Road trip

Didn't manage to pull off our planned 7am start, probably not really a surprise!  1030 start to a fairly uneventful trip to Washington, D.C. .... Or so we thought, never trust the apple maps in this city. Why, you ask, because after the 5th u turn onto the same road we gave up and reverted to paper.

Ritz Carlton was waiting for us and very nice room too. After our late start we only managed to get to the international spy museum with its Bond exhibition. Not worth the $40 but it is still a fascinating museum especially all the old school spy stuff. The Bond exhibition was pretty good too. Russian children gave a wooden replica of the seal of America to the American ambassador and hidden in it was a microphone. Great little ditty about the carrier pigeon who flew 125 miles with a mangled leg to save 194 people - he also received the Croix du Guerre from the French.

Coming out we were greeted by a huge flock of starlings that just kept growing.
After the spy museum we headed in search of a martini, but with no coats on in the freezing cold we gave up pretty quickly and headed back to the hotel bar. 

Old Mans Cup

This weekend was the Old Mans Cup.....  A golf "tournament" hosted by Emma and Leighton in Vermont.

About 20 of us playing, including 4 girls. 3 of us in the same group - while we definitely took it seriously we also had quite a laugh. Emma, Sarah and I were the 3 ball. Emma started a new trend of marking the ball on the green then picking up the mark without putting down the ball....

The front nine was quite successful for all 3 of us. I even got a birdie (before applying my handicap) on the 6th - rather pleased about that.

After picking up vodka and soda and wine the back nine was a little more erratic. Emma would go neatly down the middle of the fairway while Sarah and I would take opposite sides down the rough!!! On the 13th I decided to go back and play the 11th landing behind a tree stump. Emma's advice - don't hit the tree stump - well I am not great at taking advice, hit the tree stump, ball flew into the air and ended up in my hand (good catch) - the question of the evening is whether I could have walked the ball to play from where I chose it to lie given it was lying in my hand.

The 18th is always a little daunting and even more so when some of the boys are heckling you :( Emma had an amazing shot from the back of the water, pond skimmed the water twice and then popped out at the back of the water. The boys couldn't see the end result but our high fives made it quite clear. Another new rule created - when under a willow tree and there is a root the ball can be moved!  Finally on the green and I asked Emma if she wanted me to mark my ball......  She didn't and low and behold she knocked mine out the way. By this time we all just had the giggles!!!!

So a lovely day out and then dinner with all at the club. While shorty and I did well we were not serious contenders for the cup :(

Photos of the fall foliage to follow

Don't tell Jon.....

But am going to let the cat out of the bag......  As part of our gift to my parents for their 50th Wedding Anniversary we had a "photo shoot" in Vermont - check out the photographers blog for a sneak preview of the photos

http://lavignephotography.blogspot.com/

Seaside Heights

So Credit Suisse Team Fun headed off to Seaside Heights, for those of you who don't know where that it…. it it THE Jersey Shore - yes the Jersey Shore of Snooki et al…..

It is a strip of land that you get to over a bridge and during Hurricane Sandy the water from the bay and the ocean met in the middle of Seaside Heights.  This was also where the roller coaster collapsed during the storm.

We worked with New Jersey Cares at a school that had been under 3ft of water and remained under water for some time as the bridge was taken out in the storm and no one could get to the school to do anything with it.

Our job was to clean up the playground, paint some of the playground benches, move in the new furniture and paint some hopscotch in the playground.

We had a fabulous time, but it was a little exhausting as it was the 3 day heat wave in NY - topped out at 39 degrees Thursday afternoon - on black top not so much fun, but we persevered…….

Some photos

We love Dr Sofa…..

As I mentioned in yesterdays blog, our sofa was delivered to restoration hardware yesterday and today Dr Sofa delivered the bits to our apartment.

It was quite disconcerting to see our sofa in 2 bits……

But I have to say I am now sitting here very comfortably in front of the telly.

Thank you very much to my Mum and Dad for buying these gorgeous sofas.  It is making the apartment feel so homely.  What with amazing bar stools - thank you David & Sarah - and now sofas it is starting to feel like our home.

Hippo also seems to have gotten over her fear of the stairs, at least going up that is and most mornings we find her camped outside our bedroom door.

I will see if I can rip the photos from Facebook to show you the new sofa.

What a New Yorker - central air, California Closets, Dr Sofa………….

