New York City Again. And Other Stuff.

Ollo (<---yes, that's a link, click on it watch it for like 15 seconds and then you can get back to reading the blog......you're welcome) everyone (aka Hello).  If you haven't seen Megamind yet...shame on you.  

Anyway, I apologize for not updating in QUITE some time!  Things have been super busy around here!  Rich is staying very busy with his projects at work, and I was just promoted at CNT to a full time -SALARIED- position!  It happened somewhat suddenly in an unexpected....almost "spur-of-the-moment" way.  I wasn't even considering it like 2 days ago.  But when it actually became an option, Rich and I talked about it and I think it's going to work out and be really good for our little "family".  I will actually probably be making a little more than I was teaching in UT, which is kinda significant.  It isn't teaching...no, which made it kind of a hard and stressful decision to make, but at this point in our lives we need the extra money to save for the future.  So for the meantime, teaching has been put on hold. :(

So every week at the office/tutoring center we come up with a question of the week for the kids who come in to be tutored.  Sometimes there's downtime or when they're waiting for their tutor to finish up, they are able to have something to do.  So, I got to come up with the question this week!  

"If you could go back in time and change one thing in history, what would it be and why?"

I posted this on facebook...hoping to get some response.  I actually took a picture of it, but when I uploaded it to facebook it uploaded 

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so....that's annoying and probably why no one answered it.  Also, it's a pretty hard question.  It was inspired by an 8 part series that Rich and I watched on Hulu called 11.22.63 -which - for all you history buffs would know is the day that JFK was assassinated.  So, the plot of the series (which...as a forewarning uses the F-word far too liberally -view expression advised) is about a man who goes back in time to try to stop the assassination.  It is VERY VERY good.  It's based off of a novel by Stephen King and it's great.  

And let's be honest....James Franco is easy on the eyes.  So, to my fellow lady friends, you're welcome.

Anyways....now that I've been totally sidetracked...how would you answer the question?  What would you change in history?  I still don't know what I'd do....

Sometimes we "cuddle" with Bilbo.  Rarely does it last long.  When it does it's adorable.  Sometimes I even manage to get a decent picture of him.  I take that back.  A PERFECT picture of him.

Behold.

Look. At that. Face.  Perfect.  He's such a good, good boy!

And....just like that, cuddle session over.  Like I said, they usually don't last long. #energizerpuppy

You'll notice that in the background of these pictures are our new living room curtains!  They look GREAT! 

They seriously add so much!  Don't they look so pretty!? --THANK YOU MOM-- I'm obsessed with them.  I feel super fancy when I tie them up like this like I'm a rich person living in a fancy, nice house even though I'm pretty much the opposite.

This past Saturday Rich and I went into NYC again.  We're becoming real city slickers.  We told ourselves we'd "take it easy" but something about the city just exhausts you.  We DID try to take it easy but there is just so much to take in that you end up feeling like something was taken out of you.  Amy and Brandon (my sister and brother in law, Rich's sis and bro-in-law) were also in the city so we had the chance to meet up with them and on Sunday night they actually stayed with us for a night, so that was fun!  A lot of fun actually!  It was nice to have family visit.

We found our way to the Rockefeller Center (we actually just sort of stumbled upon it on our way to Central Park) where they have a giant Lego store, so we went inside to take a gander.  They had all kinds of lego sets imaginable!  Here's a Lego statue of "Atlas".  He actually didn't think it was that cool, but I did so naturally I made him pose for the picture.

Looks kind of like the Trevi Fountain in Italy.  I think this is where they have the beautiful huge Christmas tree during the holidays.  I also think there's an ice rink here somewhere in the wintery seasons.

There's Rich talking to Amy on the phone.  We were trying to meet up with them at some point.  They were actually heading to the Rockefeller center when he was on the phone here.  Notice all the flags...pretty cool.

There's another view.  You can kinda see Rich too if you look close enough ;)

NBC news is right around the corner.  We kept walking to find some very talented street artists.  

I took this picture from inside the NBC news store (which is pretty lame and just sells a bunch of overpriced stuff that says "TODAY" on it), which is across from NBC news, you can see it in the background!  Pretty cool, right?  The guy right int the middle was drawing a little girl, he was actually the guy who drew ours, even though I wanted the woman.  Rich kind of wanted for us to be drawn as superheros or Star Wars characters or something.  Unfortunately he didn't speak English too well and so we ended up with...

BOOM.  I think Rich looks great, he's got the beard doing good things for him!  It took us a while to figure out what was in his pockets....but then we realized it was stacks on cash!  We still aren't certain on what the thing is that Rich is holding in his muscular arms is....we think maybe a golf club?  The artist drew me with bigger bosoms that I will EVER have, but I still think he did a really good job.  We look VERY glamorous!  I thought he did a good job with my hair - he even got the bow that I was wearing in!  Not bad for a caricature!  It was really fun even if we do look completely not like our real selves.  It's now in our bedroom.  I'm too embarrassed to put it up in the living room where people can see! 

I think this guys talent was pretty unique.  He was using spray paint to create these cool paintings!  It was pretty mesmerizing to watch him.  He worked VERY fast and it was cool to watch him scrape off the wet paint to make the shape of the buildings.  

Which is your favorite?    It would be very hard for me to decide, they all look WAY cool!!.  Next time I'm in the city - maybe I'll pick one up!

As we were heading to Central Park we found this place.

Jimmy Fallon could be anywhere!!!!

As we got closer and closer to Central Park we got slightly harassed by people trying to sell us stuff.  This one guy was trying to sell us a carriage ride around the park for 40$.  He was very hard to understand and somehow he roped us into listening to his schpeel, even though there were probably like 1,000 other people right by us.  Luckily, we got out of it when the light changed and we were able to cross the street.

There were tons of people crowding around everywhere right before entering the park.

This guy looked pretty great.  He kept moving around so he didn't look very statuesque, otherwise I would have been able to take a better picture.  But he looked pretty good!

This is what that guy was trying to get us to buy.  Beautiful horse.  There were tons of them all over!  

Here's a view of the park amid the busiest city in the world.  The park is like a quiet escape from the loud and craziness of the city - although honestly, there was so many people (at least in this part of the park) that it wasn't that quiet.  The air felt cleaner though.

We stumbled upon this statue.  Someone had put a flower in the dog's mouth, which you can kind of see in the photo.  I think this statue is called "Indian Boy and Dog"...not sure though.  When I saw it I was reminded that there's a statue of Balto in the park somewhere - I even saw it on a map while we were strolling along.  Balto was one of our favorite movies to watch when us Levi kids were younger.  I remember thinking it was SO COOL to think that a wolf-dog help save a bunch of little kids.  Now I want to watch it again.  And then go find the statue of him in CP.

It was soo good!!  Anyone else ever watch this??  Also I noticed that the movie "We're Back" is on Netflix.  That was another one that I loved!!  I started watching it last night though and was totally unimpressed and kept thinking "Why did I love this so much?"  I bet Balto is better.

I didn't take this pic, but that's the Balto statue!

Anyway...moving on from childhood movies...here's one of the more famous parts of the park.  It was a perfect weekend to be there.  The trees were mostly all budded out and the flowers were blooming - it was so pretty.  I think that fountain is in a few famous movies (like Home Alone).

Like I said...flowers were blooming and all in blossom!  It was sure pretty!  Also...after I took this pic I was like - WHOA MY HAIR IS GETTING SO LONG!!  It's taken YEARS to get to this length again (I don't really remember the last time I cut it).  Maybe once it gets a tad longer I'll cut it to keep it healthy.

A nice teenage couple asked me to take their picture, so after I took a few pics of them, they took some of us.  This is the famous bridge (another link....click it....fast forward to 3:30 and you'll see this bridge in Disney's "Enchanted" - also a great movie) in Central Park where so many romantic scenes of several movies take place.  Don't we look romantic?? 

The wind took my hair in this pic.  I thought it might look cool when they were taking the picture but it doesn't look as sweeping, lovely and windswept as I thought it would.

We did happen to see some "wildlife".  We're pretty big animal lovers (obviously...Bilbo).  We were enjoying this little guy for a while.

There's our squirrel friend.  He was cute.  We have lots of squirrels in Wilton as well.  So...they're not really uncommon  for us.  But we love pretty much all animals.

Look VERY close and you will see the Cardinal we saw.  It's bright red pretty much dead center.  This was the only pic I was able to take before he flew away.  There were several bird/animal watchers there.  It would be a good place to spy them!

Did you know that there's a CASTLE in central park?  Me either.  Turns out they have a little part of the park that's kind of dedicated to William Shakespeare.  This is the Shakespeare part I guess.

We sat down on the grass for a little bit, talked about how much we missed Bilbo (for reals though...we're obsessed, probably unhealthily so) and rested (our feet...correction - MY feet were hurty) for a bit and then tried to make it to the Museum of Natural History.  

We did make it but, we didn't realize that it closes super early!  We looked at the dinosaur bones upstairs for like 15 minutes and then had to leave.  :(  While we were looking at some touch screen teaching us about the T-rex family, some OBNOXIOUS 9 year old came up from behind us and said "excuse me!" just to STEAL THE TOUCH SCREEN from us!  We were SO APPALLED!  And his dad did NOTHING!!!!!!  Part of the reason why museums are un-enjoyable at times is because they are OVERRIDDEN by children who think they own everything!  Is that just this new generation?  Are their social skills being severely damaged because they've been brought up with so many devices and  an "I need it now" mentality?  I absolutely love kids, but not when they don't behave.  Maybe that's why I love teaching because when I'm in charge they DO behave!  Ok...vent over.  But seriously....kids need to be taught better manners (a tleast at museums).  

Anywho....we made our way back to Times Square so we could meet up with Amy and Brandon for some dinner.

Rich wants to see Fiddler on the Roof.  It's playing in the Broadway Theater on Broadway!  And it's one of the less popular ones so tickets are cheaper.  We'll probably see a show next time we're in the city.

