DC, the U.S. Open and our Anniversary - weekend of June 17th

Our 3rd wedding anniversary was June 14th (which also marked the 1 year anniversary of living in Jersey), fell on a Tuesday this year.  We had planned on going to Long Island for a night the weekend after our anniversary, but the week before Charlie's friend Jon offered up free tickets to golf's U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD.  This is just outside of Washington D.C.  Jon was getting married a few weeks after this weekend, and just didn't have the time to make it.  We decided, hey, that sounds better than Long Island, so we took Jon up on the offer.

We both took Friday off and drove down to D.C.  We got there in the early afternoon and walked around to a bunch of the monuments on the National Mall.  We didn't have time to see every one, but we saw a number of monuments we hadn't been to yet, including the Jefferson and FDR Memorials.  The Roosevelt Memorial is one of the newer ones at the National Mall, and it was cool to see.  We also stopped by the Washington and Lincoln monuments, and noticed they are currently working on a tribute to Martin Luther King.

After that, we went to a eat near Capitol Hill at the Monacle.  The Monacle is a great little restaurant that is apparently frequented by politicians.  It wasn't too crowded the night we were there, which was great, and we both had great steak dinners.

The next morning we drove to an area North of Bethesda, where we grabbed the free shuttle to Congressional Country Club, the site of the 111th United States Open.  The Open started in October 1895, and has been the site of the U.S. golf championship ever since (except for 6 years missed due to the first and second World War).

This was the 3rd time the Open had come to Congressional - the previous two times it was won by Ken Venturi of San Francisco (1964) and Ernie Els of South Africa (1997).  When we arrived there, 22-year old Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland had an enormous lead on the field.  He was at an incredible 11-under par, which was 6 strokes clear of 2nd place and 9 strokes clear of everyone else.  He only increased his lead that day, and went on to to win the tournament.  

We didn't spend a lot of time watching McIlroy; the last group teed off pretty late, and the crowd was enormous.  When we first got there, we bought some memorabilia in the enormous gift shop tent (as we walked in one of the volunteers was saying "welcome to wal-mart" which was very appropriate for as large as this gift shop was).  Next stop was the hospitality tent.  It was great - an air-conditioned tent with free food and drinks!  Most important was the air-conditioning, as the temperatures were over 90 degrees with a lot of humidity.  Katie sat on the 18th green to watch the golfers finish, while Charlie walked the course.  He followed Lee Westwood and Fredrik Jacobsen, who both moved up the leader board on Saturday.  He also followed Phil Mickelson - who wears a KPMG hat as he's sponsored by Charlie's company.  We got the shuttle back around 7:30 and headed home, tired from an eventful weekend in our nation's capital!

Belmont Stakes and more visit from Columbus folk - Weekend of June 10th

After a weekend where we both had to work, we had friends visit from Columbus for the 2nd time in 3 weeks.  Our friends the Rybickis and Kyle came up on Thursday night for a weekend of seeing a lot of what NYC has to offer.  On Thursday, we went to The Stable in Ridgewood for dinner.  This is a Rodizio style restaurant where you pay an upfront price and they carry out various cuts of beef on a stick - basically serving you until you can't eat any more.  Oh yeah, they do have the occasional pork or chicken product - but, the Chick Fil-A cows would Not be happy as we did not "eat mor chikin''.  It's also a BYOB restaurant, so we stopped by the local licquor store for wine and local beers.  Most of the time when we have visitors, we spend the majority of time in NYC, but it was fun to show friends some of the local areas.

On Friday, Kyle, Jeff and Melanie went into the city in the morning.  Charlie worked a half-day then met them down in Greenwich Village.  They stopped for a beer at White Horse Tavern, a somewhat historic bar in the Greenwich Village area that has been open since 1880.  We followed that up with a trip to Magnolia Bakery of fame from the show "Sex and the City".  This was the second time Charlie had tried the cupcakes - and he was yet again unimpressed!  We then met up with Katie in Times Square to eat dinner at Bond 45, an Italian Steak House, which is one of the most historic restaurants in the Times Square area, housed in the building where the old Hammerstein Theater was and later became a department store named the Bond Clothing Store that was famous in Times Square back in 1940's.  We all had a really good time there and enjoyed our meals, though the huge portions and all the cupcakes and beers throughout the day meant we all shared meals.  We shared the Veal Parmesan, which has become Charlie's "go-to" at Italian restaurants of late.  It was really good!

