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Monday, August 29, 2011

About that Hurricane...

Well for those of us in NYC and especially for anyone living about 60th Street the Hurricane ended up being a big snore fest.  After anxiously waiting two full days for the storm to arrive it was pretty much a non-event in New York.  I for one am very grateful as I had seen the destruction in NC, VA, MD and PA.  That storm sat down in NC/VA for a full day before moving along.  By the time it made it to New York it was moving very fast and was no longer a hurricane.  People here were really freaking out in the days leading up to the storm.  Here is a pic of the bread shelves at my local grocery store...these are ALWAYS full on a normal day...


These also made an appearance at my apartment building on Friday morning and made me nervous...

Okay never mind...it won't upload the picture of the four bags of "Play Sand" that are still sitting in our lobby.  This reduces the funny but I must go on.

I was a little nervous when I went to bed on Saturday night but by Sunday morning when I woke up at like 8am it was barely raining any more and the winds had died down.  Around 9:30 I decided to take a walk to survey the damage...




 As you can tell there wasn't much damage in my 'hood.  Plenty of flooding and wind damage on the lower end of Manhattan and also in Brooklyn and Staten Island.  While most of NYers are complaining about the hype I am very thankful that it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  It was a good idea for our city leaders to be planning for the worst and hoping for the best.  No reason to take unneeded risks especially when we are not familiar with how to deal with a hurricane.

I also walked down to the Hudson to see how bad the wind was blowing down there and to see if there was any other carnage (there wasn't).  Here are a few more pics...







Well that is all there is to report on the storm.  For the most part we are all back to normal here in the city.  I think there are still some people in the other boroughs without power.  Today is a beautifully cool day and I am going to go run in the park in about 30 minutes when my shift is over.

Talk to you soon!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Bracing for a Hurricane

Well we have already had a very crazy week with the "earthquake" that actually happened in Virginia.  However, not to be out done by Virgina NYers immediately began claiming it happened here in Manhattan.  It was really no big deal but people lost their minds anyway.  This was especially confusing for me because so many of my Christian friends went crazy.  That is the opposite of what God calls us to do.  However, I will not address this currently as it just irritates me that Christians would be so afraid as to lose their minds over something so trivial.

As if the "earthquake that wasn't" isn't enough we are now staring down the barrel of our first hurricane in over 100 years.  Hard to tell if it will be as bad as they are saying or not.  I am hoping to have some videos and pictures to download on Sunday/Monday assuming I have power.

More to come!  Prayers are welcome :)

Andrew

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Amazing Trip!

Hey everyone!!

I am back from my vacation to Minnesota!!  What an amazing time I had back in my home state over the weekend.  Don't get me wrong there were some bumps along the way but it was possibly the best time I have had back in MN since I moved to New York over 4 years ago.  No I am NOT moving back.

Wednesday was awesome as I worked from the Minneapolis office (located in the U.S. Bank Plaza) during the day and then met up with Staci and Lindsay for the Red Sox vs Twins that night.  Sadly the Twins won but it was a good time.  I even was able to see Joe Nathan break the career saves record for the Twins which was a nice bit of baseball history.

Thursday I went golfing with my friend Greg and had a blast.  We played 18 and smoked two cigars.  After about 3 nice shots and 80 bad ones it was off to the airport to pick up Sharlay :)  Everyone was so nervous heading into dinner.  I was nervous, my parents were nervous and Sharlay was having a heart attack (sorry babe but you were!).  On the way to my parents it was so evident that she was having a rough go of it we pulled over and I spent about 5 minutes praying over the situation and getting her to relax.  It worked...sort of.  Truth be told that almost right away when we got out of the car Sharlay was amazing.  No other way to describe it.  She was so great with my parents (especially my mother (which is no small feat)) I was utterly amazed.  At one point I looked over to her at dinner and thought "Wow she is totally bringing the house down!"  And she really really was.  After dinner we walked over to Rambling River Park and then back to my parents house.

Friday we woke up and had french toast for breakfast courtesy of my mom!  Excellent breakfast!  Sadly Sharlay left her dress back in New York so we had to spend the better part of Friday looking for dresses so off to the MoA we went!  Sharlay loved MoA (as if this would surprise anyone who knows her!) and she especially loved how cheap things were compared to CT and NYC.  After a few hours of shopping we finally found her an amazing purple dress.


This picture doesn't do it justice but she looked totally hot!  Off to the wedding went where we had a really great time.  Much to my embarrassment they played polka music at the wedding reception.  I had failed to warn Sharlay about this cultural phenomenon.  Ugh.  Somehow she thought it was cool and was upset I didn't take her to dance the Polka (as if that would EVER happen!).  What was really sad was they never played one slow song for the first hour and a half after dinner, thus we never had a chance to slow dance on the floor.  Instead we headed back to the hotel (W - Minneapolis Foshay) and had a night cap at the Living Room.

