Before I had Elise I didn’t know any Moms in our neighborhood. Sort of surprising considering we live in Park Slope, perhaps one of the most kid populated neighborhoods in NYC, but I suppose our focus was more on eating out, happy hour, traveling, work and our dog (Hi, Sash!), so we didn’t really have any parent friends.

I was worried about this before having Elise. Who would we talk to when we couldn’t make it out to happy hour and bocce as often as we used to?

Luckily, I’ve been getting out a bunch in our neighborhood and meeting many new Moms and freshly hatched babies, and I have this crazy little calendar called “Music and Muffins” to thank for that. If you’re a new Mom in Park Slope, check it out. It’s filled with lots of events that new Moms and babies in the neighborhood are attending, so you’ll meet folks who are going through a similar experience and you’ll get out of your spit-up covered jammies.

[Sidenote: Ya, ya, ya, so this blog might be a little baby heavy right now (as is the author of this post!), but with Elise being our focus these days, I suppose you're going to see more baby related content on this blog .]

We’ve admittedly been bad bloggers this year. Between Alex’s own UX blog and my (newish—I guess I can’t claim that a year later) job, we’ve been too busy to maintain our personal blog this year, but we didn’t want to have an entire gap on this site for 2009, so here’s a photo recap of what we were up to in 2009:

Watched President Obama get inaugurated!
We both watched from conferences room from work—here’s one Alex took at Schematic. It was an incredibly moving day, that could only be topped by actually being in DC that day.

Took one tour of the NYC subway system
Some guy discovered the first NYC subway tunnel below Atlantic Avenue and you can now take a tour of the old tunnel. You literally crawl into a manhole on Atlantic Avenue to start the tour. Here’s a really foggy photo of us in the tunnel.

Took one wine tasting class
I didn’t take an academic class for the first year in my life since probably 1980, but we took a delicious wine pairing class at Astor Wines called “the Elements of Wine“. I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking to learn a little more about wine.

Ate the best meal of my life
At Blue Hill at Stone Barns. It was something like 15 courses and each dish was more amazing than the last, though I think the highlight was the goose egg pasta. Incredible.

Traveled to…

Mountainville, NY.

Florence, Italy

Cinque Terre, Italy

Tuscany (Siena, Luca, Arrezzo), Italy

Rome, Italy

West Dover, Vermont

Dayton, Ohio

Saugerties, NY

Edinburgh, Scotland

London, England

Paris, France

Ran one half marathon
Brooklyn, represent! We both finished in under 2 hours, which was our goal and also somewhat incredible considering we had just ate and drank our way through Italy the weeks before without a single run on the trip (though we dragged our running sneakers with us everywhere). The Brooklyn half is a great race and I’d recommend it to anyone who is thinking of running a half. There’s nothing like starting a race with Marty Markowitz yelling over the louderspeaker “Brooklyn in the house! Have a great race!”

Organized one cookie smackdown
The claim to fame here is that it brought down my entire company for the next two days thanks to the swine flu outbreak. Who wants a cookie?

Attended three weddings. Congratulations to….

Jim and Linda!

Marisa and Vinny!

Michael and Irena!

I got pregnant!
This little peanut is due March 7, 2010! We couldn’t be more excited. We have so much to do before he or she arrives.

Hosted the 5th Annual Grill Free or Die

Celebrated one ITP 30th Anniversary
And had a killer time at the reunion. It was so fun to catch up with old friends and see so many talented people back in the ITP space again. The reunion was truly inspirational, especially hearing everyone talk about what a pioneer Red Burns has been for the program. She’s an amazing lady and I feel so lucky to have gone to ITP under her chairmanship. Check out the video here. (Thanks, Buhny for the photo!)

Attended a playoff baseball game at the new Yankee Stadium
And then watched the Yankees go on to win the World Series!

Alex had one wing fixed
He had a rotator cuff injury and torn labrum. Like a serious baseball pitcher!

I gained 25 lbs (so far!)
I can’t believe I am posting this photo; this is a new level of sharing for me. I think I am around 29 weeks in this photo—and those are supposed to be “skinny” jeans. Ha! They look like weird sweatpants, which I much prefer to be wearing. Look how psyched Sasha is about the baby!

