new york city

whenever people hear that i'm going to new york on a business trip, they immediately assume i'll be in new york city.

"how exciting!"

"will you see any shows?"

"will you get to do any shopping?"

sadly, i must reply that i'll be in a not so exciting place outside of the city, won't see any shows, and will probably not do any shopping.

usually, flying into jfk is as close as i get to the city.

on rare occasions, work requires that i stay the weekend in ny. when this happens, i jump at the opportunity to venture into nyc to do something fun and eat something great.

we spent the afternoon wandering around the east village. the stores here take shopping to another level- this ain't my local mall. no muzak at armani exchange- there's a live dj instead. the girl in the t-shirt and bikini bottoms and the dude with no shirt on standing on the staircase? live models at hollister.

after a revitalization stop at pinkberry and more shopping, we headed to ippudo for ramen (or as my friend/nyc guide says,"michelin starred ramen"). as we approached, we were surprised to see there was no line. we soon found out this was because the restaurant wouldn't open for another 45 minutes.

looking at the closed restaurant, it's hard to miss this sign. my first thought when i saw it was, "seriously?"

obviously this country mouse doesn't understand big city ramen.

we headed out for a quick drink, and when we returned at 4:45, the line stretched down the block. luckily, once we made our way past the ramen bar top and ramen bowl wall to the hostess station we had only to wait about 10 minutes .

we got one of the last tables. people two groups behind us were told they had a 60 minute wait. the cucumber appetizer was cool, light, and delicious. we also got a squid ink appetizer from the specials menu- salty yumminess. i ordered the tori ramen with onsen tamago (poached egg), others got the squid ink ramen special, and we all lapsed into a comfortable silence as we savored our noodles and broth.

city mouse totally gets the sign now. waiting in line, knowing that only slow-eating patrons stood between you and bowl of deliciousness would test the patience of anyone. add to this the crankiness that hunger can bring- i can see why people need to be reminded to be mindful and polite.

 after dinner, we headed to magnolia bakery for dessert.

it's a good thing we did all that walking, because i couldn't decide which cupcake i wanted so i had to eat two.

while i didn't get to see any shows, i had a very fun and delicious day.

hello mt. rainier!

one of my favorite sights has got to be mt. rainier on a clear day. more often than not, it's hidden away, behind the pacific northwest weather- clouds, fog, rain, mist, or the like. so when mt. rainier says hello, it does so on days when the skies are clear, the sun is shining, and the city sparkles. i love those days.

the geek and i enjoyed one of those days as we drove down i-5 towards the airport. for a moment,  we got to fully appreciate the day with an unhindered view of the mountain.

unfortunately, by the time i got my camera out, our view was interrupted by semis and freeway ramps, so i never got a clear shot.

i had a window seat on my flight from seattle to dallas, so i made sure my camera was close at hand. the flight path took us past mt. rainier and i was able to get my picture after all. yay!

snow days

the forecast predicted a weekend of snow...a few inches, a white weekend, yay!

the white weekend, turned into a white week as the snow kept coming.

we haven't been able to leave the neighborhood for a little over a week. we're not complaining though. except for briefly losing power twice and a day or so of no directv, we're doing just fine.

hooray for a stocked freezer and pantry!