shelli's thoughts and pics

Weaver Photo Shoot

2010-10-24T19:09:00.000-04:00

I took tons of photos with Curt, Katie and Ev when we were camping a few weeks ago. I created some storyboards that I think they'll like. Wanted to share!

I love blogging, but...

2010-10-13T08:15:00.000-04:00

it takes up a lot of time. I have enjoyed posting my adventures over the past couple of years, but I think it is time for a break. I am planning to start regularly uploading my photos to a new site to be determined, so stay tuned! It will be sans narrative but hopefully they will still be enjoyed. And I will try to keep up with my tumblr page at http://shellwithcurls.tumblr.com. Sometime in the future, my schedule will permit me to blog again, I'm sure of it. Thanks for reading!

Brooklyn Concert

2010-09-20T10:33:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago, Chris had a surprise for me that he told me about for TWO WEEKS before I could find out what it was! I had an envelope that said "Do not open until 7/31" just SITTING there where it drove me crazy every day! Well, when I finally got to open it on 7/31, I was really excited to discover 2 tickets to a concert by a band we both really like, Cat Empire!

We headed out to Brooklyn a little early to explore a little bit. One of the first things we saw was a beer bar - and who can resist a beer bar??

I thought this was pretty cool - the tree is giving the bike rack a hug.

I also wanted to check out a wine bar that was very close to the venue. The setting was very nice...

the wine tasted good...

and so did the salad. (We had cheese too, but I guess it disappeared before I could get a photo!)

But we were disappointed in the service, and probably won't go back.

The concert was so much fun!

We had a great night. Thank you to Chris for such a fun surprise!

English Muffins

2010-09-16T13:10:00.001-04:00

You can make those at home??

Who knew. We got a new bread machine a few weeks ago, and Chris started talking about how he wanted to make english muffins. Well, he did, and they turned out delicious!!

The next thing we had to do was make eggs benedict at home. I've never especially liked eggs benedict but we put them together using a recipe from one of my favorite websites, The Pioneer Woman. It was my first time poaching eggs,

my first time making hollandaise - and somehow it came out yummy!

Come over to our place for breakfast and we'll whip you up a batch :)

Mom and Gramee, part 2

2010-09-07T17:32:00.000-04:00

The next thing they did, which I think may have been most exciting for mom and gramee... they got to watch Regis and Kelly tape a show!

Actually, apparently they taped 3 shows, so they got to see a lot of people. Julianne Moore, Jersey Shore people, Nicholas Cage, and more.

It sounds like a lot of fun!

Doesn't it look like Gramee is making her big entrance here?

I didn't get to go since I had to work. Boo hoo. But I got to hear all about it. And we did lots of other fun things that I somehow don't have many pictures of - ate at delicious restaurants, made milkshakes at home with ice cream from a local dairy, shopped at Macy's... it was a great visit and I'm so glad they came out to see us.

Mom and Gramee, part 1

2010-09-03T17:19:00.000-04:00

This post is long overdue. Back in July, my mom and grandma came out to visit us for a few days. We had such a great time! The first night was the Fourth of July, and we all sat on the roof to watch fireworks. We couldn't really see much, but we all enjoyed ourselves. The next day, mom, Chris and I headed out to Coney Island to check out the beach!

It was really, really hot. I mean HOT. We had to take a shade break on our way to finding a good spot to put our stuff down.

Mom and I swam a little bit while Chris guarded our towels.

Usually it is me taking pictures of my feet in the sand, but believe me when I tell you, this is not my foot.

On the way home on the subway. Long trip.

That afternoon, Chris went to work, and mom, gramee and I went to the Met. It was late and they were almost closed but we wanted to check out the Picasso exhibit.

It was neat! They had a headphone tour that you could use for free.

They also had a room with a couple of different videos examining some of Picasso's work, which was very cool.

I had to take this picture - not necessarily of the art on the walls, but of the hat! Check that thing out! It could be dangerous if you were too close to her! But I liked it and thought it was cool that she was wearing it.

Okay, I guess I'll have to finish up next time, with what I think was the highlight of their trip for mom and Gramee!

BBQ

2010-08-30T17:16:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, there was a BBQ fest in Madison Square Park, near our apartment. It was super crowded, of course. But everything we tried was really yummy. Each vendor had a tent/trailer, and there were about 8 or 10 different ones there.

It was really neat that Ubon's Barbeque was there - this is a restaurant in Kentucky, and Chris had just heard a story about them on the radio that week!

We split a couple of different dishes. Most places had either pulled pork or ribs, with a side. These were spicy sausages with some sort of cheese slaw. Yum!

There was a beer area that we actually didn't go into. Crazy! But it looked like fun.

The event was very fun - it would have been more fun without Lilly. It was so crowded that we couldn't really walk around with her so we took turns sitting on a bench with her while the other walked around. I think she had a pretty good time since we spent some time in the doggie park first, but next time we'll remember to leave her at home!

Cuban Food (Central American dinner and an African show)

2010-08-29T17:12:00.002-04:00

Chris and I recently went to see Fela!, a really fantastic musical on Broadway. It was so much fun. Our first stop, though, was to get Cuban food at Cubana Cafe.

I had one of the best mojitos I've ever had.

And rice and beans with maybe shredded pork? I just remember that it was really yummy!

Didn't take any pics at the show, but it was great. Highly recommend both the dinner and the show!

Smoothies

2010-08-26T17:10:00.002-04:00

Chris and I have been having smoothies for breakfast every day. They are so yummy and very satisfying, keeps me full for the whole morning! (Which is especially nice when I don't eat lunch till 1 or 2!)

We had a blender when we moved to Vermont, but it broke. Finally, last November, I just bought a new one, and we have used it almost daily ever since! Best $40 I ever spent.

I put in bananas, frozen fruit, ground flax seed, calcium/vitamin D supplement, yogurt, bran flakes, and juice. Yum!

They're different every day, and so photogenic. (these shots are all from our old apartment, haven't taken any in the new place yet!)

Spring Picnic

2010-08-20T13:10:00.002-04:00

For Christmas, I surprised Chris with a folding bike. Well, a few months later, he surprised me with one too!

(Mine is white! Cool!)

We had to take them out for a spin. We rode up the west side of Manhattan where there is a big long bike path, and stopped on the Upper West Side. Unfortunately our first stop had to be for a repair, I don't even remember what it was but we got it fixed and then headed to a little restaurant where we got some pizza and mac and cheese to go.

Patiently waiting outside against the tree while I got our lunch.

We headed in to Central Park for a little picnic.

This was back in the spring (I know, I am way late in posting this) and it was the first time we got to use this awesome picnic blanket that we got for a wedding shower gift from my sister in law Heather and her family. We love it! I try to go on picnics just so I can use it! (I really do, you can ask Chris.)

It was a gorgeous day, and there were lots of people out enjoying the sunshine.

We had a wonderful picnic and I am so excited that we now have matching (compact!) bikes!

Sad Sight

2010-08-17T17:11:00.000-04:00

When you're walking toward your car, this is the last thing you want to see.

BOO. This is what Chris and I saw a few weeks ago. The first quote we got was $220 to replace that little tiny window! Well, I have replaced a few broken windows in my time and that sounded a little ridiculous. But Chris called around and found a place that did it for $100! Much better. Plus, they vacuumed the car and did a great job - with all the dog hair that accumulates, it was almost worth the whole thing just for that!

Brunch

2010-08-13T05:10:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, Chris and I went to a new restaurant, Penelope, to grab brunch.

The decor was very cute and cozy.

We got a mimosa and a bloody mary with our meals, and we couldn't turn that down!

Chris had a breakfast sandwich...

and I had spinach pie - "Yia Yia’s Greek country recipe with rich cheeses and flaky filo dough."

It was DELICIOUS. Hope to head back there soon!!

I'm Married!

2010-08-10T09:12:00.009-04:00

Okay, so our wedding was a while ago... It isn't brand new anymore. And if you've already had enough, you should probably stop reading right now. (I can't get enough! It was the funnest day EVER!!) But I did have a request from one of my loyal readers to put our vows in the blog, and I thought it was a good opportunity to share our ceremony.

The day was beautiful, sunny, and calm. The scene was set...

and the music was playing.

The kids were adorable as always.

The crew started to make their entrance...

While my dad and I waited to make ours.

It was a little overwhelming to step out and see everything set up, and take it all in. I heard the music, and thought it was time to go, so even though Carolyn hadn't opened the curtain for us to come out, I pulled my dad along and we came flying through the curtains! (Or at least that's what it feels like in my memory!)

Seeing Chris when I came out of the gazebo was definitely a highlight of the day.

There was a lot of dust in the air that day.

We started the ceremony with some audience participation.

Rings have endured as a symbol of love and commitment because of their strength, durability and shape.
Let these rings be a sign that love has a past, a present, and a future—and that whenever there are sorrows, joy will come around again.
Let these rings give your marriage direction—wherever you go you will return to each other.
And let these rings be another everyday reminder of your love and commitment.
We will begin this ceremony by passing these rings around, and asking that each one of you warm the rings in your hand. Feel free to silently offer a prayer, a blessing, or your best wishes to the happy couple as you hold the rings.

Chris and Shelli have brought us together here
for an occasion of great joy
and a cause for great celebration.

I kept reminding myself to look around and take everything in!

Today is a celebration not of a beginning, but of a bond that already exists between you. In many ways, your lives are already joined. Today you declare your intention to make this joining deliberate and permanent.

We even heard from Kurt Vonnegut.
Okay, now let's have some fun. Let's talk about women. Freud said he didn't know what women wanted. I know what women want: a whole lot of people to talk to. What do they want to talk about? They want to talk about everything.

What do men want? They want a lot of pals, and they wish people wouldn't get so mad at them.

Why are so many people getting divorced today? It's because most of us don't have extended families anymore. It used to be that when a man and a woman got married, the bride got a lot more people to talk to about everything. The groom got a lot more pals to tell dumb jokes to.

A few Americans, but very few, still have extended families. The Navahos. The Kennedys.

But most of us, if we get married nowadays, are just one more person for the other person. The groom gets one more pal, but it's a woman. The woman gets one more person to talk to about everything, but it's a man.

When a couple has an argument nowadays, they may think it's about money or power or sex or how to raise the kids or whatever. What they're really saying to each other, though without realizing it, is this: "You are not enough people!"

A husband, a wife and some kids is not a family. It's a terribly vulnerable survival unit.

I met a man in Nigeria one time, an Ibo who had six hundred relatives he knew quite well. His wife had just had a baby, the best possible news in any extended family.

They were going to take it to meet all its relatives, Ibos of all ages and sizes and shapes. It would even meet other babies, cousins not much older than it was. Everybody who was big enough and steady enough was going to get to hold it, cuddle it, gurgle to it, and say how pretty or how handsome it was.

Wouldn't you have loved to be that baby?

Chris and Shelli selected this reading because you, each and every one of you, has made them feel as loved as that baby. They are so grateful to you all to have come all this way, some of you a few miles, some of you thousands of miles, to help them celebrate this joyous day. And you, community of friends and family, may be called upon to support this union as Shelli and Chris face new joys and challenges together. So, I ask, do you all give your blessing and offer your continued love and support to this couple? If you agree please answer “We do”

They did!

Catch hands now and face one another to make your vows.
Look at one another—remember this moment in time.

Shelli,
I stand before you honored that you have chosen to share your love and your life with me. Your loving spirit and positive energy graced my life and made me a better person. Just as everything lights up when you enter a room, my world lit up when you entered my life. I promise to always love you, respect you, and be honest with you. I promise to be your best friend, your lover, and a good father to our children. I promise to always be by your side, support you in times of need, and celebrate with you in times of joy. I promise to always do everything in my power to protect the bond that we share and the joy in our life together. I look forward to sharing my life with you, from the excitement of being a newlywed, to the magic of our golden years. I look forward to calling you my wife. Thank you for all that you have done, and all that you are.

Thank you for sharing your life with me.

Chris,
Since the night we met, there was something that told me we are meant to spend our lives together. I was happy beyond belief when I realized that you felt the same way. It makes me so happy that we can reaffirm this promise here, witnessed and blessed by the most important people in our lives.

It amazes me every day how much I love you.

