Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Happy Late Thanksgiving everyone! We were sad not to get to spend Thanksgiving with our families (for the first time ever), but we ended up having a great day.

The day started out early, too early, 4:30 a.m. to be exact! We woke up, dressed in many layers of clothes, grabbed a thermos of coffee or hot chocolate and headed to the train station to catch the 5:48 a.m. train to Manhattan. After decades of watching the parade on TV, we finally got the chance to see the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - LIVE! One of my co-workers, Kathleen and her 2 little girls had stayed overnight in the City, so Kathleen was out on Broadway before 5 a.m. to be sure we had good seats - we were right in front of the barricades on the corner of 56th and Broadway!

It was so much fun to see the parade in person - and to have such great spots! I have a lot of favorite photos, but I'll try to pick a few to post here - I didn't even use the "zoom" on most of these:

We caught a crowded train home around noon, picked up a bottle of wine and our pumpkin bread and headed over to our friends, Stephanie and Doug's house in Fairfield for a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Since we couldn't be with our families, it was so nice to spend the holiday with friends and have a wonderful meal - we had a really great time. Holly and Neil made an amazing meal for everyone - squash soup to start, turkey and gravy, carrots, green beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing and pumpkin and apple pie, pumpkin bread and creme brulee for dessert. Needless to say, no one went home hungry! Here's the group before we ate our meal (starting from the head of the table - Stephanie, Carole, Wissam, Dorothee, Isabelle, Doug, Holly, Neil and Tommy);

After a long, but wonderful day, we headed home in time to watch the Longhorns crush the Aggies (ok, I'll admit that we watched the second half from bed, but I watched my Longhorns until the very end!). Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hello Again

Wow! It's been a long time since I've written my blog. I apologize, but I guarantee you haven't missed much. Work has been frustratingly busy lately and on the weekends, Tommy and I have just enjoyed hanging out around the house and relaxing with the dogs and recouperating after all of our visitors. This weekend hasn't been extremely exciting, but it is really the first time I've had anything remotely blog-worthy to write.

Friday night, after a bad day at work, Tommy and I went to our favorite Thai restuarant in Darien for dinner (mmmmm - peanut chicken!) and finally watched the Sex and the City movie on DVD. We had originally planned to go to the Yale v. Princeton football game in New Haven on Saturday, but the rain had other ideas. Instead, we watched the Texas v. Kansas game on TV (yes, suprisingly, they broadcast that game in CT). Then we headed to Port Chester for "movie and wings" night - we saw Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie. It wasn't as good as the first Daniel Craig Bond movie, but an entertaining way to spend a Saturday night.

This morning I met Mindy, a friend of mine from work, and one of her friends at the Stamford train station and headed into the City. We had brunch at a tasty French bistro on 9th Ave. and then caught the matinee of White Christmas on Broadway. Here are Mindy and I in front of the theater:


No one can believe that I've never seen the 1954 classic movie starring Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney, but I really enjoyed the musical. It was a great way to get into the Christmas spirit! I can't wait to go back to the City when the tree is up in Rockefeller Plaza and the windows of the department stores are decorated for the holidays!!

Austin Visits Connecticut

I've just finished another very long week at work (until I have to work some more this weekend, that is), so I decided to take a few minutes to update my poor, neglected blog while I wait for the trick-or-treaters to arrive. I spent a couple of days in Washington DC this week for training and even managed to give a presentation to the people in my group. I've realized that accountants, in general, are very poor bowlers, but very entertaining to watch :)

We were excited to have Austin come visit us last weekend. He's currently unemployed, in between his job at FedEx Kinkos and his new job at Microsoft and decided to spend some of his time off in scenic Stamford, Connecticut. With all of the work I had on my plate while he was here, I'm afraid I wasn't a very good hostess, but we tried to show him some of the sights. On Friday night after work, we headed down to South Norwalk. I had to take advantage of having someone in town who could eat both sushi and chocolate, so we headed to Kazu and Chocopologie - YUM!

I worked most of the day on Saturday, but we did manage to make it into Manhattan for an early dinner at Mesa Grill.

We even made it home in time to watch the Longhorns narrowly beat Oklahoma State. Hook 'Em!

Sunday we headed to Mystic to visit the Seaport Museum. The Seaport museum is a re-created 19th Century seaside village with a shipyard that builds and restores seafaring boats, many different ships from that era for people to explore, and re-creations of stores that demonstrate the different trades of that time. It was a beautiful fall day and we really enjoyed exploring Mystic. Here we are:

And some views of Mystic:

We ate dinner at a hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurant right outside Mystic. Great lobster rolls, clam fritters, and fish sandwiches!

It was really great to see Austin - I only wish I hadn't had to work quite so much! On another note, I'm starting to realize that I need to buy some more warm clothes ASAP. I've started having to use the ice scraper on my windows and the winter is just beginning - I hear its supposed to be especially cold this winter!

Touring Eastern Connecticut

Once again, I had to work on Friday, so Mom and Dad set off to New York alone. They saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero and Wall Street - by now they are experts at taking the subway and getting around New York City!

We finally slept in a little on Saturday morning and then headed east on I-95 to see some of Connecticut. We pulled off of the road in New Haven to drive around Yale, but didn't stop. Our first stop was a few miles East of New Haven at Bishop's Orchard. We picked out a pumpkin and mum to take home, ate some kettle corn and tried some very interesting fruit wines that they make at the Bishop's Orchard Vineyard. We took home a dry apple wine and a berry pie - Yum!