Dr Sofa..... the saga continues

For those of you who read my blog last week you will be aware of the sofa troubles.....  So the last week has been back and forth with Restoration Hardware.  Finally accepted their offer of 15% discount as well as delivery fee reimbursement.

So now for the Dr Sofa - for those of you outside of Manhattan this is probably alien to you.  The Dr Sofa is known for disassembling and reassembling large pieces of furniture that won't fit in lifts or up the stairs - like our sofa.

Thankfully we purchased a slipcover sofa so there should be no need to cut the fabric (although they will do this for fabric and leather sofas).  Dr Sofa had the inspired idea that RH deliver our sofa to their warehouse in the Bronx so they could disassembler (cut up) my sofa in the comfort of the warehouse rather than on the pavement in Brooklyn Heights - just as well as I think it may rain today.

So this afternoon I will be the proud owner (hopefully for a short while) of 4 pieces of sofa!!!!  The base, back and 2 arms.  By this evening I will hopfully be the proud owner of a reassembled massively comfortable sofa.

Pictures to follow

Amazing what you can get done in Manhattan, here's hoping it works :)

Vermont photos

Gorgeous weekend up in Vermont, so thought I would post a couple of photos from our house.

Sofas…..

Hurrah, the phone call came from Restoration Hardware that our sofas were ready for delivery - it's only been 10 weeks since we ordered them.  I was expecting another 2-4 weeks wait time for when they could deliver, but literally I was offered 2 days later, which I couldn't do.

So Monday was the big day. RH had told us that we needed to have minimum 32" clearance to get the sofas in.  So lift option was out…..  The doors only open 26.5" - the price you pay for being in an old building.  So we knew up front that the sofas were going to have to be carried up the stairs.  We dutifully measured all flights of stairs and in all points we had 32" clearance.

As the days drew near to getting the sofas I suddenly had a bit of a panic, had we measured the corridor going down to the living room and den?????????  NO we had not.  The corridor was not a problem, but the last turn by the AV cupboard was - 29" only.  Hmmm, what to do lah.  We decided to wing it.

The pesky final corner

Our theory was to at least  get the sofas into the dining area and then work from there.

Monday arrives bright and breezy we have a 8-10 slot (not to bad for NYC) and it is likely to be a hot hot day…….  The guys call me at 8:00 and say will be with me in 15 mins.  I have to say I was impressed - we are not technically allowed to move furniture in until after 8:30 but hey ho - we will wing it again.

The guys were a little taken aback they had to take the sofas up the stairs - I had told RH that this would be the case.  And they were also a little concerned about the 7' deep sofa……  Give them their due they tried every which way to get that sofa up the stairs, but never made it up the first 5 steps on the ground floor.

How stupid really to only say you need 32" clearance when they know it is going upstairs - you obviously also need height clearance too otherwise a 7ft sofa just gets stuck as the stairwell on ground floor to 2nd floor is not high enough to enable the turn.  What to do……..  Well in good Brooklyn red neck style the sofa was left on the pavement, while the boys got the 6' sofa in - it was hot work so plied them with loads of water - was still a little nervous that they would get this one up 6 flights and still not get in the apartment door, but they did it.

6' sofa

So there we have it - one 6' sofa.  So what next.  Well RH gave me the following options - 1) replace the 7' sofa with a 6' sofa - fair enough, but I don't want a 6' sofa in the den……. 2) full refund of the 7' sofa (including the 50% deposit - wouldn't a full refund naturally include that?????) - don't want that either otherwise the 2 sofas won't match and they are going to be pretty close together!!! 3) 15% off and reimbursement of the delivery in order to pay for Dr Sofa…..  Yes for those of you who don't live in NYC there is a Dr Sofa……  He comes in (at a price) and cuts up your sofa into digestible pieces so that it can get from ground floor into your apartment and then he puts it all back together.  Everyone has told me not to watch this happening to your brand new sofa, but they also say he does an excellent job.

SO that is the next step, RH to redeliver, Dr Sofa to be on hand to chop 7' sofa into 3 pieces and then reassemble in the den.

The joys of NYC…….

Happy 4th July

It's been a while since we have updated our blog and sorry to say no photos.  Not really sure where the time has gone these days.  Actually maybe I will load some photos from the Bahamas.

When did we last check - ah yes our flat warming cocktail party that went on to 1:30am and not 10pm as invited :)  It was lovely having so many of our friends come over to see what we had been boring them about for over a year.  Think the party was a success.  Thank you all for coming and thank you for the flat warming gifts - proper thank you notes on their way.

After the dust had settled from the flat warming it was time for Jon to head to Houston for a few days and me to head to Brazil - which was a nice trip as always but 2 red eye 10 hour flights in 3 days not much fun.  Arrived back to NY to meet up with my Mum and Aunt June who had very kindly flown over to dog sit hippo - what a lucky/spoilt dog she is.  For those of you who saw earlier posts she is doing much better and the wound has nicely healed- she won't climb the stairs now because she had a bit of  fall with the cone on her head.  But the air con is rather cool downstairs so I don't hear her complaining too much.

Bahamas - interesting trip - very much beginner diving - think the deepest you could get if you burrowed your dive computer in the sand was about 20m.  It rained for 6 out of the 7 days - not too bad when most of the time you are underwater but did hinder visibility a little.  Also managed to drop the underwater housing on day one so no underwater photography for me - shame as I think it might have been a good opportunity to practice my pretty poor skills.  It was very relaxing though and I think Jon & I both felt better for it after the week was over.

Photos to follow…… struggling to get strong enough signal out on the deck - will need to head inside but it is just too nice.

2 weeks after Bahamas was a little "tense" at work as we had to make our first big presentation to the new big boss - went OK though, now just have to do that every quarter.

Finally last week we came back up to Vermont after not being up for 2 months - the weather may not have been good up here, but consequently it is super green everywhere - just gorgeous.

Shorty and I headed out and played 13 holes of golf (before the rain started again) - my drives were coming along quite nicely.  Even out drove Shorty on the 2 hole!!!!  Will never happen again so will revel in it while I can.

Then headed over for pre dinner drinks chez the Parson - so lovely to see them back in Vermont - feels like they never went away.  All the kids were over as well so we got to catch up with the whole crew over at their Vermont house.

We decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary a month early as it falls on a Monday this year and as tradition dictates headed to Solo where as usual Chloe and her team looked after us very well.

Last night we had the annual Leighton & Emma spectacular 4th July celebration, the company was great, food excellent, weather a little inclement, fireworks amazing!!!!!!  Thank you again Emma & Leighton for a wonderful evening.

Today started off well 40-16 to the Lions, hopefully the Brits can continue a winning weekend tomorrow with Murray at Wimbledon.

Signing off now to get some sunscreen and gee my husband up to go and play golf…….

What's going on in the Short household...

Well we finally bit the bullet and decided that perhaps the apartment is as good as done!!!  So we had a flat warming.

Caterers ordered - anyone in Brooklyn reading this, Naturally Delicious are absolutely delicious, professional and deliver on time.

Wine, spirits and bar tender ordered……  yes we decided that having a bar tender would be a good idea so that Jon & I did not spend our evening pouring drinks.  Where to find a bar tender in NYC, well quite easily really - just ask in the wine shop next door.  Danny was fabulous.

Pictures hung…..  Last one hung was at 4pm…. First guests due to arrive at 7pm.

So cocktail party from 7 - 10 pm and the last guest left at 2 am - hmmmmm, we had a few snide comments from the neighbors, but hey we have had one party in the 10 years since we have lived here.

Tours on the half hour, every half hour went well…..  Even got some tips!

So what do Jon and I talk about now?  Ah hah, never fear we have the next big plan.  Anchorage to Newfoundland by road and via Argentina!!!!!

Big thank you to all our family and friends who have put up with our renovation moans and groans and hope that many of you can come and visit at some point.  The spare room is pretty comfortable.

More photos to follow this weekend to show the art work etc that has now been hung

Spring has arrived

Been a little quiet on the blog front, work has been keeping me a wee bit busy - which is a good thing I suppose.

Hippo is healing well but still has the cone of shame on :)  If anyone knows how to rotate the photos - advice much appreciated.........  And yes of course she is up on the bed - she is poorly after all.  Did you know the expression cone of shame comes from the movie Up and the cousin of one of the ladies in our building produced that particular movie.

Vermont was gorgeous this weekend - spring buds starting to come out.  We even have one lonesome daffodil that has not yet been eaten by the chipmunks!  Played 9 holes of golf with Emma and Leighton and then watched the Kentucky Derby with a side bet on "The Normandy Landing".......  Didn't win of course

Couple more random photos - probably all a little on a squnit, what can you do!  Including our unique take on beef wellington when my parents were here.