I Heart San Francisco

We spent all day Saturday in San Francisco. First, the Farmers Market at the Ferry Building. I'd never seen such a huge farmers market! It was fantastic! We didn't buy anything other than a cheddar scone but I had loads of free samples!







After the Farmers Market, we took a streetcar to the touristy part of town, Pier 39 and Fishermans Wharf. I didn't really care for all the touristy shops but wanted to see the pier, foggy views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate.


And the sea lions, of course!



We then walked the ten blocks or so to Ghirardelli Square for their 12th annual chocolate festival. Yum! You pay to get samples of chocolate--and all the proceeds go to a good cause.

We had dinner that night at The Stinking Rose. It's a garlic restaurant! Yum! Vampires keep out!

Fine Wining and Dining

Eric and I got into the Bay Area Thursday night. We drove from San Francisco to Oakland in our silver Pt Cruiser rental and after a Japanese dinner, we settled into our temporary home away from home.

Friday, we woke up bright and early to make the one hour drive to Wine Country. You can spend days here--we didn't have the luxury of excess time--so we planned an afternoon outing of it.



What we saw of in the Napa Valley was just beautiful. Rolling hills and vineyards. I'd never seen so many wineries in my life! Thats obviously why they call it Wine Country!

I scoured a "Best of Wine Country" brochure for coupons. I had read that many wineries in this region manage to charge at least $15 for a tasting! Well with our clever planning, we got to try out the wine at three separate locations! For free!

Our favorite was Bouchaine. It was the first one we went to. We were actually able to sit out on a patio sipping our wine enjoying the breeze and the sun and gazing at the outside gardens and vineyards. It was heavenly. We liked the wine there so much that we plan on ordering a few bottles when we get home.

Pretty Gardens

Through the Wine Glass (I tried really hard to get this shot--and Eric got it right on his first try!)

Then we went to Jessup which keeps reminding me of Jesser--a blog I really enjoy reading! I like Jesser the blog better than Jessup the wine. Jessup mainly makes strong red wines and I favor whites.

Our last winery of the day was Napa Cellars. The wine was perfectly good here--but all of a sudden I got wined out! Couldn't drink any more!

Friday night, we drove into San Francisco for dinner. I made us reservations for a French Viatnamese restaurant called Le Colonial. It was my first time trying Viatnamese food and it was yummy, yummy, yummy! We liked it so much that we will probably try out Le Colonial's NY location soon!

California Here We Come!

In a little while, we are leaving to catch our flight from Newark to San Francisco (with a layover in Charlotte :( .

Our main purpose of our weekend in the San Francisco area is to go to a Raiders game on Sunday. There's also some tailgating involved with other Raiders fans that Eric knows and a Raiders party Saturday night. Its my first football game too. Ever.

We're also going to Wine Country tomorrow. We'll spend Saturday exploring San Francisco and Sunday is the game.

Then Monday we'll fly home!

Mae Update

Mae must have caught herself a gourmet meal of a wasp or a moth or something. Its pretty substantial looking and she's got it all wrapped up in silk. She was safekeeping it on her leaf all day and now she's going at it. She's not building her web tonight, it appears. I guess she doesn't need to catch any more bugs tonight.

Starbucks Rejection Tour

This morning when I was reading the paper, I read about this musician who calls himself DaVido who recorded a song, Java Jitter. DaVido wanted his cd to be sold at Starbucks but he was rejected. He then went on his "Starbucks Rejection Tour" in which he was then booted from 203 Starbucks for walking in and, without permission, performing his song. Here's the video and it's pretty damn funny.

Turtle Back Zoo

On Friday, Eric and I, along with Dave, Jenn and their four kids made our way to the Turtleback Zoo. We had a great time. It's a small zoo and we probably only spent three hours there. We got some great shots of the kids and Eric got a couple cute ones of me with some of them. Four kids under the age of five. Wow.



That's me with the oldest, Ben (5 1/2) and the youngest, Nate (1).

Here's the four of them.


Charlotte, then Ellie (twins--3) then Nate and Ben.

Our New "Pet"

I've blogged about the deer and the wild turkey. We've got a bear who I keep missing. I guess that's a good thing--though I am eager to meet him!

(By the way, did y'all know that deer hiss? Yup, its true. One hissed at me the other night!)

