Bagels, Bed, Bath, Beyond, and Beanbags

Last Sunday, we put on our tourist hats and headed downtown.  We checked out the Brooklyn Bridge (built from 1870 - 1883!), the South Street Seaport at Pier 17, and Battery Park.  While we were down that way, we saw the four waterfalls which comprise Olafur Eliasson's latest bit of installation art, on display until October.  In all honesty, the waterfalls are a bit underwhelming, but still cool.

Also while we were down there, we checked out the "Playing the Building" exhibit by David Byrne, famous for founding the Talking Heads.  Basically, Mr. Byrne has taken an old ferry terminal building and turned the entire thing into an instrument, controlled by a single console organ keyboard situated in the middle of the open room.  The concept itself is rather interesting, though the music it puts out is reminiscent of a horror flick.

Friday evening, we finally managed to see a free outdoor concert that *didn't* get rained out!  We saw Alvin and the Sound Merchants at Bryant Park, along with our friends Joel and Kelly.  After the concert, we headed down to Cosmic Cantina near Union Square for a couple beers, followed by a couple more beers at our friendly neighborhood pub - the Banshee - followed by sleep.

Saturday was a spectacular day - bright blue sky, low humidity, perfect temperature.  We started off with two hours of breakfast, coffee, and reading at Gotham Coffeehouse.  We continued with four hours of sunning and reading at Central Park. Then, after a great dinner at a hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant on the west side, we finished off the day with an awesome concert - "She and Him" playing at Terminal 5.

Let me tell you about "She and Him". . .

Him: M. Ward.  (M stands for Matt, not Montgomery as I originally guessed.)  We got turned on to M. Ward's music about two years ago.  Spectacular guitar player with a cool, smoky voice.

She: Zooey Deschanel.  We (okay, I) got turned on to her in 2003, when she co-starred with Will Ferrell in "Elf".  If you saw the movie, you certainly remember she and Will Ferrell singing 'Baby, it's Cold Outside' in the mall bathroom, and you know that she has a really cool voice.

Fast forward to April of this year, when we saw in one of the NY daily newspapers that "She" and "Him" had started performing together.  Great stuff.  Their music has a very retro, 60's feel (old folks, correct me if I'm off by a decade or two), but it sounds new, due in part to his creative guitar work and her very unique voice.

So, anyways, the concert was just great.  Oh yeah, we should also mention that one of the opening acts, a North Carolina band called "The Rosebuds", was also very good.

Today was a big day.  After a big bagel breakfast, we bounded to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy bulk bath bar soap.  Then, on our way back, we burst into a furniture store that sells beanbags.  So, in celebration of four months of living in NYC, we came home with a big bulky beanbag built for two!  (Four months *is* the beanbag anniversary, right?)  For the few of you that have seen our apartment, this thing is slightly larger than our couch, which makes it slightly smaller than our entire living room.  Sweet.

With love,

Katy and Erik

The Pics of the Litter

We had high hopes for this post, but alas. . .

This was going to be a really great post.  We were going to talk about the free New York Philharmonic concert on Governor's Island!  We were going to talk about another free concert in Madison Square Park!  We were going to talk about taking a train up the Hudson River valley and seeing all the cool little towns along the way!  We were going to add heroic tales including princes and princesses and sword-fights and magic forests!  

Free New York Philharmonic concert on Governor's Island?  Rained out.

Free concert in Madison Square Park?  Rained out.

Train trip up the Hudson?  Oddly, the weather was actually *too* nice that weekend, so we never made it farther than Central Park.

Heroic tale of princes, princesses, sword-fights, and magic forests?  It's already been done.  Read "The Princess Bride."

So, you might ask, what *do* we have to talk about?  Well, we might mention playing thirty or so games of cribbage spread over a few rainy days.  We might tell you about our walk up the East River to Carl Schurz Park and the Gracie Mansion.  We could tell you about three consecutive, crushing wins by the Duke Club of NY softball team.  We might tell you about Erik's trip to Chicago, a going-away party at Jadis on the Lower East Side, or even our trip down to Pier 17.  We could tell you of our amazing display of frisbee prowess in the park.  And, if we really wanted to put you to sleep, we could tell you about all the wonderful food we've had recently --- terribly good Mexican at Rosa's, unbelievably good cupcakes and coffee cake  at Two Little Red Hen's, or some handmade pasta and sauce from Agata & Valentina.  

