The last Manhattan Martini....

The host with the most made martini's to enjoy by the fire on our last evening.

Frank was very excited!

Cheers to a wonderful weekend, in the perfect apartment, with a great guy!

Thank you so much for having us Michael! We are truly grateful!

Sutton Place.......

On our last day in New York, first thing in the morning, Frank and I were getting ready to sneak out and go get coffee and some breakfast for the three of us when Michael heard us and told us to take a right out of his building, go to the end of the block and check out the little park there.

When we got to the cross road, the manhole covers were steaming from the the chill in the air. It looked like something you would see on T.V.

We were really surprised how beautiful the view was from this little park.

The park was not very big as you can tell by the picture below. I had my back to the water, facing the direction of Michael's building.

I bet the trees are gorgeous right now.

Happy Birthday Madeline!!!!!

We found our way...sort of...

After we left Hard Rock had to walk to where Michael works. We had our trusty little map and knew exactly where we had to go. On our way it started to rain a little harder than a drizzle so we ducked in to an Irish sports bar. After a couple of pints the rain had let up and we were back on the sidewalk with hundreds of other people who were out on this cold, drizzly day.

After walking for another 30 minutes I asked "the map keeper" if I could look at it. Well, you know I got a hassle for asking but he gave it to me and it's a good thing he did.....we had missed our mark by two blocks and was a street over.

When we arrived we told Michael about the museum and looked at all of the pictures. The store was pretty quiet, I'm sure the weather had a lot to do with it.

Michael's company, Cisco Home, has an area on the fifth floor of a building. They make beautiful furniture to order and are based out of California. Below are a few pictures of his "area" and his samples.

When we left the store, Michael said he needed to run by the grocery store and I told him that I knew where it was. He said that I must be confused because there would not have been a reason for me to have been in that area....then I explained "the map keeper's" route and he cracked up. Frank didn't think it was very funny.

It started to rain harder when we got home so we decided to have Chinese food delivered instead of going out. The food was fantastic!

Add to the collection....

Anytime we are away, and there is a Hard Rock Cafe, we stop to buy pins for Lance's collection.

It also helped that it was next door to the museum and it was beer-thirty.

This was a long wall loaded with guitars on their side in the wall.

We had our beverage and a snack and we were off to meet up with Michael.

Time Square

Madame Tussauds......

If you ever find yourself in NYC you must visit this wax museum. We spent almost three hours there in awe of these figures thanks to my brothers friend, Dan, who gave us the tickets.



This is the view from the third floor. I am not sure how many floors they have. We walked to this spot then an elevator took us the rest of the way up.

I'll put the celebrities name under their picture though they should be self explanatory.

Morgan Freeman

Sharon and Ozzy

Julia Roberts

Susan Lucci

Bill Clinton

Picasso

Princess Diana

Madonna

Paris Hilton

Johnny Depp

Sneeking up on it........

Ya Baby!

Jessica Simpson

George Clooney

Muhammad Ali

The Duke

Mick Jagger

Elton John

The Beatles

Jerry Springer

Steven Spielberg

Evander Holyfield

Eli Manning

There were hundreds and hundredsof them everywhere. This is just a sampling of the pictures that I took. It was so much fun!

Ikea......

Michael asked if we wanted to go for a "free" 30 minute boat ride. It was a little cool and very overcast but rarely, if ever, do you hear "free" and New York in the same sentence so we jumped on it.

As we headed to the pier Michael explained that an Ikea was built in Brooklyn and they had set up these water taxi's to draw in customers from Manhattan. Apparently it worked because they run every twenty minutes or so.



We were able to see Lady Liberty on our ride.


A view of the city from the water.

Like I said, it was a little cool out.

30 minutes later we were wondering around the store.

The Subway....

....is very confusing to me. I won't even attempt to use it without Michael by my side. He appears to be able to find his way around blindfolded and very well may have been blindfolded when we ended up in Queens by mistake!

That was the shortest stop of anywhere we went the entire weekend.

Places to Go........

Friday morning we took our time getting ready for a day of sight seeing. Michael called Madeline's which is a place that we could order breakfast and have it delivered to his door. We had these huge breakfast sandwiches that were delicious!

After we finished our coffee, we were off.

This Home Depot doesn't look anything like the one in my neighborhood.


The Flat Iron Building.


The Empire State Building.


In Madison Square Park different artist are able to "create" things and have a display in the park. Last time we were here someone had made huge trees out of metal. This time there were these tree houses. There were several throughout the park.

The park also has huge squirrels that are not afraid of anything.

This is the front of the building that Michael works in. I have pictures of his "area" that I will post later.

This is Zarin Fabrics. If you remember last year I told you about a show (Housewives of New York City) that my brother got me hooked on. Well this is one of the "housewives" businesses.

It was a big deal for me.

Finally!!

We booked this trip to New York shortly after our trip last November not even checking to see if Michael would have us back. Good thing he was o.k. with it because here we come!


Michael had been in North Carolina the week before our arrival and was due to land two hours after us. He informed one of his many doormen that we would be coming and to provide us with a key and let us in.

When we went in to the apartment my jaw dropped. I had seen a few pictures but it did not do it justice. Michael had even asked a friend of his to come by and fill the place with fresh flowers. There were roses on the window sill, hydrangeas on the table and sun flowers in the bathroom. VERY nice touch!

I thought it would be a nice surprise for Michael if I acted like I knew where I was going and bought wine, cheese and crackers to have ready for his arrival.

