Vacation Day 3 - It's a bird! It's a plane! Yep, it's a Plane.

Our final outing in NYC was to go have brunch at Balthazar which is a very "it" place in the Village. The last couple of times we've been to NYC Ben and I have tried to go there but, being the lowly plebeians that we are, could only manage to buy a couple of pastries from the attached boulangerie. This time, not only did we snag a table, but there was no wait! Sweet. The Eggs Benedict were totally worth the effort to drag ourselves down to the Village once again. I also happened to look over my shoulder to see Tyra Banks chowing down on something equally delicious I'm sure. Celebrity sighting #2!!



Next stop in our adventure was Ben's dad's house in upstate New York. One important fact about Ben's dad is that he owns a Piper Cherokee plane. That's right. A plane. A very small (and I later learned somewhat old) plane. Ben mentioned that he wouldn't mind going flying, but the weather didn't look too promising. Until we actually got to upstate New York where it was actually quite nice and calm. The idea turned into reality and when asked if I wanted to go, well, of course I said yes. **Mom, you may want to skip this part**

Here's the pilot Michael (aka Dad) pulling the plane out of the hanger. ONE person can pull the plane. That's how small it was.

Here's co-pilot Ben standing next to the plane (note how he's taller than the plane)

Passenger Sarah sporting awesome headphones


And we're in the air! Pilot and co-pilot dutifully monitoring the controls (well, the pilot was anyway)


My view out the plane window...the stately home kind of standing off by itself in the foreground is the National Historic Site of the home of FDR


Coming in for a landing! Eeeeeeeeeeee!


Made it back to solid ground safely! Here's a pic of me next to the plane looking very pleased with myself for being so adventurous

We were in the air for almost an hour and it really wasn't as frightening as I thought it would be. Not as rough or as choppy as I thought either...a pretty smooth ride actually. We flew up and back down the Hudson and got great views of the Mohonk Mountain House as well as the Catskills. Fun!

To wrap up this exciting day, we had dinner at one of the restaurants located in the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. It was technically Ben's birthday dinner, but it was also a real treat for me to visit the CIA knowing how many incredibly talented chefs that I admire have passed through those doors. We also got a great table right in front of the kitchen so we could watch the student chefs all a-flurry with activity. The female pastry chef, in particular, looked like she was about to blow a gasket from all the stress that scooping ice cream can bring. Hee!

We were told that the students rotate working front of the house and back of the house over a six week period in at least two of the three main CIA restaurants. Most of the time, the students hate working the front of the house. Zey are CHEFS, dammit! But luckily, our waiter was very good natured about it all and very entertaining. It was a truly superb meal! If you get a chance, GO!

What a great end to the day! We still have two more days of vacation to go...what else could possibly happen?

Vacation Day 2 - NYC!!

Friday morning we drove from Philly into Manhattan. I've ridden in cabs before in NYC, but didn't really freak out because I figured they were pretty experienced in dealing with NYC traffic. However, by the time Ben's sister had gotten us to our hotel I had ripped out a few chunks from the backseat...traffic was INSANE!!! Not just the traffic, but the way people maneuver around the traffic with not much regard to any other drivers or any traffic rules in general. After much honking and breath holding on my part...we made it!!

Ben's dad is the General Manager of the Sherry Netherland hotel...a very chi-chi boutique hotel right next to Central Park...and generously comped us a couple of rooms for Friday night. We woulod never have been able to afford to stay there otherwise, so this was a real treat! We had out own sitting room with a fireplace and turn down service that came with actual chocolate mints on the pillow. This pic is a view just outside the hotel down 5th Avenue. As you can see...it's just blanketed with people. As several people remarked to us...the tourists came out in droves *cough, cough* Silly tourists.






Our first stop was a light lunch at Grey's Papaya. Since we are actually in a recession, the only sensible thing to do was get the Recession Special which included 2 dogs and a delicious papaya drink. There are no tables or chairs inside Grey's Papaya, so we just stood at the metal counter and watched the people go by.
From there we walked down to a little shop in the Village called Myer's of Keswick (pronounced KEZ-ick) which sells all sorts of British goodies. On the way, we walked through a flurry of activity and at first couldn't really figure out what was going on. Then we noticed a familiar face sitting in a chair on the sidewalk and realized...this was a set for Law & Order Criminal Intent! Celebrity sighting #1...check.