But we're not going to tell you about any of that.  So there.

With love,

Katy and Erik

Fun with Explosives!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Today brought a gray, drizzly day here in the city, but that didn't stop our friends at Macy's from rolling out thirty minutes of controlled explosives. Although there was no way to capture it with the camera, the coolest part about this fireworks show is that there are actually three separate shows, each precisely in unison with the others. From our vantage point, we could see two of the shows clearly, and they were timed within milliseconds. Pretty incredible.

From our apartment, we just walked two blocks over to the East River and staked out a spot along the railing. Once there, we made two new friends, Cheddar (an adorable Boston Terrier) and his owner, Jess.

Enjoy the photos.

With love,

Katy and Erik

A Big Apple-achia Wednesday!

Welcome back to Katy and Erik's award-winning blog. We're glad you're here.

Living here in Asphaltopolis, there's a few things that we don't have much of. Grass is one of them. Outside of Central Park, you have to search far and wide for grass, and when you find it, you're either in Connecticut or you just gave a guy forty bucks in a dark alley, and that wasn't the kind of grass you were looking for anyways.

Another thing we don't have much of is bluegrass. . .you know, the kind with fiddles and banjos and genetically-less-diverse mountain folk?

So, imagine our surprise Wednesday night when we found both at the same time! Real live grass and real live bluegrass in the same place. Every Wednesday evening during the Summer, the Madison Square Park Conservancy puts on a free concert in the park. This week, they brought in some Appalachian flavor, as Cherryholmes took the stage.

Cherryholmes is a really talented bluegrass band. They are also a family band --- father, mother, two sons, and two daughters. As the father joked, the fact that they spend 300 days a year together in a 45-foot bus might explain why all of their songs are murder-ballads. The father, I should mention, has a beard that makes Uncle Hunter look prepubescent.

New York City sent out a great crowd on a perfect evening. For a bunch of New Yorkers listening to 90 minutes of twang-twang music, they were pretty into it. On the other hand, every one of the father's hillbilly-twinged jokes fell flat. Nice effort, though.

For dinner that night, we paid a visit to the NYC version of Cosmic Cantina, one of our old college hangouts in Durham, North Carolina. Just as we remembered, the burritos were great, but there were two notable differences. On the plus side, the NYC Cosmic has homemade, organic tortillas. On the down side, our old $6 Constance burrito is apparently made with three gallons of unleaded. . .

Love to all,

Katy and Erik

One half decade of pure marital bliss!

Yesterday, we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. Go us!

We began the day-long celebration with some fantastic grocery store bagels and donuts. Don't laugh, they're actually really good. After that, we hiked over to the big, centrally-located park (aka, Central Park) for yet another Duke softball game. While Katy sunbathed, Erik and his fellow Blue Devils put a whippin' on the weenies from Boston College. After the game, we stuck around and threw the frisbee on the Great Lawn for a while, until we set off to find some air conditioning.

For our real anniversary celebration, we had dinner at Lumi, a nice Italian restaurant just a couple blocks from the apartment. This place is famous (infamous?) for its role in the "Sex and the City" movie --- after Charlotte and Mr. Big ran into each other inside, Charlotte's water broke on the curb outside. Makes you hungry already, right? For those who have seen the movie (and managed to make it out alive), we sat at the very same table as Mr. Big. Lumi served up a great meal, and we had a really nice time.

For those of you wondering how a relationship can be so strong after five years, I have a couple insights into our marriage:

First, the wife must establish dominance. Katy did this recently by stabbing Erik in the foot with a dull spoon. This is not a joke. I literally was bleeding from my foot. What was really remarkable was that Katy simply "dropped" the spoon from the kitchen counter. . .sure, I believe her.

Second, the wife must establish her territory. This explains why all of Erik's clothes are now in the pantry. This is also not a joke. You can see in the picture that I have been allotted a 2' x 3' space to the right of the toaster oven and under the KitchenAid mixer and Krups espresso maker. This brings up an interesting point. . .why have no cookies come from the KitchenAid mixer in the past three months?

Okay, the truth is that we have a wonderful marriage, despite the occasional spoon-stabbing and closet-annexation. Our first five years have been great, and we are looking forward to (at least) five more!

Love to all,

Katy and Erik

A Double-Double-Header Weekend!

