JMNYC

Thanks!

2008-08-10T23:21:00.011-04:00

Thanks to everyone who celebrated our wedding with us! It was really fun to see everyone. We had a really good time and we hope you did too!

Sorry, no wedding photos yet. Our professional pictures won't be ready for a couple weeks. We've been slowly getting pictures from family and friends. We're planning to compile them on the web. When we get it going we'll let everyone know where to find them. If you have any pictures from the wedding we'd love it if you'd share them with us. You can e-mail them to Jared at yeater@gmail.com or Me at marni.kanne@gmail.com or send us a CD (let us know if you need our address).

Since returning to NY we've been enjoying our free time (no more wedding planning!)

It was my birthday last Thursday. We had sushi at a local restaurant and rented a movie.

This weekend I made pulled pork for the first time. It was really yummy.

Look at the pretty vase in the background (Thanks Mark and Mary!)

We also got together at our friend Joe's with Amyliz (our friend who spoke during the ceremony), Monty, and India (see below). We had some breakfast, watched the Olympics, and played cards. Very relaxing weekend.

Introducing...

2008-04-28T21:22:00.005-04:00

I'd like to introduce you all to the newest member of my family...

Anna Noelle

She was born on April 25th at 2:12 in the morning.
6 pounds 11 ounces
19 and a half inches in length

This is my sister and brother-in law's (Jenna & Justin) second child. Megan, their first child, is just thrilled with her baby sister...

Apparently Megan thinks Anna is her baby.

We'd also like to apologize for the long wait between posts. We've been busy with school and work, but hopefully we'll get our act together and start posting regularly again soon!

-M

Late Night/Date Night

2008-02-04T22:18:00.000-05:00

I often end up working pretty late hours when a job requires it. For me, as a producer, it usually means me sitting in the office waiting for the artists (3D artists usually) to do their work so I can post up a link for our client. I had one late night recently as a result of a job we did for Lysol:

The "germ" characters you see about half way through the spot took all night to "render" (for the computer to process the digital information, frame by frame). So...it ended up being an all nighter for me and my crew at work (about 5 of us).

The good thing is that this doesn't happen often. Maybe 2 or 3 times a year. And the company I work for is very understanding and appreciative of our dedication to making the best of these situations. My boss in particular always encourages me to take Marni out for dinner as a result, and he'll pay for it. This time however, he just hooked us up with a gift certificate that could be used at a variety of great restaurants in NYC.

So Marni and I decided to make a date night out of it and we chose Union Square Cafe...a very popular highly rated restaurant in the city.

We had a great time. We had oysters to start. A bottle of wine. Duck (M). Tuna (J). And finished the meal off with a couple of chocolate deserts. We were stuffed but it was all great!

We then headed to the Union Square movie theater where we flipped a coin between seeing No Country for Old Men (J's choice) or Atonement (M's choice). NCFOM won the coin toss.....but it was sold out! So we saw Atonement instead.

Unfortunately...I thought it was very bad. Poorly done. Could have been so much better. Blah blah blah. M thought it was ok...but didn't live up to her expectations. Needless to say, we don't think it should be on the Academy Awards Best Picture list this year.

So here's to a late night at work...and all the entertainment it can provide for M and I after the fact :)

End of Year Travel

2008-01-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

2007 was a very interesting year. Marni and I both started new jobs (I had two different jobs!), we traveled to Florida, got engaged, spent the summer with my friend Mac, had friends and family Mark, Jasper, Kati, Alyssa, Christina, Wyatt, Rocky and Libby visit NYC. All in all it was a great year to say the least.

To cap off 2007 we took some time off (my first vacation since starting work in June) to head home and see the friends and family that didn't get a chance to visit us.

I started my travels with a stop in Minneapolis to celebrate my brother Wyatt's birthday on Dec. 20th. Then headed to Fargo the next day to spend time with my friends there. My camera is sort of broken and I didn't have Marni's camera, so unfortunately I can't show you what a great time I had.

I then returned to Minneapolis and met up with Marni who had flown in a day after me. We spent Christmas eve with her family and enjoyed her grandma's famous swedish meatballs.

Christmas day we got up and drove to Brainerd where I had the pleasure of meeting Marni's Grandpa Chuck for the first time.

The remaining week was spent doing wedding preparations. Being in New York we've conducted most of the business via email and phone. So now that we were in town we went around and visited all of the locations, met with all of our vendors, etc. Our parents met each other for the first time as well.