We've got lots of spiders too. The daddy long legs freaked me out at first but I'm growing used to them.

Then the other day, I noticed the most magnificent spider who spun a magnificent web between two trees in our front yard. She's not a small spider--thick in the abdomen with longish hairy legs. She's about an inch long--brownish reddish. At night, she sits in the middle of her large circular web.

When Norton and I go on our morning walk, her web is gone. She's curled up in an almost fetal position on a nearby leaf. Its almost cute.

Then at night, she's back on her web. Eric and I did some research on my pet spider, Mae.

To the best of our knowledge, she's a garden orb-weaving spider. She spins her giant web at night and takes it down by dawn. Thank goodness, they don't bite humans often and their bite is non-toxic.

However, the fright of this spider crawling across your face can cause heart attacks--especially if you're over 40. I'm not making this up.

Their life span is about a year.

Here's a pic of our Mae at night.


It was really hard to get a good picture of her at night. But thats the only time she's not curled up sleeping on her leaf.

Here's another pic I borrowed from this site.

Entertaining

My, oh my, what a crazy weekend it was. Saturday we had over Ashley and Joe, Ryan and Lauren, and my dad and aunt and uncle stopped by too. Because I'm absolutely crazy I decided to spend about 36 hours in the kitchen preparing dinner. We had:

Spinach Artichoke Dip
Salad
Homemade sourdough bread
Homemade gnoccis with vodka sauce

Of course we had dessert too. Ashley brought over a pudding pie (actually she brought the ingrediants and made it in my kitchen). Eric shocked me when he told me he was going to make a chocolate cake. And he did. And it came out very good. I was shocked because I'd never seen him do anything in the kitchen before. I HAVE told him on more than one occasion that I thought he'd be a very good chef. And I was right.


And I made cupcakes in ice cream cones. They came out cute. I think our dinner was a success.

The Name Game

I stole this meme from Jesser. Steal it from me if you'd like.

1. YOUR SPY NAME: (middle name and current street name)
Lauren Carlisle

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mom’s side, your favorite candy)
Ruth Snocap

3. YOUR RAP NAME (first initial of first name, first three or four letters of your last name)
M-Bod

4. YOUR GAMER TAG: (a favorite color, a favorite animal)
Orange Moose

more >>

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Lauren Edison

6.YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother’s maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet’s name)
Bod Orn Nor

7. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, the automobile your dad drives)
The Orange Ultima

8. PO.RNO NAME: (First Pet’s name, First street you lived on)
Raja Beech

9. YOUR ACTION HERO NAME: (first name of the main character in the last film you watched, last food you ate)
Doc Cream

Great Discovery

One of the things I love about living in a new place is discovering what's around--whether its a roadside farmer's market or coffeehouse. Eric told me about a cute little coffee place called Longfellow's Coffee that he checked out so we went back for lunch today. Yum. It's a small place on Route 15 in Jefferson and everything there is fresh. Sandwiches take 15 minutes to make because they are not "premade and heated." My iced sugar-free rasberry soy latte was amazing. They have a location in Kinnelon too. If you live locally, check them out!

Our Office

A few days ago, this room was wall to wall boxes. It's pretty much unpacked now due to lots of hard work this weekend. We've still got to reorganize a bit and do some touch-up painting. This is the room where we keep our computers and most of our books. It also doubles as a second guest room thanks to a futon and comfy couch. We've also got a nice deck off this room. Sweet!

Our Living Room

Here's a couple pictures that I've been promising. Sorry if quality is kinda sucky. I used my camera phone because my real camera is in my car. I think.

Here's our living room. It has high ceilings, sky lights and almost a whole wall of windows (and one of the glass panels is a sliding glass door). The room is very light and airy, which I love. The couches are a merlot color and they were only six months old when I put them into storage--where they stayed for 3 years! I think they look good in this room.


Here's another pic. There's our fireplace. We have a lot of that natural wood throughout the house. It gives it a nice touch.