After Dinner, the 5 of us walked over to the Foxwoods Theatre on W. 42nd to see Spiderman: Turn off the Dark.  We actually unknowingly went to what was called a "preview" showing - before the official premiere.  There wasn't anything special about this - there have been previews since November - but we did really like the play.  It had gotten some bad press because of injuries to some performers when they were first practicing;  it's a musical written by Bono and Edge from U2 where the actors / stuntmen glide over the audience performing aerial battles.  At times they would "jump" (on strings of course) from the stage to the balcony. This was very different from anything we'd seen, and we enjoyed it!  Despite the heavy costuming, we also thought we recognized the actor playing the Green Goblin.  Upon consulting the playbill, we learned he'd played Scar in The Lion King, which we'd seen with Charlie's parents in Cincinnati a few years ago.

On Saturday, we went to the 143rd running of the Belmont Stakes, which is held every June in Belmont Park in Elmont, NY.  This is fairly close to Queens - where the Mets stadium and La Guardia Airport are located.  This is the final leg of the Triple Crown in racing, but 2 different horses had won the first two, so the possibility of a Triple Crown horse was out of play. Kyle, Jeff and Melanie had all been to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby in the past, and this was kind of the main draw of their visit.  We got to the race track a little after noon, in time for the second race, and spent the rest of the afternoon betting on horses and exploring the grounds.  We actually bought seats for the race, as opposed to General Admission tickets.  This was a good move as the weather was cloudy with mixed rain showers throughout the day.  In some ways, this was a good thing, as the crowd was definitely less than what we'd expected.

Charlie hit a trifecta on an early race, but lost his winnings and then some on the actual Belmont Stakes.  Katie also lost money, but (if I remember correctly), Jeff did walk away with some winnings. Animal Kingdom was the favorite in the race, having won the Kentucky Derby and finishing 2nd in the Preakness.  But, unbeknownst to us at the time, he stumbled out of the gate and we were wondering how he was in last place for the first three-fourths of the race.  He got up to 4th toward the end, but finished 6th.  Shackelford, who was one of the favorites, led most of the race, but a horse we hadn't heard of, Ruler on Ice, ended up winning as a 20-1 longshot.  Needless to say, none of us picked that horse.

We showed some of our local favorites to our friends - we went to Goldberg's famous bagels for breakfast before the Belmont and finished up by going to Charlie's favorite wings joint, Candlelight Inn in Scarsdale, NY.

The next morning, we woke up and headed to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to catch a game against the Indians.  Kyle is an Indians fan, but unfortunately for him, it was quite a blowout by the Yankees.  We got outfield seats and had a good time touring the stadium, which opened in 2009.  Charlie had been to the park twice the year before.  After the game, our friends headed to La Guardia from the game and we rested after a busy but extremely fun weekend!

(can't believe they have sushi at the ball-park right next to the funnel cakes...we are not in Ohio anymore!) 

Friends visit on Memorial Day - Weekend of May 28th

The weekend of May 28th (Memorial Day Weekend) is known as "Fleet Week" around NYC...which means that tons of sailors and military come into the city for special festivities to honor their service and this year amongst all the sailors there were also a lot of dentists due to a national dental convention...which lucky for us brought our good friends Craig and Ashley to the city for her professional continued education.   Friday the 27th was the first warm sunny day the City had in a few weeks, so we decided to try "The Frying Pan"...which is a sunken ship that was recovered and now floats in the Hudson off of the Chelsea Piers (http://www.fryingpan.com/) ...very popular amongst the young NYC professionals after work.   A friend of ours warned us that it gets crowded really early, so Charlie and I got there around 3pm...we didn't have to wait in line to get it...but once we got on the ship...we realized how popular it was.   Everyone just buys buckets of corona's ($36 for 6 beers in bucket...typical NYC prices) ...so we bought 2 buckets and waited for our friends Craig and Ashley to arrive.  Unfortunately they arrived right when the after work crowd was getting there and had to wait in a long line.....eventually they got in and we sat on the Hudson enjoying the weather and finishing our $6 beers.  Afterwards, we took a short cab to Greenwich Village and stumbled upon a couple of pubs for dinner and drinks.  Craig tried using his "smart" phone to look up nearby bars with entertainment....one of the most highly rated bars in the area was called "Marie's Crisis"....so we walk over to it and check it out...to find a small cramped piano bar in a basement packed with the most show-tune loving guys and girls....not exactly what the 4 of us were looking for....so we quickly ducked out...and the homeless person out front started laughing at us ....saying "i could have told you guys..that bar wasn't for us"...I think he stands there all night just getting a kick out of dumb people like us.

