I guess Olive Garden has been a long running joke at work since before I got there and I just happened to tag onto the realization of it.
There were plenty of fried menu items to go around, but I think we only ended up with three; and they were all on the appetizer plate. That consisted of fried mozzarella, fried zucchini and fried calamari. After our fried platter we got to enjoy some endless bread sticks and salad. Then our meals came out; I had the lasagna. I learned my lesson from last time I went to Olive Garden, don't stray from the basics. I got the fish last time and it was so gross I don't even think I made it half way before giving up and sticking with the salad and bread sticks.

And wait there is more. We also had some pumpkin cheesecake and lemon cake to top the whole afternoon off. Then we did some sightseeing in Time Square before heading back to the office. No, we really didn't do that. In fact we left time square as quickly as possible and walked back to the office where there would be less tourists. And since it was a Friday afternoon there were plenty of tourists to go around. I hope you enjoy the picture of a fully stuffed to the gills crew!

I ate my weight in cheap "Italian" food; that doesn't mean I am also feeding a growing baby.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I am clearly not living up to my promise to blog more and I apologize for that. I have been out and about plus I usually just watch something on the laptop when I am at the apartment. I am listening to the Xavier game currently so I figure now is the best time to blog.

Let's see...I left off on Wednesday, November 5th. That Thursday I went to DKNY and BH's to watch The Office and 30 Rock. Since I don't have a TV I have to go over there on Thursday's to get my fill. Before we watched Must See TV the three of us went running at McCarren Park. When we were finished I made some black beans and rice for all of us to enjoy.

Friday night I can't remember what I did at all. I have been racking my brain, but can't come up with anything at all. I probably just staying in because I had to get up early the next morning to help Goose with his movie. I got up at 7:15 to meet Goose and TB and head to Central Park for the first shot of the day. The movie lasted all day, well, till 7 pm or so. The day started out nice, but quickly turned and rained buckets all over us. It started pouring when we were in China Town for the second shot of the day and continued for pretty much the rest of the day. It was so bad that the third shot had to be canceled and we all headed to DKNY and BH's for some inside shots a little early. I was soaking wet by the time we got there, and I felt like I had just gotten off of White Water Canyon at Kings Island. I could have rung out my socks that's how wet my feet were.

After we finished shooting some of us, TB, Goose, CB Radio, BH, DKNY and myself, headed out for some dinner in Williamsburg. I had to borrow a pair of BH's shoes to go out since my were still wet as could be. We got some Chinese food with drinks before we all headed home for some much needed rest before getting up again on Sunday.

Sunday TB and I met CB Radio and Goose at a street corner in Williamsburg. It was a shot that involved some crap being sold on the street corner. We all couldn't believe how many people walked by to look at everything at our "sale". It seemed pretty obvious to us that we were shooting a movie, what with a camera and all, but that didn't stop people from looking to see if there was anything for them to buy. As is the saying, "one man's junk is another man's treasure", and a plethora of people took that to heart.

After the street sale we only had a short jaunt to McCarren Park and then another street corner between Williamsburg and the park. It was a little chilly, but I can't complain, it wasn't raining. Everyone then headed back to CB Radio and Goose's place for some yummy mulligatawny and of course more shooting. We ended up finishing up around 7 or so with the days shooting. I just had a beer at CB and Goose's place along with TB before heading home.

Monday was a regular, boring day with nothing fun to report. Tuesday I went to go see The Sea and Cake with the gang at Music Hall of Williamsburg. This was supposedly a funny thing to everyone but myself. Really I think Ando just wished he could have gone. The show wasn't bad.....but, it was a little too long for me. They didn't leave me wanting more. And they played four songs for an encore. What ever happened to the one, two songs at the most, encore? I feel like pretty soon it is going to be a 10 song encore, which you might as well just call another set. Ok, I am done with my rant.

On Wednesday night I did some laundry, which again left no time for me to blog. Can you tell that I have many busy nights with not much time to get a blog in? I was dreading doing laundry, but it really wasn't too bad. I even walked up three blocks to the nicer laundry mat. There is one right on the corner of my street, but it small and always crowded when I pass it. We'll see if the walk lasts in the dead of winter.

I am now back to Thursday night, which means TV at someone else's pad. This time Mateo and Coriander had BH, DKNY and myself over. We had some cheese, fruit and wine for dinner. It was a nice European dinner night. Who's place will I go to this week to watch The Office and 30 Rock? You'll have to stay tuned to find out.

