Apple Picking

I am taking a break from trying to catch up on all my back-posts and posting a "real-time" entry. Every year my church does an annual apple picking trip and today was the yearly outing. There were probably about 80 or so people that attended. We have services on the Upper West Side, Upper East Side and Chelsea, so each neighborhood church organized transportation. We left the UES this morning around 9:30am with three 15 passenger vans. The farm was in New Paltz, NY, which is about an hour and a half from the city in upstate NY. Once we got to the farm, we met up with the rest of the groups from Trinity Grace. It was kind of drizzly today but not too cold so that was good.

These were all the pumpkins in front of the barn. Everything looked so "fall."

On our way out to the apple orchards. At the barn you had to buy an apple picking bag - either 1/2 peck, a full peck or 1/2 bushel. I bought a half peck and ended up with about a dozen or so apples (not including the ones I ate while we were out in the field). We all got hot apple cider before we headed out to pick apples - and I got more when we came back - it was very good. This was the group I started out with, but we kind of dispersed in the orchards.

Everything was so pretty. And being from AZ, I do not have any "fall" experience. All the colors were amazing - in the van on the way there someone made the comment that God is such a great artist - I agree!

I picked some of those apples right after I took this picture.

All the apples were so red and delicious!

I rained on and off throughout the day.

With my friend Laura and her son, Noah.

I loved all the decorations around the barn.

Such a fun day. On the way home we stopped at a mall for a couple of hours since there are no malls in Manhattan - and we had a car which is a luxury now :)

Mom and Kellyn's Visit

Mom and Kellyn were here from Friday night, September 25 through Wednesday morning, September 30th. I met them at the AirTrain at JFK on Friday night and we went to Totonno's for dinner. We were in the process of trying to file the 10-K at work, so unfortunately I had to work quite a bit while they were here. On Saturday morning I left for work around 9am. I got home around 5pm, as we were going to see South Pacific Saturday night.

On the computer while waiting for Mom and Kellyn to get ready.

We went to dinner at Beyoglu. It is just at 81st and 3rd and it is always packed.

Our appetizer platter - everyone loved the grape leaves :)

Seeing South Pacific at Lincoln Center. Not one of my favorite Broadway shows.

After the show we went to Serendipity. This is my favorite dessert - the caramel ice cream sundae.

Mom with the famous Frozen Hot Chocolate.

It was pouring when we left Serendipity and none of us had an umbrella so we just cabbed it home. The rest of their trip I was unfortunately working :( Sunday - 10am to 8pm, Monday 9am to 3am and Tuesday 10am to 11pm. We all flew to Phoenix early Wednesday morning.

Brian and Sun's Visit - September 19 and 20 - Days 3 and 4

On Saturday morning we got up early (5:30am) and went to Rockefeller Center to try and get tickets for SNL that night. We researched on the website, made sure that there was going to be an SNL and figured out where we needed to be. Well, we got there, and there was no one in line - bad sign. We found a security guard and they said that the website was wrong and that the new SNL season started the next week - bummer!

Here we are at Rock Center with no one around.

They were filming the Saturday morning Today Show, so we stayed for that. We did make it on TV (Brian's parents saw us). I called my parents just before 7am AZ time to let them know to watch, but I guess the Today Show airs at like 5am in AZ on Saturdays. Oh well, maybe I can try again.

This is Lester Holt - he was one of the reporters that morning.

We decided to make the most of our early morning, and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. I tried to get a good "jump" shot with the bridge in the background, but it didn't work out so well - this is the best picture, but you can't see the bridge :)

Brian being a homeless guy in Brooklyn.

Saturday afternoon we took a much needed long nap - it was so nice. We then got pizza for dinner, walked through Central Park and down 5th Ave. and then went to the West Village for a Magnolia cupcake. I forgot my camera for all of this, so will have to get pictures from Sun.

Sun and Otis on Saturday night.

Sunday was Sun's 30th birthday, and she wanted oysters for her birthday. We went back to Little Italy for the raw oysters (good thing the San Gennaro festival was going on when they were here!). Sun had oysters - Brian and I watched.

We walked through Central Park again and then Brian and Sun were off to the airport in the afternoon.

