Kate & Lenore Take Philadelphia

You guys, our trip to Philadelphia was epic. So epic that we're going to need two posts here to re-hash the details of it. And I'm not even sorry about it.

We had an awesome hotel room on the 20th floor of the Downtown Marriott right across the street from the Convention Center (note: the 20th floor is going to be important soon). And we could see this super cool building! Is that City Hall? I'm not entirely sure (can you tell I went to grad school in Philly just last year? HA!).

We got to our hotel at about 4:00 and I did what I always do upon arriving at a hotel: I took a nap. We just pretended that it took us four hours to get to Philadelphia and not 60 minutes. Details, I tell you!

I woke up an hour later and we went across the street to Redding Terminal Market to get treats for later that night! Then we went to the Hard Rock for dinner, which was crowded and loud but overall I still say awesome.

Then we walked back to our hotel and decided to really live on the edge and get teas at the Starbucks in the hotel lobby. Earl Grey for me, Tazo Refresh for my Mom. REBELS, I tell you!

Don't worry, those are not ALL treats! The bag on the left is mini soaps we bought at Redding Terminal. That I am just now realizing I left in Pennsylvania! UGH!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie, Banana Creme Whoopie Pie, Pecan Bar. Friends, I really like Whoopie Pies. Are they acceptable at weddings? Opinions, puh-lease. And we watched 30 Rock...which we love (Alec Baldwin, mostly).

And even though we were trying to LIVE ON THE EDGE and make it to 11PM to watch the Daily Show, we both fell asleep at 10:30 halfway through The Mentalist. I blame a sugar coma.

BUT THEN at 2:00AM, THE FIRE ALARM WENT OFF. Did I mention we were at the 20th floor. Geeze, Downtown Marriott. Even though the alarm was going off, they told us NOT to evacuate. But we still put our clothes back on, and then sat on the bed and stared at each other. And then we heard fire truck sirens.

But still we sat, do do do waiting. Could you imagine if we had DIED the night before the Flower Show? That would have been totally tragic.

Luckily, a man came over the loudspeaker which was apparently in our room and told us not to worry and to "Resume our normal activity". Which we assumed meant go back to sleep, since it was 2:45AM at that point.

When my Mom told my grandmother this story, she said "Yeah, you'd have to go to sleep. Because even if you were in the middle of something, you wouldn't want to after you got the shit scared out of you." Thanks, Nanny.

We woke up the next morning, me in my pajamas and my Mom fully clothed in the event that we had to evacuate again. My Mom got in the shower and I went downstairs to Starbucks to get us some breakfast.

BUT as I was leaving, a MAN repelled down those ropes to clean our windows. Seriously. Thank you, Downtown Marriott (in their defense, they did warn us upon check-in, but seriously. The hotel is huge. You had to clean our windows during our morning getting ready routine?)!

Stay tuned for Part Deux!

Book #12: The Night Circus

The Night Circus, book #12 in the Year of 100 Books, is definitely the strangest read so far. I can't really say that I loved, loved, loved it. But I can't say that I didn't like it either. Really, I thought it was basically a 400 page short story. Nothing seemed to really happen, but that didn't make me hate it. I'm not sure I'm doing a good job here...

Let's discuss the plot, I suppose.

Marco and Celia are bound to each other as children to fight in a magical duel, the rules of which are never quite specified by Morgenstern. The arena is a magical circus (the description of which really made the book for me) but no one ends up winning in the way the the architects of the game would have hoped.

The detailed descriptions of the actual circus were incredible. But I thought overall the characters were blah and so was the story. That's my scientific review: blah. But perhaps worth it if you like fanciful circuses!

I'm going to need everyone to NOT SPEAK TO ME for at least the next month while I attempt to gain some momentum here.

OK, OK I guess you can speak to me. But not when I am on my couch competitively reading against myself.

Thursday Morning at Holly's House

And by Holly's house, I mean my parents' house.

This morning I woke up and my Mom asked me to take Holly for a walk in the backyard. Based on that sentence, I don't want you to assume that we have a very big backyard. But you should assume that Holly has not yet mastered the art of walking on her leash and often gets tangled, necessitating that you pick her up and untangle her 800 times. So we went for a "walk" in the backyard. But not before she squirmed the whole way out the door (did I mention that she can't go down steps so you have to carry her?) and I stepped in her water bowl. Graceful, Kate...way to go.

After our "walk" we went back inside and I suddenly thought it would be a BRILLIANT idea to eat breakfast outside and let her run around for a little bit. Because it is beautiful outside today and because I love nothing more than iced coffee outside in the spring (seriously, I was totally one of those weirdos in college who sat on the quad and looked up at the sun. Its legit my favorite).

So I got my breakfast together, I went upstairs and got my book (which I don't even want to talk about because I am so far behind in this 100 books thing), put Holly back on her leash and off we went in the wild blue yonder!

Gosh, that looks so peaceful right? I know what you're thinking! KATE where is the iced coffee you were so excited about? I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED! Holly knocked it over with her leash (seriously, she's a mess) and it got all over my feet. So lets review: it is 10am and my feet have been soaked with a beverage TWICE already. Geeze.

I contemplated making another iced coffee, but decided to admit defeat and wait until we went back inside and I could keep it on the table away from Holly.

So I ate my yogurt and read my book, and Holly did this for 45 minutes:

That's her chewing on a stick. Dogs are strange.

