Poor Max!

Sorry for the lack of posts this weekend - nothing really exciting happened. We finished painting the fence and ate at two very mediocre restaurants (Mexican and Pizza). We also bought two pieces of exercise equipment - a bowflex for Tommy and an elliptical machine for me and a new TV cabinet (which was unfortunately backordered until JANUARY). Nothing really photo or blog-worthy, although I'm sure I'll have pictures when our new purchases arrive.

Before we boarded Max and Al for our trip to DC, they had to get a checkup at the Vet. We found out then that Max had a pretty bad case of periodontal disease. Apparently, we really should have been brushing his teeth. So today we had to take him back to get his teeth cleaned. I won't even bother telling you how much it costs to clean a dogs teeth, but I was APPALLED! For dogs, if their teeth are bad enough (and Max's were), this is a surgical procedure, requiring anesthesia, shots and all kinds of bad things. Max did just fine and his teeth are now clean, but the he is not a happy camper tonight. He has been doing a lot of sitting on his parent's laps and whining - although we're starting to wonder how much of it is just for attention and pampering. Poor little boy!

Albert, on the other hand, is feeling just fine and wonders why his brother doesn't want to play (yes, he really needs a trip to the groomer as well!) -

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!

More Sightseeing

I know, this post is a little late. I apologize for the lack of news this week, I was absolutely slammed at work. It almost felt like I was back in Dallas at TXU during busy season. Next week should be pretty bad as well, and maybe the following week, but the busy periods are much shorter here. More on work later....

After my request for suggested places to visit in Washington DC, I received suggestions from only one person (thanks, sis!). Saturday morning, as Katy suggested, we set off for the Spy Museum. Great suggestion - it was HUGE, with more information about anything spy related than you could ever take in in a day, but very interesting and very well done. Here's a picture of me in front of the spy museum. Tommy bought me the shirt (I actually really wanted pizza for lunch, but refused to go in a pizza place wearing the shirt :) )

After that, we left DC and headed into Virginia for a quick trip to Mount Vernon, home to our first president, George Washington. Here's Tommy in front of George Washington's actual home:George and Martha Washington are buried right on the grounds of Mount Vernon. Tommy made the comment that he's seen the graves of many famous people in all of his travels, but this was one of the only ones that actually awed him. Not that the grave itself was that special, but it was pretty inspiring to know that someone so integral to our nation's history was buried there and had spend his life walking around those grounds.

After that, it was back in the car for the long drive back to Stamford. I was excited to get to stop at a Chick-fil-a in New Jersey for dinner - there's not one within 100 miles of Stamford. Yum!

Our Nation's Capitol by Night

Work has been surprisingly crazy over the past couple of days in DC. It has been great getting the chance to meet the other people in my group who work here, and they all seem very nice, but it seems like I've been busier than I have since I started in Wilton...which I think will only continue this coming week :(

After work today, Tommy and I grabbed Thai food for dinner and then decided we'd go see the monuments at night. Whoever told us to go at night was definitely right - it was beautiful!

We're planning on spending most of the day tomorrow here before heading back to Stamford, but we're not sure yet what we're going to do. Any suggestions?

Geno's or Pat's?

Late Wednesday afternoon, Tommy and I started the drive down to Washington DC. Although it is only a 5 hour drive, we went through the states of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and finally in to DC - paying tolls in each one just to remind us that we were entering a different state. Under the Katy and Ian rules of state visiting, I guess I can't say that I've been to any of these states if I only drive through. I'm not sure if I buy into that...

Our one stop on the trip was Philadephia. This may sound really silly, but we've heard so much about the competition between the 2 famous cheesesteak restaurants in Philly that we had to try them out for ourselves. Turns out they are right across the street from each other. We tried Pat's first:

For those of us not from Philly, Pat's even provides ordering instructions - we ordered a regular cheesesteak with onions and cheese whiz (had to try it!) - apparently this is a "whiz wit"

The cheese whiz was surprisingly delicious, but we reserved judgement until we walked across the street and tried Geno's


At Geno's we also ordered cheese fries and a birch beer (we didn't know what it was, but its pretty much root beer).

Now I'm sure everyone is dying to know who won. The winner is, unanimously......... PAT's!!

