Another Sunday, Another Brunch

Sunday we met Alison for brunch at Eatery, this great place on 53rd and 9th. It's always packed there, but the food is really good. I'd never been for brunch. But my new intern at work waits tables there and when he described a sweet potato hash pancake with eggwhites topped with a guacamole mango salsa I was intrigued. When he said it would change my life, I knew that was the place for us. He was not wrong. I loved it.

After a lovely brunch and two bloody marys (yum), we wandered up to Central Park to sit for a bit. Geoff was exhausted after a long wedding shoot the night before, but it was SO GORGEOUS outside, I couldn't imagine not being outside.

Things we saw on our walk up 9th Avenue:

This guy. Takin' a stroll. Makin' a statement.


Pretty colors


The bar of a cute restaurant called Bocca di Bacci (or something like that)


Passing some fruit


And flowers


Liked this sun-dappled sign...


This kid wanted to share his snack with me I think...


Columbus Circle


And in the park, sitting on a bench, we met the tiniest dog. Her name is Gabby. And even though I am not usually a small dog fan, I thought she was pretty stinkin' cute. Her owner was kind enough to let me have a mini-photo shoot.




Lots of sticking out of her tongue. Which was adorable. There were also a TON of shots when she was just a blur. She's fast!


Look at that face. Please keep in mind that her torso is basically the same size as Geoff's hand. She's teeny!


After Gabby we headed home. A nap was in order for Geoff. And I took him out to dinner at Bliss, one of our neighborhood haunts. The owner and waiters all know us and are so nice. We had a lovely meal and great conversation. Can't wait to do that every day on vacation in 10 days!

Three Day Weekend

We were excited to have a full three days off together for the first time since....Christmas? Ridiculous, but true. We made the most of it.

Saturday started with a seven step process to get us to breakfast on a park bench (all within a couple blocks walk).

1) drop off laundry at Skillman Laundry
2) Geoff drops off shirts at Diamond's dry cleaning (named for the owners Maltese, who is always in the store. he's been there ever since I've lived here and is getting fat in his old age. which i love in a dog)
3) i go to Starbucks for my iced coffee
4) Geoff stops by Wendy's for iced tea (he doesn't really do coffee)
5) Geoff gets his bagel sandwich at NY Eats
6) I get my bagel & cream cheese from the bagel shop 2 blocks away
7) arrive park bench & enjoy (which we do)

I liked this guy. Green belt, suspenders and just his general demeanor won me over.


This guy..... just as fascinating, half as friendly.


After breakfast we wander home and come upon a street fair on Greenpoint Ave.


Inflatable castles & slides
tons of people
and really weird things for sale in tents.
Like this.


And Oscar. He's a Pug/Shitzu mix who belongs to the woman we met from Camp Bow Wow (the dog boarding place in our neighborhood). I love him. Clearly.



We were walking along, minding our own business when I was accosted by a small Asian woman who literally dragged me into her booth for a massage. Sort of hysterical. Not that great of a massage. But an experience. Can you see how she's digging her thumb into my arm?? She was strong!


After quickly popping into the eye doctor, (and we ended up having to go back again 'cause the contacts she gave me were not settling right in one eye. which ended up being because i had two lenses in that eye. which she says was not the case when i left the first time. no idea how that happened. how do i manage these things??) we headed home to get our bikes. Off we went over the Queensboro Bridge. We took a loop or two around the park and then headed to meet Megan & Jeremy O'Grady for dinner at Cilantro. We hadn't seen them since New Years. Which is NUTS. It was good to catch up. And then off we went, home on our bikes.

I'm loving biking. We both are. And riding from our house to Manhattan is such a great ride. Just the right amount/difficulty of hills. Heading into Manhattan there's a long slow incline until just past the middle of the bridge and heading back to Queens there's a steeper shorter incline on the first part of the Manhattan side of the bridge and then 2 smaller, slower incline hills when we're in the home stretch in Queens. I dig it.


Sunday dawned, a little humid but still nice. We hopped on our bikes and headed over to Long Island City for brunch. Found a great little spot called Masso with a 2 for 1 fruit infused mimosa special. Yay.

I loved this cute little container for the cream.