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at Hell's Kitchen, where I had the best Carmel Roll ever made by the hands of man.  SO GOOD!  If you go to Minneapolis you have to get breakfast here it is sooooo delicious!
After such a great breakfast I took Sharlay up to the observation deck of the Foshay Tower (which was the tallest building for many years in Minneapolis).  The cool thing was I had never been up there either so it was awesome to share a Minnesota first together :)  It was such a beautiful day and we took lots of pics.  Here is my fav...sappy I know:


After Foshay it was off to my Aunt Joyce's for a Sloss family reunion.  Due to the nature of the Sloss family there are no appropriate pictures that I can share here....lol.  Okay just kidding.  There were some pics taken but none with my phone so I don't have any to show.  Once again Sharlay was a rock star and brought the house down with my family as well.  Everyone (that wasn't my parents) had nothing but great things to say about her.  Since it was the Sloss side of the family they made plenty of fun of me as well which I was fully expecting.  It was also very cool to see my Uncle Dan and Aunt Judy who I hadn't seen in almost 3 years.  They are by far the coolest people in the world and someone I look up to with a great deal of respect and admiration.

Next up on that Saturday night was the Demolition Derby!!  The Dakota County Fair is held every August in my hometown and when I heard there was a Demo Derby happening how could I NOT take Sharlay to get a real taste of Farmington?


Afterwards she got her first taste of Cheese Curds and even managed to down a corn dog!  That is my kind of woman!  While at the Fair we even ran into my high school friend Angela Nevada Allard (had to give you a shout out!).  After the fair it was back home to look at some pictures of a boy who looked like me but had a mullet on his head...

Sunday was also a very fun day...we went to church...met up with my friend Staci in Edina and then went to Chino Latino for dinner.  Chino has always been one of my favorite spots to eat in Minneapolis if for no other reason than it is a lot of fun.  Sharlay


After Chino we went to Sebastian Joe's in Linden Hills for late night ice cream.  Also an amazing and fun place to go especially on a beautiful night.  At some point during the night we drove around Lake Calhoun and tried to walk around a bit but the bugs of course were WAY too bad to do that.  We drove back to Farmington and totally crashed after that.

Monday was our last day in Minnesota.  We woke up and had breakfast with my mom which was nice.  However, we couldn't stay long as we had a very specific mission to accomplish this day.  After driving downtown to meet my friend Ken we headed to South Minneapolis for date with a Jucy Lucy!!


This was a total success cause not only did we not burn the roof of our mouths with the molten cheese but Sharlay was treated to the best damn Cheeseburger you can get for $5.50.  Heck...we know that is the best burger you can get anywhere for any price!  Don't listen to those chumps who claim the 5/8 Club is better.  After our mecca to Matt's (yes I said mecca) we headed back to Farmington so she could meet my friend Greg and his wife Heidi.  We sort of kind of met Jake his son but he was being such a bit shy lol.  After that it was back to the parents for dinner and hanging out.  My dad and I told lots of ridiculous stories after dinner and before you knew it, it was time to leave for the hotel.  We said good bye to my parents and left for the Marriott hotel where we managed to get the entire pool and hot tub to ourselves for a few hours before crashing to sleep for the night.

It was an awesome trip!!  Sharlay is already trying to get me to move back to MN since she loved it so much...we will see how much she loves it in December.  More entries to come as I know I have to update you all on how we met and our first few dates...until then be safe out there!

Andrew

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Minny Apple

Wow, time really flys by when you aren't blogging lol!  To my few fans out there I am sorry, I am getting as bad as Jenn Gowett on this thing! Kidding Jenn, love you!



I'm in Minnesota! In case you couldn't tell from the title of my blog entry...ummm or this picture!  It's actually a very big trip.  Tomorrow my girl arrives to spend a few days chilling with my family and seeing some friends including a wedding of one of my favorite people Molly Olson!  First, time since moving to NY that I brought a girl home to meet the folks.  I think this makes #3 that will have even met my parents period so its a big deal.

I am mostly excited to be able to show her around Minneapolis while the weather is nice.  We have several stops on tap...Matt's for Juicy Lucy's...Chino Latino for some Coconut Curry Shirmp and Smores...maybe a stop at the Falls (assuming the Latino Kings aren't hanging out there)...Lake Calhoun/Nokomis and the other 9,998 lakes in the state...and of course a trip to the Dakota County Fair to watch the Demolition Derby Saturday night!  Lots of fun to be had and soooooo many places to try and see...no way we will get even 25% of them in this trip but I am hopeful there might be plenty more trips in the future (preferably in the summer). 

Sharlay doesn't arrive until tomorrow afternoon and I cannot wait to see her.  We are having dinner with my parents in Farmington tomorrow.  Everyone on both sides is very anxious lol.  However, tonight I am going to the Red Sox game (vs Twins) with Staci White and Lindsay Willis.  Lindsay will be bringing me my SECOND starbucks gift card that I have earned via the Red Sox beating up the Twins twice this season.  Should be a good time!

Tomorrow morning I am going to squeeze in a round of 18 with Greg Delo before I speed off to pick up Sharlay from the airport.  More stories from Minnesota to come and of course I need to back up and spend time getting you up to speed on Sharlay including our awesome date dancing on the Pier at sunset and listening to a personalized custom playlist on my iPod for her...there were tears :)

Until later!!
Drew