In New York.....

Cue Empire State of Mind people, because we are in NYC for the weekend! I recently ripened to another year of age, and was in NYC for work so Nate joined me out here for a little romantic weekend in the city. And for only having a half of a day today and tonight we packed a LOT in! There is nothing better than NYC in the springtime.

There was a lot of strolling around SoHo, Chelsea and the Meatpacking District which led to lots of shopping (although not too many purchases!). Nate was pretty stoked to happenstance across one of his favorite t-shirt brands.

And after some strolling along Bleeker street, we just had to stop into Magnolia bakery (it is my birthday afterall). It savored the cupcake as it will be my last for a while as I embark on my no cookies/cake for a year (except in VERY special celebrations)...

We continued our stroll to Chelsea Market, which was a great spot. The energy that the city has was bottled up and bursting at the seams in this market. Great places to eat, gift shops, book shops, sample sales, bakeries, and grocery delis. We did lunch at a place called the milk bar and I am pretty sure I had the best sandwich I have ever had in my entire life, and sadly I didn't get a picture. BUT we did get a picture, which I am especially fond of because of the message on the chalkboard.

An extra special event that got thrown in at the last minute was a game an Yankee Stadium! Nate swears the new Twins stadium is cooler, but personally I think he is just drinking the Target Kool-aid...we'll see. It was a very cool experience to be there, amidst all of the hard-core New Yorkers in their thick accents.

You know how the greatest part of ball games is getting classic ball-game food like hot dogs, cracker jacks and popcorn? Well at this stadium ALL of the calories for every menu item at every station are posted. Seeing a 2,400 calorie serving of popcorn or 1,200 calorie serving of french fires quickly takes the joy out of snarfing up all of the delicious snacks. Which is still ultimately did, and the whole time I just kept thinking that this stadium would bring Jamie Oliver to tears (anyone out there watching Food Revolution?)

Enough rambling, the point is Nate and I are having a great time this weekend, and are looking forward to another fun day tomorrow. Every time I come to NYC I slip into a day dream where I move here, live the big city girl life--maybe some day?

Holy Sh.....

I just got home from a quite enjoyable evening of dinner with Summer and Katie at a new place in town. I was settling into some work emails, and reading for class, and I just happen to glance at my syllabus and see:

4/14 Relfective Paper #3 due

SHIT! It's 9PM on the 13th. I have work work to do. I haven't even done any of the reading for the paper yet. ARGH!

Here's to hoping my BS skills are top notch tonight.....Can anyone say graduation?!?!

Play Ball!

We were in Viroqua this past weekend and got to spend some great time with Finn outside in the gorgeous spring weather we are having. With the Twins stadium opening up today, baseball must have been in the air.

Becca had bought a baseball game for Finn, and he loved it.....couldn't quite keep up with how fast he was talking because he was so excited.

And seeing as we were in Vernon County, the baseball plates were home-made with class.

And some extra photos just for a bonus:

The biggest event of the weekend was not the baseball game but my Dad's discovery of iTunes.....can you sense the excitement?

Now we've got Mom and Dad on iTunes, surfing the web, set up with Gmail, Skyping and shopping online all over the place. It was quite the sight...at one point we were all huddled around the table with 3 laptops with shouts of "ooooo, I like that song, that's an automatic super buy.."

Kind of like the super, top secret fishing spot, or the ultra hot spot when we are fishing right Dad?

Listmania: The Things That Suffered

We have officially made it through our one over-lapping semester of grad-school! (Arms in air, fist pumping action). Nate took his finals this week, and they went great. I have to schlep through 4 more weeks of school but then get to officially retire my backpak.

Nate and I went to dinner last night to celebrate and were commenting on the 'things that suffered' while we were both in school two nights a week, training for our upcoming races, working full time, you get the picture.

1) Not surprisingly, housework took a major hit. Who wants to scrub baseboards, and clean toilets after staring at a text book all day? Not me. Not Nate. And so the dust bunnies took over. I looked up last night and saw we had a ceiling dust bunny in our bedroom. I am pretty sure it is fairly difficult to form on the ceiling, so mad props to us for helping make that happen.

2) Cooking.....didn't happen as much. Exhibit A: Our weekly "try a new recipe out of our cookbook of the year" is failing miserably with It hink only 8 or 9 recipes tried. I am pretty sure April 12th = 15 weeks...so we are at 50%. My grad school education would tell me this is failing. Exhibit B: The popcorn maker has been used more in the last 6 months as it relates to a dinner item that it has in its entire life.

