Live from Valley Hospital!

Tonight was our last night as just the two of us.  At 6 PM we dropped Griffey off at my co-worker Patty's house.  Griffey was excited to see his buddies, Dallas and Benji.  However, we heard his howling when we left, which was kind of sad to hear, but "Aunt Patty" said he was playing soon thereafter.  We then headed to dinner for our last meal, and Katie got smores for dessert - a nice treat for the last thing she'll eat for a little while.  We drove down to Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and checked into our room.  Tonight we just kind of hang out until Katie gets pitosin to induce labor.  We watched the Olympics and are watching a little bit of a movie before the big day tomorrow!

Hello, I am still an only child...

Griffey the dog here again.  Please don't tell mommy, but I think I scared off the stork.  See, I bark at people when they walk by our house.  It's my job - I'm telling them that they are not allowed to stop and stay by our sidewalk.

Oh, dear...

Well, I still don't have a little brother yet, and I'm worried that the stork came by the same time and thought I was barking at him.  He can stop by the sidewalk.  Well at least just for a little bit.  He was supposed to be here Sunday, but he didn't and I am still the only baby in the house.  Hopefully he comes by soon.  Do any of you know the stork's email address?  I will write him and say sorry for barking, please bring over my little brother!

P.S. - please don't tell mommy.  She does not seem to like the waiting for the stork, and she may stop giving me treats if she finds out...

2 weeks till Baby Mowry (July 9th)

The week of July 9th, just 2 weeks before Katie's due date, Charlie had a training for work to go to in Boston so Charlie's mom, Leslie, came to keep Katie company and just in case she went into labor early.  Leslie flew in on Monday evening and the three of us went to dinner at our favorite barbeque place in Mahwah, NJ called The Mason Jar.  After dinner, Charlie drove to Boston so that he would be there for the training that started Tuesday morning.

Katie went into work on Tuesday but started having quite a bit of pregnancy discomfort so she came home early.  Katie was suppose to work up till July 20th, but it was proving to be too uncomfortable to sit at work and her doctor agreed that she could start maternity leave a week early to relax.  Luckily we haven't had nearly the hot weather as the mid-west this summer, but even still her biggest complaint are the swollen feet.  Leslie decided that to help us out that she would cook several meals that we could freeze and later warm up when the Baby is taking up all of our time and energy.  Leslie is quite a good cook and seems to enjoy it, so we picked out 4 meals - Asian Flank Steak with vegetables, Chicken with Spinach Casserole, Ravioli Lasagna and Baked Ziti with Italian Sausage.  Aside from keeping busy in the kitchen, it was very nice to have Leslie here to keep Katie company and calm while waiting on the baby.

While he was there, he did get to do a little bit of sightseeing.  Not much - but dinner with some past and future co-workers was a good thing, for sure.  Dinner Tuesday was part of the program (at the hotel), but Charlie did get to go out for drinks around Faneuil Hall, which we'd been when we went there a few months back.  Not too many drinks!  There was potential for him to drive home at any moment - he was on call!  The second night, a group went to Tia's on the waterfront, also near the hotel we stayed at in March.  After dinner, they all walked to Mike's Pastries, but the next door cigar bar, Stanza dei Sigari, caught the eyes of some of the men.  So Charlie chose to have his "it's a boy" cigar instead of a canoli!

He also stopped at Eagle's Deli, which was another restaurant featured on Man vs. Food - they're known for their specialty burgers.  Charlie got the spicy one with jalapenos, buffalo sauce.  Charlie tried to convince Katie he was doing the 5 pound burger challenge, but she wasn't buying it!

We were all relieved when Charlie got home safely from Boston on Thursday and didn't miss the birth of our son.

Brooklyn Bridge

After our 4th of July day off, I (Charlie) had the next two days off of work.  I took one of the days to go do something we'd talked about doing, but never ended up getting around to - walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. I'm on a "diet / exercise" routine, so I figured I could go down to the city, walk all over kingdom come, and get to cheat a little bit on that diet part.

I started off with a late lunch at Katz's deli, which is down on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  I'd been to the famous deli when my sister Abby came to town last year, and thoroughly enjoyed the super-size deli sandwich you get there.

This time I put aside the pastrami I got last time and tried what Abby had on the previous visit - the corned beef.  I must say - Katz has good pastrami, but their corned beef is the best I've ever had.  I polished off three-fourths of the sandwich, so I had a bunch of walking to do!

It was a mile to the bridge, so I walked there.  The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest standing suspension bridges in the country, and is now a National Historic Landmark.  The bridge is one of 3 that connect Brookly to Manhattan, the others being the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges).  There's a roadway and a walkway, and over 4,000 people walk across the bridge each day.  Considering the nice (but very hot) weather and the fact it was one day after a holiday, I bet there was a bunch more the Thursday I went.  From start to finish, it's 2 miles across, though the bridge itself is only 1 mile.  The picture below is of the Manhattan Bridge.

Afterward, I went to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which is a huge park built by the same guys who built Central Park in Manhattan.  It's pretty amazing to see this massive park area in the middle of the biggest city in America, and Prospect Park seems a bit more secluded from the rest of the city.

I spent a couple of hours walking around the Park, and then when I was sufficiently tired, walked a bit further to Junior's - the famous cheesecake place - to cheat a bit more on my diet.  After what I'm pretty sure was over 10 miles of walking, that was perfectly OK!

