Fish Out of Water

This weekend, Matt and I decided to take a day trip out of the city. Living in New York can be particularly challenging in the winter. Unless you are a committed skier, you find yourself never leaving the city. And even though New York is a big city, let’s be serious, never leaving a 23 square mile island, filled with 1.6 million people, can make you a little stir crazy.

We tried to plan a weekend getaway to somewhere like the Catskills, the Berkshires or Lake Placid but our timing wasn’t great – with the combination of President’s Day Weekend and MA/NY school vacations, everything was booked. So instead, we rented a car for the day and drove out to NJ.

We drove out to High Point State Park for a little cross-country skiing. Although the north-east received a big storm only a week ago, a lot of the snow had melted so the coverage on the trails wasn’t great. However, it was well worth it – just to get out of the city. Oh yeah, and to see Matt on cross-country skis for the first time. That was fun too!

Holiday Mystery Trip

When Abby and I were younger, our parents used to take us on mystery trips. Sometimes things were trips that we earned (I sort of remember earning one for reading a certain number of pages over the summer one year) and sometimes they were completely random and spontaneous. Sometimes they were big trips, like to Boston to see The Secret Garden, The Nutcracker or The Red Sox; while other times they were small, like a trip to McDonald’s for Happy Meals or to King Cone for ice cream and the Merrimack playground. Needless to say, the trips were always a lot of fun so it is no surprise Matt and I have taken this Brethauer family tradition and incorporated it into the Englehauer family.

So what’s better than a mystery trip? A mystery trip that has a holiday theme – that’s what! So I was really excited when I found something fun and a little different for Matt and I do to this holiday season.

On Saturday night Matt and I took the Metro North into the Bronx to go to the Botanical Gardens  – a place neither of us had visited for the Holiday Train Show. The trip started off pretty great – Metro North leaves from Grand Central Station, which is seriously a beautiful NYC landmark, and one that Matt and I don’t visit too often. When we take the train to Boston or the Long Island Railroad to the Hamptons, we leave from Penn Station (a not so beautiful landmark). Walking through the giant concourse, I will immediately transported to Harry Potter’s King Cross Train Station and Matt to Taggart Terminal from Atlas Shrugged (and yes, that statement pretty much sums us up).

It was a quick train ride and we were transported into a much darker and quite neighborhood. The grounds at the Botanical Gardens are beautiful and walking over to the train show, I was happy. That’s when things started to go wrong.

I had been to a train show before with my dad. It was in our hometown in the cafeteria of the middle school. There were probably 50 – 75 train collectors who brought their train sets and created incredible landscapes for their trains to run through. The level of detail was amazing, speaking with the owners was actually really interesting and after we left, my dad went home and got out his old train set and set it up. So when I found out about the Holiday Train Show at the Botanical Gardens I knew it would be just as good — and assumed it would probably be even better since, this is New York after all. Well – I was wrong.

There were probably 6, not more than 7 trains at this show. And while there were some pretty incredible things there, sadly they weren’t the trains.

The main feature of the show were the replica buildings, all New York City historical landmarks, that were made from plant parts.

Don’t get me wrong, they were impressive, but when you go expecting trains, it is hard to really get excited.

Thankfully, Matt was a good sport about everything and we ended up having an ok time. Mat said it best “even though it wasn’t the best mystery date ever, it was definitely better than no mystery date!”

The Hiatus is Over [hopefully]

So, many of you have reached out to my personally to say “what the heck is going on? where did you blog go?” Well let me explain quickly.

First this happened.

Which led to this to try to help.

Oh yeah, and this too.

(both of which are taking up a LOT of time)

However, I’ve made a decision to bring my blog back. The lead up to Christmas is my most favorite time of the year, especially in New York. There are so many incredible things to experience and blog about – I just can’t pass them up!

So hang tight, I hope to revive my blog, just in time for the holidays.

A Bed Fit for a Princess (and Prince)

When Matt and I moved in together my sleep quality plummeted. I tend to move around when I sleep and Matt is a very light sleeper. This is a deadly combination for any married couple.

Every few weeks, one of us would end up sleeping on the couch. Not really the ideal way to start a marriage. After complaining about this to my colleagues for months on end, they finally convinced me that I need to do something about it.

So two weeks ago, after returning from vacation, Matt and I entered the world of adulthood and bought a big kid bed. After spending 2 hours in Sleepys, testing out nearly ever mattress, we decided on a Serta. We were having trouble deciding whether or not we should get a spring or tempur-pedic mattress. This one has a spring mattress with a tempur-pedic pillow top – the perfect solution.

The sheep was really the biggest selling point for me. Unfortunately it wasn’t until after we purchased the bed that I realized he didn’t come with it.

Matt made a big push for us to upgrade to a King. Although our bedroom isn’t really big enough to reasonably fit a bed this size, his argument that 90% of the time we spend in our bedroom is in the bed was pretty convincing.

So now we have a room with a bed in it –  a lot of bed!

 

Oh yeah… and some bikes. Isn’t city living the best?

10 Pounds Later

Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE Panera. In high school I worked here for about 6 months and to this day, it was probably my favorite job. Unfortunately, when I moved to New York, the closest Panera was over 6 miles away, outside of the city. As a result, whenever I would leave the city of go home for a weekend, a trip to Panera was always on my list of things to do.