3) Remember when Nate and I got all excited an asked you, our loyal readers, to tell us what adventures to on next? (Read here). Well we have done approximately ZERO of these wonderful suggestions, and literally it hangs over my head like a guilty, gloomy cloud when I think of it. BUT, come May 1st, we are ALL over it. So watch out people.

4) Secret Date Night just hasn't happened. Oh we schedule them. We send each other cute little meeting notices. And then we reschedule, adn update those meeting notices, and ultimately cancel those meeting notices. But both have one on the calendar in April and for sure one of them can't be cancelled (or so Nate tells me)....The reality is we have prioritized time with friends and family when we have a spare night so the couple time has been...well...cancelled.

5) Sleep. Apparently Nate is a robot and requires about oh...5 hours of sleep and he can function as a nice, respectful human being. I cannot. Since I am not getting my required allotment to put my battery at a full charge, this means lots of napping on the weekend, lame Friday nights where I am sleeping by 9, and Diva Doug-less Saturday mornings as the thought of dragging my ass out of bed to work-out on a Saturday just wasn't quite motivating enough the last few months to spur me to action.

But with 4 weeks left with me in school, and Nate done, we will be back in action soon (and still taking recommendations for our next adventures...hint hint)!

Bid It Up!

It's official! Our 3rd Anniversary trip is booked...well 60% booked.

I got a little trigger happy on Luxury Link and started bidding on anything in our price range and in California (it's a tradition now after all). Of course since we had so much time until OCTOBER to figure out the details I was low-balling everything. So imagine my surprise when I get a confirmation bid email that tells me I have the highest bid for a 3 night stay. And now imagine even MORE surprise when I find out I didn't exactly read the fine print and the days it's good on is only Sunday-Thursday. Whoops. Oh well...guess we will just have to enjoy the CA sunshine a little longer.

This year's theme is WINE COUNTRY! Yeah! We are staying at the Hanford House in Sutter Creek and plan to do lots of relaxing, wine drinking, and outdoor exploring.

The best part of Luxury Link (besides the joy and suspense of winning a bid, and picking from amazing properties) is all of the little extra's you get included in the price. In our package we get:

• 3 nights in your choice of suite, each with fireplace, oversize soaking tub, flat-panel television and DVD library, and private balcony
• Coffee & tea tray delivered to your room each morning, including freshly baked scones
• Full gourmet breakfast for two each morning
• Amador County wine and artisan cheeses each evening
• Complimentary internet access
• Complimentary private parking 

I'm not going to lie. Not sure why one would need freshly baked scones every morning AND free breakfast, but I'm not complaining. So now we are looking for our flights and dreaming of future travel adventures. I cannot plug Luxury Link more...their customer service is great, we had no issues last year and cannot wait to experience it again this year!!

An Alternative Easter

No bunnies. No eggs. No spring dresses.

Okay...there were maybe some springtime dresses. But none worn, just purchased. But there were mojitos, a massive Costco run, and some serious shopping.

My Mom came up to visit us this weekend since we are celebrating "Easter and etc" next weekend. And it was a great weekend. We did some shopping at my all-time favorite store Anthropologie (Meghan--we were thinking of you, and missing your discount :) ) for some birthday ideas, and then headed out to the mall. We watched basketball,  made turkey burgers, had brunch.

Yummmmm.

Nate has finals this week and then his first semester will come to a close so he studied hard all weekend. Me...not so much. I did some 'fun' reading, went for a run, and took a nap.

Nothing too exciting to report, but it is a report nonetheless. Hope everyone else had a great holiday weekend!

No Fool

Ahh--April Fools Day.

I sit here reflecting on my biggest April Fool's Day coup EVER last year, and know there is just no topping that...at least not this year.

I figured everyone would be on high alert, and to be honest it kind of snuck up on me this year.

Nate thought I should fake winning a sweepstakes, but that really isn't that fun for anyone else. What WOULD have been fun was to fake someone else winning a sweepstakes but to do that you have to know whether or not someone had entered. And ultimately that ends up being quite mean.

So I will recycle my glory from last year, and use this day to brainstorm for next year.

Did any of you get fooled today?