Ice Skating

On the Saturday after New Years a bunch of us, BH, DKNY, Mateo, Coriander, Goose, CB Radio and myself, decided we needed to go ice skating. There are a bunch of rinks around town and how can you go the whole winter without ice skating at least once. We went to Prospect Park since they have a larger rink and we could just take the bus there.I wasn't sure how well I would do since I hadn't been ice skating in quite some time. I remember not being all that bad at ice skating last time I went. I was pretty sure I would be a little wobbly at first and then pick up on it a little more, but you never know. I was pretty much dead on. I hugged the wall for about the first quarter of a lap and then I got the feel of it again. I must say I think I would have done a little better had the ice skates I got not warped inward. I tried to tie them as tight as possible so that they would be straight on my feet, but there is only so much you can do. All the bad skaters ahead of me wore the skates one way, toward the inside.
I would say we ended up skating for about 45 minutes and then they came on to clean the ice so we decided not to stick around and wait for it. We were all hungry anyway so it was out to lunch. Only lunch didn't happen that quickly because while we were returning our skates, I know I am not going to do a good job at telling this story, a little girl and mom were on the floor right in front of the counter picking up beads. Apparently the little girl broke her anklet while skating or taking off her skates, I don't know which, and the beads were all over. Now mind you there was a massive line of people trying to give back their skates since it was a break for ice cleaning, and these guys were just sitting in front of the counter so no one could get in front of them picking up some tiny tiny beads. The mom even asked for the skate back to get all of the beads from the skate. She told her daughter that they could resting the beads on another "fishing line", yes that is how small all these beads were, when they got home. I am sorry, but it is time for your daughter to learn a lesson; we can buy more crappy beads for $1 and make a new one. You are holding everyone up up for some piece of crap anklet that can be made for $.50; not worth picking up every single little bead in my book.
Ok, so now that I am done with that, and we finally got our shoes back, we headed out to lunch. We ended up in the East Village and just went to a bar/restaurant. Again another weird story when we got there. Since there were so many of us they were going to seat us back in this other room where they had bigger tables, but when we went back there it was like there was a private party going on and there were lots of kids/babies. We all just kind of stood there and were thinking about how we didn't want to sit there. In the end we sat in the other room and fit around a table meant for 6 instead. It worked out fine and was much better than feeling out of place in a private party with a bunch of children.
It was a fun way to spend a Saturday and I wouldn't mind going again. I have a feeling this time it wouldn't be quite as crowded at the rink either. I am sure a lot of people decided to go ice skating since it was the first Saturday after the new year. And next time it may not be as cold either. It can be like my yearly skiing trip when it is warm that I am not going to get to take this year.
I went ice skating in New York for the first time; I didn't have a baby going around the rink with me.

New Years

I did have to go to work on New Years Eve, but it wasn't that bad. We weren't very busy and there weren't many people in the office so it was a quiet day.I decided that I wanted to make Hanky Panky's for new years so I stopped at the grocery on my way home to pick up all of the ingredients. I was also going to make a vegetarian option for our non meat eating friends. While I was at the store I couldn't find any Velveeta cheese. I decided to call up Goose and see if he knew where the Velveeta would be in the store. He then informed me that he just bought the last two packages. I had to find another option for my New Year's appetizer. I didn't know what I was going to make instead and Goose really wanted the Hanky Panks so he generously offered to let me have the Velveeta. I made two different options, the regular with meat and vegetarian with fake meats.There weren't many people at the last minute New Years party, but hey it was better than standing out in the freezing cold in Times Square. And we did some Ichating with the folks in Cincinnati which made the party double in size. Somehow the party got rowdy, well I am pretty sure it was from all the champagne we were drinking. I think we had about 9 bottles between 7 people drinking it for the night.The party kept going on and eventually Guitar Hero was being played against Ando in Cincinnati. The Xbox headset came out and Ichat was still going on as well. Oh the joys of technology today. BH really gets into rockin' that guitar too; she power stances the whole song.
We were going to make our way to a bar, and kept talking about it, but needless to say we never made it. Guitar Hero was too much fun, plus we still had some champagne to finish. We ended up putting a movie on in the background, streaming from Netflix to the Xbox, again with the technology, after finishing up with live Guitar Hero. The movie decided upon was Encino Man and BH just had to get a picture of herself with the TV. Let's just say it took quite a few pictures to get one to come out a little bit and she certainly wasn't succeeding taking the picture by herself.

All in all it was a fun New Years, that didn't even see us go out, and all of my Hanky Panks got eaten, even the vegetarian ones.New Years Rockin' Eve!

