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.

Be Safe!

Do you know a lot about Colombia? I clearly don't as I have been spelling it Columbia for, well, forever. That's pretty embarrassing. Thanks Wikipedia for the help. Besides that I really only know that it has been a dangerous place for many years. And they had drug smuggling going on. A friend of mine back in Seattle spent a lot of time in Columbia and only had great things to say about it. I never got the feeling that she felt in danger there. I had heard in the news that there were peace talks in Cuba between the rebels and the government that had went very well and that violence has gone way down. So when I went to Bogota a few weeks ago I really didn't feel like I should feel unsafe there. Cautious, yes, but unsafe no. Apparently, according to everyone else, except my friend in Seattle, I was wrong.
From JFK we fly a 3 day trip to Bogota where we get in to the hotel at about 11pm and then leave the next night on a red eye back home. So you have about 24 hours to explore the area. I had done some research on Trip Advisor on things to do in Bogota, and decided that I was going to do a bike tour, I love bike tours, of the historic area. As it turned out our hotel was quite a ways away from the historic area/downtown. We use to stay closer till some people got robbed and then they moved us to the boonies for safety reasons. So the morning rolled around and I was up eating our free hotel breakfast planning my day. I had been told there was a nice lookout on the mountain where you can see all of the city so I thought I'd do that first and then catch the afternoon bike tour. Well, that plan began to fall apart very fast. First, my debit card didn't work in the ATM. I have never in any of my travels have a debit card that didn't work. I tried two different banks, no luck. I went back to my room and got my other, emergency bank card and tried again, no luck. Finally at the 4th ATM my card worked. By this time I was getting a late start. I stopped at the front desk to ask about getting to the lookout and to downtown. The front desk worker looked at me a little oddly and asked, "You are going alone?" "Yes, why?" "It can be a little dangerous. Be safe," he told me. He got out a map and pointed stuff out. The overlook was only a little ways to the downtown area that I wanted to see so I asked if I could just walk. He looked at me as if I had said, "Would it be ok if I murdered your mother?" "You do not walk!" He told me in a very stern voice. I felt like a child who had been reprimanded by their dad. He looked back down at the map, thought for a moment, looked back and me and repeated it again, "Do not walk!" as if I had been thinking about not following his advice. Taking my chances I asked him why. Horrified, as if I was also going to kill grandma, he told me it was not safe to walk alone. No problem, I thought to myself, I won't walk there.
  Next, I asked him what I could see in downtown. Again he looked at me sternly and said, "Be safe. Downtown is dangerous." So now by this point I was getting a little paranoid, was I going to make it back to the hotel in one piece? I'm no stranger to unsafe places, I even witnessed a back woods drug deal in the middle of nowhere Honduras. But I was getting worried about Colombia. I sucked it up, put on my shabbiest clothes, took off any make up, left on jewelery on and went out. My taxi (I got the horrified look again when I asked about the bus) to the outlook was very pleasant. I was even able to coordinate with the driver that I wanted to be picked up later.

Going up, literally.

I'd been told that I need not feel unsafe at the outlook. A lot
of tourists go there and it is probably the only "safe" place in
Bogota. But I was still very cautious. How beautiful it was!
I didn't realize that Bogota was at such a high elevation, but
it is in the mountains. The cable car ride up to the top was straight up! 

Church at the top.

 Once at the top though it was a breathtaking sight. There was a church up there, which I wasn't expecting. And behind it all you can see are mountains.


On one of the mountains there is a statue

Jesus statue.

of Jesus, sort of like the one on
the mountain over looking Rio. 

Looking on the other side.

 The views were so beautiful and the weather that day great for sightseeing.

Yours truly.

Lots of forest. 

Pretty rugged.

After the mountain I took yet another taxi into downtown, where I was on guard at all times.  I have very few photos because the hotel guy freaked me out so bad that I hardly wanted to stop walking long enough to look at something, let along get out a camera and look like a tourist! I was able to see some fun things like this super cool red and white church, Plaza de Bolivar and the president's house. My adventure with the ATM and time at the outlook made me miss the bike tour. I'll have to try that one next time.

Iglesia del Carmen

Plaza de Bolivar, aka The Birds 2

Very old cathedral in Plaza de Bolivar

President's house, guarded up!

Have you been to Bogota? What do you recommend? Did you feel unsafe?