Being A Tourist

Back in late October I got the chance to be a tourist in my own city. The last time I played this part was when my sister and niece visited me probably 3-4 years ago. My brain can't remember exactly when, I just know we went all over the place and had oh so much fun.

This time around, when my niece had her Fall break from teaching she asked if she and her boyfriend could come visit for a few days. Why of course! I didn't think twice.

As I am sitting here flipping through the pictures on my phone, I can't help but reminisce about their visit and all the fun "touristy" things we did.

I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite highlights.

Our Day 1 adventures began with a walk through Times Square in search of TKTS.

With TKTS not open until 2pm, we headed down to South Street Seaport. After having TKTS success and Broadway Show tickets in hand, we strolled over to the water.

It's been a long time since I have visited the Seaport. I couldn't believe how much had changed. The mall that was there is all boarded up and appears to be going under construction. One thing that hadn't changed was the ship.

From the Seaport we decided to stop for a bite to eat. If my memory serves me correctly, we had Lebanese food.

After our bellies were full, we strolled over to One World Trade Center.

Not matter where you stand, every time you look up, the building comes to a point. Of course, we also stopped by the 9/11 Memorial.

It's really beautifully done and happy that I finally visited.

From here we went over to the Hudson River and walked up to The Highline.

My day out quickly came to an end after we checked out, and sampled, some yumminess from the Broadway Bites setup at Herald Square. By this time is was early evening, I headed home as my niece and her boyfriend went to their first Broadway Show.

On Day 2 of their visit, I sent them out on their own as I had a doctor's appointment in the morning and didn't want to hold them back.

However, I was back out there with them for our Day 3 adventures. Even though it was raining for practically the whole entire day, we still made the most out of it and had some fun.

We started with a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. Fortunately we were walking from Manhattan into Brooklyn so the rain/wind was at our back.

Once we got off the bridge, we got our bearings and headed towards the water. We stumbled upon this beauty of a used bookstore.

This picture just captures a small portion of all the books they had. Heaven!

What visit to Brooklyn wouldn't be complete without a visit to Grimaldi's?

Best pizza ever in my opinion!

After lunch, we strolled through the neighborhood to do some architectural sightseeing and shopping.

This place must be pretty amazing, and expensive, to live in. Loved everything about it.

We also did some thrifting.

Well after my quick perusal of the racks, I planted by behind on a bench and watched the two youngens shop their hearts out. I was completely happy just watching.

Lastly, we headed back to Manhattan for dessert and landed at Veniero's.

All of this for just three people? Yes please.

Of course, before we knew it the fun had to come to an end. The next morning was time for our goodbyes, which is always hard for me. I miss having family close by, so this was extra special for me to have them visit. Can't wait for the next time!

Winter Is Coming

Over the past month I having been knitting away on my new sweater. Today our temps seriously dropped and I realized just how quickly winter is coming and that I need a new completed sweater. The magical word being completed.

So just how close am I to completion?

Well let's see. We started with the back on October 8.

Then just a mere 10 days later the back was complete and I picked up with the left front. When I reached the armhole shaping on the left front I realized there was an issue with it not matching up to the back. Whatwo!

 

I thought staring at the sweater would miraculously fix the issues. Sadly it did not.

After some serious pattern rereading, math and a bunch of texts messages and a phone call with my sister, I realized there was an error in the pattern, even though I had the updated version of the pattern that supposedly fixed the issue with the number of cast on stitches and stitch counts after the decrease and increase sections. So this happened to the back:

And three days later we had this:

Once all was well in the land of knitting, I quickly finished the left front:

Then the right front:

As of Sunday, I entered sleeve island.

So what is my grand master plan to get this baby done? Well. I don't really have one. I know I'd like to have it done for Thanksgiving. It's quite possible to achieve that deadline, but I am not going to drive myself crazy to get there.

I am hoping that by the end of this upcoming weekend I will have both sleeves done. If I do, I will proceed to attach them to the sweater and seam up the sides. Then I'll be left with the collar, which in reality isn't all that bad once you get past picking up all the necessary stitches. I need to look in my notions stash to see if I have snaps for closing the sweater. I think I do, but of course this wouldn't be the first time my memory has failed me. So we shall see.

