Vow Renewal & Anniversary Weekend

So our 5th anniversary was Feb 4th, 2010. We made a weekend of it. We had, to say the least, a bad year last year. This year however has been nothing but good and happy. I am more than excited to say we got through all our issues and have really found our way back to each other whole heartedly. We started the New Year together and have been together more than ever, ever since. You really appreciate what you have and how real it is, when you have to step back from it and decide if it's what you really want. We are very lucky to have made it through the last 5 years and wanted to celebrate our newly committed relationship with a bunch of plans for our anniversary. We made a weekend of it, in fact. First off was the evening pictured above. We went to Vincent's in NYC. KC actually surprised me with reservations. The food was fabulous and it was a nice quiet dinner. We exchanged sappy cards and shed a few tears of happiness. 

Then he had another surprise idea in store for me.

We walked a semi short distance to a new storefront of one of our favorite former street vendors,  Dessert Truck . We had several yummy treats to share, the highlight being the Warm Chocolate Bread Pudding with Bacon Sauce. Amazing!  The hot chocolate lasted until the next day, and it was amazing put into my morning coffee. 

We made an early evening of it because we had plenty of plans over the next few days. The next day we had a cupcake party planned. We didn't invite a lot of people to our vow renewal so we decided to have a larger party the evening before, and what better thing to eat than cupcakes?! We made plans to meet everyone at my favorite NYC cupcake spot, Crumbs. We went to the one near Bryant Park because it was a nearby free place to hang out. Turned out we were a bit chilly so we ended up heading over to a nearby McDonald's that had an upstairs eating area. I needed a warm coffee so we got some drinks and ended up taking over the seating area. We had a great time just chatting. A lot of people I hadn't seen in a while came, and we really enjoyed getting to see everyone! 

Man those cupcakes were good! They too lasted several days as we can't finish more than half in one sitting!

This night was an early one as well. We hoped people would drop by on their way out for their Friday night fun. we got home around 10pm. We had to be up early the next day for our vow renewal ceremony and reception/brunch. We originally planned our ceremony here in Central Park, but the impending snow storm caused us to change plans last minute. The only other place we could come up with, that had meaning to us as a couple was, Grand Central Station, NYC. In this room:  

It was just as good as the other spot, it is where KC proposed to me. Not in that room, but down near the subway. So everyone met us around 1 and we took some pictures at the proposal spot and tried to find a specific spot to do the ceremony.  

We finally decided on this spot for the actually ceremony. It was blocked off on top so we just had to block the stair entrances so no one walked through. This was of no issue to me because the stairs led to nowhere and anyone needing to see from up there could wait a few minutes for us to finish before coming up. 

 It was beautiful. We had one friend video tape, one friend take pics. We had several others doing both as well. The lovely man who married us, is our best friend, Andy. he went and got ordained just to make it official. It was a lot more work than we thought too. So thanks Andy! We wrote our own vows and teared our way through the whole ceremony. It really turned out to be everything I wanted it to be.

We all piled into 3 cars and met downtown at a little French Bistro that had really reasonable brunch prices. Apparently it turned out to be a dud of a restaurant and really bad service! We had to send some food back, and NO one left full. BUT we had a great time talking and just all being together.  We spent probably close to 2 hours in the place too. Needles to say we won't be back. But finding brunch reservations for any party over 10 in NYC on a Saturday afternoon is hard!

 We also invited everyone back to the house since brunch ended early. So into 2 more cars we went, minus one couple of friends who opted out. We played some video games, ordered some wings and generally had a great time. 

I am truly thankful to everyone who came out for us for the whole weekend. it was great to see the show of support for us and for our re commitment to each other. Having had people share that with us is something we will always remember.  Our 5th Anniversary was everything, and more, that I thought it would be.  I love you, KC. 

Valentine's Day 2010

So we stayed home. Our anniversary weekend was a lot of fun and since it's so close to V-Day we usually don't do anything special anyway. I don't really subscribe to the V-Day mentality, I think you should show the people you love that you love them every day, not just on a holiday.

So we stayed in and made dessert and dinner together.

First we made this awesome NO BAKE recipe...