On the 27th we celebrated my brother Elliot's birthday. Wow is he excited about his Target gift card he got from Marni and me.

For New Years we'd made plans a while back to join my friends Jasper and Kim, who live in Fargo, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It wasn't the high season of summer that Myrtle Beach is known for, but it was still very nice. We shopped...

ate...
...hung out on the beach...

swam in the heated pool, and played some golf. Kim won!

When it came time for New Years Eve we hung out at the condo. Ate some pizza and chilled on the balcony. When the clock struck midnight the entire resort erupted in cheers and fireworks. It was a great time.

Thanksgiving 2007

2007-11-27T00:26:00.000-05:00

Let's all take a second and think back to last year's Thanksgiving. What a wonderful time that was:
http://jmnyc.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

I really do miss the beach, and the palm trees, and the sway of the bo...ouch! Marni just hit me.

Ok so last year's Thanksgiving was great. But this thanksgiving was equally as good (but not equally as warm).

Wed. after work we high tailed it out of NYC up to Boston on the Chinatown bus. My parents were flying in the next morning and we had a holiday weekend of fun ahead of us staying with my bro Aaron and his wife, and our parents joining us. For Aaron it had been 17 years since he'd had Thanksgiving with our parents. Which made me realize, I believe it has been somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 myself. Wow, time flies. Needless to say, we were both Thankful for the opportunity to spend it with our parents, and gals.

We didn't grab that many pictures. But we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, post Thanksgiving dinner, and night out at a great restaurant. We did grab some pics however of our trip to the new Boston modern art museum. Here we are outside. And the family in front of the harbor.

Hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving!

M&M in NYC

2007-11-20T23:43:00.000-05:00

Our string of visitors continued with my friend Mark coming to New York for the first time. Mark lives in Fargo and runs an art gallery/shop in downtown Fargo called Gallery 514 (gallery514.com) and is also a DJ. So between art and clubs, he was well overdue for a visit to NYC.

We started off with meeting up with old friends. You remember Mac, who lived in NYC over the summer. Mac, Mark and I (along with Jasper who also visited over the summer) have all been best friends since we were in first grade. Here's the three of us on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade before crossing the Brooklyn Bridge on a cold Saturday.
I gave Mark the brief walking tour of NYC, hitting a few of the sites, a few less frequented areas. It was cold, so we never shied away from taking the subway, a cab, or taking refuge in a restaurant.

We hit up Holy Basil for some thai food for dinner. We knew we were looking for some live music and good place to chill in the evening. We found a magazine the recommended a jazz club up in Harlem. Perfect!

Well, it wasn't so perfect. We had a good time. But to call it a jazz "club" was a bit of a misnomer. The trio was great, but it was basically a small little shop in what amounted to a strip mall in Harlem. The place was lit like any store, fluorescent, brightly lit, no real ambiance or mood. But it was bring your own wine/beer, so we obliged, and had a good time.

Afterward we had a slight run in with the cops in Harlem. There was no trouble. But I think we might have looked a little out of place in that particular neighborhood at that particular night. We caught a cab back downtown and headed to Mac and my favorite late night hang out, Decibel.

Mark used to live in Japan, so he enjoyed the no frills, authentic Japanese sake bar. We spent a good bit of time there...ordering bowl after bowl of edamamme.

The next morning Mac headed back to DC and Mark toured around the Brooklyn art gallery scene in DUMBO. Later, Marni and I met up with him and his friend Ali at MOMA, and then took a quick jaunt through Central Park..

...before taking one last picture and saying our goodbyes.

Marathon Visitors

2007-11-10T15:11:00.000-05:00

For the second time in the three Novembers we've been in New York, we had visitors over the NYC Marathon weekend. Previously my parents had visited, but this time my brother Wyatt and his wife Christina were able to join us.

Wyatt had been on a business trip to Philadephia all week, and used the approaching weekend as an excuse for Christina to join him and make a vacation weekend out of it visiting us an hour away in NYC.

I took the day off to clean up the apartment and get ready for our guests. I then headed out to the airport to meet Christina who flew in from Minneapolis. We took a cab in to meet Marni at her work, which happens to be above Penn Station...the train station in which Wyatt would be arriving shortly thereafter.

It was Wyatt's first time in New York, and we had only 48 hours with them so we got started right away with a trip to Times Square.

