Sushi Tasting Menu

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Tonight MC and I finally used a Travelzoo discount MC got me for Fathers Day.  It was something like 75% off a 6 course tasting menu at a very well reviewed sushi restaurant.  I didn’t know until last night it was in the Katano Hotel were Joe & Karen got married.  We scheduled for our baby sitter to stay late with Teagan and we went out to dinner.

The location in relation to our offices wasn’t optimal since there was no direct subway so we ended up walking in 90+ degree heat to the place.  The exercise was great but the heat was brutal.

I didn’t realize it was a tasting menu when we I got the present.  Generally I am wary of them because i am picky.  This time it was generally good.  There was something for me to eat in every course.  I was even a bit adventurous and tried some new stuff.  I am not a fan of eggplant.  The food was very good.  I was just still hungry after the meal before desert.  I ended up ordering 3 pieces of ale cart sushi.  I even splurged on a $13 piece of fatty tuna.  It was well worth it.  Very tasty.  The entire meal was very tasty.  I am not sure if we would do it again especially since the full price meal would have been a huge bill, but we were both glad we did it.

Out of Town Guests

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Friday MC’s sister in law Cathy came to visit.  She hasn’t seen Teagan since before she was 6 months.  She lives far enough away that trips are difficult.  We meet her in Bryant park and then took the subway home.  MC and Cathy went to dinner and I put Teagan to bed.  After they got back from dinner we hung out and talked a bit.

This morning we were all tired because Teagan was up for over an hour at around 1AM or so crying.  She is typically a great sleeper and a great baby but we think she was teething.  She kept us all up.  Once we were up we all went for breakfast.  The french cafe place we wanted to goto was busy so we ended up at an irish place that does breakfast/brunch.  MC and I have walked past it before but never tried it.  I had an omelette.  It was good.  We all shared scones.  They were ok, but the ones at the farmers market i typically get on Sunday’s are much better.  Teagan was great at breakfast and sat in her stroller almost the hole time.  After breakfast we walked Cathy to the subway and said our goodbyes.  I grabbed a Cappuccino at Starbucks (one ding against the breakfast place was they only did regular coffee).  From there we ran one or two errands and then went home and feed Teagan lunch.

In the afternoon we ran out again to goto the grocery store.  MC wanted to look for fresh food to use to prepare meals for Teagan.  We ended up opting not to get anything and will use Fresh direct since it looks like they had better stuff.  On the way home I ran over to the Liquor store and got some Pimms.  I wanted to get some for a while since I really liked the taste when I had some in the UK last year.  Thankfully the store by our apartment had some and we just bought the rest of the ingredients and the grocery store.  I made one to have at dinner and it was very tasty.

We made fish and potatoes for dinner.  I tried tuna instead of the usual sword fish i like.  I was not as big of a fan with the tuna.  I will go back to sword fish next time.

 

Baby Proofing

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Baby proofing tonight or attempting to. We need an extra extension on the baby gate so we are not going to get those up today. The edge cover for the coffee table we got is horrible so we need to find an alternative because my glass coffee table is awesome looking but a huge hazard for Teagan. What we have now is good for a few days but we need to replace it.

My 2nd Attempt at an iMovie Did Include Babies and Animals

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After our trip to Jayson & Gretchen’s we had a ton of video of Teagan.  I wanted to share it with our family but some of it was long clips with not much action and then we had several clips that were very short.  Lauren’s awesome job of putting together my dad’s 70th birthday video got me to finally try iMovie a week or so ago.  It went so well that I wanted to take the footage we had of Teagan with Jayson’s dog and clip it together.  By doing that I learned that 1, it is pretty fun and cool to do.  2, its a huge time sink.  Thankfully it was only 3 minutes of video i created in the end but i can see even slightly more elaborate videos sucking up my time.  I already want to go back and make a montage video of Teagan’s first year, but I just dont have the time to do that right now.

Maybe i didnt try the software enough but I don’t remember iMovie being that easy a few years ago.  I know Final Cut Express was not very easy and after trying both of them I gave up on video editing for a while.  I am glad I gave it another try.  These video’s wont be my last that I work on!

Long Commute Home

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Sat on the subway for an hour getting home tonight. Only saw Teagan for 5 minutes or O before I had to feed her and put her to bed:(. She was tired though and went right down after I put her in her crib

Hung Out at Home

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We took our last day of the 4 day weekend and decided to relax a bit.  We went out to the farmers market near austin street and got breakfast.  We sat and ate in the shade in the park.  It was nice, even if it was super hot.

