Goodbye February

All week I have been daydreaming about my near in the future trip to Florida. It’s funny I even saw a vacation ad on the train and it said….get in touch with your Florida side. We have had a brutal week as far as weather goes and that has trickled down into a lot of work. It was the first time I have been offered overtime at my job because so many people called out due to weather conditions. Yesterday I worked a 16 hour shift, thankfully the residents at my job were very well behaved, I think they were having compassion on me because I had been there so much this week.

Here are a few photos from the week…

And when you’re the first one out of the building in the morning this is what you find…

It has made me appreciate that we don’t have to be pioneers for the most part in life, it’s really nice when someone goes before us…

When the sun finally shined some, I took Bradley out. I tried sitting out on our stoop but as you can see from the picture all he was interested in was going back inside. I stared out at the street and he stared intently at our door…

And this is his can you please take me inside already face…

Katz’s Famous Delicatessen

Today for lunch I went to Katz’s Famous Delicatessen, known as the best since 1888. It was used as one of the locations in the movie When Harry Met Sally, and so a lot of tourist are drawn there but I could definitely see the faithful locals there as well.





I ordered a Pastrami sandwich which took my breath away it was AMAZING! It’s true a picture says a thousand words...







www.katzdeli.com :)

Alabaster Bookshop

I love book stores, new and used, happening upon one is always a delight. Today near Union Square I discovered a very quant used bookstore named Alabaster Bookshop. It was a wonderful find and really made my day.



A favorite quote of mine….

A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy. ~Edward P. Morgan





Right now as I type I am multi-tasking, trying to watch the Olympics but it is so hard when this little face won’t stop staring at me…

Magic Seasoning

After having a week filled with working 10 hour shifts, I was so excited to have a day off and even more excited when I came upon my favorite seasoning at the grocery store. Not that I had been doing a diligent search but when ever I happened to be in a store I would look for this Magic Seasoning and hadn’t come upon it till now.



I made a pita with lettuce, feta cheese, diced tomato, with chicken covered in seasoning.





It was delicious, and really hit the spot.

Taste of Spring

Today on my way to take Bradley to the Vet I was reminded of Spring as I walked down 5th Avenue in Brooklyn. I love when the Deli’s start having the flowers and fruit out near the street. It is one of my favorite parts of the warmer days here in New York. It was the first day in awhile that I thought of Spring and those thoughts make me long for that feeling of new life that rest in the air with the changing of seasons.





Bradley had the same response to his shot as last time and as soon as we arrived home, he zonked out.





The last few months of learning how to take care of Bradley has taught me a lot about responsibility, patience and brought me to the realization that yes I do have a anger problem after all….



Nothing brings a girl down the path of self-discovery faster than when one of your favorite shoes is completely destroyed. So tonight I went out and bought myself a new pair of shoes and Bradley a new bone to chew on.

Gratefulness

A few nights ago some of my good friend’s that I have babysat for here in Brooklyn, threw a little girls night together to thank those of us that have spent time caring for their children. It really was a great night, with good food, laughs, and comfort.





I walked away from the evening feeling so blessed to have these friendships in my life, such wonderful women that would take time out to bless me in this way. God has filled my life with many loving caring amazing people from my family to friends in Florida all the way to here in New York and I feel blessed.

Buffalo Wild Wings

Well one thing I know for sure if I ever end up moving from New York, among the list of things I will miss, most definitely the food will be at the top. Every corner you turn there is something new to try from chain to mom and pop restaurants and a million in between. I had this false perception that when I moved here I would lose all this weight because I would be walking every where, I just forgot to calculate all the amazing food that would be tempting me every where I turned. Today I bought a salad with chicken covered in a garlic sauce from Buffalo Wild Wings. It was AMAZING!



I also went to target and bought a variety of containers to organize, and went through all my clothes to get rid of the things I no longer need. Why is that so difficult? You know when you have a shirt you haven’t worn in a year and then you can sit there and so easily justify why you should really allow it to continue to clutter your life. I am proud of myself though, for the most part I stuck to the purpose. Bradley wasn’t much of a help though. Every time I turned my back he would jump in one of the containers. I am pretty sure he knew what he was doing, just having fun giving me a hard time….