I know I have been absent from this blog for quite a bit. Lots of personal stuff  has been happening during the past couple of months and unfortunately it has taken my attention from this little space. I hope one day to share everything that has been going on, but until then, I would love to get back here for more regular postings. I get a little sad when I look at my list of posts that I started and never had the chance to complete. Some of them can just be trashed, but maybe I can revive a couple of them even if it's a little late.

Glazed Carrots

Alas, it has been confirmed this morning that my sister won't be visiting me for Rhinebeck this year. While I am extremely bummed, I completely understand. There will always be next year for us to hit up our favorite fiber festival.

In the end, I think things always work out the way they are supposed to and I can tell you right now, I'm not sure if I will even have a sweater completed in time. So now I am off the hook, right?

Let me back up a little.

September was a busy, and a little crazy, month for me. I've been in and out of doctor's appointments, catching up on work stuff, apartment stuff still not done and frankly, when I finally went through my yarn stash, I was completely disappointed and lost my steam for knitting a sweater in time for the festival.

See, I have some fabulous sweater yarn in it that I purchased during my past adventures at  Rhinebeck. When said yarn was purchased, there were no patterns in my mind for them, so I tried to buy an amount that I thought would give me some options for knitting them up.

After I decided I was going to knit Montauk, I proceeded to plunge head first into my stash and when I came up for air, I seriously wanted to weep just a tad. Not only was I about 1 skein short for knitting Montauk, but I also was short for Pinoli.

At this time I am thinking I am still going to Rhinebeck and that I can't possibly go without knitting a new sweater. I searched and searched the interwebs for another yarn choice for either sweater and even another sweater pattern that would fit my yardage. I found a couple of yarns that I liked, but couldn't commit because of my indecisiveness in the colors. I also found another sweater that I like, but I wasn't so sure of the fit for my body. Deflated, I stopped looking for a few days.

Fast forward to Wednesday of last week, I realized that if I am going to Rhinebeck I knew there was no way I would finish Montauk in time. Pinoli maybe, but Montauk? Wasn't going to happen. I was also still not 100% on the other sweater I had found.

So what does one do? I plunged back into the interwebs and perused my friends' completed knits on Ravelry and came back to a pattern that I fell in love with when I first saw it many moons ago. In comes Mod Podge:

One of my dear friends knitted it in 2011 for Rhinebeck and I died and went to yarn heaven! That's how much I loved the pattern and the yarn! I mean, let's just look at how lovely it truly is:

And of course, after exchanging a few text messages with this lady, I realized this was my sweater to knit for Rhinebeck.

Did I think I could finish this one in time? Absolutely and those of you who know me, know I could get it done.

Did I have enough yarn in stash to knit it? Yes, but unfortunately the yarn has too much give and stretches when washed and blocked. I needed a firmer yarn for this style jacket.

I went to Webs Yarn and looked at the yarn Miss Shameka Knits used for hers and they had the color I wanted. The one that I have been obsessed with during the past few Fall seasons. Today, it arrived and looks a little like this:

It's Malabrigo Rios in Glazed Carrot colorway. The color is actually a deeper orange than what you see in the picture. The light shining from the ceiling makes it look like a pumpkin. I am so in love with it. I know this yarn is pricey, but I got a 20% discount and truthfully, I wanted to treat myself just a little, especially after the past month I had been through. This yarn makes me smile and makes my heart flutter.

Even though I am most likely not going to Rhineback, I am still hoping to finish this baby in time for it, just in case I do mange to venture up there for one of the days. There's some big stuff happening for me around that time, so I am not 100% sure if I'll make it, but if I do, I want to be wearing my glazed carrot/pumpkin!

Re-Entry

On August 9th, my honey and I began our second backpacking adventure by hopping on a plane and landing in Europe.

Gorgeous sunrise as were landing in Rome at 6:25 a.m.

The first nine days of our trip we stayed in Italy. We visited Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii Ruins, Capri, Florence and Venice. We then hopped on another plane and spent the last 10 days of our trip in Greece between Athens and Chios.

Just like our trip last year, this one was fabulous (even despite the fact we both came down with terrible colds 5 days into the trip) and truly felt like we had been gone forever. It was a sad day when we headed back to the States on August 30th.

Well it was a sad day for one of us!

I did major photo dumps on Instagram, Facebook and Flickr every night I had WiFi access. Because of the incredibly late nights, I didn't get to post any here. I really was hoping to, but I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to post what I did elsewhere.