We decided to spend most of the day at home and try to unwind before the work week started.  Teagan however didn’t get the memo.  She was crawling everywhere.  This weekend she figured out she can use her new crawling skills to get all over the apartment.  We do not have any baby gates up yet so we have to follow her around the apartment when she goes off on any adventures.  Until this weekend she has been great so far and only stayed in her play area.  After running around MC and I decided to finally order the baby gates and some additional safety gear.  We were held up because we have an opening by her play area that is over 80″ in length.  We didn’t want to drill holes into molding but no friction mount system will work on a space that large.  We (MC) figured out a compromise that will get us to drill holes in the walls avoiding the molding.

In the late afternoon MC took Teagan to the pool but couldn’t get in since it was so hot and the pool was at capacity.  She ended up in the park using the sprinkler.  They both had fun even if they couldn’t goto the pool.  It was a nice end to a great activity filled weekend.

Road Trip to Jayson’s (and Gretchen’s)

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Today we got up early and got a Zipcar and went to Jayson & Gretchen’s for the day.  It was funny since we thought there was going to be a BBQ but they canceled the BBQ since it was going to be super hot and they just wanted to catch up with us.  The drive up was ok.  Teagan was fussy for the first 45 minutes to an hour.  We are not sure why.  She typically goes right down for a nap in the car but didn’t this trip.  After stopping for a few minutes along the way she did settle down.

We got to see their new garden and chickens they were raising.  I still find it a bit funny that Jayson is trying to raise chickens but I also think its really cool.  I am not sure if I would put that much work into it.  Teagan got to pet some chickens.  She also got to play with Seth and Eli.  She got along with both of them but her new friend is Seth.  She was making her laugh so much it was so cute to see.

Teagan also got to play with their dog Hemmi.  As we were driving up MC asked if we could take Teagan to a dog park one day.  I then was wondering who we knew with a dog she could play with instead.  Then it dawned on both of us that we were driving to a friends house who had a dog.  Teagan chased Hemmi all over.  She was generally gentle but did pull his ears a bit.  She had fun, and i would like to think Hemmi did too.

On the way home we were smart and finally asked Jayson & Gretchen the best route to take since the way we have been going to them has no traffic but its a very tight windy road.  They told us a better way that uses interstates.  it may get more chance of traffic and be slightly (5-10 minutes) longer but it was worth the risk and the ride was much easier.

Overall it was a good day with old friends.

Flushing Meadow Park Take Two

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Today we went to flushing meadow park. Last time we went Teagan ended up sleeping through the Zoo and was only mildly interested in the Animals at the petting Zoo.  Today we wanted to take her to the carousel.  She has been riding her Lion like a horse so we thought she might enjoy the carousel.  First MC took her on a little train ride.  It was just a train that went around in a circle but it was a perfect ride for a 9 month old baby.  She enjoyed the train a lot, and I was able to get a bunch of good photos of her and MC on it.  The carousel on the other hand Teagan did not like as much.  I put her on one of the horses that move up and down since she always tries to rock on the lion we have.  She was very excited when she was sitting on the horse before we started moving.  As we started moving however she was less happy.  She didn’t really cry but you could see from her face she wasn’t having a great time.  I am not sure if it was the speed, the wind, or the going up and down that wasn’t fun for her.  Next time we will try a non moving horse.

After the rides we went to the petting zoo.  Teagan got to pet a few animals and feed one or two.  It was super hot and there weren’t as many animals out as there was the last time we went there.  After a short time at the petting zoo we headed home.  MC took Teagan to the pool in the late afternoon while I got ready for the reunion that I will write about in the next post.

T at The Beach for First Time (Sort of)

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Today for the 4th of July we went with my mom to the beach.  T was at the beach once in Florida but she never got out in the sand to play so today was really her first trip to play at the beach.

My mom’s beach club is near the beach club we went to when i was growing up in Atlantic Beach.  We got a late start but once we arrived my mom got a baby pool with an umbrella setup for T.  She had a blast playing around in the pool.  She also tried her hand at eating sand.  She didn’t like it, but that didn’t stop her from trying again, and again.

After the kiddie pool we took her to the ocean and stood her up and let the waves crash into her legs.  she had a blast doing that.  Since M, T, and to some degree I am sensitive to the sun we didn’t stay at the ocean that long.  After that T hung out in pool again, ate, and then we took her for a walk on the boardwalk and she feel asleep for a nap.  After that we headed home.  My mom was nice enough to give us a ride to and from the beach.  it was a nice day.