Nothing is as good when I can't share it with you, not even pizza, or a good run in the park, or a hot cup of coffee. I wish I could think of a way to thank you for the joy you bring me or find a way to express how you just make the world better by being in it.

You have made my life and my soul complete.

I will stand by your side during the good times and the rough patches, knowing that we can get through anything together. I will believe in you, I will believe in us, I will try to make your days as special as you make mine, and love and cherish you unconditionally for the rest of our lives.

I love you so much. Thank you for sharing your life with me.

Your hands are the part of you that you use the most. Every day you look down at your hands as they do their job, and this is also why we wear a token of our wedding vows there. Every day, as you look down, you will see a brief flash of light, a sparkle as the ring placed on your finger today will shine. It will remind you, again and again, over and over, of your promise to your loved one. Every time you take hands, you will feel that wedding ring on your partner's hand and you will both be reminded again in turn. It will always be with you, visible, worn openly and with pride. It will say to the world that someone loves me enough to make me a promise to share a life.

Shelli, I give you this ring as a token of my eternal love for you.

Chris, I give you this ring as a token of my eternal love for you.

It is my joy to pronounce you husband and wife.
You may now share the first kiss of your marriage!

Are you done yet?

APACHE BLESSING
Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there will be no loneliness,
for each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you.
May beauty surround you both in the
journey ahead and through all the years,
May happiness be your companion and
your days together be good and long upon the earth.

And now, let us shower Chris and Shelli with good wishes as they enter a new chapter of their lives together!

I might have to do another post about our portraits and reception! This one is way too long already. I enjoyed reliving the ceremony as I posted it.

Visit From Walt and Ellie - part 2

2010-08-07T13:36:00.000-04:00

After a wonderful relaxing weekend at the shore, we headed up to the wonderful but not entirely relaxing city. We were all tired when we got home, and I made mac and cheese and we walked around, showing W&E our neighborhood. I went to work, and the next morning when I got home, we headed out. We walked around for awhile. We checked out an exhibit in Madison Square Park that consists of statues of people. I couldn't resist taking an awkward photo next to the naked guy.

Most of the statues are on buildings, and many people have called the police, thinking that they are real people who will jump!

After discovering that several of our plans were thwarted because of places being closed on Mondays (gets me every time!) we headed to Pearl Oyster Bar for lunch. Maybe you've heard of their amazing lobster rolls?

We walked up to the High Line Park which was fun.

After Chris went to work, we walked around a little bit more and saw a movie shoot with Kate Hudson. That was pretty cool.

I almost got a good shot of her, but didn't check it till I got home, only to discover that a cab foiled my plan!

The rest of us went back to our apartment. They gathered up their luggage to head down to the hotel and get checked in.

The next day, Chris took them to have delicious vietnamese bahn mi sandwiches. One of our favorite meals! I really appreciate both Walt and Ellie being adventurous enough to try many of the unique foods NYC has to offer. Then they went to the Tenement Museum, which is a great place to visit that is not as well known. I hear they had a great time! That night, I met up with them and we headed over to Chris's work to say hello. We got to meet a few people, both coworkers and clients! That was fun. Then we grabbed lunch at the Grey Dog, a relaxed coffee shop/bar/restaurant that is down the street from Chris. We thought he'd be able to meet us, but instead we just brought him a sandwich. Which he said was delicious!

The next day was great! We all went to Cirque du Soleil!! Chris and I went to Ovo (a travelling show that was passing through Manhattan) a few weeks ago, and the show was AMAZING. I loved it so much, and when Walt and Ellie and I started talking about going to a show, I had to highly recommend it! The best part was that Chris worked overnight for a coworker and then was able to be off the next evening, so he went to the show with us! Even though he was exhausted. But the show was great, great, great.

I had such a good time on their visit, and I hope they did too!

Visit from Walt and Ellie - part 1

2010-08-04T13:33:00.003-04:00

Chris's parents recently took a trip out to the East coast. They started their trip in Delaware, with aunt Mary Anne, Walt's sister. We met up with them in Ocean City, NJ. We had a great time out there two years ago when Walt came out to visit...

(dreamy music playing, haze around the outsides to tell you these pictures are two years old)

(snap back to present)

Unfortunately, this time the weather was too cool to swim. We had a great time anyway.

Lilly loves being at the beach house!

I tried to get a shot of Walt napping, but he woke up after I took this one and before I had a chance to adjust my camera settings.

Chris took a nap too.

We are hoping for another trip down to Ocean City soon, one that involves swimming!

I have a tumblr!

2010-08-03T21:27:00.000-04:00

What the heck is a tumblr? Well, instead of cutting back on my blogging... apparently I've created a new blog. I don't know if this will surprise anybody. It is on tumblr.com and can be accessed here. I will still update this blog, and the updates for shelli's thoughts and pics will show up on my tumblr site, along with random photos and links and maybe a video or two if I get that working. Stop by and check it out!

Where have you been?

2010-08-01T21:56:00.000-04:00

You'll notice a whole new look for my blog! I needed a change. I've been neglecting my blog. The reason is that I just feel like it is pretty time consuming the way I blog right now. I really enjoy blogging in my current format, photos interspersed with text. But it takes me longer than I'd like to create the posts. I'm looking into other options. For the time being, it looks like I will be doing shorter posts. A short post is better than no post at all, I guess! In the meantime, I had a few posts already written so enjoy those!

Meet The New Landlord...

2010-07-19T18:25:00.007-04:00

Same as the old landlord. Yes, we are completely moved. I had this post all planned out a month ago when we started the moving saga... but then the actual move ended up taking a lot of time. As you can imagine. Soon after we found out that we had to move, our landlord showed us another apartment in a building two doors down.

This apartment was the exact same square footage as the one we were losing but was a two bedroom.

And it was cheaper, which was a huge plus! It didn't have a dishwasher or washing machine in it, but those were perks we had never expected to find in our price range.

One of the biggest bonuses was that since we would be going through the same landlord, there would be no messy search/application/deposit with the new place. So we decided to go for it.

One thing that made the move a little easier was that we could take our time. We took about a week to move. We only worked together on it twice, to move the big stuff. Since we were working opposite schedules, we each moved when we were home. This made the time DRAG. It was pretty awful. We moved from a 4th floor walkup to a 4th floor walkup. I even made a video to give you an idea of what our moving experience was like:

Its like you are right by my sidee... except that you're not dripping sweat. Now just imagine doing that about 20 times a day for a week. I definitely got my workout. The first day, I spent about 3 hours moving and this was all I accomplished.

I definitely do not recommend this type of move to anyone. But now we are done! And we can just relax and enjoy having a new second bedroom, which is a luxury I thought I would never have in NYC!

I Have An Excuse!

2010-07-15T15:10:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted because 1) we moved and I haven't had time, but more importantly 2) we have no internet access. It is very frustrating! We're hoping the cable guy will make it over today, he already went to the wrong address once and we had to cancel the appointment another time. Yes, I have internet access at work, but posting without access to my own computer means no pictures - and what's the fun in that? But never fear, I have several blog posts written in my mind, and soon enough they will appear on your screen. Don't give up on me!

A Little Road Trip

2010-06-22T13:07:00.001-04:00

Last month, my uncle Richard passed away. I am sad that he is gone, and I think daily about his children, wife, and brothers (including my dad).

Chris and I drove out to Ohio to attend the memorial service, and it was nice to get to see some family that I don't see very often. We all went out to dinner together. We did just get to see Lindsay, Mark, and Tyler on our road trip in April, and now we've seen them more often this year than in the two decades before that. Next time, hope we don't all wait so long to be together again!

After dinner, we lounged around at the hotel.

It was a sad occasion, but a nice visit.

Portraits part 2

2010-06-09T14:00:00.000-04:00

Gotta love this shot with the nakey baby. Of course, you always risk a little pee on the bed when you try something like this.

Look, mommy, I'm supergirl!

This is one of my favorites from the day, and I hope its one of Katie's, too. Beautiful daddy-daughter moment.

Later the sun came out, so we put on a pretty sundress and headed outside to capture a few more shots!

I LOVED Ev's little robe, and was really happy when we headed over to the pool to get some bathing beauty shots. Too adorable!

Curt and Katie are both former lifeguards, and Ev is an experienced swimmer already.

They go to the pool 2-3 times a week, and she always goes underwater...

But that doesn't mean she always likes it!

I had so much fun taking these pictures! Hope to get more portraits of the Weavers soon!!

Portrait Session

2010-06-07T12:31:00.000-04:00

We recently took a little road trip to Burlington for the weekend. We had a great time, and the best part was that we got to see good friends Curt and Katie that we hadn't seen for months. We also got to meet baby Evie! Evelyn was born back in September and we've all been so busy that we haven't been able to get together, so this was a special treat for us. She was so charming and adorable. They were patient enough to let me practice my portrait-taking with them! I was happy with how the photos came out. Processing them in the computer took some time, and I was guilty to take almost a month to get them to Katie, but they're finally done and ready for their debut! I picked a few of my favorites to share with everyone.

We started outside, at a park in front of Lake Champlaign.

It started to rain, but we found some shelter and busted out the umbrella!

How adorable is Evie??

One of my favorite family shots.

I love the baby-smooching shots...

especially Ev's expression in this one!

The fist full of glasses cracks me up!

Katie is too gorgeous. I'll have to do a whole session with just her sometime.

This shot was not turning out exactly how I had planned in my head, but I can't help but laugh at how upset Ev was about it all! She definitely got tired of being a model.

Check out that wicked air!

I have realized that there are way too many pics for one post. So, you'll just have to be in suspense for the second part of the photo shoot!

Spring Vacay part 6

2010-06-04T16:57:00.001-04:00

The second night of sleep in our campsite was better than the first. Maybe Lilly was used to the birdy neighbors, or maybe just too exhausted to care! Either way, we all slept better. We hit the road early, since we had a full day of driving in front of us. Our first stop - another dog park!

I have to say that Charleston has amazing dog parks. They are so nice and accessible, it cost us $1 each time to enter the park area (which included more than just the dog park, but we didn't check anything else out) and it was so worth it! This time, some other doggies showed up to keep Lilly company.

She had a blast running around and it was nice to have the little wooded area for her to play in.

After that, we were really ready to go. As we drove, we kept seeing billboards advertising one spot. I knew we wouldn't want to eat there, but was curious about the place. It is called "South of the Border" and is a collection of attractions in South Carolina (but just south of North Carolina).

It was totally sketchy. There were restaurants, motels, gift shops, and a little amusement park. We got off and sort of drove around but didn't have any interest in stopping at any of them! We did see a sign that said "internet cafe" and thought that would be worth checking out. It was at the end of a long building with "Flea Market" signs. We thought it was odd when we walked up to the door and it was locked, but there was a bell, so we rang it. We were buzzed into a dark, smoky room filled with slot machines! Ha! This was the most crowded place we saw. The whole place was so sketchy. We used the bathrooms, but there was no wireless internet to be had, and we didn't feel like hanging around to ask for a computer to use. We hustled out of there very quickly, I didn't get any photos, even from the outside - I was a little afraid the pit boss would be after me! As we left, just north of the building, we noticed a small sign on the road (not the big pretty colorful kind) that said "North Carolina border". We figured NC and SC must have different gambling laws, and this spot capitalizes on that. Oh well! Anyway we were back on the highway pretty quickly.

But we still had to eat. I had used my phone's web browser to discover a seafood restaurant that got good reviews, just a little bit off the highway, so we headed there. It looked pretty busy, late lunch crowd by the time we got there, maybe 2pm. But we walked in and found out that it was a buffet restaurant. I am not always thrilled about the idea of eating food that has been sitting on warmers for hours, and wasn't feeling adventurous enough to try it this time. We looked around and just headed for a Mexican restaurant that was across the parking lot. LUCKY! It was delicious!

We had a great lunch at this place, and if I were ever in the area again, I would definitely go back.

We made one more stop, at the outlet stores. I couldn't resist! We both got new sunglasses, which was nice. A few hours later, we arrived at our stop for the night in Richmond, Virginia. We stayed at a Westin which was extremely nice, especially because they were dog-friendly. (Its pretty much our number one criteria for a hotel.) They had a pool, and we got to do some relaxing swimming. I think the highlight of this stop for Chris was the shower head.

It was pretty cool.

We got a good dinner recommendation from the guy at the front desk, the Capital Ale House.