Next, we headed to another vineyard - Chamard, toured the vineyards and tasted some wines (of course!). Here are Mom and Dad at the Vineyard:

We continued on to Mystic - a cute little seaport town near the Rhode Island border. We arrived too late to visit the Seaport Museum, but drove around the town and stopped at a cute shopping center. I'm sure we'll be back later!

After a long day, we grabbed pizza at Frank Pepe's in Fairfield (white clam, of course!) and headed home to watch the Longhorns beat the Missouri Tigers. Could there be a better end to a great day? Hook 'Em!

Dinner and a Broadway Show

I went to work for a half day on Thursday and then we headed into the City again - this time for dinner and a show. We had 5pm reservations at Otto, another Mario Batali restaurant in NYC. This one is a casual pizza, pasta and antipasto restaurant that is supposed to resemble an Italian train station. We started off with a quarto of wine each - a glass and a half (and a beer for Tommy) and some salami, assorted cheese and roasted peppers for an appetizer. Mom and Dad had pastas for dinner and Tommy and I had pizzas - mine was butternut squash, carmelized onions and smoked mozzarella - sounds strange, but it was delicious. We finished off dinner with gelato and headed off to the play. Here we are at dinner:

We saw Wicked. For those who haven't heard about it, Wicked is the Wizard of Oz, told from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West. Very interesting, with amazing sets and, of course, amazing singing and acting. Tommy even enjoyed it and Dad stayed awake for the whole musical, so it must be good! No pictures allowed during the play, of course, but we managed to get a couple of flash-free photos before the show began:

We walked back through Times Square to Grand Central so Mom and Dad could experience the craziness that is Times Square at night. Here they are:

We arrived home back in Stamford at close to 1am - tired, but happy after a wonderful night!

The Bitlers Take Manhattan!

Mom and Dad have been visiting all week and I've gotten to see so much of New York City and Connecticut! On Tuesday, unfortunately Tommy and I both had to work, so Mom and Dad headed up to the Litchfield Hills region of Connecticut. They visited 3 wineries and explored the countryside. They were not too impressed with the fine wines of Connecticut, but the fall foliage and scenery were beautiful.

On Wednesday, I took the day off of work and Mom, Dad and I headed into New York City for their first visit ever. The weather was great for our walking tour of the city - high of about 70 and sunny, as it has been for almost all of their visit. We started at Grand Central Station, headed up 5th Ave. (stopping at Henry Bendel for some candles and FAO Schwartz for a gift for Evan) and through Rockefeller Plaza. We wandered all around Central Park, including Strawberry Fields to satisfy Mom's Beatles fix:

After Central Park, we headed to Bloomingdale's before stopping for a late lunch at the famous Carnegie Deli. The walls were covered with photos of all of the famous people who had eaten there and the sandwiches were HUGE! Here's Dad attempting to eat his corned beef:

And the 3 of us at lunch:

After lunch, we headed to check out Chelsea Market, of Food Network fame. There were lots of specialty food stores with some very interesting things, but it was not the open air market Dad was expecting. Fortunately, we walked through Union Square on our way back to Grand Central and caught the Wenesday fresh food market there. Tommy cooked roast for us for dinner when we got home - a delicious end to a jam-packed day!

A Cultural Affair - A Hindu-Quaker Wedding

Sunday night we all headed to Seema and Tim's wedding. None of us were quite sure what to expect. Seema is Hindu and Tim is Quaker, so we weren't quite sure how the evening's ceremonies would blend the two cultures. In the end, everyone attending the wedding learned something about another culture - and thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

The wedding and reception were held at the Fruitlands Museum, a failed transcendentalist community turned museum with a gorgeous view of the Massachusetts countryside and bright-colored leaves. The ceremonies began with a meeting of the two families on the lawn, called the "Baraat" in a traditional Hindu weddings, but tailored to this bride and groom because the Groom's family marched in to the sounds of a fiddle and banjo!

Several short cermonies followed, involving the exchanging of garlands by the bride and groom and the exchange of recitations by family and friends:

Following this, we headed upstairs to the Mandap, where the marriage ceremony would be held. It was beautiful - held at sunset overlooking the gorgeous view. The ceremony was administered by the pandit in Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language. However, as many of us had never been to a Hindu wedding, he paused to give explanation of each part of the ritual cermony - very interesting. Here is a picture of the mandap:
After the bride and groom were officially married, we experienced a quaker tradition, the signing of the marriage contract - all who were there to witness the wedding sign the contract, which will hang in the bride and groom's home. Here is the groom's father signing the contract:

And the happy couple:

From there, the party got started. Much to Tommy's dismay, the meal was all vegetarian, a mix of Indian dishes and traditional Massachusetts dishes like butternut squash soup and apple crisp - I thought it was delicious! There was plenty of dancing - from the Indian Bhangra to Contradance, complete with a stringband and caller to lead the dances. Katy was honored to be the only one of the bride's friends to give a speech - a wonderful one that even made Seema cry. Evan was a little tired and fussy by the time we left at 10:30 for the 3 hour drive back to Stamford, but everyone had a wonderful night!

It was such a pleasure to have Katy and Ian here, even if it was only briefly. Mom and Dad are here until Monday - stay tuned for more entries about our upcoming adventures in New York and Connecticut!