For those who don't follow me on Instagram or Flickr,  I am planning on dedicating a few posts to share some of my favorite photos from the trip. I'll be including some that didn't make it to my other social media platforms during the trip. So there will be some new ones for those who've already gotten a peek at my pictures.

There was also some knitting action happening on this trip. I wanted to come home and say I had finished a pair of socks in the three weeks I was gone, but on my second to last day of the trip when I thought I finished them, disaster struck and I realized I had made a huge mistake on sock number two.

Houston We Have A Problem

The disaster entailed either a little bit of frogging to kind of fix it or a lot of frogging to fix it the way it's supposed to be. By the way, my honey voted for the little bit of frogging which I have done, but am not sure if I am happy with that choice. Any hoo, I will share more of that adventure in another post as I feel my knitting stupidity deserves a post all on it's own.

So for the past week, I have been working on getting back to reality. Thank goodness Monday was a holiday and I did take an extra day off from work to deal with jet lag. Last year I was a complete mess so I was anticipating the worst. To my surprise this year has been a pretty smooth transition back to east coast time. I can honestly say I feel like a normal person now.

Rhinbeck Knitting

Yup Yup Yup the plan right now is to attend the NY Sheep and Wool Festival this year! It's been two years since I last went and three years since I last went with my sister.

Since a Summer vacation of having my sister come here was out, we decided that a Fall visit would be nice and coming for Rhinebeck even better! Airline tickets haven't been bought yet, but I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that she is coming. I need my sister fix!

Now, I am on a mission to complete a sweater in time for the event.

I spent a few hours days stalking perusing through Ravelry trying to locate the perfect knit. I've narrowed it down to two choices.

Choice #1: Pinoli Cardigan

I absolutely love this cardigan. I knitted the CPH Hoodie many moons ago and ended up loving it very much. I always wanted to knit another one, but never got around to it. I am thinking this one would be a good replacement for it.

 

Choice #2: Montauk

Of course, I absolutely love this cardigan too! I actually came across this pattern first and thought right away this would be my Rhinebeck sweater. I think the collar gives it a unique look and with the heavier weight yarn, it would be a tad warmer.

I think in the end, I will eventually knit both, as I may have already purchased both patterns. It's just a matter of deciding which one will be the winner for this Fall.

What are your thoughts? Does one stand out as a winner in your eyes? Is there another pattern that should be brought to my attention to make the decision even more difficult? I'm all ears! Talk to me.

MIA and an Upcoming Adventure

I know it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted. I have a real good reason as to why and I'll just say that life left me feeling out of sorts during the past week or so. However, I am back and hope to get some of the posts that I had planned on publishing out here on the blog (one includes a blogiversary which may, or may not, include a giveaway)!

However, the big news I have from this past weekend is that my honey and I booked tickets for our next backpacking adventure together! We are going back to Europe for another three weeks!! (cue the excitement!!!!)

So of course, I immediately got these babies:

Last year we went from Barcelona, Spain, through France into northern/middle Italy. We knew for this trip, we wanted to concentrate the first 10 days or so in Italy, as we fell in love with it last year.

My current travel guides didn't really go into southern Italy past the Naples area (and was really outdated - 2011), so I bought Rick Steves' guide (Sidenote - I used his guide exclusively last year and loved them) dedicated to Naples area and the Lonely Planet's guide to Southern Italy since we want to make it all the way down to Sicily.

And so far the Rick Steves' guide looks a little like this:

And my planning calendar is already taking shape:

This is how I planned our trip last year and it worked out beautifully. Being a super organized person really helps. By doing this, I know where we will be when and how many days we will spend in each place in order to reserve hotels. As for planning what to do, we will go with a rough idea of what we want to do, but not lock ourselves into anything.

After the first half of our trip, we will once again head to Athens, Greece. My honey's father lives there so we will spend a few days with him before taking the ferry out to Chios, where we will be doing a lot of swimming in this:

Uh, yes please!

 

Just like last year, I'll be updating my Instagram page as much as I can with snaps of what we experience. Everyone seemed to truly enjoy seeing them and joining us on our little adventure.

 

The countdown is officially on!!!! Less than three weeks until take-off!

Oakley NY Mini 10K Race Recap

Just over three weeks ago, I participated in my first race of the year. I thought it was high time I got my race recap done, especially before I run race number two in just a few short days.