Friday night was the tip of Xavier Basketball. I went out with Mateo, Coriander, BH and DKNY to an art opening in Williamsburg. It was called "my other robot is a donut". It had a robot in every painting and Mateo loves robots, so we all went. After the opening we headed to a bar in Manhattan, 34th between 2nd and 3rd Ave., that shows Xavier games. It was really loud in the bar because it was DJ night or something as well. It is nice to know that I can find Xavier basketball on Fox Sports Ohio here in NYC.

After that bar we headed back to Williamsburg for some foamies at the Turkey's Nest and the rest of the UC vs. Lousiville football game. It was much much quieter and bearable at the Turkey's Nest than XII Bar in Manhattan.

I didn't have to get up really early on Saturday to help with the movie; I finally got to sleep in one morning. I met at Goose and CB's for a short day of shooting. It was just doing some quick shots inside their apartment and then going around the corner for some outside shots. The rain held out long enough for us to get all the outside shots in that day. It was so nice out when we first got out there, but by the time we finished up it was getting ready to rain and cooled off quite a bit.

That evening I went to Carroll Gardens with BH and DKNY to meet up with Ice, Joel, Buxton, and Alli at a bar/restaurant. The restaurant had tons of whiskey, bourbon and scotch to choose from. I had a nice whiskey, that Buxton recommended, it was drinkable and cheap, neat. After dinner we went to another bar, the Zombie Hut, just down the street. Joel bought me a Frozen Zombie, which he was hoping I wouldn't mix up first. The frozen zombie has 151 sitting at the bottom with frozen mango mix on the top. Joel wanted me to take a sip out of the straw ans get all 151 in my first sip. It didn't work though, since I was already stirring and Buxton ruined the surprise for me as well. It I still got mostly 151 in my first sip though, it takes a lot of stirring to combine the two ingredients. After the bar I hung out for a little bit at BH and DKNY's with a wine top off. I had every intention of going home early Saturday night, but that didn't happen.

Sunday was another early morning of movie shooting all day. This time I had to get up at 7 am and didn't finish up shooting till 7 pm. It was an inside shoot all day though. Sunday was the last day of shooting till December 6th. We get a couple of weeks off before having to make up the rain outs. Mateo is going to have his work cut out for him to get this movie finished and edited before Christmas.

I have been busy, busy, busy; there is no baby on the way to make me even busier.

Halloween!

Ok, ok, ok it has been a very very long time since I last wrote a blog, 

 there is a good reason. No internet!  That's right I have been living with minimal internet for quite some time now so the first thing to go is the blog I 

 sorry to say. I have other things that I like to get in on the internet so blogging takes a back seat. Plus it takes some time to create a blog so I don't want to waste the precious few moments I have thinking of all my adoring fans, like Macho Max just to name one. 

Since I don't want this blog to get too long and wordy I am going to try and keep my thoughts to a minimum. Plus I probably can't remember half of what happened anyway.  I do know that I have finally found a sublet and am currently living in my own space. I do have a roommate, but I still have my own bed and room that I can call my own. 

 month of air mattress and futon surfing is officially over.  I should take a picture of my place but I don't think I can stand far enough in a corner for you to see the whole thing that is how small it is. I will tell you the place is in Greenpoint between Mateo and DKNY. Really I am about 4 blocks from Mateo and Coriander and 6 blocks from DKNY and BH; we make up a nice little triangle. 

Ando came up to visit me the weekend before Halloween, October 25th through the 27th. It was a short little visit, but it was good to see my man again. Who would have thought that I would miss human contact and as much as I am. We didn't do much while he was here, but we did manage to go to two pumpkin carving parties, or should I write partie's CB Radio? The first one was on Saturday night at Ice and Joel's place. 

Ando arrived in the morning we went to the Farmers' Market to buy a pumpkin for the festivities. We found a nice large pumpkin for carving and I also bought some apples, eggplant and lettuce for myself. We didn't do much else the rest of the day till we met up with CB Radio and Goose to get on the train and head to the lasagna/pumpkin carving fun. We lugged our pumpkin on the subway and in the pouring rain, and I mean pouring, we were soaking wet, for a night of good clean fun, with alcohol. 

Joel made three different lasagnas for all of us and I made a pumpkin roll, that didn't turn out to look very rolly, and the team of

 Goose and CB Radio made some worms and sand. We feasted on all of the food while watching some classic Halloween movies, Freddy 4, I think that's what one it was, and Garfield. Yep, we were eating lasagna so why not watch the Garfield Halloween special. Since we were watching the special we decided to take it one step further and carve a Garfield pumpkin. Sorry for the blurry picture, but I think you get the idea. 

