Is it Christmas yet?

The tree lighting ceremony. 7-9pm Nov 29th, NYC

'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
Everywhere you go... There's a tree in the hotel,
One in the park as well, the sterdy kind that doesn't mind the snow".

A few people called us tonight because they happenned to see the tree lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center on TV. I have to hand it to NBC though. They mentioned 'Christmas' throughout the program, "Merry Christmas", "Christmas Tree", was what the TV hosts greeted their audience througout the program. In a day and age filled with political correct nonsense, way to go NBC, good job. However, we couldn't make it out there, we had our own Christmas tree lighting ceremony which happenned to be at the same time. Who needs Christina Aguleria, Al Roker and a 55 degree night in Manhattan? We had sake, scrubs and a seared ahi tuna salad to help ring in the Christmas holiday. Merry Christmas folks. Here's the beginning of our Christmas.

Here's Laurie and the tree right after 9pm.
The tree was lit and she got the first official picture with the douglas fur.

The tree is actually 7 feet tall. Since being in NY, I've been hitting the gym, and I've grown 15 feet.

From our favorite NY city residents, Merry Christmas everybody.

A Southern California Style Thanksgiving

After a harsh NYC November, we headed for the sunny shores of California to give thanks with Laurie's in-laws. So we packed our bags, took the shuttle to JFK and headed for the west coast. We got in late Wed night and headed to the non stop party city known as Santa Clarita, the new place we call 'home' when when visiting SoCal. Although I was born and raised in T-town (thousand oaks for y'all that don't know), my parents now live in the SCV. Sorry we didn't take pics of our thanksving dinner, but it was good. Good to see the family, good to eat the food, and just relax. But everyone knows what thanksgiving's all about. I just want to say it was a good time. Well, Thanksgiving came and went, the next day, Laurie went with Trica to a jean sample sale at 5AM! Black Friday. Well, Patrick and I woke up around noon, picked Laurie up around 2 at Justin and Tricia's place, and headed around LA. One recomendation when reading this blog, it's best read with music, this blog's theme song: how to save a life by the Fray which served as the weekend's theme song. And one last thing, I'd like to introudce to you a new feature to the blog, which I call the "bleature", in this, I reveal top secret stuff, stuff that you might not have known about me.
This week's bleature: my best friend.

Patrick took us around LA showing us the sights, we drove around the south bay, and stopped at this picturesque spot overlooking Manhattan Beach, Hermosa and Redondo. Although hazy, it's still a great site. After hanging out on the coast, we headed inland to 'The Groove", a Disneyland type of shopping area where we experienced a southern californian snow storm. It snowed that night. Those white dots on our clothes and what you see throughout the picture is snow. We got snow in LA before we got it in NYC. LA is always full of surpirses. Oh yea, and that other lovely couple in the picture is my folks. They kindly hosted our weekend and took us all around.

After going around LA all day, what else is there to do but hang out on the famed 'sunset strip' at the Standard, where the likes of Nick Lachey, Paris Hilton and Dennis Rodman are seen to have a drink or two. Ok, well, we didn't make it to Sunset, but we did make it to the next best spot - Margaritas in Santa Clarita where instead of hanging with Hollywood, Laurie Pat and I met up with old west coast buddies (and new to the blog!!!!) Jay and Erica. We cheerzed to good times, good memories, and many more good times ahead. We were in for a long night of...

Drinking...

Dancing... (Get a room Jay and Erica you salsa dancing ringers!)

and macking! Who is Erica's boyfriend anyway?

After a long day of touring LA and celebrating with friends, we headed to the happiest place on earth...

Here's Laurie and I in front of the magic kingdom (how do you make this pic straight?)


Patrick, Tricia, Justin (welcome to the blog newcomers!),
Laurie and myself going down splash mountain - look out!

And that's the weekend folks. Here's me and my best friend, Kobe. Why is it that a dog is man's best friend? I don't know why, but he's a good friend. Happy Thanksgiving folks. We hope everyone had a good time like we did.

New York Eats

Ever since we arrived in New York, Mike and I have been wondering if it will ever live up to San Francisco's yummy eats. Boy does San Francisco have some YUMMY EATS! We've been trying to find a New York version of our favorite restaurants like San Tung and Miki's. However, part of me feels like those are big shoes to fill.

During the first few weeks, we had some really dry chicken teriyaki and some really greasy Chinese food. However, after venturing out a bit more, we found some really yummy places, even though they aren't San Tung or Miki's :)

Doing it New York Style

Mike's new look

Laurie's new look

How does Mike like work?

Although I've answered the question numerous times, I continually get the question. So I decided to document my exciting day which should answer the even more probing question of "what does Mike do all day?"(for those of you from the school of thought that pictures are louder than words, you'll like this blog)...

Mike tcb's. Mike tcb's all day. So what does he do exactly all day, well, here's a small slice in the life of a lowly, CPA... The alarm clock goes off and I'm up and out of bed, and after a bit of grooming...

I'm out the door...

Down at the square, I pick up the needed subway reading material, and what a great headline for the Times that day... Demcorats Take Senate. Finally, our President is checked, and must now reach across the aisle and hopefully push for legislation in a bipartisan fashion. Democracay at it's best, people voiced their concerns, took action, and changed the leadership. Hopefully policy will follow. But, I have to say, what's wrong with California? They complain about health care, a proposition goes on the ballot to fund it, and they shoot it down. People complain about oil costs and our dependence on foreign oil, an initiative goes on the ballot to fund a study on alternative sources of fuel, and it gets shot down too. And all the other props? Are you kidding me? California voters, I'll never understand...

So I pick up my paper and head to my limo...

