Catching Up

I'm going to start out this blog entry in a very familiar way - apologizing because it's been so long since I last wrote. We've done a few fun things in the past month, but it seems like every time I think about updating the blog, I'm reading another 10-Q or something equally uninteresting. For those of you that are interested, here are some of the highlights of the past month:

Austin Visits Again

A few weeks ago, Austin was working on a client in Providence, RI and decided to swing by Connecticut on his way home. We're so glad he did! He arrived Friday night and we took him to Colony Grill, our favorite local pizza place. On Saturday, we headed east down I-95 to Groton, CT, home of the U.S Navy Submarine Force Museum and Library. The museum's biggest claim to fame is the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear powered submarine. In the past few months, I have been on both an aircraft carrier, and a nuclear submarine - I feel like I'm starting to be an expert on US wartime transportation!

Austin had been disappointed by the seafood we had in Rhode Island, so Saturday night we took him to a local seafood restaurant I'd always wanted to try, The Restaurant at Rowayton Seafood. The location was great, in a harbor right on the water, and the food was great, too. We'd love to go back in the summer and sit out on the patio! Thanks for the great visit, Austin!

9 to 5

The week after Austin left, I took a trip into NYC on Friday night with my friends, Mindy and Shannon to get dinner and see 9 to 5 on Broadway. We started off with dinner at Whym on 57th St. and 9th Ave. My porcini farfalle (aka. mushroom pasta) was delicious and the desserts we split were amazing (cranberry cheescake and a "smores 'wich). Not bad for a restaurant we picked at the last minute!

I'll admit I was skeptical of the musical before went, but it turned out to me great! The performances were wonderful (including Allison Janney of The West Wing) and the musical itself was so much fun. Supposedly, as it was opening week, Dolly Parton was in the building somewhere, but we never saw her. Oh well. We had a great night and I hope we can have another girls night soon!

Long Lost Relatives

Last weekend, we headed into New York again for dinner on Saturday. This time, we met up with Tommy's cousin, Jennifer, who I have never met and Tommy hasn't seen in over 10 years! Brandi has been trying to track her down for years, and they were finally able to reconnect a few months ago. She lives in Los Angeles now, but was in New York for a few days to visit friends, and we were lucky enough to be able to reconnect. Tommy says she hasn't changed a bit from the fun older cousin he remembers! We went to Rosa Mexicano in Union Square. Yes, it was probably overpriced, but everyone is right, the guacamole made tableside is absolutely delicious! We had a great night and hope to see Jennifer again very soon!

Adventures in New York City

For the first time since we moved here, Tommy and I decided to drive down to Manhattan this weekend. I had taken a car in earlier in the week to give a presentation at Deloitte's World Financial Center office. On our way there, we passed directly by the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum and it was a really easy drive...

Well, its a really easy drive if you don't forget to make a turn. Tommy and I took a very scenic detour past the Bronx Zoo (at least we know where that is, now) and straight through the heart of the Bronx. We're lucky Tommy's phone had GPS, or we'd probably still be in the Bronx!

We finally did make it safe and sound to the Intrepid. The museum is set up inside a huge aircraft carrier (the Intrepid) that is Docked in a pier along the Hudson River. Neither Tommy nor I had ever been on an aircraft carrier before, so it was a pretty neat experience. Up on the deck of the carrier, they had planes set up, and the view of all of the planes on the aircraft carrier with the skyscrapers of Manhattan in the background was a cool view! Here are a few pictures:

Next, we headed to our third Borough of the day, Brooklyn. Many food guides, including my Zagat guide, have voted DiFara's Pizza in Brooklyn the best pizza in New York (and therefore, the best in the world, said one website!) for years in a row. We had to try it. Our drive to Brooklyn was as successful as our morning venture, and after a scenic tour of Manhattan, we made it to Brooklyn.

DiFara's is truly an experience. It is a tiny, hole-in-the-wall place with maybe 4 tables. The only person making pizzas is a ninety-something year-old Italian man, Domenico DeMarco who has been making pizza there since it opened in 1964. The process is the same with every pie: he stretches the dough into shape, spoons on the tomato sauce, and adds the cheese - both regular and fresh bufala mozarella, and drizzles it with olive oil. It goes in the oven - this guy must have hands of steel because I swear he can reach right into the oven and move all those pizzas around! When it comes out of the oven, he snips fresh basil on top of the pie, sprinkles it with more olive oil and some type of grated cheese.