Public Radio that Rocks

The people that sold us the house left one of those under-the-cabinet radio/cd players in the kitchen. Even though I usually would listen to my iPod when cooking, I figured this device would come in handy. However, being that we are so far up in the mountains--we don't get great reception for New York radio stations. I'm an avid listener of WFUV, Fordham's public radio station that plays great music. But that does not come in here. I found a Stroudsburg, PA station that was just okay. Then I discovered WNTI, Centennary College's public radio station. I dig the music so much that Eric asked me yesterday if I ever turn that thing off! Rarely. I like to leave it on for Norton when I go out, too. Dogs like good music too!

We just love monKEYing around!

Shock of all shocks...a non-house related post! When Eric and I were in Miami, we had dinner in Coconut Grove one night. That Friday night was probably my favorite part about our trip. Not as touristy as Miami Beach. Eric posted about that night here...

So I left Eric holding my balloon monkey so I could look in a cool little shop. And I ended up purchasing these really cool little monkey covers for our keys. So far, we've only used 2 out of 6. I have the purple one and Eric, the grey.

So I've been meaning to write about these monKEYs for a while and today, I checked out Nicky's blog and she beat me to the punch!

Another Nasty, Disgusting Day

Yesterday, after the constant rain we had all day, we discovered that we had a bit of a chimney leak. The joys of being a homeowner. We've scheduled a chimney repairman to come out and hopefully its nothing major.

Today it didn't really rain much but it was cloudy and chilly all day. I went for a drive and then Norton and I went for a walk then a wander in the woods then a swim (for him, not me).

Then he went off running and came back filthy. Well at least we bought a hose...

Rainy Day

I bet these two wish they could have stayed in bed all day!

It's cold and rainy. No long walks for Norton and I today.

But guess what? I just looked outside and counted eight deer, including two babies!

We're in!

Well, technically we moved in a week ago. Our high-speed internet was finally turned on tonight! So I am now connected to the wired world again! The place is coming along, bit by bit. We've still got lots of boxes but the place is looking pretty good! Between Eric's furniture and mine from storage, we've managed to fill the place up! I promise pictures will come soon--I have an idea where my camera is but I've got to physically locate it and my battery charger.

Norton is delightfully happy here. It took him a day or two to get adjusted but he's doing great. He loves the woods and trails and pond for swimming behind our house. He loves our nightly walks with our friend Jenny from the development (Eric's best friend Dave's wife) and dog Tocchet.

Its really nice and peaceful here and DARK at night! I've seen plenty of deer, frogs and even wild turkeys!

More to come later...

More House Stuff

Another long day spent working in the new house.

It rained all day. And it was C-O-L-D!!! By the time I left my new home this evening, it was 56 degrees! And I was wearing shorts!!!!

Today I finished painting the office. Did I mention that I ended up getting Home Depot to make a better match than Lowe's did? I ended up using the Home Depot paint and returning the Lowe's paint. It looked pretty good in the dim light. We'll see how it looks on a nice sunny day. I know, I know, I know, I owe everyone pictures. I'll give you a visual image to hold you over...the color is a dark beige that I like to call cinnamon latte. There's natural wood trim so it looks nice together. Pics will come soon. Promise.

Today we got our locks changed. I brought over and put away most of our dry groceries along with some other kitchen supplies.

Tomorrow Eric and I are going to HorrorFind, my first time. And Sunday, packing, packing, packing, because the movers come on Monday.

Once we move, we may be without internet for a week. Maybe less. So don't be startled if you must go without house updates for that duration.

Ouch.

Nope. Still no pics. But soon. I hope.

Today some friends came up to both see the new house and help paint the office. Susan and her boyfriend Timmy and their dog, Blackie along with McKenzie and Baby Caiden.

Things were going quite swimmingly! While Timmy was painting the ceiling, us girls were playing with the baby and chatting. At lunchtime, I went to Lowe's for more ceiling paint and I brought us back Subway for lunch.

I spent some time snipping at the excess greenery outside and then it was time for Susan and I to start painting the walls of the office. We got to the bottom of paint can #1. We cracked open #2 and I threw some on the wall I was painting.

Uh oh. The color didn't match what we had been doing. I bought both cans together--but the man who mixed the paints really SCREWED UP. So what was I to do but to bring both cans of paint to the local Lowe's (not the one where I purchased the two cans initially).