After Erik landed at Newark Airport at 1 a.m. on Saturday, Erik and Katy were back together in the big city!

On Saturday, while Katy worked, Erik played the first of two weekend softball games with the Duke Club of NY, losing in extra innings to the friendly folks from the University of Chicago.

That night, after a tasty southwestern dinner and margaritas at Mustang Grill & Tequila Lounge, we hit up the movie theater for a double-feature. First, Katy dragged Erik, kicking and screaming, to see "Sex and the City", which fortunately wasn't nearly as bad as the HBO series on which the movie is based. After that fantastic moving picture show, we headed across the hall and saw "Get Smart", which was really, really funny.

On Sunday, Erik played in the second weekend softball game against Duke's hated rivals. . .the Tar Holes of North Carolina. This was a scene from The Sandlot. We showed up with only eight players (a ninth showed up late), no uniforms, and a ragtag bunch of misfits. They showed up with twenty players, three coaches, sparkling baby-blue jerseys, and a heaping pile of attitude. Then we trounced them by twelve runs. Go Duke.

A Visit to the Left Coast

After a great weekend in Texas, Katy and Erik headed in opposite directions. Katy went back to NYC for a week of work and delivered dinners, while Erik joined a couple colleagues for a week on the west coast --- San Francisco, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Portland (great town), and Seattle.

Generally, I wouldn't waste everyone's time with talk of a business trip, but it is worth noting that the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica made a big, big mistake. They literally must have been out of rooms, because for my one-night stay, I ended up in the Palm Suite. . .which has ruined every other hotel room for the rest of my life. When I walked in and saw the baby grand piano in the middle of the living room, I immediately called down to the front desk to make sure it wasn't a mistake.

Unfortunately, we hadn't checked in until after 9 p.m., so I had to stay up most of the night to enjoy the room. . .grand piano, three flatscreen TVs, two bathrooms (complete with bidet), full kitchen and dining room, four walkout patios and one furnished deck overlooking the Pacific, and a separate tub/shower room. . .which on its own was bigger than our apartment. I literally used everything in this room, except for the bidets. . .I promise. I even ironed. I didn't go to sleep until after 3 a.m., which made me pretty worthless the next day.

It is very obvious to me that I don't belong in a hotel room like that, because I went out of my way to take all the soaps, shampoos, and Q-tips. I also counted the light switches (18) and giggled out loud while playing chopsticks on the piano at 2 in the morning.

Broiling in Big D!

For the first time since moving to the concrete wonderland, we paid a visit to Big D. Katy flew out on Friday, 6/13, just in time for Jason, Kacey, and Katy's birthday dinner at Pappas' Steakhouse, where they ate our favorite steak in the world. Meanwhile, Erik was "enjoying" a 6-inch Spicy Italian from Subway. No hard feelings, though.

Saturday morning, 6/14, Erik flew out wicked early (4 a.m. cab ride, 6 a.m. flight) and joined Katy in the land of heat. That evening, we had a big Cartwright family get-together at Katy's grandmother's house, home of the BEST view in Texas. A wonderful evening was shared by all --- Katy's grandmother and parents; Jason, Kacey, Jake, Katy, and Erik; Kathy and Randy; Shawna, Jillian and Derek; Bennie and Judy (Jake's folks); and Berklee the Wonderdog, who spent the evening (successfully) looking for mud in the woods.

On Sunday, Doc, Jason, and Erik played 18 holes at Grand Oaks. Scorecard update: 95 golf strokes, 17 heat strokes. It was 101 degrees that afternoon. (For us wimpy northerners, it felt like 101 degrees Celsius.)

Sunday evening, we met Josh, Rosemary, Kaylin (their new, beautiful baby girl), Jamie, Isaac, and Pete at Uncle Julio's for dinner. The only disappointment was the lack of real tomatoes in the salsa. . .seriously, I'm willing to take my chances with salmonella for some Uncle Julio's salsa. After a great dinner, we all headed over to the Briggle Bungalow and watched the fourth round of the U.S. Open. (Go Tiger!)

On Monday, Katy and Erik parted ways, as Erik headed for a week-long business trip on the west coast, while Katy (after several hours of flight delays) found her way back to NYC.

It was absolutely wonderful to see everyone back home.

Love to all.

Big Apple to Big D!

