Lavagna

Had a fantastical belated David birthday dinner last night at Lavagna courtesy of Henry & ESP. While walking around aimlessly trying to figure out where to go David considered Chinatown. I called Henry to get his opinion and he barked "Chinatown? COME ON! You have a Doctor and an Art Director taking you out and you want Chinatown!" He's right. So Lavagna it was. I'm almost afraid to tell people about it because I don't want it to be overrun with people. But it's so damn tasty I must share the secret. Go there. Get the appetizers. All of them. Get the amazingly tasty rigatoni with sausage in a light cream and tomato sauce. The flavors are intense. Heavenly. Get the fish or steak for an entree. Get the dessert. Everything was perfect. And perfectly accompanied by an amazing Malbec wine chosen by Eric. Hot damn I love that place.

Dinner was followed by the worst nights sleep ever. A slightly drunk nights sleep is never good. But even worse when you're awakened by your husband at 4am because his back hurts and needs a massage. Even worse when you don't have the AC in yet and it's so hot and humid and you sweat with the blankets on and freeze when they're off. Even worse when you open the window, fall back asleep, and then are awoken the moment the sun rises by screeching pigeons hovering over their new nest 5 feet from your window. Argh, need to redo the nights sleep in a luxury suite at the Mandarin Oriental. Oh well.

Black coats everywhere!

There are hundreds of Hasidim on my block protesting Israel. They are blocking the sidewalks and 2nd Ave. Hundreds of black coats and little black curly locks. The Hasidim scare me. Anyone who dresses and looks the same as all the others scare me.

Happy Birthday My Love

Today is my Love's 33rd birthday.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband. I love you with all my heart.

Busy Family Week-Dayeinu!

My Mom has been in town since last Tuesday. And we've been busy busy every since she arrived. Every night we've been partying until 11pm or so. I'm exhausted!

Last Tuesday the whole family (20+) met for dinner at Uncle Nick's. We had the entire back half of the restaurant. It took us nearly 20 minutes before everyone was able to greet each other. But amazingly we all were able to order, eat and and get out of there in time for the big event. David's 2nd cousin was participating in a concert at Lincoln Center. He is a member of the Ithaca College Orchestra and they were performing Carmina Burana. There were about 350 musicians on stage between the orchestra, choir, soloists and even a small childrens choir. Amazing performance. Great fun.

My Mom checked into the Mandarin Oriental hotel on Wednesday. They managed to get a free upgrade to an executive suite. A $2,400 suite. Oh my. This suite is amazing. 38th floor overlooking Central Park. Beautiful bedroom, 2 bathrooms and a full living room complete with flat screen TVs in every room (even the bathroom!). Floor to ceiling windows with stunning views from every direction. I cannot fathom ever paying that much for a room and they were very lucky to have this opportunity. Pure luxury. At least I had the chance to enjoy it for a little while.

Had Passover Seder with the family Saturday and Sunday night. Dave pulled a 'New Years Eve' on Saturday night and drank so much Scotch (4 FULL glasses) that he had to actually leave the table to take a nap. Oh Dave, will you ever learn? But Henry and Karen were there to help us sing songs and eat all the delicious food. Karen brought amazing macaroons made with fresh coconut and dipped in chocolate. They were awesome! I usually HATE coconut but now I'm realizing it's grated packaged coconut I hate and the fresh stuff is completely different. Thanks Karen for opening my eyes to the world of coconut.

Oh, and I have pink-eye. I was all ready to blame Henry for passing it along to me when I looked up on the wonderful World Wide Web and discovered there are different forms of Conjunctivitis and I most likely have an Allergy Conjunctivitis. So I will let you off the hook Henry.

Happy Birthday Conrad Robert!

Today is my nephew's 15th birthday. That's one year closer to him driving a car. Yikes!

Happy birthday Conrad!

Love,
Tia Simone


Conrad hates being in pictures but allowed me
to take this great shot last Summer at Great Adventure

Another glorious Sunday

What a beautiful day. Just as nice or even better than last Sunday. Woke up 9am. Went with David for our first run around the reservoir since last Summer. Everyone and their mother was out. Managed to run 4.5 miles and then fast walk another 1.5. That's 6 miles under my belt for the day!! Poor David twisted his knee and had to stop around the 2 mile mark. But I give him an E for effort.

After the run we cleaned up and walked (slowly) around the neighborhood and then took the train down to 14th Street looking for shoes. DSW was packed beyond belief. Henry caught up with us. Found a pair of not so nice but not too ugly Born flip flops. Henry and David said I should get the green. So green it is. They are a little pricey but very comfortable. Perfect for my Spain trip later this year.

Ate outside at Zen Palate and then had dessert at our fav bakery Mary's Off Jane. Awesome banana cream pie.

My feet and legs are killing me now.

Hurry up May

I wish we could skip April and jump right into May. May is my month. It's the month of my first vacation this year to DR. I am dying to go on vacation. I'm wishing now that I made it for this month. But Passover is coming and so is my Mommy so it just wasn't meant to be. May is also the month we will begin looking at new apartments. Two bedrooms to be specific. We want to stay in Manhattan and I'm confident we'll find something we like. I can't wait!

