Monica, Meet Early Mornings

Yaaawwn....Honestly, I'm going to probably fail at this...mornings are a real weak spot for me. BUT, I would like to try getting up at 6 a.m. every morning. I have some plans for that time...like running for 30 minutes. Eating breakfast at home instead of work. Flossing. Just kidding...I floss already, honestly...but, you get the idea.

We will see how this plan goes....no matter how early I go to bed, waking up before 9 am is always traumatic. This morning was day 1 and I managed 6:15, but I kind of had to do it today because I had an early morning work meeting. Well, time to wrap up...it's 7:30, almost bedtime.

I Heart Tribeca

I found an excuse to head down to Tribeca last Sunday. S was going downtown to Century 21 to shop for shirts, so I thought we would have some brunch first. I was having a waffles craving and the internet directed me to this place: Petite Abeille.

We really loved it. First, I have to say, the waffles weren't really my thing. I think they are in the very traditional Belgian style and so it's like eating air. I like my waffles with heft. But, if you like those type of waffles--they got 'em. S ordered an omelet with bacon, mushrooms, spinach, and feta and that was amazing. The best part though, was the side of mashed potatoes with leeks. It's called Stoemp on the menu, and we were happy to discover that Stoemp is gooood. This is definitely a place we'll go back to again; especially when someone comes to visit. Hint.

Thinking of You

Hey there Mom...
This is you and Logan on 4th of July in 2005. I had to cut out Connor because he was making a face. I'm trying to make a playlist of music for your new MP3 player--it's so hard for me to decide between songs I think you will like and songs that I want you to like.

Did you guys see any of these in your mailbox yet?

I ordered Jeff beans for his birthday. For those who don't know Jeff...he wants beans, ok? He really does.

Slow Cooking

The possibility of having dinner cook itself while I'm at work is what drove me to purchase this:

It's huge. I ordered it online and I guess I didn't have a good concept of what 7 quarts of cooking capacity looks like. Turns out, it looks like half our kitchen counter space. For my first time using it, I wanted to start off with something easy so I made a black bean soup. The soup, to be honest, was just good. Not anything fantastic. The cumin yogurt (crème fraîche if you don't live in a humble neighborhood in queens) thing on top is essential...and maybe a piece of cornbread along with it would push this into the awesome category.

Even though its just good, it does have a lot of other qualities going for it: cheap, healthy, quick, and easy. All the things I look for in a weeknight meal. Or um, should I say, four weeknight meals in a row.

Saturday Excursion

After S was off work on Saturday, we decided to meet up at Katz's Delicatessen in the Lower East Side. They have been in NY since 1888 and are supposed to have some of the best pastrami and corned beef around. It's a very famous place, and you may know it from the movie When Harry met Sally. On my way there, I had to change subways on 23rd Street and I ran into the Chelsea Hotel. This is another place full of NY history...Bob Dylan has stayed here, Dylan Thomas, Mark Twain, and famously, this is where Sid Vicious allegedly killed Nancy Spungen in 1978. I'd like to stay in a room here for one night sometime.


Here is Katz's. It was a total madhouse inside. S and I had to walk around for 5 minutes before grabbing a couple of seats and then wait another 20 minutes in line to get our sandwich.
Here is a shot from inside. The crowd on the right is where you fight your way to the counter to order a sandwich. We ended up splitting a pastrami on rye and it was pretty incredible. We don't eat a ton of meat, so unfortunately we had to leave about half of the pastrami on the plate; unfortunate especially since 1 sandwich costs $18!! It was a really fun experience, though.

Afterwards, we walked a few blocks south to try out the donuts at Doughnut Plant. There was a long line...we waited probably about 40 minutes, but the donuts were gooood. We learned that you have to go early because they were out of a lot of flavors.This is the view from the back of a 40-minute line. No complaining though, these donuts delivered.

Dinner and a Friend

My friend Jenn popped up from North Carolina to interview for the Marketing Director position at the Carnegie. She had a few hours free so we met up for dinner. I forgot to take a picture of us, but here is one from two years ago when she came up for Christmas. That was a super cold year and we went to warm up at Art Bar where they have a fireplace.
For dinner, I took her to this little cafe in my neighborhood, Il Bambino. It's a really cute little place with amazing panini sandwiches. I usually get either mozzarella, pesto, and prosciutto or an egg salad with truffle oil and speck. This time we decided to get their cheese appetizer where they rotate in 5 different types of cheeses from NY's famous Murray's Cheese Shop. We had that, and some awesome wine from Spain (which I wish I had written down) and then split a sausage panini. We were stuffed! It was great to catch up with her and I hope she gets the job because it would be fun to have another friend in town.

PS: do you notice I got a hyperlink up there? Yeah, I finally figured it out and it was super easy....should have spent 30 seconds to learn that in the first place!

Oh So Fun Post Office

Well, I got to break free from my work/home routine with a trip to the post office. It just never fails to be a miserable experience. At least the one I went to downtown on Church Street was really cool looking. This is the main entrance.

This is the middle of the front lobby ceiling.

This is where I waited in the really long line.