a day at the museum

We didn't exactly spend the day at the museum but we did enjoy the few exhibits we saw at the American History Museum last Saturday. The weather was just too nice outside to be stuck inside all day checking out displays of animals and artifacts.

We sure didn't miss this display (okay it was right inside the front door). We will have to schedule the museum for a rainy day.

Chef AHOP

AHOP escaped the confines of his cubicle this past weekend and easily made the transition to Chef AHOP. We decided it was time to do some home cooking and break in our tiny kitchen.

AHOP was the mastermind behind the meal- we enjoyed Colombian ajiaco soup (we did use a spice packet) with fresh avocado, rice, and lulu juice.

Before!


After!

THE draft

I took a different route home from work today that happened to take me past Radio City Music Hall. Tonight the NFL Draft is taking place at the venue so lots of action was already taking place around 5 when I snapped these pictures.




It's crazy to think about how much attention these college guys are getting and they haven't even stepped foot on an NFL field yet!

Celebrate Earth Week!

food, food, food

I've had a relatively easy time adjusting to my new 8-5 job but I have noticed I seem to be lacking those extra hours I had during college. Where does time go? I work around 45 hours a week. AHOP works around 100 hours a week. His adjustment period has been a bit more difficult than mine to say the least.

In the few hours we spend together during the weekend we've enjoyed exploring the food culture NYC has to offer. We tried out our first Groupon this past weekend at The Elephant.
It was a really good deal- we got $60 worth of food for $30. The food was very Americanized Thai and SPICY!


We tried out another restaurant in the East Village last weekend, Vaselka. I had tried a sampling of the Ukrainian food at the New York Times Travel show back in February and was dying to take AHOP. He was not a big fan. I really enjoyed the food. We had homemade perogis, cabbage rolls, and the famous bortsch soup (red beets!) . AHOP told me the best part of the meal was the coffee, I definitely had to disagree.

Easter

I survived my first holiday away from home as a working professional. I guess it wasn't that big of a deal considering I haven't been home for Easter in a few years but this year it was different for me as I've started to realize that I may be facing many more holidays away from home, family, and friends.

On Sunday I went with AHOP and Danielle to a church service at the Forefront Church (the service may have been a little too edgy for us) and then we had a nice Sunday brunch.

Danielle even brought an Easter basket complete with jelly beans


We spent the afternoon lounging in Madison Square Park before AHOP had to head off to work for the evening.

taking on China Town

AHOP and I had yet to eat in China Town or even wonder down the ever popular Canal Street in downtown since arriving to Manhattan in January, so last night we decided to take advantage of some free time and warm weather and head to the area. We asked a friend for a good dinner suggestion since some places in China Town don't have good raps and ended up eating at Joe's Shanghai. The place was phenomenal. I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food and I loved everything we had at Joe's. The place is famous for its Pork Soup Dumplings.

Pork Dumplings
AHOP displaying the proper way to eat a soup dumpling- soup spoon underneath the dumpling to catch the broth, chopstick holding the dumpling. What a pro!

After we waited an hour to be seated we were surprised to find that we were seated at a table with 8 other people. There was a group of six and another couple. The restaurant was very efficient in making sure everyone at the table stayed on the same pace as far as order, eating, paying...etc to get people in out and the next group of people seated.