The process isn't quick, Mr. DeMarco hand-makes every pie while his daughter takes orders, decades-old Italian music playing in the background and hungry patrons crowding around the counter. We waited about an hour for our 2 slices of regular cheese pizza at 3:30 in the afternoon, but it was worth it! Another true New York experience!

Cupcakes!

I feel a little silly writing a whole blog entry about cupcakes, but these were some GOOD cupcakes!!

Earlier this week, Tommy and I were planning to go into the City this weekend and I decided I wanted to find the best cupcakes in NYC (I have tried Magnolia Bakery a few times and haven't been overly impressed). I settled on Crumbs (just click the link and you'll understand why!). Friday afternoon I was showing Tommy the website when I made a very dangerous discovery - they have a location right here in Stamford, on my way home from work, no less.

Obviously, we had to immediately head to the cupcake store. I got a Caramel Apple cupcake and a Devil Dog cupcake (chocolate cake witha hostess cupcake-like filling). They were both delicious! Of course they were sweet, but not as overly sweet as I was thinking they would be. Here are a couple of photos. Tommy took the very artistic one of the Devil Dog cupcake!

What flavor should I try next?!?

Random

Just to catch everyone up, here are a few things that have happened in the past few weeks:

We found an amazing hamburger place in Greenwich - Burgers, Shakes and Fries. Its a definite hole-in-the-wall, and tiny, but the burgers (on Texas toast) were delicious. We'll be back!

Last Saturday, for the first time in a while, I didn't have to work. Still being Texans, we wanted to find something to do that did not involve being cold - which is hard to do in Connecticut in the winter! We finally decided on the Norwalk Aquarium. No, it probably wasn't the best aquarium in the world, but it wasn't bad for South Norwalk. We saw an Imax show, took a 3-D "ride" (skip it), and saw sharks, harbor seals, otters, African penguins, a huge sea turtle and all sorts of indigenous marine life - the Norwalk Aquarium focuses on the sea life in the Long Island Sound. I'm not so sure that we'll be headed back any time soon, but it was a good way to spend a cold winter day. We stopped by the Dutch store in SoNo and picked up some chocolate sprinkles, cheese and stroopwafels - yum!

Monday was another snow day - we got about a foot of snow. I'm really hoping its our last of the season - I'm ready for spring!!

This Friday, we headed back down to SoNo to meet up with some other MDPs who work in another group up here in Wilton. We started off with drinks at the Gingerman, dinner at Burger Bar, and finished up with an interesting 80's and 90's cover band at O'Neill's. It was so nice to get the chance to meet some more of the MDPs - I hope we get the chance to do this more often!

The other excitement of the weekend was my new vaccuum cleaner!! I know, this is a definite sign that I'm really getting old. We got a new Dyson DC 25. My old vaccuum had gotten to the point where I think it spewed out more dust than it picked up sometimes, so this is a definite upgrade!

On Tuesday, I'm headed in to NYC to give a presentation about the SEC and its review process to a group of college students. Wish me luck!!

Top 5

Yes, I have been deep in the middle of busy season. That's my excuse for the lack of blog entries lately. That and the fact that not much exciting has been happening. Trust me. Here's the top 5 (in no particular order):

1. Aunt Karen visits

The weekend after we returned from Copper Mountain, we were lucky enough to get a visit from Aunt Karen, who had a conference in Princeton, NJ and decided to head to the Northeast a little early. Luckily, work was just starting to get busy, so I wasn't working the whole time. We picked her up at the Newark Airport on Saturday afternoon and, after nearly running out of gas on the New Jersey Turnpike, we made it back to Connecticut. We watched a little basketball and then headed to Barcelona in South Norwalk for tapas for dinner.

The next morning, Aunt Karen and I headed in to New York City to try to catch a Broadway show. It was my first time to visit the TKTS ticket booth and I was so glad we were able to get tickets for the show Aunt Karen wanted to see, Mamma Mia. We did some shopping along Broadway and then headed to the show. Our seats were only a few rows from the stage and the musical was great! Tommy had etouffee waiting for us when we got home - YUM!

On Monday I had to work, so Aunt Karen spent the day wandering around Greenwich and we took her to Colony Grill for pizza for dinner. Tuesday morning I drove her to Princeton for her conference and managed not to get lost once!!

