Broadway - Grease

Last night we went to our first Broadway show since arriving in the big apple. We had been planning for a while to hit a show, just hadn't pulled the trigger.

http://www.tdf.org/

Yesterday morning I headed down to the Seaport area TKTS booth, arriving around 10:20 or so. I'd heard the lines can be very long, and I figured I'd get there before the booth opened at 11:00 so there would be a pair of tickets for us together. It was a quick subway ride to the Fulton Street station, and maybe 10 very short blocks to get to the Seaport area. I'd describe it as a Faneuil Hall wannabe. There are a number of restaurants with outdoor seating, a tired mall (since when are there malls in NYC???), and a number of shops in a pedestrian area finished in cobblestone. The boats are right there, which is really nice, and it looked like maybe the old schooners might be museums open for tours, but I wasn't there long enough to find out.

When I found the TKTS booth, there were about a dozen folks in line ahead of me, and thankfully for the 90+ degree day there was a cloud above to prevent the sun from beating down on us most of the time. The TKTS booth essentially sells tickets to Broadway and Off Broadway shows - what ever is left for tonights show - at a discount. They had a couple of shows I'd have been interested in, including Grease which was Rick's special request. If they had been out of Grease, there was A Chorus Line or Young Frankenstein (complete with new Tony Awards). Shows that are more popular, like Wicked or South Pacific don't appear on the list, though I'm looking forward to seeing those too.

So, for my very warm wait, I got back mezzanine seats for $42 each - less than half price. I had never been to the Brookes Atkinson Theater, but if I go again, I won't buy tickets in the back mezzanine with a knee wall which was designed for children. I think Rick, who is 6' tall, has been traumatized by trying to fit his legs behind the knee wall and size 13 shoes under the seat for the 2 hour show. The petite woman visiting from somewhere in the south complained about the leg room for a full 15 minutes before the show started. We just tried to make the best of it.

http://www.brazilbrazilrestaurant.com/

I met Rick before the show at Brazil Brazil - I found the restaurant on the web and made reservations via Open Table. I had dressed up wearing a red dress with a little sparkle around the neck and some pretty heels. His expression of pleased surprise when I walked up to him at the table made it worth the effort :)

The restaurant was interesting as we have not really explored mid-town west at all, and this would be considered on Restaurant Row which is filled with restaurants which cater to people going to shows, or looking for a cocktail after. I thought it would be nice to try the Brazilian cuisine. Turns out the Brazilian cuisine is very much like regular American cuisine - we selected from the prix fix menu ($24.95 for 3 courses) and started with the Brazilian Salad - a nice garden salad with a unique vinegrette. It looked like Russian dressing when you looked quickly, and tasted a little like it too, but not thick like Russian dressing. Then we both ended up ordering the Frago Copacabana (sauteed chicken in a mushroom brown sauce) as our entree - it was served with nice mashed potatoes, and shared sides of simple black beans and another side of white rice. The mushroom brown sauce was essentially a simple mushroom gravy, and the sauteed chicken had been dredged in a little flour first, and was really tender. Other than the name, it was American comfort food, and tasty. Desserts were nice small puddings - Rick had the rice pudding, and I had the passionfruit mousse. I didn't care for the rice pudding, and Rick didn't care for the passion fruit, so we didn't share :) The passion fruit was a sweet tart - something I would akin to maybe rhubarb or sour cherries - not the same flavor, but the same kind sweet tart.

After we left, with plenty of time for the show and strolled around the neighborhood a bit. We found 3 other Brazilian restaurants, so American comfort food must be popular :)

We waited in line outside the Theater for a few minutes - apparently Taylor Hicks (who is an American Idol featured in the show) pressed the flesh outside for a while just before we got there. He did a nice job on his part I thought.

The leads for this show were selected on some reality TV show (Your the one that I want or something like that - I didn't watch it). I couldn't help but feel that America is not nearly as good at casting a broadway show as whoever usually does it. The ensemble cast was pretty generic and almost all were making their debut - if you closed your eyes, it would have been difficult to know which actress was singing. The males had a little more character... Taylor was the star, and as the Teen Angel, it's a pretty small part, but the most exciting in this show.

After we unfolded ourselves to leave, we looked around for a place to have a cocktail, though we only looked half heartedly as we were tired - we are not yet on NYC time and still seem to turn into pumpkins at 9:00. When a cab presented itself to us, we gladly climbed in to go home and get comfortable, glad that we had taken part in an integral part of the city.

Tangy Lemon Caper Dip

I read a lot and I'll admit I enjoy flipping through magazines, but I really don't like having them "hang around" the apartment, so if I find some article that I know I'll want to look at again, I'll rip it out rather than keep the whole magazine.

