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 ...

getting to know our neighbors

today kevin did the unthinkable - he accompanied me to the divine trinity: bed bath & beyond, container store, and home depot, all in one trip! hahaha ... walked into bbb with the intention to pick up some pillows and sheets, and came out with those, as well as a red kitchenaid stand mixer. yay! last weekend when daisy and i made cookies, we used a mixer that i'd purchased straight out of college which probably cost me less than $15 and felt like it had the power of a construction tool, not a kitchen appliance. haha. time to get our bake on! kevin was grimacing the entire time - sorry hubbs! :) apple red, on sale, i basically SAVED him money by buying it.

also, CHA-CHING! found my bath waste baskets at containerstore! for some reason, public bathrooms (yuck) and waste baskets in general have a huge ick factor for me. so when it came to choosing a waste basket for our baths, i was having a difficult time. the opening on top has to be the perfect size! not too large or you'll be graced with a view of its contents and not too small because then it's impractical for nonchalantly tossing items in. no lid, because then you actually have to touch it every time you want to use it (ick), and to find a waste basket that's actually proportional with the size of the modern one-piece european-style toilets is actually not easy. it felt like everything we saw in bbb and container store were quite large - "american" style. most of the openings weren't much smaller than the toilet bowl itself lol.

anyways finally found these simple white plastic square waste basket from the containerstore. i removed the flip-lids and they go pretty darn nicely with the toilet brushes we got from muji too. done!! woohoo ~~~ mini challenge complete.

enough about baths and waste baskets. kevin and i spent the majority of the morning cleaning, setting up the guest bedroom, and stuffing packed boxes into every closet possible so we could make the apt somewhat presentable for friends in the afternoon.

oh and kev found time to make us this simple yet delish soba lunch :)

around 2pm, the doorbell rang and we were greeted by some cold guests: vadim, monica, john, sonam, thinley, and pema! kevin gave the adults the tour while i hung out with thinley and pema. they are so much fun to be with - not shy, very open and happy kids. afterwards we all naturally gravitated to the island (or perhaps it was due to the cheese, grapes, and olive bread), with the kids perched on the stools. it was really nice to see everyone, since the last time we really all got together was wow over the summer.

a little later in the afternoon, we had our second set of chelsea neighbors, kris and jessica, swing by for wine and yumm maison kayser desserts! they are about to remodel a loft just two blocks north of us so it was fun to hear about their process and hopefully pass on some lessons learned from our process (so that no one has to go through that again)! it turns out that jessica has a good amount of experience managing these types of projects in line of work and she seems much more level headed than me so i think they will be just fine.

rest of the night? pecorino, gouda, proscuitto, pears, apple, and gilmore girls. winding down and ready to start one of the last weeks of 2014!

too many whites

monday again and today was BEAUTIFUL out.

even after a blueberry muffin for breakfast, i felt hungry by 11am and RAVENOUS by 12:45pm when dais and i went to buy lunch. therefore, i treated myself to a large market lunch at diginn, a yakimochi, and a box of sesame biscuits from cafe zaiya. i was quite stuffed afterwards :)

the work day flew by and before i knew it, it was time to head out for my weekly meeting with the contractors. the meeting was quick and it sounds like they are working to finish by 12noon this friday, october 31st (one week earlier than their original projected timeline), in time for our move-in. how sweet! i have had a wonderful experience with russ, mike, and grant, and all their subs at fulton landing and would definitely recommend them to friends and family based on our experience.

then off to home depot to pick out materials and order window treatments - done! and back to the office for some late S&P announcements and a quick dinner at tappo (their margherita is awesome!), before returning to the apartment to ... yes, MOVE MORE BOXES.

apparently we didn't move enough out of the master bedroom on saturday so the painters couldn't finish the ceilings. it might sound a bit wierd, but it's fun to get involved in the remodel, even if it is just moving boxes. and it's a little empowering to accomplish something as a couple (boxes moved - check!). maybe a little like nailing the first dance at your wedding?

backsplash colors and materials - we decided to go with glass because we like to cook a LOT and i didn't want to have to deal with stained grout lines, which you can get with tiles. although i LOVE marble herringbone backsplashes! i think they're probably more pretty than practical. now for glass, our options were acid etched or back-painted glass? acid etched gives a soft milky look, but again, i think oil and cooking particles can get easily caught in there, so back-painted glass it is. now colors ... cool white, polar white, chantilly lace, matte white, lace white, wedding white, on and on ...  i think we chose the one in the middle ("matte white").

and finally our pendant lamps are up :) though their heights will need a little fine-tuning.

best: relishing the fact that i have amazing supportive girlfriends! i mentioned the possibility of a france trip over the holidays to them over email this afternoon and i was floored with the quick and comprehensive responses with regards to accommodations, places to eat and visit, and other suggestions based on their recent trips. love you guys, dais, rose, & han!

worst: eating too many sweets! im not putting in our usual mileage these last two weeks so probably need to tone it down with the treats ... 

smile: osmin at home depot shades dept was amazing to work with! she was friendly and efficient, and very thoughtful when answering my questions about the differences in shade materials. i have had a very good experience with HD's shade dept and would highly recommend them in the future.