happy birthday, dais!

tonight we celebrated the birthday of my close friend, daisy, at cosme, one of the top 50 new restaurants in the US per bon apetit! it was such a fun festive night as all the girls arrived in quite snazzy attire, and the restaurant ambiance was cool and collected. the furnishings were chic and stylish, the restaurant space was cavernous with spotlights, and the tables were grand and spacious. the birthday girl was in a really cute jumper, han in a sleek red sheath dress, rose in an edgy black sleeveless top and army green pants, and me in my latest sandro acquisition. the boys didn't look so bad themselves either!

the cocktails were quite nice, and this is coming from a person who doesn't typically enjoy cocktails. i loved my telenovela, which was made of kappa pisco, suze, st germaine, lime, and achiote bitters. it was light and sweet, a nice complement to the richness in the dishes. for our meal, we shared everything: sliced raw hamachi with green almond kosho, fish sauce, and black limes; cobia al pastor with pineapple puree and cilantro; enfrijolada with ricotta, hoja santa, creme fraiche, and onion; soft-shell crab with pea-pian, squash, and pea shoots; and i think everyone's hands down favorite, the duck carnitas with onions, radishes, and salsa verde (pic below). i have to say the soft-shell crab was a close second :)

rocketpig & raspberry pi

it was a beautiful afternoon when we hurried out of our respective offices for kevin's 35th birthday celebration!

kevin had requested a little celebration with just the two of us, and since we have a race tomorrow morning at the park, i planned a quiet night for us at the apartment. with two picnic combos from rocket pig spread out on the coffee table, we watched an oldie but goody from our respective pasts: back to the future i.

each of our picnic combo came with a smoked, spice-rubbed pork on ciabatta rolls with red onion jam and mustard sauce, two house-made pickles,  coleslaw, chips, a brownie, an oatmeal raisin cookie, and ginger/root beer. we were floored by the rocket pig sandwiches. they were unbelievable - hands down THE BEST pork sandwich i have ever eaten, the meat tender, yet lean, and falling apart. we will definitely be going back and bringing all of our friends!

here's a pic of kevin playing around with his new raspberry pi! we're not sure what he's going to do with it exactly yet, but i have no doubt his brain is working overtime to figure out his next project :) 

happy birthday, hubby!

happy birthday to my partner in crime

happy birthday to my partner in crime! :) i am looking forward to celebrating with you this evening with some good food, dessert, and a movie!

the highline

today was in the 50s, much cooler than saturday, and perfect weather for strolling through the city. with blue bottle coffees and cookie in hand and dennis in his babybjorn carrier, we walked the length of the highline from 14th street up to the jacob javitts center on 34th street.

we stopped by sullivan street bakery on the way back for a low-key, DELICIOUS lunch. i have to say, this is one of my new favorite spots for the healthy, flavorful low key breakfast/lunch, for parties of 3-4 or less. there are just 14-16 table seats and 6-8 counter stools, but there are also benches outside (doesn't hurt that it's two blocks away from our apt). allyson had a salad with poached eggs mixed in, and i had soft eggs and proscuitto on streci. so glad to have found and tried this spot!

al and i left with first to give dennis his nap, and we found some natural one-on-one time to catch up ... although we've not lived in the same city since the age of 11, it's one of those friendships where you don't have to explain anything. we always start off just where we left off somehow, or catch each other up. the last few years, we have been lucky enough to see each other one or twice a year, and i hope we can make an effort to continue this in the future!

this is the last photo we took together, and with the little man, dennis! :) it has been much quieter since he left, but not in a good way! i can't believe that the next time we meet, most likely dennis will be walking and possibly talking ...

in the evening, we stopped by the black door with rose and dustin to wish our friend, jessica, a happy 30th! kris/we did a pretty good job i think :)

a cozy night with friends

there was a snow blizzard this morning! but even that couldn't stop good friends from getting together for a nice dinner at bar primi tonight :)

it was the perfect way to end the first week of the new year and the first full week back in the office. and who knew management consultants had such "interesting" job training?

a year older

today was my birthday! :) 

and kevin spoiled me rotten, starting with this adorable bloomberg message. apparently he had to keep resending and retracting it because i didn't see it and he wanted to make sure it was on the top of my bloomberg messages. those donut flags are actually dynamic and the donuts get gobbled up over a 5-second cycle. it's the little things, right?

the day flew by and +175 facebook birthday posts later, we were on way our to the river cafe on the brooklyn promenade for dinner. the restaurant is seating right along the east river almost directly under the brooklyn bridge. you couldn't ask for a more amazing view of the water and lower manhattan skyline.