2009 was a great year. I’m sorry we didn’t keep this blog better up to date as everything happened. However, we are both vowing to be better about blogging in 2010, especially as baby Rainert’s arrival gets closer and closer. Hope you have a good 2010 and we’ll back soon to fill you in on more exciting stuff around here!

Last Thursday, the Schematic UX and Creative groups went bowling at The Gutter in Williamsburg.
 
Click through to check out some photos.

Last weekend Karen and I did something I’ve had on my To Do list for a long time: go on the Atlantic Ave. Underground Subway tunnel Tour. The tunnel is officially the oldest subway tunnel in the United States and the only way to get there is to climb down the manhole in the middle of Atlantic Ave. and Court Streets. How cool is that?

Anyway, on to the highlights…

We got there expecting maybe 10-15 people and came upon this line and arrived and saw this:

and half the people had already climbed down below! Here’s the entrance in the middle of the major intersection:

I was ready.

Karen descended first.

Once you climbed down you were in a very low-ceilinged area filled with dirt with this little hole in the wall in front of you.

“Watch Your Step”

Here’s the other side of that hole:

We got down there and found the giant tunnel filled with people. Taken out of context, it looks like a scene from Cloverfield.

The climate was about 25 degrees warmer than the surface and replete with condensation.

Here’s a good view of how far the tunnel goes.

And here’s a quick look at my badass spelunking face!

In all seriousness, it’s a great tour if you’re into Brooklyn + general New York City history. It takes about 1.5 hours and the guy who gives it has a great personality that adds a lot of color to the historical events that led up to the tunnel’s discovery more than 25 years ago.

There’s nothing I can add. You can find the recipe here.

Today’s Big Picture blog entry is a must see. So many amazing photos from yesterday.

Also, if you’re even a little bit into photography, you should subscribe to this blog.

This year Karen and I hatched a brilliant New Year’s Eve plan that would allow us to eat, drink and dance, while never having to leave our beloved borough. Here’s a quick recap:

We started off the evening with some excellent sushi from the folks across the street at Geido (highly recommend if you’ve never been) – NYE sushi has inadvertently become a tradition 3 years running in our household.

After dinner (and a quickie double espresso from our new Rancilio Silvia) we headed upstairs to our neighbor’s apartment for some homemade pizzas, other sundries and delicious wine. We stayed there for about 2 hours and then set off to scurry down 7th avenue in the blistering cold to our friend Pete’s house (the Aluminum Falcon) near Sunset Park.

Lucky for us, a nice cabbie named Sonnie saw us and practically flagged us down for a lift. We zipped down to 23rd street, with a bottle of Evan Williams in hand for our host, and were there with plenty of time to spare.

Upon arrival, we saw a few friends getting their karaoke – real karaoke discs, no Rock Band BS here!

This rug was too interesting to not take a picture of. Pete’s neighbor goes to Afghanistan every year and brought this back for him as a gift. I challenge you to find me a stranger rug. Seriously. Find one.

After about an hour, Pete began to set up the yearly [something] of fire to lower at midnight. This photo captures the initial lighting of what was a ball made of two planters attached to each other and covered in red, plastic fabric.

14 minutes to go and… My iPhone beeps and buzzes in my pocket. What could it be? Ah, it’s a totally insane alarm I had set for myself months ago and potentially the furthest thing from my mind at this time of the evening.

Back to the festivities…

Happy New Year!

After the ball dropped, Karen and I indulged in some delicious potato chips with french onion dip. We had to literally put ourselves in another room in order to stop pigging out on it. Then it was into the main room for a little late night dance party where we were finally joined by our friendly bottle of Evan Williams, that got passed around the dance floor until the wee hours of the morning.

All in all, this was one of the best New Year’s Eve’s in recent memory. Thanks to everyone for a great time and best of luck in 2009!

The World’s Largest Urban Adventure Series will turn the Big Apple in to a giant obstacle course as teams of two navigate their way around competing in physical, mental and humorous challenges. The NYC event promises to be a full day of laughter, adventure and discovering the diversity and character of New York City.

