The harsh reality that winter is fast approaching smacked me in the face this morning.  As I walked out to the car, I noticed the front and back windshield were covered in a thin layer of ice.  Overnight the temperatures dropped into the 20s and I awoke to the harsh reality that we don’t live in the city anymore and you have to actually get up and outside ealier than normal to scrape off the ice and warm up the car.  Too bad we weren’t exactly prepared for the first frost and there I was sitting patiently (or not so patiently) as the car warmed up and the frost slowly melted away.  I made it to the train with about 1 second to spare.  Needless to say, this weekend a trip to Home Depot will be made to get a few things for the winter:  mainly an ice scraper, some de-icer spray and probably a shovel and rock salt.  Can’t be too prepared…..it could be a fierce winter in the burbs.

Considering Darren is in the video game industry, you would think we play a ton of video games.  Surprisingly, we play very little.  But since receiving a slew of games from some good friends as part of a wedding gift, lately our Xbox 360 is getting a lot more use.  Before moving into the city, Kenny would come over and play all the racing games, but believe it or not as of late, it is me who is grabbing for the controls and trying out our new collection of video games. 

I’m completely addicted to Tiger Woods Golf PGA 08 and I’m shocking Darren with some of my skills.  I’m even amazing myself at times.  Too bad on the real course, I’d be a complete and utter disaster!  The video game however, puts the player right on the fairway driving the ball down to the green.  I typically choose to be Tiger Woods (why not be the best?) but there is an index of other PGA leaders to choose from.  The courses are all from the PGA tour and depending on your skill level, the game throws in many different features to make the round more challenging.  There is also commentary after each shot which can be really annoying at times, especially if you make a bad putt or drive the ball into the trees.  I am still trying hard to learn the controls and putts on the green seem to be a challenge but I’m making progress.  Hopefully this winter on cold, snowy days we will have more time to play and we can try out the rest of our collection which includes Need for Speed and NHL Hockey among others. 

Friday night Darren and I were roaming around the East Village when we came upon a real estate agency office and we started looking at the apartments for sale/for rent posted in the window.  Since buying our home in Westchester earlier this year, we haven’t really been following the NYC housing market too closely.  The listings though were outrageous!  We really couldn’t believe what we were seeing.  700 square foot apartments are asking close to $1MM and they are either walk-ups or at least a non-doorman building, and not even in the hottest areas.  Rentals too were sky high….some apartments with no amenities or very few amenities were fetching $3,000+ a month.  We even saw apartments renting for almost $20K a month.  If you can afford that much in rent, why not buy a place and get the tax benefit?!  Its unbelievable!  And despite the market ‘correction’ that everyone is talking about, there still seems to be plenty of supply and demand and these prices aren’t coming down as quickly as people think.  We still own a one bedroom apartment on the upper east side and given the amenties, the location and the fact that it was recently completely renovated, I can’t imagine what it is worth on the market.   We don’t plan on selling it any time soon, but still, we are so curious to know its current value. 

Since moving into our new home earlier this year, Darren and I have been determined to find some beautiful pieces of art to put up on our walls. Thanks to some works that Darren had in his apartment from a local New York City artist, Lena, our walls weren’t quite bare when we moved in. Since then we’ve been on a quest to find unique pieces of art that exemplify our tastes and reflect our outlook on life. Over the past six months, we’ve picked up some great pieces from our shopping expedition in North Carolina back in March and then again on our honeymoon a couple of months back. Kenny also added to our collection with a fabulous and unique piece by YnouSSab, another local New York artist.

Our quest for art has certainly taught both Darren and I a lot and on Darren’s blog today he wrote a wonderful overview of the basics in his post titled Art 101. Check it out if you want to learn the difference between a serigraph, a lithograph and an artists proof. My art knowledge was very minimal until recently and I’ve learned so much from visiting galleries, talking to gallery owners and just reading and searching the web. I know it will take years to find the right works to compliment our home but we are learning so much and enjoying every minute of it. We are big fans of contemporary/modern art as well as landscape art and photography. We would love to hear from anyone with an artist recommendation to check out.

After weeks of waiting, finally the beautiful piece of art that Darren and I bought on our honeymoon arrived. While in Carmel we browsed many shops and galleries until one in particular caught our eye. Darren had long been searching for a Bruce Ricker since a trip last year to San Francisco. We hunted high and low while at the galleries and on our last stop at Gallery 21 we found an artist who’s technique was similar in style. After speaking to the gallery owner, he explained that Eyvind Earle, the artist who’s work we were admiring, was Bruce Ricker’s mentor. No wonder why Darren was instantly drawn to Earle’s work. As I looked around the gallery, I was very taken with his work as well. The vibrant colors and the beautiful scenes were very captivating. There were so many incredible pieces, but we both knew if we were going to buy one, that it should be a piece of art that when we look at it in years to come that it would remind us of our amazing honeymoon. It was more than fitting then, that we ended up purchasing a piece entitled “As Far as I Can See”. This landscape serigraph is the epitome of our journey across the southwest and the perfect representation of the thousand miles we drove through the mountains and dessert. We are so excited to have this work hanging in our home.

