The End

Well, that's it folks. The Bears are moving back to Phoenix. So, no more NY. Thanks for following. You can continue to follow us, through a different lens, at http://jrsimon56.wordpress.com.

Thanks!

Catch Up

We've been on a whirl-wind since February. Flying from place to place on interviews for new jobs...though nothing materialized. Holidays, family visits, shows, crazy work schedules, you know the drill. For now, we're still in NYC. Although, right now I'm writing from Binghamton, NY where I am for the annual NEACUHO conference. So, here's a picture montage to catch you up on the past few months, in no particular order:

June 9, 2009 - Ryan and I had our 2 year anniversary. Ryan took me on a carriage ride through Central Park with a final destination of Tavern on the Green.

The Next Food Network Star/ Season 5 Premiered on June 7th. I had a party to honor those who actually got on the show.

At least my good friends appreciate my culinary expertise...so does Puppers!

Everything bloomed in NYC in March/April/May...lots of allergies

Sue and Lex visited us in April (I think) . We finally visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

During Sue and Lex's visit, we won tickets to Avenue Q.

Again, we celebrated 2 years of marriage in June. Thank you to our friends and family for their love.

Aforementioned pictures of us in a carriage in front of our dinner destination.

My sister came to visit in May. We went all over the place, including this awesome German beer garden, Zum Shneider...mmmmmmm

Summer officially began when the summer staff started. Here's them on Memorial Day on Sheep's Meadow in Central Park.

While my sister visited, we got to experience Improv Everywhere. Check 'em out online!

Tons of great times with our favorite friends, Kat and John.

Matt and Erin visited and we got to see some lesser-known favorites of NYC.

And that's only the tip of the spring semester ice-berg! We had a crazy few months and I will keep you updated. 'Till then, thanks for watching and best wishes!

Vermont

We just got back from an awesome four day vacation to Stratton, Vermont. We rented a small cabin off of Route 30, which ended up only being about 20 minutes from the slopes. Ryan and I were joined by Kathryn, John and Allison. We had a fantastic time, and despite some minor injuries for the guys, everyone did a great job on the slopes.

Here's a veiw of our cabin. Plenty warm and enough room for everyone.

There was a small creek running next to the cabin. So peaceful.

We made a fire every night and ate a good bit of s'mores.

The kitchen was really nice and we were able to make some great spaghetti in there.

Me in full snow-bunny attire

Ryan with his bomber hat getting our gear out of the van

Puppers had fun on vacation, too!

Those two little dots are Ryan and John approaching the base of the mountain

This is a view I took from a part of the Black Bear run

Masquerade

This past Friday was the annual Winter Formal. It was a Masquerade theme this year. Here I am with Katie, Jeff, Priscilla and Charlotte.

Winter Jam!

Another fun weekend with us and our crew. We all went to check out Winter Jam, a bit free event on the Lower East Side where they laid out a bunch of snow, had free give-aways, apple cider and a giant snow board jump.

Here's the jump. It was pretty cool to see people doing board tricks right in the city next to the East River.

Ryan liked his free cider. Take a bite outta the big apple!

Afterwards we headed to Tuck Shop, a place that makes Aussie style meat pies. I had a great veggie one, of course. Here's Candace and Steph enjoying their pies.

Next we headed to the Brooklyn Museum. It's huge! It's the second largest in NYC. It's free from 5pm to 11pm on the first Saturday of the month. They have quite an extensive collection from ancient Egypt to current photography. We even got to see a real mummy! Creepy.

Super Bowl

We had our second annual Super Bowl party at our place. I love having a tradition! Kathryn, Steph and Paul were all returners to the fun event. Along with our Super-Bowl-versary, we celebrated Paul and Steph's one year-a-versary to the city. Hooray for great friends! This year, we enjoyed having Trevor, Candace, and John also in attendence. Even though the Card's didn't win, we did enjoy the last quarter of the game and the near win at the end.

Steph and Paul with their cardinal wings
John and Kathryn
High Fives!
Watching the game with intense focus

In the last quarter when the safety brought us three points ahead for a few minutes

Good Times on the Upper East Side

We seem to rarely adventure to the east side of the park. However, I heard that the Whitney Museum was free on Fridays from 6pm to 9pm. So, we met up with Paul and Stephanie and perused all of the modern American art they've got on their five floors. The big exhibition there right now is Alexander Calder, a pioneer in kinetic scuplture. As you can imagine, Ryan enjoyed seeing his work.

After the museum we went to dinner at Beyoglu, a Turkish restaurant. We didn't have reservations, so we ended up waiting outside freezing our tushes off. But, the wait was well worth it. It was probably the best hummus I've ever had. So creamy!

Afterwards, we trekked all the way to 66th and 1st for Dunkin' Donuts and BR for dessert. Steph treated us to Dunkachinos and soft serve.

Eat at Joe's

We love our New York friends. This weekend we went to Chinatown to a bustling little join called Joe's Shanghai at the recommendation of Paul and Steph. Tucked down a funny little street amidst open fish markets and knick-knack shops, was this mad house of Chinese food. Known for their soup dumplings, we gobbled up scallion pancakes, dumplings, General Tso's treats and a veritable feast of food. Thank goodness for the lazy susan.

Kathryn and John


Ryan, Steph, Paul and Kathryn all trying to cool off those hot dumplings


After dinner we hung out in SoHo. As we were walking down the street, a comment was made, "that is a really cool billboard." Wouldn't you know it, it's the billboard that Ryan did the 3D model for to get the campaign launched. As we stood there marveling at Ryan's handiwork, a taxi drove by with the same ad on it's top. So cool!

Here's Ryan with the famous 501s!

New Year's Eve!

This New Years we took over the Rose Suite on the 29th floor. We discovered that no one had brought festive holiday gear, so we made our own crowns out of construction paper. So chic! The night also included a game of Twister, sing alongs at the piano, views of the fireworks in Central Park and a board game that lasted until 4:30am. It was a great way to ring in the new year!

Crown making

Stephanie lookin' mighty fine in that crown

Kathryn took a different route with her hat

John celebrating with "Oh Nine"

Ryan's ready for the future with his groovy hat

Advantages of working in a residence hall: endless supply of games

Group picture with our hats on

Tacky Holiday Party

We have the coolest friends. They helped us celebrate the holidays in the cheeziest fashion. Ugly sweaters, easy cheese and Cat Phee wine.

I made gingerbread cookies from new cookie cutters I got from Mom. The gingerbread is vegan, and was pretty good.



Kathryn and John got super tacky. Kathryn in 80's gear complete with shoulder pads. John in a fantastic sweater with leather down the arms.

Me and Ryan got use out of our Christmas card sweaters again.

Kristin, a friend of the family and Highlands friends, joined our wacky party.

Of course Puppers had to join in the fun.

I made little vegan coconut cakes with "Santa Hats" on top. They tasted like strawberry short cakes. Kerry was a fan.

We had some great cookie designs.

Play-dough reindeers...

and finally, I noticed that Ryan had this wild hair. Apparently it had been like that all night. The perfect added element of tackiness.