They don't brew their own beers but they have gazillions of beers on tap. (And even more in bottles.)

They have a very cool strip lining the bar that is frosty so it sort of keeps your beer cold.

Probably more style than function, but neato anyway. And finally went back to the hotel for a very relaxing nights sleep in a soft bed with a fluffy blanket in an air conditioned room. Great way to end the trip.

The next morning, we lounged around for a little while after we woke up, enjoying the gourmet coffee and watching HGTV. Then we had an uneventful drive back to NYC.

As always, we were sad to see the vacation end but happy to come home. Thanks for going along on our trip with us!!

Spring Vacay part 5

2010-06-02T16:57:00.000-04:00

After a very full day capped off by a seafood dinner, we headed back to our campsite to crash for the night.

None of us slept very well that night, since Lilly was pretty anxious, probably about the ducks and geese that surrounded us. We could hear them quacking overnight. They walked right up to our campsite the next morning, but they were a little camera shy at first...

I knew they would warm up eventually, though.

We discovered another (quieter) neighbor as we were eating some fruit for breakfast.

First thing in the morning, we headed downtown for a very pleasant walking tour of Charleston.

We hit some traffic on our way into downtown, so we didn't get there in time for the tour we wanted, but there were many others and we didn't have any trouble finding one. I wanted to hear about civil war history, but even though our tour didn't focus on that, it still surrounded us and we picked up bits and pieces. Our tour was more about the history of the city, which was still interesting. It was a lovely day to be walking around.

I loved all the blooming flowers and foliage.

I liked the old houses too.

It included a tour of an old house which is still basically in the same state it was in during the 1800s so that was pretty neat. Although they didn't allow us to take pictures inside, this is the house from the outside.

The Blue Angels also happened to be practicing that day, and I managed to get a couple shots!

Not easy, because they fly really fast. They are also quite noisy and I think our guide was getting a little frustrated.

Next we grabbed lunch at another place that we'd heard good things about, Juanita Greenbergs.

We were excited for some really good Mexican food, but weren't that impressed with it.

The margaritas were decent.

Next we headed off to find a dog park - doggies need to enjoy the beautiful day, too! We had asked the waitress at Hyman's for a good one, and she gave us some directions which seemed hard to follow. As it turned out, they were great directions, but we also consulted our best assistant google. There are 3 dog parks in the immediate vicinity of Charleston, but the one we went to that had been suggested by the waitress happened to be closed for the week! What a bummer. We were able to get to another one, even though it was the exact opposite direction, it was totally worth it because Lilly had such a good time running around. It was a large, grassy, well maintained, clean park, and was almost totally empty. We had lots of fun throwing her ball and she got worn out pretty quickly! It was a great find!

We finished the day with a little trip to the beach, which was kind of disappointing. It was about 5 by the time we got there, and the wind made it too cool to really want to swim or even take off our long sleeves. We enjoyed reading our books next to the ocean for a while, and then headed off to find some dinner.

The beach is located on a separate island and the bridge between them was pretty cool.

For dinner, we found another Mellow Mushroom!

We ordered a pizza to go, and then sat at the bar for a quick beer while we waited. (We originally discovered Mellow Mushroom in Asheville in part 2, and saw them in a couple of other Carolina cities.) Even after getting our pizza back to the campsite, it was still delicious by the time we ate it. (And I shouldn't admit this, but even after sitting in the car overnight, it was yummy for breakfast!) After our active day and subpar sleep the night before, we hit the hay pretty early. To be continued!

Spring Vacay part 4

2010-05-28T22:09:00.000-04:00

After lunch in Columbia, SC, we cruised down to Charleston, SC.

This is an old southern city that is very charming. The entire drive, even from Charlotte to Columbia earlier in the day, was very green. Lots of lush trees lining the highway. It made for some nice driving conditions.

When we got into Charleston, we checked into our campsite and set up our tent.

We were happy to be setting it up and getting settled in during the daylight hours!

We liked this campground a lot more than the previous one, even though we had some interesting neighbors.

There were turkeys and geese at the site, and unfortunately, we had to put Lilly in the car a while when we first arrived because she pulled and whined so much to try to get to them. There was one nesting in the bushes about 15 feet from our tent, and we just didn't want her to get to them. She calmed down after awhile. That night, we headed downtown (about a 20 minute drive from our site) to eat dinner.

A friend at work had recommended a seafood restaurant called Hyman's, and once I started looking for reviews online, it sounded like it is THE place to go when you visit Charleston.

Amy and Josh, who we visited in Asheville, had gone there during a trip to Charleston too. Amy has a very funny story about her visit there that you'll have to ask her about next time you see her. So we headed there for dinner. They had this bench outside where we waited for our table that kind of bounced up and down when you sat on it.

They had them in other places down there too but I can't remember if it had a certain name. It was kind of fun to bounce though.

There have been tons of celebrities that have eaten at Hyman's. All of the tables there have plaques that tell you who has eaten there before. Most actually have several plaques. Our table had Neil Young, Kevin Costner, and a couple of other people that I can't remember. When Amy and Josh went, they were seated at Phish's table which is really cool because Josh is a big Phish fan.

Chris and I have been trying to eat responsibly and not eat fish that have a negative impact on the environment. So this limited our ordering but luckily we have an app on our ipods that helps us figure out which fish we can eat in good conscience. He had pollock, which is listed as having "healthy populations, minimal environmental impact, and minimal contaminant levels." I ordered the crab legs, which was the special. The crab was listed as "enjoy in moderation". I don't eat a whole lot of crab so I figured I was being moderate. But that was before I saw the plate. I don't know if I could call this moderate...

Anyway everything was really tasty. This is getting long! Guess I will continue our trip to Charleston in the next part!

Spring Vacay part 3

2010-05-25T08:51:00.000-04:00

We drove from Asheville to Charlotte on Tuesday.

It was a relatively short drive, about 2 hours. We checked into our hotel and then drove around a bit. We briefly checked out downtown Charlotte, and then headed to an arts area that we had read about in a tourist magazine at the hotel. There was a store that had a huge variety of handmade stuff, along with several artists studios where some artists were working while we were there. There was a kid there who looked about 10 years old that was sketching a polar bear and he was really, really good! It was fun to look through the studios and see works in progress.

We headed to meet cousin Lindsay and her husband Mark for dinner.

We went to a bbq place which was really great. We sat on the patio and it was another beautiful evening. I haven't seen Lindsay for years, and hadn't met Mark. We had a great time chatting and catching up, and they actually had Tommyknocker on draft there! That is the brewery in Idaho Springs, we served their brew at our rehearsal dinner. We each had a couple of those.

The next morning, we had the breakfast at the hotel. Unfortunately, it was a little chilly and too cloudy to swim, so I never got to enjoy the hotel pool! It looked really nice, though, and we enjoyed everything about the La Quinta we stayed at. Before leaving town, we stopped by Lindsay and Mark's house to meet their baby Mason. Lindsay was at work but Mark was there to introduce us to the little guy, and Lilly got to play in the backyard with their two dogs for a little while before we hit the road again to head to South Carolina.

We were going to spend the next two nights in Charleston, but on the way we stopped in Columbia to have lunch with cousin Tyler. He had class in the afternoon but we timed it so we could meet him at school and have lunch between classes. He took us to a restaurant that had been featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We thought that was pretty cool because we love the show, the host makes everything look so delicious! We each had a burger, which was yummy. I still have to search online and see if I can find that segment about the place we went to. After lunch, Tyler showed us around the campus briefly. He was a law student - I say was because he graduated a couple of weeks ago! Congrats to Tyler!

The campus was beautiful, of course it was a lovely day and flowers were blooming everywhere. The buildings were all really nice too. I don't know much about architecture but it just seemed like a pleasant place to be.

Next, we headed down to Charleston. More to come!

Spring Vacay part 2

2010-05-20T09:40:00.001-04:00

On Sunday around noon, we arrived in Asheville, North Carolina. The drive down there was beautiful. We headed to the home of our friends Amy and Josh with the assistance of google maps - don't think we would have found it any other way! Thank goodness for gps.

After showers and a Fat Tire (they recently started selling it in NC, and Amy and Josh luckily had a few bottles on hand!) we headed to lunch at the Mellow Mushroom. This place was so great! They had tons of beers on tap and tons of delicious looking items on the menu. We had a really tasty pizza and some yummy salads, along with a couple of pale ales. They have Mellow Mushroom in a few other cities in the area, I so wish they would come to Manhattan.

After lunch we went for a little hike in the Blue Mountains. It is so beautiful there.

We had to stop at a scenic overlook to get some photos.

Later that night, we headed out to a brewpub in town, Lab. It is a neat place where the entire front wall/windows opens like a garage door so we were inside but it was open to the air. I should mention that the weather was really amazing all week, we lucked out and had sunny days and nice nights with the exception of the first night. After the Lab, we had to make one more stop to play some pool.

The next day, we went to breakfast at a place called Sunny Point. Delicious. I had huevos rancheros, along with grits, and it was awesome. Later, Amy and I went to a pilates class while Chris and Josh went to play frisbee golf. Then in the afternoon we continued our brewery tour of Asheville with Wedge, where we sat outside next to a river and enjoyed a beautiful sunny afternoon, and Asheville Brewing Company. After the brews, we took Lilly to a dog park that she loved. It was huge and she had a great time running, playing, and wearing herself out! For dinner, Amy and Josh made us lasagne, which was so tasty. Then we relaxed for a while before heading to bed. And we got to get our laundry done, which was a huge bonus!

Tuesday was our last day in Asheville. Amy and Josh went to work in the morning, and Chris and I got ready and packed the car. Then we met Amy for lunch at a Thai restaurant downtown.

It was good but I wish we had gone back to the Mellow Mushroom instead!

We said good-bye to Amy and headed to Charlotte for the next portion of our trip.

The time in Asheville was way too short and I am really looking forward to our next visit down there!

Spring Vacay part 1

2010-05-17T21:33:00.002-04:00

Chris and I went on an awesome road trip for our vacation last month.

We got to do a lot of fun activities! For some reason, I didn't take a ton of pictures but I did get some.

We left on Saturday April 10, and had our longest day of driving.

I had picked out a brewpub to stop for lunch.

As usual, we left later than we had hoped and it was about 4 by the time we arrived there. So we had a late lunch at Cally's in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

The food was good, the beer was good, the bartender was friendly, and they had wifi so we could check in with our ipods!

Can't go wrong. We had a great lunch and then we were on our way again.

We headed down to Virginia to our campsite for the night. We got there after dark and it was getting chilly. We set up our tent in the dark. We had food that we were looking forward to cooking over the open fire, but since it was dark and we were tired, we debated about just using our camp stove. Unfortunately the entire dinner plan was thwarted when we realized we didn't have any lighters or matches. DOH! We figured out later that we could have used the car's cigarette lighter to get it started but since we'd had a late lunch it wasn't that big of a deal. I did munch on a few cold s'mores. They were almost as good as the hot ones! I love s'mores!

That night, it got cold. And I don't just mean a little chilly, I mean COLD. We were both shivering all night and neither one of us got much sleep! I think it got down to about 40 and maybe colder - there was frost on the ground in the morning. We are mean doggie parents and don't let Lilly sleep in the bed with us, but that night we coaxed her onto the air mattress with us so we would have some more heat and keep her warmer too. (Our goal of keeping her off the bed was reaffirmed when we woke up and the two of us were in about 1/3 of the mattress and Lilly was taking up the other 2/3.) The next morning when we broke down the tent it was difficult as we couldn't feel our fingers. I couldn't even tie my shoes. We shoved everything in the car as fast as we could and headed to the first diner we saw for a hot meal and hot coffee. That really hit the spot!

Then we were on our way again. We headed out to Asheville, NC. See you soon for part 2!

I was late to work this morning because...

2010-05-12T21:01:00.001-04:00

I had to grab some footage of this guy! He was banging on our windows, trying to get in, and wasn't the least bit scared of us knocking on the window back at him!

I love lists!

2010-05-11T20:32:00.000-04:00

This is my to-do list for the evening. I'm doing pretty good, eh? Checked off a lot of the list so far. I even write things I would have definitely done anyway, like shower and yoga. It just feels nice to check things off the list.

Here's more about some of the items on the list.

Laundry. Just one load, washed and now hanging on the line. Thank you to my wonderful husband for doing another load yesterday. Now we are just about caught up.

