Feeling Nostalgic

After the first big snowstorm, I headed to NJ for Christmas as you may have read in my previous post. It was my first one without Guillaume, so it was a bit difficult this year. Anyhow, for some reason I got super nostalgic and began to look back at old pictures. I made my parents get out the slide projector.

Setting up the screen and the slide projector could be a whole other post. I'm not sure how people dealt with that thing in the past. Now all you have to do is plug a cord into your television. We had to figure out which way the slides went and stick them one by one in all those little slots. What a pain.

I didn't care, though. I was bent on seeing photos of Amy as a newborn and a toddler, my great-grandparents and my young parents. It turns out we have a million boxes of slides from the early 70s up through the late 80s or early 90s. We couldn't see them all, but we got through a bunch of them while sitting by the fire place and drinking some wine. It was cozy.

Lucky for you, I'll be getting a slide scanner and featuring a few slides on this blog. However, for the time being, you'll have to settle for the prints I've found. As I was looking for a DVD of my dad when he was little, I found a photo album that Grandma Elsie must of made of her favorite old photos. It was a treasure trove of pictures (with captions!) of her mom, her mom's sister, her dad, baby pictures of my grandpa and my dad. It was fun to go through. I'm slowly scanning them all.

Above is your first installment from grandma's album. You'll see her engagement picture to my grandpa, a photo of her in her wedding dress on her wedding day in 1939 and a cool action shot of her and my grandpa coming down the stairs of the church. Check out his dapper jacket. They look so young and happy.

The last photo is my grandmother with a little boy who might be my grandpa's brother, George, but I'm not sure. (Does anyone know?) They are on the steps of "The Old House," which I've heard stories about all of my life. It is located in Finderne on Main Street.

More on The Old House in another post as I have a photo of the woman who my great-grandfather bought the house from (also from grandma's album)! Did people do that at that time? We didn't do that when we sold our houses. Anyhow, The Old House feels like a family member to me and represents a lot of history and perhaps that's why we have tons of photos of it, including its previous owner.

In the meantime, I'll keep scanning and continue to post more. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

PICTURED: Elsie (Biacovsky) Andrews and Julius Andrews.

Christmas Day in Randolph

We spent a cozy Christmas day in Randolph this year. There's still snow on the ground, but not as much as about a week ago. The weather was very chilly and we had a fire in the fireplace. Again there was more eating and drinking. We had a big pancake breakfast after opening the presents. Later we ate turkey with all the trimmings and pumpkin pie for dessert.

As a joke, my parents got Amy and I "snuggies" and we laughed about that for a while. I can't bear to put the photos from that on here. It isn't pretty.

We did some after Christmas shopping and I picked up a "Coraline" for us to watch at night. It was fun because it came with 3-D glasses. I"m sure it wasn't exactly like it would be in the theatre, but it was pretty interesting. While I was really excited to see the movie, I fell asleep towards the end with my 3-D glasses on and all. Amy thought this was pretty funny.

Christmas Eve 2009 in NJ

We spent Christmas Eve in New Jersey at the Asheys' house with my Aunt Kathryn, cousins Jeff, Pete, Liz, their daughters (Jill and Paige), my sister and my parents.

I was a little late because I had to work on until about 3 PM on Christmas Eve as my company throws a party for employees' children that day and my team runs the party. The party went well. There were games, crafts, sing-a-longs, and lots of kid-friendly food. Decor included balloon arches and giant snowmen and penguins.

I hopped on the train from Newark and my parents picked up in Raritan. Then, we headed to my cousins' house. When we got there, we were greeted by their chocolate lab, Cody, and my cousin Pete. There were tons of appetizers and wine. After that, we had a delicious dinner of pork, gravy, green beans and salad among other things.

Around dessert, we were visited by some close friends of my cousins'. Their kids are similar ages to Jill and Paige. The adults talked in the dining room while the girls (and their brother) hung out in the living room. When the guests left, we went to the living room to open the presents.

Jill and Paige got a brand new electric guitar and amp. Jeff played a song or two and helped Paige to pluck out a tune. They were thrilled. Everyone seemed very happy with their gifts. Cody was eager to get in on the fun and jumped around with us.

There was talk of Santa coming soon, so we decided it was time to leave and headed back to Randolph to get some sleep before another day of eating and drinking.


