Tuesday, November 24, 2009

History

It all started about a couple of months ago. Matt went to Washington, D.C. on business and decided to drive over to Arlington to show his friend where we used to live. 545 N. Pollard Street was our first apartment there and it was a very nice place in a great location. We lived there for a few years and the triplets were born when we lived there (another story for another day). Needless to say that apartment holds a lot of great memories for us. Well, when Matt drove by it was GONE! The entire building had been knocked down and it was an empty lot of dirt. This experience set Matt out on a crusade to document everything that we can about our past.

In October we took a little trip to New York City which is were we lived while Matt went to Law School. We took one day to travel around and document some of our favorite parts of our life there. As always, I have to do it pictorially so here we go...

Another disappointment -- our favorite restaurant (it used to be Frutti Da Mare) had been changed to a different restaurant. (Not unusual in NYC but we were sad -- it was really good)

In front of Alma Mater at Columbia which has such a cool campus. If anyone ever is up at 116th street in Manhattan you should go.

Columbia Law School. Matt had many many late night study sessions there. Also where we met some of our dearest friends.

115th Street -- Matt is standing in the exact spot that the ConEd van was parked making it impossible for us to drive our UHaul truck down the street to our apartment. It was our first New York experience way back in August 1993. A very kind man seeing our predicament ran up and down the street yelling for the ConEd man to come move his van. Since I was convinced that we were going to be van-jacked the moment we pulled off of the freeway into Harlem, I was relieved that this was the biggest problem we had.


Our first and second apartments were in Columbia married student housing. Woodbridge Hall is located across the street from Riverside Park (normally a very pricey location to live) which was awesome. However, during the winter it was about 10 degrees colder at our apartment (because we were so close to the river) and our friends didn't want to come visit. Now it is an undergrad dorm.

Our neighborhood hardware store that is the size of a really tall closet. You can't really look around you just have to go in and tell them what you want and they go get it for you. Very New York City.

112th and Broadway, Where our third apartment was located.

542 W. 112h Street. Right across the street from Tom's Restaurant -- the home of magical pancakes. Also down the street from St. John the Divine (a very beautiful cathedral).

The view of St. John the Divine as we walked to our apt.

Recognize this? Seinfeld?

Westside Market was our favorite grocery store. It is an amazing experience shopping at NYC grocery stores. They are normally super small but pack so much stuff in. I always loved walking by the beautiful produce on the street.


The Cheese section. Yum!

The home of "Big Cheap Pizza". A student's dream. They sell gigantic slices of pizza for cheap! Back then it was only $1.



This is a street fair where they block off a bunch of blocks right on the street and vendors sell there wares. There is always good food there too.

Now for Zabar's. This famous store is one of our favorites. It is where we got our Raclette cheese for our feasts with the Whisenants.

The best bagels on this earth. H&H bagels. Love them. We used to bring bags home to our families when we visited Utah.


Thanks for indulging me in this trip down memory lane. It is nice to know that if any of these places disappear (you never know) they will live on on our little blog.

Monday, November 2, 2009

And the book is...

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. (Still not finished by the way. I kept falling asleep last night)

Sorry Marti and Anne. good guesses though.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Must...Finish...

I took this cool picture of the latest book holding me and my household captive. By my household I mean the shambles that exists because of my lack of desire to put this book down. I am about finished - hopefully tonight and maybe then I can do some dishes or laundry. Sorry family. Reading is important too right?

By the way, I really like this pic. It might be frame on the wall worthy. What do you think? Also, any guesses of what the book is? Oops. I just noticed that there is a big clue there.

Happy Birthday!

Birthdays in our family kind of go in packs. The latest happens at the end of October. My late Grandmother's birthday, her son's (my dad's) AND my neice's birthdays all happen within two days. Thanks to the plethora of multiple births, we have another group in Dec., Feb., and then in April. It sure makes it easy to celebrate.

Happy Birthday Dad and Miss C! You too Grandma.

Stubborn!


This is Jake being stubborn. I told him (after telling him a zillion times already) that he had to finish his homework before he could leave his seat at the counter. He sat there for about 45 minutes and then what did that bugger do? He fell asleep. I was going to leave him there all night so that he would learn that I mean what I say but I couldn't do it. He might fall off the stools and then we would possibly have a bigger problem. He won this time I guess. I wonder where he got his stubbornness from? :) not me.