They say it's your birthday...

It's my birthday too, yeah! Am I turning 27 again or is it 28?

Birthday weekend has been a blast! Friday night was dinner with Bernadette and the gang, then drinks with Alanna, Bill, and Danny. Saturday brought brunch at Buttermilk Channel (pecan pie french toast and pancakes - yum!) Followed by an afternoon at Coney Island and Brighton Beach. We, of course, had hot dogs from the original Nathan's, walked the boardwalk, and were treated to impromptu dances along with lots of Russian women sporting the Balkan red. We passed on the Cyclone and Wonder Wheel this time since someone claims to have had enough dangerous stupidity for this week. Next time, next time. Today we did family dinner Sunday - good food, good fun, and lots of cake, pie, and ice cream. What more could a girl ask for on her birthday? Oh yeah, cards and presents! I got those too. This year included a magazine subscription, restaurant gift certificate, awesome rain boots and a "cheeky" umbrella.

We did take pictures, but some of them are on film (I guess that sort-of gives away my age...) as soon as the processing comes back, I'll digitize and post. For now, I'll begin the countdown for Birthday Weekend Part 2 when we see Rent next Saturday.

First Stamp

It's official - I have gotten my first stamp in my new passport. This summer, with little time left for a vacation, rather than head abroad, we decided to head to Canada. Thanks to the generosity of Cat and Barry, Danny and I were able to afford a last minute getaway to Vancouver and Whistler for five days, arriving back home late Tuesday night. As I went back to work officially, full-time today, I'd say we successfully maximized every last moment of summer vacation.

Though the weatherman threatened to rain on our parade, you'll see in the photos that most days ended up quite nice. We were able to appreciate the beauty of the sea and the mountains in the lush green spaces of British Columbia.

Cat and Barry escorted us up to Lynn Canyon, where we crossed the suspension bridge and hiked through some of the gorges.

Interestingly, we happened upon a search and rescue mission - not something that happens every day! Apparently, some teenagers were jumping off the rocks (I should tell you that swimming is discouraged at Lynn Canyon since people die there every year,) and one of them jumped with his arms out to his sides, like in a T. The water pressure dislocated his shoulders, leaving him trapped in the water. His two friends jumped in after him and all three of them needed extracting. It was quite an event.

Not every day was madness and chaos though. We spent some time just walking and relaxing on the beach,

enjoying views of the city,

and visiting some of the Olympic venues.

the Olympic torch

the bobsled and luge run

the Olympic rings at Whistler

We also made friends with the Inukshuk, who Danny has affectionately named Nanook.

One of our days, we took a Harbor Cruise up Indian Arm. We got to see fjords, and pulled right up into Silver Falls.

On our last day, we headed about two hours north up to Whistler Mountain. Here we enjoyed some outdoor adventures like horseback riding and zip-lining. The zips were approximately 200m above the treetops, the longest was 2200m long, and we reached speeds of about 30mph. The final zip was a freestyle and our guides taught me how to flip upside down. It was quite a trip!

This was, as all my trips tend to be, also a foodie vacation. Unfortunately, we did a terrible job photographing the food. I can tell you that we ate at an incredible Japanese Fusion restaurant in Kitsilano. Hands down the best Japanese food I've ever had. We had lots of fresh seafood, including my first experience with raw oysters! And we tried Tim Hortons for the first time. (I loved the honey-dipped, but the majority of flavors don't compare to Dunkin Donuts for me.)

I did manage to grab a photo of another first - a japadog. Yes, it's a Japanese hotdog cart. Mine had seaweed and mayo, as well as some special sauce on it. It was actually really tasty, even though I know you're thinking that it both looks and sounds gross. They've been featured on the Food Network and I have to suggest you try them if you have the chance.

Home, Sweet Home

Welcome to our new home! I'm hoping many of you will come visit in person and enjoy the many food options, as well as fun atmosphere of our new neighborhood, Carroll Gardens, but until then, I offer you this photographic tour of the apartment. (For the sake of safety, I am not posting our address or outside pictures of the building here, but those of you who got this via email with the address can google map a street view to see the front of our building.)