Now fully stocked with pork pies, Cornish pasties, fruit pastilles, treacle pudding and other crazy British treats, we headed back uptown. Here's Ben and his sister Victoria waiting on the subway platform..
On the subway, we were treated to the familiar sounds of a mariachi band! But don't make eye contact...if you do you have to tip.
After dropping our bags at the hotel, we headed to The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). We were in luck because admission to the museum is FREE every Friday from 4-8pm. Whee! Here are a few of the highlights:

A view of an Architecture and Design exhibit from the 2nd floor of the museum. Not sure on the details of the exhibit, but it had something to do with Kafka. Will update with more info if I can find it.

Piet Mondrian "Broadway Boogie Woogie" (sorry for the quality, no flashes allowed)


Picasso

By this time we were so incredibly exhausted, we didn't get through as much of the museum as we would have liked. There's always next time!

Finally, we ended our day with dinner at a great little place in Greenwich Village called Nomad which served French/Algerian/North African food. The food was really good and the atmosphere was super cozy. We asked out waitress to take a picture of the whole family, and then proceeded to take $1 from her tip because we all look so horrible in it.
Just kidding about the tip. But we did ask her to take another picture which turned out even worse than this one. Sigh. Oh well.

All in all...a great day! The weather was sunny and wonderful and we did everything that we had wanted to.

Day 3 pics and stories coming soon! A day which includes Celebrity Sighting #2 and I try something for the first time that's a little bit dangerous....

Vacation Day 1 - Philly

Well, we made it to Philly to be greeted by the crappiest weather possible - grey, cold and drizzly. But we braved the weather and made out way down to South Philly to consume one of the most iconic foods of this region--the Philly Cheesesteak.

There is a fierce rivalry between Geno's Steaks and Pat's Steaks over who has the best cheese steak. Since we only had time and room in our stomachs for one cheesesteak today, we chose Geno's. But rest assured, a return trip to try Pat's steaks will happen..so stay tuned.

I was informed that the only proper way to eat cheesesteak was to smother it with onions and Cheez Whiz...commonly referred to as "whiz with". And you gotta go with the local lingo or they know you're a tourist. I gotta say---it was pretty frakking good. The bread was somehow crispy and soft and chewy all at the same time. The Cheez Whiz and the juices from the meat combined to form a magical special sauce. Together with an order of Freedom Fries...it was a perfect meal.
After lunch we waddled over to Reading Terminal Market which is like Disneyland for food. Row after row after row of all different kinds of meat, seafood, produce and restaurant stalls. After much searching, we settled on a dessert of fresh baked cookies, chocolate truffles and coffee. Annnnnnd, we're spent. It's been a long day folks and we've got lots of activities planned for tomorrow. We're heading into Manhattan with plans to hit Grey's Papaya, MoMA, Myer's of Keswick and dinner in Greenwich Village. I plan on taking plenty of pics so check back for new posts later this weekend!

Cheers!

Howdy!

Today was a very busy day for me at work as I wrapped everything up to get ready to go on vacation, but couple of pretty interesting things happened!

First off, at lunchtime today I went over to Green Pastures and talked to their event planner about having the wedding and reception there. It went really well and I'm even more excited about it now! My favorite option right now is to have the ceremony out on their South Lawn and a Sunday Brunch reception. The gal that I talked to mentioned that one of the options for the ceremony is a ceremony in-the-round...which I think sounds fantastic! Not to mention a lot more intimate. I haven't actually been to a brunch at Green Pastures (cause I can't afford it...its pricey) but they offer pretty much the same brunch buffet for receptions at a MUCH lower price per person.

