Adventures: one day at a time.

I know I posted yesterday that we were having a bit of snow. But that was just the beginning. We were woken up in the early hours to the sounds of people scraping and shoveling. Some of the sidewalks are cleared, the road is passable on most streets, but there is A LOT of snow. I ventured out to pick up the laundry, but the place is snowed in - snow up half of the door!

Too bad there's no such things as a "snow day" when you work from home...

Check out pictures from my walk to the post office this morning.

A break in the snow fall this afternoon prompted a quick grocery store run. I was decieved! It looked like a break in the weather, but instead it was just a spell of sleet instead of snow flakes. None the less, I got groceries. And the snow, and the sleet, it just keeps coming down!

Just when we thought we had totally lucked out to live in the best neighborhood in NYC, we stumbled upon the Dual Specialty store, just a few blocks from the apartment. And then it wasn't even a thought. Confirmed. We have the best location!

We can, once again, cook with nagas, and have stocked our cupboard with all the whole spices and specialty flavors we grew so accustomed to in London. Since moving here, spices were the one thing that made us cringe - the prices are SO high, you have such limited selection, and they just don't taste fresh. Not any longer :)

Last night, we cooked up our favorite curry using a recipe perfected in London (appropriately named in my recipe folder as "best curry ever") - with fresh roasted fenugreek, coriander, cloves, cumin, cardamon and all the rest. It smelled delicious...oh, and then we ate it. And it tasted delicious. too.

Thank you, Dual Specialty, for coming into our lives. Thank you for your nagas!

Wow - there's something I never thought I'd say!

But really. We had the opportunity, now that we live on the east coast, to head down to Ft. Myers for Thanksgiving to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ward - and for me, to meet them for the first time!

We had a great time visiting, and chatting, and exploring the area. And after seeing so many family members and friends during the holidays, it felt like we should have seen them, too. Hopefully we can make another trip down there happen, and not have to wait another 4 years to do so!

(We have photos from the Florida trip up on facebook.)

Yesterday, we met up with a friend from Portland who's back out in NYC (where she's from) to catch up and explore Jackson Heights together. We heard from a good number of people that it was a neighborhood rich in history, diversity, and character. Plus, has some very highly recommended Indian restaurants!

It was certainly a great day! Catching each other up on the last 2-3 years was fun, and seeing a new neighborhood was great. JH is very different than our neighborhood, you can see the history and evidence of how many different groups have called it home over the years and even now. It felt very much like the NY you hear about from families who lived her and later generations moved away, with little shops, corners you can count on being filled with street carts despite the weather, and so many people out and about all the time.

Oh, and the picture? We got cold walking around outside so long so stopped in a wonderful old-timey diner (Jahn's Since 1897) for coffee and lemonade (yes, really). And these were the placemats! They made for some disappointing realizations about our knowledge of some of the Presidents :)

We ate at the Jackson Diner, another piece of the neighborhood that isn't shy about it's legacy or evidence of change to the neighborhood. It's definitely a good bit out of the way for us, so we might not be back up that direction any time soon; but we are really glad we went and had a fun time exploring!

We missed the big snow storm/dump that happened in December as we were already back in Portland for the holidays. Sounds like we missed a doozy though!

Last week, there were severe weather warnings, hype and general consensus that THE SNOW was coming back. Offices were closing early despite the fact that the forecasts said snow wouldn't even start until 9 pm or later. We weren't convinced there was anything to get excited about...and in the end, there wasn't.

Once there was only .25-.5 inch of snow on the ground, the trucks were already trying to plow and people were shoveling away. I tried to catch the truck coming down our street and just got the tail end of him.

Even though there was a good number of inches that ended up accumulating over night, the plow trucks were going all through the night and ultimately no work or routines were disrupted. After living in London over two years, it's great to be in a city that can continue functioning despite actual snow fall - whether it's an inch or a foot!

 The couch for the living room finally arrived and there's a housewarming party on the calendar for the end of the month - it's starting to feel pretty solid around here. The last thing to do is pain the entryway. That's it!

Well, we have now been NYC residents for 3 weeks! It is hard to believe how quickly time is flying by, though that's just what happens when you're busy. And busy we have been!

In just three weeks, we've:

• hosted Rachel
  
• painted the living room
• painted the kitchen
• bought a couch
• discovered and evaluated a handful for grocery stores (the selection!)
• baked cupcakes, cakes, crumbles
• made waffles!
• business trip to DC
• hung out with friends, made new friends
• eaten out at restaurants that are Amy-friendly, including italian, thai, etc
• had brunch with sangria
• walked the entire lower east side
• looked across the water at Liberty

Here's to many more visitors!

Want to see photos of most all of the above listed fun things? They are here!

Have checked in to the room, had lunch, and found coffee. All with this view!

(download)

Click here to download:

DC.zip (2.69 MB)