Personal

Mmm Coffee

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After going to Crate and Barrel with M to do the wedding registry I became very interested in an espresso maker / milk frother. I have been using a Flavia machine to make Capuchinno’s for over 2 years now. M can’t stand it. She thinks it is brown water. Lets face it, it only makes OK coffee. I really wanted to find an easy to use and clean up coffee maker that will also make Capuchinno. I knew stuff was out there but hadn’t found anything that was cheap enough and easy enough.

On Thursday the sales lady at Crate & Barrel showed me a Nespresso Espresso machine that also had a milk frother add on in the back. It looked generally easy to use and I had heard good reviews of the Nespresso coffee makers.

Last night and this morning I did some more research online and went to Wiliam Sanoma this afternon and asked some questions. Once I was done there M and I went to the Nespresso Cafe on Madisson. One of the advantages of living in a big city is if a company is going to have an outlet store it will be in NY.

The Nespresso Cafe was pretty cool. It was a real cafe were you could get coffee and pastries but it also sold the coffee machines. I asked a bunch of questions and then they actually made M and I cup’s of Capuchinno using the model machines we were looking at. They tasted great. I opted to get a regular Espresso maker and a seperate milk frother vs the all in one unit. The price was the same but we wanted to have two units in case there was an issue with one so we don’t have to replace the whole thing.

M surprised me by buying everything since she owed me an anniversary gift. I will take delicious coffee over jewelry any day.

Registry Update

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Tonight M and I met up at Bryant Park for a quick dinner before going to work on our wedding registry again.  We got sandwiches at Witch Craft.  It was really yummy as always but we almost got drenched when it started to rain.  We got luck and weren’t too bad off.

After our brush with water we headed up town to Crate & Barrel to work get to work on our wedding registry.  We went to Macys already but there was a bunch of stuff we wanted to get from Crate and Barrel.  Their process was as easy or even easier than Macy’s.  We got the bar code reading gun and a tutorial and off we went.  I think we rounded out what we needed so we were very pleased.  We almost didn’t realize the store was closing and had to leave at 8:30.  As a rule when they stop playing music it is time to go.

Afterward we walked towards the train station but made a detour to Dillan’s Candy Shop for some Ice Cream.  It was a great end to a very productive and fun day.

Beginning a Gift Registry

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Today M went with one of her brides maid’s to look for a dress.  I got to lounge around in the morning.  Afterward I went to do some shopping at Macys.  M meet up with me and we went to work on our wedding registry.

The registry process (at least at Macy’s) was kinda fun.  We went and got a scanner gun and walked around scanning things we wanted.  They would immediately be visible on my iPhone.  We spent a few hours going through looking for items we wanted.

We found a bunch of stuff we were looking for but we are no were near complete.  We need to goto a few other stores in the next few weeks before we can tell people.

Meetup’s with Friends and Family

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Today M and I went upstate again to visit a different friend. One of her best friends since growing up was visiting her parents lake house and we decided to go up and see her and her kids.  She is not around too often since she lives near DC.  Getting there was as painful as going to Jayson.  It was 90 minutes on Metro North.

The house was amazing.  it was right on the water with a pool.  We had a great afternoon.  I will say that houses with kids pack the best snacks.  M and I were very well fed.

After the lake afternoon we headed back into the city to meet up with M’s oldest nephew, and in 6 months my soon to be oldest nephew and a friend of his who were in town for the weekend.  We ate at the Shake Shack.  As always it was delicious.

Once we were full from burgers we pondered about were to go with the out of town college kids.  Once we realized that Ryan’s friend never has been in a tall building we headed to The View at the Marriot.  Even for people who live in NYC, having drinks on the 48th floor in a revolving restaurant was pretty cool.  We had a good evening and it was fun taking the “kids” around the city.

We cabbed it home since it was late and we were pretty lazy!

Wednesday 8-10-2011

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Wednsday was a pretty good day.  I was really busy, but nothing massive happened at work so that was a nice change.  Well on retrospect i did get word that some system was getting a last mintue redesign but it honestly didn’t phase me to much so that was good.

For dinner we made sandwiches.  I had peanut butter.  I know so glamorous.  I also donated to the Colbert SuperPAC.  The email and photo I got back was so funny it was totally worth the money I donated.  Now I must wait to see when I get my name on the air!

We didn’t do that much wedding planning tonight.  We were just tired and hung out.  Tomorrow is engagement photo day so we are going to be off to Central Park with the photographers.

Monday 8-8-2011

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I worked from home today. It was hot out and I was glad not to have to go outside very much. I had calls almost all day and then I worked till after 7PM catching up on mail.

M brought home swordfish to grill. We ended up eating some really good cheese and some bread before just sharing one of the swordfish. I am thinking we may do that again tomorrow. It was that good.

Rain Day

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Today was a lazy Sunday! Well lazy in the fact that we stayed in, but we did do work. We worked on wedding stuff, as well as household stuff. We were originally going to take some engagement photos with the wedding photographer but due to the weather we all agreed to reschedule. It is now going to be after work on Thursday.

We cooked some ravioli for dinner. I find it kind of funny that the stuff we get at the grocery store down the street that can last for like 30 months in the fridge is almost as good as the stuff we get at the fancy grocery store in Grand Central Market. Of course since it is around the same price we can switch between the two but i still find it sort of amusing.

Saturday Visiting Friends

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Today M and I went to visit a college friend of hers upstate. It was a generally low key day. She had 3 small kids and is recovering from some surgery so we just hung out and talked. Then took the kids to the park for a bit. It was a bit muggy out but the park was fun.

M & I were going to buy stuff from Grand Central Market and cook but I was feeling lazy so we went to an Italian place in Grand Central and had Calzones. They were really good.

Wedding Planning Update

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July was a busy month.  We picked a date for the wedding and set the venue.  We are set for January 8th, 2012 at The View on The Hudson.  We are very excited.  The View looks fantastic and the view itself (of the Hudson) was spectacular.

As the month came to a close we also decided on a photographer.  Well actually it is two photographers.  We were very impressed with Shelley & Keith and are excited to see how awsome they make us look!

M is also pretty sure she has found the florist she likes for the wedding.  I say M has done that since officially I don’t want to be associated with a decision on a floristh.  Ok, he does look pretty fantastic so we are excited.  As luck would have it who we are ending up with is someone M has used for years, and if it wasn’t for his website we would never have found the View on the Hudson as a venue.

We also spent some time with Jayson working on engagement photos.  Jayson is over achieving as the best man and took us out to the campus of Vasser College when M & I were visiting for Seth’s birthday party.  We got some great photo’s around the campus.  We may still get photos with our wedding photographer duo since the package we picked included it but the pic’s Jayson took came out fantastic!

The Meeting of the Families

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Today was the day that my parents and M’s parents met for the first time.  We decided on Sunday brunch to bring everyone together.  I will be honest and say I was a bit nervous.  I think I get along with M’s parents great, and my parents love her but just getting them all in the same room for the first time you never know what anyone is going to say.

I didn’t have that much to worry about.  Or I should rephrase, I think I had plenty to worry about but everything was as close to perfect as you can get in a situation like that.  We picked a really nice brunch place in mid-town.  It was a really good buffet and all the parents were on their best behaviors.  All in all a good meeting.

After the brunch my parents drove us home and they got to see the apartment for the first time.  It was a brief visit since they had to run home, but at least they got to see it.

The rest of the day was much tamer than the early afternoon and M and I just hung out and got work done around the house.