PB & J Chocolate Bars

For the base:

1 stick unsalted butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 large egg, beaten

1 sleeve of saltines, finely crushed

For the filling and glaze:

1/4 cup grape jelly (I used slightly more than this to cover it properly)

7 tablespoons, plus 1 teaspoon unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1.

Make the base: Line an 8 inch square baking pan with foil, extending it over the sides.

Put the butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the water and the bowl don't touch. Once the butter melts stir in the cocoa and sugar. Whisk in the egg, cook, keep whisking, until it turns the consistency of hot fudge, approx 4-6 minutes.

 

Remove from heat, Mix in the saltines.

Press this crust into the pan. 

Place pan in freezer for a few minutes (until next layer is ready)
2.
Make the filling: spread the jelly over the cooled crust in pan. Place back in freezer until next layer is done.
Beat 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of butter, peanut butter and confectioners sugar with a mixer, until light.
Spread over the jelly layer. 

Return pan to freezer while last layer is being made.
3.
Make the glaze: Place the chocolate and remaining 2 tablespoons of butter into the heatproof bowl, over the simmering water.
Heat until chocolate is is melted.
Remove from heat, stir until smooth.
When it's cool but still runny, spread the glaze over the chilled peanut butter layer. Smooth it out. 

Freeze for about 30 minutes, or until set.
Remove them from the pan by lifting the foil from the pan. Cut into squares and enjoy.

Always remember, if your husband helps then always let him lick the spoons! 

We had Pierogies with caramelized onions and cheesy rice for dinner. 

All in all it was a great Valentine's Day together, our 7th actually. It was just what we needed. 

My First Vacuum.

First off let me say I HATE the spelling of this word. That being said....

We have never owned a vacuum. I have always just swept the floor and mopped the floor. We only have 2 area rugs and the rest if wood floor. So we finally decided to buy a vacuum. Let me introduce you to it.

It's the Bissell Powerforce Bagless Upright Vacuum, Orange Mango. After shipping it was $55. Thats's the right price for me. Seems to have everything I want, and KC will like it 'cause it's orange. Here's hoping it turns out to be a good vacuum.

Selling Online is ROUGH.

Here is the listing we have up on craigslist.org for our old laptop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dell Laptop for sale $70 OBO (if making an offer please be reasonable)

Specs are as follows:

Dell Inspiron 5000

CPU Intel Pentium 3 200MHz
Toshiba XM-7102B CD ROM Drive
192MB RAM

6 GB Harddrive
Synaptics Touch Pad
Floppy Drive 200MHz
Video Card- Rage Mobility P/M AGP2X 33MHz
PCI Bus Slot
1 USB Port
Working Battery
Power Chord

It is currently running Windows XP.

Fully functioning laptop, no virus', nothing wrong with it. There is nothing visually wrong with it either, as you can see in the pictures.
It was my personal laptop, used very infrequently. It was given to me by my aunt who hardly ever used it at all. I am selling it to make more space in my storage closet.

It does NOT have ethernet port, you will need a USB device to get online.

Serious inquiries only please.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This, to me, is a very comprehensive listing of exactly what we have to offer you. It has 3 pictures included in the listing, of the front, back and screen.

Almost all I have gotten are the most random inquiries EVER.

I got a lot of people with just a name and #. I am not calling someone who would like to buy from me. So eventually I added this to the ad:

"Please also understand that I am not willing to give out my phone number to just anyone, so if you are interested we can email to get started and once you decide you are serious about buying the laptop, then we can exchange numbers."

Still I receive emails with just the #. I ignore them.

Then there are the people who ask me a million questions, like this beauty:

