weekend stuff

Not too much excitement in kc this weekend. It was hot as hades so most of what we did was in the comfort of the AC. Friday night boyfriend decided we needed to make up frozen concoctions in the blender using random juices and liquors so we had our own little Frozen Friday. Just like the good ol' days in CoMo at McNally's. I enjoyed my vodka-mango-pineapple surprise while finishing up the rest of Season 1 of Arrested Development, quite possibly the funniest show ever created.

Saturday was pretend to be a yuppie day. Lunch with my mom at Aixois, errands and a taste of the new Vivanno at Starbucks. That white bread fun didn't last for long though...boyfriend and I went to see one of my favorite live acts in KC, "Steve & Tracey" at a bar called Patrick's (formerly DeAngelo's) up the road from our casa. This husband & wife duo used to play every Thursday night for 8 years but called it quits recently to my dismay. But now they're back the last Saturday of every month doing their renditions of songs you miss and those you wish you'd never hear again from the 70s and 80s. Here's Tracey singing on the bar (poor quality from the ol' cell).
Yesterday I had brunch with some of my friends from college. Rachel is in her final week of pregnancy, so we decided we needed one last hurrah complete with Avenues Bistro and pedicures. Yum-my.

So here we are, another week, though not much to look forward to with this one. Last week we saw Tom Petty & Steve Winwood so that was a nice little break. But this week, not so much. Maybe we'll catch Dark Night some evening. Have heard nothing but good things so I'm extra excited to see it.

Hope everyone has a good week. More excitement to come as it happens...

nyc - day 3 (sunday)

So...Sunday funday. We went to Chinatown to try and find a place that had Shanghai style soup dumplings. We had seen them on an episode of No Reservations and they looked so freakin good, so we searched and conquered. The restaurant, Joe's Shanghai, was really neat. It was a hole-in-the-wall with communal tables, complimentary tea and a long wait. Totally worth it.
After that we shopped in some little stores and got some fun Chinese stuff including a bonzai tree that was a big ball of fun to take back on the plane.
Later we did dessert in Little Italy. Yum.
Dinner that night was at Craft. Quite an experience...one we'll probably never get to do again. But at least they got the dessert right this time. Mmm...souffle with vanilla cream... After dinner, we realized that it was our last night in town. So, what else would we do but drown our sorrows. We hit one of my old haunts, the Russian Vodka Room (where I'm pretty sure there was some sort of illegal mail-order bride thing going on) and had some serious vodka drinks. They infuse their own there and most of the patrons (all Russian immigrants that speak to eachother in the mother tongue) drink it straight. I think I looked like a total wuss when I asked for a splash of sprite. Oh well.
Next we headed to Divine Bar (another round of wine flights), 5Ninth in the Meatpacking District and finally, The Hog Pit which looked like a BBQ place from the outside, but ended up being a blast. We befriended a chef from the Soho House (some snooty, members only place) at the bar, which had its perks. Got to hear some funny celeb stories and drink free shots all night. The culmination of all this was me not remembering the cab ride home or the 2 slices of pizza until I saw the evidence at noon the next day, which was after checkout time. Oops.
One thing that did stick in my memory was turning on the TV at 4:30 AM and being shocked and saddened at the death of George Carlin. What a horrible loss...

nyc - night 2 (saturday)

Boy, I'm really behind once again. Dinner Saturday night was d-lish. We went to a place called Artisanal that was famous for its cheese. It even had its own cheese cave. I heart cheese. We did a cheese flight with wine pairings, which was really nice becuase we each did different ones so we could try the maximum amount of cheese.
Then we had a traditional fondue (mmm) and split steak frites (double mmm). Oh and I made a total ass out of myself when I ordered a glass of wine with dinner and said the number (b/c I couldn't pronounce the name) and was told, "ma'm, that's the price." Oops. I was drunk, give me a break. So I had told the reservations person that it was Adam's b-day but I guess they got it wrong b/c the little dessert deal came out with my name. Ha.
After dinner we did the Village and went to the Comedy Cellar for a 12:45 AM show. Good lordy. Needless to say I was ready to crash once that was done.

nyc - day 2

So...I got a little off schedule posting on the trip. Oops. Here's a quick recap of our Saturday in NYC.
A little background - as I was driving to work a few weeks ago listeing to my Sirius radio, I heard that one of our favorite musicians, Alejandro Escovedo, was going to be performing in NYC the same weekend we were there. He was doing Conan, the Today show, etc., but also doing a live private performance in the Sirius studios for 10 people and their guests. I figured we had no shot at winning but I signed us up anyway, and low and behold, we were one of the 10 picked! Whoohoo! So the first picture shows the 2 hour performance we got to see of Alejandro doing his entire new album live for us.

Sirius rocks - they're located on the 36th floor of a huge building in the Rockefeller Center area. The lobby walls are covered in plexiglass where all the performers sign when they visit. I found my favorite boys and snapped a pic.

Next we did Grand Central Station and had cheesecake at Junior's (yum!) and saw a dude propose in the grand hall area. It was adorable.

Later in the afternoon we did the obligatory Central Park carriage ride, which SUCKED. $40 for what we were told would be 20 minutes. It was more like 8. The guy took our picture afterward, and I didn't realize until just now what my finger was doing. Unintentional but so appropriate!


The rest of Saturday coming soon.