Saturday evening, Sherri and I hosted our college roommates and their spouses to our home along with my brother/Jamie and Andrew/Morgan. Sherri and I had to do almost no introductions as the conversation was flowing the minute everyone arrived. The hotspot of the party was around our bar; Absolut & Cranberry, J&B, Jack Daniels, and Stella Artois was flowing.

The night didn’t all go as planned due to the rain that was in the surrounding towns. Even though we BBQ’d and had tables & tikki torches ready for everyone outside, we had to bring it inside at last minute, and as DMB would say, “We made the best of whats around.”

Some things I learned last night:
1. If you cut an avocado in half, you can squeeze the green ’stuff’ out (thank you Caroline!)
2. You don’t need 5.75lbs of steak for 12 people if you serve a lot of appetizers and sides
3. Wine flows…. quickly
4. Mudslides [shots] taste delicious
5. Shari sells pens

As new homeowners, Darren and I average a trip a week to Home Depot.   We have been repeatedly frustrated with the store in Yonkers as it is complete disorganized, the sales help is utterly helpless, the lines are painfully long and move at a snails pace.  However, this weekend we ventured just a bit further to the store in Hawthorne and what a difference!  This store is clean, well organized, the sales help is friendly, competent and the lines move quickly.  We needed a bunch of bolts, hooks, wires and a variety of tools to help us put up some new shelves, hang some art work and install our sound system.  We found everything we needed quickly, had several people approach us to ask if we had any questions and even had someone at the information desk ask if we wanted to leave some of the stuff we were carrying behind the counter while we shopped.  It was the most pleasant shopping experience at Home Depot we’ve ever had so needless to say, Hawthorne will be our new Home Depot of choice.   We’ll be back next weekend I’m sure!

Today was my first day back at work and my first day back in the “city” since our move (Darren ventured back yesterday).  On my train ride home this evening, I had a chance to sit back and reflect on the past few days.  

What I’ve learned so far is the following:    

1. It’s much easier packing than unpacking – do we really own that much stuff?!
2. There is nothing simple about picking white paint.  There is Linen White, Navajo White, Decorator’s White, Cameo White, Antique White and the list goes on and on…..
3. I was able to get to the train station and back home without relying on our GPS!  
4. Home Depot is the bane of my existance.  The store is not customer friendly and finding anyone to answer a question is near impossible.
5. Cashiers make mistakes – check your bill.  Twice we ended up on the good end of things by not being charged for items we purchased, but I’m sure someone, somewhere was overcharged or charged for something they never bought. 
6. Things in the suburbs are much cheaper.  $2.99 for strawberries – that’s a bargain!
7. Stew Leonard’s is the best grocery store ever!  With only 3 locations: Danbury, Norwalk & Yonkers – this store is a true gem.  And, they give away free samples!
8. Car alarms sound for 2 solid (and loud) minutes before resetting themselves if you have no idea how to shut it off.   This happened to me twice – yes, twice.  Talk about embarassing moments! 
9. I still sound like I have the voice of a 5 year old as someone called the house to confirm an appointment and asked me ‘is your mommy home?’ 
10. There is a whole world that goes on when those of us in the working world are tucked away in our offices – part of me enjoyed it, but part of me felt like a fish out of water.

I am sure there are a bunch of other things we will learn over the coming weeks, months and years but so far things are going great and we are settling in nicely to our new home, our new commute and our new life in the ‘burbs’ together. 

This is the first blog posting being written from our new house. The last 72 hours have been nothing short of hectic and tiring but things are really starting to come together. Highlights of the weekend include:

• A phenomenal pre-move dinner at 15 East, a relatively new Japanese restaurant in the Union Square area with the freshest, most unique sushi we both have ever eaten. (thanks for the recommendation Gothamgal!) We ordered the 10 piece sushi omakase dinner and the sushi chef, Masato Shimuizu, was fantastic! He explained everything we were served, where the fish came from and how it should be prepared and eaten. We dined on specialties like char, sweet white shrimp, japanese snapper and sea urchin. It was the best sushi we have ever eaten. I highly recommend it!
• Moving out day – it rained. We used Meyers Moving and they were terrific. A crew of 4 men arrived at 7:57am and quickly began disassembling Darren’s apt and preparing it for the move. By 10:30am, they arrived at my apartment, 11:45 we were on the road to suburbia and by 2:00pm they were gone. Staring at 50+ boxes, 10 wardrobes and miscellaneous other items to unpack (all of which arrived in perfect condition – not a chip, crack or anything broken,) we quickly got to work.
• We called in the calavry (aka – our parents) to help with the unpacking, unwrapping, building of furniture and cleaning. They all arrived ready to work, food in hand for when we needed energy and for the next 48 hours we starting turning our house into a home.
• The painters finished up on Sat, after completing an absolutely beautiful job. Nu-Look Interiors did an amazing job. Vincent and his crew, led by his foreman Alberto, were clean, efficient, trustworthy and very personable. I would recommend them to anyone as they do interior and exterior painting, wallpaper hanging or faux painting.
• By Saturday evening, we were all ready to collapse. I had my first major allergy attack from all the pollen in the air – a true welcome to life outside the city!
• Today, another long list of chores – more trips to Home Depot, Blinds to Go, the Container Store, Bed Bath & Beyond and many other destinations. Just when you think you have everything you need, you realize you need something else!
• The internet is up and running but our offices are still coming together. Pictures to follow once we come up for air….