Bulls in the Big City

New York City is definitely the last place we ever expected to attend our first rodeo. Our friend Rachael offered us a good time we couldn't refuse - free 3rd row tickets to see the Professional Bull Riders at Madison Square Garden.

The rodeo was enormously entertaining. A non-technical description is that a pissed-off bull bucks and kicks while the cowboy on top holds on for dear life. Once the cowboy gets thrown off, usually in a perilous but amusing manner, the bull calms down considerably and runs back to the corral.

There are lots of cowboys and lots of bulls and they go one after the other. There are plenty of cowboys standing around to make sure things don't get out of control plus one on a horse that got a real kick out of lassoing the most feisty bulls.

It looks like looks like a mean thing to do on the back and neck, but entertaining nevertheless.

Here is a funny video we took. Just for the record, Andrea is NOT the screaming girl in the background.

White Out

We finally had our first big winter storm since moving to New York over 2 years ago. After mother nature dumped about a foot of snow on us, we did what any true southerners would do - ran around like kids and took pictures.

The snowfall provided a valuable learning experience that taught us a thing or two about living in the northeast.

Winter lesson #1 - If the streets have been cleared and the sidewalks haven't, it's okay to walk down the middle of the road. Everybody does it actually because it's the only way to travel.



Winter lesson #2 - There's more than one good argument against having a car in New York City.


Winter lesson #3 - Jeans are not the best attire for making snow angels. Not that Randy wouldn't do it again anyway...

Beef, Tango, and Eva Peron

We decided to make use of the whole week of Thanksgiving and took a pre-holiday trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina before going to see the family in Georgia.

Plaza de Congreso - the music was live

We picked Buenos Aires because we wanted to go somewhere warm (as usual) and we had never been to South America before. It was a great opportunity for us to brush up on our extremely rusty Spanish skills, too.

They say BA is much more European-feeling than the rest of the continent. It reminded us of Spain the most. They start and end their days late and there are cafes everywhere.

Casa Rosada

The Casa Rosada is where the President works. This lucky president has a pink house instead of a white house. We went on a tour and saw the offices of the president. There was hardly any security which was really surprising.

Since the tour was in Spanish, we missed a lot, but we got to see the balcony from where Eva Peron famously rallied the working class citizens. Argentine presidents and even Pope John Paul II have also stood on this balcony. And so did we...

On that famous balcony with Plaza de Mayo behind us.

The food was pretty cheap and we ate a lot of it. Our most memorable meal was at an unlimited meat restaurant (similar to the Brazilian Steakhouses in the U.S.). Argentina is known for having good beef. We ate all we could of steak and ribs and passed on the chicken. Just as impressive as the meat was the extensive bar with salad, vegetables, pasta, and much more. And of course we couldn't resist dessert.

Buenos Aires is the birthplace of Tango. The fancy footwork and lifts make it extra fun to watch.

Andrea's usual knack for getting pulled out of a crowd found her in the arms of a zealous tango partner.

We were innocently watching a tango show while dining at an outdoor cafe when this happened. Previous experience and proper attire were not required, although they would have helped.


Later we went to a show to watch the professionals. Here's how it's really done...

RIP Randy's Job...Nevermind...for now

This past year has been full of ups and downs - and mostly downs - in the airline industry. Randy's company started laying off pilots in the fall of 2008 and since then we've figured his days at the helm of a CRJ 200 were limited.

Probably the most unexpected thing was how long it actually took. After getting rid of over 300 pilots during several waves of layoffs, the airline abruptly stopped. Finally, in October, it was Randy's turn and his last day of work was Halloween.

Two weeks after Randy thought he flew a jet for the very last time, he got a letter offering his job back. Of course, this was a pleasant surprise for us.

Randy is still keeping an eye out for new (more stable) career possibilities, but plans to start back with the airlines in January 2010.

So with that said, if you are interested in hiring a pilot or engineer, or looking to fill a position in any other job in the New York City area requiring excellent analytical and people skills, see his Linked In profile here:

www.linkedin.com/in/randyreese19

Parents in the City

A little rain never stopped us from crossing the Brooklyn Bridge!

We had a great visit from Andrea's parents in September. The long weekend was mostly characterized by eating, eating, and more eating. Luckily, we did a lot of walking too.

Carnegie Deli for big meal #2.

At least we pick famous places for stuffing our faces!

Grimaldi's - the best New York Pizza restaurant - for big meal #5

We had a lot of gloomy weather but it finally turned beautiful on the last day. We left our umbrellas behind and went to the Cloisters in Upper (way, way Upper) Manhattan to enjoy the nice day and take in the good views of the Hudson River.

They're not really sick of each other, just caught of guard by this picture.

The Big Move

After two years in New York we decided to upgrade to a bigger place. It was actually a small move as far as moves go since we only moved two blocks east and across the street. But the two full days we spent hauling our stuff that short distance sure made it feel painful.

We do not recommend moving in this completely ridiculous fashion.

Our new 1-bedroom feels like a stadium compared to the studio we used to live in and it even has a real kitchen. Sometimes we lose each other in all the space and we have to actually check to make sure the other person is in the same room before we start talking.

We have this curious little Jewish object on every door frame of our new apartment so we did a quick internet search to find out that it's a Mezuzah. A Mezuzah is a tiny case that contains a tiny scroll with handwritten verses from Deuteronomy about how you should love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength and how these words should be written "on the door frames of your houses". There are all kinds of Jewish laws about how it should be hung and what qualifies as a door frame. We're not down with Jewish laws but we're okay with loving God so we're going to leave them up for now. Maybe one day we'll take one down and see if there really is a tiny scroll inside.

Mezuzah

Budapest - Days 2 and 3

Day 2

On the second day of our trip we went to the House of Terror, a museum in the building that formerly housed two terrorist dictatorships in the 1940s and 50s- first the Hungarian Nazis and then the Soviet-backed Communists. One person from every third family was seized, mistreated, or crippled under these regimes.

After our history lesson, we spent the rest of the day walking the streets and bridges of Budapest, watching boats float down the Danube, and enjoying an authentic Hungarian meal for dinner.

Mmmm...Hungarian goulash and potatoes. Like everything else we ate in Hungary, it was rather salty, over-seasoned, and brown. We went with the mushroom goulash because the only other option was gizzard goulash and that would have been a little too adventurous.


Day 3

We started Saturday with a run around Margaret Island - an island in the middle of the Danube between Buda and Pest. After a quick lunch we went to a thermal bath to relax.

This was the main pool of the Gellert baths where men and women can bathe together. There were also thermal baths that were gender-specific. The thermal baths had several pools of water of various temperatures and a steam room. Pictures were not allowed inside of the thermal baths because clothing was optional.

This is us happy and relaxed after soaking in the multiple hot tubs for 4 hours.