Home with Bob.

This is the only week this summer where Bob is home and we're not on our way somewhere!  It's the nature of my time off, I guess.  June was Europe; August will be California.  We've already made our plans with the Northwestern and tracking group people, and we'll spend the first 4 days in lovely Santa Barbara.

This week, however, we've been working on the third floor "office" -- really a place for all the junk we've accumulated in the attic since Sam's death.  This is how the room looks after 3+ days of hauling stuff out of there and going through things.

We haven't moved anything back in yet....

Now here's what's out of the room sitting at the top of the third floor steps.

And we've gotten rid of more than half of what was in that room!!

Yes, we might have been candidates for "Hoarders" -- maybe still could be if someone looked at the contents of our barn.

So we'll be taking clothes to the Salvation Army and leaving furniture for Purple Heart.

And I've finally figured out how to post pictures from my stupid Blackberry without them coming in sideways.

Here are some food pix from our dinner last night at Parkside Grill.

The top is Szechuan chicken; the bottom is fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp, crab meat, and avocado.  Yum!

NYC With Theresa

THURSDAY EVENING
This is our annual trip to NYC.  T arrived at 3PM on Thurs. We caught up and left for Peddler's Village at 4ish.  After walking around and buying some pjs at a great shop, we met Harriet for dinner at Buttonwood Grill.  A fun time was had by all! 

THIS WAS A RECREATION OF HARRIET'S SCHEMATIC OF HER LIVING ROOM - THE H IS HARRIET'S HEAD AS SHE WATCHES TV; THE S IS SHELDON'S HUGH RECLINER!!

FRIDAY

Friday morning, we had coffee and scones and then left for NYC.  No traffic issues, so we arrived at 11ish and left our bags at the Park South Hotel.  It was going to be a REALLY HOT day, and it was already well on the way by the time we walked to Riverpark for our lunch.

The restaurant overlooks the East River, and it includes an outdoor garden that provides many of the fresh vegetables and herbs for the restaurant.  We saw people tending the garden as we walked past; pretty amazing.


The building itself looked like an art museum space: high ceilings, creative light placement, really cool benches.  We arrived a little early and decided to sit inside - couldn't believe that people were actually sitting outside.  We both had non-alcoholic drinks to start - fruity and refreshing.  Theresa ordered bruschetta - and she didn't like the taste!  A bad start to what was supposed to be an awesome lunch.  I told her to ask for something else - she was prepared to just eat a little bit and leave the rest.  As she thought about it, I said, "This was supposed to be our food highlight of the day -- tell the waiter!"   She did, and he brought her another appetizer choice in its place - and of course it was delicious!!  We have become so empowered these days...

Our lunch was so good -- Theresa had salmon, and I had fried oyster tacos.  I had a brownie and ice cream sundae - two small squares of brownie, ice cream, and salted pecans - lovely!


We walked back to the hotel and took a little siesta before our trip to the 9/11 Memorial.  Before heading south, we took the subway to the area of the Eugene O'Neill Theater to pick up the tickets for Book of Mormon for Saturday night.  We also got our Pain Quotidien fix - this time we had iced coffee and fresh fruit (a weird combo, I know!). I was concerned about the heat in the subway station, but we didn't have to wait very long to catch the subway in either direction.  We got down to the Wall Street area 1/2 hour early and toured Trinity Church before we went to the memorial. 

Although there is still massive construction surrounding the site, the pools with the names of those killed that day are finished and quite impressive.  I quietly cried most of the time I was walking around; I don't know whether Theresa noticed it.


 After spending over an hour at the site, we took the subway back to Dos Caminos, the restaurant we had chosen for dinner.  The margarita and sangria were good, but the place was really loud, and my queso fundido was really salty.



The good thing about the place was that it was right around the corner from our hotel, where we immediately sank into our beds after a quick shower.  The room was a little warm even though we had cranked up the air as much as possible, but we managed to get an okay sleep anyway.

SATURDAY

We were up by 7AM.  This diva asked if Theresa would be willing to bring up coffee while I showered - she was too kind in saying yes!!  Originally, we had planned to go to the Hester Street Fair, but it was already ungodly hot in the city, so we decided to go to Macy's in the morning and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the afternoon; we would go directly from the museum to dinner at db Moderne on West 44th Street.  Breakfast at the Park South Hotel is INCLUDED in the room rate, and it's a great deal.   Lots of fresh fruit, breakfast breads and bagels, cereals, juice, yogurt, boiled eggs...

After breakfast, we headed for some quality time shopping at Macy's. We both found some great deals, and I had an arsenal of coupons, so all was well!  Afterwards, we slowly walked back to our hotel, looking for a place to get a small bit of lunch since our dinner reservation was at 5:15.  Theresa spotted Artisanal, and we went into the place, but there was NO ONE in sight...weird!  Speaking of weird, I was beginning to feel quite odd, so we found a pizza place almost across Park Avenue from Artisanal.  After eating, I felt much better.  We went back to the hotel to refresh ourselves and get ready for our late afternoon and evening.  Because the room was still a bit warm, we called the front desk, and a repairman came up and took a look at the unit.  It was a problem with freon, and he said he'd either repair or replace it while we were gone.  We decided to take the bus to the art museum; we only had to walk 1 1/2 blocks to the bus stop.  We both got seats once on the bus, and it was quite civilized.  After looking at the Prada/Schiaparelli exhibit, some Modiglianis, and the museum store, we took the bus back down to db Moderne for another stellar meal.  We told our server we didn't need to rush through dinner, so we had a nice, leisurely, delicious meal.





Afterwards, we walked up to the theater and found our seats, on the aisle and three rows from the front of the theater - terrific!!  The show was again so well-done and wildly inappropriate.  The theater, however, was a bit too warm for our comfort.  We got some cast autographs after Theresa got some souvenirs for the girls.  We took a cab back to the hotel and had a drink at the hotel bar.  Bed at 12:30.

SUNDAY
After awaking at 8AM, we went down for breakfast.  The place was hopping, so we didn't spend a really long time at breakfast.  We packed, checked out, got the car, and were on the road by 10AM.  We were back home by noon, the end of a great weekend!!