Everybody gone. Sad.

To quote Lilly, "Everybody gone.  Saaaad."  We had a great visit with my dad and Lilly thinks that he's still riding around on a train somewhere, after we got to wave goodbye to his train as he pulled out of Hartford, heading for Washington D.C.  Then we had a great time with Alisha, Corey and Joey.  We all got to head to NYC, which was a first for everyone but me, but I hadn't been there in years.  We heeded no one's advice and decided to drive rather than taking the train, which actually worked out really well.  We parked right in Manhattan and hit the Trump Tower for a bathroom break.  I was hoping that there would be gold toilets, but instead they were a decidedly 80s pink.  From there we set out for the Carnegie Deli.  Upon arrival we saw that the line went half way down the block and opted instead for the seemingly charming Benash Deli across the street.  The food looked good and we were all excited for some authentic deli food.  We took our lunch and had a picnic in Central Park.  The park was fantastic, the food was not.  When you pay $25 (!) for a Reuben you sort of expect that it will be a good Reuben.  Actually, nothing was good, not the Reubens, not the latkes, not the matzo ball soup.  Oh well, everyone needs to get ripped off in New York once.

We walked around the park and then headed down Madison Avenue towards Rockefeller Plaza.  On the way we had our one celebrity siting of the day - we saw Darlene's boyfriend from the show "Roseanne."  He was standing on the sidewalk in front of his hotel, smoking.  Not quite what I had hoped for, but at least it was someone :)

Rockefeller Plaza was fun - I liked seeing where the Today Show is filmed.  Joey and Corey headed up to the observation deck at the top of the building and said that the views were amazing.  The rest of us didn't feel like ponying up the $20 admission fee.  Then we headed on to the seriously over-stimulating Times Square.  Lilly was so awed by it that she finally fell asleep in her stroller.  Then we went on to my favorite spot, Bryant Park.  It's such a pretty place right in the middle of it all.

Then we headed back up Fifth Avenue and poked around in a few stores.  We checked out The Plaza Hotel (beautiful!) before taking Lilly to FAO Schwartz.  She was really amazed by it.  Mike and I wanted to get her a little souvenir, but there wasn't anything that she wanted (who is this child?), so we continued on.

Corey was dying to at least have a drink at Daniel Boulud's restaurant, and we knew Lilly couldn't handle that, so Corey, Alisha and Joey headed there and Mike, Lilly and I got to make a pilgrimage to Chipotle!  Oh, how we've missed it!  It was fantastic and worth the 13 block walk in the cool, windy weather.  Then we headed back to West Hartford, which seems like a bucolic farm community compared with the excitement of NYC.

The next night Corey cooked us the most amazing dinner of crab-stuffed mushrooms and sea bass with fennel, apples and oranges.  It was AMAZING.  Corey is an owner and the chef at John's in Boulder and makes amazing food.  As someone who loves food, I so appreciate everything he makes.

Otherwise, we hung out in West Hartford, ate some more and Lilly was completely doted on by her aunt and uncles.  We really had such a good time with them and were so sad to see them go.  They are such great people and such great friends.  Lilly especially loves Joey and just wanted to watch him a lot.  She also loves Corey's Smurf-like reading voice and wanted to be with Lishy all the time.  I really love it when our house is full of people, so head for Connecticut for a visit soon!

In other news, I am writing this blog on our new Mac laptop.  I know, we are total Mac, yuppy nerds, but we are trying to do our part to stimulate the economy by spending our newly deposited check from the government on something really worthwhile :)  Actually, Mike and I have kind of been fighting over who got to be on the computer lately and we decided that we really need to be more portable.  It is fantastic to browse the internet from anywhere in the house!

My mom was in the ER the other night and finally went home with a diagnosis of pneumonia.  Get well soon, Mom!

Tonight we're having some friends over and tomorrow we're hoping to tackle some painting in the house.  We've painted almost everything downstairs, but the upstairs is all still stark white, so we've got lots of work to do.  Where is Tory the expert edger when we need her?  I had a meeting here the other night for the teacher's in our church's children's ministry and people really seemed to like our house, which was so nice to hear.  I guess the work we've done has paid off, as our house was for sale for a year and a half with no takers.  It's still kind of an odd place, but it's really come a long way.  Next weekend my mom is coming to visit and we're going up to Boston for my cousin's daughter's 2nd birthday party.  The next weekend we are heading out to Denver for a quick visit with Mike's parents and then Mike gets his first chance to preach at our new church on Memorial Day weekend.

In weight loss news, I am .1 pounds away from hitting a big milestone for myself, so I'm hoping that by next week I'll be in a new weight bracket.  I'm hoping to drop another ten pounds before our trip next month, which would at least put me in the same stratosphere as my pre-pregnancy and pre-hypothyroid weight range.  I might have to start pulling some two-a-days.  My trainer suggested sweating it out by overdressing in a hoodie at the gym, but I'm not sure that's a good look for me :)

Okay, enough is enough.  I'm just so comfortable lounging as I type this that I could go on forever...  I'll post some pictures soon from last week.  Have a great weekend!