GO BO GO!

I wanna give a shout out to my top American Idol contender Bo Bice. As well as being an awesome singer and performer, he is BODALICIOUS!

Summer Sunday

Yesterday felt like we bypassed Spring and went straight into Summer.

We spent most of the day frolicking in Central Park. Got bagels and had a picnic brunch in the grass. Watched little kids play baseball. Dogs and strollers were everywhere. It was truly a glorious day.

Ended the day with roasted corn and tortas at Cafe Habana in Noho. Scrumpdiliupmtious!

I love this city.

The Gods Are Pounding My Head

David has been wanting to see a Richard Foreman play for years now. I think he comes up with one every year or so. The only thing is that they are not really supposed to be very good. Or a love 'em or hate 'em type deal. But I gave in this year. It's only $20. What do I have to lose? So we went last night with Eric.

Twenty bucks and the biggest waste of an hour and ten minutes is what I lost. I think this was the WORST PLAY EVER in the history of bad plays. It was so bad I can't even describe it. The theatre was tiny. No matter where you sat you were no more than 10 feet from the stage, if you could call it a stage. When they run out of seats they start handing out cushions so you can sit in the aisles. WTF? So you're basically trapped in the theatre until it's over as you can't leave because everyone's blocking the walkways. And you're so close to the actors that you can't laugh or fall asleep because they will see you. I had such a fear the whole time that they would pick on people in the audience. I would never look the actors in the eye. The highlight of the night is when Eric's phone began to vibrate REALLY loudly. For a minute there I thought it was his beeper and thought YES! We have to leave for a medical emergency. But no such luck.

The first word out of our mouths when it ended were MOJITOS. So we went searching for this great Peruvian place we had stumbled on some months ago. After searching for about an hr we gave up and ate at a great N'awlins place Natchez. Food was awesome as were the mojitos. Just what we needed to wash away the earlier events of the evening.

Friday morning gripes

WARNING-VENT ALERT!

I'm in a cranky mood. David woke me up last night because he was too hot to sleep. It was really hot in the room. But what am I supposed to do? Open the window yourself. Geez.

The subway system has just gone to shit lately. Everyday I look around and wonder if it's all going to crumble down around me. Weekly there are delays on the 7 train. Today as I waited I looked up and saw huge gaping holes in the ceiling with water flooding in. Now the 7 train is 4 levels below street level. 4 LEVELS! WTF? That means there is holes leading all the way down. Unbelievable.

I dropped my AM New York paper on the stairs on my way down. I NEVER litter so I picked it up. Even though it was wet with god-knows-what. Probably throw up or piss. I had to carry the damn thing from 96th Street all the way to the street at 42nd and 3rd because there were NO trash cans the entire way. WTF? They continually put up signs not to throw litter into the tracks but I can tell you I came very close to doing so. How can you not expect people to litter when you only put one trash can per 200 ft of platform? And NO trashcans anywhere on the 7 platform at Times Square? ARGH!

I finally put on my headphones and The Smiths Half a Person came on and I was a little more relaxed.

"...I like it here, can I stay?..."

Hieeeeeeeeeeee

My nephew Brandon now has a blog!

Welcome to the blogworld Brandon.

Good news

Even though I think they should cut out the whole Daylight Savings crap entirely, this makes it a little better.

Nice weather

Wow, we're in the low 70's. Nice. And way overdue.

We actually sat outside for dinner n' drinks last night with Henry at Benny's Burritos. Henry got the MEGA margarita. I think it was a full gallon. He still thinks he's in N'awleans drinking Hurricanes. Food was great as always. But the nicest thing is that Spring is here and I believe (knock on wood) that it's here to stay.

Next stop-Astoria Bohemian Beer Garden.

Cel? Oh wait, you have a girlfriend and have disappeared off the face of the earth.

;-)

Pretty ducks all in a row

Nothing much to blog about so here's a pic taken on Block Island last Fall.

Iberostar Bavaro

What a crappy weekend! All this nasty rain and cold got me moving on booking a trip for Memorial Day wknd. We've decided on Bavaro Beach, Dominican Republic. 3 nights and 4 days in sun, sand, all-inclusive heaven. We've never done the all inclusive thing. We usually opt for a more adventurous vacation. But we just want a little warm getaway with no worries. Hopefully this is the place.

I can't wait to swim up to the pool bar and order my Pina Coladas!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Eric came over last night and brought with him The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. We've never seen it. We've never seen any Spaghetti Western. In fact, we didn't even know the Italians made these! Funny enough David thought Spaghetti Western meant that you eat spaghetti watching it. Kinda of like a TV dinner. I thought that the plot was so thin that it was compared to spaghetti! What fools we are!!

The movie was great. One of the best soundtracks ever. The sweeping cinematography so beautiful. But the movie was a tad bit too long. But for the most part that's my only problem with it. Who knew Clint was so hot back in the day?

Pope

We're all here at work waiting for the Pope to die. We're not malicious or anything. I think everyone just wants to see who can find out first. Weird. But it is historical.

I just hope there's no feeding tubes and lawsuits with this one.