Cafes and Coffee Shops

I just wanted to share something that makes my day. I love all the little cafes and coffee shops in NYC. I walked to a new one on Tuesday that is 2 blocks from where I nanny called The Outpost. I have to tell you it has the best coffees and food. There are not many places that can beat Starbucks Soy Mocha Latte, but on Tuesday at The Outpost I had a latte with dark chocolate and melted marshmallow. It was so delicious so I went back the next two days for another. I also had lunch there one day and it gave me a new idea for a twist on chili that I wanted to share. It was veggie chili with noodles and goat cheese on top. The goat cheese was so creamy and a wonderful twist to just regular cheese. So next time you cook up a big pot of chili put goat cheese on top and I promise you will love it. With all the cold weather hot coffees and chili always makes for a cozy meal. Hope everyone is staying warm.

Happy Birthday Y'all

One think I miss most about home is going out and celebrating all of our friends' Birthdays. This week three of our best friends are now one year wiser. Our friends are so amazing and so much fun to hang out with.  Whitney's and Matt's birthday are only two days apart so they usually have a "Birthday Bonanza." I would post pictures from the past two years but it seems I always forget my camera at this event. We wish we could be there to celebrate. Happy Birthday to...

BRIAN

MATT

WHITNEY

VOTE!

Thank goodness it is finely here. I got a lot of ugly looks today as I sported my McCain/Palin button. When I left my apartment this morning at 7:00am there was a line that wraped around my entire block and I could not see the end of it. I wanted to show you my cute shirt that I made at the Gap. They have shirts there that say "Vote For _______________." and you fill in the blank with whatever you want. At the Gap on 5th Ave. they had voter booths set up as shirt decorating stations and there were all kinds of materials to embellish your tee. I think it was a great idea on Gap's part. They made a hip, artistic experience for the young voters to get them excited about voting and made money at the same time. Got to love marketing. Mine says Vote for True Love.  I also made one and sent it to Megan. If you watched Oprah today her entire audience was wearing shirts that they made also.

New York City Marathon

Sunday was the New York City Marathon. I got to go with the children I was watching and it was so much fun. We got there just in time to see the first place woman and man running at the one mile to go marker. It was so awesome to be so close right there. The music was pumping and there were so many people there cheering on the runners. I wish I would have had my camera because it was such a beautiful day.

Brian really wants to run it so he is going to start applying now because if you apply three years in a row and don't get in then you automatically get in the next year. He applied one year before in college with Jon Lloyd but neither of them made it in. Jon did eventually run it two years ago but Brian still wants to. He also wants me to join him and I reminded him of how I tried to train for the mini marathon in Louisville and I only made it to the 6 or 7 mile point before I quit. I don't think I could add 20 more miles on top of that. But he insists I could, so maybe I will train with him to start and try to do a mini again. To be nice Brian did say if I run it he will run at my pace so we can cross the finish line together. All he wants to do is finish and then after we can get massages and pedicures. I always tell him how wonderful pedicures are but he will never go with me.

I do remember the first ever race I did was a 5K. I ran with Nikki Durst for Jennie Burke's mom for the brest cancer cure. It was an amazing feeling when we finished and I would encourage anyone to run a race sometime in their life no matter what the distance is because it really is a spirit lifter. Congratualations to all you runners out there who finished the marathon.

Happy Belated Halloween!

Halloween was not too much different in the city than it was at home. In our building if you put an orange door hanger on the handle then that ment you were passing out candy. I bought 3 good sized bags of candy and started passing out around 5:45 pm. By 7:00pm I was completely out of candy, well except for the 10 or so pieces I kept for myself. I did not expect to have so many trick-or-treaters. But the timing worked out well because Elaina, Sylvia, and their new roomate Megan came over and we took Elaina out. She was dressed as Princess Bell. Elaina is very shy around strangers and she would not say trick-or-treat eventhough she practice for 30 minutes beforehand. She did say thank you everytime so maybe next year we will get the first part down. We went one block over to 87th street. They had the street closed off and all the brownstones were decked out with decorations. One even had a very spooky haunted house. It `was kind of like a block party and we had a lot of fun. Brian was working in the ER untill midnight so I thought he would have some great stories for me but all he got was one plastic sword through someones eye. Brian said the crazy stuff probably would come in around 2 or 3 am. I normally dress up but I didn't have a huge closet of stuff you only use on Halloween to chose from this year so I found this shirt for $5.00 at Target and at least I felt festive. Hope everyone had fun trick-or-treating.

A fun filled weekend with Aunt Marianne

This weekend my Aunt Marianne was in town visiting her son Stephen and her granddaughter Elaina and Sylvia.  I had the weekend off but Brian had to work so I tagged along with them.  On Friday night they came over to see my apartment and we went to meet some of the people Stephen works with on the set of Law & Order: CI.  On Saturday we spent most of the day strolling through Central Park. It is absolutely beautiful this time of year, but I can't wait until the leaves change a little more and the park is filled with Autumn colors. Saturday night Marianne bought us all tickets to see a new musical 13. The show was great. The entire cast was kids around the age of 13 and they were super talented. Remember when you were in middle school and everyday was the most important day of your life and every problem seemed like the end of the world.  This musical really transported you back in time to remember how hard it was to be 13.  After the musical we went to stand outside of the theater next to us where All My Sons is playing and we saw Katie Holmes & Diane Wiest coming out. On Sunday we all went out to dinner after church, I was so glad Brian was off work so he could go along with us.  Thanks so much Aunt Marianne for treating us all weekend and it was so much fun to see you.

A visit from the Austin Family

Last week Whitney and Waller Austin came for a visit.  For those of you who don't know Whitney, she is one of my best friend Megan's big sister.

Here we are at Megan's Bachelorette Party this summer

When Megan and I were in middle school we used to drive Whitney crazy.  We always followed her and her friends around, we wore her clothes and made her drive us around.  But now we can all hang out and fun together, too bad Megan could not be here but she is coming for a visit to celebrate the new year.  

Anyways, Waller is Whitney's husband and he has an amazing talent. He paints these awesome portraits on canvas from photographs.  He was invited to a benefit for the American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan so Waller took the opportunity and made some connections in the art community so he can sell his work and get commissions to create new pieces.

Check him out at: www.walleraustin.com

While they were visiting it was nice to talk with other people who were Republicans especially since the only thing on TV these days is election news.  Whitney was so amazed how much everyone in New York City seems to hate McCain and loves Obama. Everywhere you go there are huge Obama signs and buttons for sale on every street corner.  When we were at one of the street fairs the week prior there were people marching for McCain but the boos were so loud you could not even hear what the marchers were saying.  Whitney was so excited one day when she came home sporting a McCain button.  I said where in the world did you find that? I have been looking for McCain buttons since I saw hers and I have not seen one.  Here is a picture of Whitney wearing her Mac is Back button.