Friday, April 15

In the Empire State of Mind

It has been a few weeks now since Michael and I returned from our weekend getaway over Presidents Day weekend in New York. Being one of those great trips that is jam packed with lots of events, the time went by extremely fast.

We took the Vamoose bus from Rosslyn extremely early on Friday morning. It was very convenient that the bus had internet, so I was able to work for a few hours on the bus to save some of my time off. After arriving at Penn Station, of course Michael had to make a stop into B&H -- which has every photography-related item you could ever want to purchase. Of course this can be very dangerous, because it's like taking a kid to a very expensive candy store. B&H even has this cool conveyor belt system that carries all the merchandise to the cash register for purchase. It is also run by a group of Hasidic Jews, so most of them have the really identifiable and neat hairstyle. After dropping off our bags at the Doubletree, we stopped for lunch at Turkish Kitchen. I had my eyelash curling appointment at Lavilash, and afterward met Michael at the flatiron building and had a delicious nutella and banana crepe from one of those food trucks. We strolled over to Vada Spa for my eyelash and eyebrow tinting appointment, and spent a long time after that enjoying the wonderful street performers in Washington Square Park. It was a lovely day and very comfortable weather, maybe around 60 degrees.


On Saturday morning, we grabbed a bagel at Bagel Bob's and went over to Michael's favorite coffee place in the city. I think that a total of maybe 6 people can fit into the coffee shop -- it is so tiny that we were all packed in there. I actually didn't mind though, because it stays nice and warm in there! Saturday was quite a change from Friday, as it was actually quite chilly. After a few hours at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), we met up with my coworker, Shez, and her husband for dinner at a really cool tea house. We all cabbed it over to a comedy show and had a great time laughing at some seriously funny comedians.

Michael trying on the latest NY fashion...


Sunday was the day for me -- I went to have my hair Japanese straightened! I arrived in Brooklyn around 8:30, grabbed a quick croissant to eat from a little bakery on the way, and finished up the process around 1PM. It was definitely a long morning, but completely worth it. My hair is now wash & go -- I absolutely love it. It's straight, but also very silky and not damaged. I won't bore you with the intimate details, but my yelp review is very thorough. I took the subway over to Williamsburg to meet Michael for lunch at the Rabbithole Restaurant and also so that he could show me what he loves about Williamsburg so much -- if and when we move to New York, that's where he would want to live. After heading back to Manhattan, we did some shopping and bought some tea from this amazing little tea shop -- I bought a chrysanthemum tea and a tea that tastes like Christmas. They are wonderful. Craving seafood, we ended up eating at the Mermaid Oyster Bar and enjoyed some tasty oysters and mussels. It was a very romantic dinner, and I had a great time.



It snowed on Monday morning... so much for that beautiful warm weather from Friday! Packing up our suitcase, we headed out to an appointment for teeth whitening at Park South Dentistry. I did not realize this, but apparently my teeth were already pretty white -- before the procedure, they were already whiter than the teeth-whitening scale even went. After lunch at a little bistro (French Roast), Michael and I ran over to DLK skin care for the photofacial -- unfortunately, by far the worst experience of the trip. They were running so late that even though I warned them when I had to leave, I was totally ignored and ended up getting back to the Vamoose bus only 10 minutes before it was leaving to go back to DC! That was a very close call.

Some of my appointments were wonderful (actually, most of them), but then some were less than desirable. Even though some things I would never do again, I think that the amount of money I saved on the other ones makes me feel at least a little bit better about it. You can check out detailed reviews from my experiences through my NYC list of Yelp reviews.


Tuesday, April 12

My New Pet!

So most people know about this pet....


But I just got a new one off of Craigslist a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still really excited about it!

I've been on sort of a Craigslist spree ever since planning of Tiffany's bridal shower started. There are sooo many great things on there that people just don't use anymore, and then I came across this little guy:


Apparently his previous owners just never found him that useful, and they had only used him once! Mr. Vacuum only cost us $50, and he was basically new. He does a great job cleaning our carpets and tile. I also recently found a posting on Craigslist for a roomba home station, so that once he is worn out from vacuuming he can guide himself back there -- so now we have the upgraded setup! This particular model is selling for over 3x as much on Amazon.com! It's a really big help to no longer have to worry about a significant part of the house cleaning. We can turn him on before we leave for work and then have a freshly vacuumed house once we get back! I find him especially helpful since our whole condo is on one level and we don't have a huge place.