24 February 2008

New York Egg Cream


So I have a confession... One of my favorite channels on TV is the NYC channel, which is all these city government sponsored shows (including Radio Mayor). A few of the shows are really good because they highlight neat places in NYC. Awhile ago they went to this restaurant, The Soda Shop, at Chambers and West Broadway. It is a cute soda shop style place with a candy counter and various drinks and food. I however went to get an egg cream. The egg cream has been highlighted on the NYC channel several times. For those who have never heard of the egg cream, it doesn't have egg nor cream in it. The story states that it was invented in NYC during the depression when it was expensive and hard to get eggs and cream. The drink is milk, soda water, and chocolate and the key to the whole drink is the stiring which is the last step. You have to stir it from the bottom and very quickly to get the foamy top. It is also key to keep the foamy top white while the bottom gets chocolately (So I am told). It was pretty good, tasted a bit like a float that the ice cream had melted down. I think I might like a vanilla one better, or just the chocolate at this place tasted a bit more like cocoa than chocolate (which may be the way it is suppose to taste).

Walking to Brooklyn







I highly recommend walking the brooklyn bridge. It didn't take very long, wasn't hard, and was very cool. You walk above the traffic in the middle of the bridge and get great views of Brooklyn and Manhattan.

City Hall Area

This a memorial to all the people brought to the United States as slaves.
The neon lights above say "Immigration Lawyers"




I think this last building is the one you see on Law & Order all the time. The top picture is the municipal building, the next is a beaver on the building, and the third is a US Court House.




23 February 2008

What can I say? I like pictures of snow.




On Friday we got six inches of snow. Not having to worry about driving I had a nice walk in the snow to the subway and a smooth ride into work.



16 February 2008

Meat Cleaver

Usually I write about what I did during the weekend. This time I had a pretty active week. I didn't post about last weekend and honestly right now I can't seem to remember what I did. It probably included the library, grocery store, doing dishes, and cleaning.


Monday was the coldest day of the winter this year and it was cold. Even so I met a friend from graduate school for sushi in the theater district. I had a variety platter and it was very tasty but all I could think about was making it home without freezing to death. (I made it)


Tuesday was still cold but not as bad. For lunch my friend Carrie and I went out for pizza. I found that one of the top ten pizza places in NYC was right down the street from work. So we headed out to Lazzara’s Pizza CafĂ©. The place was upstairs and around a corner and they had us practically sitting on each others laps, but it all added to the ambiance of the place. You could order a half or whole pie, which translated into 3 or 6 square pieces. Carrie got Margherta and I got Classica (mushroom and pepperoni). It was some of the best pizza I have had in NYC. As we were walking back to work the snow was really starting to come down. Throughout the afternoon the snow kept coming and when I left work the streets and the sidewalks were a mess.


Snowy Trash

Snowy Streets
TV van outside the scene of the crime
Police Crime Scene Unit


Wednesday morning on my way to work I noticed that there were tons of news vans and police vehicles just up the street from my apartment. When I got to work I looked up what the fuss was about and it turns out that a psychologist was killed in her office by a man with a meat cleaver. They think they got the guy today, but I was a little alarmed that I had walked right by there a few hours after it happened and had no idea while the crazy knife man was on the loose.

Wednesday night I went with my group at work to the Institue for Culinery Education. The evening started with drinks and appetizers that they served us. We then put on aprons and paper chef hats and were assigned to stations each preparing a part of the meal. My table prepared the couscous salad by chopping a bunch of things (not too exciting but still fun). My favorite part was when the cook explained how to chop an onion by comparing it to an excel spreadsheet: First you cut the rows and then the columns. Then we sat down and they finished prepping the food and served it to us. The meal turned out to be very good and it was a nice time.



Thursday (Valentines Day) started out just fine. I had a good amount of work to do, but not too much. I had a nice lunch and then went to a meeting. Then I get informed that these binders are not done so I start to work on them... and work on them... and work on them... I ended up staying at work until 8:15. Even though my plans for that night were to pick up a package from the mgmt office and having a relaxing evening eating some chocolate, but I ended up not getting home until after 9-- not that late but when everyone at work leaves early and everyone tells you that you need to leave b/c it is valentines day... it felt a lot later.



Friday I went to NJ to visit a client, the trip out was fine, but the trip back involved me sitting in the middle back seat of a small saab and waiting an hour in tunnel traffic. Lets just say I was looking for some personal space when I got out at times square and lets just say I didn't get it. One thing I haven't been able to adjust to is people constantly bumping into me. I still can't stand it. I went to a party in an apt Friday night with Carrie only to realize no one was speaking English. It turned out everyone else there was Israli and they were speaking Hebrew... so once I figured that out I threw out the five-six hebrew and yiddish words I knew to show off : )



Today... nothing very exciting... went shopping, had dinner with Carrie... Updated my blog...



Oh and now I remember something fun I did last weekend. I went to a brunch in a friends apartment and it went from a brunch to a dinner. A fabulous afternoon. And on my walk home I bought some new towels, b/c I was impressed by her having matching towels and was feeling a bit college dorm like.