New Blog Address

I've made the swap to Wordpress. You can get to the blog now at: www.nyclivingat36000feet.com.

In a Land Far, Far Away

A few weeks ago I hit the big 3-2. 32 years old. Still clinging to the early thirties! In celebration Brandon and I went on a 5 day trip to southern Germany. I adore Germany. After Spain it is my favorite country. The people are nice, the scenery is beautiful, and it has so much history. We flew into Frankfurt and took the train over to Wurzburg for the night. We didn't do much there as we were dog tired and left early to go on down to the medieval/touristy city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We were there on my actually birthday and celebrated with a lovely visit to the medieval torture museum where we learned about many horrible, horrible things. Such a great birthday. :-)

Don't worry, we escaped.

Then we journeyed on down to Munich were we stayed for the last 3 nights. We took a trip down to see the fairy tale castle Neuschwanstein. It truly was a fairy tale. I highly recommend you put it on your life's list of things to do.

Fairytale. 

 

We spent a day walking around Munich enjoying all that the city had to offer. Yummy beer and brats for one thing. I was even able to try honey wine. Yes, wine made from honey. It was tasty. We went to the park which is one of the biggest city parks in the world. But what makes this park cool is that there is a river that runs through it (no Brad Pitt though) and at one end a wave is created so there are people that come there to surf! It was super fun to watch these guys surfing on a river wave.

Hanging ten.

 

We also went up to the BMW factory but weren't able to take a tour because we went on a holiday. We'd already been turned away from the Deutches Museum because of the holiday. But the lobby of the BMW place was neat and it was right by the Olympic park.

Very cool office building. 

For $100 you can go climb on the roof!

Beautiful, huge park.

Main square in Munich. 

Now that we are back home we plan to stay here for a little while. No trips planned anytime soon just working and enjoying NYC. I've also been dealing with some fatigue (one reason there was no post for awhile) and joint pain. Turns out I have rheumatoid arthritis! Just a mild case the doc says but still, it's something that is effecting everyday life. Working on getting it under control and adding work outs back into my life. Looking into starting hot yoga too. There is a place across the street so I really have no excuse.
Do you or someone you know have RA or go to hot yoga? Any tips or advice? Please leave a comment if you do!

Farmer Frannie

I have been slowly turning into my father. I don't know how it started, or when but I've been noticing it a lot lately. At first it was just how I wrapped a napkin around my cup, so that the condensation didn't get on me, yuck. Then it was how I neatly arrange my food on my fork before each bite. It's important to chew people! But my latest discovery came the other day when I look up from some internet searching and saw that two hours had gone by while I researched....vegetables. Yes, I'm becoming a "farmer." If you can call 3 long pots gardening. My dad on the other hand, has planted a garden for years. A HUGE garden. I remember as a kid dreading summer when my dad would come up the hill with bags and bags of green beans that needed to be broke. Yeah, I'm from the south. I hated it. Maybe it was because I didn't really like green beans that much. He also had a lot of corn too, that wasn't as bad. But I enjoy a good ear of corn. Anyways, my garden will not be having beans, or corn.

Getting ready

 What it will have, hopefully, are tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and broccoli. Also some herbs: mint, basil, oregano and rosemary. It turned out to be pretty easy to get what I needed to start my garden with. A trip to Home Depot and $80 later I was set.
I felt like I was in 5th grade again as I put my little seeds in the dirt to magically appear in 6-21 days.

Only 3 days later!

 I was elated to see a few sprouts just 3 days after planting! Woo hoo! I hope its a sign of things to come. Brandon laughs at me cause some times I just sit and look at the plants, as if I am going to see them grow.

Grow baby, grow!

 Then I left on a three day trip and came back and found this! I was so excited. Who knew it only takes seeds and dirt? Look at those cucumber plants baby! They are the biggest ones on the left. I'm on another three day trip now and can't wait to get home to see them and see if more have came up. It's shaping up to be a delish summer at our house!

I swear they are there.

 I also got two blueberry bushes as well. I'm not to sure how they will do as one looked dead when I got it, but I crossed my fingers and am hoping.










Sticking with my 1950's house wife style I got a washer. Not just any washer mind you, this one you hand crank. For $30 I can do my wash and get an arm work out. Seriously, it works well, you can wash a small load and it costs you nothing! Now I just need the spin dryer to go along with it. Wringing things out by hand is hard! It looks like Little House on the Prairie here.

The Wonder Wash

I can even dry outside!

And a little taste of NYC spring.

Viva Mexico!

I've been MIA lately thanks to work, family stuff and a fun trip to Mexico! (Fun that is until I brought home an unwanted friend that has made me stay close to the baño for a few days. Grrr) Some fun things have happened that I've not done before, like enjoy my first Seder. My boyfriend's family is Jewish, though not devout, but enough that they celebrate the holidays, with food of course, which is lucky for me because his mom makes this big meal complete with Matza, Brisket, (yes, I'm thinking of Howard too) and Gefilte Fish which I kindly passed on. The extended family comes over. There is eating and drinking. You go home full and happy; not unlike my family gathering in Tennessee. No gefilte fish there though, although there is the equaling disgusting innards. Ick. After the lovely passover dinner it was back to work on a really nice four day trip where I did some damage at the Orlando Outlet Malls, it's not just about Mickey down there folks!