The view when you walk in the front door:

As you look to your left, you'll see the living room and the kitchen:

And as you look to your right, you'll see both of our bedrooms:

Upon entering the apartment, the bathroom is directly in front of you. The washer and dryer are hidden behind the door.

When you first walk into the living room:

Reverse view:

View from living room to kitchen:

View from living room to entryway:

As you enter the kitchen. Notice all the creative storage solutions - the kitchen had only one drawer, and you're looking at all the cabinets. We purchased (and Danny built) the butcher block.

This is my bedroom. Again, the need for creative storage, since I only have half of a closet. The other half is occupied by that washer and dryer in the bathroom. This is a sacrifice that I think is well worth it, even if it does make my room look a bit like a college dorm.

This is the view as you enter Danny's room. Yup, he got the bigger room. We negotiated and came to an arrangement that he could have the bigger room so his piano would fit, as long as he would play concerts for me.

Thanks for virtual visiting! We hope to see you in person soon!

Still blogging...

Those of you who used to follow this blog have probably given up hope that I'd ever write again. You have my sincere apology for the ridiculously long hiatus. I know many of you share my frustration with those who take such long breaks and hopefully you will find me more 24 than The Sopranos in spite of my new steeped-in-mafioso-history address.

Allow me to fill you in on the past six months:

Through the snow storms of February all was going well and I was enjoying many delays and days off from school. Danny found a job in Manhattan, which meant a new two-hour each way commute and an end to his house-elfing duties. (Yes, Danny, I said duties.) Dinners got later, chores increased, and finding time to write, call, or visit became more of a challenge. I probably would have settled into a routine, but then the bottom dropped out of my universe. On March 2 the official word came down from District Office that 41 more positions were being eliminated in Mahopac, and that my teaching job was one of them. Thus began three months of intensive job hunting. If you haven't been through that process in a while, consider yourself lucky. The resume updating, cover letter writing, and process of mailing letters of reference, transcripts, and certifications is both time consuming and expensive. Most schools use OLAS to hire, which is like an application abyss, as schools get inundated with applicants from all over the country. (See this NY Times article about the teaching job market this year.) The first month or so was a stressful time of waiting for responses...then the real fun began. There were screening interviews, first-round interviews, demo lessons, second-round interviews, writing samples, third-round interviews, and three-hour drives to schools state-wide multiple times. Let's not discuss the gas and tolls, nor the stress of writing sub plans for all the days I was missing. After all, I was still teaching full time through the end of the school year. It really turned into two full-time jobs: one that was currently paying my bills, and one that would hopefully yield future income. Poor Danny, my roommate, chef, and proofreader extraordinaire.

Finally, finally, finally, after all of that, the offers started to come in...then began the juggling of which schools wanted answers when and how to decide which to accept. Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining about that part - it's a much better dilemma than trying to find some minimum-wage job, but it is stressful. I've heard too many stories of people who didn't juggle well and ended up losing both opportunities. Ultimately, I narrowed my options down to three schools. One made me a great offer, thus, I decided not to play anymore and withdrew my candidacy from the other two schools. On June 2, 12 weeks exactly after the bombshell of being excessed, I was officially appointed as the new English Department Chair at Calhoun High School in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District.

The job is great! I teach two classes (periods 3 and 4), one is 10R and one is 10I - an inclusion class with a full-time special-ed co-teacher. I am responsible for the English and drama departments as well as the library at my high school. There are two other high schools in the district, each with their own chair, which is nice because it means I have great resources in colleagues. My department is 16 people, including me, 11 of whom are men. This is highly unusual in an English department. They are all tenured, which is also nice in that they are all veteran members of the school community. My administrators are pleasant and supportive, my teachers are dedicated and enthusiastic, and my students seem like students I've taught before - fun and interesting. I have an air-conditioned office and a secretary! And I work a teacher's calendar plus 8 days in the summer, 4 on each side of the school year. The ONLY down-side (other than needing to buy my first "grown-up" wardrobe - no more jeans!), is my 33 mile (read 45-90 minute) commute via car. Oh yes, the girl who hates mornings and hasn't commuted farther than 22 minutes in the past 10 years will be trekking from Brooklyn to Long Island. And while this is technically a "reverse commute" - those of you familiar with the city and the island know, there is no such thing as a traffic-free drive in either place.