After hiking around the city for the night, Wyatt and Christina were ready for a beer. So we hopped on the subway...

...headed back to Brooklyn and had some Fish and Chips (and beer) at our local favorite the Chip Shop: http://www.chipshopnyc.com/

The next morning the whirlwind walking tour of NYC got started with a walk through our neighborhood to the Brooklyn Bridge. Marni had class, so she couldn't join us for the morning portion of the tour.

We then hit up the World Trade Center site, Battery Park/Statue of Liberty, and made our way up to Chinatown.

By this time Christina's feet were killing her from all the walking. So we found a place in Chinatown called "Foot Rub Heaven". How could we say no?! I bought a her a 15 minute foot rub while Wyatt and I waited for Marni to join us.

Hunger was setting in, so we took a detour through the Lower East Side to grab the pastrami sandwich at Katz's Deli.

Wyatt's a big foodie, so we had to check out some NYC restaurants run by some famous chefs. Mario Battali's "Otto" and "Babo" were relatively close, so we checked them out and proceeded up to Union Square and then back down to the Lower East Side for dinner at Freeman's Alley, where we had a 2 hour wait at the bar! But it was a good time. We finished up the night with a little karaoke before heading home in a cab.

The next morning we were beat, but not to tired to go meet Christina's sister who happened to be in town for events surrounding the NYC Marathon. She was taking care of her son Ely while her husband Corey was at the marathon. Marni and I said hi to Ely and then we all took him out for a day on the town.

We had a great time and it was fun to have visitors again. We hope Wyatt had a good time for his first (but not last time to NYC).

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T13:55:00.000-04:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Motion Birthday

2007-09-24T21:44:00.000-04:00

M had this weekend off from school (thank God - the old testement one - for Jewish holidays!) so we decided to get out of town for a few days. And quickly after deciding that...I couldn't take off time from work to make it happen, so back to a boring ole weekend in NYC.

I'd been pretty excited for a while now that Resident Evil 3 was coming out. We watched the first two on dvd and hit up the theater Saturday to see 3. In the end, it was entertaining...but not worth the wait. Oh well.

Otherwise our weekend was spent at a birthday gathering for my friend John...aka "Johnny Motion". We gathered at the Astoria Beer Garden.

There we met up with another friend George...

And had a great time being really badass...

On Sunday, M and I had a little shopping field trip on which to embark. We hit up the Port Authority Bus terminal and headed out to glorious Jersey Gardens. Quite possibly, Jersey Gardens is the most depressing large mall I have ever visited. Upon pulling outside its gates (doors) I thought we were making a stop at the local maximum security prison. We tried to take a picture of the mall, but the camera refused to waste it's own battery life on such a horrible scene.

Needless to say, we accomplished our task, and were happy to board the bus back to freedom.

New Routine

2007-09-16T17:27:00.000-04:00

Last weekend M and I made a plan to go out for dinner after her classes on Saturday (she's now in school for the next year and a half taking classes at night and on the weekends at FIT...
www.fitnyc.edu)

We met up at our apartment, went to the gym, then came home and got ready to go out. We stopped a long the way at little shops, potentially buying all kinds of things we don't need nor do we have room for:

We found a new Thai place in our neighborhood called Joya. It was really good and the garden area was a perfect setting for a beautiful night for dinner outside:

This weekend strangely enough, Marni finished school around 3pm. Headed home. We got ready and found a new BBQ restaurant in our neighborhood called The Smoke Joint.

Hmmm I wonder what's going to happen next weekend after M gets done with class on Saturday afternoon...

Fall Back

2007-09-04T22:21:00.000-04:00

I've been delaying a post for a while because I (as does Marni's dad) enjoy going to our blog and seeing the photoshopped picture of me with the hooters girls. But alas it is time to bump it down.

Fall is upon us. Not officially, but it feels like it. The days are shorter and it's just got that feeling in the air. Marni is starting school now too, so that doesn't help. It's been a while since we've been in school...but there is something about September that will always feel like I should be going to tennis practice, bothering my mom for a new pair of jeans, and thinking about who I am going to ask to homecoming (I did a lot of thinking in high school...not a lot of asking).

Our fall so far has been spent with old Minneapolis friends. My friends Ryder and Shannan were here on Friday and then my friend Kiersten was here on Sunday.

