Oops...

As I was loading pictures onto my computer tonight, I realized that I had forgotten to post Jason and Lauren's weekend visit here at the end of January.  In mid-January, Lauren mentioned that she would possibly be here for work, and if so, did I mind if she stayed the weekend with me.  Of course I didn't mind (especially considering the NUMEROUS times I stayed with here when she lived in the City)!  She did end up making a trip here for work, and Jason found a cheap flight, so he decided to come as well.

On Friday night, we went to Blue Water Grill in Union Square for dinner.  It happened to be Restaurant Week in NYC and J & L invited some of their other NYC friends to dinner.

Ata, Me and Lauren at dinner - Ata lives here but knows Lauren from high school.  NYC Restaurant Week happens twice a year, and during that time participating restaurants have a moderately priced Prix Fixe menu.  I did not even know about Restaurant Week, and I will be participating again in the future.  After dinner, we all went bowling (I can't remember the name of the bowling alley, all I know is that it is in Union Square).

On Saturday, I had to work, and J & L went to their house that they own in New Jersey.  Saturday night, we met up again with some of their friends for dinner at Tony's Di Napoli.  I had been to the Tony's in Times Square before (with Lauren and again with my family).  There is also a Tony's a couple of blocks from my apartment, and this is the one that we went to.  The sangria was a hit, as well as the ice cream sundae.

Sunday we walked around for a while.  Lauren at Pets on Lex with a jack russell - this is the pet store where they adopted their jack, Rooke.  He was a cutie and hopefully he is in a good home.

Doing some shopping at Ann Taylor Loft on Madison Ave.

This fire hydrant had broken and the water looked as though it had frozen in mid-air.  The picture doesn't really do it justice - it was much neater in person.

We had a fun weekend and I think Lauren is coming back in June!  I love having visitors :)

My Obese Cat

I took Otis to the vet this afternoon because he has been drinking a lot more water than normal so I wanted to get him checked out.  The vet said that he looked great, but that she would take some blood and run a few tests - the results will be in tomorrow.  When he weighed in on the scale though he was 19 lbs, 15 oz - WHAT?!?  Her comment was that he was a bit obese.  He was fat when I got him, and I feed him a VERY limited amount of food each day.  I even buy a higher quality brand of food that does not have all the fillers and additives like Friskies (or some other cheap brand) does.  I feel like a bad parent who can't keep their kids' weight under control.  The vet suggested I switch to a canned food diet and that should help him lose weight.  I have heard mixed opinions on feeding cats canned food, so now I have some research to do.  Here are some pictures of Mr. Fatty:

Killing Ourselves to Get the Job Done

Every year during late February/early March, I often question my decision as to why I chose a career in public accounting. The long hours start taking a toll on me, and I start thinking about what the long-term benefit is of working 60-70 hour weeks. On average, I am at work by 9am, and then I come home anytime between 8pm and midnight (every once in a while it will be after midnight, but that is the exception). This is my seventh busy season since starting my career, and this year is quite possibly the worst yet. My largest client this busy season is the most unorganized publicly traded client I have seen. We are working to re-state 2007, file Q1, Q2 and Q3 as well as year-end 2008. Last week the client issued a press release stating that they would be up to date on their filings on March 31, 2008. Even if everyone worked 24 hour days between now and then, they are nowhere close to meeting this deadline. We had an update call with the CFO this morning, and the partner sarcastically said that we would kill ourselves to get the job done. All day I have been thinking, why are we killing ourselves just to get some financial statements filed? This client is in Atlanta, so I have been spending 2-3 days each week in Atlanta for the past 6 weeks. My cats are completely neglected and dying for attention. I flew in from Atlanta tonight at midnight, and will be working all day tomorrow and possibly Sunday. Good times.

I know that God has me in NYC for a reason, but I have yet to understand why I am here. Everyone asks me if I am enjoying the City, and so far I have done nothing here that I could not do in AZ. I am very thankful that in this economy I have a job, but at the same time would like a happy medium. Work better slow down soon, otherwise I am going to go crazy.

Here's to another two, three or four weeks of killing ourselves to get the job done.

Spring Forward

This is my first time experiencing Daylight Savings Time, so tonight at midnight I will spring forward by an hour.  All the reminders lately have said to set your clocks forward by an hour when you go to bed Saturday night, however, I don't think I have any clocks that won't spring forward on their own.  All you Arizona people, I will now be three hours ahead of you.  

P.S. Today felt like spring as well, however, I was working and therefore spent my day on the 34th floor of a building in midtown Manhattan.  Hopefully tomorrow I will make it to the Park for a while.

Snow Day!!!

This is a follow up post to my last post.  Monday morning I got up early to go to the gym, and it had snowed all night.  In these pictures, I would say that there was about 6" of snow on the ground.  It continued snowing most of Monday, leaving about a foot of snow total.  There is still snow on the ground now, but it is all black and really gross looking.  Walking to the gym on Monday morning it was really pretty though.

This is in front of my apartment on 81st Street

Trying to show how deep the snow was

Looking west on 81st Street from 1st Avenue

Otis and Sam looking out at the snow

Mom, this picture is to show you what the bag of cat food looked like when I came home from work Monday night.  Those cats have gotten smart :)

In Like a Lion

Last night I was talking to my Dad, and he asked if we had spring weather here yet.  I said no, as it has been colder here the past couple of days compared to what it has been the past couple of weeks.  He then said, so March is coming in like a lion.  I had never heard that expression before, as I have always lived in Arizona.  However, I heard on the news multiple times today that March is coming in like a lion.  I walked to Gristedes (think Fry's or Safeway) a couple of hours ago, and it was snowing pretty hard - I heard we could get up to 12" tonight.  I guess this means that it will go out like a lamb???