A Taste of Serendipity

Good NEWS! Well, as you may know, Andrew and I waited an hour and a half in the freezing cold to taste the cold confections inside of "Serendipty," the ice cream shop featured in the movie, "Serendipity." When John Cusack and his girl first begin to fall for each other, they travel to this two story shop to sip on frozen hot chocolates. When Andrew and I arrived, there were about 75 people eating in this deceptively large, two story shop. When we were seated, we thought nothing of the table shoved into an old marble fireplace, but reminisced of the movie just the same. The other night, we popped in the movie to point out the destinations we shared with the characters. When they arrived at Serendipity, we were excited to see them enjoy the same setting we did, then we had a SHOCK! Out of all the many table they could have sat at, they ended up sitting at the SAME table that we did! Same marble fire place, same marble bust of an angry aboriginal--what serendipity!

Well, we were pretty excited, and if you don't believe us, I included photos!




On another note, aI am so excited about the Inauguration tomorrow! It's going to be history in the making. My third grade class is a very diverse group, and we will most definitely be watching Mr. Obama become out very first African American President! Look for one of my students to become our future president one day! :-)

Resolutions and Rotations

My lovely monther in-law recently pointed us to Suze Orman's tips for financial success in 2009 she had seen on Oprah. We love the tips, and are testing them out. Some of her tips were to go a day without spending money, a week without the credit card, and a month without eating out. The first two are easy for us, but that last one freaked is out, impossible, we thought. Well, we began this week and after having to eat out for each meal in New York which costs an arm and a leg, we were kinda excited. It has now been a week and we have not eaten out at all!!! WOW! We were tempted once or twice, I will be honest. Saturday, after our walk on the beach, we got on the scooter, and I asked Andrew if we could go get burritos somewhere. He said, "Yes, wait--I don't have my wallet, its at home!" So we made hamburgers with grilled onions and steamed veggetables at home--WAY BETTER! Not only have we been saving major money, but there have been other bonuses as well. We have been eating healthier, working together in the kitchen, and we have been spending more time at home, avoiding being out and spending money elsewhere. Tonight, Andrew is making his homemade chili, and I made some corn bread, it should be ready soon! mmmmmmmmm



Actually, we have been saving so much money, that we were able to buy an airpurifier on woot.com. Why an air purifier, you ask? Well, our two little furballs aren't as hospitable to our friend's noses as we would like. On Friday night, we had friends over for dinner (another no eating out night!), and after "Burn After Reading," two of them left with itchy eyes.

So, our new year resolution will help when dander attacks.

The last thought that I will leave you with is our cat's butts. Our cats desperately needed a bath this weekend, so Andrew got 'em all lathered up and bubbly in the tub. They always look like skinny, drown rats when they are all wet, haha. Before he was about to let them out of the tub, he decided to cut off the fluffy fur that grows on the back of their hind legs, otherwise known as their butts. It looked great in the shower, but now not so much. But, turns out we love it because everytime we see them know, we literally crack up. They look like little lambs when they walk.

A non vacation Blog!

WOW! Look at me I'm blogging and we're not on vacation! It's a miracle! But, then again, I don't generally blog when I'm not out and about becuase I don't have kids, so what to tell? Well, our cats are doing really, extra well since we got home. I think they missed us so they are on their best behavior. Piper's not whining, and Lucy is always rolling on the floor, looking for love. "Wookin for nub in aw da wrong pwaces."

I went back to work, and I have been with my kids ONE day. I had GLAD training Tues and Wed. Poor kiddos, oh well, it's for their good. We got a class pet Monday. Herbie, the blue Beta. He's kinda a grumpy guy, always frowning, even though I think he can't help it. But the kids LOVE him. "Ok boys and girls, today is Herbie's first day of school ever, and his first day in our room with the Dragons, (thats us, we're the Dragons), what should we tell him about us so that he feels more comfortable?" -me

First hand raised, "WE LOVE reading!"
"Oh yeah, good one!" -me
"WE LOVE SCHOOL!"-second child
"So true!" -me
"We are super smart"
"seriously!" -me
"we LOVE Mrs. Brockhaus"
"hmm, best one I've heard yet!" -me

So, as you can see, Herbie probably feels right at home, even though I thought I had killed him when I first transferred him into his bowl. Traumatizing I suppose.

Well Herbie, we're glad you're here! You have some friends in the class, Duncan the paper dragon hangs on our wall, our room 19 mascot, and Bananas, the monkey that hangs (with a staple) from the paper tree in our room.

New Years Eve from my perspective...