 

The Oakley New York Mini 10K is one of my most favorite races to run. Not only is it one of the two women's only races put on by the New York Road Runner's Club, but it is also the only race where you get to run up Central Park West before continuing the race inside of Central Park.

 

On June 14, I participated in my fourth New York Mini race. The first time I ran it was when it was called the Circle of Friends New York Mini 10K back in 2006. In 2009 I ran it when it was called the NYRR New York Mini 10K. Then I ran it again when it was renamed the Oakley New York Mini 10K in 2013.

 

The day before race day, I headed uptown to the NYRR Club's office to pick up my race bib and tank top during lunch. This was my first time doing this during working hours, so I wasn't exactly sure how much time it would take me. Thankfully, by the time I got back to the office I still had 20 minutes to spare. Good to know for future bib pickups!

When I woke up at 6am race morning, I was grumpy as all get out. I was stressed that I had to take 3 different trains to get to the race start, due to subway work in Astoria. Those of you who know me, or have been to a race with me, knows just how much I hate being late.

 

Right before this picture was taken,

I had commented to my boyfriend that I didn't want to go. He laughed because seconds later I posed with a big smile on my face. Honestly, I did want to go. I love, love, love to participate in races. At the time I just wished it was going to be a little easier to get to the race and that I had someone going with me. This is where I need to make more running friends who like to race.

But alas, I got myself out the door. Three train rides later, which were surprisingly smooth, I arrived to the race start with 30 minutes to spare. Thank you Subway God's!

I hopped into my coral as soon as they opened and immediately snapped this picture. Taking advantage of them being empty to try and get a glimpse up Central Park West.

The race start was right outside of Trump's International Hotel and Tower...

...with the big globe in Columbus Circle...

...and of course no race start would be complete without the obligatory selfie...

I look excited, right?

Then moments later, that empty sea ahead of me looked a little like this...

Yup, it was crowded. About 6,000 runners crowed. I even overhead someone say during the race that they had no idea that so many people would run this race. Um hello. It's a woman's only race that let's you run up Central Park West. Of course it's going to be crowded and I love that so many women come out and participate.

Heading into this race, I had a goal finish time that I only my boyfriend I was hoping to hit which would give me a PR. I wasn't confident that I would be able to run that fast. A speed that I hadn't done in a race in seven years. He told me before I left that I could do it, but I had to convince myself that I could and at the time I wasn't buying it. So I told myself I would be happy to finish in under an hour, but of course I kept in the back of my mind what my PR number would be.

So at the blow of the horn at 8am, we were off! The first mile takes you up Central Park West and it was nice to see that the cars had been cleared from the side of the road this year.

At 90th Street you make your turn into Central Park and head towards the Harlem Hills. I was thankful for all the hill training I get during my Sunday long runs on the trails. The hills felt like a piece of cake and when I hit the 5K mark I felt amazing!

The last 2 miles of this race are always the toughest for me. It's a combination of just finishing a major hill climb, the heat and knowing that the finish line is on an uphill. It's not a major hill, but it's tough enough of a one on tired legs that you are wanting them to sprint to the finish line.

As I crept closer and close to the finish line I kept peaking at my watch. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was on point for a PR as long as my legs didn't give out.

When I crossed the finish line my watch told me I finished in 57:03! I did it! I set a new freaking PR!

Official Finish Time: 57:01 - Average Pace: 9:11
New PR by 24 seconds (In 2007 I finished my fastest 10K in 57:25. Average pace: 9:15)
Almost 11 minute PR from 2013 finish (01:07:54)

Splits: 9:26, 9:18, 8:46, 9:08, 8:50, 8:44, 8:16 (for the last .2) (Negative Split Race Too!)

When I think about it, I still can't believe what an amazing race I had. I truly pushed myself and saw what I was totally capable of doing. I proved that I had what it took to get that PR my little ol' heart wanted so badly.

My boyfriend texted me after the race and said: "You are getting faster and wiser the older you become!". I never imagined my 42 year old self could beat my 35 year old self! Just shows that hard work, dedication and perseverance pays off. Lord knows I have put in the work and sweated buckets to get where I am today.

The day after the race, I thought it would be fun to see a side-by-side comparison of myself between last year's race day and this year's race day.

This is what a 30 pound weight loss looks like! Never give up my friends!