We just had a great 4th of July weekend. My family (mom, dad, Richele and Greg) came out for a visit before they continued on their journey of seeing the East. I think that we thoroughly worn them out, as well as ourselves. We had 2 days full of wandering around the city in hot, hot, hot, humid weather!! Noone was free from the sweat!!
They arrived in the morning of the 4th of July yet we didn't leave the apartment until around 11. It's really hard to wake Mac up!!! Once we got out the door though and got going, it was great. We went downtown and wandered around the Financial District and just enjoyed all the fun happenings associated with the 4th. My family was able to see where we work and like to eat lunch as well as a nice view of the Statue of Liberty. From there we made our way uptown and wandered around there (honestly, I don't remember much of what we did!!!). But around 3 we headed up to Queens for the Yankees/Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium. Now that was an experience. It was really a fun time in spite of the heat and the major whopping that the Yankees got!! We left in the middle of the 7th inning stretch. By the time we got home to Jersey City, we were all so tired and sore and dirty, that a trip to the park seemed silly! We all took our turns in the shower cleaning up and making sandwiches for dinner. We ate our food in the nice cool house and turned on the TV. As soon as Andy heard some fireworks going though we slowly made our way out there. We could stand in the park right near our house and see 2 different sets of fireworks. One from the East River (Macy's Show) and one from near the Statue of Liberty. Both were a lot of fun and very pretty. The nice thing was how close we were to home. Just a walk across the street!! Afterward, we all fell into bed and enjoyed a great nights sleep.
The next day we got going around 10. That's kind of what happens when there are 6 people sharing a bathroom!! But it was fine. We went to Rockefellar Center, Central Park, 5th Ave and the surrounding area. We did a lot of wandering and some window shopping. We were able to get a great picture of mom holding her famous NY hot dog with Radio City Music Hall in the background. She seemed to be loving every minute of it!!! We tried to catch a matinee of a Broadway play, but there were no tickets available for the show we wanted. I guess that just means that my parents will have to come back again!! Oh well! ;-) We had dinner reservations at Times Square at 6.30, so we were able to see that as well. It was such a yummy, fun dinner. Family style Italian food that we knew had to be enjoyable as we watched Sue drinking the gravy!!!! I think she'll want to go back there! It was another fun, tiring day.
Sunday Andy and I decided that we would travel down to Philadelphia with all of them and spend the day there. Philly was cool from what we saw. We tried to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall and everything, but Andy and I weren't able to. We did get to go to the brand new (open 2 days) Constitution Museum though. It was very cool! But I must admit the highlight was the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich!! Sooooo yummy with all the Cheese Whiz!! Andy and I left soon after that and made our way to Six Flags Park for a Collective Soul concert. It was one of the best concerts that I have been to. We were front row and I was able to snag a guitar pick from the lead guitarist. Quite enjoyable!!
We just finished recovering from the intense weekend, but I must admit that it was all worth it. I think the family had a really enjoyable time, and mostly it was just fun to see them all again.
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Thursday, June 12, 2003
Oh the disgusting things we'll see here! I (Kristi) need to remember to keep my eyes forward while walking down the street in New York City. Or sitting on the subway for that matter. I won't go into the details of what I saw in just in a few days, but close family has already heard the details......and are probably scarred for life as I am.
The apartment is 99% done now. Thanks to many trips to Bed Bath and Beyond, IKEA, and Target. And also hundreds of dollars. But, I think it is all worth it since the place looks very good, and it feels like home. It's a bit smaller than our last place, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. Andy still has a corner little nook for his computer, and I have my bed. The two places that make us the most happy!!
We have found out that probably by this time next year we will have a temple within 20 minutes of us! The Manhattan temple is scheduled to be done in February of 2004, and within a few months it should be dedicated and ready to go. It will be so nice. We kind of took for granted the many temples we had so close to us in Utah. Hopefully we will have learned our lesson and attend the temple more regularly.
Work is going well for us. My accounting program works WAY too slowly which causes me much frustration. I have tried to enlist the help of my IT staff in Utah, but they all say it is too expensive. The positive thing is that my boss is realizing how debilitated I am without Peachtree working at full strength, and she is going to petition for me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Andy has had a few meetings with clients while still helping the Utah staff with his old position. Everyone just wants Andy in their department! That's all there is to it.
The weather here in New York has been quite interesting. It has been raining more days than not since we've been here. And it makes it so hot and humid!! My hair has been slightly out of control! The curl is untamed, and along with it are the frizzies. I'm trying all sorts of creams and lotions to tame it, but it just may not work. I could have a perma-ponytail for the next couple years.
The apartment is 99% done now. Thanks to many trips to Bed Bath and Beyond, IKEA, and Target. And also hundreds of dollars. But, I think it is all worth it since the place looks very good, and it feels like home. It's a bit smaller than our last place, but it doesn't seem to be a problem. Andy still has a corner little nook for his computer, and I have my bed. The two places that make us the most happy!!