We also decided to ring in the fall with our favorite seasonal restaurant...the Shake Shack. It closes down in the winter, so given the beautiful day on Sunday we braved the long line and enjoyed it one last time...

Happy Birthday to J!

2007-08-15T21:00:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday Jared!!

Potterwatch

2007-08-09T15:40:00.000-04:00

With less than two weeks before the new Harry Potter book was to be released, knowing that I would never be able to finish by July 21st, I foolishly began rereading the entire series.

It took my 28 days to read over 3000 pages. Jared, who has been reading the series for the first time, was forced to hand over book 6 when I caught up to him. Then this past Monday I was finally able to delve into the newest and last book of the series.

Only two days later I finished. It was great. And I'm glad I reread all the books, although I do wish I'd started earlier. So, what am I doing now? Instead of being depressed that this is the end of the series I am looking forward to the next two movies and have already started rereading the 7th book.

No Train Service

2007-08-08T17:31:00.000-04:00

As some of you know the NYC subway system was all messed up today due to heavy rain the night before. J and I had some difficulties getting to work, but we both made it O.K.

There was also a tornado in southwestern Brooklyn: Sunset Park and Bay Ridge. We were not affected by this. So don't worry.

Thanks to those who called/e-mailed to check up on us.

Happy Birthday to me!

2007-08-07T08:49:00.000-04:00

Thanks for all the Birthday Wishes!
:::Cake:::

My civil duty...

2007-07-25T13:35:00.000-04:00

On Monday I made my first ever appearance for jury duty! I dragged myself to the Kings County courthouse arriving at 8:45 am, exactly on time. I entered the jury pool room with about 60-75 other potential jurors and we waited and waited and waited.

Finally some guy (he never really said who he was) entered the room. He put on a video about the history of trials, which started with the very logical method of "If they float they're guilty, if they sink they're innocent" and ended with our current system of trial by jury.

After the video the guy gave us a short spiel of the procedures, which mainly consisted of "unless I ask you, please do not approach the counter". And then we waited and waited and waited.

Right before lunch about 18 people were pulled into a separate room. Then we had about and hour and a half to eat. When we got back I took a short nap :)

Finally the guy announced that our "torture" was over and he'd see us "in about 8 years".

Glad to have that out of the way. Although it would have been rather exciting to be chosen for a trial.

Liberty

2007-07-23T21:19:00.000-04:00

We were graced with yet another Schneider this weekend. Liberty "Libby" Schneider came out to visit her brother Mac,

and course that means she got Marni and I as well.

Libby had been here before, but this time seeing the city through adult eyes. We started off meeting up for a little pizza (of course) in Mac's neighborhood, then off to Times Square to take in the bright lights of the big city. The night was capped off by the release of Harry Potter: The Deathly Hollows.

M had reserved her copy to pick up after midnight on Friday, but ended up getting there too late (they closed again at 1am). However, luckily on our way to the subway we found a little convenience store/book shop that had several copies at discounted price right there. Marni has taken to reading the other six books again (fourth or fifth time probably) before she starts the finale. She's got two more books to go.

Saturday we woke up and joined Mac and Libby in Central Park where we had a relaxing day taking in the Strawberry Fields portion of the park, and sitting near the John Lennon Memorial.

We then headed to Chinatown for a bit of shopping, and Soho for an afternoon snack as we made our dinner plans. We decided to try the east village thai restaurant called Holy Basil. It was quite good and we had a great time in the dark and mysterious restaurant.

We then retired to Decibel, the sake bar, where we enjoyed a couple of bottles and many many many servings of edamamme.

Meanwhile...

2007-07-15T22:18:00.000-04:00

While Jared, Jasper, and Mac were liv'in it up in NYC. I was hard at work in MSP, well at least for the first 4 days I was there. My mom and sister Jenna, did a lot of running around with me. We went dress shopping, looked at reception/ceremony venues and had a food tasting (YUM). I still haven't bought a dress yet, but I have one in mind :)
Jared and I have also pretty much decided our reception/ceremony venues, but will do an official post about it later.

After my 4 days of hard work, my family and I went up to our cabin on Mink Lake. We were joined by Katie, Jason, and Tyler LaMott. Tyler is about 10 months now and Megan is 13 months. It was really fun to see them together. However, there was some biting, hogging of toys, and crying involved.

