Resolution

I resolve, as soon as I kick this disgusting head cold, to begin telling the story of our new city. I'm sorry I've been so deficient in posting lately - moving to New York was a much, much bigger task than I thought it would be and after two interruptions for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are just now beginning to feel slightly settled. So anyone who hasn't given up on me, please stay tuned for more stories in 2011.

                                                       Happy New Year everyone!!

Taking a bite of the big apple

So last Saturday, the movers came and packed up all our stuff. They were amazing and efficient, and only over their estimate by $100. I have to say, I don't think I will ever be able to move my own stuff again. It felt like some of the best money I ever spent - no U-haul, no tired aching back from hauling 300 boxes up stairs in two different apartments.

Then we kicked around San Francisco for a couple more days, doing a few more "last" things. We took one last drive down the coast to Monterey and back. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and it rained for most of the trip - the first rain we've seen since March. But, it still brought back a lot of good memories. Our trips up and down the CA coast were some of our favorite times. Then we headed to the airport on Monday and hopped on an airplane with one way tickets. It was really weird, and I don't think it really sunk in that we weren't coming back.

On Tuesday, we took a peek at an apartment with the broker that we've been working with (the rental market in NY is so crazy, you use a broker to find a place, just like if you were buying a house in any other city in America) and decided that it would be PERFECT! And that afternoon we signed a lease. Hooray!! The last piece of the puzzle fell into place. The one drawback is that the apartment wouldn't be available until November 1st because they were going to gut renovate the place. New kitchen, new bathroom, new floors - yes, they can complete that in two weeks. So, until then, we'll be staying in short-term vacation rentals all over the city. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, we stayed in a room in an apartment out in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Which is a neighborhood that is just starting to be gentrified. We went to an amazing restaurant for dinner last night called Roberta's pizza. I can already tell that we are going to eat a LOT of good food here, and I am going to have so start seriously exercising again to facilitate that!

Then today, we moved to an apartment in the East Village in a really great location. It's just mind-boggling here, the sheer number of restaurants. You walk down the street, and they just keep going and going and going. We walked down 2nd Ave tonight from 13th st. to 2nd St. and there was no break - the entire way was lined with restaurant after restaurant. In San Francisco, it's more like you'll have 3 blocks of restaurants, and stores and stuff, and then it will break for awhile, and then you'll have a few more blocks of commercial stuff. But this is uninterrupted food, I'm telling you. It's so dangerous - how do you ever decide where to EAT!!?? I could see myself spinning my wheels for hours and hours of indecision. So many choices, so little time.

Anyway, on Saturday we move to Williamsburg, in Brooklyn for 6 days and then next Friday, we come back to the East Village apartment for 2 days and then we spend our last night in a nice hotel (as a treat) and then we move into the apartment. Whew, I got tired just typing that. I start work next Monday, and it's going to be really nice to stop being so transient and actually settle down in our own place. But so far, all this moving around has been giving us a really nice overview of the City, both Manhattan and Brooklyn.

On Wednesday we spent some time just hanging out and walking through Central Park. Today we checked out the High Line park - a new park built on the old elevated train platform - and a couple of galleries. Tomorrow I think we'll head to an art museum and then do some shopping. Both Neil and I need winter coats. It's already colder here than it ever gets in San Francisco and we don't really have any winter clothes left - there's no point in keeping them when the temperature never goes lower than 50 degrees.

And I have to say I am in HEAVEN with the weather here. It's October, and it feels like OCTOBER! It's FALL!! Finally, a SEASON!! It's crisp and cool and there is just a smell in the air that feels exactly like Portland. I just feel like I'm home.

I'm really nervous about starting work next week - all new jobs suck for the first few weeks, meeting all the people, learning the new job, the new politics. No fun. Hopefully it will go fast, though, and I can get into the swing of things really quickly.

So, that's our first few days in New York - already a whirlwind of activity and food! We are both exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. So here's to a good night of sleep and being ready to head out on the town again tomorrow!

New York, new york...

Wow, I'm really out of practice at this. Things have been kind of out of control here for the last few months. First up was the audit, and even when you know exactly what you're doing, it still takes two months to prep and complete the stupid thing. And I'm kind of a control freak when it comes to doing work (something I need to work on), I don't trust anyone else to do it right, and so I end up taking the whole project on myself. Which really isn't smart and at some point, just isn't going to be feasible anymore. So that was July and August. And then my sister had the cutest baby EVER (please see proof below) which, of course, required a visit to meet said baby. 

And then, I came back to San Francisco for two days, and jetted off to an interview in New York, because - holy cow it's time to start applying to jobs now - AHHH!! Said interview went poorly, I didn't get a great feeling about the job for numerous reasons, and so I told them I didn't think the position was a good fit. Back to the drawing board, so I thought. Then they called me a day later, made me tell them why I didn't think it was a good fit, and proceeded to convince me that it was a good fit, and so I negotiated salary and took the job. So I have a job, YAY! Which is really great news, because if you don't have employment, you have to have a guarantor to get an apartment - a guarantor that makes 80x the monthly rent. Which basically meant that I'd basically need my whole family to line up and co-sign on our lease. Not an attractive idea.