On Saturday, we went back into the city to see the Broadway play "That Championship Season" with Craig and Ashley.  They were able to get really good tickets from the half-price ticket booth.  Our seats were so close...we could literally see the sweat rolling down the actor's faces.   The plot was a little depressing....basically about a group of men in their 40's or so that had been on the championship basketball team back in their high-school days that have a reunion at their coaches house to talk about all their life problems...but the cast was amazing....Kieffer Sutherland, Chris North (Mr. Big from Sex and the City), Jim Gaffigan (Comedian ..has been on lots of shows..but I recognized him most from the Sierra Mist commericals), Brian Cox and Jason Patric.

It is always so much fun ...when we have people come in town to visit.

Brooklyn for Rapture Day - Weekend of May 21st

Well Saturday May 21st 2011 was known to most people as "Rapture Day"... some Christian radio host paid for a huge advertising campaign to warn people that May 21st was going to be the end of the world.  Around NYC, there were huge billboards declaring May 21st as the end of the world.  So Charlie and I got to thinking... and realized the world can't end yet...because we hadn't visited Brooklyn yet!  So we decided to spend Rapture Day visiting Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Brooklyn, one of the first pizzerias in NYC dating back to 1905 and now is so famous that there is a line wrapped around the building every day.   While we waited in line...we met some friendly people from Long Island who went to school at University of Dayton, Ohio.  The restaurant is very small and they pack them in tight....but the pizza definitely delivers.  We ordered a pepperoni and sausage pie and they all have fresh mozzarella....very yummy.  After eating nearly the whole pie just the two of us, we walked off some our pizza along the Brooklyn Bridge park.  Overall, it was a beautiful day and a nice afternoon visiting Brooklyn.
And to nobody's surprise (except probably all of the Christain radio host's supporters who funded his campaign ) Rapture day came and went.  Thank goodness because there are so many more things that Charlie and I want to see out here on the East Coast.

Weekend of May 7th - visit from Kristen and Bryan

The weekend of May 7th our good friends Bryan and Kristen came to visit us from Columbus.  They drove from Ohio and arrived Friday afternoon. After showing them around, we took the train down to Hoboken to meet Mike, one of Charlie and Bryan's fraternity brothers from the good old days at Miami.  Mike and his wife met us for dinner at a bar called 1 Republik.  The boys decided to pretend like they could still drink like their college days and stay out till the bars closed at 2am, but Kristen and I decided to take an earlier train back to Ramsey and relax with the dog.

On Saturday we had the world-famous Fiore's sandwiches from Hoboken, and had a great plan to go into the city to watch the Kentucky Derby at a bar that had advertised off-track betting.  However, to our surprise once we got to the bar, they told us that all off-track betting in NYC had been out lawed a few months back.  So we sat disappointed and watched the race while sipping some Mint Juleps with no tickets in our hands.   After the race, we walked around Times Square for a bit and Kristen was excited for the big selection of maternity clothes at the Macy's Harold Square compared to the ones in Columbus (they are expecting a boy this fall).  Sunday, they had to get going for the drive back to Ohio, but we didn't let them leave without partaking in one of our Jersey favorites: Goldberg's Bagels - where you have to try the pastrami!   Charlie and I have recently discovered how great the pastrami is on the East Coast.  Being from Ohio, we had never had much exposure to this great deli meat.   After our thanksgiving meal last year at the famous Carnegie Deli, we have been hooked on Pastrami and Egg sandwiches....yum!