Look for sheets. I am really too embarrassed to even post a picture to explain this one. We have a set of sheets that was starting to get thin. Yes, just one set of sheets. Chris suggested that we get new ones, but I said, no, no, we don't need them, we have a brand new set waiting for us with the rest of our wedding presents to use next year when we have a bigger place. Then the next time I washed them I saw a small, barely noticeable snag in the bottom sheet, and acknowledged that we might want to think about new sheets. A couple of days later, I turned over in the night, half asleep, and put my elbow through the snag as I turned. Now it is a huge, gaping hole. So I need to look for sheets online. Haven't gotten to it yet.

I made mac and cheese for dinner! At the request of someone who I hope is looking forward to gobbling it up when he gets home tonight.

My mom wants to video chat with me online on skype. That sounds fine with me but I need to investigate how it works. We have a program called ichat on our computer that I had a little trouble with the one time I tried to use it, but if I could get that to work, maybe we could chat on that instead. And I got a new google voice account so I have to set it up. I will have a new Denver phone number! Cool!

I finally mailed in a form that has been just sitting on the counter for several days, just because I wanted to cross it off the list. This is why lists are wonderful.

I have been looking forward to editing photos all day. I got to take a bunch of portraits with Curt, Katie and baby Ev this weekend, and I am so excited to work on editing! Now it is 8:30 and I haven't even had a chance to look at them. That's what I am doing next. And hopefully later this week I'll have a blog post up with some of my faves!

The list says blog posts, not blog post. I had hoped to write a couple of posts so I would have some saved up for later this week. But now it is getting late and I want to edit photos (see above). So I am going to close here and open up photoshop!

HA! You've wasted several perfectly good minutes reading about my boring evening. Hope you have more excitement in your life today!

The Next Big Move

2010-05-03T17:04:00.000-04:00

I got some good news recently. I've been accepted to a fellowship program for pediatric anesthesiology. In Denver! Chris and I are very excited to move back to Colorado a little over a year from now. I love living in New York City, but I'm not interested in living here indefinitely.

But this will not be our "next" big move. In other news, we found out today that our lease will not be renewed by our landlord at the end of May when it expires. BOO!

So I guess we are heading back to this:

We'd hoped to stay in our current apartment until I finish residency next year. But this wasn't a complete shock. About 3 months ago, we found out that they have to remodel our apartment. The short story: there used to be a really awesome deli downstairs, which was one of the first places we went when we moved in.

The owner was named K and she was super sweet. She used to smoke in the backyard and we would see her out there when we took Lilly. She loved Lilly - she told me once "she like me, I not speak good English and neither does she!" And she received packages for us, which made her one of my favorite people in Manhattan. Anyway, she closed her deli in November after they raised the rent and she decided she couldn't stay open anymore. She had a closing night, and tons of people from the neighborhood were there. Everyone was sad to see her go after 17 years in the same spot. When I was there, I found out that she actually lives uptown in the EXACT same building that I lived in for 3 months when I was in medical school! WEIRD!

Okay, so this is not such a short story. Anyway, she closed the deli and a "For lease" sign went up in the window. When they started looking into renting the space out, apparently they discovered that the entire building would be inspected and that they would need to change the fourth floor (our floor) - something about only being allowed to have one apartment on the floor, currently there are two. I don't really understand it all because the apartments do not look the least bit haphazard, it seems to be a reasonable setup. We both have access to fire escapes. Well, they didn't ask me.

So they told us they would keep us up to date. Originally they mentioned renting it to a bank (bo-ring!) and Chris heard them recently showing the place to people who were talking about opening a bar or restaurant and using the backyard as outdoor seating (a bit better). We didn't hear anything else until we called them today to get the scoop. Since our lease expires at the end of May, we figured they should have an answer for us. And they did. :(

At least moving is nothing new to us, and it is always a good opportunity to get rid of stuff we don't use. Hopefully we'll be able to get into a place with more space. Our calculation today was that we have about 380 square feet in our current apartment. Our landlord has lots of apartments in this area, and they've offered to show us any that are available right now. That would be nice - no new application, no waiting to get our security deposit back while we still have to send a security deposit to the new place, we know they're pet friendly. And we definitely plan to stay in this area.

I'll keep you updated!

I'm back!

2010-05-01T10:23:00.000-04:00

Okay, I have been terrible about blogging for the past few months. But now I'm motivated to pick it up again, for the time being, at least! I made a couple of changes to the blog front page. I eliminated the brew update section since we are no longer actively brewing. Such a bummer! But in a year or so we'll be able to brew again, with more space!

I added a link to Carrie's blog.

She is traveling through New Zealand and Australia and blogging her adventures. I'm excited to read about all the fun, exciting, new things she'll be seeing and doing. (I hope she is better about blogging than I am!) A few weeks ago, Chris and I helped her load up her moving truck.

Can't leave Teddy behind.

But she did leave the loft bed - she's ready for a real bed when she comes back!

I'm so excited for Carrie. She quit a job she was unhappy with and decided to move to Philadelphia. She hadn't found a job yet in Philly, and decided to travel for 3 months!

So we loaded her studio apartment into the moving truck and she headed to Philly where she stored everything in a friend's garage.

Then she headed down under!

Chris insisted on taking a picture of me even though I had been at work overnight and then headed to Carrie's first thing in the morning. And then had been up and down the stairs a few times, carrying stuff, and arranging it all in the truck. Yet I'm still posting this photo on the internets. Brave.

Chris and I decided this was the best move ever.

It was only a 3rd floor walk-up, and she didn't have that much stuff - very different from our last move. Plus, we didn't have to pack the stuff, and we didn't have to unpack it! A couple hours of work on a Sunday morning was all we had to do. I wish our next move would be this easy!

Visit from Heather, Pete and Emma

2010-03-07T08:55:00.003-05:00

Ok... I've been neglecting my blog big time. I'm hoping to catch up a little bit, and find more things to blog about.

Back in December, just after Christmas, Heather, Pete, and Emma came out from NJ (where they were visiting Pete's parents for the holidays). We spent a fun afternoon together. First, they met us at our apartment and we gave Emma her Christmas present - it was a shirt with Lilly's silhouette on it!

She didn't look so sure at first.

I think she likes it. Green is definitely her color.

Later, we headed out to the park.

Emma had fun checking out all the fun slides and bridges.

Some of them are tricky...

And we had fun watching her.

Chris and Pete tried out the slides, too!

And so did Ho-Ho, Emma's new friend.

Afterward, we went to the Museum of Natural History across the street. It was kind of too crazy to take pictures in there, and we didn't spend very long there but it was fun. Next, we went to dinner. Just one photo from dinner at Fred's. Emma seems to be debating a couple of her menu choices.

Thanks for making the trip out to see us, guys! We hope to see you again soon!

Honeymoon, part 7 (where we go from country to city, the long way)

2010-02-02T22:45:00.000-05:00

When we last left our intrepid honeymooners, they had stayed in Goodland for the night, on their way back to NY.

The next morning, we got a decent start on the drive. We did spoil ourselves with a stop for lunch in Hays, KS at a brewpub called Lb (liquid bread)!

The beer was very tasty, especially the wheats.

I'd love to go there again. While I have told myself many times as I made the drive between Denver and St Louis on I-70 "I'm so glad I will never have to make this drive again", I just have a hard time believing it anymore. So at some point in the future, I'm sure we'll be back at Lb. Then we stopped for dinner in St Louis with my dad and stepmom.

This was Halloween night, although we didn't feel very festive. It was fun seeing people dressed up at dinner, but we were just completely exhausted and hoping to get close to Indianapolis. We made it into Indiana that night. Sunday morning, we woke up, ready to finish our drive. We were on our way home. We made one stop in Ohio at a dog park we found for Lilly to play in...

It was a great place! We were glad she was able to get some exercise.

There was a pond inside the park - Lilly will wade into the water, but she doesn't swim. If we could take her here more often, we'd have her swimming in no time!

Then we were on our way again. Cruising along, we tuned in the Bronco game through the cell phone, and just after they lost and we started listening to the Minnesota v Green Bay game... the lights on the dash flickered. The charger stopped charging the phone. I just thought it was weird. But luckily, my brilliant husband thought we should pull over. No! I said. We are in the middle of nowhere! But we stopped at a rest stop a mile or two away. And the car didn't start again. We let it rest, walked Lilly, went to the bathroom. Cleaned the battery terminals. (At least I think that's what Chris did.) Got a jump. And it was so weak, we knew it wouldn't go anywhere. We waited here...

Yup. East Ohio.

And there was an open bottle of wine in the car (leftover from the wedding), so we decided to have a sip. All we had were our coffee cups, but they worked!

We called AAA. Here comes Bill!

He towed the car a few miles down the highway to a huge shopping complex. He left it at a car shop, and pointed out the nearest hotel, which we could walk to. At this point, we knew there was no way we would be at work the next day. It was annoying, and a little stressful, but what can you do? There was no way for us to get out of there. We checked into the hotel,

and had a snack at Buffalo Wild Wings where we watched the end of the evening football games. Then we headed back to the hotel, and unpacked our Wii!

Some awesome friends gave us the Wii for our wedding gift and we got to break it in. We also had growlers in the car that we had bought in Colorado, so we enjoyed one of those with beer from Tommyknockers (brewery in Idaho Springs).

So, overall, it was a good night, even though this was a hotel without a pool. Oh well, you can't win them all!

The next morning, Chris picked up the car by 1030am and we were (we hoped) REALLY on our way home this time.

Both of our jobs had been understanding about us missing on Monday, and it felt kind of fun to not be back at work - our vacation, and our time together, continued for an extra day!!

We were able to take our time driving back - since we left in the morning, we stopped at a couple of (of course) brewpubs on the way. In Harrisburg, there were 2 breweries - Appalachian Brewery

And Troegs!

We didn't even really hit traffic on the way back into the city! Bonus!

We were SO relieved to get home and get the car unloaded. There was a lot of mail waiting for us when we got home after 3 weeks away!

And I guess this concludes the story of Chris and Shelli's honeymoon, which was absolutely perfect from start to finish!

Honeymoon, part 6 (where we go from hot to cold)

2010-01-04T22:16:00.000-05:00

So, here we are in sunny Spain. We knew the week would come to an end, and we had a lot of travelling ahead of us. We got wind via facebook (where we get most of our Colorado news these days) that there was a storm coming toward CO. We left Gran Canaria in the morning, flew back through Madrid to Dallas, managed to get a slightly earlier flight out of Dallas to Denver than we were scheduled for, and went from this:

to this:

Eeek! When we landed in Dallas, we knew that the storm was heading to Denver and that it was supposed to snow a lot. I was really afraid of getting stranded in Dallas, so we tried really hard to get on the earlier flight and just managed to squeak on. I meant to check if our original flight was on time, but we were just relieved to land in Denver at 8pm rather than 10. We waited there for the bus to take us up to my mom's - she didn't want to come out in the weather and I can't blame her! We waited inside most of the time but went outside a few minutes before the bus was supposed to come. Of course we hadn't brought winter coats with us, so we were standing in the blowing snow, 20 degrees before wind chill, in our light jackets. We were VERY happy to see that bus when it arrived.

Our original plan was to leave the next morning (Thursday) and start our drive back to New York. We planned to do the drive in three 8-10 hour days. But the roads were all still closed the next morning.

Chris shoveled my mom's driveway (we don't do much snow shovelling in NYC!) and we decided to make the most of our forced delay.

We went to our favorite Westminster brewpub - Rock Bottom! I was glad to spend a little extra time with my mom.

Then we headed up to Fort Collins after picking up Lilly. My sister was kind enough to watch her for the whole week, so she got to play with her cousin Jake in their backyard in the snow!

We stayed in Fort Collins at Chris's parents that night, hoping to get out the door the next morning (Friday). We didn't know if we would still do the drive in 3 days or shoot for 2. Two days was pretty brutal on the way from NYC to CO. But the next morning, we woke up to find the highways still closed. Again, we made the most of it, and grabbed lunch at one of the restaurants we miss in Ft Collins. Also had to hit New Belgium Brewery!

By later that afternoon, the sun had come out and I-70 was reopened. Our plan had been to go up through Nebraska and take I-80 towards home, the northern route:

But since I-70 was open, and the storm that had blown through was supposed to be heading northeast - we decided just to head back down to I-70 and go back the same way we'd come.

