New York - Day 2

Sunday morning we slept in...a little but still made it downstairs for our free breakfast that was actually pretty good! Especially since most days the Crack team doesn't eat much breakfast because sleep is much more valuable than food for us in the mornings.

After Breakfast, we headed back up to our room for some quiet time. We had gotten the King Suite room which included a sofa and coffee table. So we curled up for our own "church." I have to say, I endorse Bed-side Baptist for an occasional alternative to corporate worship. We read together some of Love and Respect which was given to us at our wedding.
When we finally went outside it was COLD! Darn that springtime on the East Coast can be like winter in Texas. Or darn that putting Christmas lights up in Texas can be done in shorts. Either way, my thin blood noticed the chill in the air. We decided it was the perfect day for Broadway and headed to TKTS for some matinee tickets. We opted for Chorus Line. My mom always loved it, I love to dance, and Chris loves to sing so it seemed like a good choice. I did a little scream as we were leaving the ticket line...I figure NY could handle my drama and go figure, no one even flinched.

The theater was opening in 15 minutes so we rounded out the NY experience by grabbing a hot dog, pretzel, and coke from one of the street cart vendors. We ate quickly in an alley (to avoid the wind chill) and headed to the theater. It's so strange to me that in NY stuffing a hot dog down your throat in an alley can be in the company of the most wealthy businessman in a full suit, a homeless person who wrangled some hot dog money from someone on the street, or both. I wonder if people pegged us as deliriously in love Texans who were super excited for Broadway...cause we were.

On with the show! We headed to the theater to find that we had great seats on the floor level. I heart TKTS! Also, I have to say, we LOVED Chorus Line. It was such a great story and the cast really responded to our active audience. We both enjoyed it so much we figured we'd extend the cold day by seeing an evening show too! We'd been bitten by the Broadway bug...

So, we got back in the TKTS line and choose tickets for Chicago which was in a theater really close to our hotel. (Note, I did another shriek of excitement with no response, what gives NYC?)We had time this round to go back and change into some pretty clothes. On our way back we ran into a girl in Times Square we assume is a Intern for the David Letterman Show giving out tickets. She told us "You look fun" and then asked a trivia question - apparently you have to know something about the show to go. She asked for the name of the woman in the Paul Shaffer band. Let me note something VERY important here: Chris and I don't watch much TV and particularly don't watch the late shows. So we had no idea. She agreed that since "we were fun" she'd ask one more questions which she wasn't supposed to do. Another note - if that really is the rule it's LAME since everyone else gives out free tickets, if it's not the rule why make your interns say it is? That only makes them look like dishonest employees. Anyway, this time she asked the hair color of Dave's announcer. Apparently that is an easy question and luckily Chris was able to answer: red. She gave us tickets for the Monday taping of Friday's show. (One more scream of excitement because heck, we're fun and I don't need a response). More on the LNWDL show in tomorrow's post.

We got in our pretty clothes even though it was still cold and headed to Chicago. It was good...not better than Chorus Line but for us Chorus Line would be hard to beat. We loved that the orchestra was on stage as part of the set. To watch them in action was great. Roxie Hart was played by a girl named Bianca Marroquin from Texas. She had a really great voice. Afterwards we were trying to figure out where to eat and out walks Roxie Hart herself. She was super nice and even agreed to take a picture with us (see picture!). Texans stick together - even in the Big Apple.

We were cold and hungry which for any of you that know the Crack Team know those are deadly ingredients for grouchy people. But, the Big Apple allure helped us get to a tiny Cantonese Noodle Soup dive without too much distress. I have to say that it seems you could walk into lots of places in NY and find something good to eat. The noodle place was no different. We each got a big bowl of noodle soup and talked about our Broadway Blow-out Day. If only I could sing I'd be right there in Chorus Line! To no response I even tried to re-sing the Ballet song on the walk home. Bless Chris...and his ears.

We got back to our hotel and cuddled in for a good nights sleep as lots of walking made for tired legs...

New York - Day 1

Because nothing says serenity, rest, and relaxation like Times Square, New York that is exactly where we decided to spend 5 days in celebration and rejuvenation of finishing our six week class. I'll say it again, it's always an adventure with the Crack Team.