Ready for the party!

Then back to the fellas parents for a birthday bash for his dad's 60th birthday! About 50 people packed their house on Long Island for a night of reverier. There was even an impromptu dance party, for one song, in the living room.















The next day we left for a 4 night stay in Playa del Carmen with his immediate family and significant others to continue the birthday celebration.  We stayed at an all-inclusive resort, my first time at one, called The Royal. It was really, really nice. It was adults only so no kids were spotted for 3 full days!

View from our balcony.

Fun towel art!

 What a lovely 3 days of lounging,
sipping tropical cocktails, eating, and playing in the ocean. A few of us brought back an unwanted stomach friend, but other than that the trip was a smashing success!









Now that we are back in NYC spring has finally arrived! Check back soon for my next post on spring time fun here at the house. It's a flash back to the 50's as I try to garden and "hand" wash clothes!

On the way to Cozumel!

Erin go Bragh

Folks, lately, I have been working like a dog, like a dog! It has been insane. Short nights and long days. It really needs to be the other way around. But that's a topic for another day. Right now I want to tell you all about the friendliest people I have EVER met ......The Irish! Oh my, they are so insanely nice. I had the chance a few weeks ago before the slave days started to go to Ireland for the first time. From the moment the people stepped foot on the plane to the moment I stepped off the plane back in NYC I was enchanted by the Irish. Everyone was jolly, had a nice word to say (in that incredibly wonderful accent they have) and wanted to be extremely helpful. I really wish I had had more than 24 short hours there.

In the airport.

 This year Ireland is having a year long celebration celebrating, itself! It's inviting anyone who has Irish roots to come "home" and celebrate them. I wish I had Irish roots.

Hotel Lobby

Come and take your high tea here.

The hotel that we stay at is the Shelbourne. One of the oldest, nicest hotels in Dublin. Famous people have stayed and still stay there. Again, the people are so super nice. When I told the lady at the front desk that it was my first time in Ireland, she whipped out a map and started showing me everything I should do and see. As I explored the hotel everyone I saw, at the spa, the gym, the restaurant, they all offered to give me a tour. So nice! 

I really thought this was a lovely photo.

Dublin Coddle

 I wanted to get some authentic Irish food so I went to a place recommended by the sweet front desk gal, The Hairy Lemon. Weird name, good food. I have a Dublin Coddle. As you can see it's a type of stew. It was very tasty, and a huge portion. I couldn't eat it all. It had potatoes, carrots, celery, sausage, broth and spices. Simple, but yummy.

Walking around Dublin I found it to remind me a lot of Liverpool. I guess they are only separated by a small stretch of water after all. It had a old, industrially feel to it. Add to it the fog and nice people and you get a homey kind of feel. 

Trinity College

 I visited Trinity College, one of the oldest in Europe. I took a peak at the book of Kells, a Latin translation of the Bible. It was nothing special, but the old library that you get to see after was super cool. Some of the books in there looked hundreds of years old, and the spiral staircases were awesome.

Celebrating St. Patty's day week!

Looking forward to my next Irish visit!

NYC Living

I realized the other day that I had been posting about my trips a lot but not to much about our new home. In reality we havn't had a lot of time yet to just relax at home and explore. I worked most of the end of February after we moved in and then we went to visit my family in Tennessee for 5 days at the first of March and now I'm working a lot again. I'm looking forward to being home more soon and enjoying city life. Here are some photos of our home and neighborhood.

The Living Room, with the most awesome throw pillows ever.

Looking out from the hall.

Brandon's office.

Did pretty good making a functioning kitchen. Brandon's dad was awesome, he put up 4 shelves for us which are essential to our kitchen storage.

 

Great for storage. I have a lot of kitchen gadgets.

Caffeine station, growler holder and fruit shelf.

No hall closet, so we had to go vertical.

Since square footage is rare in NYC you have to use your vertical space well. Don't miss my "gym" on the left side there. :-)

Tiny bedroom that kinda fits a queen size bed. That's Fred on the bed, he's my buddy. (Brandon's too, but don't tell him I said that.)

Our one and only closet. Again, note the use of vertical space. There's another shelf above that you can't see.

I took over the closet, poor Brandon got this dresser.

Having 2 bedroom doors is kinda fun.

Sky view from the bedroom!

Beachy bathroom. (We need some t.p.)

Aloha!

Famous "hot doggery" nearby for only $2.50

72nd and Amsterdam

Broadway and Amsterdam intersection.

Best grocery store around.

The line ALWAYS looks like this, see it wrapped around that pole with the statue of liberty poster? But it moves fast.

Amazing bakery that sell softball size cookies. Thank goodness we live on the 3rd floor so I can work off some of those calories.

See? Amazing.

Typical street.

Very famous and old tea shop.

Not so "city that never sleeps" at 3:30 in the morning.

And of course, this is only a block away.