The highway didn't reopen till mid afternoon, so we just packed up the car and hit the road, originally planning to stay in Denver with my mom for the night and leave the next morning. We ended up just getting on I-70 to get a few hours of driving out of the way. We spent the night in Goodland, KS.

To be continued!

Top 10 of 2009

2010-01-01T14:00:00.002-05:00

My highlights of 2009:
(Thank you, Mom, for inspiring this post!)

10. I got to go to Colorado a lot!

9. Finally getting our apartment clean and organized, making it such a nice, pleasant place to be.

8. An amazing trip to Peru to kick off the year!

7. Hans and Angie's and Jeff and Shauna's weddings.

6. Chris and my mom both got full time jobs they really like!

5. Weekend trips - fewer than last year, but we had a blast!

4. Having fun with our visitors in NYC!

3. Welcoming new babies with our family and friends - Abbey, Hunter, Joel, Evelyn, and Tyler all just celebrated their first New Year!

2. An awesome trip to Spain, and a fun road trip to complete our wonderful honeymoon.

1. Marrying the greatest guy in the world! I love you, sweetie!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-29T17:26:00.002-05:00

I had an awesome Christmas this year! A few days before the big day, we made cookies.

A lot of cookies.

This is what lilly likes to do while we cook. Makes it kind of difficult.

We had the tree trimmed, and we received so many gifts to put "underneath" it!

My actual Christmas Day didn't start out too well. I was on call at work, so I was there from 630am Christmas Eve until 730 Christmas morning, and it was busy. In a bad way. Ick. And Chris was at work overnight too, so we missed UPS and the mailman, so we didn't receive several packages. Then we both came home and after a few hours of sleep, things started to look up. First, we made cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Yum!

Then, Chris chose to open his big present first, that I was so excited to give him!

And he loved it!

Lilly got a stocking of her own from Bob and Fran. She knew right away that it was hers, so we had it stashed on the top shelf until Christmas day!

She definitely loved her toys.

I got a wonderful cardigan from Chris, and a flashlight from Chris's parents that you can shake up to charge and make it light up.

Later on, we made ourselves a feast of fondue. Delicious!

We also enjoyed a couple of holiday beverages.

Hope your Christmas was wonderful too!

Honeymoon, part 5 (where we eat seafood and cheese)

2009-12-23T22:05:00.001-05:00

I know, I know, this isn't that exciting - how do I manage to drag it out for 4+ parts??

A couple of notes about things we did on the island besides lay around reading.

We were both proud new owners of ipod Touch (Touches? anyway, we had new ipods) that we had given each other as a wedding gift. They can access the internet through a wifi connection, which came in super handy on the trip. Several places had wifi, but we found one bar in particular that we ended up visiting almost every day. We would each buy a beer, and check in on our email, the NFL, facebook, and our wedding photographer's blog to see if any pictures were up yet. (A girl can dream!) The same guy was always working there, and he was very nice and spoke some English. We were usually the only people there.

While we were staying on the Canary Islands, everything was so touristy. We ate at a couple of the restaurants, but were completely underwhelmed.

There was one American themed restaurant, I can't even remember what we ate there but I definitely remember the margaritas:

(They didn't taste very good, but they sure looked cool for a few seconds!)

We also went to a little cafe that served this Swedish-style sandwich, with meatballs and cranberry stuff, along with fresh juice. That was pretty good.

We tried a pizza one night, and that is actually an egg in the center. Oddly enough, it was good!

We didn't really have enough supplies to cook much at the apartment, and we did get some snacks to keep around but we often didn't end up eating much. The kitchen was very handy, though.

The dishwasher was actually smaller than ours.

When we arrived, we asked the owner of the apartment we stayed in to give us a restaurant recommendation. He gave us a name and said it was minutes from our door. The first night we were there, we looked all over for this restaurant - he had said they served more authentic Canarian food than the other restaurants we'd find on the beach. We could not find it! We were both super disappointed, especially after trying a couple of the restaurants in the resort area. We were pretty much living on snacks and watery beer when Chris talked me into asking the guy at the bar where we frequently checked our email. He told us where to go, and we tried again - it was in a spot that we had actually walked right by the first time we looked, but I had written down the name wrong. We ate there, and it was good. It wasn't the best food I've ever had, but it did seem more authentic than the other places. The first night, we had cheese and we each had a fish filet.

Chris got upset because the guy didn't give him enough time to think about his order, and he ended up getting something that he wasn't sure he wanted.

It was ok tasting. We did go back another night, and had the same waiter, and this time we tried the ceviche for two. It was pretty tasty! Again, not the best ever, but good.

On our last night there, I talked Chris into eating at the Chinese restaurant.

I was curious to try it, because the Chinese food we ate in Peru was really, really good. Not that chinese food in Peru has anything to do with Chinese food on the Canary Islands. But that's why I wanted to check it out. Besides, our other option was chips and cheese at the apartment. I thought it was worth a try. It was pretty good. :)

We Got A Storm!

2009-12-21T22:51:00.003-05:00

There was a huge storm on the East Coast this weekend that brought tons of rain, snow, wind, and cold. We got hit on Saturday night with several inches of snow. I had to interrupt my honeymoon tales to share the pictures of our backyard!

I tried to take a photo of my boot to show that it goes up above my ankle, but I can only bend around so much!

Lilly LOVES the snow and had a blast playing outside.

She is a pro at finding her ball, even when it lands in the middle of a big pile of snow!

So, needless to say, we had no use for these on Sunday...

That's my snow story! Believe me, by the time I took these pictures, there was nothing but dirty slush on the streets and sidewalks. Glad we had our backyard!

Honeymoon, part 4 (where we ride bikes and see more resorts)

2009-12-18T09:56:00.001-05:00

I mentioned that we wanted to rent bikes. We had looked into it before going out there, and it sounded like there were multiple bike rental shops. Well, there weren't, at least not close to us. Tons of car rental places though. We went to one place that had a sign outside that they rented bikes as well as cars, but the woman inside looked at us like we were crazy when we said we wanted to rent bikes! She also told us that they only had men's bikes, so there wouldn't be any short enough for me. Now THAT'S crazy. As if only men ride bikes. At some point in the week, we discovered another bike rental shop, inside a hotel we hadn't even known was there. So on one of our last days there, we managed to rent actual bikes.

We cruised down the beach to another, even more resort-packed area.

Beyond the beach area you can see a bunch of sand dunes. We walked through these a bit.

We had wanted to ride through the mountains in the center of the island, but as I mentioned, we didn't know how large the island was! We also hadn't taken into account the inaccessibility to bikes. We had to ride on the edge highway for some parts of our ride, which was a little scary. So we ultimately decided to skip trying to get into the mountains to ride around. But we did manage to find a place to stop for a refreshing beverage while on our way to return the bikes.

We saw a guy come kite surfing up to the shore. It was fun seeing all the surfers.

We also saw a guy making sand shapes, which were pretty cool!

Then, to return the bikes.

Honeymoon, part 3 (where we gain insight on Shelli's vacation philosophy)

2009-12-15T13:13:00.000-05:00

When we booked our honeymoon trip, we were looking for someplace that was
1. Not a typical honeymoon spot, I guess we just wanted to be unique
2. We sort of leaned toward a beach area
3. We wanted to see something new and hoped to have activities other than just lying on the beach/pool
4. Along the same lines as #3, we were hoping to experience a different culture
5. It had to be close enough to be worth spending just a week there, and not too expensive to get there or stay there

Well... we hit about 3 1/2 of these. We avoided Hawaii, Florida, Cancun, Jamaica, etc because they all seemed like cliche honeymoon spots, although we are still dying to visit Hawaii sometime soon! I didn't research these places very much but my impression of them (except for HI, it seems like there is lots to do there) is that it is mostly about beach and drinking. Which is fine but not exactly what we wanted to spend our time and money on! Fiji, Australia, Indonesia, all seemed like an AWESOME trip but these places are either far away or expensive (or both!). Although Greece is not that unusual of a honeymoon spot, I would have loved to go there - I have this dream of going on boats between the islands, especially some smaller islands, and exploring (like Bob and Renee). But it turned out that October in Greece is not all that warm, so forget about relaxing on the beach.

I thought I had happened upon a hidden gem with the Canary Islands. The photos of the beaches were all beautiful, and the climate was around 80 degrees year round with only rare rain. It is part of Spain but close to Morocco and the guide book I had mentioned multi-cultural influences. At first, I had grand plans of traveling between the islands and spending a day or two in a few different spots, but Chris talked me out of it, and staying in one place for the majority of the trip was sounding pretty good after all the travel leading up to the wedding. (Not having to unpack and repack your suitcase every couple of days?! I have never taken a trip like that before!)

But, as you might know, the area we stayed in was not the multi-cultural, activity-packed haven we had hoped for. Unless you count northern European culture. We stayed on a part of the island that is essentially full of resorts (for miles and miles, as we discovered). The resorts are full of Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, probably also Danes, and the rare Englishman. By the second day, we had realized that our honeymoon was not what we had expected. But we quickly decided there was nothing to be upset about! We had a beautiful beach and pool, awesome weather, a stack of books to read, spanish wine - and best of all, we got to spend ALL DAY EVERY DAY together. For two people who average about 8-12 waking hours a week together, this was pretty much the jackpot. So what could we be upset about?

Just wanted to give a little background! For those of you who are hoping to visit the Islands someday, though, don't despair - there are plenty of different areas to visit! There are several islands, and all are different.

So what did we do? One day, we decided to take the bus into the big city.

Chris waiting for the bus. I have to add that I bought tote bags for all my bridesmaids and I got myself one too. I picked this one not just because it was pink, but because it was pink with orange accents and I liked the contrast. I quickly figured out that the big problem with travelling with this bag is that my hubby is not very willing to carry it for me. This is about as close as he got to it.

There was a local bus that picked us up near the shopping area and took us there. We had a really nice time wandering around Las Palmas.

We had lunch - ceviche!

And of course we had to stop for a beer here and there.

There was a beach we stopped at, although it was pretty much too chilly to swim. We just admired the ocean.

We went to dinner at an Irish themed restaurant.

Chris did not want to go there, but I talked him into it, and we had what might have been one of the more authentic Canarian meals there! They eat lots of potatoes with different sauces.

We tried these. Also had a little peruvian beer.

Then we took the bus back to our little apartment.

Up next: bike adventures!

Honeymoon, part 2 (where we compare the merits of the beach and the pool)

2009-12-12T17:47:00.005-05:00

Okay! About time for some more honeymoon recap, since this was almost 2 months ago now! :)

We flew from Madrid to Las Palmas airport, on Gran Canaria, the largest island of the Canary Islands. (Spanish territory, off the coast of Morocco.)

We landed about 11 in the morning. We met the owner of the apartment where we stayed at the airport, where he gave us the key and told us a little bit about the apartment. He suggested we rent a car if we wanted to see more of the island. We had the (mistaken) impression that it would be really easy to rent bikes and we'd just ride them around to see things. Another (mistaken) impression was that the island was so small we would be able to get around the whole thing and explore a lot on the bikes. More about that later. Anyway, we hopped in a cab to see our honeymoon destination! I was really looking forward to the pool at the apartment complex, and I was not disappointed.

Most of our days were some mix of beach and pool.

I like the pool because it was less windy and less crowded, although I missed putting my feet in the sand. I also don't always like swimming in salty water, it stings my eyes and then i get a salty taste in my mouth.

Chris liked the beach because he loves to swim in the waves.

I like to swim but I like to alternate it with a lot of reading. I read 3 books and lots of magazines that week! Nothing work-related! (Well, almost nothing.) It was heaven!

The apartment complex we stayed in was a lot more mellow than some of the big resorts.

The main shopping area was next to that resort and about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. That was where we got groceries, and we also spent one day on the beach chairs there.

You had to pay to rent them, more with an umbrella. (Oh yeah, this is another reason I liked the pool - plenty of umbrellas to protect my fragile, pale skin.)

There were many windsurfers in this area. (I told you it was windy!) They offered lessons, and we considered doing this, but it would have cost us several hundred dollars so we decided that $$ was better spent elsewhere.

