The Big Apple

Last Christmas, Derek gave me a plane ticket to New York City for mid-May. The trip was to be two fold, one for Kebra's (Derek's sister) graduation from Yale and two to see Manhattan, which neither Derek or I had been to before. Finally after months of waiting, it was time for the big trip to the big apple! Here are a few pictures of our time back east. 

The pre-planning process. If you know me, you can understand how much fun I had putting this together. 

We have arrived! 

Excited that we made it! Out and about. 

While getting lost in Greenwich Village, we stubbled upon a "Cheese Bar". Set up just like a sushi bar, with a specific person cutting the cheese (no pun intended).

 Strolled down Wall Street

Empire State Building 

Zero visibility at the top of the Empire State Building, due to the rainy spring day, but that didn't stop us. We hung out in a cloud!

More Empire State Building, beautiful. 

Walked down the High Line for a bit, very cool.

 More High Line, over looking the Meat Packing District

 9/11 Memorial, a very moving experience.  

Concrete Jungle

America

 Grand Central Station. Gorgeous. 

 Blocks and blocks of skyscrapers.

Derek loves 4 hour graduations.

Stoops.

This happened.

The Bull on Wall Street.

Rockefeller Center.

 NBC Studios.

 Radio City.

Hot Dog on the streets on NYC.

Congrats Class of 2013! Way to go Kebra!

Balls of Steel.

Manhattan Bridge.

Gelato... Yummy! And seductive. 

Home sweet home.

Rave

Dubstep (/ˈdʌbstɛp/) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals".

Or as I like to call it "Bass in your Face".

I am currently sitting at my lovely remote desk listening to the walls and pipes shake as artist, Skrillex gets down on his electronic toys. This type of show is know in the industry has a "rave". However, it is not P.C. to call it this, as the term "Rave" has negative meaning. Rather we are supposed to call it an "Electronic Music Concert". Now doesn't that just roll of the tongue nicely.

"Electronic Music Concert" seems like something a family of five might go to see, complete with popcorn refreshments, light show, and warm fuzzy entertainment. Well don't let the million dollar phrase fool you. It is an in your face dance party. The beat will still be pounding through your head and chest the next day (and for these weekday Ravers, at school/work).

What does one wear to a "EMC"? Nothing would be a close guess. Maybe it is because they know they will be dancing up a storm and don't care to fuss with the pesty sweat marks, or maybe it is an unspoken competiton to our skank the next. Other very popular items include glitter, glow sticks, and neon under garmets.

Clearly, I rave.

Pumpkinpalooza

Who doesn't love the changing of seasons? My favorite season shift is summer to fall. You can't beat orange leaves, pumpkin spice lattes, boots, and a chill in the air. To celebrate autumn, be had a pumpkin carving party, later titled pumpkinpalooza. While football played on the boob tube, we enjoyed some of the season's finer activities.

complete with a local Seattle band spinning on vinyl

Myrissa, my new roomie, put together a homemade, no recipe, beef stew. She is an amazing cook, with much credit due to my "supervising" of the operations. When offering to help, she kindly lets me know that "she's got it". How could I argue with that delicious smell filling the apartment. I let her do her thing.

Here is Ms. Krug hard at work on that stew.

After putting the stew in my crock-pot, which has gotten 4 times the use since moving in with a varsity chef (in other words, she has cooked 4 meals in it), we all loaded up and headed out to the pumpkin patch.

Our spin on American Gothic

Much happier than the original

We petted the animals. And for 25 cents you could feed them a handful of, uh, stuff...

gourds galore

what a happy little friend family

the selection process was not taken lightly

look at all them pumpkins

found the one

and behold, the final products

this is my french pumpkin, Pierre

harvest treats