Megan has already discovered the telephone and will adamantly chat away. But only if there isn't a real person on the line. She's also holding a toy MP3 player and enjoys pushing buttons on my digital camera. Already an electonics freak!

Megan is growing up too fast. She loves to rock her baby dolls and 'dress-up' with her hat and purse.

Below is Megan with my grandma Lois. Gram really loves having her great grandkids at the lake.

On Wednesday night, to celebrate Independence Day, Justin put on a great fireworks show. And Jason brought his ATV and had great time riding around in the woods. The boys also ran into a bit of trouble when they tried to go fishing. Neither of them were very good at getting the boat motor started. In fact, while Jason had tried to get it going he drifted off and Justin had to paddle out in the canoe to deliver some oars so Jason could row back!

Of course when my dad gave the motor a try of course started immediately :)
Well hope your 4th was fun! Mine was :)

Marni Out, Jasper In

2007-07-02T23:34:00.000-04:00

Two months ago Marni decided to go to Minneapolis on June 29 to start a 9 day vacation at home with her family. Two days ago, my best friend Jasper decided to start a 3 day vacation to NYC. Interestingly enough, Marni's travels and Jasper's travels ended up sharing more than just their day of departure. Upon waiting in the airport for her flight to Minneapolis, who steps off the plane coming from Minneapolis but Jasper! They hug. They chat. They don't take a picture...so I have nothing to post.

So unfortunately Marni's travels home means she was to miss out on the fun that would ensue due to Jasper's travel to NYC. And here is how it went...

Jasper arrived Friday around 7 and took a cab to my office on 22nd street. There I give him a tour of my office and we await Mac to join us. As fast we can thereafter...we find a Chipotle for dinner! We then head to the West Village, drop off our bags, and grab a pitcher of Sangria.

We'd figured we might not hit midtown later in the weekend, so after the Sangria we went straight to Times Square, so Jasper could see it in its nighttime glory.

We then head over to Mac's office on 57th Street, and while on the way, we figure we'll stop at the Apple Store (it's about 1am at this point, and the Apple Store is 24hrs) to check out the newly released iPhone. It was a little heavy, and a little grimy.

The next morning we planned a little walking tour. We hit up the World Trade Center, Statue of Liberty...

...Canal Street (to buy some "designer" purses as gifts)...

...a bit of Soho, and back to the West Village to relax before our evening plans.

After picking up Mac's girlfriend Crystal at Penn Station, and a brief bit of unfinished work at my office, we headed to dinner at Freeman's Alley on the lower east side. We ate late...and closed the place down.

But the night did not end. We hung out in the East Village for a couple more hours, and then headed home via cab. Mac and I have sort of made a ritual out of our late night hunger. After our nights events we typically retire to his neighborhood where we promptly grab a slice of pizza at one of the many late night pizza joints. Here we are at The Pizzeria.

I was smart and I packed clothes for the weekend and brought them with me to work on Friday anticipating that I might stay at Mac's (rather than going back to Brooklyn each night). It worked great on Friday, but with Crystal's arrival on Saturday, it left us with very little space in Mac's NYU Law School dorm.

Yes, you are seeing that correctly. There is a mattress on top of a desk where Crystal is sleeping.

Sunday we got up bright and early. Yep, started the day at 1pm. After a little Thai food for breakfast, we headed to City Hall where we started our trek across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The walk was nice, and not too busy.

We then toured my neighborhood and showed Jasper the small little apartment where Marni and I live.

The night wrapped up with a little more gift shopping for the family back home (Jasper's wife Kim and son Jack), some baseball on TV, and of course one last slice of pizza (this time at Pizza Box).

Though short, we made the most of a weekend for sure. It was great to have Jasper come visit, and spend his first time in NYC with Mac and I. We look forward to our next adventure, wherever that may be...

PS-My camera is starting to act weird. Turning everything pink and green. I had to treat some of these photos to make them presentable. It looks a little artsy, but not half bad. I think I am now in the market for a new digital camera.

Click Click Click

2007-06-25T00:22:00.000-04:00

For those of you who do not know, I have taken a new job at a new company. I enjoyed my time at Perception very much, but another opportunity came my way, and so I took it. It seemed to be a better fit.

So my new employer is called Click3X (pronounced "click-three-ex"). See www.click3x.com

I am a producer there and produce graphics and visual effects for commercials, TV, and feature films. I've worked on several cool projects already including a movie about Jimmy Carter, directed by Jonathan Demme (he did Silence of the Lambs).

