Monthly Archives: November 2013

This weekend brought us, what I’ll consider, our first real snowfall of the season. We had some snow last week too, but it didn’t really stick. It snowed most of the day on Saturday, temperatures plummeted to the teens with wind chills in the single digits, and we actually had to finally turn on the heat in the house, use a snow brush and ice scraper on the car, buy a new tall-truck-friendly extendable snow brush for Ted’s truck, and tread cautiously on sidewalks and pavement because of ice. I also had to officially pull out my snow boots, knee-length down feather winter coat, gloves, hats, earmuffs, thermal under layers, and my footed pajamas (don’t hate – they’re amaaazing). It’s also the time I year I start considering a car wash membership so we can prevent rust on our vehicles with all the salt from the roads they’ll be kicking up for the next 4 months. I try to hold off on all this hoopla as long as possible by living in denial that winter could actually be here again already, but alas – it’s apparently time to put away the peep toe wedges, dig out the holiday teas, and face the fact that fall is over.

There are a few trees left in Rochester that still have beautiful, brilliant red, yellow and orange leaves on them. They’re stunning against the white snow. A gorgeous sight to behold. While fall falls away, I’ll hold on a little longer by playing catch-up and sharing a few posts containing the last of our fall adventures this week.

The first weekend in November Ted and I decided to take a quick, surprise trip to visit family in the Cleveland area. Cleveland is only about 4 or 5 hours west of Rochester, so it was a completely random, manageable, and fun trip. We left early Friday afternoon, drove in some pretty substantial and wild winds (ah, lake effect) to Erie, Pennsylvania – halfway between Rochester and Cleveland – where we met up with Ted’s cousin’s daughter Michaela, who is in college at Mercyhurst. We carpooled with her the rest of the way to Cleveland where we enjoyed some good old-fashioned high school eats at the local Dairy Queen and then surprised Michaela’s mom, dad, and two brothers Marcus and Martin by showing up at Marcus’ last football game of his high school career (he’s a senior). It was a perfect, chilly fall evening and we had a blast sitting on the bleachers, bundled in sweatshirts and blankets, watching Marcus play some Friday night football, and catching up with Ted’s uncle, all the cousins, and their kids. And the game had a wonderfully exhilarating ending with a, literally, edge-of-your-seat last second win for Marcus and his team. Oh, and the celebrating that followed! It was so nice just to be out of the field after the game to surprise Marcus, and with all those kids – so many of them seniors – enjoying an important and thrilling moment in their high school lives – their youth, excitement, freshness, and love of life was just totally palpable. It was such a beautiful reminder of all of the fun of my own high school years and high school friends.

The next day, which wasn’t nearly as beautiful as it was freezing cold, windy, and pouring rain, we stood outside by the bleachers, cloaked in as many layers as possible beneath massive umbrellas for three hours, watching Martin’s last football game of the season. Martin’s team also pulled off a win – though they had a pretty nice lead all along. Unfortunately, the awful weather dampened some of the celebrating and excitement of their win. Overall, we were really glad we could spend a few hours with everyone and catch both of the boys last games of the season. It was totally worth the trip! Thanks for putting us up for the night guys! :)

We stopped at a little hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant, where I had the best hot and sour soup of my entire life, before the drive back home. The soup was so good that I actually ordered more to take back home with us to Rochester. It was so good that the guy made each bowl fresh on the stove, not pulled from a stock pot. And it had delicious meat in it, which is pretty rare in a hot and sour soup. I’ve been dreaming about this soup for the past three weeks, guys. It was that  good and I’m pretty sure we’ll be making a special trip there every time we find ourselves in Cleveland. The drive back, though rainy, was beautiful as well because all the fall leaves were totally brilliant – pretty much right at peak, so poor Ted got to listen to “look at tree!” the whole way back home. The hazards of being married to someone who loves fall as much as I do, I suppose.

At home we finally carved up our pumpkin (using autumn-shaped cookie cutters – leaves, acorns, apples, pumpkins, etc.) and I roasted a batch of pumpkin seeds (salted caramel pumpkin pie flavored! so good!) and enjoyed it with some fresh apple cider. Such a great ending to such a great weekend!

Ted had his 5th knee surgery early yesterday morning. It was an outpatient operation, so he’s doing well and recovering nicely, but he’ll be on crutches and unable to drive for about a week. Truth be told, he’d actually really been looking forward to this surgery for the past month so the pain would finally go away (after these next few days of relative immobility and soreness at least), and he could start healing and get back to the life-as-usual activities he’s had to limit lately. Ted’s an old pro at surgeries by now. I’m still pretty antsy about them. It’s never fun to see your loved one hooked up to IVs and being wheeled away from you down a long hospital hallway when there’s nothing you can do but sit and wait – even when it’s a short, low-risk surgery and you know he’s in great hands. Still not easy. Of course, he did great. He’s a total champ, keeps all the doctors and nurses laughing, and looks super stylin’ in that handsome blue and red hospital-issued dressing gown and scratchy gray and white anti-slip socks.

Despite waking up at 4:45 in the morning to be at the surgical center by 5:45 for his 7:30 surgery, he was awake by 8:20 and we were out of there by 9:30. After checking out of the surgical center, we enjoyed our post-surgery tradition (it’s pretty sad that we have a post-surgery tradition, isn’t it?) of a huge, celebratory breakfast at ihop. The docs warned him that he’d probably be too nauseous from the anesthesia to want food. They obviously don’t know Ted. He clearly wanted to eat – pancakes, french toast, bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, english muffins – all of it. I guess that’s what happens when you tell a diabetic he can’t eat or drink for 10 hours. Anyway, breakfast was great and relaxing – just what we needed.

It was cold and blustery out all day yesterday and I’d taken a med-leave day off from the theatre to play nurse, so after breakfast we headed home to recover. Ted got comfortable on the couch. We propped up his leg, bundled up in blankets, wore our pajamas all day (um, even to surgery and ihop. No shame.), watched movies, and we each took a nap. Around 3 p.m. I made a huge pot of my mom’s amazing homemade Mexican chicken tortilla soup garnished with cilantro, freshly shredded cheese, tortilla chip strips, lime, and avocado, which is out-of-this-world delicious, reminds me of Texas, and totally hit the spot on a day like this (plus, plenty of leftovers for this week…yesss!), and then after making sure Ted was settled in on the couch and had everything he needed, I took a bubble bath and read some of my book. He also had three assigned recovery exercises he has to do ten times every hour he is awake, so we stayed on top of that too. And then we commenced more of the same. All in all, it was pretty easy yesterday while his knee was still numb, but the numbness starting wearing off last night before bed and we both know he’ll be much more sore today before he starts feeling better.

I know it sounds like it was pretty relaxing day (and in some ways, it really was), but between the very early morning, the emotional stress of surgery, the care-taking, and the running around trying to find waterproof bandage tape for showering, etc. I think we were both absolutely beat yesterday and today. It was a huge struggle to pry myself out of bed this morning and I’m still completely exhausted. And that’s just me, the one who didn’t have surgery. Needless to say, we plan on taking it easy for the rest of the week. We’ll start taking short walks on our street or around the grocery store at night after I get home from work to keep his leg moving, but otherwise, I see lots of lounging, movies, Wii games, board games, and early bedtimes in our future. Surgery and winter weather sure do go hand-in-hand, don’t they?

…I was a kissing hissing booth.

You’re welcome.

For our actual 3 year anniversary, while my parents were in town visiting, we all celebrated together with a totally amazing dinner at Rooney’s and the Mt. Hope Cemetery Grand Torch Light Tour (if you missed it, click here).

For our “just the two of us” 3 year anniversary celebration, we downed tacos and quesadillas at a Mexican restaurant and then went to the circus…like adults.

Obviously, it was nothing short of magical. The pictures don’t do it justice.