I was also talking to some girls at work today about the importance of having a wedding cake. My opinion is that it really isn't important at all. I'm not even really that into cake. However, they seemed to think it was pretty important. I can see if you're
having a very traditional thing where you really want the pictures of you and your new spouse shoving cake into eachother's faces and you have people coming who really expect cake then it might be important. But:
1) We're not having a traditional wedding
2) We may not take the traditional wedding photographs
3) There will be other desserts as part of the brunch buffet that cake will actually be superfluous.
4) Cake costs extra
But I also don't know what Ben's feelings are on the matter. He
might really want cake. In which case, I wouldn't be totally opposed to a non-traditional wedding cake...like maybe cupcake tower!

Cupcakes are something I could totally get behind. I also know there are other folks out there who would rather have cupcakes anyway.

What do y'all think? What elements of a traditional wedding are
too important to be left out?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moving on, last night my neighbor caught me as I was coming home to ask me if I wanted to go with her to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at Bass Concert Hall. She had a friend who had gotten tickets and could no longer go. After I picked my jaw up off the floor...of course I said yes! Pass up an opportunity to see one of the most well known and well regarding modern dance troupes in America? No way.

In the late 1950's Alvin Ailey was the first person to really inject the African American cultural experience into modern dance. He really changed the way people thought about modern dance and he continues to influence modern choreographers. Needless to say...it was amazing!

The music for the first piece was comprised entirely of an a capella group that was also on the stage with the dancers and played a role in the piece. The second piece was a tribute to Otis Redding and utilized a lot of his lesser known songs. My favorite piece, though, was a classic. Since this was the 50th anniversary tour, they performed the "Revelations" piece which was originally performed in 1959 and put Alvin Ailey on the modern dance map. All the music used in the piece were classic Southern gospel hymns and the choreography dealt with all the themes you would expect: sin, prayer, fellowship and celebration of faith.
Fan. Tastic.

Well, that's all for now...but lots of exciting posts coming up! We're heading out tomorrow for Philly to visit Ben's sister Victoria and definitely plan on taking a day trip to Manhattan and doing some fun touristy stuff in NYC. There even may be some special birthday surprises for Ben :) Be on the lookout for tales of our adventures...and pics!

BTW...I don't know why the Green Pasture pics above are so out of whack. If anyone has any helpful hints about formatting and picture placement...bring 'em on.

Sunday Night Dinner

A good roast chicken is a beautiful thing. Crispy skin, moist and flavorful meat, yummy juices...and its so easy! It's a perfect Sunday night dinner and you can use the leftovers for all sorts of things throughout the week. This particular roast chicken that I made tonight is a compilation of a couple different recipes that I have found over the years. Vegetarians--you may want to look away.

Combine 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (softened at room temperature), 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard.


Place 1 sliced onion, 3 smashed garlic cloves, 1/2 bunch fresh thyme, 1 large sprig fresh rosemary in a roasting pan. Toss with olive oil. Place rack on top of herbs and onions.


Reserve 1/2 lemon, 2 smashed garlic cloves, 1/2 bunch fresh thyme and 1 large sprig fresh rosemary. This will be your stuffing.


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove any innards from your chicken, rinse and pat dry. Salt and pepper inside and outside of chicken. Stuff with lemon, garlic and herbs. Tuck wings under and tie legs together (or truss however you prefer). Sear chicken on all sides in skillet with olive oil. I've found this really helps seal in the juices while the chicken in roasting.


Place chicken on rack, squeeze 1/2 lemon over chicken and rub with herb butter mixture. Roast in oven for approximately 25-30 minutes per pound (1.5-2 hours for 3-4 pound chicken). Chicken is done when a meat thermometer reads 155-160 degrees (desired temp for chicken is about 165, but chicken will continue to cook while it rests).

Lemme tell you, the smells that will permeate your house while this chicken cooks...Lord have mercy. Glade should really package this smell in a spray can...it's the next million dollar idea!!

Anyway. Once the chicken is done remove it to a cutting board or plate. If you like, reserve pan drippings and use them as a sauce. You can discard the onions and herbs in the roasting pan. It is VERY IMPORTANT to allow the chicken to rest for at least 10 minutes before carving. This allows the natural juices to redistribute throughout the meat.