Anyway, it's going well so far.

Mac & Rock

2007-06-10T21:03:00.000-04:00

We're in for a very fun summer. Mainly because my friend Mac is here as a summer associate at a law firm in NYC. He got to town a couple of weeks ago. Since then we've already spent a lot of time hanging out (and a lot of money in the process!), but it's just like being back in Fargo. Except the buildings are a lot taller. And, as white guys, we're the minority.

Yep, just a couple of New Yorkers we are for the summer. Well right off the bat, we had company. First it was Mac's girlfriend Crystal came to visit Mac over the memorial day weekend. My brother Aaron and wife Caroline came as well. So we all hung out a bit.

And then last weekend, we had our friend (and Mac's cousin) Rocky in town for a visit. It was Rock's first time in New York, so we had some exploring to do. First Mac took him around to the World Trade Center, and up to Herald Square. Then I met up with them and we headed down to Wall Street and took the Staten Island Ferry to check out the Statue of Liberty.

We then went back to Mac's place (he's living in the NYU dorm for the summer) and rested our feet while we looked for our night's entertainment. A quick phone call and a little internet research gave us our solution...Brazilian Steakhouse!

We were joined by Mac's roommate Sabrina, and headed down to Carne Vale in the East Village. I had never been to a Brazilian Steakhouse, but essentially it's all you can eat for $35, and it's a variety of meats and cuts of meat. It's all fantastic too. Great filet mignon, ribs, lamb, skirt steak, chicken, etc etc etc. And it all comes served, for one reason or another, via giant sword. Here's Rocky getting served some steak...

After dinner (and many drinks, belly dancing, two pitchers of Sangria, and more belly dancing) we shelled out our last few dollars and headed out. But the night was still young. So we went to Decibel, a little hidden Sake bar in the East Village. Here's Mac and Sabrina enjoying some edamame.

I ended up staying at Mac's that night. And the next day was, as a result, pretty low key. We just watched the Twins game in Brooklyn and then called it a night. Mac and I of course had to work during the week, so Rock was kind of on his own during the day. He did a lot of walking around. He and Marni had lunch one day, and we found a Belgian bar in Mac's neighborhood another night. Rock's last night in town consisted of more walking around, and then meeting up wtih Marni to walk through Chinatown. When I finally finished work I joined them, and we ventured into Little Italy where we sat outside on a beautiful night eating pasta.

After dinner, Marni and Rocky of course had to treat themselves to a little gellato from a street vendor!

Rock left town Wed. morning, and Mac had to go to DC for a few days for a law school thing. So M and I had a little chance to catch up on things around home. I also got really sick with a bad sore throat. Seems to be on its way out though now.

Happy 1st Birthday Megan!

2007-06-10T21:02:00.001-04:00

This past Tuesday was my niece's first birthday ! She had her first birthday party the Saturday before. Here are some pics from the celebration.

Megan in her birthday dress. She is walking now and this was actually the first time that she allowed her parents to put shoes on her.

Apparently some grocery stores give a free cake for first birthdays, so Jenna and Justin were able to get Megan her own cake to destroy...err devour.

When she was done with the cake Jenna and Grandma Brenda had to take her into the bathroom to hose her down .

Generous Megan sharing her cake with her dad.

Here are Jenna and Megan at the end of the party. Megan is wearing a sweater that was hand knit by her Grandma Brenda. You can see Justin hanging out in the background. I was trying to get him in the picture, but I think he thought I was asking him to move away .

Doug

2007-06-08T21:58:00.000-04:00

We have not posted for awhile, as it has been an intense couple of weeks. There will be additional posts to follow, but certain events must stand on their own.

Sad news struck us the morning of May 25th when we learned a good friend of Marni & her family, Doug, had passed away in a car crash late Thursday night. It was painful and tragic news. Since that time, Marni traveled home for the services, and to be with her sister Kati, who had had a long and close relationship with Doug.

We had the pleasure of hosting Doug in New York just over a year ago. Very good memories of a great guy.

We'll miss you Doug.

The start of a tradition...

2007-05-23T10:48:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we had a visitor! My sister Kati flew in on Thursday night and stayed through Sunday morning. Her birthday was on Sunday, so this was a birthday trip. Happy Birthday Kati!

The birthday visit is becoming something of a tradition. If you recall she and my brother came last year for their birthdays.