There was also a quieter beach area right next to our apartment complex, without chairs or umbrellas. This was nice because we went there on the cloudier days, and we could spend spend a couple hours laying in the sand without harsh sun.

When the sun came out, we just headed back up to the pool. And from the pool, Chris could head down to the beach anytime he wanted to tackle the waves!

Up next - our activities. It wasn't ALL just laying around on the beach.

Honeymoon part 1.5

2009-12-03T12:48:00.004-05:00

I came across a few other photos I wanted to share from our honeymoon!

Our first layover, between Denver and Madrid, was in Dallas. Here's my handsome husband chilling at the castle in the airport.

Everywhere we went, I told people it was our honeymoon, in hopes of getting free stuff. Like champagne! It worked on the flight from Denver to Dallas.

And luckily, I had packed a snack for the plane ride.

More to come soon from Canary Islands!

Honeymoon part 1

2009-12-01T08:05:00.002-05:00

Chris and I went on our honeymoon to Spain back in October, just after the wedding. There isn't much to tell from this trip, but there are plenty of photos, so I have to split it up into a couple of posts!

My mom gave us a ride to the airport Monday morning. We are all dressed up in our getaway clothes!

We gave ourselves 2 1/2 hours for our international flight but the lines were all short so we had plenty of time to kill. So we took advantage of the time and enjoyed a couple of delicious Colorado beers.

We were both sporting our new rings!

Our first night was spent in Madrid.

We were so busy with the wedding that we barely put any time into planning this trip. We had our lodging all set for Canary Islands, where we spent the bulk of the time, but the night in Madrid was completely unplanned. There was an American couple behind us on the flight that started chatting with us as we were waiting for suitcases. They told us they were staying at Best Western in a neighborhood close to many activities - so we asked if we could share a cab and try to get a room at the hotel, too! This worked out pretty well, except the guy at the desk sort of didn't believe us when we told him it was our honeymoon. "And you didn't even have anything reserved for your honeymoon?!" Unfortunately, the only room they had was one with two twin beds. Not exactly a honeymoon suite, but we did not feel like wandering the city, checking out tons of hotels.

The room was nice though, it had wifi so we got to check our email and facebook.

I had to try out the hotel robes as soon as I found them in the closet. Never mind that I was fully dressed already.

This seems a little contradictory...

The nice people from the plane happened to be going to the Prada museum, so we joined them. We all ended up starting out at the botanical gardens, which was very pretty.

Those are the Americans we tagged along with. They were very nice.

We had lunch together at a place across the street from the museum, but fortunately it did not seem TOO touristy.

We were tired and ready for a siesta, plus the museum was free that evening from 7-8 so Chris and I ended up taking naps and then going to the museum later. We said goodbye to the nice couple. (I forgot their names!)

After our siesta and the museum, we just walked around. Madrid was nice, actually had a similar feel to New York. We had dinner at a neat looking cafe place.

The above photo was taken by one of those statue people, the ones who wear metallic colors and paint their body and stand super still. He was enjoying a post-work (or maybe pre-work, for all I know) beer at the cafe. It was kind of weird to see him just sitting there, moving around like regular people and stuff.

We had egg dishes, which were yummy.

We did stop at one more bar to grab a beer, an English style pub.

Then we just wandered back to our hotel. We only got lost a little bit. We were super tired when we got back to the hotel and both dozed off while playing with our ipods. The next morning, we were on our way to the beach!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-28T12:03:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving this week - I know I did. I ate at my friend Elizabeth's, and she had an amazing spread for us!

She had appetizers all set out and ready to go when we arrived.

Here she is with husband Jasand.

She had worked really hard to prepare all these awesome dishes. Not easy to do in a small Brooklyn kitchen.

Did I mention that they have an adorable son?

Anyway, I filled my plate (twice!) and ate until I could barely move.

Everything was so good - thank you, Lizzie!!

Bridal Shower!

2009-11-25T16:37:00.000-05:00

Of course, this is SO out of date, but I wanted to talk about my bridal shower and say THANK YOU again to my wonderful friends who planned it!

Lea, Leah and Jasmine did an awesome job, everything was so beautiful and so personal and I only teared up a little bit.
They held the shower at Rock Bottom - how did they know I would enjoy a brewery??

Great decorations...

Games...

Tasty snacks...

Delicious cake...

Generous gifts...

My favorite gift, a recipe book!

And my favorite part, the guests!

mother-in-law Ellie

Mom and Lea

Cathy and Jaz

Renee, Mom, Mindy, and baby Abbey

I had such a good time cuddling with Abbey!

Cousin Laura (she was the photographer for the day. Thanks for taking all these great photos, Laura!)

Aunt Lisa

Jasmine and Aunt Lisa

mother and daughters

Mother-in-law and sis-in-law Heather (Thanks for making me look so tall, Ellie!)

Jaz and I recreate the photo behind us of me holding her as a baby (with a death grip)

Nephew Joey, our first meeting! He's obviously thrilled to meet his Auntie Shelli!

I can't thank all of you enough - for planning and attending the shower, and for all your thoughtful gifts! Thank you! It was awesome!

I am dying! (for my photos)

2009-11-22T20:33:00.002-05:00

I can't wait for my wedding pictures! It has been 5 weeks now... I thought it would be faster. I console myself by telling myself, the photographer has SO MANY awesome pics from our wedding, she has never seen ANYTHING so awesome, and she needs to take her time editing the photos. Here is a wedding photo, to console the rest of you (because I'm sure everyone reading this blog is as anxious to see the pics as I am) with an accessory that unfortunately did not arrive in time to be in our official wedding photos. Our rings and the dish we have to store them in!

The words are from our vows.

The Accomplice

2009-11-13T21:06:00.001-05:00

Over the summer, my wonderful coworkers and I went on this activity - kind of like a scavenger hunt slash whodunnit mystery. It is called The Accomplice, and it involved going around one part of the city for our next clue, usually talking to actors along the way. They planned it for us to celebrate my wedding, since most of them couldn't make it out to Colorado. One of our first stops was at a cafe for a beer, since the guy we were talking to didn't want to "be seen in this area, and I know this guy who works at this place..."

We went on to solve many clues...

And at the end (I'm kind of giving something away, for those of you who want to do the Greenwich Village Accomplice in the future) we discovered that we had been on the yellow brick road! See the wizard behind Shawna?

Afterward, we went to one of my favorite bars, Blind Tiger, for a beer and some snacks before heading out for an awesome dinner!

I am lucky to have such sweet (and gorgeous!) coworkers! Thanks again, girls - you all are the best!

Picnic Lunch

2009-11-11T20:45:00.000-05:00

Many weeks ago now, Chris and I went on a very pleasant picnic lunch.

First, we stopped at a place in Brooklyn and picked up a growler of tasty beer,

along with two freshly made sandwiches.

Then we headed to Prospect Park with our blanket and relaxed outside while we enjoyed the lovely late summer day.

I love picnics! So glad we could enjoy this day together!

Camping in August

2009-10-10T14:19:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, Chris and I went camping. It was raining, but we had a good time anyway.

Of course, on the way to the campsite, we had to stop for a beer at a brewery!

Okay, so it was a little out of our way, but we went to a brewery in Western Massachussetts called Barrington Brewery. The food was good, the beer was good. It was a nice detour.

And they had AMAZING chocolate cake. I have to admit that I am not a big fan of chocolate cake. But they had an article on their wall where someone had written to Bon Appetit, asking for the recipe. And it was called something like "chocolate stout cake". How could we resist?

Yes, this piece really is as big as it looks. We were literally eating it for days afterward. (Like we were going to throw away that deliciousness!)

Then we headed for the main event - camping! We got there, and set up our tent. We were all set to check out a brewery in town, but when we got there it was not actually a brewery, just a bar - so we headed back to the tent for dinner.

We had to get the fire going before we could start cooking our brats. We realized we didn't have any kindling, and it was raining so we couldn't exactly gather twigs and pine needles. Luckily, I had a US map from 1994 in the trunk which was pretty much destroyed anyway... so...

I think that was Alabama.

So we got our fire going, and enjoyed a delicious dinner,

and a couple of Trader Joe's beers. Our new favorite bargain!

Then we played cards in the tent, but I was so exhausted I was falling asleep! So we called it a night after one or two games.

The next morning,

Chris made another excellent fire, and I made breakfast!

I had found a recipe for a delicious camp breakfast, which I modified a little bit...

It didn't come out exactly like I had planned, but it was ok. :)

Lilly is not allowed on furniture, but we are a little more flexible about the air mattress, so it is a treat for all of us to cuddle when we go camping.

We headed home, but there was, of course, one more stop before we went back to the city...

Brewery! You guessed it! We stopped at Gilded Otter Brewing Co.

This place had a huge selection

of really tasty beers

and pizza served with greens

and cheese curds!

This is a place we'd definitely like to check out again, and not far from the city.

We had a great camping trip!

Bachelorette party, part 3

2009-10-07T20:33:00.000-04:00

On Sunday after our fun karaoke evening, we started the day by heading out for lunch at an Indian restaurant. I love showing off the different cuisines available here in the city! When I was asking what everybody wanted to have for lunch, the answer was pretty much unanimously Indian. And it was delicious!

We considered trying to get tickets to a Broadway show, but unfortunately it was getting too late by the time we headed out. It would have been difficult with so many people. Instead, we just walked around and did a bit of shopping. First stop, though, was 7-11... it was really hot, and we wanted some Slurpees!

We walked all over the place, including walking through Washington Square.

There were lots of people - of all ages - cooling off in the fountain! It looked really, REALLY good, but we restrained ourselves.

After spending all day on our feet, we were all pretty tired! We stopped back at our apartment again (now that our pedicures were safely dry) where we showed off our roof.

And had a little Duke Homebrew beer tasting.

They didn't say it in so many words, but I'm pretty sure it was the best beer they'd ever tasted.

After the tasting, we headed out for pizza for dinner.

We went to a place right down the street from our apartment, and it was really good!

(no, Lea did not drink that beer. It was a prop.)

I'll leave you with a few pics from our hotel. We really enjoyed it. Most of these are from Leah B. Thanks Leah, hope you don't mind if I use your awesome shots!

Hans and Angie's Wedding

2009-10-04T18:04:00.002-04:00

I have to interrupt my bachelorette posts to put out these wedding photos. I took pictures at Hans and Angie's wedding a few weeks ago, and I know they were hoping to see what I came up with! Here's a brief preview - I'll bring you guys a CD full of pictures next week!

I got a few "getting ready" shots of the ladies.

And a couple of the parents and grandparents.

I loved their flowers!

Her shoes are so cute... Hans is about two feet taller than her, so she wanted a little boost.

Angie looks too gorgeous.

About to walk down the aisle...

It all happened really fast!

The ceremony was short and sweet. They were married by officiant Jeff. (Hans performed Jeff's wedding ceremony a few months ago!)

A formal portrait...

And a couple of informal ones!

Love this pic of Rylee, their daughter. You can see the ring Hans gave her.

The wedding men...

And this guy gets my vote for most handsome. (Sorry, Hansy!)

Dancing and celebrating...

The bouquet and garter toss (I need a faster lens!)

And I managed to sneak them away and get a couple of portraits.

Their wedding site, The Rio, is known for their margaritas!

I had a really good time getting these pics at your wedding, guys. Hope you enjoy these, and if not, there are lots more for you to check out!

Bachelorette party, part 2

2009-10-02T13:18:00.000-04:00

When we last left off, the girls had had lunch, and we were all getting ready for the fun of the evening. We decided to start off by toasting with a little champagne!

The hotel we were staying at was really nice, and there were robes in our rooms. We had two rooms and decided to pose for some pics in the robes. (They are on top of our clothes but it makes for nice luxurious photos anyway!)

Then we all got dressed up and fancy for the main event...

We met up with Lizzie, Carrie, and Mabel for Karaoke!

We went to a place that has private karaoke booths so we could sing our hearts out without embarrassing ourselves in front of strangers. (Or having to listen to strangers while we were anxious for our next song to come on.) And sing we did!

(Oh yeah, and we ate some cupcakes.)

Afterward, we hit a couple of my favorite beer bars.

Everyone was getting a little bit pooped, but they hung in there, and I had a blast! I can't look at these pictures without grinning from ear to ear!

Stay tuned for part 3!

My Bachelorette Party!