Ok Ok. This is my vacation too. Now you get to hear about our new years eve from my perspective. We got on the subway to go to Brooklyn for a New Year's party. When we emerged from the underground at our final stop (after accidentally arriving at a few of the wrong, "shady" subway stops) and it was quite chilly...it was one of those 10 degrees but "feels like" ZERO times! I love the subway though...It's like Mario Brothers. You just go down, pick a destination, and come up in a new world! I love it!
Our faces were instantly numb when we got to the street level and were hit by the brisk cold of the night. It was still quite exciting though, and to us San Diegan weaklings, we consider it an adventure every time we face the extreme cold. It feels great to come out alive!
So besides the fact that I ended up talking and dancing with another GUY last night, it was a pretty darn coool night. And actually, Ed, my fellow bloke from England was a pretty nifty guy. Well...that's about all I am going to give you for now. Getting home at 6:00am was definitely out of the ordinary for us, but it was well worth it as New York was a wonderful setting for a New Year's celebration!

Sorry Carson Daily....

Well, this morning Andrew and I awoke with colds, and saw fluffy snowflakes swirling and floating out our 12th story window. It looked very beautiful, but not like anything that we wanted to spend too much time in. We took out time getting ready, watched an iCarly movie, and finally went out for lunch. BRRRRRRRRRRRRR! It was 27 degrees, but "felt between 0-10" degrees. We went to Whole Foods for their hot lunches, but we wern't the only ones. It seems eveyone wants to hang at the grocery store when it's snowing. We tried, we really did, but we just couldn't get lunch there, there were too many people. We left, and went to the sweet French Bakery. I got hot tea and this organic, free range, no pesticide, etc, etc chicken soup to make me feel better. Mmmmm! So warm and delish! I feel like we are getting spoiled off the food out here.
It is seriously SO cold outside, and the wind is so biting, that we will NOT be walking just a few blocks away to Times Square, where half of New York will be standing, and half the world will be watching (I know, sounds like my dream come true! ;-) but seriously, it is painful outside. Plus, once you go, they lock you in for 24 hrs, no bathroom break, no nada. So we are going to a party with friends in Brooklyn.

But I almost forgot to tell you about out NBC studio tour! It was pretty cool, we saw the studios where they film nightly news, Conan O'Brian (we LOVE him), and SNL. Andrew sat in chair 1A which is Donald Trump's chair when he watches SNL! We learned alot of neat info about some of our favorite shows like the offica, SNL, etc. This picture is us in the top of NBC studios overlooking Rockafeller center and the ice skating rink.





Right after our tour, we decided to see one of the loves of our lives doing what he does best. Andrew and I love Bobby Flay. There, I said it. His red hair, his New York accent, his love for ancho chili, the fact that he is the one celebrities that Andrew can do a good impersination of, his food....we love it all! So we bordered the subway and headed to Union Square. We dined at Ray's Pizza for lunch, and if any of you have seen Elf, you know there are MANY Ray's, but we got 'le origional.' Then for dinner, we had a date with Mr. Flay at his Mesa Grill. Luckily, we had a reservation, cuase it was PACKED! It was SO cute, and awesome, and the people were nice, just as we would have expected :-) But Bobby wasn't there, and yes, we asked. haha, we think we're so funny!

Afterwards, we went home and decided that it was time to expereince one of the reasons we wanted to come to NY. Andrew LOVEs the movie serendipity, and it's set in NY. John Cusack and his gal eat dessert at a little place called 'Serendipity." So at 11pm, we walked down, and expected some huge sundaes. "An hour and a half wait," we were told. "WHAT!?!??!?!" WHo, I mean, who in their right mind, wants to wait in the bitter cold for an hour and a half, until a half hour past midnight for ice cream!!!!!!!! Well, we're on vacation, what else are we gonna do? hehe, so we did it! AND IT WAS KILLER! they have HUGE fifteen dollar sundaes, and they are to die for. I got one with pecan pie, butter pecan ice cream, hot fudge, pecans and whipped cream. Andrew had black out cake, fudge, ice cream, fudge morsels and whipped cream...mmmmmmm





SOOOOOOOOOO, no ball! Thank God!

all about town

Hi Hi HI! Oh man! It's finally pretty cold here! BRRRRRRRRRR! There has been a major cold front, and we have had to bundle ourselves like little eskimos, but sometimes I still just gotta wear tights! (When in Rome!) Last night we took a romantic horse and carriage ride around central park at around 11pm. Andrew was such a good business man and totally talked the guy down in price, nice job!It was cold, but there was a blanket to snuggle in! Then we went to Rockafeller center to see some skating, had our first NY hotdog and checked out the Trump Tower.


Then we head to the pure glass apple store which worked up a big appetite for some New York cheese cake. Since we had finally digested the food from Carnegie Deli from the first night, we headed back for our cheesecake fix. It was a massive, dense, creamy delicious triangle loaf, coated in cherry sauce. We could barely finish it, but don't worry, we somehow managed.