Our flight left from Austin at 6am. In the collection of previous posts, I am sure you are readily aware that we are not morning people. And by morning we mean the hours of 7am - 10am. So, leaving our home at 4am was really closer to our bedtime than our wake up time. Needless to say, we slept almost the entire Jet Blue flight...and I was really looking forward to the tv's. I figured they had more than the 6 channels we have.

Once we landed in NY we got our luggage and called the same car service my company uses (or my old company, reference previous post). Although Chris would much prefer the adventure and frugal options of the subway or a yellow cab, we had big bags, empty stomachs (we both get carsick) and were more than ready to be in the city which is no short trip in public transportation. I pushed for the car service and the beautiful Lincoln town car got us from airport to hotel quickly, comfortably, and actually turned out to be the same as a yellow cab. Let me know if you are going to NYC and need the service number!

We dropped our luggage at the Hampton and headed to lunch. As we were walking there, a couple was openly and loudly arguing in the street. He would yell "If you walk away from me one more time, that is IT!" She would yell back "Oh just watch me...." and let the record state I have omitted many expletives because here at the Crack Team Chronicles we like to keep things PG. Anyway we awkwardly walked by, felt horribly for them, and weren't sure what we should do. We noticed other people walking on the street as though nothing were going on. It was then that we realized we weren't in Austin anymore. We collectively determined that since people are always around you in NY things that we are used to doing in private, people in NY do wherever since privacy is utterly unaffordable. We celebrated our thesis with a make out right in the middle of the sidewalk on 51st. Why not?

For lunch we went to Eatery. It was a short walk from our hotel and really good. We LOVED the edamame and recommend it. Chris had a burger that he also really enjoyed and I had the Southwestern Panini...yum!

Next we headed to Times Square to kill some time while they were preparing our room...and because after eating so much walking around seemed like a great way to make sure our pants would still fit. We went into the Hershey store because Chris loves chocolate. It was packed and really not too interesting - very NY touristy. The last thing we needed was a regular old Hershey bar for $5 because it had a picture of the Statue of Liberty on it. No offense Ms. Liberty. So we headed right across the street to M&M world. While it was equally as touristy in some ways, it was larger and more fun in enough other ways. The pic with this post is me with Disco M. There was also a whole wall with two story tubes filled with many colors of M&M. You could make your own combination. We love M&M's and the chance to make ours pretty seemed brilliant. We also found one of those machines where you put in $0.50 and a penny, crank the handle and it magically embosses a commemorative design on it. I put in the money, Chris cranked the handle, and out it came - an M&M penny. We were like kids in a candy store...and to some people we literally were!!

Finally it was back to the hotel for a little nap before our big night on the town. Even with glorious shopping in spitting distance, lights and action a block away, and the naked cowboy playing his guitar in the middle of Times Square, there was no denying that these night owls had started their day at a painful and ridiculous hour of the morning. If only coffee was an option for us....

Awake and dressed for a night out, we ventured across the street from our hotel to the subway. I was a little uncertain of the subway, especially at night. I've seen the movies, people! Well, it turns out that danger in the subway is like Texans riding horses everywhere...only in the movies. We got our tickets, got on the A train, and headed to the upper west side for an Italian feast.

We went to Regional for dinner. It was FABULOUS! Another strong recommendation from the Crack Team. Our waitress was so sweet and informative, the ambiance was perfect, and the food was unreal! They start you off with an appetizer plate of chickpeas and toasted Italian bread. We also enjoyed a glad of red wine (I wish I could remember the name!). For dinner, Chris had Maccheroni con Salsa di Melenzane e Pomodori - a plate from Sicily that was, in Texan terms, wide rigatoni noodles, with eggplant, tomato and dry ricotta cheese. I had the Culingionis al Pomodoro - a plate from Sardegna. It was sheep milk cheese ravioli, in tomato sauce, with pecorino cheese. If we were thinking with our heads instead of our taste buds we'd have saved some room for dessert but instead polished off our entire plates. We loved our whole Regional experience.

We headed back to the hotel for some sleep - big things were still ahead and since breakfast was free in the morning we couldn't sleep in too much or we'd miss it. Day 2, coming soon....

The day EVERYONE was on time for a meeting

I am a creative type, the people I work with are creative types. WE ARE CREATIVE TYPES!