Apparently, the can of paint that we put on the walls was the "mistake" batch of paint. And as it turned out, we liked that color much better than the Caribou that the room was supposed to be painted in. So the man at this Lowe's had to do his best to match a paint that was a "mistake." He did a pretty good job, I think. Timmy threw some more on the walls when I got home. And, I hope that when I see it dry in the morning light, it looks okay. It'll need another coat regardless.

Painting with Martha and other Homeowner Adventures

No, Martha is not physically going to be helping me paint tomorrow. But she'll be there in a way--I bought some of her paint at Lowe's today. Tomorrow, along with some awesome friends, I'll be painting the office a color called Caribou. Its a latte-ish-brown-ish color. The ceiling color is called Yellow Caneware.

Today was productive. We hired cleaners and they did their thing at the new house.

The house's former owners didn't do much for the upkeep of the home. While some of the carpets are nice and new, others are an eighties shade of blue with yucky stains.

The kitchen has cranberry stripes on the walls and matching cranberry cabinets.

The former owners, while nice people, let the greenery take over the house. Vines wrapped around and covered all the railings on the front deck. (This morning, while trying to get rid of all those grape-bearing vines accidentally rid an egg-bearing huge spider of its nest and left many insects homeless. I also ruined my new garden shears trying to attack branch-like vines. Next time, I'll use a borrowed chainsaw instead.) Vines climb the back of the house--and the inspector seemed to think we may have poison ivy. We've got a humongous overgrown shrub in the front of the house.

You can say we have our work cut out for us. But Eric and I are really excited about it!

I promise pics will be coming soon!

We're homeowners!

Today we closed on our new house! There's lots to be done this week including painting, cleaning, and packing. Next Tuesday night, we'll be sleeping in the new house. I'll be posting pictures when I can...

A Fun Filled Day--Part Four

Friday was a great day--for the most part. Here's what happened...

We woke up bright and early and Eric headed off to the career fair, once again to work for his newspaper. Then I headed off on my adventure.

I made the nearly one hour trek to Homestead, Florida for a series of adventures. First and foremost, I wanted to visit the Everglades. I could have went to the Everglades National Park. But I decided I wanted to go on an airboat ride so I went to the Everglades Alligator Farm instead. I saw some alligators up close!


I even held a baby alligator!




Then I went on an airboat ride which was awesome!



Saw some more gators and sea turtles.





Egrets and lots of fish!

They call the Everglades the River of Grass. It's also the only place where crocodiles and alligators live side by side--in the world!






After the airboat ride, I headed to Robert is Here fruit stand. Not just any fruit stand, but Robert specializes in exotic fruits and he's known for his exotic fruits milkshakes. I had a pineapple milkshake. YUM!

Non Fun Part Disclaimer: I hit a big rock in the road on my way to Robert's. After the fruit stand, I headed to Walmart Tire and Lube Express to make sure my tires were okay. The man said they looked fine. Phew...for the record, I hate Walmart. I only went because it was a necessity.

Next, I hit downtown Homestead where I checked out a few antique shops. Got lots of old postcards for my collection!

Then: the winery! I went to Schnebly Redland's Winery--the southernmost winery in the US! All of their wines are made from tropical fruits! I had a tasting of their five wines--mango, lychee, passionfruit, carombola, and guava. I ended up buying two bottles--carombola and passionfruit. Unfortunately, they don't ship to NJ...

Nope, my day was not over yet. Then a visit to the Fruit and Spice Park, a 35-acre tropical botanical garden growing over 500 varieties of fruits, spices and nuts. I took a tram ride around the park. Our guide, Marie, explained what a lot of the fruits were and what they were used for in different countries. And I got a mango to bring home! Ooh, and I nibbled on a stevia leaf, some Thai garlic and mint. Fun!

Look for another post detailing my evening with Eric!

Not-So-Fun-Filled (Part Tres)

So Eric and I did make it to South Beach Thursday night. I didn't find it particularly appealing, nor did Eric. I found it too touristy, too trendy, and quite expensive! There were a million restaurants all in a row and lots of them had a waiter or staff member pushing the menu on you. If you stopped to look at their menu, they try to sell it to you. Reminded me of Little Italy with palm trees.

"Come on, try it, the food is the best."

"We have a steak special, only $15, so good, usually worth $36."