Double Party, Ichat style.
2009 glasses; the last year they will work. We all had to put them on for a photo op; BH.CB RadioCorianderMe, the Shando.Mateo
GooseDKNY and BH's friend. I forget her name already, I am terrible.
DKNYHappy New Year!
We are all searching for our prizes after doing the cracker things.BH playing Guitar Hero.I didn't quite get the power stance in, but believe me it was good.BH's first attempt to get herself with Encino Man behind her. I took a picture of BH with Encino Man behind her. Now she will never forget this awesome moment.

I rang in the New Year; no baby on board to help in the festivities.

After Christmas Lull

I am going to combine the next two days, December 26th and 27th. On Friday Ando and I hung out at the house and got a little bit of relaxing time in before we headed out to another family function. This time we went to his parent's house for some dinner. They wanted to make all of us dinner one night while we were in town. My parents also wanted to do this so we had to split this up into two nights. Ando's family got Friday.
After dinner Ando and I picked up Teed and hung out at Gas Light for some drinks. I didn't think Ando, Teed and I could hold a conversation very long, but we managed to hold our own. I thought for sure we would be out of conversation within five minutes, but I underestimated how much we really missed each other and just needed to talk, yeah right. Oh, and our original plan was to hang out at Molly Malone's, but it was way way too crowded in there. And by not going to Molly Malone's we got to see "Corey". That isn't her real name, but it is the lady at Gas Light who always thinks Teed looks exactly like her friend Corey. She wasn't really wasted this time either.

Saturday Ando and I decided to head out to Target and get some wedding registering in. I didn't know when else we could get this done so we had to go out on the Saturday after Christmas. It ended up not being as crowded as I thought it would be; really not bad at all. Again registering took longer than I had anticipated and I was getting a little cranky by the end because I just wanted to be finished, but this was going to be the only chance Ando and I had to experience this one wedding task together.....aaaawwww.
After finishing up with Target it was time to head off to the final family function, my parents for dinner. My grandpa was there whom I hadn't gotten to see yet, so that was nice, and of course my nephew was there again. We finished up with dinner and then headed over to Teed and Mo's for one last "hanging out".

Everyone came out for the night, except Taca, she was sleeping by the time Ando and I got there. We just hung out in the newly finished basement and drank some more. I did a lot of drinking while in Cincinnati.

I guess I will also write about Sunday.....I flew back to New York.

Ando and I registered at Target; it was for Club Wedd not Target Baby.

Christmas

Day three....Christmas Day! I awoke to presents under the tree, I guess Santa had been there, but I forgot to leave him milk and cookies; I hope he still left me everythink I asked for. Ok, this is a complete fib, we didn't even have a tree up and Ando and I didn't get anything for each other.

We first headed to my parents house for some breakfast and present opening with my parents and some siblings. I got my parents a web cam for Christmas this year so they could see me when they talked to me all the way in New York. Ando and I helped them install it on their computer so all of the hard work would be done for them too. I must say I didn't think they would be very receptive to the web cam. My parents aren't very good when it comes to technology and change, but for some reason they really like this. They chat me up all the time now.

After my parents we headed over to Ando's family for some more gift giving and breakfast. All the boys got some remote control helicopters. There weren't enough batteries to go around though. Flying had to be done in turns.

After hanging out at Ando's parents house we headed to his aunt and uncles for his christmas night festivities. To put a perspective on the night last year we went through 2 cases of champagne. I'm not sure how much we consumed this year, but again I am pretty sure it was too much. I was playing with children and had Ando's second cousin sitting on my lap all night. According to Ando this means that my biological clock is ticking. I am not agreeing with him on this one.

We left the Christmas party to go hang out with our friends at a bar, but we never made it there. I then proceeded to call a bunch of people and complain about this fact, but in hind sight I think this was a good thing. I really didn't need any more to drink.

The remote control helicopters.

Opening presents with Ando's family.

We are trying to decide which gift we want to pick in the pile.

This blog has caused me many headaches to write; I don't have a child on the way to cause even more.

Christmas Eve

Since I was home for the holidays I needed to cram as much in as possible and that meant going to breakfast with my old West Chester gang. I met them out in the burbs for a little catching up and breakfast at First Watch. It was good to see everyone and now maybe Drinky won't call Ando up randomly to ask about me and talk mostly about her. The breakfast could have been better though, if Macho Max would have been there. I am not sure that anyone told him I was coming up to see the old gang or not though so I can't blame him.

After breakfast I needed to make a pie for my grandpa, my cran-raspberry pie, and wrap every single gift I had bought for others; I had everything shipped to Cincinnati so I wouldn't have to carry anything back with me on the plane. It didn't take as long as I had anticipated it would so that was a pleasant little surprise.