Tommy and I both decided that the key was less onions and putting the cheese whiz on the top instead of on the bun with steak on top. Now we know. (and I just wrote a whole blog entry about cheesesteak!)

Our First Visitors

Today was a busy day at work. I have a lot to get through before we head down to DC tomorrow afternoon (even though I will be working the rest of the week from our DC office). Given how busy the day was, it was so nice to come home today and find Emily and David waiting for me! For those of you who don't know, Emily is Tommy's stepsister and David is her husband. Emily is visiting clients for work this week in Stamford and New York and David was able to come with her to explore NYC. We are so excited that they were able to come visit - even if it was just for dinner. Tommy picked them up at the train station and gave them the tour of our house. For dinner, we took them to South Norwalk to Kazu, our favorite sushi restaurant we've found so far. See how good it looks! (notice also the big steak in front of Tommy in the 2nd photo - he still can't stomach sushi!)-

Unfortunately, my favorite chocolate truffle store in SoNo is closed on Tuesday night, so we didn't get any dessert :( - next time, Emily!

New Fence and New Friends

The title pretty much sums up our weekend. Tommy finished building the fence on Friday afternoon. I must say, I'm very impressed with his fence building skills. Here are some pictures of the construction in-process:

Our neighbor next door is a nice elderly gentleman with a very large garden. Since we've been our building the fence, he's started bringing us goodies from his garden. So far, he's brought us a head of lettuce and a big bag of raspberries - delicious, and so nice of him!

We let the boys out on Saturday morning and they were so used to the leash and being told not to run away that they both just sat on the first step of the stairs until we let them back in. They seem to be getting the hang of it now, though:

I spent most of the day today painting the fence. I'm still covered by drops of white paint and not quite finished with the fence, but its getting there.

As for the second part of the title, last night, we were invited to dinner by John and Emilee Katzer. John is originally from Kansas, but has been up here in Wilton in the same program I'm in for the past 2 years. I met him a few years ago at a Deloitte Energy Conference and he has already been a big help providing advice during our house hunting trip and as we settle in up here. Also joining us were George and Nicole Fackler, Mindy Montgomery and Kristen Gunn, all of whom are either in the MDP program or have spouses who are. As many of you know, I'm the only MDP in my group starting this year, so it was so good to get the chance to meet so many people with whom we have so much in common. We're looking forward to getting to know them better and thinking about planning a dinner at our house sometime in the not-to-distant future!

On the horizon for the upcoming week, a visit from Emily, Tommy's stepsister, on Tuesday and a trip to Washington DC at the end of the week. We'll keep you updated!

The Big 3-0!

Well, I can no longer say I'm in my twenties. Yesterday was my 30th birthday - is that really possible?!?! Anyone who knows me knows that I love birthdays, so the thought of spending my 30th in a new place away from my family and friends was not a happy prospect for me. Much to my surprise and delight, it ended up being a wonderful day! First of all, I got so many messages and phone calls from friends and family around the country - thanks to everyone for the messages - they made my day!! My sweet hubby even organized a "conference call," getting together so many of my friends, family and co-workers from back in Dallas and Houston on one phone line to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. It really meant a lot to me that everyone took the time to call in together - it was awesome! (OK, so I may have cried after everyone got off the phone - it was that special to me!)

I left work a little early because we had dinner reservations in New York at Babbo at 7:30. For those not familiar with the restaurant, it is Mario Batali's first New York restaurant and apparently one of the hardest places in New York to get reservations. We had tried to get reservations here for our anniversary, but it was full when we tried. We were told by the hostess that they take reservations 1 month in advance, so on June 9th at 10am when the lines opened both Tommy and I started calling. After 20 minutes of busy signals and redials for both of us, I finally got through and secured us a 7:30 reservation on July 9th. Whew!

Needless to say, our expectations were high. We're learning from our mistakes and took the subway this time instead of trying to get a cab. Our only mistake was getting off at 14th St. instead of 4th, but the restaurant was near 8th, so it really didn't matter. We even arrived early! Here's a picture of the restaurant:

After reading all of the reviews, we settled on the 8-course pasta tasting menu, with accompanying wine flight. They gave us a menu so we could follow along - here it is:

The meal was absolutely amazing - we've debated about our favorites, but with little success. I really liked the black squid ink pasta with peas and parmigiano reggiano. Suprisingly, Tommy really liked the stuffed pasta with beets and ricotta. Actually, we loved them all. They even substituted the first dessert for one with no chocolate especially for Tommy. Here's a picture of us at the restaurant. Notice that this was the dessert course - I think Tommy is already so full he can't keep his eyes open :)

(by the way, Grandma Rose, if you look very closely, you'll see that Tommy is wearing a shirt you gave him for Christmas and I am wearing a necklace and bracelet that used to be yours. They matched perfectly!)