After brunch we just rode around LIC exploring. Such an odd/cool little neighborhood. Half hip/half commercial and some great waterfront apt buildings. We just tooled around for a while checking it all out. Really cool piers on the waterfront. We've talked about living there if prices continue to come down. Especially because they'll let us have a dog. And a big selling factor for me was that they've just put in a small Whole Foods-ish grocery store. Loved it.

Apartment shopping


Loved this cute lil' car



The view from our potential future front yard.


But also, we saw this. I don't even know what this is. Or how to understand it. But the top "car" seems to be cemented to the real car. No idea.


Geoff got some great bridge shots.




What is this place all about? I like to think about what it once was. Right at the base of the bridge, I bet it was an old waterfront mansion, since condemned and now closed up and surrounded by super scary barbed wire. I mean, it was probably a school or torture facility, but I like to think it was a fancy mansion with lots of history.


Requisite daily dog befriending obviously occurred. This is Max. I love a pug.


What a face!


Here's Max giving you "pensive"...


We headed home and spent the late afternoon in what I have now dubbed, our "cabana". Which is basically our room, with all the blinds open, breezes blowing, ceiling fan on and afternoon sun pouring in. Ahhhhhhhh. We had dinner that night at Cafe Boka. Aka our kitchen table. Wine, candlelight, good conversation and the random contents of our pantry/freezer. It was awesome. We've decided to dine there more often.

Catching Up

I've mentioned we've been swamped the last few months. I think it may calm down a bit once June rolls around. In the interim....here are things you've missed in our lives.

Since we have limited cabinet space in the kitchen (the ones you see here are the ONLY ones we have, which is why we also have a bakers rack), Geoff came up with the idea of using the top of our cabinets for both artistic, and functional purposes. This is the beginning of it. Food & wine storage are key. Those wine bottles cost between $5 and $7 each and we actually really like them. Economical AND Tasty. An excellent combo.



We went to see the Norman Conquests (very funny British comedy) and stumbled upon another Accidental Paparazzi moment. Who knows who the woman in the trench coat is? And again, we were really taking a picture of the crowds and the review quotes behind her.


We had lunch with our friends Rich & Kelly who were in town celebrating their anniversary. He's a photographer, she's a physical therapist. Geoff shot their wedding, and Rich taught a photography seminar that we went to back in March. Which I STILL haven't blogged about. Ugh. OK, someday....but how cute are they?


We met this (brand new, JUST home from the shelter) puppy. Please. Could you just die?



I've decided that when I become a dog photographer, this will be the picture on my business card.


We've had brunch whenever possible, as it is often our only time together in a given week. Geoff likes to take pictures of me at brunch.



I like to take pictures of brunch at brunch.



We are into purchasing cheap flowers and produce whenever we pass them on the street. Bought some flowers today in fact. $8 for two bunches of chrysanthemums & spider mums and they'll last at least 10 days. Yes please.


My sunglasses did this again. Does this happen to anyone else? I bought new ones and they have been featured in nearly all of these pictures, as I mostly like to wear them as a headband.

I got my hair cut. Finally! Mom, here's the picture you asked for. Sort of. Geoff snapped one of me squinting into the sun, so it wasn't really for purposes of seeing my hair. Can't really fully see the cut, but you get the idea.



We have gone on two excellent biking trips into Manhattan for the day. More on those in another post.

Other than that we've been working like crazy people. And it's Saturday and I'm heading into the office for more of it right now.

What Sundays should be

Three hour brunches with friends. That's basically all I need in a Sunday. Some nice spring weather maybe. Lots of dogs out and about to love on from afar (or near). Coffee. Mimosas. Good conversation. Goat cheese omelettes. Preferably all at my favorite little brunch spot around the corner appropriately called QUAINT. Even though it was just a tad chilly still to eat on the patio (we did brave it for about 10 minutes), we enjoyed a LOVELY brunch there on Sunday with my dearest friend Alison and the incomparable John Rand (also known as the man who got me published and made me fancy). We had SUCH a nice time in fact, that i was somehow even excited to go home and organize geoff's closet, run errands and clean the apartment. Time with friends is so rare for us these days (what with the wedding madness) that the good it did for my soul was powerful indeed.

Again please.