Diamond Adventures in NY

(michael)

Living this close to "the greatest city in the world" certainly has its advantages - Central Park, Lady Liberty, NY pizza around every corner. Of course, it also means you have to deal with Yankees fans, and trust me, they're EVERYWHERE. And they're just as zealous and obnoxious as you might imagine, especially now that they've won their 27th World Series title. But since we're here for at least a year, it seemed prudent to see what all the fuss was about and attend a Yankee game. Being true to our Texas roots, we chose a night they were playing the Rangers. Being a little afraid of crazy Yankee fans, we mostly kept our Texas allegiance to ourselves. Highlights below:

At the game..the first time we've heard country music in NY, plus the start-of-the-game Yankee chant for each player.

Rangers take the lead. Yankeefans are a little upset about it.

Instead of dot races, they have subway races!

Yankee fans chant 'asshole' at a guy in a Boston shirt. He didn't get the memo about being subtle.

Walked down to the lower level of the new stadium to get a closer view...

Another baseball adventure:

While we couldn't get off work for the Yankees Championship Ticker-tape parade, we did make it to the ticker-tape parade to celebrate a Staten Island Little League team making it to the Little League World Series, where Mayor Bloomberg gave the team keys to the city and we ate their delicious catered free food. Our favorite moment was the singing of the national anthem...

So that gets us caught up through August. More to come as we try to catch up on our adventures so far!

Summer Break

Since unpacking, I (Carrie) had a 2 month vacation from work.

Fun things that happened on my Summer break:

Michael and I went to the Macy's firework extravaganza on the Hudson River.

And finally...FIREWORKS... It was amazing, but lacking music, so we added some after the fact for your enjoyment.

Kenna came to visit NY her birthday weekend. We went to dinner at a fancy restaurant and then saw Mary Poppins, which was amazing. There was even tap dancing on the ceiling!

I went to Atlanta, then Destin to visit Andrea. We went to the ORIGINAL Chick-fil-A, aka The Dwarf House...

and then I brought her back to NY with me for a week. Unfortunately, I did not have the Flip with me for most of her visit, because some of the craziest things happened.

We went on a self-guided art & architecture tour of Central Park, which took ALL day!

We took the bus to the ferry, so we wouldn't have to pay $5 to park at the ferry. We got on the bus at about 11 pm that night and had to wait about 20 minutes for the bus to depart. I guess to save energy, the bus driver turned off all the lights and the engine, but assured us by saying "I'm not getting fresh or anything, but this bus isn't departing for another 20 minutes, so I'm going to cut the engine." He then proceeded to ask which stop we were getting off at. When we told him, he informed us that noone live in our neighborhood, but cop killers and sociopaths and that we should move immediately. He was telling us about the joys of Snug Harbor to which we replied we were planning on going the following day. He said, "Yeah, if you don't get killed walking home tonight." I was getting a little sick to my stomach imagining my impending death by my sociopath neighbors when I asked him what neighborhood he lived in to which he replied, "the white one." I felt a little better knowing he was mostly racist, and we made it home alive!

We did make it to Snug Harbor, where some of the highlights were the Chinese scholar garden, the LEMURtron & the Pakistanis for Mike Bloomberg rally.

We went to MoMa on Free Friday, which was a little chaotic, so we didn't stay too long... But we had a little fun...

After Andrea left, I spent the rest of the break crocheting little baby sweaters and such. More to come...

The Beginning

*Warning - Videography skills are slightly amateur and some videos may induce

motion sickness.

If you begin to feel ill while watching any of the below videos, look away from your computer and the feeling

should pass. Do not drive if you feel dizzy or lightheaded.*

Yes, we do need a video blog.... We've been in Staten Island, NY for 2 months now. We have been meaning to start this blog/vlog to share our experiences, but are only just now getting around to it. We'll try to post the fun from the past 2 months.. We've had a lot! :)

Timeline:

June 19, 2009 - We got married!!!

June 20, 2009 - We said goodbye to Dallas and left for our honeymoon in California, flying into San Fransisco and driving up windy highway 1 to the Redwood Forest. It took us about 11 hours to drive to Trinidad, CA, where we spent most of our time. We did stop a lot for a leisurely lunch and frequent photo ops, but driving 20 mph around curve after curve doesn't get you anywhere fast. The ocean views and trees were a spectacular sight, which made it all worthwhile. Plus, we had good tunes since we stopped at BestBuy to get an auxiliary cable for the iPod. :) Here are some Honeymoon Highlights:

June 26, 2009 - Arrive at our apartment that we've never before seen in Staten Island, where we hung out for a few hours until Michael's dad and brother arrive with our stuff after having driven for 2 days straight with one rest break to sleep on the side of the road for about 3 hours. Here is us arriving at the new apartment:

About 30 seconds after I turned the camera off, and Michael tried the lock ~5 more times, our downstairs neighbor opened her front door in her robe. We had been trying to enter HER apartment repeatedly. We live in apartment 2, which had been described to us as the 2nd floor apartment. It's actually on the 3rd floor! We walked up the other flight of stairs and the lock code worked just fine! This video is dedicated to Katy Rehm.

A little tour of the place:

While waiting for Michael's dad and brother, we walked down to the corner store about 1/4 of a mile from our apartment to get some drinks and snacks. We walk in, and there are about 4 gangster looking people doing their morning shopping at 11 am on Friday. I was a little scared, but trying to convince myself that it was all okay, when the 'boss-looking-one' says, "I'm about to kill some mother f***ers up in here." Michael was an aisle away silently wishing I hadn't heard. That was when we realized that we did not live in the best of neighborhoods. Mark and Jason arrived shortly thereafter, unloaded, stayed the night and left at about 6 am Saturday. (While they were unloading, I was opening the gifts from the wedding! :) )

Then on Saturday afternoon, Mickey arrives with Dora and Cinderella, the car, after having driven for like 7 days. She took the Canadian route to get to Staten Island. She and her friend, Beth were a little delirious, but still having fun. We rode the ferry into the city and ate at a little restaurant. They stayed the night and left for the airport the next morning at a much more reasonable hour. Here is Mickey and Dora's arrival. *Squeal warning*

Then we unpacked!