2. It snowed...

several times. This is winter in Connecticut after all. I got to stay home for one snow day, which was nice even if I did still work all day. We also had one very comedic morning that involved me getting Tommy's car stuck in the ice on our driveway and not being able to get back to the house on the ice in my dress shoes. Our driveway was literally like a skating rink! I ended up calling Tommy from the driveway, waking him up, and making him come get me from his car. He carried me to my car, fell trying to scrape the ice from my windshields and somehow managed to get my car out of the driveway. His was stuck until I could bring home something to de-ice our driveway after work. Strangely enough, the roads were fine...

3. Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was very low key around our house. We will eventually go have a fancy Valentines dinner in NYC, just not actually on the 14th. I worked pretty much all day, making time for a trip to the grocery store and dinner. Tommy was wonderful! He sent roses to my office on Thursday and got me some cute PJs. He also made our WHOLE Valentines Day feast by himself - steak, lobster, caprese salad and homemade tres leches cake. It was delicious!!

4. I worked...

Of course. I've worked every day since Aunt Karen left - I think today was day 25. It's no fun - and I know I've never read so much about so many utility companies in my life. Fortunately, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is why I'm taking a little time to blog. I may even get a day or 2 off this weekend!!

5. A chimp went crazy in Stamford, Connecticut

This is actually a very sad story. A woman's pet chimp went crazy and attacked her friend, almost killing her. She's still in critical condition. However, it must have been a very slow news day because this story was all over the national news - the Today Show, CNN, just to name a few. No, we did not know her and I'm not sure where she lived. Stamford is small, but not quite that small. I was amazed by the number of friends and family that asked me about the poor chimp that day.

There you have it - January and February at the Mhire house. Oh, and Tommy has also played lots of computer games. Hopefully work will slow down soon and I'll have more to write about. Remember to plan your visits!!

Our Winter Getaway

After 2 years of Tommy heading off on January ski trips without me, my busy season finally starts a little later up here in Connecticut, so I was able to join him. We headed to Copper Mountain, Colorado with Austin, Travis, Chrissy and some of their family for a long Martin Luther King weekend.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and spent the rest of the day settling in to the condo, picking up our skis and getting groceries for our stay. We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Frisco. Yes, even the Mexican Food in Colorado is much better than Connecticut!

Here's the view of the slopes from the balcony of our condo:

We headed out to the slopes bright and early on Friday morning. We had absolutely beautiful weather the entire time - 25 to 35 degrees, sunny and not too windy. I was a little nervous at first because I hadn't been skiing in quite a few years, but I don't think its something you forget too easily. After a fun day skiing, we headed over to the tubing hill. We slid down the mountain for about an hour before heading back to the condo for shish-kabobs. So fun!

Saturday was another full day of skiing. For dinner, we headed to CB Grill, a fancy restaurant with steaks, fish and game. I had the fish special and Tommy had the tournedos of beef - sorry, no pictures!

Tommy was feeling pretty under the weather on Sunday, so we skiied just long enough to make it to the top of the mountain for a group photo. I did head out on my own for one run - just to be able to say that I'd skiied a black run on the trip! Here are some photos we took. Poor Austin hurt his ankle earlier in the day and couldn't make it up there.

We had Mexican food on our last night in Copper Mountain, as well. Unfortuately, Tommy wasn't feeling up to going, but I'm sure I ate enough for both of us.

After a 4 hour delay on the flight home that included circling LaGuardia for a few hours and flying to Hartford to refuel, we finally made it home. Busy season is upon me once again - wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

OK, so I know I'm a little behind on my blogging. It isn't quite February yet, so I'm not a month late yet. I would like to say that I'll be better about updating the blog, but with busy season upon me, I'm not so sure I'll have either the time, or the interesting material to write about, but I'll try.

Our New Year's celebration was quiet this year. We briefly considered heading in to New York City to celebrate with the millions of other crazy people at Times Square, but when the snow started to fall on New Year's Eve and we read that it would feel like almost zero degrees (farenheit!) when the ball dropped, we decided to catch it on TV instead. A wise choice, I think.

The snow fell pretty much all day long. Here's a photo looking out of our house early in the day:

I think Tommy has decided that he kind of likes to shovel snow - and he's getting to be an expert! He even shovels our neighbor's part of the driveway, what a nice guy!

We did manage to make it to the grocery store and cooked a yummy New Year's Eve meal. Traditional Swiss cheese fondue with bread and apples, French Onion Soup, Spinach Egg and Bacon salad, champagne (of course) and a delicious Bananas Foster for dessert. I think every dish in the kitchen was dirty, but it was worth it!

We even managed to stay up until midnight and ring in the new year watching all of the very cold people in Times Square in our very warm living room. Who can tell what other adventures 2009 have in store for us, but I'm excited to find out!