We have found out that probably by this time next year we will have a temple within 20 minutes of us! The Manhattan temple is scheduled to be done in February of 2004, and within a few months it should be dedicated and ready to go. It will be so nice. We kind of took for granted the many temples we had so close to us in Utah. Hopefully we will have learned our lesson and attend the temple more regularly.
Work is going well for us. My accounting program works WAY too slowly which causes me much frustration. I have tried to enlist the help of my IT staff in Utah, but they all say it is too expensive. The positive thing is that my boss is realizing how debilitated I am without Peachtree working at full strength, and she is going to petition for me. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Andy has had a few meetings with clients while still helping the Utah staff with his old position. Everyone just wants Andy in their department! That's all there is to it.
The weather here in New York has been quite interesting. It has been raining more days than not since we've been here. And it makes it so hot and humid!! My hair has been slightly out of control! The curl is untamed, and along with it are the frizzies. I'm trying all sorts of creams and lotions to tame it, but it just may not work. I could have a perma-ponytail for the next couple years.
Friday, June 06, 2003
Kristi and I accepted Neovest's offer to move out to NYC and take a position in account management. It was the 3rd try by Neovest to get us out here, and finally it was the right deal. The timing was right, and it's tough to turn down an offer to double your salary, even if it is to move to NYC. Too bad I'm going to have to get a New Jersey driver's license - ugh! Not many things I can think of that I'd rather do less than stand in a DMV line in New Jersey.
The dirve out here was pretty uneventful, with one minor exception. To start, it was a 24' Ryder truck with the Passat on a trailer behind it. So that took some getting used to. And it was understandably gutless. But once we got out on the road, it went pretty smoothly. In a truck stop in eastern Illinois a friendly trucker pointed out that we were leaking axle oil on our rear passenger tire, and that we shouldn't really go too far like that. We kept on until Terre Haute, Indiana where we called Ryder to report the problem. They sent out a mechanic, and after about an hour and a half or so, we were on our way again.
Family and friends saved the day on that drive. Kristi's friends Leslie and Bobby offered to let us stay with them in Denver. Dave and Pam put us up in Kansas City. (Actually, it was just Pam, since Dave was still in Hawaii ... jerk.) And then we stayed in Columbus with Kristi's cousin Jennifer, and her husband Chad. Everyone was extremely gracious, and even provided us with snacks and lunches for our day's adventures. Thank you all so much!
Todd and Brandon helped us unload the truck in JC. Amazingly, everything made it here in great shape - nothing broken. There was an incident of a broken table during the move in, but it turns out we wouldn't have had room for it anyways, and it only cost 30 bucks to begin with. Let's hear it for Ikea! We are mostly moved in now - it actually looks like home at this point. Tomorrow will be our Ikea run to get the last few items we need to totally utilize our space. We have to be pretty creative since we are in a much smaller space with fewer storage options.
Work has been slow for us, though for different reasons. I simply don't have much to do yet. Kristi is tied to our VPN connection which has been MISERABLY slow, so it just takes her forever to get things done. We've got some ideas on how to solve it, but they are dependent on 2 or 3 different IT staffs, so we might be in trouble ;-)
Tonight will be our first attempt at relaxation. We're only going out to catch a flick, but hey, at least we're not rifling through boxes and hoping to find some unexplored nook or crannie of our apartment where we can hide that one last item.
The dirve out here was pretty uneventful, with one minor exception. To start, it was a 24' Ryder truck with the Passat on a trailer behind it. So that took some getting used to. And it was understandably gutless. But once we got out on the road, it went pretty smoothly. In a truck stop in eastern Illinois a friendly trucker pointed out that we were leaking axle oil on our rear passenger tire, and that we shouldn't really go too far like that. We kept on until Terre Haute, Indiana where we called Ryder to report the problem. They sent out a mechanic, and after about an hour and a half or so, we were on our way again.
Family and friends saved the day on that drive. Kristi's friends Leslie and Bobby offered to let us stay with them in Denver. Dave and Pam put us up in Kansas City. (Actually, it was just Pam, since Dave was still in Hawaii ... jerk.) And then we stayed in Columbus with Kristi's cousin Jennifer, and her husband Chad. Everyone was extremely gracious, and even provided us with snacks and lunches for our day's adventures. Thank you all so much!
Todd and Brandon helped us unload the truck in JC. Amazingly, everything made it here in great shape - nothing broken. There was an incident of a broken table during the move in, but it turns out we wouldn't have had room for it anyways, and it only cost 30 bucks to begin with. Let's hear it for Ikea! We are mostly moved in now - it actually looks like home at this point. Tomorrow will be our Ikea run to get the last few items we need to totally utilize our space. We have to be pretty creative since we are in a much smaller space with fewer storage options.
Work has been slow for us, though for different reasons. I simply don't have much to do yet. Kristi is tied to our VPN connection which has been MISERABLY slow, so it just takes her forever to get things done. We've got some ideas on how to solve it, but they are dependent on 2 or 3 different IT staffs, so we might be in trouble ;-)
Tonight will be our first attempt at relaxation. We're only going out to catch a flick, but hey, at least we're not rifling through boxes and hoping to find some unexplored nook or crannie of our apartment where we can hide that one last item.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)