Unfortunately Jeremy couldn't come this year. His birthday was on Saturday. Happy Birthday Jeremy!

My friend Katie also had her birthday last week. Happy Birthday Katie!

On Thursday I picked Kati up from the airport and we took the subway into Manhattan. We met up with Jared, who was kind enough to take Kati's luggage back to our apartment so that Kati and I could roam the streets unencumbered. Then she and I headed off to WonJo and had Korean BBQ, Yum! We ended the night with drinks a Floyd's, a bar near the apartment.

Friday Kati was kind enough to let me drag her to a wedding dress shop. It was the first dress shopping that I've done so far. We found the perfect dress....

Just kidding! We found a few nice ones, but nothing perfect. The next stop was Ann Taylor. I wanted to take a look at their Celebrations line. Once again nothing perfect.

For lunch we ate at Zoe in Soho. Then we walked around the neighborhood for a bit. After that we headed over to the Museum of Sex.

Later on we met up with Jared and Bradley, a friend of ours. We ate at Push, a bar where Bradley's girlfriend works.

[Ok, this is Jared. I have hijacked Marni's post to throw in my exciting run in with Roni Superstar. That's right, Roni superstar. You see, at the bar Push, works Einat, who is Bradley's girlfriend. She is from Israel and is best friends with a girl named Roni Duani...aka Roni Superstar

She's like the Brittany Spears of Israel Singer, actress, fashion model. Anyway, Roni was here visiting Einat for the week, so naturally we all hung out for a bit. Here I am with Einat (right) and Roni (left). Man, I'm cool.

Ok back to M's post...]

Then we headed over to the West Village to meet up with some of Jared's friends from work. But right when we got there they decided to head to a party in Brooklyn. One person in the group knew one guest that was suppose to be at the party. So the hostess was a bit surprised when she opened the door to find five strangers claiming to know one of her roommate's guests who hadn't even arrived yet. Ooops! She was very nice though and told us to make ourselves comfortable.

(Nate, George, Jared)

On Saturday we headed out around noon and had brunch. Then Jared had to stop by his office and Kati and I headed to the flower district. Where we looked at possible wedding flowers. After that we went back to Soho. We looked at some of the weekend sellers wares and went to the Young Designers' Market. Jared met up with us there and we walked over to Room 18, a lounge, and had some drinks.

We decided to have Kati's birthday dinner of Saturday, since she had to fly out Sunday morning. So, we headed off to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill.

You know Bobby Flay, the Iron Chef...

Well that didn't pan out. When we got there and peeked inside, we felt like it was a little too stiff and boring for what we were looking for. So instead we went to Rosa Mexicano.

We ended the night at Buck's, another bar near our place, playing darts.

We had a really good time. Thanks to Kati for spending her birthday with us!

Allez Cuisine!

2007-05-15T14:25:00.000-04:00

This weekend I treated myself to some fine dining. A friend, Joe, had his birthday on Friday. To celebrate Amyliz, Monty, Joe, and I went to Morimoto's new restraunt in the Meatpacking District. Sadly Jared didn't attend because he was afraid he wouldn't get away from work in time for the reservation .

(Front of the restraunt)

You know Morimoto, the Iron Chef....

Sorry I couldn't find a good pic of him in his Iron Chef gear.

(Sashimi appetizer)

Amyliz and Joe ordered the tasting menu, a pricey option but definately worth it. If I ever go back I think that is what I'll have . Monty and I shared the lobster fritters and the sashimi to start. Then I had some miso while we waited for our sushi.

Well not only was the food delicious and beautifully plated...

(Dining room, we sat in the third table back )

The decor was great too! The tables were separated by panes of glass. On each pane there was this dot pattern. Which allowed you to still see the rest of the restraunt, but also gave the feeling of privacy. The walls and ceiling look like they are covered in white curtains, but it is really plaster (I checked . Even the bathroom was cool. Each stall had a bidet with a control panel on the side of the stall. Behind the bidet the wall had this illusionary display that made it look like the stall was huge!

We met up with Jared later and had some fun convincing him that we had actually met Morimoto . We also had him believing we saw Scarlett Johanssen and Woody Allen dining in the restraunt, and that as we were leaving we saw the Clintons pull up. He finally caught on when we threw Lee Majors into the mix.

Well the night definately cost me a pretty penny, but the experience was definately worth it. Up next, Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill...