Past few date nights

Dinner+Movie
Went to dinner at Macao Trading Company... they got a new head chef.  No more egg-on-top of fried rice.  And they served the sauce on the side of the African chicken.  Ugh.. it's going downhill.  Saw Weiner-Dog by Todd Solondz.  I was a HUGE Solondz fan in high school.  Then, as we're standing watching our PS340 children on the last family Friday.  I look over and realize it's him.  I'm starstruck... do I say I'm a big fan of Happiness?  If I did, wouldn't he just be like "what kind of f'd up person are you?"  hahah

So, I drag the hubby to Weiner-dog.  My movie tastes have changed, but I could still enjoy his dark humor.  Funniest bits were the Danny Devito prof bit and the Ellen Burstyn old woman bit.  Although, the prof thing was just so cliche.  Of course, all untenured profs who have to care about student reviews and feedback want to kill students.  But through the dog, c'mon Todd -- expected better.  Since my mother has a 24-hour home health aide, I giggled through the part where the granddaughter gives her an expensive egg that the caregiver just garbage disposals.  One thing that we "didn't get" that the audience did was the dog poop.  Todd shows dog diarrhea on the street for a whole (long) 30 seconds. Afterward, discussing with the hubby, I was like "I don't get it", he said "I don't either, that stuff is easy to hose down." and at that moment, I realize it is because we have been through 2 kids and the past 7 years full of bodily fluids, that we are just immune to images of them.  His young audience, who is naive to such things, appreciated its apallingness.

Interesting to see how my giggles have changed in Solondz movies.  Too bad, I never got to express to him that I'm a fan.

Samantha Bee (Full Frontal)+The Greek Kitchen

So, of course, right after we take a date night, I land Sam Bee tix.  So, we took another night!  And we went to a taping of Full Frontal, with the theme of Brexit.  It was one of her best works and very nice to see her up and close.  She's very modest and got pissed at me taking pics of her.  Oh well, sorry Sam -- such is the life of a tv star. :P   Great work, and the hubby is now very fond of her show.  Afterward, we ate at the Greek Kitchen.  It was ok.. disappointed with lack of lamb in Moussaka.  Husband got the pork souvlaki.  It was delicious.  It was ok -- was hoping for a tad better, but a good find around the studios.

Date Nights
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We're trying to have a date night a month.  I am forgetting too many details about them.. I should have written about them right after.

The best date night was our first date night (our Anniversary) in September.  It was a Wednesday night, and we went to the Macao Trading Company and then the Comedy Cellar.   The food at Macao was good.  Good enough that my husband wanted to go back sometime, and he almost never likes a restaurant well enough for a second try.  The Comedy Cellar had Sean Donnelly as the MC.  He was great.  There were some nerds who did machine learning in the audience, and he worked on them.. so "what is that? what do you actually do?" .. the guy was acting like "it's above your intellect".  I got so upset (being a machine learning researcher myself) that I yelled out "It's like artificial intelligence.", knowing that the MC would be more familiar with that term.  He said "you insulting my intelligence?"  Marina Franklin was a pop-in.  She had funny lines about... my boyfriend said "I'm mad, I'm going to the other room." and she was like "Wow, he's so rich, he has another room?"  Us just moving to NYC, that hit the spot.  Judah Friedlander, Rachel Feinstein, and others were very good too.  To walk from Tribeca to the Village, we went through the art galleries in Soho -- very nice walk.

October -- I told my husband that he picked what we were going to do.  And of course, he won't plan or pick.  So, we ended up walking around Chinatown.  We walked back and ended up going to Tertulia in the Village.  It was OK.. nothing to write home about.

November -- I hosted Thanksgiving at our place in Philadelphia for 27 people and had hoards of family in and out of town.  P.S. no date night

December -- We went to the Google Holiday Party.  Needless to say, the extravagance was unbelievable.  Too bad, we were so tired because it was in the middle of the week.  But the food was outstanding with almost every room with a different theme... lobster bisque, sushi, duck pate "cherries", chocolate mousse in the shape of a shoe.  Dancers on stilts.  Fabio (which we didn't see because the room was too crowded).  Weird performance artists -- one doing "free insults".   I should have blogged about this after we did it because I lost too much of the senory overload.

January -- So, I originally scheduled my birthday outing the afternoon of the big 2016 snow blizzard.  I booked the Colin Quinn -- the New York Story and a reservation at "The Catch" restaurant.  P.S. by noon that day, the restaurant and babysitter canceled on me because De Blasio enacted a travel ban.  Then I had to hunt online and found the play was canceled.  Had to rebook everything for the next weekend -- fun.  Needless, we did go out to dinner that weekend to Korean BBQ in Koreatown, that was really good and fun with the kids.  Next weekend, we went to Catch and the Colin Quinn thing.  Catch was great.  Got the Lobster Bisque, mashed potatoes with Lobster, and I forget what else.  The lobster was the most memorable.... because they're really big into giving you lots of claw.  It was a good, very pricey but hey, we do this once every two months?  Colin Quinn was ok.  A favorite was when he talked about how when New Yorkers ask a question, it's more like "questioning by interrogation"... "Where'd you get that donut?" in an accusatory tone.  What turned me off is he went on some "we live in too sensitive of a society" Seinfeld-esque rant at the end, where he said that it was the good old days when the black bus driver would yell about the white man being the devil and they could rile him up and laugh about it.  OK.. that's funny for them, but was it funny for the bus driver?  It's ok to be insensitive sometimes but to note that you are being wrong.  I think the sanctimonious, why can't people be racist because it's funny just doesn't work anymore.

March -- Caroline's and Lupulo
So, February was too crazy.  I finished up 3 proposals that I had been working on, we went to Florida during the school break, then I went to Rio de Janeiro for work, then I got the flu (which lasted a whole week).  After all of that, I was so beat, that I haven't worked on proposals since.  So, we couldn't really fit in a date night then.  So, I was eager to see a Broadway play, but hubby and I just cannot choose which one "American Psycho"... too dark for him, Book of Mormon .. we already saw in Philly, Hamilton... not paying $1000 for tix, ... maybe eventually "Something Rotten" or something else... but right now, we couldn't decide.  So, hubby said "How about a Comedy Club again!"  so I wanted to try something new so we did a Caroline's "Brunch".  I thought it would be all old farts like us.  But I guess the comedians on the bill were young, so it ended up being all 20-something women at the brunch.  If a guy was there, it was because their girlfriend dragged them (husband for me).  The guy asked us how long we had been together... "I was like 'oh gawd...'" and he made some "too many blowjobs" joke.  Oh well.. what it is to be young again!  It was all jews and some Fox News girl.  They were all ok.. some more engaging than others... but nothing could top our Comedy Cellar experience. After that, we walked all the way back and I had made reservations at Lupulo (hops in Portuguese).  I had the Acorda and something else and hubby had the piri-piri chicken.  The acorda had something missing.. it wasn't velvety like in Portugal.. it tasted like they forgot to put olive oil in and it really was just "mushy bread", which is what I call it anyway.  Hubby was disappointed with piri-piri chicken, which didn't have much salt (to our suprise.. being portuguese.. but they way underdid that...)

April -- PS340 Fundraiser
We took the first crack at free time in Spring to use the babysitter time to walk to Hell's Kitchen from Chelsea.  It was a nice walking, seeing the theater district and all.  We took away paintings and tutoring lessons from the fundraiser.

April -- Macao Trading Company and Tribeca Film Festival (Special Correspondents)
Before being married, we used to see all sorts of foreign films.  Now, we're just happy to be out and wanted to see a comedy.  Only after I signed us up did I notice that this would be on Netflix the week after.  I have to admit that it was way more fun with a live audience, laughing.  The Macao Trading Company was great like always -- we had the fried rice -- I had the fish does asian style and the hubby had his favorite, the African chicken.  He loved the fried rice, even with bacon and all... and it had an egg on top, done Portuguese style.  This is his fave restaurant in all of Manhattan by far... since it's done well.  Then we saw the movie -- It started with fuzzy audio and Ricky Gervais came out swearing, then it was a fun evening.  Too short.

Definitely over the first week..............................................oh the things we have gone through/done.

