Grady's Cold Brew

Grady has decided to start a small business and take advantage of living in the big city.  One of his most favorite things he has ever had in his life is coffee... the December we lived with my parents for a couple weeks between the sale of our house in Dallas and moving to London, he got into my Christmas stocking and found these instant coffee cubes, ate half of one, and proceeded to have what can only be described as a doggie cocaine high.  He was up until 2:00 a.m. that night running around and barking like crazy, he would have done backflips if he could've.  (Shout out to my dad for taking care of crazy Grady that night while I was sick and slept!!)

Anyway, ever since that day he has dreamed of coffee and tasting it again.  Being that I am a mean owner and won't give him any, he decided to brew his own concoction.  You can find it all over New York.  Here he is posing with his delivery truck:

He has framed his first dollar bill.

(By the way, if you're interested in those tasty coffee cubes they are called Little Delights and can be found at Central Market if you're in Dallas, or here.  They are wonderful, I had my mom ship the hazelnut variety to me while living in London!)

Frozen Fashion

New York is still frozen.  It is snowing/sleeting outside as I type this.  We are going skiing in Colorado this weekend with some friends and I swear it is going to be warmer there than it is here.  

(one of our favorite local bars - Warren 77)

NYC is known for a lot of things and being a fashion capital is up high on that list!  There is actually a "fashion capital" Wikipedia entry where such things are discussed and cities are ranked.  London has apparently overtaken New York recently thanks in large part to Miss Kate, her royal fashion sense, and the worldwide obsession with every little thing she wears (this site takes it to the next level).  

Just because it's 10° outside doesn't mean that all these fancy New Yorkers use the excuse to look frumpy!  The well-heeled coat to have, by a fashion landslide, is one by Moncler.  They are warm and puffy and beautiful and look like this:

They are awesome.  There is a Moncler boutique in SoHo and I've gone in and tried them on.  Sadly I left empty handed.  Why?  They average about $1,000+.  Hrmph.

So, when winter first arrived and I realized that my cold weather wardrobe wasn't quite up to snuff, warmth-wise, I had to find a replacement Moncler.  I have been a fan of Lands' End for years, I think they have great winter layering pieces.  Plus they now have their Canvas line that is a little more fashion forward.  Plus, their sales ROCK.  You can find massive discounts often.  That is where I found this coat:

Puffy and warm - check.  Hood with (fake) fur - check.  Already inexpensive and on sale twice over - double check!  I paid $62.99 for this sucker.  I also really liked this one but it was a little too short for serious winter weather.  I wear this coat every single day, usually with my Sperry houndstooth rain boots with the sock liners (thanks Mom), and am kept surprisingly warm!

But nothing replaces warm sunshine... sigh.  

God Reads My Blog... and a Snow Day

So remember how I said that I didn't mind the cold too much so long as it was sunny?  Well apparently God read that blog, thought I was hilarious, and decided to test me on that.  So He made it fah-reezing and perfectly sunny.  Freezing as in, like, 10-16°F.  For a whole week.  He called my bluff, and I admit I hate the freezing cold!  Even if it is sunny!

At least last night we got a little bit of snow for our troubles, it's really dry snow and isn't slushy at all but pretty to see!

Stephen is in Las Vegas this weekend (where it will be nearly 60° today) and I'm here by myself so last night I went over to my friend Amy's apartment just to hang out with her and her kiddos for the night.  They have a terrace perfect for catching snow.

Daija making a snow ball...

Daija and Denae being goofy...

Me and Denae... in her shorts in the snow...

This morning I took Grady on his usual walk to the dog park, he is fine with snow but hates when it melts and gets his feet wet.  Poor thing got a little too wet and so cold that he started shivering, which has never happened before!  Made me feel like a bad mom.  We have snow boots for him but it takes two people to get them on, and since Stephen is in sunny Vegas I couldn't do it.  Poor little guy, I ended up carrying him part of the way home because he was so cold.  

In the park before he froze, playing with his buddy Cali...

The forecast shows it should actually get just above freezing tomorrow and I cannot wait!!

Brrrr

It is definitely winter here in New York!  It is freezing!  This is the weather I have to look forward to this week:

The weather has been cold, but honestly it has hardly snowed at all (just the nor'easter right after the hurricane in November and a light dusting this morning).  Considering this is a pedestrian city, and the snow just becomes dirty mush, the lack of snow makes life a lot easier.  

The cold temps don't bother me too much, but you know the lack of sun does!  So as long as it's sunny I can hold on.  

I got this card from a hotel we stayed at in England during the winter months (in the Cotswolds), and I thought it was very appropriate because no matter the weather you still have to get out in it!  Might as well psych yourself up for it!  

I had it taped to a window in our London flat and now it's up in our kitchen.  

I am still counting the days until Spring.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Think I need to lay off the houndstooth? 

Since houndstooth has been so trendy the past couple of years I have been stockpiling, preparing for any future Alabama football games (and I just like it).  I think at this point I'm done.

Throwback Thursday - First Day in London

This morning I was thinking about our lives these past couple of years and realized that today, two years ago, we landed in London.  I remembered sending this email to friends and family, it was before I had really started this blog so it wasn't an entry.  But it should have been the first one!  So for a Throwback Thursday entry, I'm reposting it here just for posterity's sake.  This was written under some pretty serious jet lag...

Hello! Stephen and I made it here just fine on Monday, we had a good flight this time - no unplanned stop in NYC in the middle of Ambien! A car picked us up and drove us straight to out new/temporary home so we didn't have to mess with our luggage too much (all 6 bags of it, plus carry-ons).

When we arrived, we checked into our new home. We got upgraded to a 2 bedroom! The second bedroom is tiny, just a twin bed, but we put all of our luggage in there so we aren't constantly tripping over it. Besides the 2 bedrooms, there is a living room/dining room (seats 4), and off the hallway leading to the master is a small kitchen and a bathroom. It's furnished of course and even had some groceries stocked for our arrival! For those of you who know London (or if you're just curious) our address is 9 Eastcheap in The City, close to the Thames River and the London Bridge.

After checking in yesterday, we went downstairs for lunch and right next door is a Pret a Manger (freshly made sandwiches, salads, etc.). I have a feeling I'll be eating there a lot because I went back for lunch again today.  We walked around for a long while - partially across the Tower Bridge, alongside the Thames, across the river to the Tate Modern museum, went in there for a while and saw a giant installation of millions of ceramic sunflower seeds (apparently they represented the "human condition", seriously what the sign said). Modern art is hard to take in while sleep-deprived, so we left there and continued walking, crossed back over the river, found a pub called the Black Friar, had a pint, walked some more and found a restaurant called Wagamama to eat dinner at, thanks to my friend Kym's suggestion.  Walked home after that. My goal was to stay awake until at least 9:00 p.m. to try and get on the new clock. I think we were awake until maybe 9:45, but I took a sleeping pill and didn't stir until 8:30 this morning.

Today was Stephen's first official day at work in his new office! I went for a run this morning along the Thames - I feel like I've been eating and drinking vacation-style for a while now, so it's time to undo all that! It's actually a really pretty day today, sunny and in the 40s.  After I finish this email I'm going to find a tailor (some of Stephen's suits are missing buttons) and run to a drugstore - excuse me, "chemist" - and pick up a few things. Then maybe walk around some more and do a bit more exploring!

So far I have noticed that pretty much all London women wear the exact same outfit. It goes something like this: black opaque hose or leggings (this is a must) under either a short skirt, dress, tunic, or something of the like, with flat riding boots and a scarf draped around the neck.  All of the women.  I have items that match these descriptions, but not enough for constant wear! Plus half of my clothes are in a crate on a ship somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.

That will be a riot, when the rest of our belongings arrive. Even after all of the cutting down we did, I'm sure we won't have nearly enough room for it all when it finally gets here. We saw the international Salvation Army headquarters last night in this fancy, post-modern building, Stephen joked that we should show up on their doorstep with all of our excess belongings and ask for a donation receipt.

This week I'm going to start the process of finding a place to live. There's a lot of great flats out there, I'm excited to look around!

We have free wireless in our flat, the best way to reach me right now is to email or Facebook me. I have international service on my phone, but it's still pretty expensive. If you have texted me I probably haven't texted you back, those are limited, too.

We are doing well and I'll update you again soon! Miss you all!

Love,

Megan

Me at the Tower of London our first week or two there:

Turbulence Playlist

I seem to do a lot of flying.  Flying used to not bother me at all, but as I get older the nervousness about it seems to be setting in a bit.  Maybe it's because I think the more I fly the more likely it is that something could possibly go wrong?  

I hate turbulence.  I have heard many times that turbulence doesn't really bother the aircraft and I shouldn't worry, but I do!  I hate it!  I squeeze my fingernails into my palms when it gets really bad just to have something else to think about.

Over time I have come up with a turbulence playlist to keep on my phone for just such occasions.  I try to keep the tracks very soothing and calming, nothing that would get my heart racing at all because chances are it's doing that already.  

It's a constant work-in-progress, but here it is as it stands now:

Flower - Aaron Comess

La Cienga Just Smiled - Ryan Adams

See You When You're 40 - Dido

As You Fall - Bent

Giving Me A Chance - Gotye

I'm On Fire - Bruce Springsteen

Wild Swans Suite - Eliza's Aria

Satellite - BT

The Bringdown - Bob Schneider

Lippy Kids - Elbow

Wonderwall (cover) - Ryan Adams

Silvia - Miike Snow

Bone Tired - Gomez

No One's Gonna Love You - Band of Horses

The Waters Deep - Bent

Even though turbulence kinda freaks me out, I actually really enjoy the rest of the flight.  It's truly amazing that we get to live in a time where it's so easy to fly, to see the world from above.  Think of all our ancestors and how they dreamed of flying with the birds, we get to see it.  We get to see the oversized geometric patterns made in crops and fields, mountain ranges for miles, the entire Grand Canyon.  Fly through clouds, rainy drizzle below and sunshine above, mountains and caves made of vapor.  A sunset that lasts forever because you are chasing it westward.  Fly up the length of Manhattan at night, all lit up, from the Statue of Liberty to Times Square to Central Park.  

The first time we flew home to Dallas from London, we flew right over the coast of Newfoundland where it meets the Labrador Sea.  I remember thinking that my feet will never touch those icy little islands, but how lucky that I still get to see it.  So I guess it's worth the turbulence.  As long as it doesn't get too bad.  :)

Coast of Newfoundland:

Just Chillin'

Bubby's and Banoffee

I discovered Banoffee pie when we were living in London, it's pretty much the most delicious thing ever.  It's an English dessert pie made with bananas, cream, and toffee boiled from sweetened condensed milk (dulce de leche) on a crust made with crumbled biscuits (British biscuits, like cookies) and butter.  It's fabulous.  

Here in New York I love Bubby's, a restaurant in our neighborhood that is open 24 hours a day and serves up some of the best homemade comfort food on the planet.  The sour cream pancakes are a must-try!  

Joyously, today on my Facebook feed these two things married.  Bubby's announced that they are making Banoffee pie!!!  Here is a picture of it...  I mean come on!  Complete with a Graham cracker crust.

Excuse me while I go eat an entire pie.

New Year, New Blog(ger)

I'm back!  

It's winter here in NYC, although right now it is an "unseasonably warm" 55°F outside!  It is supposed to turn colder tonight and possibly sleet by Wednesday, joy.  With the current warm air came some thick fog over the past 24 hours, we took Grady for a walk last night along the Hudson and it looked like this:

I am already counting the days until summer, or at least daylight savings time.  I am craving sunshine!!  DST, if you're interested, doesn't start until March 10 so we have a while.  It's not the cold, in fact it really hasn't been that cold here (yet) this winter and I always get hot walking wherever I go, but the lack of sunlight and the early sunsets are starting to get to me.  I used to think that I was not one of those people who are effected by the darker days of the winter months, but I realized that this is not true and really I was just living in the sunny state of Texas and didn't have to put up with dreariness as much.  So come on March 10!

I am looking forward to 2013.  We re-signed our lease for our current apartment (hooray for not moving yet again!) and I am feeling pretty settled now in NYC.  I didn't realize it at the time, but throughout last year I think I was wondering in the back of my mind if were were going to move again at the beginning of the coming year, just because that's what we've done for the past two years and it started to feel like a habit.  I didn't truly appreciate the permanence of my new home until we re-signed our lease and I felt completely relieved.  I feel like my "real life" really started to click in the last quarter or so of last year and I am glad to keep it going!  

I don't much like making new year's resolutions because it just seems like you are setting yourself up for failure, but here are things I am looking forward to doing in 2013:

- running a 1/2 marathon.  I have no desire to train to run a marathon (getting up at 4:00 a.m. to eat and then run 20 miles?  No thanks.)  But I think a 1/2 marathon is a great distance to keep it fun and not devote my entire life to it.  I can do about 6 miles right now pretty easily so I'm on my way!

- taking a photography class.  One of my most favorite things of all the traveling we did in Europe was coming home and looking back over and editing my photos.  Taking pictures has been a completely unexpected joy.  I'm not saying I'm going to become a photographer or anything like that, but... I hate buying souvenirs, I hate collecting things (plus I have nowhere to put anything), I really want to remember what this time in my life looks like and the times to come, and I love capturing things as I see them.  And, I don't know, I have a lot of fun doing it and it always makes me see the world a little differently.  

- plan a trip.  My travel bug is demanding to be heard!  I have always loved to travel and living in Europe just made that go into overdrive and last year we didn't really have a big trip.  Of course I would love to get back to Europe but we'll see... and there is SO MUCH regionally around us that I want to visit!  The Adirondacks, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, the Hamptons, Maine, Vermont... all kinds of places to go!

But in the meantime, I am going to be blogging!  After all I live in a travel destination and I need to be better about documenting things so I can remember it years down the road!

I will end with my favorite thing in my life right now, my 5-mo-old niece, Merci.  Y'all, she is the cutest thing ever.  Here are a few pictures from Christmas, and one video of her verbal prowess on display.