2009-09-29T20:05:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted yet about one of the funnest events in recent memory. Over one weekend in August, I was lucky enough to have all of my favorite girls come out to visit NYC! They came out for my bachelorette party. On Friday night, Victoria, Lea, and Leah arrived.

Lucky for me, the girls brought their cameras too, so we have lots of pics. I will include some of theirs!

We cruised in a cab down to Rare, a delicious burger restaurant.

Then we headed for bed! After a long day of travel and delays, Lea and Leah were understandably exhausted.

The next morning, we headed out to walk the streets of NYC.

For Summer Streets! One of my favorite events, and the girls were there to celebrate with me! :) We started walking from the hotel we were all staying at, down to my apartment. Right down the middle of the street! I love it!

They were giving away free bike helmets, so we all got on the line to get one!

Chris came to meet us, and he got one too.

After picking up our helmets, we stopped at Pete's Tavern (they claim to be the oldest bar in Manhattan, but there is some dispute about that!) for brunch.

After showing the girls my apartment and introducing them to Lilly,

we headed down the street to the place I go for pedicures, and papmered ourselves a bit. (The order of events is important - meeting Lilly after the pedicures would be disaster for freshly painted toenails.)

Later that afternoon, Mindy and Jasmine joined us. First things first - lunch! We headed to a Korean fried chicken restaurant that I love. It was delicious!

I think I should save the rest for another post... Sorry to leave you in suspense!!

Rhode Island Trip

2009-09-15T21:20:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it has been over a month since this trip we took! But I guess I never did post about it. Neither of us had ever been to Providence, so we took a little overnight road trip up there a few weeks ago.

The traffic was, unfortunately, one of the most memorable parts of the trip. It reminded us that when we try to get out of the city, we have to get an EARLY start.

Our first stop in Providence was (big surprise) a dog park! Lilly had a good time meeting some fellow New England dogs.

After checking into our hotel and getting Lilly settled, we headed over to - another big surprise - a brewpub!

Union Station Brewery had pretty decent beers and pretty decent food. As often happens, we bypassed the wait for a table and grabbed seats at the bar. We usually prefer to eat at the bar anyway so it makes it easy for us to sit down quickly!

The most memorable part about this place was their pizza. They make the crust with spent grains from the brewing process! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the pizza. But the wings were good too. :)

Our next stop was Trinity Brewing Company.

They had good beers, and a more relaxed atmosphere. We sat in the lower level and it was almost empty, which was nice.

While we were sitting there, a song came on in the bar, and I knew instantly where I had heard it before. It took a little prodding but Chris also remembered this scene...

Click on me please!

I could not embed this video! Boo. Anyway I walked around singing "BAAABYYY!" for the rest of the evening.

Next, we headed to Providence's Riverwalk festival. They set a bunch of fires on the river, (sounds like a strange thing to have a festival about, but very cool in person)

and also have outdoor events like performers

and a jazz concert.

I didn't get any photos the next day, but it was fairly uneventful. The most unfortunate part was hunting down a "brewpub" which had great reviews for its pizza, only to find out it was just a local pizza joint and served a couple of commercial brews on tap. Darn! We didn't eat because we weren't all that hungry anyway. It did, however, free up some time for us to stop in Bru Haus in New Haven, which was great! We will be stopping there on all of our future trips up 95! So, despite the traffic and a couple of missed turns here and there, we had an awesome weekend.

Summer Streets

2009-09-07T18:31:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, we got to do one of our favorite activities - Summer Streets!

They close Park Avenue to traffic for almost 7 miles, and allow bicycles, pedestrians, and other forms of non-motorized transportation.

It is so much fun.

There is something really exciting, for some reason, about being out on the streets of NYC without any traffic in your way.

There was a coffee station that served free coffee.

It helped keep us going - we didn't do the whole route but we were out for about an hour and a half.

I tried to get some motion shots of Chris, but it was tricky while on my own bike and trying to watch where I was going!

Can't wait till Summer Street '10!

I Love Vermont Beer!

2009-09-03T21:05:00.002-04:00

There were many things about Burlington, VT that I was happy to leave behind.

Beer was NOT one of them. Vermont is like Colorado in that there are great craft brews available everywhere you look. Magic Hat is the most famous...

disclaimer: This is the only bar picture that was NOT taken in a VT brewery or brewpub.

But there are definitely plenty of others!

One of the first weekends after we moved to VT was the Vermont Brew Fest. That was where we picked up the beer passport that would eventually become our obsession.

There is a space for every (participating) brewery in the state. We did discover one brewery that had stopped its brewing operations, but they still stamped their space in our cards. That space has apparently since been replaced by a new brewery, which we have yet to try!

Our filling of the card was mostly a lot of hard work, but partly serendipity. We probably never would have pursued it had we not happened upon one of the breweries (Long Trail) early on, on a state highway far from home. Some of them were more difficult to hit than others! After a couple of big road trips,

we finally filled the card! Here we are with our completed passports at Harpoon in Windsor, VT!

And weeks later, we finally got the passports sent in. I was so worried that they would get lost in the mail that I sent them in separately, including a letter in each one explaining why they were suddenly getting two cards from one NY address. I felt very guilty because after sending them in, someone from the VT Brewer's Association called me and left a message asking for our shirt sizes. Before I knew it, two weeks had gone by, and a mysterious box appeared at our door. Somehow, he guessed that a large and a small shirt would be just what we wanted. If you are reading this, I am very sorry for never returning your call! Thank you!

So, without further ado, here is what we found in our Collector's Set of Vermont Beer Gear...

a set of pub glasses

a bumper sticker and coasters

an opener! These have gotten a lot of use already!

and t-shirts, modeled by the handsome Chris

Pretty hot stuff! Although, of course, it was more about the journey than the destination. :)

Curt, can you name every brewery here? I bet you can come close.

I raise my glass to you, VT beer.

Andy and Hans Visit (part 3)

2009-08-28T18:50:00.000-04:00

We last left off when we had been riding our bikes around the island all day. We were ready for some dinner! We had burgers at Rare, which is one of our current favorite burger joints in Greenwich Village. Then we walked over to Zinc, where we enjoyed some live jazz! It was a really cool group. They were Brazilian and the singer was a woman, the rest were men. We stayed for two sets and had a blast. We were definitely still singing their tunes the next day! (Na na na na na BA NA NA!)

Chris took most of those shots. Glad photography is something we can both enjoy!!

On our way home, we walked by Great Jones, which is one of Chris and my favorite restaurants! We weren't hungry but definitely wanted to stop in and show off the place to the guys.

Hans recognized the place from our engagement pics

and wanted to reenact the shots!

I should have insisted on getting the kiss shot.

We went home, and sampled some of our homebrew, which we are very proud of! Happy to say that Hans and Andy loved them all.

We then discovered a new function of our coffee table - not just a coffee table and storage trunk, it is now also a dance floor!

I love this next picture - cool shot, Andy!

Lilly didn't know what to make of us.

I managed to capture these guys horsing around. They are usually very serious as you can tell.

Thanks, guys, for an incredibly fun night!!

Andy and Hans Visit (part 2)

2009-08-26T18:37:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, we slept in! We stayed up late the night before - these guys made it much later than I did!

Then we headed out to enjoy a beautiful day. Our first stop was to rent bikes! Andy and Hans rented bikes so we could cruise around Central Park. Then we were all pretty hungry, so we grabbed lunch at a restaurant that is sort of tricky to get to - you really have to know where you're going. We love to go there for the Korean Fried Chicken.

We made a pretty decent dent in all those wings.

I think Andy and Hans liked the meal! And I was enjoying the great light coming in through the window.

Then, it was off to the park. There was a sculpture right at the corner entering the park, some sort of installation piece? But cars kept parking in front of it, making it hard for me to get a good shot!

We really enjoyed our leisurely ride around the outside of the park.

It was a beautiful day, and many people took advantage of it at the pool! I was wishing I had brought a suit.

After riding up the East side of the park, we rode over to the Boat Basin, a fun place to grab a snack or a drink on the Hudson River. (West side of the island.)

We rode on home. We didn't spend much time recharging before heading out for dinner and live music! More about that next time!

Andy and Hans Visit (part 1)

2009-08-24T19:39:00.000-04:00

I have so many pics from this visit that I have to split the posts into several parts! On the first day the guys were here, we got to do a little exploring. First, we went over to the High Line park in Chelsea. This is an old rail line which is raised above the ground. It hasn't been used for several years - it was run down and overgrown with weeds. There have been many plans for things to do with it over the years, including tearing it all down. Due to a big push from the neighborhood, it has been made into a park, which is very cool (in my opinion). This was the first time I got to see it, and it was really fun to just walk up and down and explore.

You can actually sit and look at the traffic through a glass pane as if it is a show.

There are chairs on the rail. They actually slide up and down so you can move them to sit by your friends. Awesome!

Later that night, Chris had to work, and I got to show off one of our favorite places, Brooklyn Brewery.

Where you buy beer with chips.

We definitely missed Chris, and even saved him a seat (in case he surprised us!)

We then met Chris at a bar we really like, Duke's! They had a special on firefly tea, and we had to have a couple.

It was a great time. Then when we got home, Hans demonstrated how small our washer/dryer is.

And our kitchen. (It makes him feel like a giant.)

Fun was had by all. Stay tuned for part 2!

Not Very Good Fish N Chips and A Little Exploring

2009-08-23T07:08:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to add a post about some fish n chips that we were unimpressed with. Actually I won't name any names, but I'll just tell you about our trip down to this restaurant! This was several weeks ago, but I wanted to share some photos! We walked down First Ave, and took a couple pics along the way.

Here is the fish and chips:

a little soggy. Chris had bangers and mash which was pretty good.

On the way home we stopped in and had a drink at a place called Three Cups.

They had sangria.

Kind of a cool place, but I didn't read good reviews about their food. They did have a wood fired oven, though, so we might have to try it sometime. Then at home, we worked on a little project.

All my best projects are accompanied by a glass of wine. Still on the search for some delicious fish and chips! I had some in Queens years ago, but there is no way I would remember where it was.

Lobster Rolls!

2009-08-20T18:54:00.003-04:00

I just want to mention the most delicious meal I have discovered. Pearl Oyster Bar, in the Village, has the best lobster rolls I've ever eaten.

I love these babies. I could eat them weekly for any meal. I guess daily would be a bit much, but maybe not... They also have good fried oysters, and the clam chowder is really good!

Those pics are from the first time Chris and I went to Pearl, a few weeks ago. This week we were lucky enough to get to take Vic there!

I had to take another photo of the sandwich.

Another bonus of Pearl is that it is around the corner from Blind Tiger, one of our favorite beer bars.

YUM!

Is it August already?

2009-08-12T20:30:00.002-04:00

And almost halfway through... I can't believe I haven't put up a blog post for nearly a month. Well, my new resolution is to put up 2-3 posts a week. We'll see. But I already have a few backlogged from the past few weeks when I haven't done hardly any.

I will start with a very current event! This morning Chris and I went to breakfast with Mabel.

I was on call last night, so I left work about 9 this morning. We went to a place called Shopsin's, which my friend Fleurise has been talking about nonstop for weeks. She was raving about the food! I had to try it.

They have a very extensive menu!!

I had the Blister On Your Sister, or something like that. It was cheddar cheese, eggs, beans, rice, green chilis, all piled on top of corn tortillas. It was good. Chris had poached eggs floating in black bean soup with toast to dip. And Mabel had a sandwich. There were at least 15 things on the menu that I have to go back to try. Also worth mentioning is that we had fried brussel sprouts with our meal, that come with a special brussel sprout sauce. And it was good!

I took a few pictures of us and our food (obviously) but when I turned around to snap a photo of the sign and the store, one of the cooks yelled at me. He was just being ornery. But it was a bit annoying.

See Mabel's blog post about the place here.

Last Week

2009-07-15T15:47:00.003-04:00

So apparently July is half over, and I have been terrible about posting this month. I have an excuse! I've been working a lot (you knew that was coming!) but I've also been spending a lot of time on wedding crafts. I have gotten a lot done the past couple weeks, and now I am trying to put together a few blog entries for the next couple weeks to let you know what I've been (or will be!) up to.

Last week, we had an evening that we got to spend together. We went to happy hour at City Crab, and had dollar oysters! Yum! I don't know how oysters can taste good, since I guess you don't exactly taste them...

