Our Black Friday Shopping

So we didn't get up at 4 am to fight crowds or score major deals, but we have a little Black Friday adventure. We looked into registering for Bun. It was a reasonably sized store so my heart didn't start racing as we walked in. Cindy was calming and offered sound advice. Jason was great. He had researched specific products, investigated what babies need, and had an idea of what we wanted. All I wanted to look at was bedding...

Isn't this sweet? The only problem is that we weren't planning on getting a crib. Now I want one so I can look at those sheets!
And shoes....

Darling! But I promised Jason we'd never spend $60 on baby crocodile-embossed moccasins. I'm hoping Target has some knock offs.

On The Run

We moved to our current apartment in May. One major draw was the 4 big windows facing Marcus Garvey park. We look out over a baseball field and heard little-leaguers all summer, and see enough tress to allow us to imagine that we live in suburbs. And as it turns out, in Novemeber, we get to watch the NYC marathoners trot by.
The leading women and men. Can you imagine looking this relaxed at the 22nd mile? And they were still booking it!

The Plan

there is an envelope by our bed with Bun's gender sealed inside. the plan was to open it with our families on thanksgiving. we may opt for plan b. we're blaming the urge to peak on our family's interest...but really, it is getting too tempting. at this rate, i don't think we'll make it through the week.

Live From Our Oven...

#4B smells like Christmas and the whole apartment is being warmed by a tempting, glazed ham. Look good, right? Thanks to Jason, I'll be having dinner part deux at 10:30.

And speaking of ovens...

There's a bun in mine. 18 weeks. So far, so good. We'll blog details soon.

Fall Is Here

Fall is such a beautiful season!

And in unrelated news--I love teaching kindergarten (especially this year)a beautiful afternoon, we celebrated it's life with a fare-well release from the upper roof. Who knew moths were so captivating?

When it gets cold and snowy I am going to remember this perfect, bright fall afternoon!

an addition to the list of things we like....

MAINE
we just returned from a week long family vacation in biddeford, maine. despite the uncharacteristic heat wave and huge mosquitoes, we had a terrific time. here are a few of the things we liked...
family day at the driving range and for jason, early morning golf excursions. adirondack chairs. this one was painted like a lobster (how clever.)
decorative buoys.
smooth rocks. they would have been perfect for painting.
kayaking. even though mike, the NYC business man turned hippie, wanted to take us on a spiritual voyage ("not religious") not a kayaking adventure. we only had two falls into the frigid water. guess who it was?
touring the pemaquid lighthouse. you may recognize it from the maine quarter.
fresh squeezed lemonade. the official recipe seems to be 3 tablespoons of sugar, 2 shot glasses of fresh lemon juice, about 10 oz. water, and ice. shake and enjoy.
fried clams. the best we had were at The Ramp but in my opinion, it is hard to find a BAD fried clam. other items of incredible deliciousness: blueberry pies, the produce (especially corn), grilled hot dogs, and lobster. although after last week's indulgence, i can probably go a full year without seeing a lobster and be perfectly happy.
family time...especially that these two came all the way back from SLC.

not pictured but enjoyed....
-long bike rides
-getting the nicolais hooked on the gardner family card game. i got in some Rook practice for the family reunion. although i still have to work on my inclination to overbid...and cheat.
-getting tan (sort of)
-the freeport outlets!

recommendations

We would strongly recommend you see...
However, we would not recommend that you see...
The best part was that we got to go with Ali.


We also took China Town by storm, visited Union Square twice, viewed NYC from Top of the Rock, giggled through Paper Hearts, spent an hour in Sephora and had an all around fabulous time. Come back soon, Ali!