All in all, a very nice birthday, even if I am 30. Thanks to everyone who made it so special. Special thanks to Caroline and Jonathan for the beautiful flowers - such a nice surprice! This is what they looked like:

The fence is in progress...more to come about that this weekend. Hope everyone has had a great week! Tomorrow's Friday!!

The Big Apple!

One of the most exciting things about living in Stamford is that we're a mere 45 minutes by express train away from Grand Central Station. The train station is only about 5 minutes from our house, so it's a really easy trip. So far, we've taken the trip into Manhattan 3 times.

1. June 12th - Our 4th anniversary

We celebrated our 4th anniversary by taking the train in to the city for dinner. Our destination - Mesa Grill - Bobby Flay's flagship restaurant. We had a 7:15 reservation and arrived in the city at 6:45 - plenty of time right? This is when it becomes blatantly obvious that we are NOT New Yorkers. We needed to get from Grand Central Station to Park Avenue at 15th St., about 30 blocks. We decided we would just take a cab - easy, right? We start walking...and walking...and walking...apparently this is NOT the time to be looking for a vacant cab on Park Ave., or we don't know where to look. 30 blocks later, 15 minutes late and with blisters from walking 30 blocks in REALLY high heels, we arrive at Mesa Grill. Luckily for us, the food does not disappoint. We both have margaritas - mine is a hot pink cactus margarita - pretty good actually! Tommy gets a steak and I have their signature pork chop with a delicious sweet potato tamale. Finally, some cherry cornbread pudding for dessert - YUM! The best part - the subway station is a block from the restaurant and Grand Central Station is a 2 minute subway ride from there. Now we know :) ...

2) June 28th - Superheroes and Macarons

Last weekend, Tommy and I decided we wanted to see an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum entitled "Superheroes - Fashion and Fantasy." The exhibit discussed the parallels between fashion and comic book characters and how they both reflect the prevailing sentiments of society at a given point in time - very interesting. So we spent several hours of our Saturday wandering around the Met - pretty cool. On our way to the Met, we stopped at a French Bakery and restaurant, Payard. I had been craving some French macarons since my friend Catherine introduced me to them during our last trip to Paris, and I hadn't been able to find any...until now. For those who are not familiar with them, French macarons are different from the American coconut macaroons - they are little sandwich cookies that are crispy on the outside and filled with different flavors of cake and filling. Here's what they look like:

July 4th - FIREWORKS!

While we're this close, Tommy and I figured that seeing the Macy's 4th of July fireworks show in New York is something that we should definitely do. We planned a few things well, and would change a few things if we were to go again, but definitely glad we did it.

So they set off fireworks on several barges in the East River and around Manhattan. The shot down the FDR freeway that runs by the East River for a few hours for the fireworks show. We decided to watch from there. Here's one of the barges, directly in front of our spot on the FDR:

We also got a pretty cool view of the fireboat that rode down the river:

Yes, it was rainy, but we came prepared with chairs, umbrellas, raincoats and food. We even arrived early enough to have a place to set our chairs (around 7pm for the 9:30pm show)

It's a good thing we got there early because, right before the show started, the FDR looked like this:

So are you ready for the lessons we learned? 1) While it was cool to see the fireworks from Manhattan looking out on the East River, next time we might try Roosevelt Island, or Brooklyn, or somewhere you can get a view of the fireworks with the Manhattan skyline in the background. 2) Watch out for roadsigns!

Despite the things we might do differently next time, we had a great time and saw some beautiful fireworks. Happy 4th of July!!

Getting to know Connecticut

So we've been here almost a month - what have we done so far? Here are a few things:

1) Ate white clam pizza at the famous Frank Pepe's pizzeria. The original location is in New Haven near Yale University, but we went the Fairfield location, closer to us. In case you were wondering, here's what a white clam pizza looks like - its actually really good!:


2) We spent one Saturday afternoon walking around Greenwich, CT. Greenwich is one of the wealthiest towns in Fairfield County and the main street in Greenwich is filled with all sorts of high-end restaurants and stores - most of which we cannot afford :) It was a beautiful day and we ate some sandwiches in the park and just wandered around. I'm excited to go back and have a butter-sugar crepe at the "creperie" we found while we were there!

3) We're starting to discover local places to eat, shop etc. There's nothing to exciting about the local grocery store, CVS pharmacy, Home Depot etc., but we've found some interesting places

• Stew Leonard's - the self-proclaimed "World's Largest Dairy Store." The feel is very similar to Central Market, not quite as high-end, but we still think Central Market stole the store design from this place. Just to be different, there are farm animals to pet outside the store and several dancing cow displays throughout the store - like this one

We tried our first lobster rolls from Stew Leonard's - delicious! Also delicious from the World's Largest Dairy Store - ice cream!

• Chocopologie - a yummy chocolate truffle store in South Norwalk. My new favorite truffle - caramel sea salt - amazing! They have all sorts of interesting flavors like Raspberry Peppercorn, Marigold, or Blood Orange Chili. If you watch food network, you may remember the truffle battle on Bobby Flay's "Throwdown." The owner of this store, Fritz Knipschildt beat Bobby Flay in a landslide. I can't wait to go back to try their crepes!
  
• Another very exciting store in South Norwalk - a dutch store, complete with chocolate sprinkles!! (for those of you who don't know, I've eaten toast with chocolate sprinkles ever since my family lived in Holland when I was young - and only the Dutch chocolate sprinkles will cut it!)

4) As most everyone knows, Tommy and I love to go out to eat. So far, we've found a sushi place and a thai restaurant we love in South Norwalk. We've found a great hole-in-the-wall pizza place in South Stamford and a really good pizza place for take out right down the street from our house. We had a so-so experience at the diner down the street, but the bagels at the shop next to the diner are great! The thing we have yet to find and are starting to doubt we will find - good TexMex food. One place even served my fajita meat with Buffalo wing sauce :( I miss Lupe's and Chuy's!!

5) Other interesting notes - dry cleaning is expensive, the Target store in downtown Stamford has a pay parking garage and multiple stories, and everyone in Connecticut runs red lights!

There are many other exciting places nearby for us to explore. Come visit and we'll explore together!

Moving In - Our New House

May 29th, 2008 was the day the movers arrived at our new house with all of our worldy possessions. I was at training in Denver, so Tommy supervised the unloading. Here's a picture of the packed truck when it arrived - our cars were parked under all of our stuff with just a few inches to spare - scary!!

By the time I got home, Tommy had all of the kitchen unpacked and a pantry built in the closet in the kitchen where the landlord used to have a washer and dryer! We're mostly unpacked now - still some work to do on the third floor and in the guest bedroom, but its starting to feel more like home. Here are some photos:

This is Tommy's handiwork in the pantry. Pretty good, isn't it?

The dining room

The kitchen
The living room

Tommy would be the first to tell me that no picture of the living room would be complete without a picture of his pride and joy, our new 58" plasma. It obviously needs a new stand, but here it is - Tommy put Max in the picture for scale :)

Rounding out the downstairs is Tommy's office. Austin ordered us a desk from DirectBuy last week and we still need to buy a couple of new bookshelves, but I added the pictures to show some more of Tommy's handiwork - he made this desk while we're waiting on the new one to arrive. He's also very proud of his four monitors - apparently you can never have too many!

Heading upstairs - they are steep and Albert was having trouble - we saw him fall down 3 or 4 steps several times :( We bought some carpet floor tiles and cut them in half and Allie has no trouble now!

Our bedroom and master bath. The curtains are new - all of the windows made it REALLY bright and we were waking up with the sun at 5am.

The guest bedroom isn't quite ready, but we promise, if you tell us you're coming to visit, it can be ready in a flash!

Finally up to the 3rd floor. Tommy has installed the projector and screen, so the media room is up and running. We're thinking about turning the other side into a workout area with a couple of pieces of equipment and some weights. We've decided we need to get some exercise, but we'll see if it really happens.

Our next project is to put up a fence in the backyard so the dogs can finally run around. We ordered all the materials this weekend and they should be delivered later this week. Check back for updates!