I think it has something to do with us creative types but I work at a company where we come in at 9:00, start to function by 10, and around 4:30 we're finally highly efficient and racing the clock to get out by 6 and still have some happy hour specials going. Part of that mentality or "culture" is that people are habitually late for meetings. Of course no meetings are set before 10a(too early), no meetings from noon - 2pm (lunch), and of course a meeting after 4:30 would cut into our most efficient hours. So with very little time to actually meet in any given day you would assume people would be timely. But, we're creative types. (Let me include a side note that inspite of our habitual lateness and need to sleep in, I work with some of the most brilliant people in the industry. I'd go into a long list of accomplishments here but it's really not about that this time).

About every quarter, maybe a little longer, our CEO sends out a friendly email reminder about meeting etiquette. The top of the list is always the importance of being on time. Being the employee that I am, I always straighten up my act a little around the email reminder time. I mean, who is going to be late after the head honcho sent out a reminder that being late is RUDE? Typically I get there early, I read a couple of the celeb gossip magazines that we have in abundance around here and as the clock rolls past the stated meeting time I realize I am waiting on my superiors. While I love reading about the newest out -of-wedlock pregnancy and seeing the hot new shoes the "it" girls are wearing, sitting around gets old fast when I have so much work to do in so little time (reference above for productive time in a given work day). So, I slip back to my old ways and eventually we get the meeting reminder again.

Today however the tables turned, completely. We had our monthly business review meeting(aka: the MBR). Rumors have been flying that the outlook wasn't good but nothing had been totally confirmed. My fellow cube dwellers and I headed to the meeting, grabbed our brightly colored bean bag chairs and plopped down (good thing I wore my palazoo's today and not the pencil skirt that was calling my name in the closet). I looked around and noticed the phenomena - people were on time, everyone was on time. I was thinking to myself that this couldn't be good, while Tony (co-worker) started commenting on the book shelf he wanted. To kill the time I noticed a few things that would accent our home well too. I was almost cheerful again...

But then our Japanese CEO came in (whom we've never seen before) and made some "corporate" joke that created stifled laughter. Then he gave some speech about our hard work and their hard decision but in the end we are closing our division. People will be laid off as early as two weeks from now through the end of the summer. He also told us to be sure to fulfill our job requirements....ummm yeah right. I almost laughed out loud. I don't know who he's fooling when one minute he basically tells us we'll all be laid off and the next tells to to be sure to keep working. He finishes the speech about finishing on a high note, working hard, fulfilling our licenses agreements blah blah and of course - being on time to meetings. I have four words for him:

We are creative types.

My last day is May 30th. If you know of a job that is 0.9 miles from my house, flexible hours, high hourly rate, and fun creative people let me know. Or, in case I have to give up that dream, I'd also love to be a personal shopper. Feel free to contact me for that too.

In the meantime, I'll say goodbye to my whole team on May 6th. And will likely be the sad left over who is ebay-ing desk chairs and dusting old bookshelves.

On a higher note, I still need to blog about NY - it's coming soon, I promise. At least I splurged on the Red Hot Marc Jacobs heels. Had I known what was coming I probably would have chosen a more sensible pair of shoes to remember our trip....and since when has being sensible about shoes ever been enjoyable for creative types?

Thanks for your prayers and support in this. It's a sad day really.

So much to Blog....so little time!

I've been so bad about blogging...

I promise to update very soon. We just got back last night from NYC and have much to share. I just need a few days to get my feet back on the ground and realize we're not in the city anymore.

Hang tight!

The Carpet Saga continued...

So I hear that for some of you my post yesterday was "great material." Typically that would be used to describe a comedian who told some great jokes. So just to be clear....yesterday's "great material" was my very own reality not a Last Comedian Standing audition.

But, because I at least know some of you enjoyed reading....here's the update:
- Chris came home at 6:00p
- I left for a super night of girlfriends and chocolate at 7:30p
- Chris tried to work on our class with lots of banging, almost gave up
- Workers finally leave close to 9:00p
- I get home at 10:00p
- We dare to go upstairs...

Ok, so if I'm being real, the carpet looks good. It isn't too dark, it feels like a million bucks compared to the stained bachelor rug that we used to have, and really the installation appears to have been done very well.