You get the idea. Annoying as all hell. We ended up going with an Italian restaurant. We sat inside because I couldn't take anymore of the Florida heat. Well the door was open to the outside so it was hotter inside as it turned out. By the time our dinners came out, I was ready to pass out. It was 10pm and I was not only really hungry but sunburnt and suffering heat exhaustion, I think. So we took our food to go and I was feeling better once we got to the room. We had to miss the Salsa party. Oh, well.

Greetings from Miami--Part Deux!

Today its sunny and bright outside in South Florida. This morning, I chose a lovely beach to visit--Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne. Even with a sunblock of SPF 50, I still suffered a burn to my shoulders and back. I was smart to reapply constantly, however, when you're attending the beach on your own, its kind of hard to reapply to your back after splashing around in the clear aqua water. Its a good thing I only stayed on the beach for 2 hours. I saw some new and unusual butterflies and birds. I even saw a pelican!





Don't go in the water if you see a purple flag!



After the beach, I came back to the hotel and chilled for a couple hours. Then, I took the free MetroMovers monorail over to the Bayside Marketplace a few blocks away. It's an open aired mall, complete with a Hard Rock Cafe and because its right on the water, you can take a touristy boat ride right from there! I contemplated the pirate cruise. Oh well. Maybe later on this weekend...


Look! A wet bird!




Tonight, Eric and I are going out to dinner in South Beach and there's a possibility of an AAJA Salsa Party there as well. So we'll see...

Tomorrow's the Everglades and Biscayne National Park. I think.

Once again, pics to follow...

Greetings from Miami!!!

On Tuesday, after a yummy Thai lunch, Eric and I flew out to Miami. Though its vacation time for me--lots of relaxing and exploring, Eric's here for his AAJA Convention. Lucky me. But he's stuck in workshops all day and working the Career Fair for his newspaper.

Yesterday was fun. Florida weather in the summer is simply...awesome. Extremely hot and humid with nearly daily thunderstorms. So yesterday I met up with my friend Bret for the afternoon. He moved to Florida a year and a half ago so it was the first time I've seen him since. We met up in Hollywood, Florida. My first time there. It started pouring when I was nearly there. Pouring cats and dogs.

We had lunch at a place called O'Malley's Ocean Pub. A cool place on the patio with an awning with a Key West atmosphere. But many of the restaurants on Hollywood's "broadwalk" are open air. Even though it was pouring, we stayed dry during lunch and were able to watch the ocean.



Then we walked on the broadwalk. And had ice cream. And fudge.



Then Bret and I parted ways and I had time for a sweet nap in the hotel before Eric got back. Last night, we had an opening reception to go to. Today, I'll hit the beach and tonight we have a free evening.

From the opening reception at the opera house...

Wiki-Meme!

Eric tagged me to do a Wikipedia survey.


Rules: You go to Wikipedia, type in your birthday (month and day) & you list 3 events, 2 births, 1 holiday, and tag 5 friends.


Events

1. 1918 An explosion occurred killing more than 100 and destroying the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Sayreville, New Jersey. Fires and explosions continued for three days forcing massive evacuations and spreading ordnance over a wide area, pieces of which are still being found in 2007. (Ordnance? Not sure what that means but thats what the article says.)

(Besides being the hometown of Jon Bon Jovi, Sayreville is a town not too far from my hometown in NJ. It was just listed in Money magazine as #47 out of the top 100 places to live. I don't get it. Sayreville is a town surrounded by landfills and possible cancer clusters. Go figure.)


2. 1927 Gutzon Borslum begins sculpting Mount Rushmore.

3. 1950 Snoopy's First Appearance!!!


Births

1. 1946 Actress Susan Sarandon

2. 1976 Actress Alicia Silverstone

3. 2005 Prince Emannuel of Belgium

Holiday

World Animal Day

Tag, you're it: Jessica, Jennifer and Becky. Do it if you want. Sorry, I don't have 5 blogging friends to tag.

HP

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I would have finished it days ago except I've been a bit sidetracked with packing and all...as to be expected, it did not disappoint and left me on the edge of my seat at all times. And now, Eric's finally begun the series. He's almost done with Book 1.

I won't say anything else about it because I don't want to give anything way. Amazing. Dark. Frightfully terrifying. Full of twists and turns. Thats all, Folks.

What Happened???