Daycares
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First daycare I chose for my 2 year old was in Tribeca.  It's a national chain, and we were familiar with it so I thought it would be good at the very least. They also had advertise to open up a center in Chelsea in the Fall. It was super expensive at $3100/month!!!!  My son might as well have his own apt.  Anyway, the staff was really good there, but it is a hike from Chelsea.  I would take the ACE for 2-3 stops.. and my husband would walk there in the Fall (Fall was very warm and had great weather, btw).  This amount to an hour commute each way to drop off/pick up!!!!  What a waste of time, except it was my husband's excercise program.  Don't get me wrong -- the level of care there was great.  He never came home with a diaper rash, and it was under-enrolled (probably because so expensive) that he got a lot of personalized attention.  However, I saw winter coming one day, and I made the decision in November to start him at a school across from my other son's school in December.  Great call.. this new center, while more crowded seems sufficient.  He comes home having learned some things.  The best parts is that it's $1900/month and ALL MEALS included.  We have never had a daycare that we don't have to pack a lunch for, and it's so wonderful without that exra worry.  And maybe he'll turn out less picky than our 6 year old (due to peer-pressure eating)!

Our weekend sport
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So, we've developed this "sport" that if the kids wake up early enough (like their usual 6:30/7), we try to get out of the house by 8 and go to a 24/7 or popular restaurant.  So, while most people enjoy these 24/7 places in the wee hours at night, ours are more the wee hours of the morning (by NYC standards).  And it's nice because these places are not busy at the time we go.

So far, we have hit Veselka at 8:30 AM, Coppelia at 8 AM, Katz's Deli at 10:30, Murray's Bagels at 8:30, and just went to Bonboniere at 8 AM this morning.  We've been to Cafeteria but we're so close that we've gone in the evenings.

Veselka:  Here's a warning -- some stuff does not get onto the menu until 9.  I asked for the matzoh ball soup and was told they don't start serving it til 9.  I also got the Goulash, which is nice but I noticed that having some mashed potatoes would have been nice to mix in.  I remembered it was supposed to come with mashed potatoes and asked the waiter -- "we're out of it" he said.  Not that he initially told me or asked if I wanted a substitution.  PS the waiter sucked... my husband's theory is that the new shift starts at 9, and he was tired at the end of his shift.  So, moral of the story, Veselka at 8 AM, not that great.

Coppelia:  I remember the food being unmemorable for their breakfast faire.  Again, I think the service wasn't that great.  I honestly don't remember much about our experience.

Katz's Deli:  So, we had a hard time getting out of the house, and then my husband was like "let's walk" (which is always iffy since our 6 year old can decide not to want to and then he drags).  But we walked all the way there and got there around 10:30.  The waiter seating was almost full.  And we didn't understand their setup so I just sat at a self-service table.  Then, my husband figured out that we would have to wait in 3 lines to get all the things we wanted, and he got cranky and was freaking.. because he was going to entertain the kids while I got the food.  I got crackin and got the hot dogs for the kids and soup, then next line got a Reuben, then next line, got some drinks.  Apparently, there's another line for hot coffee.. and I told my poor caffeine-addicted hubby, fuck it -- can't do it.  It was an enjoyable meal.. and around 11-11:15, people start pouring in on a Sunday morning.  And we felt lucky to get the table, even though it didn't have a waiter.  So, long story short.. get there really early to get the waiter!  And the food, while expensive, was good quality.

Murray's Bagels on 6th ave. and 13th st.:   So, I had gone when I woke up one morning and got there at 6:30 and ordered us some bagels that I brought home.  I was like "there's no one there early.. we have to go!"  So, we went some other time, with the kids dragging to get out... and got there like 8 or 8:30.  It was difficult to find a table but we did.  P.S. a lot changes from 6:30 to 8:30.  The bagels are very good and it is what it is.

Bonboniere:  So, this is a diner in West Village... very tiny place!  We just went there this morning.. got there around 8.  Only one couple in the tiny place.  They had great service... and the food was pretty good.  The serving sizes were filing, but the potatoes could be done more crispy.  The pancakes are really great -- out of this world.  But all I ask for in the morning is filling and good service to ease the chaos of the kids.

Cafeteria: First time we went in the early fall, we sat outside and the portions were great. My husband liked his french toast, and I was raving over my chicken and waffles.  The kids got some pigs in a blanket.  The second time, later in the fall, they didn't  have seating, especially for kids, but opened up the back room (banquet room) for us which was a nice gesture.  All the portions were like 2/3rds of what we got before.  My husband's french toast was so much smaller than before.  The waiter even had told us that the pigs in the blanket came with 5, but they only served 4!  Something was up with them that time.

So.. I think this will become a food blog now!  Hope to report on more restaurants to come!

The first week
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We actually do everything we do back at home.  I don't focus on housework.  I do work all day on manuscripts, proposals, a little research.  My husband has been a dick about letting me working at his work.

