superbowl party!

we hosted our first get together tonight at the apt for the superbowl and it was a lot of fun! we were about 16-18 adults, two adorable toddlers, and one newborn, though we had enough food for 40 people. LOL. a miscalculation on our part.

yuki and hiro were the first to arrive around 4:30pm to make their delicious fresh guac, and the others started arriving shortly afterwards. glenn brought three boxes of korean fried chicken wings (which i didn't get to taste, darn!),  elyse prepared a roasted teriyaki cauliflower, and daisy brought the instant sensation: little pie company sour cream apple walnut pie. love. 

kevin and i prepared a huge batch of spinach and artichoke dip, chili con carne, baby kale and quinoa salad, hotdogs, and tater-tots, and ordered 4 pizza pies and a bucket of wings as well.

for the most part, people hung out around the island where the food was, and to be honest, i think some weren't actually there to watch the game :) slowly after stuffing ourselves silly, we migrated to the dining table - living room area and our monster-size boxes kept the game interesting!

during half time, we popped some champagne (which uhm uncorked itself into our ceiling leaving a mark!!) and celebrated somia and glenn's recent engagement with a delicious red velvet cake from silk cakes (thanks, yuki & hiro!). glenn proposed to somia in hawaii in january and we hadn't all had an opportunity to get together to celebrate (still missing somia!).

our close-knit group of college friends has really grown through the years. it started with just a handful of freshman year, mudge c-wing, ground floor. then we graduated together (over the course of a few years), most of us moved to new york city, got involved in the dating and relationship scene, engagements, weddings, and now, little ones are beginning to sprout, left and right (estella, benjamin, kaira, and sydney on the east coast; austin, bryant, and hudson on the west coast). and during this time, especially the last few years, our friends are starting to spread out, leave manhattan, and leave new york city altogether.

this support network, this group of friends to bounce ideas off of, travel with, and celebrate with, it makes me realize how lucky we are to have met, and how important it is to welcome new friends into our lives. looking forward to many more get-togethers, hangouts, and celebrations together.

the game ended with two pivotal interceptions in the last few minutes by the seahawks first, and then the pats, with 26 seconds left in the game. sad. a poor call by the seahawks' coach resulted in a loss for our seahawks, 24-28. at least it was a pretty exciting game, but poor seahawks.

gun control

today started out as a beautiful day: it was partly sunny and nice and cool (36F)! we squeezed in an 11.5 mile run around the bottom of the island. talk about mentally and physically challenging - lack of consistency in our workouts and runs is starting to show in our weakened joints and muscles and mental prowess as well. i think kev and i were both internally praying just to get through the first three miles, and the strong gusty winds did not help!

no time better than the present to get back into shape though! hopefully we can be a bit more consistent starting this week with less than two months to go before the la 26.2.

after the run, we rushed to jing fong in chinatown, transported by a cabbie with an asian-food fetish, to celebrate hode's 28th birthday (for the seventh time). it was great to see the entire cmu gang after the holidays, wives, and babies all present :) we got to hear about glenn's proposal in hawaii, i met and fed baby ben for the first time (SO CUTE!!!!), and to top it all off, we got a nice email from vince during dimsum that he had proposed to shirley in australia!! woohoo ~~ two weddings coming up! it seems like a second wave of weddings for the cmu friends, and from what it sounds like, especially the couples with kids are ready to party! 

im looking forward to some destination weddings and spending time with friends and their families, which feels harder and harder as families are expanding and moving further away from the city.

then came this afternoon.

after making our way back to chelsea, we stopped by homedepot for 45 min or so to pick up some supplies and i spent a little time selecting the perfect snake plant :) as we were waiting on line by the registers, we heard two loud sounds. they didn't sound like gunshots to me, but kevin thought they did. we heard two more shots and kev saw a man running desperately away from something/one (about 25 feet away from us) and falling as he was running. "DROP EVERYTHING AND LET'S GO"  kevin said ... i was still a bit in shock thinking - that didn't sound like gun shots tho. why would there be gunshots? there couldn't be ... are we overreacting?