It was another fast week here in the Big Apple Pie.

Monday and Tuesday, we recovered from eating street meet all weekend.

Wednesday evening, we ventured down to Gramercy Park for dinner and a concert. Dinner was provided by our friends at the New York Burger Co. (Fun fact: this was Erik's *first* hamburger since mid-March. That means I have had sushi twice, Turkish twice, street meat a dozen times, three-hundred and twelve bagels, fourteen hot dogs, and seventy-six pounds of barbecue since my last burger. How sad!)

After that wonderful beef-in-a-bun, we went and saw Tift Merritt (opening) and James Hunter (headlining, with guest Allen Toussaint) at the Blender Theater. This was not a concert that we would typically have sought out, but it came highly recommended by a co-worker, and we definitely were not disappointed. Tift Merritt is a great songwriter with an even more amazing voice. James Hunter is the most soulful Brit you could ever imagine, while Allen Toussaint represents all that is wonderful about his hometown New Orleans.

Tonight, we celebrated Katy's birthday (early) with cupcakes from the Two Little Red Hens Bakery. Thanks to Katy's insatiable addiction to sweets, we have tried cupcakes from all over the city, and these are the best, hands down.

Tomorrow, Katy is off to Dallas to spend her birthday weekend with the Cartwright's, where Erik will join her on Saturday!

Love to all,

Katy and Erik

Eatin' Meat on the Street in the Heat

The Big Apple was more like a Big Apple Pie this weekend. . .steaming hot.

On Saturday afternoon, we cruised the First Avenue street fair, where anything you could ever imagine was for sale. We took a pass on the bansai trees, tube socks (10 pair, $10), and tweezers, but we were suckered in by the fresh-squeeezed lemonade, sausage hoagie, and chicken strips.

Once stuffed with greasy food, we hopped on the crosstown bus to the Boat Basin. There, we enjoyed a couple frozen drinks, watched another failed Triple Crown attempt at the Belmont Stakes, and then parked ourselves on a bench looking out on the Hudson River. We sat on the edge of the river until the sun set over the New Jersey skyline.

On Sunday, we hopped on the subway down to Madison Square Park to attend the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. There, we met up with a couple friends for a brief chat, followed by a sampling of some great barbecue from around the country. Our favorite was Ubon's from Yazoo, Mississippi, where Katy sweet-talked the pitmaster into giving her an extra fistful of pulled pork. . .no plate, no utensils, just a fistful of pork from his hand to hers. . .how sweet. Second place goes to The Salt Lick from Driftwood, Texas. Of course, it did feel a bit silly waiting in line for 45 minutes in New York City just to buy a plate of barbecue from a Texas restaurant. . .a place we never bothered to visit when we actually lived in Texas. In addition to all the great smells and tastes, we also enjoyed some fantastic live music from Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves.

Once we had our fill of meat and heat, we headed on back home and crashed under the air conditioner.

Coming up never, on ESPN. . .

While the Duran Duran concert was certainly the high point of last weekend, there was more. . .

Erik and Richard passed a couple hours on Saturday afternoon at the Museum of Natural History, which is (a) incredible and (b) far too big. In two hours, we literally covered two rooms out of about thirty. Granted, one of the rooms is large enough to house a to-scale blue whale suspended from the ceiling, but still.

After Katy got off work, she met us on the west side, where we ate an early dinner of Dim Sum at a place called China Fun. Now, as a general rule, you should never eat at a place with "Fun" in the name. Would you ever eat at Burger Fun? Dairy Fun? McFunald's? Taco Fun? Fun & Jerry's? Funnigan's? TGI Funday's? Fun-kin Donuts? Krispy Fun? Pizza Fun? Ruth's Chris Funhouse? Pappafundeaux's? Chick-Fun-A? Papa Fun's? Funkle Julio's? Nope. You wouldn't. So, why would we, three intelligent human beings, go to a place called China Fun for dinner, when there were 37 other restaurants on the same block? I don't know. But it was good.

The next morning, Katy and I grabbed a bag of bagels (not from Funstein's, that's for sure) and took them over to the boat basin. There, we ate brunch with Erik's dad at a picnic bench overlooking the Hudson River. After brunch, we waved goodbye as he and CeeCee headed back to the SV Kelly Rae, which that afternoon would carry them down the Hudson River, around the tip of Manhattan, up the East River, through Hell's Gate, and into Long Island Sound.