Pictured: (top, right) Sue, Amy and Heather; (middle, left) Aunt K, Paige and Jeff; (middle, left) Liz and Jill; (bottom, left) Group shot.

New Home for Heather

Sorry I've been out of touch for so long, but life has been very hectic for me. A lot of big changes at once. Most of my time has been filled with preparing to move, then moving and then settling in to my new home. In addition, I am in my busiest season at work. All in all, a very busy time for me.

My new place is shaping up pretty well. I got most of the furniture that I needed. I was thrilled to get my new bed! Sleeping on a mattress on the floor gets old pretty quick. It has a a bunch of drawers under it so that I don't need a dresser.

Another cool thing that I got is a little table that folds up into a little box where you can keep the extra chairs. It's perfect for a small space like mine. And, it got delivered all put together so I didn't have to battle with instructions or funny shaped tools and things.


The location of my new place is better than I had hoped. I'm near a lot of major subway stops and still in the same neighborhood as before. It's great. Hope that you can come to see it soon!

Aunt Evelyn's Birthday

Recently, Aunt Evelyn had a milestone birthday. Above is a picture from her celebration! Happy birthday, Aunt Evelyn!

Neema is growing up fast!

Here's the latest photo of Mark's daughter, Neema. She's the cutest. I love her little Converse high tops. So hip and American!

South Beach!

This year, the summer flew right by. I think this is partly because the weather was strange and unsummer-like. We had rain for all of June; Spring-like weather in July and mixed sunny and rainy-ish weather in August. So September and October, the fall have been chilly. Also, Guillaume and I were both working a lot. We had lots of big projects and other things at work that were keeping us very busy.

During this hectic time, I was able to sneak away for a long weekend in August in South Beach in Miami, Florida. Lucky for me, the weather was sunny with little rain. Most people don't go to Florida in August for the very reason that it's sweltering so it wasn't too crowded. Since South Beach can be kind of sceney, I prefer to avoid to the crowds. And, who cares if it's hot if all you've got to do is sit on a beach chair under an umbrella near the ocean?

I didn't do much of anything while I was there. In the morning, I'd take a yoga class and eat

breakfast. Then, I'd head to the beach with my book and ipod. I'd break for lunch and go back

to the beach again afterwards. After the beach, I'd head to the pool on the roof of the hotel and then look for somewhere to eat. I found an excellent Indian place, enjoyed middle eastern food and took myself out to Wish, a fancy restaurant in the hotel where I stayed.

I stayed at this place called The Hotel of South Beach, which was fantastic. The rooms were nice and the staff was very helpful. The pool on the roof was a nice way to end the beach day. You could see the ocean from the pool and the mojitos were excellent! On Saturday, you could see the cruise ships leaving their ports.

There is a sandwich place, La Sandwicherie, which has fantastic sandwiches. The owners are from France and make the best sandwiches ever. It is on 14th street and Washington near the Club Deuce Bar, one of the older (and divey) bars around. It has an open counter with stools where you can sit and order your sandwich. One sandwich can easily feed two people and comes with the famous La Sandwicherie Vinagrette. It's excellent.

Had a great time in South Beach and looking forward to going back again some time soon.

The High Line in NYC

Recently, after years of planning and negotiations, the High Line reopened in NYC. It is now an amazing park that is open to the public that allows spectacular views and shows innovative design. Guillaume and I decided to visit it to see what all the fuss was about.

It was really amazing. You can access the park via stairs at three or four different access points. You can see the old tracks through the giant bushes and wildflowers growing around them. There are benches to rest and take in the interesting aerial view of the street. At one place, there is a mini-theatre style set up of benches looking through a giant glass window over the street. It's an interesting angle to view the cars whooshing by. The path follows the tracks, which wind through new and old buildings.

The design of the park gives you a good glimpse of its history. Built in the 1930s, the High Line was part of the West Side Improvement, a public-private infrastructure project. It was an elevated train track that removed dangerous trains carrying freight off the streets near Manhattan's largest industrial district. Trains stopped running on these tracks in the 1980s.

In 1999, Friends of the High Line formed because the structure was slated to be demolished. This group works in partnership with the City of New York to preserve and maintain the structure. You can see historic photos of the High Line here.

