Wall Street

This week we attended another red carpet premiere event, this time for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Our streak of getting into the movie was finally broken... they were not giving out extra tickets this time! For me, it meant missing what looks like a good movie. For Alyssa, it meant no free pop and popcorn. This must have been a popular event because we had never seen the Will Call line look like this:

Using my freakish height, I played paparazzi again (one of my favorite hobbies). Let's go from lowest to highest on the celebrity scale.

The "People Have to Google You to Know What You Look Like" Division

Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20

James Lipton from Inside the Actors Studio (and probably more well known thanks to Will Ferrell's impersonation on SNL)



Warren Buffett

The "People Know My Face But Not Always My Name" Division

The guy who played Nixon in Frost/Nixon (Frank Langella)

Oliver Stone (In this case it might be people recognize his name and not always his face)

Carey Mulligan

The "Vincent Chase Before Aquaman" Division

Pat Riley

Tyra Banks

Josh Brolin

Brian Williams

Susan Sarandon

The "I'm Such A Big Star People Recognize My Voice In An Animated Movie" Division

Shia LaBeouf

And of course, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones

If you disagree with the ranking, please comment and tell us who should be moved!

Three Day Weekend + Friends = Fun!

We were able to make good use of our three-day Labor Day weekend spending time with our friends Elissa and Nathan! Finally getting some cooler weather, we decided to take a walk around lower Manhattan. We haven't been able to explore Wall Street much so it was great to see Trinity Church and the New York Stock Exchange.



Tiffany used its powers of magnetism to draw in Elissa and Alyssa.



As everyone knows, a Central Park visit is a must. We checked out the Wollman Rink site, which is replaced by an amusement park in the summer. We would have loved to go on the rides, but Elissa and Nathan had just told us a story of their nephews who got sick at an amusement park and, well, the rides were out! Actually, the rides looked like they were geared to little kids and not age-appropriate for us anyway.



After a fun picnic in the park, we made a pit stop at Dylan's Candy Bar, a large candy store on the Upper East Side.



$12.99/lb for Gummy Teeth? Quite the delicacy.



Dylan's Candy Bar has a section showcasing celebrities' favorite candy. Surprisingly, we didn't find anyone that liked gummy teeth. But they are the only ones who can afford it!

Another NYC staple - a Broadway show! We were so excited to attend Chicago with Nathan and Elissa! They did the hard work of waiting in the loooooong tkts line, but as you can see, they eventually made it to the front. Before the show, we ate at a deli, where Nathan and Elissa had a New York style Rueben. They decided they liked the Minnesota version better. We can't dispute that Minnesota is better is so many ways!

More shopping? More coffee, thought Nathan. He must have really been focused on caffeine, because he managed to pass up the ice cream also being served from this food truck.

We managed to see so much in the short time they were here. In addition to the above, we saw the Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Center, the Fifth Avenue shops, Battery Park, the 9/11 preview site, Grand Central, and Times Square, rounding out the trip with Soho, Chinatown and Little Italy! Whew! It's no surprise that on their last night with us, we ordered New York style pizza and finished a season of Entourage! Thanks for visiting Elissa and Nathan!

Fashion's Night Out

Fashion's Night Out was last Friday evening and if anyone is planning a trip to NYC next fall, they should plan it around this night. It was a quintessential NYC event, with the most glitz and glamour we've experienced to date. The streets were flooded with beautiful women that made Bryan look short. High-end stores flung open their doors and transformed into incredible parties with dancers, free food and drinks, and amazing displays. We looked totally out of place since we came to the events in that day's work clothes, and needless to say, Bryan's American Eagle jeans and Old Navy polo didn't catch the eye of any fashion experts. But we were too distracted by the excitement around us to care!

We started out the evening at Macy's in Herald Square. We stopped by to see Tommy Hilfiger:



Next, we went down to the Sean John shop, where Diddy (aka P. Diddy aka Puff Daddy aka Sean Combs aka...I can't keep track anymore) paid a visit.





Jennifer Lopez was also at Macy's, but we were not allowed to glance at her majesty. We concluded there must be something about the name Jennifer that requires you to be walled off from the masses (see blog post about Jennifer Love Hewitt).

As we were leaving Macy's, Bryan spotted Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser and Barney on "How I Met Your Mother"). We hung around for a few minutes, and soon a woman approached me and asked if I wanted to be in the shot they were filming. Um, yeah, of course! I had to pretend like I was looking at the handbags. I tried not to look so obviously out-of-place once the film was rolling!



Next, we were off to a maternity store where Heidi Klum was expected to appear. She was there! This night must have set a record for most males ever in a maternity store.

After the maternity store, we went to Bergdorf Goodman, which definitely seemed like the "it" place to be. Their window displays were out of this world. These guys were putting on a concert in their little space.