You know how they call themselves the “Greatest Show on Earth”? Well, they kind of are a really great show. We had a blast! Lots of great costumes, eye-catching effects, amazing acrobatics tricks, and unbelievably daring feats. And, of course, the animals are fantastic and much better at tricks than most people I know. It’s entertaining, it’s awe-inspiring, it’s exciting, it’s fun, it’s surprising, and they sell $16 snow cones, $11 cotton candy, and $8 popcorn – all made of gold!

Then you think about it and realize they have a live band accompanying every show, a cast of 100 performers (literally), a crew of probably close to the same number for all the technical stuff, animal care, and human safety, a bazillion costumes that need daily cleaning and repairing, a massive quantity of scenic, lighting, sound, and safety equipment that needs constant maintenance, what I can only assume is an utterly astronomical insurance policy, an entire privately owned railroad system to get around the country, and about 50 wild animals that need lots of meat, grooming, shelter, medicine, etc. And suddenly the $16 snow cone doesn’t seem so ludicrous. I cannot even fathom how they could break even financially each performance, even if they luck out and get a full house. Just take a minute and think about all those logistics. It’s mind-blowing.

Of course, I went wild over the elephants, horses, farm animals, and big cats. Those cats! WOW.

And can I just say that after seven years, my cat Sancho still doesn’t respond to his name or come when he’s called, and I just watched like ten lions and tigers sit patiently on little stools, jump on command, and work together to form complex shapes like synchronized swimmers. Totally astounding. Sancho, you’ve got some catching up to do, buddy.

So, really, if you get a chance, it would be well worth your while to release your inner kid and spend your next date night at the circus!

Welcome to the new Newlyweds in New York!

What was supposed to be “October Unplugged” turned into “October-and-like-half-of-November-Unplugged.” However, I can assure you the time off was very-much-needed and very-well-used. Exhibit A: our new blog!

While our old blog, Newlyweds in Cincy, served us well for the past three years (you know, while we actually still lived in Cincinnati), we’ve moved on to a new chapter in our lives – in New York. I’ve been meaning to take this blog to the next level for at least a year now. Well, it’s time! And it’s here! And it’s beautiful! I think you’re really going to love the new look and the new layout. I know I do!

So, here’s the deal: If you currently subscribe to this blog via email, your subscription should transfer over automatically this week, allowing you to still get new posts from Newlyweds in New York right in your inbox. However, if you notice that you’re not receiving them (or if you’d like to subscribe – the easiest way to stay up-to-date on all our adventures!), you can subscribe simply by entering your email address under “Subscribe to Newlyweds in New York” at the bottom of the sidebar on your right. If you’ve got Newlyweds in New York bookmarked for quick reference, please update the bookmark’s old URL to the new URL. For the next several months, we’ve also got this blog rigged to automatically redirect you, should you accidentally go to the old blog’s website instead of coming here. Automatic redirect will begin this upcoming weekend. Hopefully that’ll help too. Change can be mind-blowing sometimes, can’t it? Eventually, our old blog site will disappear, but don’t worry – all pictures, posts, and comments (all the way back to my very first post on November 8, 2010!) have been safely transferred here for easy access, in case you want to scroll the archives, look something up by category, see where it all began, or track our adventures through the years from Cincinnati to New York.

A gigantic thank you to my talented and unbelievably patient husband Ted for helping to build my header and also to my talented and unbelievably patient father-in-law Jack for designing, building, and installing everything else you see here. You are both incredible! Truly. And a huge thank you to all of you for your continued support of Newlyweds in New York and for sticking around during this most recent hiatus, allowing me the time to focus my efforts on designing and transitioning to the new blog, and also allowing me the time to focus my energy on my friends, family, work, and personal projects – all of which benefited greatly during this break in October.

Once the dust has settled in a few days, I have a great lineup of fun posts in store for you here! Posts and pictures from my parents visit to NY, our anniversary, our trip to Virginia, the circus, Halloween, our trip to Ohio, a surprise date night, and a ton of other catch-ups coming your way!

Stay tuned & welcome to the new Newlyweds in New York! I’m so glad you’re here. Here’s to the next chapter of NINY and a beautiful blogging future!