Progress on Jeff's Home Renovations

Jeff is making a lot of progress on his home in Beacon, NY. Recently, he sent us some before and after photos of the outside of his home. It was cool to see the progress because the last time I saw Jeff he showed me the architectural renderings. It looked cool on paper but it looks even cooler in the photos. This is no surprise as Jeff is very talented in art and design. I can't wait to see more photos and to visit this summer.

Guillaume's Work Summer Party 2009

A few weeks ago, we went to Guillaume's work summer party on Randall's Island in NYC. It's always an over-the-top, fun event. There is a free ferry specifically for the party that takes you to the island.

It has something for everyone. This year there was a fake "rooftop" wine bar that looked just like a NYC apartment building rooftop. They had several different versions of wine and loungy seating on a high platform that rested beneath the trees. There was a skating rink, baby pools, sandcastles and a fake boardwalk for families to enjoy. The kids can make crafts and watch musicians. At night the skating rink turned into a giant dj booth for dancing. Of course, there were tons of Michael Jackson songs this year.

The food was also excellent. You could get the typical hot dogs and hamburgers and corn or you could opt for veggie samosas or jerk chicken empandas. There was also a giant seafood shack with crabs and other stuff like that. There were plenty of bars and places to get lemonade and iced tea and soda.

We mingled with Guillaumes co-workers and bosses and ate ourselves silly. We even tried shooting some hoops along the fake boardwalk. After that we took the ferry home and called it a night. It was a blast!

BBQ in NYC

A few weekends ago, we celebrated Gay Pride with our friends in NYC. After a champagne brunch with Bill and Terry, we skipped the hustle and bustle of the parade in the Village and headed to Chelsea to Stephen's courtyard for a BBQ. After Stephen got the barbeque going, Andrew and Annique prepared some seared tuna and sausauges. Others had hot dogs and burgers. It was an excellent Sunday afternoon with good food and good friends.

A Wedding in the Adirondacks

Mara, my friend from graduate school married Karl in Old Forge, New York during the Fourth of July weekend. It was a beautiful wedding and Guillaume and I had a great time. The wedding took place in the St. Mary of the Snows church in Otter Lake and the reception was at the North Woods Inn in Old Forge. The day after the wedding, we joined the newly-married couple for a pig roast.

Mother's Day at Bob and Sue's

On Mother's Day, we told Bob and Sue the good news that we were engaged. We celebrated with an excellent dinner and a special bottle of champagne from France.

Amy and Heather

Here's a picture of Amy and I at Kathryn and George's party a few weeks ago.

Heather and Guillaume Are Engaged

Just a few weeks ago, Guillaume and I got engaged. We had a perfect day together. First we walked across the Brooklyn bridge, then we stopped for some wine and cheese. After that we had an excellent dinner and he popped the question. Some fireworks started just after that. It was excellent!

Party at Kathryn and George's Place

We had a blast at Kathryn and George's house a few weekends ago. Bob, Sue and Amy came into town for the big event. We had dinner beforehand at Da Andrea, a restaurant near my apartment. We got to the party around 9 pm. We were surprised to see that Jeffery Heller came in from Minnesota for the occasion. There was tons of good food and good wine. We also got to meet Nisha, their kitten, whose name means "night" in Persian.

PICTURED: George, Kathryn, Bob and Sue

Karolina

Here is a photo of little Karolina, who was born a few months ago. She's adorable!

Easter in NJ

We had a blast celebrating Easter in NJ. The weather was perfect and the food was delicious. Before dinner, we enjoyed some buffalo chicken wings, cheese, crackers and wine. The meal consisted of ham, potato salad (yum!), sedek, shrimp rosoto and kielbasa. For desert, we had sponge cake, banana cream pie, nut roll and cookies.  

Pictured: (back row) Jeff, Guillaume, Pete, Liz, George, Kathryn, Amy and Sue. (front row) Heather, Jill, Paige, Aunt Kathryn, and Bob.

Neema

Recently, Mark sent a picture of little Neema. Look how adorable she is! She got a nice new outfit from France from her friend Nasser.

A New Family Member in Budimir

We have a new family member in Budimir! Zofia had a daughter. Her name is Karolina (Caroline) and she was born on monday 31/3/2009 at 2:00 p.m. Welcome, Karolina! We look forward to seeing pictures of her!