We checked out a local playground on Saturday: http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/corporal-john-a-seravalli-playground
and had brunch at http://www.thedinernyc.com/.  Both were nice.

Sunday, we went to the American Natural History Museum.. yay for free corporate discounts!

We also had checked out the Union Square playground the week before.  Oh, and this past Thursday, we went to the Highline.  Very nice walk but tiring for our older son.

West Side Market is so close that we do most shopping there.   Gotta make it back to Trader Joe's.  Awesome that everything is so close.

pusteblumenyc.org had a summer camp that the kids LOVED.  
But now they're on to Bright Horizons Tribeca BACKUP CARE which my oldest HATES.
Telling him there's four days left... then no more.

My youngest likes it... which is good because he's there until Bright Horizons Chelsea opens up I guess.

No waiting -------------------------------------------------

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So, it's definitely a culture shock coming here.  I almost think that this sweet experience is lost on us since we have kids, stressed about our jobs, and have little enjoyment.

One funny thing that happened is the wait times.

We got delivery food the other day, and the order was 10 minutes late.  The company kept profusely apologizing, and the guy wouldn't accept his tip.  I was like "wow".  In Philly.. if it was 10 minutes late, the delivery guy would demand his tip for being early.  :O

And we were in Bed, Bath, and Beyond, buying an air conditioner, which they didn't have the price for.  This ended up backing up the line.  People started freaking out:  "None of these lines are moving!"

The lines at Trader Joe's, Whole foods, etc. are amazing... you wait in line and get doled out to tons of cashiers.  There is usually a person hired just to keep the line orderly, like at a TSA line in an airport.

New Yorkers are serious about time.  I guess I had heard that... but it is a culture shock to see it.

When did we move?  Depends on whom I'm talking to....

So, the last you knew, our move-in date was July 15th, but because our lease said July 1st, we got our son G&T tested and registered for his new school.  Well, by July 15th, the landlord was saying that she STILL couldn't get the dishwasher in, which we had conditioned upon our move.  So, I believe we fumbled to August 1st move-in date, and then, when the week before she was still waffling and started talking September 1st!!!  Well, that made us decide when was the latest that WE wanted to move.  And that's 2 weeks before school starts.  We wanted to start the process on August 20th and told the landlord that.

OK.. so this may sound like a huge inconvenience, but actually, we actually saved like $6000 in rent.  Yeah, we didn't get to live there, but technically there are two factors in our move:

1) My son's start of elementary

2) saving my husband commute time

And the second is only temporary anyway.  So, really, we just wanted July 1st to get the school process started, and we were able to do all that with the lease but didn't have to pay the rent!  So, this is somehow the luckiest and most perfect situation.

Let's hope this move stays that way.

So we moved this past Thursday....

The luck of the apartment search -- our timing for the school process

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OK -- so, why did we aim for this apartment that had a July 1st start date?  The NYC school process!  I believe in trying to give my child the best start as possible.  Our oldest is 5, will be 6 in September -- so, in the state we're moving from, he will be going into Kindergarten due to Sept. 1 cut-off.  In NYC, the cut-off is Dec. 31st, so he should be going in 1st grade there.

You would think, skipping a grade would be enough -- but I notice that there is summer gifted and talented (G&T) testing.  We just need to apply by June 19th.  We barely managed to secure our lease for July 1st by the 18th, after getting the process started in early June.  They say they will accept it because your child has to be a resident by July 1st to take the G&T exam.  I have my husband go to the office and submit the form right on June 19th, the last day to apply.

Whew!  Then testing is on July 6th.  And as you know, the landlord had delayed our move-in to July 15th, so we're still out of the city for that, but that's our little secret (NYC doesn't have to know).  I book a hotel the night before and we enjoy a nice day in the city on Sunday.

I underestimate not having breakfast at the hotel -- husband is super-cranky and we're running behind schedule that morning... we have to get to the testing site by 10 AM.  We get there after nixing one of the places we wanted to go that morning.  I made sure my son had protein and was ready-to-go!

Will he pass the 1st grade G&T, given he did not attend a kindergarten?  We at least tried.  All this work and money just to give him opportunities.

That day, I also stop by PS340 and sign him up for our zoned school.  Everything's set and we're not really living there yet because the landlord cannot get her act together and get the renovations done!!!  Is this normal for NYC?

It felt so good to have all the school stuff done (made the G&T test and registered at local school) and not have to move yet.