That afternoon, Erik made his softball debut in Central Park, where the Duke Club of New York took on the U of Michigan Business School in a friendly doubleheader. After a close loss in the first game, we trounced those 'maize and blue' pansies in a game-two shutout. Looking back, I don't really know how we pitched a shutout in softball. . .that shouldn't be possible. . .maybe U of M left after the first game. Weird. We played again Thursday evening against a scrappy team from Cornell. They took us to extra-innings, but in the end, the Blue Devils prevailed by one run. As many of you can attest, I'm not much of a ballplayer, but there is something really cool about playing softball on the Great Lawn of Central Park.

There is also one major obstacle to playing in Central Park: people, lots of people. There are eight softball fields on the great lawn, and they all face in toward the middle of a giant grass oval. However, there are no fences (or chalk-lines, even) that separate the fields from the rest of the lawn, so the boundary between "lawn" and "outfield" is pretty much nonexistent. The net result is that playing outfield requires a bit of agility in order navigate sunbathers, frisbee-players, cell-phone-talkers-and-wanderers, and other miscreants who do not value their own safety. In fact, it is a ground-rule double if you hit a person. . .no joke. One particularly funny scene erupted on Sunday afternoon when one of our players (not me, naturally) crushed one out to center field, right where a group of young men was circled up and passing around a hand-rolled cigarette (not of the tobacco variety, I'm afraid). Let's just say these guys were already a bit paranoid, so when everyone started screaming at them to watch out, they frantically scattered in a dozen different directions, arms and legs flailing. It looked like an old comedy routine on 8-mm film. It was genius.

This weekend is a big one here in the city. First of all, it's really, really hot and really, really humid. Second, there is a huge street festival on First Avenue, right by the apartment. . .which is perfect, because the only thing I crave when it's 97 degrees outside is some fried street-food. Third, the annual Puerto Rico parade is tomorrow on Fifth Avenue, which should be a much bigger party than last week's Israel parade (no offense to Israel, it's just that their parade was a bit lame). And, finally, this weekend is the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. . .again, warm beer, ribs, and baked beans sure hit the spot when your flip-flops are melting to your feet!

Love to all,

Erik & Katy

So, 80's music *can* be ejoyable!

On Friday evening, May 30th, Katy, Erik and Richard met up at Zabar's, a super-duper-gourmet-deli-grocery place in the Upper West Side, where we grabbed a bunch of picnic food and then headed to Central Park.

Once in the park, we staked out a patch of grass (mulch, really), plopped down our blanket, and then settled in for a free concert. Actually, the concert wasn't free to the gullible people who coughed up $65 each to see Duran Duran from the comfort of a hard plastic bench in a crowded ampitheater, when they could have sat *for free* on the lawn, ate their own food, drank their own beer, and heard the music just as well.

For those of you wondering what Duran Duran's music sounds like these days, you should grab that box of cassette tapes out of your attic, go to Radio Shack and buy a tape player (since you threw yours away six years ago), pop in the A Side of "Rio", pray that the tape hasn't melted in the attic, and then you'll know. Their music hasn't changed since 1987. They could have been lip-synching from that very same cassette tape.

But, darn it, it was a great evening. Central Park was (and is) beautiful, the weather was perfect, the food was wonderful (particularly the assortment of green olives. . .you missed out, Nancy!), there were dogs playing, there were kids screaming and dancing, and the 80's music was. . .well, it was 80's music.

Walking (Working?) in Memphis

After a lovely Memorial Day weekend, Erik's dad returned to the SV Kelly Rae on the bouncy & noisy Hudson River, while Erik and Katy returned to work, so that they might pay rent again next month.

Wednesday afternoon, I (Erik) traveled to Memphis, Tennessee for a quick business trip. So, here are my travel recommendations:

Go to Memphis. Stay just long enough to see Beale Street for a night, sample 2-3 barbecue joints, view the muddy waters of the Mississippi, and pay your respects to Elvis.

For a great place to crash, try the Madison Hotel, housed in the former Tennessee Trust building, built in 1905. Of note, the basement gym is actually built into the bank's old vault. They have left exposed the 2" thick steel and the wall-sized vault door and locking mechanism, which you see from the inside. I generally don't spend time in gyms when traveling (or ever, really), but this one was spectacular.

