Top Chef at the Speakeasy

For our anniversary last week, we walked three short blocks to a neighborhood restaurant, the Speakeasy. We sat outside and had some amazing food -- lamb for Jeremy and sea bass for me, with a caprese salad to share. To quote our friend Jodi (the way she writes on her blog from China), "when you come to visit, we'll take you here!" When the host heard it was our anniversary, he gave us a lovely free dessert and convinced our server (an aspiring singer/actress) to sing out a sweet and passionate version of "If I Loved You" from Carousel right there at our table on the sidewalk. We also found out later that the chef of the Speakeasy was a finalist on the Bravo show "Top Chef." It goes without saying that last night (after I hadn't left the apartment all day due to job searching) we had to go back and try the happy hour, where all wines are $4 and beers $3. The funny thing about this photo is that I look like I'm afraid someone will steal my fuzzy green purse, although I wasn't, and that shouldn't stop you from visiting us in Brooklyn! Shout out to Elizabeth for the jewelry and purse I wore last night... miss you!

Jer likes school

Many have been asking about how school is going for Jeremy, so I thought I'd share that he is loving it, and after going to all five of his classes, likes all his professors and likes the other students he's met. I keep asking, "is anyone super annoying?" and so far so good. He signed up to have one of the first studio critiques of the year in his Painting Seminar -- where all the students and the professor visit his studio and comment on his work. That's happening this afternoon -- wish him well on that! In other news, we finally emptied all of our "kitchen stuff" boxes last night! This is a huge feat, since our new kitchen is tiny and we have a lot of kitchen stuff. We installed an Ikea shelf for all our glasses, we're storing some things on our new mini kitchen cart, bought potracks, etc. Note the fine job that was done installing the kitchen cabinets by some previous owner/landlord -- every cabinet hangs at a different level! Tonight, we take on the clothes closets...

Hurricane Hanna / A Tree Falls In Brooklyn

We had a scarey moment here on Saturday night. Hurricane Hanna dropped a lot of rain and wind on New York (we're living on a coast now!) and we were sitting at our dining room table next to our back windows that evening. I commented to Jer that it looked like a few tree limbs were taking a beating out back. Less than 10 minutes later, I heard a terrible cracking sound and looked up to see a huge tree falling toward the building -- I couldn't even get out of my chair before we heard a ton of broken glass. Our apartment was OK, but the unit next to us and one floor down in the next brownstone had tree limbs break through their back windows. We called 911 right away, and don't think anyone was hurt. The tree was taller than our building, and is still resting today (Monday) against the back of our building and our fire escape in particular (see view from our back window).

Tack så mycket, Ikea!

Jer and I spent four hours at the new Brooklyn Ikea yesterday, whew. We feel somehow changed by the experience, and are proud of our perseverance getting through it. Before this Ikea opened this year, there was no Ikea in NYC, and seriously, multiple New Yorkers have asked us in the past two weeks, "Have you been to the Ikea yet??!!" People, calm down, Ikea is great, yet very grating. It was crazy town there yesterday with so many people. It is nice, however, that people in Manhattan can take a FREE water taxi from the island directly to the store -- tourists can just ride the taxi if they want, too. We got plenty of cute and necessary items for our new apartment, like a mini butcher block cart adding 20 inches of valuable counter space to our kitchen. We also had a little pre-shopping Swedish treat (Dajm tårta, Kristian Regal-äpple, kaffe) at Cafe Ikea. Jeremy didn't look so calm and collected by the end of the visit there...

Art Scene

This past Thursday was the biggest gallery opening night of the year, so we met up with friends Mike, Arianne, and Heidi in Chelsea to check out the scene. We started at the opening of a Minneapolis friend, Lex Thompson, at Point of View gallery. Lex's photos looked great there. Then we walked (see Jeremy and Heidi walking, with Empire State Building in background) to another building that had several galleries in it. There were so many people, it was hard to see the art. We didn't find anything we loved, but it was great to be out and having fun. We ended the night at a Mexican place, with dinner, drinks, and a bonus free (but nasty) tequila shot (note Arianne's opinion of it...) Oops, can't turn that photo around, maybe that's OK...

Home Sweet Home!!!!!!

Great news came unexpectedly on Friday -- we signed a lease on our apartment! It is ours! We don't have to move! Erin spent about five hours putting together all our financial information, taxes, bank statements, her contracts, etc. in order to "prove" our financial status, we went to meet with the property manager, and poof! She wanted to finalize it there and then. We are SO happy about this. A video tour of our place will be forthcoming...

Jeremy's First Day of School

This was taken right before he left the apartment for his first day. Doesn't he look handsome and ready for his big day at school? The report from the first day, "It was intense, but good."

Furniture/Purrniture

There is a pet store in St. Paul called Purrniture, where they specialize in cat furniture. We don't own any cat furniture, and until last night, it felt like we would never have any furniture, but then some Russians arrived to move in our stuff! It was quite an ordeal. The two pods that carried all our belongings from Minneapolis to Brooklyn showed up 5 days and 2.5 hours later than scheduled. We knew about the five extra days last week, when, "due to the holiday weekend," we were told to wait until Tuesday. Then, after being told our pods would arrive around 3:00 PM, they didn't come until 5:30. In the meantime, we had hired some movers to help move the things up to the third floor here, and they arrived at 3:00, but don't worry, they filled their time sleeping on the curb (literally) until 5:30. And yes, we paid for that time. And yes, many of our things looked a lot worse for wear once they arrived, but it's all here now, and boy are we happy. We have a bed! And some chairs! And there are things for Mabel to perch on, too! This is a before and after photo of the living room...

Central Park Bike Adventure!

Today, Labor Day, we ventured to Central Park where we rented bikes for a few hours, biked the perimeter of the park, and hung out and read. What an amazing natural area within the city. Tomorrow is our 8th wedding anniversary, so we are tempted to eat at a nice restaurant tonight... we'll see...

Prospect Park my destination

On Sunday, we started exploring the great NYC parks. Prospect Park is just 10 minutes away from our apartment by bus, and contains the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Zoo, and Brooklyn Museum of Art (2nd largest museum in the U.S.) within it. Nice! Then, we tried out the evening service at the church of a friend of ours, which included a fun BBQ afterward at the home of a church-goer -- one of the most nicely decorated homes I've ever been in (at our apartment, we could simply use some decor, period, no matter what kind). Overall, it made us miss House of Mercy.