We got home early after a wonderful night at 1:30am. I was sure to shower that night and lay out my clothes, because our alarm would be sounding at 5:30am. After a couple hours of sleep, we awoke , bundled, and ran down the empty streets. It was worth it enough just to actually see the streets empty! WOWSA! We ran into starbucks for caffeine boost and got in line at the ABC studios. WE were there early enough to be very infront for Good Morning America. We waited for and hour to where we were told they were DEFINITELY letting in stand by, and that we were guaranteed in! cool, huh? WEll, then they realized that there wasn't enough room because they were having all these crazy dancers with umbrellas, or something. But, we actually didn't mind, because at least we were up, we didn't have to stand anymore and the city was SO empty, it felt all our own!
WE walked over to the NBC studios and checked out the TODAY show, kinda lame, so we went and signed up for the NBC tour, which we will have manana, awesome! We began to feel kinda tired, and my boots were dragging. We went to McDonalds in Time Square then decided to go to SoHo by Subway. SO LAME! SoHo SoSucks! boring! So, we got on the Subway again, and went to the stop that said, "Brooklyn Bridge," cause we had heard of it before. It got all crazy bright, but it end up being pretty cool. We walked along the pedestrian path, don't even THINK about stepping over onto the bike path! The Brooklyn bridge was the accidental sight that was probably my favorite of the day! I really recommend it to all!
Since we were having such good luck on our subway bingo game, we decided to keep going, despite how dry and itchy our eyes were getting. We went into the subway, and saw that we could go to Wall Street. "WE've heard of that!" we said! So on we went. At this location we were met with two sights, one disappointing, and one very emotional, both we were not expecting. Andrew was pretty excited to see the New York Stock Exchange, and well, in many ways we did. The building that is. Yep, so we stood outside of it, and looked at it, and took a picture, but "no tours allowed." lame. It was a quick pic, them on we went.

Next we went to ground zero. There is a World Trade Tribute Center with a museum inside. There we found video footage, quotes from dying husbands to their wives and families, artifacts found as the crash. A dusty high heel, twisted metal beams, half a phone, etc. There was one wall of the "missing signs" of family members pleading to find their son, daughter, wife, etc. It was so sad. There was also a picture wall of all those lost.

When we were done, we couldn't take it any longer! We were SO tired of running around all day with only a couple hours of sleep! WE went home and passed out, almost literally for a few hours. We had plans to go to a museum with friends, but we were too worthless. OKOKOKOKOK! NOW THE BEST PART OF OUR TRIP SO FAR!!!!!!!


WE had a date. An amazing date. On Broadway. To see a Braodway, Tony award winning show. Jersey Boys. Incredible. Amazing! WE LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVED it! Please, please, make it a point to see it. So fun, and lovely. We sat next to some great people from Florida (people here are so nice!) and they were saying that we should all be happy cause San Diego and Florida football teams won last night. Andrew and I just smiled and nodded. whatever :-)





THIS TRIP ROCKS! Comment any recommendations with our final days approaching. mmk, thanks bye!


P.S. I ALMOST FORGOT THE BEST PICTURE OF THE WHOLE TRIP!! mmmmmmmmmmmm!

NY NY

Hey ya'll! I LOVE NEW YORK! People here a SO nice. You make a new friend around every corner! People are so friendly, and they really have the most endearing accents. So this morning we woke up at the early hour of 1pm, then hit some shopping! People here take shopping VERY seriously! We found a couple treasures at H&M and I flipped when I saw a Zara. That was my fav store in Spain, and I couldn't believe they had it here yet, score! In the middle if the mall they had this statue, it was SO nice of them to commemorate me with a statue, thanks guys!







Ok ok , so we ran around town, and looked up show times, got some food, ate a HUGE pretzel from a street cart, and had some free beverages from out hotel. Our hotel is so stinkin rad!
We had our drinks on the "sky terace," oo, so fancy! Here is us sittin at the sky terrace!






At dinner, we heard from an old friend of mine that was in Little Italy. They came up to meet us and we all ran around and saw some more sights, it was really fun! We met up with Bree's other friend, and we decided to go out on the town in Brooklyn. Andrew and I bought Subway passes and we all went to Jessica's house. She lives above this sweet Russian bar where they serve Chimay beer that Andrew was really excited about. So we start to go in, and I realize I left my ID in my other pants!


So we had to take a picture with Garfield! JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ! They wouldn't let me in. Here is the bar that wouldn't let us in:

So Andrew and I hoped onto the subway and took the L to the N, got off at 57th and walked to our hotel. It is SOOOOOO busy in New York, and so fun! We love it. I hope that tomorrow is as fun as today!

OHHHH! I forgot ONE thing. There are all these bus vans of Jewish men, and they are passing out kits to other Jews, luckily for US, Bree is jewish so we GOT one! Yes! I was pushing her yelling, "She's a jew! She's a jew!" So he grabbed her and started telling her how to count the candles, "I know how to count," she said. "You're one of US!"-he said. so I put it in my purse, and lit seven of them when we got to Jessica's house, cause it's the seventh night and all.