Hi - are you 1st owner? how old is it? - what model is it? - what are its working and cosmetic conditions including screen? - are there any issues/problems/intermitten work? - how long can it work on battery? - what are HD capacity, screen size, ports (serial, parallel, PCMCI)? - are network card, wireless, Windows Operating System CD, bag, etc. included ? - are all parts original? - has it ever been repaired? if yes - what's been fixed or replaced? - if i come to buy, can you demo it works on battery and takes charge? thanks To that I sent back a copy of the original ad. He wasn't happy still, saying: "sorry, you don't answer my questions and i can't buy without knowing it. so, either you answer my questions or i can't continue. thanks" Because of that jewel I added this to the ad: "Please do not email me with any questions that are clearly stated in this ad. I have put every possible piece of information I can get from the laptop here. If there is anything outside this information that you would like to ask, feel free, but things already answered here will not be answered." Th most recent person sent me 2 different emails from the same service but under different names, to see if I'd sell it to someone else even tho the original guy said he'd come fro it Friday. When I confronted him, he said NOTHING, which is as good as an admittance of guilt to me. I am still planning on selling the laptop to him because, frankly, we need the $, but if he gives us any problems there will be trouble. I will leave you with a few of the emails I didn't even dignify with a response. These are real, I swear, I am copying them from my inbox. Laugh, they are amazingly funny. "Hey I want it to know if you still have the laptop for sale but the thing is do u want a trade..I have a sidekick lx it works 100%.I am look for a laptop for school..thanks" (FYI there is a trade board elsewhere on craigslist, but this wasn't posted on it) "hi I would like to buy the laptop plz give me a call" (plz learn to spell please) "Hello I can do $50$ and I can come tomorrow is there any problems with it it would be for my mother" (let's try and get a sympathy deal) "MY NAME IS S***...IM INTERESTED IN PURCHASING YOUR LAPTOP...BUT IF I PURCHASE IT...IT WOULD BE LIKE RIGHT AWAY...PLEASE UNDERSTAND I'VE BEEN LOOKIN FOR ALMOST 2 WEEKS SO IM READY TO BUY NOW...PLEASE CALL ME AT 347 *******...THX..HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON." When told I'd like to keep it email until something more serious comes up I got this: "PARDON ME FOR THE WAY I MAY SOUND BUT IF YOU WANNA SELL YOUR LAPTOP ..HOW CAN YOU DO IT THREW AN E MAIL..AS FAR AS CONCRETE..GO TO YOUR LOCAL PRECINCT AND I'LL MEET YOU THERE..WOULD THAT BE CONCRETE ENOUGH FOR YOU" I ripped him a new one and added at the end that all caps is considered rude. LOL. He didn't buy it. "Yo was good tryin to get that laptop do it have wi fi" "I 4got if I asked but do it have wifi" So hopefully we can get this thing sold to a normal human being, but if they pay me I don't care. We sold an old digital camera this week and have several sales lined up this weekend. Most of the time we have no issues. We have them meet us on a corner nearby and I always send KC down to get the cash. The only problem we ever had was a guy short changing us because KC was too nice to check the money. He checks in front of them now, lesson learned.

5th Anniversary Plans

We are celebrating our 5th Wedding Anniversary this week. We are having a few "parties" for it.

Thursday is the actual anniversary day and KC is taking me out to dinner somewhere he secretly picked. I am excited to get dressed up and have him surprise me. I have an idea of where he may have picked but I don't want to ruin the surprise if I am right. It's so sweet that he is going out of his way to surprise me. The planner in me is having to take a back seat and thats not easy but it's still exciting.

Friday afternoon we are meeting a bunch of random friends at a cupcake shop in NYC called Crumbs (http://www.crumbs.com/) and going to Bryant Park In NYC (http://www.bryantpark.org/) to hang out and eat the cupcakes. The park is across the street from the cupcake place. They have the yummiest cupcakes! And since the park is a free place to hang out, it works for anyone's budget! And if worse comes to worse we can all hide inside the library, which is right there as well.

And finally, Saturday we are having a vow renewal ceremony and brunch with a few close friends. It's going to be intimate with just about 15 of us, just those who have been there for us the most through the good and bad stuff. The ceremony itself is at: Wisteria Pergola in Central Park. It's gonna be cold but it's a place that has meaning to us, so it'll be short and sweet and very bundled up. We used to go there to hang out when we were first dating. It's beautiful in the spring but still has ambiance in the winter. We are hoping the cold will hold off some, so we don't freeze too badly. Having it in a place that has meaning beats out some restaurant or some other indoor place.

Then we are having brunch at Chez Jacqueline in Downtown NYC with those that were at the renewal ceremony. It's a cute little French place and we LOVE French food. Plus the menu general enough that everyone can find something they will like. The great prices don't hurt either!

So the rest of my week will be prepping for this long weekend of events...and next week's drama is another story all on it's own, for next time.