There's a song that I've been listening to for two and a half years now and I can recite every word by heart. My sister introduced it to me in early 2005, I suppose it was. And now, Hey There Delilah is at the top of the Billboard charts. Go figure. But I just had to say...

I liked it first!!!

Doggy Evenings

After a busy day (several of them, in fact), I can think of a million and one things I should have been doing tonight. Like packing for our move to Sussex County in August. Or laundry. Or packing for my upcoming weekend away to Omega. Or giving the place a good cleaning for this weekend's open house. I could have used a good nap too. I'm utterly exhausted.

Instead I spent the evening reading. No, not Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Just a couple more days til I get my hands on that one.

A couple days ago, I finished the J. A. P. Chronicles, a funny 'chick lit' read. As I was packing books and looking for another read yesterday, I found The Dogs of Babel, a book I acquired a year ago at a library book sale. So I began reading last evening and finished tonight.

A great novel, though bittersweet and sad. A linguist loses his wife--she falls out of a tree in their backyard. There is only one witness--their dog. The story follows the grieving husband as he attempts to teach this dog language so the dog can tell the story of what happened. While our main character is trying to solve the mystery of his wife's death, he also tells the story of how they met and fell in love. Anyone read this one? I really enjoyed it though it was a sad read.

I found out it's coming out as a movie in 2009.

A Birthday Celebration

We wrapped up Eric's vacation week with a trip to Skytop Resort on Sunday to spend the day with Eric's parents and family friends as well. Not that we needed a special occasion to get together--but we did have a very special occasion! It was Liz's (Eric's mom) birthday!

The Poconos are a lovely place to spend the day. And a lovely day we had. We had lunch and lazed around on rockers.



Then we acted real goofy playing putt-putt golf. (Eric is goofy 90 % of the time as you can see below.)


Then a rainstorm chased us inside.
So we played a "no holds barred" edition of ping pong.
Luckily the weather cleared up. That made for some nice pictures! See?


We did some walking. Look. Kindred spirits live here.



I like this resort. They even have tea time.

After dinner, it was time to go home.

A Movie with More than what Meets the Eye

Friday night, Eric and I went to see the new Transformers movie. It was his choice but I was eager to see it too. I'd never seen the cartoons as a kid but had played with my brother's Transformers toys. Anyway, it was a good choice. Eric and I both enjoyed it.

While we were in the movie theatre, I saw an advertisement for a movie coming out around the holidays. Here's a a hint...

Alvin? Alvin? ALVIN!!!!

Didn't get it yet? Okay, click here...

Thursday at the Jersey Shore

Thursday morning, Norton seemed to be back to his jolly old self, so Eric and I decided to go on our next adventure: to the Jersey Shore! Being that I lived down the shore a few years ago for college, I had some ideas...



First, to the beach! We headed to Deal for some fun in the sun...it was a beautiful warm and breezy day. Unfortunately...my spray-on sunscreen malfunctioned and I've suffered another bad sunburn. Remind me to use the annoying rub on stuff next time. At least it works.



After the beach, we drove to another beach--Point Pleasant Beach for the boardwalk. Eric's first time there! We perused the aquarium, acted like children in the funhouse, ate, ate, and ate, and played mini-golf.



A good time had by all. Until we got home and the pain of my sunburn kicked in.

But its okay. I'm still alive.

Phun in Philly

Earlier this week, I discovered that one of my favorite bands, Travis, was going to be playing at the Electric Factory Wednesday evening. Since Eric was to be on vacation all week, we decided to get tickets.

Wednesday didn't quite go off without a hitch though. Poor Norton was sick all day and we had two visits from possible townhome buyers. But by dinner time, Norton seemed to be okay so we left for the concert in Philadelphia.

Awesome, amazing show! Travis is a great band out of Glasgow, Scotland. They've been around since the nineties, and in fact, have been credited for paving the way for bands such as Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol. Anyway, Eric and I enjoyed the show so much that we've been rethinking our previously chosen wedding song...

Day and Night at the Museum

Eric is on vacation all week so we'll be enjoying a weeks worth of local adventures. Yesterday, we enjoyed Adventure #1. We drove into New York to visit the American Museum of Natural Museum. It's Eric's fourth favorite place and I hadn't been in years. There were a couple of exhibits we were eager to check out: Frogs: A Chorus of Colors and Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns and Mermaids. Between the two exhibits, we even had time for an Imax movie: Dinosaurs Alive. So we enjoyed a fun and educational few hours at the museum.