4th of July 2012

Independence Day fell in the middle of the week this year, which makes it kind of strange as you just get a random day off in the middle of the week.  We got a bit of shopping done and watched a movie at home, and Charlie broke out the grilling tongs.  He tried a special concoction (which tends to make Katie nervous), but it turned out very well.  We like burgers, and we've liked this Italian pulled pork dish that Katie makes - so why not try them together?  The pork is made in the slow cooker over the course of the day, so we started it around noon.  Then at dinner time we grilled up two burgers, topped them with a slice of provolone, then a couple ounces of the Italian Pork.  Top that off with a tomato and another slice of cheese, and we had a really good new kind of burger!  We also made some corn on the cob for a great holiday meal.

Ramsey's fireworks weren't actually on the holiday - they were on Saturday of the following weekend. We grilled out again - using up more of the leftover pork, and walked the short distance over to the park to watch the fireworks that night.  We just got a cool little toy - a camera-sized camcorder that takes videos and pictures.  Here's Charlie's first attempt at using it:

Charlie in Dallas and Katie's mom Visit

The week of June 25th, Charlie had to go Dallas for work.  He and a few others had a nice dinner to celebrate the 2 years on rotation he's had with the group he currently works with.  The Texas heat was pretty incredible - the 100+ degree temperatures gave him a glimpse of what was coming our direction soon after.  He also got to try Sonny Bryan's smokehouse, which is a Dallas barbecue establishment that was featured on our favorite Travel Channel show, Man vs. Food.  He got it for lunch in the restaurant they've got at the airport, which probably isn't the same as eating at one of the regular smokehouse restaurants.  But he claims it was still some great Texas barbecue!

Since Charlie was out in the middle of the week, Katie's mom, Sue, came to stay at our place to keep Katie company and give us piece of mind just in case she went into labor really early.  At this time Katie was around 36 weeks, so only 4 more weeks till her due date.  Katie's mom flew into the White Plains airport Monday evening and we took her to our new favorite pizza place in Mahwah called "Roxanne's Brick Oven Pizza"...it's not quite like the typical big New York style pies but still thin crust.  Tuesday morning Charlie left for Dallas and Katie went to work, so Sue hung out with Griffey during the day and helped us out by doing some spring cleaning around our house.  She also got all of the baby's clothes washed and ready for when he gets here!  Katie enjoyed having the company in the evening and the home-cooked meals.  Sue even got to hear Baby Mowry's heartbeat when she came to the now-weekly doctor's visits.  Everything is going well right now

In case you weren't sure - Griffey points out where the baby is!

I scream, you scream...

Charlie's job tends to send out some type of gift each summer.  In the past it's been Omaha steaks or barbecue packages (burgers, dogs, etc.).  This year, they sent an ice cream package!  Charlie's on a bit of diet, so he can't really eat most of what they sent...

...but that doesn't mean Katie can't enjoy it - she's eating for 2, of course!  The package included 5 pints of ice cream, some caramel and fudge toppings, and 4 really nice ice cream glasses!

Libby's Lunch & Passaic Falls - weekend of June 23, 2012

One of our favorite books to bring with us when traveling is called "1,000 Things to do Before you Die".  The Northeast (New Jersey, New York, Connecticut) has more than it's fare share of entries.  One of them was a hot dog place about 40 minutes south of us called Rutt's Hut.  We looked it up and did a little internet searching, and found that there are a couple of hot dog joints in the area.  One of the places called Libby's Lunch seemed to have a lot more than hot dogs, which was good since pregnant Katie isn't supposed to eat hot dogs.

The notable thing about the hot dogs in this area is that they are fried as opposed to grilled of boiled.  Libby's calls their hot dogs Texas Weiners (Rutt's calls theirs "rippers"), but the coolest thing we noticed was they were founded by a Greek family and had a special kind of chili.  Sounds very familiar... So we got some chili cheese fries, and it did taste a bit like our beloved Cincinnati chili.  Charlie got a couple of those fried hot dogs, while Katie stayed with the greek theme and got a chicken gyro.  It was very good, and worth the drive.

There is a New Jersey State park right across the street, so we also took a little time to walk around the Great Falls of the Passaic River.  Nothing like Niagara Falls, but still pretty impressive nonetheless.

A visit from London and a Hall of Fame basketball player

On Tuesday June 19th, Katie's good friend and college roommate, Shannon, was in town visiting from London.  She lived in Chicago right after college and then moved to London a couple of years ago, so we don't get to see her as much as we use to and we jumped at the chance to see here while she was in NYC.  We met her for dinner at place called Clyde Frazier's Wine and Dine near Penn Station at 10th and 37th Ave.  Clyde Frazier played basketball for the Knicks back in the 1970's and now he is an announcer for the Knicks.  They always play advertisements for his restaurant on TV during the Knicks games, so we thought it would be a good spot to meet Shannon.
It was great catching up with Shannon especially since we had not seen her since Katie has been pregnant.
The food was really good and the restaurant had a nice posh yet sportsy vibe to it and to top it all off, Clyde the man himself was there.  The NBA finals were on TV that night, so he seemed to be enjoying himself by the bar watching the game and greeting fans.  So of course, we had to go get a picture with him.  He was very nice and didn't seem bothered at all with people taking pictures with him.