 So, it seems like we've been waiting FOREVER to move, and now all of a sudden everything has to happen in 10 seconds. I've lined up the movers, booked our one-way tickets to New York on October 18th, along with the doggies and I'm heading back to New York next weekend to try and find us a place to live. And then I start work on October 25th. Holy cow, the wheels are starting to spin a little out of control. I'm hoping that something doesn't fly off the tracks!

I will leave you with the second of many, many more Maggie pictures to come:

Summertime or bust

We are heading home to Portland tomorrow for a week-long extended vacation. This is the longest period we have been home since we arrived in San Francisco and I can't WAIT. Notice how I said we were heading "home". Our house is in San Francisco, but home will always be Portland. Or somewhere in the PacNW!

Festivities will include two weddings, a visit with Neil's family with a beach-day outing, lounging in the hammock, grilling steak, eating farm-fresh eggs, lounging down at the lake, possibly some canoeing, hiking, camping at Swift Reservoir, feeling warm grass on my bare feet, bocce ball, horseshoes, a night at the Kennedy School, dinner at Screen Door, Portland favorites (Lucky Lab, Powell's books, 23rd st.), Craft Brewfest, Blue Hour happy hour, visits with friends, hanging with my nephew, and most of all - BASKING IN SUMMERTIME.

It will have to last me for awhile. Or until August, when my niece will finally be here!

Tea time!

I got a coupon for 1/2 off High Tea at the Laurel Court in the Fairmont Hotel (big, old, fancy hotel on Nob Hill) so Neil and I ascended the hill to rub elbows with the fancy types on Sunday. Unfortunately, we didn't get the memo that you are supposed to dress for high tea. We both showed up in nice enough shirts, and then jeans. Eveyone else had a dress on (because everyone else there was a woman). Once we sat down, we looked okay, but I'm pretty sure the maître d' thought we were lost when we first wandered in.

I've done the whole tea thing with my mom and sister a few times. There is a little farm out in the middle of nowhere up by my parents house called the Pomeroy House that does a traditional afternoon English tea and I just love it. The little tea sandwiches are adorable (and tasty) and the scones are buttery deliciousness and there are always good selections of teas.

This tea was even more of a treat, because it was in the Laurel Court, which is super-beautiful and fancy and every now and then - shhh, don't tell - I like to pretend that I'm fancy. Fancy without a dress, though, of course. Neil was actually very keen on the idea as well - he likes things like little finger sandwiches and I think - shh, don't tell - that he likes to feel fancy every now and then, too.

We forgot to bring a camera, so I stole some images from the interwebs. Here is the Laurel Court, right off the beautiful lobby of the hotel:

We actually sat at the table right in front of that big mirror.

I chose the Fairmont Blend tea, so I'm not really sure what was in it, or what kind of tea it was, but it ended up being really fabulous, with cream and honey. Neil chose the Earl Gray which neither of us really liked that much - it was very flowery and the floral scent before I took a sip just almost made me a little bit nauseous. Interestingly, every other table around us had really pretty little silver teapots. We got some dumpy old ceramic teapots. Perhaps it was the jeans? I'm sure the tea tastes the same no matter what it is served in. The tea leaves are loose in the pot, and so they had this little silver strainer that sat on top of the teacup, and you pour the tea through it to catch any stray leaves. Then there was a precious little silver cup that the strainer sat in after you were finished with it.

After our server brought our teapots, he brought out our little tray of teatime treats. Isn't it beautiful?

There were five different types of tea sandwiches. Here was the menu:

Smoked Salmon and Chive Cream Cheese Pinwheel on Rye Bread
Five-Spice Beef Tenderloin and Lady Apple Slaw on Black Olive Baguette
Dungeness Crab and Mango Salad on a Corn Muffin
Coconut Curry Chicken on a Mini Herb Roll
Cucumber and Sonoma Goat Cheese with Sun Dried Tomato Tapenade on Black Walnut Bread

My favorite was the Beef Tenderloin and Neil's was the Crab Salad on the corn muffin. But they were all super-delicious. I didn't try one that I didn't like.

On the next tier were our scones, accompanied by pots of Devonshire Cream (like delicious, richer, whipped cream), lemon curd and pear compote. Just heavenly. I'm not usually a huge fan of lemon curd, but this stuff was magnificent. I did a combination of cream and lemon curd on one bit of scone and I will just say, wow...

By this time, we'd drunk about 6 cups of tea a piece, but we forged ahead onto the last tier, the dessert platter with an assortment of pastries. I don't remember exactly what was presented, but there was a madeline, which was okay, a fruit tart (mine had a blackberry on it that was severely underripe, dampening my experience a bit), a cheesecake tart thing that was excellent, a coffee/tiramisu/bar thingy that I could have eaten a boatload of, and finally, we ended with chocolate mousse in a chocolate cup which was so amazing that I almost cried when it was gone. It melted in your mouth to a luscious, rich chocolate heaven that just slid effortlessly down your throat. Mmm, I'm starting to salivate just thinking about it right now.