I also strongly recommend the dry-rub charcoal ribs at Charlie Vergo's Rendezvous, which is located in a basement accessible only from a dark alley across the street from the famous Peabody Hotel. And, for the best airport food ever, check out Jim Neely's Interstate Barbecue in the Memphis airport. There, you can get fall-off-the-bone ribs, but for the more adventurous, you can also get your hands on barbecue bologna and barbecue spaghetti, which are both WAY better than they sound.

A funny moment. . .My traveling companions and I engaged in a barbecue-related conversation with an older, opinionated, African-American gentleman, who knew Memphis and barbecue very well. When discussing the dry-rub ribs at the Rendezvous, he commented, "If I want my food to be crunchy, I'll eat some damn corn flakes!"

Memories of Memorial Day Weekend

Welcome back, readers.

In the last episode, our two intrepid sailors had just reached land after a daring journey from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey to Manhattan Island, New York, where they were met by the angelic Katy. The three travelers and their fearless hunting dog, CeeCee, then embarked on an equally-brave adventure over land. They walked from the Hudson River at 79th Street all the way to the East River at 71st Street. The trip normally takes about 45 minutes, but our travelers accomplished the feat in just under two hours, as the aforementioned fearless hunting dog had to sniff (and pee on) every single bush, tree, fire hydrant, newspaper stand, human, dog, sign post, and manhole cover along the route.

[switching back to first-person now]

After we all made it back to the apartment, we left the dog to her nap and headed to Finnegan's Wake Pub for a pitcher, followed by a great dinner at Cilantro.

Just as we had previously taken Erik's mom to Alice's Teacup for Mother's Day, on Sunday we took Erik's dad ("Richard") to Alice's Teacup for (an early) Father's Day. . .gotta keep the score even, you know. There, we had the best scones ever*, the best tea ever**, and some darn good food. After stuffing ourselves, we spent the better part of the day at Central Park, which was rather full of people due to the incredibly nice weather. We sunbathed, we people-watched, we read, we frisbeed (is that a verb?), we hot-dogged, and we people-watched some more. That evening, we again stuffed ourselves with some great barbecue at Brother Jimmy's, followed by a little ice cream party back at the apartment.

Monday was kicked off by some French toast, courtesy of Richard and his boat-made bread. The fact that homemade bread can even be made in the SV Kelly Rae's tiny kitchen (or, galley, as we like to call it) is a small miracle. Better yet, it's actually really good.

After breakfast, Katy had to go to work, so Erik and Richard made a beeline (via the 79th Street Boat Basin, Times Square, and Bryant Park) to Greenwich Village. There, we found a great little bookstore, where Richard stocked up on used books for the boat, and an even better bar --- the White Horse Tavern. The White Horse Tavern has been around since 1880, but it is mostly famous for being a hangout of such notable figures as Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, and Jack Kerouac during the mid-20th Century. After enjoying a couple cold beers on their sidewalk patio, we moved on, walking through the West Village, the (recently-gentrified) Meatpacking District, Union Square, and then back home.

It was indeed a Memorial Day to remember.

* Here, "best scones ever" really means best scones ever. Particularly the pumpkin. With the strawberry-banana a close second.
** Here, "best tea ever" really means very good tea, but who can tell the difference between varieties of black tea anyways? It could have been overpriced Lipton, for all we know.

He's Papa, the Sailor Man!

(to the tune of "Popeye")

He's Papa the sailor-man,
he sails with a cocker spaniel,
They wander the coast,
eating fried Spam™ and toast,
he's Papa the sailor-man!

After a tough (cough, cough) winter of wandering Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, and the Bahamas, Erik's dad made his way north up the coast. When he reached Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, he realized that he was out of his league and was going to need a local man of the sea* to help navigate through the treacherous shoals** of New York Harbor.

Ever the hero, Erik hopped on the Sea Streak ferry after work on Friday, 5/23 and watched the skyscrapers of Manhattan recede into the distance. A mere 90 minutes later, he strode proudly onto the docks of Atlantic Highlands and bellowed, "where is this old salt that needs my nautical fortitude to brave the treacherous path to Manhattan?" Meekly, Papa Simpson raised his hand ever-so-slightly and whispered, "it is me, kind sir, that needs your help. Please help me brave the never-before-traveled waters*** to Manhattan Island." That evening, the men shared dinner and charted their course.