That night Ando and I went to my family event to start the night off. We are now trying to do the every other year plan so we spend most of the evening at one family. Last year we stopped by my family's before spending the night on his side and this year we did the opposite. Well we still went to my family Christmas first, but we spent more time there. This was also the first Christmas in many many many many years that a little kid has been there. It was the first Christmas with my nephew since my brother and sister-in-law adopted him. He was so nice and polite watching everyone open their presents when it wasn't his turn to open one. And he even got excited for other people; like when his dad, my brother, opened up some socks. I have never seen someone so excited about socks.

It was good to see my family again and hang out with my nephew, who seems to love me for some reason. I have no idea what I did for him to always be seeking me out, but for some reason he always does. I also got to see both of my cousins, yep on only have two on that side of the family, one was back from college and the other back from Iraq.

After my family fun and present giving Ando and I headed over to see his family for a little bit at the end of the night. The festivities were still going on and I don't even think anyone had left yet. We didn't partake in the "present" giving, but we were still almost sucked in. His family does a white elephant; everyone gives each other crap. Luckily we managed to not come home with anything "tacky". There were a bunch of kids running around at this Christmas, as there usually are, and more kidtastic fun was had.

Pictures of Christmas Eve for all.

My nephew opening up one of his many gifts.

My Grandmother got this scarf head thing for Christmas and I was showing her how it worked when I got pulled from behind by my aunt.

I loved this dog when I was a kid. All you did was drag it along side you and the feet moved, but oh how I loved to drag that thing with me everywhere. If you are wondering why it is out it is because my mom got out a bunch of our old toys for my nephew to play with. I found out that night how far toys have come over the years; from this wooden dog to a talking Elmo that knows when it has fallen and that you picked him back up.

My mom and I handing out presents. I was fired from the job shortly after this picture was taken.
A fabulously tacky gift!

I was around a lot of kids Christmas Eve; I don't have one on the way to add to all the fun.

Festivus

It was a true Festivus Miracle that I didn't miss the whole party on the 23rd. I didn't know what I would be in for on my long day, December 23rd, but I was fearing for the worst.

I first had to go to work in the morning and luckily there were no problems that I encountered and I even got out on time. After work I headed home, my sublet, to pick up my suitcase and head to the airport. I had already checked in online and and didn't need to check any of my luggage so it was straight to the security line. I would have to say I probably saved myself a good half hour if not more by checking in ahead of time; those lines were crazy long. The security line was a little long as well, at least as long as I have ever seen it at LaGuardia, but it moved quite well.

While I was standing in this line all I kept hearing was people complaining that their flights had been canceled or delayed and they would be late getting to their destinations. I was a little scared at this point since I didn't have a direct flight and had to stop in DC. This was two chances for my flights to get delayed and or canceled. Luckily my first flight was on time and I left New York without any problems. When I got to DC I checked on my connecting flight and amazingly enough that flight was also on time. I called DKNY and BH to see if their direct flights home to Cincinnati were still on time, since we were going to car pool home from the airport, but unfortunately for them their flight was delayed.

I ended up getting on my second flight about 15 minutes late, which in turn meant we left the airport about 30 minutes late. Not too bad after all of the complaining I had earlier in the day. As we were landing in Cincinnati I noticed that I-275 was bumper to bumper traffic and had no idea why. It seems that all of the roadways were super icy. The temperature didn't climb fast enough during the day and all of the rain/sleet made for some hazardous road conditions. In fact as we were taxing to our gate there was a plane with fire trucks and cop cars all around it, I didn't know what was going on. Later I found out that the plane spun out of control and off the runway as it was headed to its gate; that's how icy it was.

Jenster came to pick me up, but since 275 was so bad it took her about an hour to go 2 miles and finally get me from the airport. I was so close to being home, yet so far away. In the time Jenster was picking me up, and she had to turn right out of our street because her car just started sliding that way even though she was trying to go left, TD got in an accident at the end of our street.

Jenster and I finally made it back to the casa after an unusual route home, 275 to 471 to 75 to the Lateral, and Festivus was in full swing. I had a good time and I hope everyone else did as well. Here are some pictures of the festivities.

BFF's from grade school!

Joel decorated the house; didn't he do a nice job.

The commotion of Festivus.

Joel loves when people mess with his hair so The Doctor and I went for it.

BH and I in our almost matching outfits that we both wore on our respective plane rides home.

Me and my sis!All the ladies. I assume this was taken before I got there because I don't remember this at all.Seinfeld related food.Black and White cookies. They were still cakey, but better than last years.

Oh how I miss Teed, and of course senior year Jenster; that is really who I am trying to kiss.

Beers!

Three out of four brothers, plus an adopted one.A rare shot of Ando and I.

The crappy Festivus pole. Next time I will get on it and make a real one.Ambiance of Festivus; I bet you wish you were there.
Actually most people who read this blog were there.

There were airing of grievances; I didn't air a grievance about being pregnant.