The Andrews Sisters Out on the Town in NYC

Last week, Amy came to visit me in NYC. The first night we hung out and chatted at some local bars, such as Vol de Nuit. The next day, we had lunch with Jeff at Galaxy (YUM!) and then walked around the city enjoying the fact that neither of us had to work. The day was warm and sunny and pleasant. We had to stop by my apartment to get Amy something less warm to wear.

First stop was Evolution, an art and science store in Soho, that Jeff recommended for Amy a long time ago. Despite the fact that it was during the afternoon on a weekday, the store was crowded. I suppose they were mostly tourists. The walls were covered with stuffed animals -- monkeys and birds and wolves. There were thousands of shiny bugs in glass cases. It made me a little nauseous. Upstairs, we saw real human skeletons -- a male, a female with a fetus, and a five-year-old kid. It was interesting and creepy at the same time. Amy turned from the skeletons and went to the case of stuffed birds pointing out one that was native to Australia.

From there, we headed to Kiosk, another small and interesting shop. Tara told me about this one a few months ago. It's interesting because many of the products on sale are part of a changing exhibit. Some of the objects are always there.

After that we were ready to have a beer at Eight Mile Creek, an Australian Bar in Soho, but it wasn't open, yet. We continued walking around Soho and Nolita and then up the Bowery. We passed some of the grittier parts of the City until we eventually passed Houston and entered the lower part of the East Village. On the way, we passed the New Museum and took a photo. We stopped to have a lambic and a blonde beer at dba, where there is a large outdoor garden. The after work crowd was beginning to fill it up.

Soon it became too chilly to be outside, so we headed to PDT, a local speakeasy. To enter PDT, you need to go into the (fake) phone booth at Crif Dogs, a hot dog stand. You press the button on the phone and a wall opens up. If you don't have reservations, you can try to grab a stool at the bar. The bartenders, who look like they are from the 1920s, are skilled mixologists and can whip up some cool drinks. We were fortunate enough to land a small table.

Amy ordered the Cranberry Cobbler and I ordered the Persephone. The cranberry cobbler was like a grown-up slushie. Tons of ice with some cranberries and mint on top. It was delicious. My drink was a little strong and a bit difficult to drink, but fruity. Amy ordered one of the famous hot dogs, which appears through a little door behind the bar from the hot dog stand. These dogs are not like any you've had before. Amy ordered the Chang Dog, which has kimchi on it and was designed by the Momofoku chef, David Chang.

After that Amy headed back to NJ on the train. All in all, we had a great time!

Grandma Elsie and Aunt Kathryn

Here is an nice picture of Grandma Elsie and Aunt Kathryn. I think it was taken in December of 2002.

Flashback to 1984

I found some old pictures of the family. These are from my first holy communion in 1984. At that time we belonged to St. Peter the Apostle Church, which was a little old white church in Parsippany. That church was knocked down 10 or 20 years ago around the time we moved from there and replaced with a huge modern one. I haven't been back there in ages.

In the picture above, you will see me as a 8-year-old in my communion get up with my parents, my grandparents, Aunt Kathryn, Uncle Jim and my cousin Peter. We all look so young!

Skiing in Colorado

In early February, Guillaume and I and some friends took a trip to Colorado to go skiing. We enjoyed great weather and had an excellent time.

After flying into Denver, we got our rental car and immediately headed to Idaho Springs in order to grab some lunch and a beer at the TommyKnocker brewery. Idaho Springs looks like it hasn't changed much since it was founded in the 1800s. The brewery gets its name from the TommyKnocker spirits that haunted the gold miners back when Idaho Springs was a gold mining town. While our waiter was a bit of a space cadet, the food was good and their beer was delicious. We bought ourselves a "piglet", which is like a small cardboard keg, of the Tommy Knocker Ale (I think) to take home with us. All the breweries in the area seem to sell these piglet things.

About 45 minutes or so later, we arrived in Dillon, where we picked up the keys to our condo that we found on vrbo.com. Our condo was located at the base of the mountain in Keystone. We decided that we would stay in Keystone because I had stayed there before with my former roommate, Lindsay, and also because of its proximity to other nice mountains, such as Breckenridge and Vail.