I mean, just look at that. Sooo pretty! One of my favorite foods of all time. Serve with your choice of sides...for tonight I went with a nice salad and sauteed asparagus.

Happy Cooking!

Finale

The finale of Battlestar Galactica was....AMAZING!!! Perfect perfect perfect. They really didn't leave any major questions without resolution and wrapped everything up in a way that stayed true to core of the show. You can't ask for any more than that! Since I can't really talk about the episode itself, I've posted another of my all time favorite BSG scenes below.

This one revolves around Lee and Starbuck and is pretty representative of their entire relationship. They can't fight their attraction to each other but there are just too many obstacles for a romantic relationship to work.



Thank you to Ron Moore and David Eick for giving us the best frakking sci-fi show of all time.

So Say We All

The final episode of Battlestar Galactica airs tonight. If you haven't discovered this show yet...what are you waiting for? Coming from someone who doesn't normally like sci-fi shows (that would be me), this is one of the best, most relevant and most consistantly amazing shows EVER. I will keep my promise of no BSG spoilers...but over the next few days I will be uploading some of my favorite scenes. This one, from Season 1, gave me chills.

Nama-what?

I am obsessed with this season of Lost. Ben gave up on it citing too many questions and not enough answers...but I think this season has been one of the most satisfying since Day 1.

I think the main revelation of last night's ep was really about the not-only-geographical distance between Jin and Sun. As the show starts we see the Ajira flight which takes the castaways back to the island. We see Kate, Jack and Hurley disappear (transported back to 1977) but Sun was not among them. Why? She was on the original Oceanic flight. Why wasn't she transported with the rest of them? We also know that Locke didn't disappear and ended up with the Ajira folks on the beach. Initially, I thought it was because Locke was, you know, dead. But maybe he and Sun have something else in common that kept them with the Ajira folks.

Back with the castaways in 1977, an awkward reunion ensues between Sawyer, Jack and Kate. Only Hurley seems genuinely happy to see Sawyer again. All are sufficiently shocked to discover they have traveled back in time. Unlike Sawyer and Jin, Oceanic 6 haven't been skipping through time. Sawyer comes up with a plan to integrate them into the Dharma community that won't cause suspicion by having them pose as incoming Dharma recruits. Back at the barracks, Juliet finds new mom Amy, gets sub manifests, and coos over......Baby Ethan!!! That's gotta be surreal.

Backtracking just a bit....did anyone else's heart totally break at the look that came over Juliet's face when she found out Kate was back on the island? Although, judging from the preview for next week...she's gonna fight for her man.

After learning that Sun was on the plane, Jin rushes off to try and figure out where the plane went down. I kinda knew something was up when there was no record at the Flame station of the Ajira plane anywhere near the island...but I didn't really know what it could mean. What Jin did end up finding was Sayid. I definitely feel that the fact Sayid has now become a "hostile" will prove problematic for him. Will Sayid be the major character that's rumored to bite the dust this season?

We also learned that Daniel Farraday is NOT among those living it up in Dharmaville circa 1977. Sawyer ominously implies that something bad happened to him...but what? Suicide? Insanity? Did he turn the frozen wheel and disappear? I can't wait to find out!

Back on Ajira beach, Sun follows Ben into the jungle and Ben proceeds to convince Sun to help him get back to "their" island. Lapidus intervenes and tries to warn Sun against trusting Ben citing the large group of burly men with guns sent out to capture him. Not to mention all that other bad stuff that Ben did to Sun and her friends. Nevertheless, Sun tells Lapidus she has to trust him in order to find Jin. Or...not. Turns out Sun just used Ben to find the boats and then dipatches him with an oar to the head. Most revealing quote of the night:

Lapidus: I thought you said you trusted him.
Sun: I lied.

She really good at it. I wonder what else Sun has lied about? Hmmmm...

Now this is where it gets REALLY interesting. Sun and Lapidus find their way back to the main island (smokey, is that you?) and stumble upon a run down and apparently abandoned Dharmaville. Who is that ghost in the window? Jacob? No (or yes)...its Christian Shepherd who promises to show Sun where Jin is. In the trashed up intake room, Christian peruses some group photos on the wall ("1976, 1978...")...wait, wha? That's right. Sun and Lapidus are in a different time than Jin and the rest of the castaways. How in the world is this going to work out? Long journey indeed.