But they were!

The next day we were in the neighborhood of my favorite dessert shop, so of course we had to stop in for a treat! In addition to my cereal milk, we each got a soft serve.

Cool flavors! I had the lemon verbena, and chris had the rosemary.

Mine was more of a sherbet. (Or is that sorbet?) But I think the rosemary was better.

Ok, more blog posts coming soon, I promise!

My Big Accomplishment of the Week

2009-07-14T12:12:00.000-04:00

This is a little embarrassing.

This week, I finally got rid of something we've been keeping around for well over a year. Yes, that's right, it came out here with us from VT. We actually took the time and effort to move... a box of throwaway documents.

It started small, just a credit card offer here, and a patient list there. (Identifying health care information that is confidential and should be shredded.) And before we knew it, we had a whole BOX full of papers. Just. Sitting. There.

We were going to buy a shredder. But never really got around to it. Then came the wedding registry, and now we've registered for one. So we thought we should just wait and see if one shows up, rather than go out and buy one. But what to do with all this stuff?

Finally, this week, I got fed up with the box. I am trying to clean which feels almost impossible with wedding stuff surrounding me, but I decided something had to be done. So on four mornings this week, I had an extra tote bag with me when I arrived at work. See, at the hospital every nursing station has a box marked "Confidential waste" where we put all of the paperwork that we throw out. Health care information is private so they have to provide the shredding boxes. So I showed up with my tote bag, and went over and dumped all the papers into it.

There is only a small-ish slot, so I have to put the papers in a few at a time. So it took a few minutes. But that few minutes each morning was so worth it! Now I am left with

And every time one of the nurses said anything about all the paper, I just said "Oh yeah, cleaned out my locker." And then I get the old, oh yeah, I know how that is. Ha! They should know that neither the hospital nor the anesthesia department cares enough about us to provide us a locker! But I got away with it. And now, I am one step closer to having the empty apartment, free of clutter, that I dream about daily.

Happy July

2009-07-07T07:02:00.002-04:00

I haven't written too many posts lately, because I just haven't done anything to talk about! I worked this past weekend, I wanted to watch some fireworks on TV but unfortunately was too busy, and I work this weekend too. Then I have the next two weekends off! Yay!

I will tell you about my day yesterday. It started out with me pouring juice on my cereal - oops! Then I started brushing my teeth with the wrong toothbrush. What a morning! I wasn't even as tired as usual! Oh well, the day got better when I got done with work a little early and went to the gym. Then I had time to run some errands. And as I walked out of a store, who should I see but Chris? He was out taking a walk with some of the residents at his work. I walked a block with them and met a couple of the guys I hadn't met before. That was great! Then I came home and made fudge!! YUM. Then I finished up working on wedding invitations - they are just about ready to be sent out! I even had time to goof off on the internet. :) So that was a day in the life of Shelli.

More posts later this week, hopefully I'll find something good to take pictures of soon!

Barcade

2009-06-30T22:23:00.001-04:00

There is a bar in Brooklyn that has a bunch of old arcade games in it. Chris and I have been there once before, but it was really crowded and we could barely get a beer, so we didn't play any games. We went back the other day, and had a couple of beers and played some games!

Chris started with Galaga.

He played a couple other games.

I love my Tetris!!

Then we played Rampage together.

They have a great beer selection, too.

We were there on vintage beer night - I don't know if they were just trying to get rid of old kegs or what, because I didn't know if a keg would get better with age... anyway the beer was good.

We'll definitely be back!

Fun Activities

2009-06-29T15:02:00.000-04:00

Last week we went to the Claes Oldenburg exhibit at the Whitney Gallery.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but this is his piece, from our trip to MOMA a few weeks ago.

These are photos of his sculptures that I found online:

The exhibit was great! I highly recommend it. And the Whitney is the best on Friday nights - pay what you wish. :)

Afterwards, we were walking around.

We saw some houses with garages! I didn't know they even existed in Manhattan! Cool!

We've gotta get one of those.

Changes

2009-06-27T15:34:00.004-04:00

This was the scene across the street from me today. There were 2-3 other moving trucks there, but by the time I made it back there with my camera, some were gone. Moving day! It brings back bad memories - our last move was so awful. :(

This is the time when change is in the air. Not for normal people, who have times of transition in the fall when school starts or in January when the new year begins, but for those doctor folks. Every year, July 1 is the standard start date for residency to begin, so this is also the date when you transition to the next year. One batch of residents graduates and moves on to new things, and another batch comes rolling in, scared out of their minds. (I speak from experience.) Since medical school, I've been doing something new every year around this time.

Including moving! Eek!

This is the first year I won't have a big transition to deal with. Sure, I'll go from being a CA-1 (1st year anesthesia resident) to a CA-2 (second year anesthesia resident). And it will be very nice to not have to be at the very bottom of the totem pole anymore! But we aren't moving (thank god! we renewed our lease for another year! And no rent increase - amazing!) and I really do not do anything new or different at work. Just more complicated stuff, maybe.

Anyway it is kind of fun to see the proliferation of moving activity around our area. There are tons of hospitals in this area so a lot of people are coming and going right now. Scary and exciting for everyone.

Brewing Bummer

2009-06-22T21:43:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted about brewing for a while. We have really spread out our brewing, mainly because we haven't been able to spend much time together. When we had one or two days each week where we could spend the entire day together, it was a lot easier to take 3 hours out of the day to brew. But we haven't had that luxury for a couple of months!

There is a more unfortunate reason why we have majorly slowed down the brewing. We had a few bottle explosions! Yes, that's right, a bottle of beer will just up and explode while sitting on the shelf or in a box. Obviously, this presents several problems - very messy, a little scary when you hear the explosion, and definitely dangerous. And it is so disappointing to miss out on drinking that beer!

We have had this happen to about 6 or 8 bottles. The strange thing is, they aren't all the same batch, we can't really find rhyme or reason - the most strongly carbonated beer has not had one explosion. I think a lot of the reason they are exploding is because it is warming up, and our apartment, being on the top floor, is difficult to keep cool without blasting the a/c all the time.

I have to say that the saddest casualty (to me) of this series of explosions is my She-Ra dress.

Some beer and broken glass got into the box where I had Halloween stuff stored. Some of the decorations had to be thrown out, which was not a big deal, and Chris didn't especially like wearing his He-Man costume, so I don't really feel too bad that his sexy shorts probably couldn't be washed anyway.

But when I saw the white dress soaked in brown beer, I almost cried a little bit. I had worked so hard on it and I really thought it turned out cool! But, no point in crying over spilled beer - don't worry about me, I have moved past it. Most of the beer came out, and the dress probably needed to be washed anyway! I'll just have to make a way cooler Halloween costume this year.

Our plan now is to take a few months off of brewing. Depending on our work schedules and how much time we'll be able to spend together after our wedding (less than 4 months away now!), we might pick it back up again. We probably have enough beer for the next few months. And then... we might have to switch to... (bum-ba-bum) COMMERCIAL BREW. Oh well, we'll survive. We may wait until we have more space and can start kegging, and not deal with bottles at all!

Rainy Days

2009-06-20T09:57:00.005-04:00

The weather here - and from what I can tell, all over the country - has been crazy during June. While we haven't had any of the tornadoes that they've had in Colorado, it has been so rainy. We have had multiple thunderstorms and heavy rains, and I saw on the news earlier this week that halfway through the month, we'd already recorded 3x the amount of rain that is average in June.

The rain is sort of annoying. A little bit of rain won't keep me inside, but if it is pouring, I feel like I'm stuck in my apartment. I know who is loving the rain, though - my green babies!

We have yummy herbs and veggies in our little garden. 5 tomato plants, 6 pepper plants, basil, rosemary, cilantro, mint, apple mint, oregano, and one flowering bush that I can't remember the name of (but it hasn't flowered yet this year).

I'm so glad we got everything planted before all these rains. We literally have not watered for about 3 months, and they are going crazy! Yum!

*Chris took half of the photos on this page! I can't take credit for them!

The obstacles I deal with to do some yoga

2009-06-14T12:04:00.001-04:00

Blind Pilot

2009-06-09T16:24:00.000-04:00

On Saturday night, Chris and I went to the Blind Pilot concert Saturday night. As I write this, I'm listening to my favorite BP song, Oveido. If you want to listen as you read, here you go!

On our way out the door, we stopped to take a picture in the mirror that is next to our front door.

We brought the small camera, unfortunately, because they wouldn't allow "professional" cameras at the concert. I am definitely no professional but I figured I was better off leaving the larger one at home. I hate built-in camera flashes, but have to play with this one a little bit so I can figure out if it will take less grainy photos without the flash.

Anyway, it was a good thing that we paused to take a few photos there, because before we left the building I remembered that we didn't have the tickets. Oops! Why is that so easy to do?

Before the concert, we headed out to dinner at another place we had a coupon for. Savor NY was AWESOME. I highly recommend them! The atmosphere was very nice, they have only a few tables. It was a romantic place.

They had small-ish dishes, kind of Spanish style but I think I saw they are listed as New American. Whatever - everything was delicious. We started with a bottle of wine, and they had many bottles that were reasonably priced.

We each chose 2 dishes, and split everything. We had tuna ceviche (Chris has majorly been craving ceviche since we left Peru!), grilled vegetable samosas with coconut curry sauce, spicy duck wontons, and braised pork belly with mandarin sauce and peanuts. All were very, very good! My favorite was the duck wontons. Everything was perfectly flavored, not too much food or too little. And everything we read about the place recommended the ricotta cheesecake, so we had to try some.

We split it, and we were fighting over every bite! YUM!!

Then we were ready to head to the concert. Blind Pilot is a group out of Portland, and I heard them mentioned on one of the top ten lists on NPR at the end of 2008. I have been loving their album, and a couple weeks ago I saw that they were coming to New York, and the tickets were only $15! You can't do anything in NYC for $15!! On top of that, there were still tickets available! I was more than happy to take advantage of this opportunity. I haven't been to a concert for years.

The warm-up band was this one guy who was finishing up when we arrived at 9 or so. He sounded good but I didn't get his name.

One drawback to the show - the doors opened at 8pm, and there were 2 opening bands. So I knew my band wouldn't take the stage till 10 or 11! This is way past my bedtime already. But I knew it would be worth it.

The next band was called Local Natives, and they are out of LA. They were awesome because they have a female violin player!

They were great to listen to, and seemed to be having a lot of fun onstage.

After their set, they came off stage from the front. That is one really cool thing about this show - I love small concerts where the bands just sort of chat with people afterward. I looked for the girl fiddle player between their set and Blind Pilot, but I didn't see her. Darn!

I have to add that the Bowery Ballroom was a really, really cool place to see a show. We would definitely like to go back there. It was very neat inside, very intimate feeling. It was cool because there is a lounge area in the basement that has the bar and the bathrooms. And they had Blue Point on tap, a beer out of Long Island which is very good.

The beer was $7, which by NYC standards is not bad - you could pay that in any bar in the city. And of course you could hear the whole show from downstairs too.

Blind Pilot came out and started with my favorite song!

I like that picture because it got the whole band in it. (Again, sorry about the graininess!)

It was cool to see that they had a female too. Both of the girls in the bands played multiple instruments. This one started with a banjo and later had this instrument... I don't know what its called.

The guy in the back seems very talented. He was playing the accordion (sideways?) and the keyboard and the trumpet, often all 3 in the same song. Who knows what other instruments he had stashed back there that I didn't catch.

Chris got some cool photos of the band.

The show was AWESOME. They also covered Whiter Shade of Pale, by Proco Harem. You may not recognize the title but you would definitely know the song if you heard it.

After the show, we left through the basement. While Chris went to the bathroom, I saw the girl violin player from the Local Natives and went and said hi to her! She thought it was cool that I played violin too.

And apparently their bass player is from Golden! He said hi too, but he was anxious to get to the bathroom. :) I looked for the girl from Blind Pilot to say hi to her, but she wasn't down there. We didn't especially want to wait around for them to come out, it was already 1230am. So we headed out to grab a cab, buying the Local Natives EP on the way out. And outside, we did see the keyboard player (in the big plaid patterned shirt and the hat) outside, and told him we enjoyed the show so that was cool.

It was a SUPER SUPER SUPER fun night! I was exhausted at work the next day but it was so worth it!!