my initial reaction was to hide ... if they were gunshots, i didn't want to be shot while running :( but kev was like - the door is right there (pointing ahead of us about 25 ft in the opposite direction from where we had heard the gunshots). so i dropped my plant (sadface) and other supplies i had been holding, and along with the other shoppers and employees started running slowly towards the exit.

when we got outside onto the sidewalk, people had no idea what the fuss was about and were walking by normally. a couple employees were screaming "there were gunshots!" and ran towards fifth ave and we went that way as well. about 30 sec later when we reached fifth ave, kev was pointing for us to continue running to get far away from the store and potential harm's way.

police cars were blazing and driving up fifth avenue and broadway (in the opposite direction of traffic) were at the homedepot within 2-3 minutes of the first gunshots. it was amazing to see how quickly they responded and arrived at the scene of the crime.

when we were a block north of the homedepot, we peered through the empty parking lot to try to understand what had just happened. twitter feeds were lit up with updates about the shots fired and indeed, there were two people killed: an ex-employee had shot and killed his former manager and then shot and killed himself afterwards.

we walked home a little stunned and grateful for not getting hurt. but there's something to be said with the number of shootings we hear about these days and gun control. i don't understand how any pedestrian in nyc can argue that he "needs" a gun. but if the newtown elementary school shooting massacre wasn't enough reason to tighten gun control policies, i don't know what it will take ...

one week till move-in!

we are one week away from moving back into manhattan! 

it's been a really fun four weeks living in williamsburg, and i don't think either kevin or i can say that we are tired of the commute or neighborhood, and ready to move back to manhattan right this instant. some conveniences we will definitely appreciate, like proximity to central park, a central location in manhattan, elevators (!!), the rest of our clothes, and our bikes! 

but we have also really enjoyed exploring williamsburg, all the coffee shops, restaurants (there are SO MANY!!!!), and especially the new running routes. i love the neighborhood vibe around here - there are families up and down every street, and you can see them getting together on the sidewalk, hanging out on the stoops, and to be honest, it's more down to earth than chelsea. folks are relaxed and easy going, and it's so nice to be able to see the beautiful blue sky every morning above the low-rise homes. they do need a maison kayser out here though ...

oh man, we are so excited that the apartment remodel to finally coming to an end, but there's also the realization that we will have to unpack those boxes. oh boy ... living in lizzie & mike's nice home has been a bit magical i guess. a five-week long vacation coming to its end ...

anyways, reality started sinking in on saturday morning as we spent a couple hours at the apt moving boxes and furniture from one room to the other, so the painters could access the ceiling for a couple coats of paint. we followed the hard labor with gahm mi oak sul long tang yummm. what's better than a stone pot of bone broth, tender beef, noodles, and UNLIMITED daikon and napa kimchi. the hostess spoke to us in korean for the first few minutes, until we clarified with her that we are not korean ...

check out this awesome coffee mug. if something looks wierd, it's because the mug is actually three feet wide. you can sort of tell by the relative size to the coffee beans!

hard work deserves reward and so we treated ourselves to saltie's balmy sandwich and olive oil cake, since i'm sort of on an olive oil cake kick these days. saltie's is a delicious hole-in-the-wall with minimal seating inside, more of an order to go sort of place, next door to momofuku milk bar on metropolitan ave aka dangerously close to our place.

the balmy was vietnamese banh mi inspired, although its list of ingredients was quite long: chicken liver pate, ham, jalapenos, pickled veggies, cilantro, and mayo all on a homemade focaccia. a lot of flavors going on in there, though VERY tasty. the olive oil cake was very nice! it was a little drier than i'd expected, but some of the pluses were the flavorful bursts of kosher salt in the cake and the crunchy toppings.

finally, a late dinner back in the city at ravagh persian grill with some close college friends. it was great to catch up with grace, even if she was only in town for less than 36 hours! and ravagh ... PHENOMENAL. we will be coming back! faves: babaganoosh with naan, chicken kebab, green hot sauce, burnt-bottom-of-the-pot basmati rice, and albaloo polo (sour cherries mixed with basmati rice). eating with saied is KEY :)