The condo was excellent! It had a nice kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a balcony, a gas fireplace and access to a hot tub. We could see Keystone mountain from our balcony. There were long icicles hanging from the snow-blanketed roof. A short bus ride took us to the village where there are restaurants and shops. We could walk to the base lifts.

We arrived on Saturday and the next day was Super Bowl Sunday, so we decided to stay close to home. The football lovers stopped skiing early to watch the game at a dive bar conveniently located near our condo. The Goat was an interesting place and was filled with locals. A BBQ snack bar was attached to it. The menu included Tater Tots and our dinner cost us about $7 total. Needless to say, we only spent one night at The Goat.

On Monday, we hit Breckenridge. It was a brutally cold and windy day. Despite our millions of layers, we could still feel the wind coming through our jackets. We hid our faces behind masks and gators and shivered on the chairlift. During lunch, the more expert skiers hit the bowls while Claudina and I waited in the lodge. The views from the lodge windows were gorgeous.

The next morning we woke up with aching calves and spent the next few days in Keystone. Eventually, we headed to Vail to experience the chi-chi village and try some new trails. Vail was very,very, very nice, but the trails seemed a bit flatter and more crowded. We had dinner in a nice French restaurant in the village. All in all it was an excellent day.

Back at Keystone, we skied our favorite slopes and ate at the Snake River Saloon. Before dinner, we shot some pool as we waited for a table to open up. It was quite crowded and had a different (better) atmosphere than The Goat. I ate a delicious steak and Guillaume tried the pork with black cherry sauce. It was really good. Another night, we went to the BigHorn Steakhouse where I had a delicious rack of lamb. Yum.

As usual, the vacation was over way too quickly. I can't wait to go skiing again.

Mark's Safari

From Mark about his safari trip:
The safari was a little trip that I took to an orphanage about 1 hour from Lake Victoria. There are 50 kids there from 5-18. A woman from Peter's church donated $400.00, which I took out there to buy food. They almost never get meat, so I bought 50 lbs. of beef for dinner while I was there in addition to the maize, rice, and beans. It will last them about a month. I wanted to take some pictures for an article I am writing for the Hunterdon County Democrat. I hope it will raise some money for them. I came back via Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya. It is on the edge of Lake Victoria and I had a good time eating stewed fish that was freshly caught. It's one of my favorite towns. I was on the back of a motorcycle, no helment of course, and a car hit the motorcycle. The two of us went bouncing off into the bush in the dark. No injuries, but it did make my heart pump. I flew both ways which takes about 45 minutes each way from Nairobi.

Amy Turns 24

Guillaume and I journeyed to New Jersey on Sunday to celebrate Amy's 24th birthday. My parents took us all out to dinner to a local restaurant in Randolph to celebrate. We had a delicious dinner and yummy desserts. It was nice to see everyone.

Pictured: The birthday girl.

Ornate and Excessive Holiday Party

Guillaume and I were invited to a semi-famous holiday party in the neighborhood in December. Part of the fun of the party is that the dress code is always different. This year, we received a very elegant invite in the mail directing us to dress in an ornate and excessive manner. Unfortunately, Guillaume was already in France and couldn't go to the party. So, I went with Tara, Bill and Terry.

Figuring out what to wear was tough for me as I am definitely not an ornate and excessive kind of gal. Tara suggested that I wear a gold dress that I have that I usually use for weddings. I ended up wearing that, but it's more of a summer dress and there was a snowstorm on the day of the party. I had to walk to the party in the snow. I ended up wearing my Wellies and sweatpants underneath my dress and changed when I got there.

Tara and I met a lot of new friends at the party and had a great time. One of the highlights was when Terry, who lives upstairs from the party hosts, brought down Larry, his Boston Terrier. As a result of meeting Larry, Boston Terriers are my new favorite dog breed. Though, I think that Larry's just a charming guy in general and it would be hard to find another dog like him.

Pictured: Tara, Bill and Heather in front of the Christmas tree at Jeff and Andrew's place and (bottom, left) Larry.

Heather's Birthday at Von in New York City

This year, I had a fantastic little birthday get together at Von in New York City. We spent some time hanging out and chatting and then headed to another place for dancing. Here's a photo of Amy and I at the bar.