That brings me to the next segment of the story...the apartment hunt. What an error in calculation I made! Silly me, I thought finding a job would be the hard part - no, no - finding an apartment proved to be much more difficult. Beginning June 3, as soon as I was official, I began scouring craigslist, the NY Times, and other real estate sites for apartments that would be available August 1. I searched Long Island, I searched Queens...I kept hoping to find a place where Danny and I could split our commutes and our rent. No such luck. I broadened my search to Manhattan, after all, when I decided to come home last year, the city was really where I wanted to be. After hours and days of pounding the pavement and dealing with brokers who stood me up, couldn't get into apartments, or tried to up-sell (or is con the right word here?)

"Really, $2600 for a 4th floor one bedroom walk-up with no a/c, no d/w, and no laundry on premises that's a 5-block walk to the garage where you have to pay an additional $600/month to store your car plus the $11/day toll over the Triborough bridge is a great deal to be in this neighborhood - Spanish Harlem is really up and coming!"

I finally heeded the advice of so many and moved my search to Brooklyn. More hours on the internet, more hours on Metro North, more hours listening to brokers who didn't listen to me...after viewing no less than 40 apartments and burning up hundreds of minutes on my cell phone (sorry Alanna!) I finally found a place that I loved. In fact, I found two. One had the lock on price (and the added bonus of no broker's fee), storage, and was BRAND NEW! It even had outdoor space and a d/w. The other won hands-down for location and layout. It too had a d/w and it had a w/d as well. But it also had a higher rent and a hefty broker's fee. What to do, what to do? I dragged Alanna to see them both, went with Danny to see them both again, we both called our dads for advice and finally, we made a decision. We all know the three rules of real estate are location, location, location and you know I'm a rule follower. So we ended up with a third floor, floor-through walk-up in a brownstone right on the border of Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill. We have two real bedrooms (we saw some "bedrooms" that were smaller than closets I've had in the past), bedrooms that house queen-sized beds with room to spare, a living room, bathroom, kitchen (not kitchenette), a/c, d/w, w/d, ceiling fan, and southern exposure. Our landlord let us pick our paint colors and even installed a brand-new oven! Every day when we walk the 3 minute, 1 block walk to the subway or amble around the corner to the bakery or a great Italian restaurant, we know we made the right choice. I will have to drive to work, so I have my car here, but it's street parking, so no fee and it's Brooklyn, so no tolls going to school. Alternate side of the street rules don't impact me because of my hours and thus far, I haven't had to go more than two blocks away. We're on the F and G lines, which means Danny has a straight 25 minute ride to work with no transfers and we can easily access the LES, midtown, and Coney Island. To get uptown it's a quick transfer to the west side. The east is a little less easy, as are some parts of Brooklyn, but not bad and certainly between the subway and the car, we can get to everything. Now if only the MTA would stop raising prices!

On a side note, there was a quick jaunt to Vegas over Memorial Day weekend - a celebration of my new job, a respite from the stress, a pacifier for she who didn't travel during February or April breaks, and a foodie fun-fest. There are pictures from incredible meals at incredible restaurants and stories to tell. All for a later post.