It ended up really being a lot of food, and a lot of tea, and they practically had to roll us out of the Laurel Court when we were finished. We browsed around the hotel for awhile afterwards - it has amazing views of the rest of San Francisco, because it sits right up on the crest of Nob Hill - and then we headed back down the hill to return to the commoners.  Because neither of us had cash for a bus fare for Neil, we walked all the way home. It was an unceremonious, fitting return to our regular life.

But for a couple of hours, we were fancy...

Just some pics

The delicious chili that Neil whipped up.

Yummy potato chips (but a bit greasy, as you can see)

A wedding ring that I am working on for my friend Katie. All I have to do now is set the diamonds. eeek. Scary.

Beware of flying pigs

Three things this week:

1. Neil made dinner twice this week. If any of you are familiar with Neil, you'll understand the title of this post and it's relation to this phenomenon. If you aren't familiar with Neil, let's just say that, in the past, it has been much more likely that you would catch a glimpse of a flying pig than eat a dinner prepared by Neil. No more! He is taking on two meals a week from here on out and apparently has been hiding his mad cooking skills from me all these year because his food is GOOD! On Monday he made chili and boy was it yummy. I peeked into the kitchen during the prep work and noticed that he has amazing knife skills - he chops like a pro. I asked him how he learned that and he shrugged and mumbled something about the cooking shows that I watch and that it just seems like common sense.    ? Who is this man?

Last night he tackled tacos and while he wasn't quite ready to make his own tortillas this time, he did whip up homemade Mexican Rice and made his own taco seasoning. Again, with all the chopping involved in this meal, I was blown away by what a good knife-handler he is. He even figured out, on his own, that the chef's knife doesn't work with tomatoes and you need to whip out the serrated knife to cut them properly.  ? Who is this man? Next time, he plans on doing the tortillas as well. And I don't know if it's just because I didn't have to do the cooking, but I swear the food tasted better than when I make it. I also surmised that it could be the fact that I don't measure any more, and he followed the recipe to a T, with measuring spoons and cups in hand. Could be something to this whole "following the recipe" thing.

He's already making plans for next week's meals - pulled pork sandwiches, tortilla soup, orange chicken - the ideas are starting to whirl. I think he's going to find that he really enjoys cooking. He actually thanked me last night for forcing him to do it!

2. I made potato chips last night. Well, actually, the real story here is that I bought a mandoline and I now love it with all of my heart. The potato chips were more of a result of my wanting to slice something, anything, with my new toy. Now that I've sliced, I am dying to julienne so tomorrow we are having french fries. And then maybe some summer rolls, so I can finely julienne some vegetables. Such FUN! But the potato chips were also a lot of fun. I soaked the sliced potatoes for 30-40 minutes, then drained and dried them thoroughly. Then I heated up a tiny pot of oil, about an inch deep because I was running low on oil, and fried like 10 tiny little batches of potatoes. It took forever and after this I would just go to the corner store and buy a huge container of oil because it took SO long. So they turned out super-crispy and nice and tasty, but a little bit oily. I read somewhere that it's better to fry stuff like this in lard, or another fat that is firm at room-temperature, because then when they cool, the fat firms back up. So I'm on the lookout for lard now at the grocery store.

3. Last but not least, I got totally fed up with the bus passing me by every morning, crammed to the brim with people and causing me to be 1/2 hour late to work and bit the bullet and started riding my bike. It's been three days now and I'm feeling pretty good about it. However, there are two downsides to riding a bike in San Francisco - the hills and the wind. The morning commute is a joy because the hills aren't as big in that direction (there's some great downhills) and the wind hasn't started blowing yet. But after work - oh! It's miserable getting home. I ride home on Polk street, and there are 6 blocks with hills between 10-18% grade. Oh that doesn't sound like much, sure... TRUST ME IT'S STEEP. And of course, there's the 18% grade block that my apartment is on so I get all the way to within site of my house and have to make it up one last ridiculously steep hill. And then carry my bike up the stairs to our apartment. Needless to say, I always arrive home wheezing, breathless and sweating like a madman. It's pretty. So the hills are one thing, but it's like God thought we had it too easy, those of us biking in the city, so he added some of the nastiest winds ever to the mix. I'd say that the city averages wind speeds of around 20mph on a daily basis in the afternoons. The windows in our apartment usually rattle from 12:00 on because of the force of the wind. Riding into a headwind going East-West and feeling like you're working so hard only to look down to realize you're in your lowest gear and barely moving is so demoralizing. What's worse is when you sigh with relief as you take a left onto a North-South street and then realize that somehow there is still a headwind!!! Or almost worse, a nasty crosswind that threatens to blow your tires out from under you and pushing you into that car that's driving dangerously close anyways. And of course add to the mix those people lurking in their parked cars and waiting to open their doors into you.

But all whining aside, it's immensly more pleasurable to ride a bike than sit crammed on a hot, humid, smelly bus and I've actually been enjoying myself. Not to mention the fantastic workout I'm getting without having to use any extra time out of my schedule at all. Right now my goal is to ride to work every day but Friday, so we'll see if I can keep it up. Wish me luck and no flat tires!!