When you walk out the front door of Michael's building there is a place directly across the street called The Sutton Wine Company (or store or whatever) it did not really matter to me what the name was just that it was right THERE!!!

While shopping in the wine store I asked the clerk where to go to get cheese that would be close by. He pulled out a business card and gave us directions.
So off we went to the cheese store after spending $36 at the wine store.

When we arrived at the cheese store I felt like I was on a Food Network show. There were wheels and wheels of cheese. I do not know crap about cheese beyond cheddar, pepper jack, provolone and mozzarella and here I was, mouth watering, without a clue as to what to get.

I immediately went to the crackers, (can't screw that up), and was greeted by a very nice man to whom I admitted that I had no clue as to what I wanted. He asked, "French?" I said, "Sure." He asked, "Hard?" I said, "Sure." So he grabbed a huge chunk and sliced off a piece for me to try. I tasted it and loved it. It was very buttery and full of flavor. So as to not look the fool alone, I handed the rest of my piece to Frank for his approval and he nodded. I told the man that it was perfect and I would take some. He hovered over the cheese with his knife and asked me how much I wanted. When I thought he had a big enough chunk I said, "Perfect." He then wrapped it up, wrote the price on it as well as the price for the crackers and rung us up. You should have seen Frank's face when we figured out that the cheese was $28 per pound!!


Here is the picture of the wrapper. Good thing we didn't buy a pound,we would not have been able to buy Frank's Natural Light!



After one more stop to pick up beer, we headed back to the apartment to wait for Michael.

While we waited I took some pictures of his place.

When Michael arrived we were all starving. We ordered pizza and enjoyed our wine and cheese while we waited for it to be delivered.

It was awesome!

We were all exhausted from traveling all day so we just stayed in by the fire and caught up with each other. A perfect first day.

Election Day in NYC........

Michael sent me this picture of Rockefeller Plaza
on Election Day.

Beautiful, huh?

The Screamer....

If Chardonnay feels that she is not getting
enough attention she screams. Not a squawk
but a full blow scream. (makes you want to
run out and buy a bird, doesn't it?)

Whenever she does this, I scream "bad towel",
at which point someone will cover her up. This
particular time she was not in her cage when
she felt that she required more attention, so, I
grabbed the "bad towel" and covered HER with
the blanket.

Well, she thought that was great. She started to
play peek-a-boo and making all these little noises.

How can you stay mad at that?

Popcorn Balls and Cookies......

Start with a "great idea", add a clean
kitchen, several ingredients and two
pre-teen boys and what do you get?

Some great Halloween treats and a dang messy kitchen. (but they had a great time)

We started with pop-corn balls that apparently took some muscle.

Then it was on to roll-out cookies and every cutter I own.

Now it was time to frost them.

The boys thought that now was a good

time to quit and let me take over

so they could play video games, NOT!

I kept them busy for hours!

They made a few "masterpieces"!

Teddy will be moving away soon, but, I

don't think he will ever forget the day that

he spent giggling with Lance while making

balls.

Rewind to August 9th........

This is the year for big birthdays.

I turned 40, Jean turned 50, my mother will turn 60 in December
and Frank (my step-father) turned 70.

Since Jean's birthday is only 21 days after mine we were given a
party for the two of us on August 9th from Terri, Frank and Jeff.

The party was to be held at my home. I was ordered out for
the day so Jean and I went to get pedicures and have a few
glasses of wine.



While we were on our way to Jean's place to kill some time and get
ready for the party, she told me that she was disappointed that an
additional gift that she had ordered for me had not been delivered
yet. (She had already given me the cigar smoking fish for my patio)


Well, when we arrived at her place, there it was sitting at her door.
Those of you who have seen my home know that this is a perfect
addition.


When we arrived at my home the first thing we saw was this
poster with a baby picture of each of us asking guests to guess
who was who. Jean and I just cracked up laughing when we
found out that some people had actually gotten it wrong.


This was just one of many things that Terri had planned.
She had beer and wine people divided into teams and she
had trivia and limbo to help receive points. It was really a lot
of fun!

These were our cakes. It is all Michael's fault the this is

my favorite wine.

I emailed him a picture of it because I was so happy with it

and he so graciously pointed out that it has an ending date.

What is up with that?!?

After a little socializing it was limbo time!

Bone's had a little trouble the one and only time he tried.

Dave had no trouble at all.

Eric with a little struggle.

Dave - lower still.

Jeff with a struggle.......

....and down he goes.

Little Miss Mary with a smile on her face.

Frank was backing Jean's beer team so.......

....there was no sympathy from me when he went down!

Dave could do it no matter how low it went.

So could Rhonda!

There were lots and lots of gifts!! Look at all those wine bags!

They also had an indestructible pinata! Even when we busted

the rope it wouldn't break open.

When it hit the ground we took off our blind folds, moved it

to the concrete patio and beat the living hell out it! I laughed

until I cried.

Time for cake!

Mine was a hazelnut creme! It was awesome!

Happy (drunk) birthday girls!

My hand was still in the shape of my glass the next morning!

Gift time!

I bought this card for Jean. Evil, huh?

Jean and Jeff spent the night at my house. The next morning

I woke up to strange music outside my bedroom door. When I

opened it there stood a smiling Jean holding open one of her

musical birthday cards.

Man, did I need coffee!

We had little recollection of our gifts so we got our coffee and

sat down and reopened everything. God bless Terri for

writing it all down. We would have been lost.

I can't think of any other way that I would have wanted

to spend my 40th birthday!

Thank you Terri, Frank and Jeff for all of your efforts and

to all of you who joined us!!!