We signed our lease on July 4 and then began the madness that was packing, arranging movers, selling Danny's car, switching cable, electric and other utilities, changing our address with everything under the sun, and finding places to store all the items that wouldn't be relocating with us. Needless to say, there has been little rest and no vacation this summer! We finally moved in on August 1, a horrendous 16 hour day (to move 50 miles - a story better saved for another post) and after a full week of intensive unpacking and shopping (Ikea, JC Penny, Bed Bath & Beyond, and The Container Store have claimed my first impending paycheck) we can now reach the refrigerator, wash clothes, shower, and sit on the couch without tripping over boxes. I spent hours cleaning this weekend, as my feet were turning black every time I walked on the hard-wood floors and what was behind the fridge and in the air conditioner probably qualified as a pet and should have been named. There is one more shopping trip needed to purchase a full-length mirror (lest I end up at work wearing mis-matched shoes!) and some items to hang on the walls, and then I promise, pictures will be taken and posted. So, there it is...my long list of excuses for why I haven't posted in months. And slowly but surely, I'm getting back to writing, as well as calling and seeing those of you I've neglected all this time. I took one day off from the house-work to visit with my BG peeps in Baltimore and today has been spent doing school-related work. Perhaps a routine is going to emerge soon...perhaps I'll even manage to plan a trip somewhere, even if it's just for 4 or 5 days - these gypsy feet itch...they have a case of the travel bug!

Those fondue skewers are great...

now if only there were about 10 more of them.

That was how the meal began. It ended with grunts and groans and a request to be pushed out in a wheelbarrow. Ah, dinner at The Melting Pot. In yet another attempt to satisfy my increasing desire to head back across the pond and to celebrate Danny's new job, we enjoyed an evening of fondue. Tonight we opted to order off the Alpine menu, basking in the gluttony of a four-course meal.

This was a post that apparently I'd written back on February 21, but never bothered to publish. In any case, now I want fondue. Hopefully, by the end you will too and we can make a date to go out for dinner!

I know you're all excited to hear about the food and see pictures, but first, let me share with you the entertainment part of the evening. For those who haven't been to The Melting Pot, it's a pretty interesting experience. Each table is a secluded little booth, isolated from those adjacent to it. You can hear your neighbors, but not see them. We spent the better part of the night listening to the man next to us monopolize the conversation in what we are sure was a blind date. What did I learn from this experience? Never go to a fondue restaurant, where dinner takes a minimum of 2-3 hours on a blind date. That poor woman! She was seated as far from him as she could be in that intimate little booth. She barely spoke a word for the two hours we were there. He, on the other hand, had lots to say. First, he asked what her financial goals were. Was he an insurance salesman? We couldn't be sure. Later, the conversation progressed into a discussion of pop culture: music, tv shows, and sports. While these are topics of typical first date discussions, what we overheard could have been an audio of what NOT to say on a first date. He name dropped every musician's name he could think of in an attempt to sound like an expert: "Jay Z and Fifty Cent, oh yes, they did a whole concert together, 6 songs; I have the DVD." Um...okay? As if this wasn't bad enough, he proceeded to play (loudly) several songs from his phone.

Enough of the entertainment, I know what you really want is to hear about the food!

First there was the cheese - gruyere, raclette, and fontina melted with white wine, garlic, and nutmeg infused mustard. We dipped cauliflower, kielbasa, apples, white and brown bread, and pickles into the cheesy goodness. Next came the salads. Plates of lettuce covered in more cheese, honey roasted almonds, sun-dried tomatoes, and a shallot vinagrette. Sorry folks, no photos of these. We gobbled them up too fast, the result of a 9pm reservation.

For our main course, we went with the Coq a Van style of cooking. The broth was a burgandy wine base, infused with garlic and mushrooms. Our plate came with the stock potatoes, broccoli, and mushrooms as well as filet mignon, strip steak, chicken, shrimp, lobster tail, bratwurst, and sun-dried tomato ravioli.

So fat we couldn't eat another bite, of course we ordered dessert. We opted for the Yin-Yang, a combination of white and dark chocolates. The pound cake, brownies, and rice krispy treats were nice, but the bananas and strawberries were the stars of this dish.

Here's hoping our next fondue experience is actually in Switzerland!