However, what we found upstairs was our newly painted walls had been chipped, the fresh white banister had scratches from their tools, and the drawer on my beloved art table was broken. That alone was enough to make me want to crawl in bed and pout when horror of all horrors, we see that they have thrown...yes thrown our pillows and bed linens onto the bathroom floor. To make matters worse they moved some stuff in our bathroom to have room to finish out the edges. Apparently they grabbed the plunger (I pray it was because it was somehow in their way not that they used it) and threw it on top of our linens as well as a few other things. I was horrified. They did manage to put our weather and emergency broadcast system back in place. (Chris got it for Christmas, it could be it's own blog but the short of it is that it gives you the weather forecast and sets off an alarm for emergencies - strange they were careful to put that back but our alarm clock is still M.I.A.). So, we did the appropriate and healthy thing....

We went back downstairs, made a mid-night snack and started researching websites where we could leave poor ratings if they wouldn't make this right. Well ok that's what I did. Chris continued to work on the class.

Finally after midnight I changed out all the bed linens to make sure we were going to be sleeping on fresh sheets. Chris and I talked through our game plan of who would call in the morning (me) and how nice I would be (ha!). Really though at this point I was so tired....not just physically but that each home project seems to lead to 5 more. We can't bring everything back upstairs because now we have to re-fix painted walls that were just painted last month. We can't arrange the furniture how we want because we want the manager to see the pile of mess they left etc. I tell Chris I just need to cuddle and go to bed and of course my wonderful husband was happy to help.

We had just about nodded off and like an alarm this loud noise was echoing through our room. Apparently a cricket had made it's way into our home in the carpet installation process and decided to play a midnight tune. I don't know if you know this....BUT THEY ARE LOUD!!! We get out of bed and head to the loft where we see the culprit perched on the newly painted and scratched wall. Chris goes over to scoop up Mr. Grasshop(Mr. GH) and off he goes jumping and flying like a mad man. Naturally a blood curling scream was appropriate so I did the honors and scared Chris and caused Mr. GH to shut up. After looking and looking for where he went we finally gave up. If nothing else, I scared the song out of him.

Back in bed and really ready for sleep this time an alarm really did go off....louder than the grasshopper - because it just wouldn't be a Crack Team story otherwise. Of course it was our Weather and Emergency broadcast system that had so carefully been returned to it's location. Apparently there was a tornado warning in our area. I asked Chris if we should pray because apparently things weren't settling down....and go figure that was the last of our evening interruptions.

So the update is that we have new carpet, we can't take fun pictures to show you yet, and Mr. GH is probably dead somewhere among our piles of stuff. I am sure I'll find him one day when I've almost forgotten and then leave him one last blood curling scream....

We'll have pictures up as soon as we can!

Painting, Carpet, House Repairs, OH MY!

We haven't blogged in awhile. I am still trying to determine if there value in putting our thoughts, happenings, or muses on here. If you have thoughts on this, feel free to comment.

In the meantime, I am in a state of delirium and needing a place to vent so...read on if you dare.

As many of you know we've been working endlessly for the past almost 2 years on refacing the bachelor pad to a home. The downstairs is 95% done...with most of the work coming from our own two hands. It looks great but each wall, outlet, light fixture, and hardware is still hard to look at without thinking of the time and energy spent. All we're saying is those home make over shows make it look MUCH EASIER and FASTER than it is.

So, 2008 has been a year of paying to have others finish the upstairs as much as we can afford. Earlier this year we had a great painter paint all the upstairs trim, our loft, the mater bed room, and the master bedroom ceiling. It looks GREAT. If you are in Austin and need a recommendation, let us know. He did a fantastic job and was totally reasonable.

We also purchased carpet to replace the last of the stain-filled bachelor stuff. The first time it came into the warehouse it was damaged. So, it wound up that by the time they reordered and we finished with a house guest, today was the first day we could have it installed. (Side note, we also had tile installed last summer in our Kitchen. Some of it cracked by the garage entry door so we asked to have it fixed under warranty - conveniently scheduled for today as well). They told us the carpet team would move furniture just not electronics or breakables. Needless to say, our downstairs looks like our upstairs vomited over the ledge of the loft.