Posh Pets

Today I was so excited to have the day off and be able to relax. I made an appointment with a groomer here in Brooklyn. I was torn because I never think dogs look right after a hair cut, there is just something kind of unnatural about it. I mean nobody goes out in the forest and trims all the wild animal’s hair… so why do we do it to dogs? I’m not sure but my rebellion against the grooming profession didn’t last long as I am already tired of feeling like I don’t do enough of a good job giving him baths and the hair although cute, I know it was getting in his eyes all the time. Not to mention when I took him to the vet, the vet was talking to Bradley making comments like, “oh Bradley how can you see with all that hair in your eyes?” You have to love the moments when your vet is pretending that he is talking to your dog when really he is trying to send you messages.

Here are a couple before pictures taken this morning…





Three hours later we had a happy reunion but capturing a picture was more than challenging. I think he was just so excited to be back home, he wouldn’t stay still and so I got about 15 blurry shots like these two below..





Until finally..



I promise to write about more things other than Bradley, he is just a big part of the fun in my life right now and I can't help it. :)

Bradley's Next Snow Adventure

Well this past Monday my phone came to the end of it’s life. But as an old song from my high school days, says…..every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end or something like that. All that to say I bought a new phone, a Blackberry, I have heard they are addicting but not as much as the iphone so I am feeling fairly safe. I was very excited to see that I could take video with them so today I took one of the snow and Bradley. I made a bunch of ridiculous sounds just trying to get Bradley to look at the camera…..it didn’t work. You can see his favorite fire hydrant, everytime he sees it he gets so excited and runs towards it, typical dog interest. ;)



The following are some pictures of my walk around the neighborhood today...

Petco

Went to the Petco today located in Union Square. The prices were better than expected and it was very entertaining watching everyone walk around with their dogs. Bradley was very excited when I arrived home with a new toy...





He was so excited that he ran from one end of the apartment to another a hundred times then finally settled down...



I had a lot of laughs tonight, thanks to Bradley and a green chicken. :)

Babysitting Adventure

This morning was my first time watching 4 children all 3 years old and under by myself. I'm not going to lie, I definitely was intimidated going into it, but they were amazingly wonderful. Micah as introduced in one of my previous post, is such a character. I put on the Wiggles, I know kind of comical, and Micah asked me if they could get cozy. Everyone thought it was a good idea...



I felt so blessed to be around so much joy, love, laughs and well innocents.

“Every child born into the world is a new thought of God, an ever fresh and radiant possibility” Kate Douglas Wiggins

Winter Jammin Preparation

Winter Jammin': Central Park's annual Winter Jam is taking place this weekend, and will feature local snowboarders, along with music. They created snow for this event even though it turns out we are suppose to get snow this weekend. I went down today to check out the creation of this snow and preparation for this event…

http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_things_to_do/events/winterjam/index.html

As you can see from my pictures below they had quite a bit of snow already created by the time I got down there. I was very curious as to the whole process but there really wasn’t any one around to ask.



This next one really captures what most project sites look like at least from my observations…one man working and a whole lot of people standing around watching.

I did find this sign below humorous…that these “conditions” were manmade yet the sign really almost seems to point blame on mother nature. They didn’t fool me! :)

Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse NYC

We are currently in what is called…
New York City Restaurant Week Winter 2010
Which runs January 25–February 7, 2010 and excludes Saturdays.

The following link has a list of all the participating restaurants….

http://www.opentable.com/promo.aspx?m=8&pid=69

Today I went and partook in a filet mignon lunch at Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse NYC

http://www.michaeljordansnyc.com/

I didn’t have a way to take pictures so I looked up a couple so that you can get a feel for how beautiful it was…





I was not that impressed with the food but the view was amazing and the gentle hum of the people going about their business, as you ate, was surprisingly relaxing.

BestBuy Union Square

No matter how old you get I think most people inside don’t feel their age and we all have those moments when you stop and realize wow I really am -- - years old. I don’t know maybe Oprah would call them ah ha moments. However we would like to refer to them, I definitely had one yesterday, while at BestBuy Union Square. The only BestBuy in New York which is open 24 hours, don’t ask who goes in there in the middle of the night, I have asked everyone I know and haven’t met one yet. Anyways, at this spectacular BestBuy yesterday I was completely disgusted by their customer service or lack of, it’s a long story in which I will spare all the details, but I decided to speak to the store manager and let them know how I was feeling. As I found myself expressing my complaints to the manager, I had an ah ha moment were I looked down on myself and thought wow Elizabeth you really have grown up, as the manager is replying I’m so sorry mam I will speak with my staff….


That’s right my first experience complaining to a manager, I felt so old, but so so right :)