I ripped out this recipe for a dip to try - something other than the usual veggie dip or onion dip or BLT dip. I liked it a lot, but Rick wasn't too keen on the tangy yogurt taste.

8 oz light sour cream
1/2 C plain fat free yogurt
1T drained minced capers
a heavy 1/2 t of dried thyme
a heavy 1/2 t of minced lemon zest

Mix it all together and let it sit an hour or so. Great with celery, carrots and little wheat crackers.

I'd make this again :)

I like this picture :)

Ann comes to visit!

This weekend my friend Ann (also my matron of honor) took time off work and away from her family for a laid back girls weekend which I enjoyed immensely. It was my job to be the fun director, and Ann told me she had fun, so the weekend was a SUCCESS!



Ann arrived about 7:00 on Friday night - she took a bus from Nashua to Boston and the Acela from Boston to NYC, and a cab to our apartment. Once she took her backpack off, and put her feet up for a minute, she took a picture from the window of our apartment.





She and I went out for a supper at Genesis (Rick wanted pizza and video games:) - I love the burgers here, but it could be that New Yorkers are just not afraid of an actual medium rare burger - I order them medium everywhere and they are pink and juicy, unlike Portsmouth where they are dried out hocky pucks unless you go to the Rusty Hammer.

We did some people watching ( is there a university near here??) and relaxed and chatted. It was so nice to have a friend from home here in the city with me :) We got back to the apartment, and got everything situated for a good night's sleep.

The next morning we took a nice walk over the central park, and made our way to the resevoir.

We did a short walk around, and then went to Blooming Nails for a mani/pedi. We both agreed it had been too long since we had done that! We went back to the apt, and got our selves together for some shopping - we went to a place on 105th street - Ashley Stewart - I saw it on TLC's What Not To Wear - not going there again as we found nothing.



Then we changed in to our sneakers, and made our way to Ookie Sushi for lunch. All I can say is YUM! Way worth the salty soy sauce I love on the Tuna and cucumber roll I had. Ann had the Chicken Teriyaki - it was very tasty as we shared :) Great salad dressing!



We took the subway down to Canal Street and shopping/looking/enjoying the day we meandered up to Union Square. We decided we liked the Anthropologie store the best - some of everything there! But visited lots of stores and had fun :).



In Union Square we were very thirsty so we went to the Heartland Brewery and enjoyed a beer - it was perfect as we were hot, and the bar was cool with air conditioning! Ann remembered that her son Matt was interested in seeing Pokemon Central, so we made a few calls trying to find out the location of this phenomenon in NYC. We found the corporate headquarters, but no Pokemon Central. Maybe next time.



We got back to the apt, and got ready for dinner - we all went to Taco Taco - and found they had marvelous margaritas, very tasty mojitos, and tasty guacamole. I was the only one who liked the mole sauce, though :)

After watching some of the original Fantastic 4 movie (thank you TiVo!), we crashed, incredibly tired from all that shopping!

Sunday morning we all woke up late - coffee started around 7:30, and we read the Sunday NY Times and snacked on some sweets from Starbucks. I should have gone to the bakery across the street, but frankly I forgot it was there until after I left Starbucks. Next time :)

After some reading, coffee, sweets, snoozing and more snoozing, Ann and I went to Timothy's on the River for brunch. We were surprised to learn that mimosas and bloody mary's can't be served prior to noon in NYC - learn something new everyday! We did get to have a bloody mary dessert after our tasty omlets.

Ann packed up her back pack, and we took the subway to Macy's. Ann said "this really is the largest store in the world!". Ann found a pretty casual dress and an awesome Calvin Klein t-shirt - me, nothing. I'll go back later. Then we walked across the street to Penn Station so Ann could catch the Acela back. It was about 5 minutes late, but I have a feeling she'll enjoy the 3.5 hour ride with her book and no demands :) Thanks Mike for stepping up so she could come.

Settling In

It takes a while to settle in to a new home - especially when you have given/sold/donated more than 50% of what you own, and then you need to buy a few new things. Thankfully almost all of our purchases have been made. Scheduling deliveries with the building, and dealing with deliveries that come a week earlier than scheduled can be challenging. I'm just glad it's all here now :)

Here is a picture of our everything room - you can see Rick's new desk and the new bookcases. Also the new rug took a long time to pick out - we ended up changing our mind at the very last minute too. The barcaloungers are from the basement. We were pretty happy to get curtains too.

Here is Rick's pride and joy - we were going to get a flat plasma, but figured by the time this one needs to be replaced, we can get one of those organic LED screens (ha, ha!). Don'tcha love my desk?

I am feeling incredibly lucky that we get a dining nook!

Here is our bedroom with a wonder closet!

And this is our teeny tiny itsy bitsy incredibly small bathroom...

So, that's our little love nest in the upper east side :) Hopefully we get a few more touches of home included soon :)