Then, we walked through Central Park in the torturous heat to the Upper East Side to head to a vegan restaurant that Eric wanted to take me to. Unfortunately, Candle 79 was closed due to a private party so they sent us to their other location, The Candle Cafe (their original location).

Boy am I glad that somebody told Eric about this restaurant. It was amazing! Here's what we ate : 1) some kind of pina colada-esque smoothie--the fruit in it was so fresh and delicious!
2) a Greek salad with crumbled tofu in lieu of feta cheese--salad dressing was tangy and
freshly yummalicious.
3) Chipotle Grilled Tofu with a quinoa and black bean stuffed avocado--so tasty!
4) Porcini encrusted Seitan (a kind of meat substitute) with mashed potatoes. Crunchy
perfection (well, the seitan was crunchy anyway!).

No, Eric is not a vegetarian but we both loved the food so much that we scarfed it down in record time. Then we bought the cookbook.

Oddly enough, we had the perfect movie waiting for us at home from netflix after our adventure in NY: Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller. Despite what we'd heard about the movie, we both really enjoyed it and found it very funny.

Martha Madness

I'm not quite sure when it became "cool" to dig Martha Stewart. Was it after she was arrested a few years back? (Here's an interested link, titled, 'Is Martha Stewart Finished?')

I think not! I read something in a newspaper yesterday about her new lines coming out: carpets and flooring, lamps, etc. The carpets and flooring will be available exclusively at Macy's and Flor.

(Pictured are Martha's cool new "carpet tiles," tiles that can stand on their own or you can mix and match! How cool is that?)

And if thats not enough, she's got paint lines out at Lowes for $25 a can. Eric, can we get Martha Stewart paint for our new house?

I'm partial to some of her magazines. I like Blueprint, a fun and fresh living magazine. I've got a copy of Martha Stewart Weddings too.

I just checked out Martha's website for the first time and it seems to be addictive. Perfect for a domestic goddess-in-training like myself!

Happy belated July 4th!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth of July! It hardly felt like a holiday to me because it fell during the middle of the week and I'm off all summer anyway (for the most part).

Eric and his dad were going to a Yankees game yesterday and his mom and I had plans to tour Duke Farms. We had three different tours booked, starting with an 11:30 tour of the Japanese Gardens.

At 11:06, after locking the front door and shutting all the windows, I grabbed jackets because it was chilly out, said goodbye to my Norton and locked the back door behind me. It was then that I realized I left my keys hanging on the hook in the kitchen.

Oops. Thanks so much to Liz, Eric's mother, for hightailing it from Duke Farms to Eric's townhouse in record speed. We actually just made it on time for our first tour!!!

Liz and I enjoyed three tours--the Japanese Garden tour, the Country Manor tour and the tour of the 4 mile square property.

Duke Farms was first developed by James Buchanan Duke, a man who made fortunes from the tobacco industry. Duke built himself a "modest" 11 room bachelor pad on the lush farmland. He brought in 2 million shrubs and plants for his property, drained swampland and built 9 lakes! Duke married and added onto his home. Later, Duke Farms was passed onto his daughter, Doris Duke. Doris was an animal lover and had many dogs. They drank out of a beautiful indoor fountain and had an elaborate dog house which contained ramps to a private entranceway to Ms. Duke's bedroom on the second level! Doris even had camels--two of them!

Today, the house contains 55 rooms! It houses indoor tennis courts, a theatre, an indoor pool (and an outdoor one too), and a lounge.

Anyway, its an interesting place to tour if you're ever in the Hillsborough, NJ area.

We're Moving!

Just when I was half-way moved into Eric's townhouse, a deal of a house came along that we couldn't or didn't want to pass up in Sussex County, NJ. It's a four bedroom, 2 bathroom home on 1/2 an acre of property--comes complete with woods and deer and bears and hawks. Yep, I love it. There's a pond behind the woods, for ice skating in winter, and it'll be Norton's in summer. Two minutes away is Lake Tomahawk, a lake complete with water slides. But this is lake country; there's lots of them!

And, guess what's ten minutes away? Remember my post about Wild West City from a couple weeks ago. You got it!