After a 5 minute ride from Union Square to downtown, I finally get to my building (total travel time = 20 minutes)

I get to the office, and as you can see, I'm already tcb'ing (here's me closing a multi-ka-billion dollar deal, exciting stuff)... This is the front side of my cube, the other side's a lot cooler.

After a long morning, it's time for lunch, me and some colleagues head out and sit by the Hudson River. Gorgeous day, and if you look hard enought, that's the Statue of Liberty in the middle.

and here's the other side of my cube... Great view of mid-town in the background. The Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, they all loom large here in the Big Apple.

And that's it folks. That's my day. Blog to you later......

What does Laurie do during the day?

Now that Mike works all day, I have all this time! So, I've been going to a lot of museums and doing a lot of SHOPPING with money I don't have!

On Monday I went up to Rockefellar Center to walk around and visit the Art and Design Musuem, then ended up buying a coat that I convinced myself that I needed. Tuesday and Wednesday stayed home for fear of buying new clothes.

Today, was an awesome day. I was up and out of the house by 8:15! A first since we've been here :) Had an interview uptown and on my way home passed through Grand Central station. In the afternoon, I had lunch with Dan, my old co-worker from Oracle! He now works for MLB.com (major league baseball.com) where he designs websites for the music artists such as Queen Latifah, Guns and Roses, Keith Urban, etc. After lunch he showed me around the building where he works, The Chelsea Market Building. On the street level, that building is exactly like Ferry Building in San Francisco, lots-o-gourmet food shops. On the upper levels are lots of well-known companies like: The FoodNetwork, The Oxygen Channel, OXO, etc. I was SOOOO excited when I heard that The FoodNetwork was in that building because I HEART THE FOODNETWORK. Dan says that he's seen Alton Brown, Chef Morimoto, and some other famous dudes eating lunch in the shops on the street level...SO COOL!!

Grand Central Station

Union Square Park, 1 block from our apartment

Chelsea Market Building

Shops inside Chelsea Market Building
People waiting in line to see Emeril Live!

Frequently asked questions:

Is it cold here?

The weather here is so freakin random. It rained so hard yesterday that when I left the house for 5 minutes, my shoes and socks and pants cuffs were SOAKED! How can people go to work on days like that? Then today I bundled up thinking it was going to be a repeat of yesterday, but ended up sweating to death in my tights and heavy jacket! The weather today was gorgeously warm with clear blue skies. I seriously don't get the weather here. And I seriously don't know how people don't get sick! HOT, COLD, HOT, COLD. WTF?

Does Laurie have a job yet!?!?!?

I had 2 meetings this morning with MORE headhunters and got some calls this afternoon from them...but they were offering the same 'ol corporate design jobs. I left my old job because it was sucking all of my creative juices from me and moved here in hopes of finding a new, hip design job with a highly creative studio. But how long do I wait? Ok, enough about me...

Central Park

Being in NY, we decided to do a little exploring, eventually we made it to the upper east side, and in the middle of the concrete jungle, we found an oasis, known as Central Park. Walking through the Park, we noticed something you don't really see in San Francisco; with the trees changing from green to red, brown and yellow, and the cool crisp breeze in the air, we discovered autumn. Exhausted from our trek, we took a a break on one of the park benches, and in an effort to capture the beauty and tranquility of the moment, we snapped the below photos (pictures normally found in either holiday inn hotel rooms or on the streets of NYC being hustled by the many street vendors).

chillin in central park,,,it was soooo cold!!!

Still in the Park, with some of thee most highly valued and sought after real estate in the world in the background. For people who have the means to be able to afford a place in front of the park is quite extrodinary. We're talking multi-million dollar 2 bedroom condos, with about 1,000 square feet. Laurie and I are planning on getting one next week.

Alwin, this is for you

Our First Week in NYC

Hi everyone,

We thought that it would be a good idea to have a blog and share with you all our experiences while living here in NYC.

Location:
The neighborhood we live in is called Gramercy Park. The closest subway stop is Union Square (3 short blocks away). Our building is on 17th Street, near 3rd Avenue. We live in a one bedroom apartment, on the 4th floor, of a *charming* walk-up building...meaning there is no elevator and VERY STEEP steps.

So...here's what's happened in the last week:
Arrived to the freezing cold weather on Thursday morning.

Began to fix up our cute little apartment on Thursday...furnishings made possible by West Elm, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and The Container Store...after lugging all our stuff back home, I began to miss my car :(

On Friday, we had our first visitor - Christian, our old roomie, came into town for the weekend. It was just like old times!! Went out that night to a bar in Midtown called PS 450. Totally Sex in the City!! Our bar tab came out to $200 that night...I guess it's hard to keep track when you're drunk...Mike and I started craving junkfood, so we asked a worker at the bar where he recommended. He directed us to The Cafeteria. Yummm, was the food good...mac and cheese, BLT...sooo good. I can't wait to bring you guys there when you visit.



Sunday, we said PEACE OUT to Christian and headed to Port Authority bus station where we caught the FREE Ikea bus shuttle. MAN, do people love Ikea out here. The line for the shuttle was crazy long! The whole trip from our apartment and back took only 5 HOURS! Later on that night, we had dinner at Mario Batali's restaurant, Casa Mono, on the corner of our block..yumm SO GOOD.

Monday, Mike had his first day of work, at American Express.

Popular questions:
How does Mike like his new job?
For the first time in 2 years I like work again. Amex is a great place to work, I get free limo service to and from work, free lunch and I get paid about one million dollars an hour. It pays the bills.

Does Laurie have a job yet?
No, I'm in the process of looking, but in no rush if I can't find one right away :)

living room

living room

bedroom

bathroom

kitchen