...and this lady looked to be in a lot of pain trying to hold up the massive nest on her head.

There was a huge line outside of Bergdorf to get into the store, but once we got in, we attempted to locate Victoria Beckham who was supposed to be there. We had no idea the madness we would encounter once inside....all for a Spice girl!

This was the best I could do:

We also went to Barney's to try and catch the Olsen twins in action, but we apparently out-partied them. They weren't there when we got there.

As if the night wasn't fun enough, another one of my dreams came true - finding the Rickshaw Dumpling food truck! I ordered some pork and chive dumplings with a delicious soy dipping sauce and my night was complete.

Poor Man's Football

If you have been reading our blog or have talked to us, you're probably sick of us lamenting that we only get one network channel on our antenna, that cable is so expensive, that we don't want to fork over the money for it, blah, blah, blah. So I apologize in advance for yet another complaint about no cable, but I could not resist taking a picture of what I saw last Thursday night - the first Vikings game of the year:



Yes, this is what no cable does to a person. I saw Bryan watching the Vikings game on his TINY phone with his headphones plugged into the side. He downloaded an app that allows him to do this. The app also allows him to look super cool when watching NFL games. On the bright side, he claims that it makes the Vikings' losses less painful because it's so small on the screen.

Parents in the Big Apple

Near the end of August, my parents visited us in New York. They fared well in the big city! We hit the ground running from the second they arrived. We first visited Central Park and Grand Central Terminal, and then went to Times Square for the big oooh-ahhh! Looks a little different from the downtown area of Redwood Falls!

We always knew my mom's cooking was amazing, but had no idea they had named a Times Square deli after her. Celebrity!

My parents wanted to see the Late Show studio, and, of course, the Hello Deli next door. I'm not sure what they were looking for in there, but I don't think they found it.

Unfortunately, we had to work during the week, so my parents ventured out on their own. They did a great job getting to and from all of the important landmarks - The Statue of Liberty, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The New York Public Library, Rockefeller Center, and the Empire State Building. They navigated the subway system well, minus one run-in where an angry lady with a stroller yelled at my mom in the subway car. Yikes! She was pretty shocked. Welcome to New York, we said.

For dinner one night, we went to Lombardi's, a historic pizzeria in New York. It was delicious, and due to a minor onion error, we ended up getting not one, but two of these huge pies! Needless to say, we had leftovers.

We enjoyed lots of great meals together. Before my parents came to visit, my dad informed me that he went to a great Greek restaurant when he visited London and that he'd like to go to one in New York. A pretty surprising request from a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, but I was happy they were willing to venture out. We went to Kefi, a Greek restaurant in our neighborhood, and we were all pleased with our selections!

Over the weekend, we rented a car and drove down to Washington, DC. My dad is especially passionate about politics, so this was a must-see.

Once we arrived in DC, we went straight to the Library of Congress, the United States Supreme Court, and the Capitol. It was Saturday, so my dad didn't get to see any of his favorite politicians, but who knows - maybe he'll be a politician in Washington someday.

We were lucky to see several memorials as well, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial.

After our whirlwind tour of Washington, DC, we drove to Baltimore to visit my mom's uncle Curt and aunt Susie. It was so nice seeing them and their children and grandchildren. They made us a nice meal and sent us on our way back to NYC.

Driving between NYC and Washington, DC is not for the faint of heart, which we found out the hard way. Because we had always taken the bus, we didn't notice how horrible and stressful the traffic was. Add to that the exorbitant tolls (one was $11!) and my dad's constant questioning about the name, history, and statistics of every bridge we passed - let's just say we won't be making that trip again anytime soon! We did have fun in the car together though, and it gave us a chance to talk and the flexibility to travel where we needed to go.

My parents' final day in NYC also happened to be their 30th wedding anniversary! As a gift from their daughters, we took them out to The Boathouse in Central Park for their anniversary dinner. A very swanky setting!

The next morning, they packed up and headed back to the farm. We're sure they were happy to be back to the peace and quiet of rural Minnesota and we were wishing we could do the same!

Coney Island At Last

After Alyssa's continuous requests, we finally made it out to Coney Island! The day was hot and sunny again, which was no surprise. Since the Minnesota State Fair is happening right now, Coney Island seemed appropriate. Of course, Coney Island does not have cheese curds, machinery hill or a huge pig, so it wasn't as fun as the State Fair, but we made the best of it.



Alyssa could not pass up the opportunity to ride this Coney Island iconic roller coaster - The Cyclone. It felt a lot like the old white roller coaster at Valleyfair.





The boardwalk is another attraction and of course...



the beach!

How could we publish another post without a picture of the food we ate? We had to make a stop at the famous Nathan's hot dogs which, of course, were delicious.

And the cheese fries weren't bad either.

It was a good thing the food came AFTER the roller coaster.