At 9:00ish this morning the carpet place called to let me know that they were still planning to install today and that I needed to be here. I took off work and began the waiting process. At 10:45 they called to let me know that the tile guy would be here this afternoon. Nice update, right?

Finally around 11:45 with no sight of the carpet team I figured it was time to call and figure out what was going on. They had said morning and we were 15 minutes away from the end of the time slot. The Carpet place assured me that the carpet team had just left and the tile guy would be 2 hours later. This was good news as the carpet place is only 8-10minutes from our house which would mean technically they could still hit their morning slot.

At 1:15 the doorbell finally rang. It was the tile guy, an hour early. He came in looked at the tile, realized he'll need caulk to match our grout, not grout. This meant he can't do the job today and will have to come back some other time. Drat! Five minutes later he was gone and the carpet team who supposedly left the place that's 10 minutes from our house over an hour ago still aren't here. I eat a few girl scout cookies, try to focus on an outline for a class Chris and I are teaching, and then realize I am going to have to call again. As I am looking up the phone number, the doorbell rings again.

The Carpet team is here!!! What does carpet team mean to you? Especially when they promise it will be done today which is now only 1/2 a day. Well apparently to Carpet Mills it means two people. Those two people came in, went upstairs, and looked around. At one point one of the guys yelled down: "Ma'am, how do you expect us to move the furniture?" I told them I was told they would be taking care of that. To which they started yelling at each other in Spanish. I could understand enough to know they were not happy and did not know how they were going to do it. I could have told you it would take more than 2 guys to move our bed. Then they started laughing uncontrollably. As if this was one big joke. This big joke in which we just spent a wad of cash and our weekend clearing the upstairs for. What is a girl to do?

Side story - in college a dear friend asked me to cut her hair to save some money. I admitted I had never cut hair before but was willing to try. She got some good scissors and we laid out a sheet and started the whack job. At one point when I realized it was bad news that I didn't know what I was doing I started laughing. It was one of those times where once I started laughing, I couldn't stop. My formerly carefree friend now started to get panicky telling me that when you are trusting someone to do a job and they are laughing hysterically it's hard to trust what is about to happen to you.

Funny how what goes around comes around, huh?

So here I am blogging you....who knows what will happen next. In light of a good attitude I am trying to laugh myself. One thing is for certain....it is always an adventure at the Crack House.

Hopefully before and after pictures will come soon. Say a prayer...

Banana Birthday...

Happy Birthday Banana Chris!

In case you didn't know the Crack Team takes birthdays pretty seriously. For some, (no names mentioned ahem, Kevin Robert McNally aka. BRUDDER) dinner out and to bed early is a restful and refreshing way to celebrate another year gone by. But for the Crack team, we do big deal birthdays.

Today, February 7th, is Christopher's 34th birthday. Not to be out done by the previous cattle drives or movie marathon celebrations, I had a new tactic – monkey-ing around. It started this morning when Chris opened the jeep to head to work. On his seat - a Birthday Banana as ripe as his yummy lips! Then a co-worker of his helped distribute 50+ bananas to the people he works with. Sporadically through the day they'd deliver one with a birthday treat. At first he thought people were just sharing fruit (clearly he doesn't work where I work - we do Starbucks runs). Then as the pile began to mount so did his suspicion. Who organized this - the office or Karen? Right before lunch that question was answered when a third party friend arrived for a "drop in" with a black banana. Some techies (technical types that Chris works with) even got creative (something me and my co-workers can appreciate) and brought peanut butter or added bows to their fruit.

After a birthday lunch Chris was off to a meeting. He was abruptly pulled out of the meeting and sent to his desk when the real gem, Priscilla, showed up. She grunted a few times, did a little jig and dropped off a Banana balloon and a card that lovingly read: "Happy Birthday My Big Banana Love, Karen." To complete the day his co-workers got some ice cream (a treat Chris really likes) for banana splits and sang their own happy birthday. I'd say I kept the Crack-Team-big-deal-birthdays tradition alive, wouldn't you?

Special thanks to Kouri - the co-worker who really helped me pull it all together, Anil for the thoughtful drop-in with the black banana, and Kara my idea helper. Happy Birthday My Big Banana! I hope it's one you won't soon forget.

Banana bread anyone?