The following morning, the two sailors woke at sunrise, ate what they knew might be their last meal (scrambled eggs and Spam, sadly), hauled anchor, and set off on their journey. They faced many an obstacle along the way --- aggressive sea gulls, towering waves of nearly two feet, and temperatures dipping well into the upper 50's. Nonetheless, after five gut-wrenching hours, they arrived safe at the 79th Street Boat Basin, where they were greeted by what they assumed was an angel in a green dress. It was Katy. And she didn't bring beer.

*Here, "local man of the sea" is defined as a young, mediocre sailor who happens to live in the area and whose entire local nautical experience is having twice watched people operate remote-controlled sailboats in Central Park.

**Here, "treacherous shoals" is defined as a body of water characterized by enormously wide, deep channels, where the only trouble to be found is a rocky island marked by a 154-foot stone pedestal, on which stands a 151-foot tall copper woman holding a flaming torch.

***Here, "never-before-traveled waters" is defined as the rivers, bays, and tidal estuaries at the mouth of the Hudson River, which have been navigated for at least 400 years and are currently traveled by hundreds of boats and ships every single day.

The Two-Party System

Since we are now two weeks behind on the blog, we have to look WAY back in the past for these memories. . .

On Wednesday, 5/21, we went to a going-away party for Jen, one of our friends from our college days, who has been attending dental school at NYU. She and her husband are taking our place in Dallas, where she will continue becoming a dentist at the Baylor College of Dentistry, home of everyone's favorite teacher. . .Doc Cartwright!

The next night, Erik attended his first company quarterly party at the Hudson Theater. Highlights of the night included speeches by a couple executives and performances by a number of employees --- comedians, musicians, and even a juggler.

Due to budget cutbacks, this blog comes with no links, no photos, and really no point whatsoever. We hope you enjoyed.

With love,

Katy and Erik

Who's a big boy now?

This weekend was Erik's twenty-seventh Birthday, so he did what any seven-year-old would do. . .rode on a bus (the wheels went round-and-round), saw the world's smallest horsie, went to the natural history museum, went to the park, ate a hot dog, drank some lemonade, ate some cookies, rode on a train, went to the beach, went to the aquarium, played with a horseshoe crab, ate some more cookies, and then fell asleep.

Let me elaborate.

Saturday morning, after a wonderful home-cooked breakfast, Katy had to go to work for a few hours, so I rode the bus across town to the American Museum of Natural History for opening day of their new exhibit, "The Horse." The festivities included some actual horses outside, including the world's smallest horse, Thumbelina, who measures in at only 17 1/2 inches tall.

After seeing Thumbelina, who had few redeeming qualities other than being small, I wandered the museum for an hour or so. It would take several days to cover the entire museum, but what I did see was really, really cool. It was so cool, in fact, that I decided to leave so that I could come back with Katy another day.

I wandered from the museum into Central Park, where I killed another hour watching various street performers --- some dancers, a few tumblers, one of those creepy paint-myself-white-and-dress-like-a-ballerina-and-stand-really-still-until-you-give-me-money ladies, and a great jazz band. After getting my fill of street-talent, I killed another thirty minutes reading The Onion over a glass of lemonade, and then I met Katy at work when she got off.

Saturday night, Katy took me to dinner for my birthday at Per Lei, a great Italian restaurant just down the street. The whole meal was great, but the fried calamari & zucchini and post-meal cappuccino were both incredible. And, for the best birthday present ever, we went home, ate chocolate chip cookies, and watched "Airplane," the best movie ever. I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

On Sunday, we ventured off the island of Manhattan for the first time since we moved to the Big Apple, taking the F train all the way out to Coney Island. We walked the boardwalk, ate some greasy carnival food, walked on the beach, and went to the New York Aquarium. Coney Island has certainly seen better days, but there is something truly charming about it. It's kind of the anti-Disney - everything is exactly what it appears to be.

This week, we are looking forward to our second visitor, who will likely be the only visitor to show up in a boat, when Erik's dad sails the SV Kelly Rae into New York Harbor, past the Statue of Liberty, then up the Hudson River to Manhattan.

We send our love and congratulations to Kacey & Jake *and* Kim & Allan, who got engaged this weekend. . .and stole the spotlight on my birthday!

Love to all,

Erik & Katy