After the long night of pumpkin carving, but not the one Ando and I bought and drug to Park Slope, and eating too much food the four Greenpointer's shared a car ride back to our hood. We didn't feel like waiting for all of our slow trains, plus the F was closed at the station that is closest to Ice and Hagood's; we would have had to walk quite a ways to get the G train home. And I really didn't want to carry that pumpkin all that ways again. 

Sunday DKNY, BH, Mateo, Coriander, Ando and I all went to brunch at this Spanish Tapas restaurant in Williamsburg. An alcoholic beverage was included in the price of your brunch too. After brunch Ando came with me to get the keys to my sublet and pay my first months rent. He can attest to how small my place is, but it is in a nice area and isn't with some crazy person, I like the other girl I am living with, and it has a sink in the bathroom; all pluses in my book. Ok, so after getting my keys, it was some more sitting around. Ando and I were going to go into the city, but realized we didn't have enough time since we had pumpkin carving number two later that night.

This carving was with Ando's brothers and their live-in girlfriends, sorry, but I can say that now that Ando and I are getting married. We lugged the pumpkin that we bought at the Farmers' Market yet again, but this time we actually carved it. 

and Coriander made us some pizza and BH mulled a little cider with rum for all of us. Of course I mad another pumpkin roll and this one turned out even worse than the first. I shouldn't have tried to do it my own way; lesson learned that there is a reason directions are on those recipes. I bet Ando didn't realize he was coming up to NYC to go to so many pumpkin carvings, but at least they were with me.....awwww.

Ando left early Monday morning to head back to Cincinnati and work. I'm not sure what else happened the rest of the week because I'm sure it wasn't much. I 

 know that I knitted a hat for my Halloween costume and went shopping to find a jean skirt. I love when you can incorporate something you will wear in everyday life into a Halloween costume. 

I am now at Halloween which was of course Friday. We had a nice Halloween work party in the afternoon that included some karaoke. Everyone knows just how much I love to sing so I was hogging that mic the whole time. I think most of my co-workers think I am strange and hate me now. Ok, so this is all a lie, I didn't sing one note of karaoke. I can't sing to save my life and I know it so why embarrass myself in front of my new co-workers. Maybe someday I will find enough courage to sing, but that is highly unlikely. 

That night I went to a party with Goose, CB Radio, Ice and Joel way uptown. And by way uptown I mean Washington Heights, which is past Harlem. It took us about an hour to an hour and a half to get there. It was a party with someone Goose knows from school, so most of us didn't really know anyone, but we had alcohol so it was all good. And there was roof access to take advantage of.  We left the killer party, which had the game light as a feather stiff as a board, around 3am and 

 a cab to Union Square. It would have taken us twice as long 

get home since the A train was no longer running express like it was on the way out. Once we were at Union Square we just hopped on the L home. I think I was home by around 4am, not bad considering. 

On Saturday I moved into my plush, tiny, new pad. DKNY and BH helped me move my two suitcases and three small bags of stuff.  That night I went to another Halloween party, as the same thing, I didn't mention my costume before did I, I was Wenda, the female Waldo. It is the costume that just keeps giving and giving and giving. All I had to buy was some yarn to knit my hat; BH and DKNY had the shirt and tights. Party number 2 was with BH and DKNY's friends in Greenpoint, only two blocks from my place. It was a happening little party, but I left before apple bobbing began. Needless to say I wasn't out quite as late as the night before, which is fine. 

Sunday was the New York City Marathon. It turned out that the marathon went right by DKNY and BH's place on Manhattan Ave. The three of us ate some breakfast at a restaurant along the route and then stood and watched some of the race from the street. It is amazing how many people run the photographs don't really do it justice. 

It was a packed weekend, maybe a bit more exciting than the one that Ando came up for, and I think that is all I have for now. Oh, wait I did watch election results on Tuesday night with others over some cold beers. I tried to stay awake for Obama's speech, but I couldn't make it. I knew I had to walk home from DKNY and BH's place still and then go to work early in the morning so I left around 11:45 for home. 

I now have wireless internet at my place, while writing this blog, so maybe you will get more updates from now on. My internet time isn't quite as precious anymore. I will have plenty of time to 

 the world wide web and not much else. 

I am finished surfing from place to place; no baby surfing along with me.