what stood out to me was the quality of service, cute and extensive style of dishwares, modern preparation and presentation of some traditional dishes, and how the place could completely fill up on a night as chilly (10F) as last night! to start, we had the pear salad and grilled octopus. for our entrees, kevin had the rack of lamb and i had the branzino. i was expecting a whole fish, but it was a beautiful filet with a roasted tomato on the side - this is difficult to describe - the tomato skin had been torched such that the it had become a crispy sculpture on top of the tomato! for dessert, we had the apple gallette and chocolate souffle. kudos to the chefs!

and when we got home, kevin gave me a little gift to help me get educated and started on bringing the outdoors inside our little apato :) apparently he learned about thesill.com from the blogs listed on my blog. LOL. i didn't think he paid any attention to this ... 

anyways can't wait to visit the sill and get my fiddle leaf fig tree!

ps. surprise #2, we've got the http://www.inourloft.com url! :) thank you!

ninja birthday

happy 30th birthday to my friend, rose! :) i'm so glad to have known you for the past five years and to have endured all the workouts and green juices, shared the travel memories, post-analyzed nyc dating experiences, and savored all the delicious dinners (and your dumplings)! as you enter your 30s, i truly believe this next decade will undoubtedly be amazing, full of change, and smiles, possibly the best decade of your life. love you!

best: tried little beet for lunch for the first time ~ yum delish! after scouring the menu, i opted for the steak as my protein with sides of millet and butternut squash. there was a GIANT display case of what looked like delicious cookies, although the "non-gluten" signage was a bit of a turnoff so i didn't end up getting any. i love my gluten! back to the meal - it was DELICIOUS and i cannot wait to go back!

worst: not checking the closing time for the organic modern outlet in midtown east and arriving right as they were closing shop at 6pm. doh. the gentleman was nice enough to let us look around for a few minutes at least.

smile: we were served by the nicest bartender at one of our local spots, terroir tribeca. after we had finished our funky meatballs and chicken liver mousse appetizers, and kevin had finished his glass of an extremely barnyardy white wine, the bartender came over and swiftly poured him a glass of a new white, commenting, "please try our blah blah blah, it's much lighter and more pleasant than the one you just had. i didn't want her [gesturing to me] to drink alone." so nice!

20-miler complete!

kevin and i have been training for the ny marathon since july, though we were only doing 5-10 miles/wk in july and upping it to 10-30 miles/wk in august. overall, the workouts haven't been as consistent as either of us would have hoped, but i think we may finally be getting into the groove of things, especially with his princeton ironman 70.3 out of the way now (completed on sep 21st)! we have been logging about 15-30 miles/wk in sep, though i think ideally i'd like to bring it up to 35-40 miles/wk, with swimming and plyometrics as XT on the off days. what do i really know though ... but i do feel guilty on the mornings that we sleep in and don't get a workout in.

anyways, today was our longest run to date - 20 miles! starting at 5:45am, we ran from 14th street up the west side highway to the start of our nyrr bronx 10-mile race at 168th street by yankee stadium. who is crazy enough to suggest running at 5am as to beat the sunrise? ME. who is the sweetest, most caring and considerate husband in the world to appease my insane request? kevin, hands down.

the first ten were basically in the dark, so absolutely divine for sun-allergic me, also quite peaceful. the latter ten were a bit too sunny, but it was great to be running amongst 10,000 fellow runners and the crowds were cheering us on! there was also a "fun" hill on 155th st coming off the WSH. we took it nice and easy, but i wouldn't mind going back and owning it. repeatedly.

our awesome 20-miler today!

with just three more weeks left for long runs (oct 5, 12, 19) before we're supposed to taper (oct 26), hopefully we can get some nice weekday tempo runs in and nice long weekend runs as well. we may try to check out the north brooklyn runners at mccarren park as well!

and finally, our dinner tonight! spaghetti with homemade bolognese sauce, parmesan reggiano, and maison kaiser cheese bread. soooo delish and pretty easy to make so we made a big batch which we'll be able to save for a couple dinners later this week.

tomorrow morning will be our first day of commuting from williamsburg to work in the city! hope the trains aren't too crazy ... 

best thing that happened to me today: not hurting my knee or ankle on our long run! YAY

worst thing that happened to me today: in the company of a girl that i was once friends with, but had a falling-out with a couple years ago. we have some mutual friends so we do bump into each other from time to time. i personally want to just forget about what happened, but her de-friending me from FB leads me to believe she feels otherwise. lol. it just feels like unnecessary drama!

someone who made me smile: kaira, my friends' susan & hode's baby girl who turned 1-year old on friday, in her gold polka-dotted shirt and bright pink tulle skit and matching bright pink hair piece which mom also handmade and sported herself! kaira also started walking on her own on thursday, the day before her birthday - happy birthday, lovely girl! i can't wait to watch you grow up :)

ps. i logged in 43k steps on the walkertracker, which put me in 3rd place overall with 207k steps. first place is coming in at 232k steps, so even more reason to get those morning runs in and catch him!