Back at Dharmaville, Jack goes to Sawyer's house for a powwow but doesn't seem to realize that Juliet is living there too. With Sawyer. Being very domestic. No wonder his aptitude test put him at "janitor" level. Sawyer is clearly loving his Dharma life. He has responsibilities, a leadership position, and is now responsible for saving Jack's neck. This could get ugly. Not to mention that Kate is now living next door to the happy couple. Awk. ward.

The final scene of the evening finds Sayid in a holding cell. The kid bringing him a sandwich kinda looks familiar. Hmm. Gawky. Glasses. Intense stare and fascination with hostiles. Could it be? Yep...its a pre-pubescent Benjamin Linus. I feel certain that Young Ben is just as manipulative as Adult Ben so I'm curious to see what role he will play in the coming events, especially where Sayid is concerned. We also know that Adult Ben took part in the Purge that killed all the Dharma folks so our castaways are safe for now.

Some lingering questions...

Does the action packed exploding van/gun fighting incident alluded to in the preview cause the devastation found by Sun and Lapidus? If so, does this mean the Purge doesn't even happen anymore? Will Kate and Juliet have an all out cat-fight over Sawyer? And when will Sawyer be shirtless again? Only time will tell. Or next week's episode.

To get more of your Lost fix for the day, check out Doc Jenson's Lost Recap over at Entertainment Weekly.

So, what did you think? Did you enjoy the recap...or was it totally boring? Should I do it again next week? Thanks for your feedback and for your warm welcome to the blogging community!

Options

So Ben and I have been talking a lot recently about what we really want the wedding to be (well, I've been talking...Ben's mostly been listening and agreeing to whatever my favorite option is at the time). Do we want to go traditional? Do we want do a destination thing? Scrap it all at go to the JP? It all seems to hinge on how much money we want to spend on this and how soon we want to get married. Which really just raises more questions. Do we want to spend a lot of money on a wedding or spend it on a great vacation? Or a house? How important is it that our families witness the joyous event? Given that our families are scattered all over, this is a pretty important consideration.

We seem to have established that it is important to us that our families be there. So that rules out the JP thing. And probably the destination thing. So. That leaves us with putting together a somewhat traditional wedding. If we can come up with something that only costs, say, 5k or less, then it may be possible to get married by the end of the year.

My current favorite option is Green Pastures. They have peacocks! And good food! And they're cheap! We can have the ceremony and reception there! Its almost too good to be true. Next step will be to check availability which probably means that they'll be booked through 2010 and we'll be back at square one. Don't you love my sunny disposition?

In other news...I am so excited that Lost is back this week! Tomorrow I may attempt my first TV Recap and Lost analysis. Or I may not. Kinda depends on how mind blowing this episode is and how lazy I feel. In the meantime, here's this to tide you over. You're welcome.

Moving On

So a co-worker put the bug in my ear that I should start a blog. She said simply, "I would read it." Really? Well, we'll see. But I figured that since all of my family and Ben's family are out of state it would be a great way for them to keep up with what we're doing...and I'm still not all that impressed with Facebook.

So, as the title of this blog implies, I have a pretty frakking great life right now. I live in one of the coolest cities in America. I'm recently engaged to a man I absolutely ADORE. I have a job I enjoy. A job period is cause for celebration, really. Good friends. Good family. All that good stuff. And I'm starting a new stage in my life as Ben and I move towards marriage, home ownership and, hopefully one day, parenthood.

So. You can expect this blog to cover all sorts of territory. Everything from wedding planning drama to what I like to cook and what I like to watch on TV to exciting travel anecdotes! This is my first blog so I hope you'll grant me some leeway here as I get my sea legs.

Here we go...

Day 1

So this is the first post...really just testing to see how this all works.

Here's my girl Stella. Ain't she purty?


















Here is a smaller picture of her-------------------------------->








So now that that's out of the way...on to the next thing.