Mid-West Wedding

The weekend of April 16th, Charlie and I had been looking forward to heading to Indianapolis for one of my college girl-friend's wedding.  Since we moved to the East Coast, it has been hard to see all of our friends from college so it was going to be quite a reunion.  However, our dog came down with a really bad stomach bug that led us to a trip to the animal hospital in the middle of the night less than 24 hours before our flight to Indianapolis.   Griffey was quite sick and was de-hydrated from not being able to keep any food or water down, so the animal hospital thought it was best for him to stay over night in the hospital to get IV fluids and medicine down to get this stomach bug under control.  We didn't get back from the hospital till less than 2 hours before our flight was suppose to leave and had only about hour of sleep, so we were forced to call the airlines and try to get our flight rescheduled for later.  Luckily, for a stupid $50 change fee, we were able to get Katie's flight changed to Saturday morning and we decided it would be best for Charlie to stay behind and wait for Griffey to get released from the hospital.   Charlie was disappointed that he didn't get to come to our friend's wedding, but we were both very worried about our dog.

Katie made it to Indianapolis Saturday morning and scheduled an impromtu hair appointment with one of her close friends that was also there for the wedding.  The wedding was beautiful at an old building in Downtown Indianaopolis and all of our college friends were so happy to see the bride and groom so happy.   We danced the night away and when the bride realized that the band/dj did not have one very important song, we were thankful for the abundance of I-phones that made it easy to quickly downloand the Golden Girls Theme Song (wedding crisis adverted)....our favorite song from college that we use to sing in college walking to the bars and now continue on the tradition and sing it whenever we all get together again.

The wedding was a lot of fun and it was wonderful seeing so many of my college friends again.  Charlie went to the hospital to visit Griffey and took some pictures and sent them to me on my phone so that I could see how the 2 of them were doing.  Griffey was still alittle weak and getting over the stomach bug, so they kept him another night and Charlie picked him up on Sunday morning.  And when Charlie picked me up from the airport, there was a very happy dog waiting to see me.

Junior League Weekend - April 2nd

On Saturday April 2nd, I had my first Junior League event.  I joined the Junior League of Bergen County a few months after we moved here so that I could meet some more people and get involved with something outside of work.  For those of you that may not be familiar, the Junior League is a national volunteer organization for women.  It is similar to a sorority in terms of the first year you join, you are considered a "provisional" member (aka pledge) and work on a project with your provisional class members.   The Junior League of Bergen County is relatively small, my provisional class has 9 members whereas some leagues across the country have around 50 new members.  It was nice to have a small class though because we all got to know each other quite well.  The provisional class project is called "Kids in the Kitchen" which is a national event for all Junior Leagues to promote healthy eating and lifestyles to kids.  We were given guidance by the League but we have the opportunity to make the event whatever we choose.  My self and one other provisional member were elected co-chairs of the event.  This was quite a daunting task for myself because it was the first time I had ever chaired an event and it was difficult to devote a lot of time due to all the late nights at my financial reporting job; however we pulled it off and it was quite rewarding.

For the event, we planned a hands-on food demonstration by a celebrity chef, Angie Shaghaghi, at the Ridgewood, New Jersey YMCA.  We partnered with the Ridgewood YMCA and held the Kids in the Kitchen event on the YMCA's Healthy Kids Day.  Angie specializes in educating children about healthy foods and has a very entertaining way to teach kids how to make heathly choices.  

On the day of the event, my provisional class members and I met at one of our advisor's houses to stuff 100 goodie bags with fruit and water bottles and jump ropes and healthy snacks, all of which we had received donations from local businesses.  Once we arrived at the YMCA, we had 2 sessions of the food demonstration with Angie Shaghaghi and both sessions were packed full with kids eager to learn how to make an easy veggie roll-up wrap.  Angie truly lived up to her resume and everyone really enjoyed her.  

All in all, it was a great experience and I have met some great women from Junior League.  

Katie