I always LOVE having people here :)

Brian and Sun's Visit - September 18 - Day 2

On Friday morning we slept in a little and had breakfast at my apartment. Sun wanted to go get clams and oysters at the San Gennaro festival in Little Italy, and then our plan was to go on a Circle Line cruise around Manhattan.

Sun having raw clams

Sporting our Kanye West glasses

After Little Italy, we headed to the west side to the Circle Line cruise port to do a 3-hour cruise around Manhattan. I had done a Circle Line cruise back in 2002, but I learned a lot on this one - I think I remembered more since I live here now.

Going under the Brooklyn Bridge

The Empire State Building is on the left and the Chrysler Building is on the right.

The new Yankee Stadium on the left and the old Yankee Stadium on the right.

After the cruise we did dinner in Koreatown. The picture below are the appetizers - I guess this is a standard set of appetizers in Korea. This is included in the meal price - like chips and salsa or bread. Sun ordered a noodle dish, and she kept asking me to try it. She wouldn't tell me what kind of meat it was, but I did break down and have a bite. After I ate it she started laughing and showed me the menu - it was beef intestine. I kind of lost my appetite after that.

At Rockefeller Center

We ended the night at Serendipity. The ice cream sundae was much needed after the beef intestine :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

No blog posts in the last couple of weeks means things have been extremely busy for me. After Brian and Sun left, we worked another long week in hopes to get my client's 10-K filed (the original target date was September 22). The 22nd deadline was missed, so everyone was hopeful with a date of the 25th. That was missed as well...ugghh.

My mom and my sister were here from the 25th through the 3oth, but our new target date for filing the 10-K was the 30th, so I did not see much of them. They got in on Friday night, and I worked from 9:30 to 4:30 on Saturday, 10-8 on Sunday, 9-3am on Monday and then 10 to 11pm on Tuesday. I was so mad that I had to work the entire time they were here - good thing both of them were here, at least they could hang out together. We also did not file on the 30th :(

On Wednesday morning, my mom, sister, Otis and Sam and I all flew to Phoenix. I had planned to be there for a week because I had planned this:

Given though that we did not file, I was asked to return to NYC last Sunday so my trip was cut from a week to only 4 days. I got back to my apartment on Sunday night at 11pm, worked Monday until about 3:30am and then we finally filed the 10-K yesterday at 5pm. We listened to the earnings release and then went to this place called Johnny Utah's for a couple of celebratory drinks.

We all took today off and I just booked a flight to Orlando for the weekend. The Millsaps are going to Disneyworld for the weekend, so I decided to meet up with them there.

Rob and Kathryn will be in NYC next week and one month from today Kellyn gets married!

I will post pictures from all of the above as soon as I can!

Brian and Sun's Visit - September 17 - Day 1

My cousin Brian and his wife, Sun, came to NYC to visit me from September 17 - 20. Brian was in NYC when he was younger, and Sun had never been. I have been working long(er) hours again, so it was a great break for me too. I was able to take 4 FULL days off of work, and didn't get a phone call or an email. I sent the partner an email on Sunday night thanking him for the 4 days. Anyway, back to their visit. They arrived on Thursday morning, and we were in my apartment for no more than 5 minutes before we headed out for the day.

We started out by going to the TKTS booth to get tickets to a Broadway Show - more on that below. It was time for lunch after getting the tickets, so we went to Little Italy. I knew that the San Gennaro Festival was happening, and I wanted to get cannoli's from my favorite bakery.

After Little Italy, we took the subway to Wall Street, and did the downtown sites. We stopped at Trinity Church and I noticed the below tree (or whatever you want to call it) that I had never seen before. This tree was actually the only tree uprooted on 9/11 at St. Paul's Church, which is directly across the street from the WTC. This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

Another picture on Wall Street - I love visiting these same tourist locations with new people :)

And, since I have so many pictures of the front of the Bull on Wall Street, we decided to get a picture of the back of the bull.

This was in the WTC and was moved to Battery Park.

This sculpture is in Battery Park City and the name of it is "Eyes." Sure doesn't look too much like eyes to me :)

Times Square on Thursday night.

The tickets we bought earlier in the day were for Rock of Ages. It was set to 80's rock music, about a "small town girl living in a lonely world" who meets a "city boy, born and raised in south Detroit." It was a fun show, definitely one that I would want to see again.