Whether searching Soho, exploring Central Park or traveling the largest city in the U.S. on public transit, participants will be pushing their comfort zones in a fun, adventurous way. You need to be a part of it, New York City Chase is the final leg of the U.S. Series so get your partner and sign up today. Limited space available. The winners will advance to our National Championship for a chance to represent the US in the World Championship in Morocco.

How long do you think it took me to sign Karen and I up for City Chase after a friend at work sent around the information?

If you guessed “less than 3 minutes” you’d be right. Everyone knows that Karen and I enjoy competition (Subway Wars, anyone?) and have also been know to enjoy a spot of reality television here and there so you can imagine my excitement at reading about this 1 day mental + physical + squeamishness (?) challenge that was going to take place right here in New York City.

The race costs $190 per team and there are 15 events of which your team has to complete 10 in order to win. Karen’s already getting her baby on and calling that we’re going to skip any of the “eat something gross” challenges. Meanwhile, I want to practice by digging up earthworms in the backyard and feeding them to each other.

The other excellent part is that they fully encourage the use of mobile technology as well as remote team members that can act as a research dept. for you while you’re running around the city. On that note, I have the honor of being able to announce that our good friend (some might call him an Internet master) Micah is going to be a pivotal member of Team Kane Street during the challenge. Our hope is to get him an unmarked van he can sit in as he follows us around from challenge to challenge but we may have to settle for him (and his assistant Carmen) setting up Command Central at his place in Park Slope.

Anyway, this is what we’re going to be doing on Saturday, September 13th and so should you! Grab a partner and go get signed up !

Last weekend I met up with my three college roommates, Marisa, Lindsey and Julie, in Chicago. Aside from the occasional wedding, this is the first time we have all gotten to spend a full weekend together since 2002. Here we are eight years after graduation in Chicago. Old ladies, with dogs, and kids and jobs that don’t allow you to skip out for a fishbowl of beer in the middle of the afternoon.

And here we are in Athens, Ohio in 2000, with our friends Stacey and Kristen. Maybe someone could have talked to me about the Sun-in situation I had happening with my hair? Thanks, ladies!

We had a great weekend, eating, walking, shopping and laughing and reminding ourselves of tales from OU. We took a river tour, had some great sushi in Old Town and checked out Second City, which was hilarious. Some photos from the weekend:

Lindsey and Julie on Michigan Avenue.

Julie at brunch at Lux Bar.

In Old Town.

I love these buildings. I don’t know if it’s because of the Wilco album cover or because I love the ridiculousness of a pie shaped apartment.

Check out the rest of my photos from the weekend on flickr.

Some TOAD highlights from the last month….

I can’t think of a single shower that we’ve had this summer that wasn’t a total downpour. Here’s the result of a Saturday afternoon storm a few weeks ago. It flooded our entire patio (as we watched) and then later we wondered “Hmm. Do you think the basement is flooded?” In fact it was. We spent the next several hours drying out the basement. Being a homeowner comes with so many perks.

We checked out the New Amsterdam market a few weeks back where one can find delicious cheeses, breads, and seafood. And directly across the street, you can find some of the best bluefish and lobster burgers at the Fish Market.

The new, sweet fountains around the bridges. Exceptionally nice at night when paired with Brooklyn Ice Cream factory goodness.

We finally checked out Lucali’s pizza in Carrol Gardens. We waited about an hour on a holiday weekend, but it was well worth the wait. This place is run out of the ground floor of a rowhouse that feels like someone’s home. You can watch your pizza being made right in front of your table. It was awesome to see the pizza maker pull a mushroom out of a bowl of fresh vegetables and just start shredding it over the pizza that arrived at our table 10 minutes later. If you decide to check it out, and I recommend you do, remember it’s BYOB.

Do you think there is any chance this phone rings the muppet theme song? I can’t imagine anything better.

While sitting on the tarmac for three hours last week, I stumbled upon this screen while flipping through the channels. You’re welcome Jet Blue.

Check out the rest of the new TOADs on flickr.