I have to go take a shower because my Mom and I are leaving for our excursion to Philadelphia in a few hours. Has anyone given any consideration to miniature landscape design?

My Desk Belongs To A Child

You guys, Steph got me the best presents for manning her blog while she was on vacation. I loved them so much, that I put them on my desk at work so that I can see them every day. But after I put them there, I realized that I think my desk looks like it belongs to a child.


Opinions?

Those are the presents! Tiny hedgehog erasers AND cat post-it notes! They came from Epcot Japan and they are so awesome, they prompted this gchat conversation on Monday:

Me: Ugh, Stephanie I love these tiny hedgehog erasers. They make me laugh every time I look at them!
Steph: I wish we had a Japanese gift shop here.

That's basically the reason we're friends. I hope that for my wedding, she gets me a crate of hedgehog erasers. I want them all over my house!

And what makes my child-like desk even better today? Psssh the fact that today is my last day of work for the week! YES! Hooray! I'm driving to Pennsylvania tonight because me and my Mom are going to the Philadelphia Flower Show! Have you been? I told my friend we were going and she said "Oh, to pick out flowers for your wedding?"

Ummm no.

We just go because we're total dorks and think that we want to take up tiny landscape design. Have you seen this phenomenon? No? Well, don't worry I will take pictures and report back.

Might be a little quiet here on the blog until next week while I attempt to figure out if I can sustain such a hobby. And will my Mom and I each have our own tiny landscape scene or will we share one and if we share one WHERE WILL IT LIVE IN PENNSYLVANIA OR NEW YORK? I have a lot of thinking to do.

Happy Birthday, Fiance!

Today is Fiance's 27th Birthday!

We are doing nothing fun tonight because he has to work late. That's what happens when you're involved in a high school production of Beauty and the Beast!

 But we are eating Ben and Jerry's upon his return home from rehearsal tonight at 11:30! And hopefully some of his birthday presents will get here today (seriously, Amazon what is the problem)?

For his past three birthdays, Fiance has had a surprise birthday party. Seriously. Three. That one up there was supposed to be a surprise but I accidentally ruined it. We had just started dating and his housemates planned it and I accidentally blabbed. But then I bought that kick ass cake to make up for it.

And then the next year, I totally redeemed myself and threw (that's right I'll say it) the best surprise party in the history of surprise parties. It was animal themed (see hat) AND there was a Wall-E cake and a badge that I made him where that said "Its my birthday!". I should have opened a party planning business after that (please note that I did NOT stick those flags in that cake!).

And then last year, his housemates decided he should have another surprise party. Which I don't seem to have any pictures of?

Clearly we have gotten way lame but seriously how many times can he be surprised? I say Ben & Jerry's is a perfect way to celebrate year number 27 (which is three years from 30, in case math is not your forte).

Maybe I'll even run to the store and get Dilly a party hat.

Happy 27th, John! I love, love, love you!

Cozy Sunday

Ever since Fiance and I moved in together in June, our weekends seem to book up super fast. In the case of this month, by the end of January, we knew what we'd be doing every weekend in March. This weekend was our only weekend at home and goodness were we lazy!

On Friday night, I had to work late so Fiance came into the city and we met a friend for dinner (mmm sushi!). And on Saturday, my little sister and I went to Brooklyn to visit my grandmother and see my parents. And then we stayed up way to late watching Lindsay Lohan's return to glory (or not) on SNL and WHOOPS we slept until noon on Sunday morning (read: afternoon). I'm glad to know our couch is cozy for sleeping!

After rousing ourselves from our coma, we met some friends at the diner for lunch. The best part about living on Long Island is the diners, my friends.

Alyssa left after lunch and then WHOOPS I might have taken a nap. Seriously, I think I have the narcolepsy.

Then, I woke up and Fiance and I watched an NCIS marathon (not NCIS Los Angeles, even though that one is my favorite because of LL Cool J. Who I l-o-v-e). And I kept crocheting my newest project, a blanket for my Nanny! I didn't get much done though because Dilly is a real pain when it comes to crocheting. See photo below for proof!

I hope your weekend was lovely! This week is going to be fun, fun, fun...details soon!

Dear Leap Week

A few days ago, I was reading my New Years Gift Exchange partner, Lauren's, blog. She had a super cute post called "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and I loved it so much, I'm trying it out here at Ummm Now What! Thanks Lauren for being a blog genius!

Dear week with leap day, you were stinky. You were mean to me, and work was ick and I forgot to buy my train ticket and Dilly was annoying when I was sleeping. And, I had to wear a suit today to work. I am glad you are over, and I might drink a lot of wine tonight. Dear New York City in the rain, you are wet and sometimes you rain sideways and make the thighs of my pants wet. That is annoying. Dear new Coen Brothers Movie "Inside Llewyn Davis," you put more than a dozen old cars on the street outside my building yesterday.

And this morning, you put wheelbarrows full of snow and more old cars on my morning walk up West 3rd. I don't know how anyone in New York could EVER get sick of this. Its basically the coolest thing ever, movie sets are!

See those wheelbarrows? Eeek so cool!

Dear Blog, You are fun! Have you noticed you have been getting some extra attention this week? You have friends on the right side and everything! You are great and I like you a lot. Dear Sunday, I'm going to miss about half of you as I plan on sleeping to at least noon.

Loooooove,
Kate


PS-check out some other Friday Letters here