Here's the green M&M Statue of Liberty in the M&M store.  It was huge and it had all kinds of cool M&M stuff.  You could even get customized M&Ms that said your name or said "Happy Birthday" on it or something.  Pretty cool.  It was just lots of fun.  It was very crowded, but yes, lots of fun.  I love how everything there (Times Square) is just so bright and colorful!

Right across from the M&M store is the Hershey store.  They had lots of fun stuff too - when you go inside you're given 2 kisses to snack on while you shop/gaze.  They had everything from GIANT chocolate bars to unique gifts, like Hershey kiss shaped necklaces.  They had a place too where you could customize the WRAPPING of your chocolate bar.  Rich and I thought it would be cool if you could actually like put your picture on the actual chocolate though.  He was saying that in Hershey, PA they have a bigger store/factory where you can do more (and it's probably less crowded too).

There were TONS of people in Times Square that day, probably because it was a Saturday night and all the partiers were just getting their nights started!

This is just the street.  'Snapped a pic just so viewers like you could have a glimpse of what I glimpsed.  Nothing special, just city life.  

Amy and Brandon treated us to a fancy dinner at an Italian restaurant.  This was my meal.  They noodles were made in house and green stuff is artichoke (which I LOVE) and the pink stuff is ham/bacon.  It was DELICIOUS!  Normally, I'm not the biggest fan of Italian, but this was quite exceptional.

I had a side of eggplant parmesean with fresh basil on top.  It was SO YUMMY!  That cheese on top was PERFECTION! I'm hungry just looking at this again.

This was Rich's meal.  He had a pretty classic pasta.  Again, the noodles were house made.  His had some kind of sausage in it.  It was pretty tasty, the noodles were fantastic.  He had a side of french fries, so I didn't bother taking a picture (who hasn't had french fries).  I liked my meal better though ;)

Okay....we are wrapping things up!  That was pretty much the last thing we did in the city.  We realized it was almost 9:00pm and that we needed to get home to Bilbo!  (I always feel bad if he's in his crate for too long, even though he's probably just fine and just sleeping....turns out puppies need like 18 hours of sleep per day...even at 9 months).  So we headed out to grand central.  We were pretty exhausted....the city really takes your energy.

Here's a pretty good view on Grand Central.  It was really pretty all lit up like that.  It was like a beacon of hope for our tired selves.  We knew that salvation for our weary legs and feet (mostly me again...#flatfootproblems) was in sight!

So that was our day in NYC.  It was lots of fun to have Amy and Brandon stay the following night.  I fixed dinner for them on Sunday and we tidied up the apartment (it really needed a good clean-up) for them.  Things seemed to go pretty well, but of course...a few things just HAD to go wrong! 

The aero bed that we borrowed kept deflating slowly, so poor Amy and Brandon would wake up on the floor and then inflate it back up.  Fortunately, it's the kind where it just has a motor and when you push the button it just inflates itself, but still.  We felt kind of bad that they had to endure that.  

We have this CRAZY bird that lives outside of our apartment that literally sings ALL. NIGHT. LONG.  It doesn't do it all the time, like every night, and usually it's not a problem.  But on Sunday night boy oh boy was I ready to shoot that dang bird!  It woke up Rich as well.  This bird does NOT sing a pretty song either!  We think it's a Mockingbird, and so it will make like 50 different sounds, most of them obnoxious, throughout the "mating call".  (turns out it's mating season).  It changes it's noise about every 10-20 seconds, so you can imagine how annoyed we were and how hard it was to sleep!  We eventually got out of bed to go outside and try to find it.

When we got outside we discovered that it lives in a bush RIGHT OUTSIDE OUR BEDROOM!  So...we jostled the shrub a bit and threw a few rocks until we were pretty sure it had either flown off or decided it better shush up.  We finally were able to get some sleep.  (this was at like 4am btw)

Brandon had a great time with Bilbo.  They were best buds from the get go.  It was like having another rough-housing Rich around.  So I'm sure Bilbo misses him a lot.

A few days ago, I went to Subway (the ONLY chain we have in Wilton...the ONLY one....be grateful for your chain restaurants people....be so, so grateful), and I saw a sign by a pretty landscaped tree that said "NESTING DUCK, DO NOT DISTURB, FEDERAL OFFENSE".  So I peeked under the tree and there she was!

She's just the cutest!  I can't wait until the eggs hatch so that I can see her cute babies.  There's not much in the world more adorable than baby ducks.  A lady who saw me taking the picture told me that she moves around, kind of rotates so that all the eggs get an even amount of warmth, and she NEVER leaves the nest.  It looks like a cozy spot!  

Well, this post literally took me about 4 hours to write (with little distractions here and there) so hopefully now that you've made it to the end you are feeling satisfied.  

Happy almost May!

Incase you don't understand this reference....first of all, shame on you.  Second of all, I'm in a linky mood today -clearly- .  Enjoy this N'sync music video.