So when it was announced that Panera was coming to Manhattan – I freaked. The first store opened earlier this year at on 7th ave between 28th  and 29th. This is about 15 blocks north from my office and 3 avenues west (i.e not very close) but that didn’t stop me. On opening day, I trekked over to the store for lunch. I was so excited I could hardly contain it – well, the fact is, I didn’t. After ordering a bowl of broccoli cheddar soup with a massive grin on my face, I announced to the cashier that “I used to be you! I worked at a Panera once. It was awesome.” I thought she would join in on my elated state however, she responded by saying “So does that mean, one day, I will get to be you?” Clearly she didn’t understand that I thought, by working at Panera, she was the lucky one.

While the experience of eating Panera that day was fantastic, I had to come to terms that it wasn’t going to become a daily experience. The store was just too far away.

But then, I saw they were opening another Panera in Union Square – a 2 minute walk from my work. Nearly every day for months, I would walk by the site and peer in the windows to see how far along the construction was coming. Sadly, with union protests the work was slowed. And I was denied my “fresh” bread, soups and sandwiches.

Last week, after returning to the office from a nice lunch out with some co-workers, another one of my colleagues asked me if I had been to Panera yet? I freaked out – not realizing that it was opened. I was so upset that I had already had lunch that day – for a second I thought about making myself throw up just so I could go and eat another lunch but then decided that wasn’t a good idea, not to mention gross.

The next morning, I happily left my apartment without breakfast so I could stop at Panera for a cinnamon crunch bagel and a caramel latte. I know, not the healthiest of choices, but boy did it make me happy. I practically skipped into work.

Needless to say, it was delicious and I can’t wait to go back. So in honor of the 10 pounds that I will inevitably gain from all of the food I will eat from Panera, I am running my very first Giveaway on my blog. Leave a comment with your favorite menu item at Panera and you will be entered to win a 15 dollar gift card to your local Panera! The winner will be announced on Monday.

Happy eating!

IronMatt

Please excuse my recent absence from the blogging world. Last week was a big one in the Englehauer household.

On Saturday, my husband, along with 24 other Robin Hood athletes competed in the US Ironman Championships held in New York City.

They don’t call it an “Ironman” for nothing—the race included a 2.4-mile swim in the Hudson (that suffered from a sewage leak just days before the race), a 112-mile bike along the Palisades and then a refreshing 26.2-mile run that finishes in Riverside Park. Our athletes posted times ranging from 9 hours and 59 minutes to 15 hours and 48 minutes. All of the athletes were well ahead of the midnight cut off and all crossed the finish line with big smiles across their faces. Matt was no exception.

Matt posted a blistering swim split, 43 minutes, clearly channeling his days as a Bernal’s Gator. He then followed that up with a solid bike, averaging just over 18 mph for the 112 mile ride.

The marathon was definitely the most difficult part of the race – temperatures reached the high 90s, the first 14 miles of the course has an incredible amount of hills and just for fun at mile 17, there were stairs on the George Washington Bridge that you had to run up and down. And to make things even more difficult, Matt’s training consisted of short tempo runs and a 10 mile run in the Hamptons one weekend.

Matt overcame all of this to finish his marathon in 4:40 for a total time of 11:52 (well under his 13 hour goal!)

I was happy to cheer him on the whole way but there was nothing like watching him cross the finish line.

 

So while I am so proud of Matt and all he accomplished on Saturday – let’s not overlook all of the sacrifices I had to make to get him there.

1. For the past 3-4 months, Matt has used the Ironman as an excuse to get out of household duties. “I’m too tired from training to clean up the apartment…. I need to go work out, I don’t have time to cook…. I – I – I” While there is no “I” in team, it isn’t an accident that Iroman starts with the letter I.

2. To cheer on Matt on Saturday, my alarm went off at 3:00am. That’s early people!

3. We had custom-made Robin Hood cowbells for the race.

They were a big hit but I got a  blister from all the ringing. Looks like racing 140.6 isn’t the only thing that can lead to injury (this photo also brings up the fact that I didn’t have time to get a manicure this week with all of the running around I was dong for Matt).

 

So in the end, while I think everyone should be impressed with Matt I would like to ask for a little recognition myself. After all, I am an Ironmate!

Pigging Out

On Saturday Matt and I went to Blue Smoke, a BBQ restaurant in NYC that I have been wanting to go to for a while. Although the food isn’t the healthiest, it was pretty tasty.

Matt had gone for a 92 mile bike ride earlier in the day and I had done an 8 mile run in the mid-morning heat. We didn’t eat a lot during the day, so when we showed up to the restaurant, we were both pretty much starving. Well, we knew how to fix that – by ordering a ton of food!

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While the food was good, I have to admit that I think the BBQ at Fette Sau in Brooklyn is far superior. And a lot less touristy!

Running as a Form of Transportation

Recently I have felt like I don’t have enough time in the day.

Well, let me rephrase that.

Recently I have felt like I don’t have enough time in the day for my personal life. I have plenty of time in the day at work :)

I find myself racing through the evenings to get everything done that I need to. Take yesterday for example:

5:45 – Leave work (and this is early, typically it is never before 6:30)
6:20 – Check into spinning (I love Flywheel)
7:20 – Walk out of spinning, absolutely covered in sweat
7: 23 – Stop by Trader Joes to pick up a few things for dinner
7:33 – Wait in the ridiculously long line at Trader Joes – and when I say ridiculous, I mean ridiculous. There were easily 50 people in the two lines at their popular Upper Westside Location
8:00 – Finally leave Trader Joes, walk home and call my parents
8:05 – Get home
8:10 – Start a load of laundry
8:15 – Shower
8:25 – Stretch while watching TV
8:35 – Start a load of laundry
8:45 – Start making dinner (World’s Best Chicken, made by Worlds Best Wife)
9:15 – Switch clothes from washer to dryer
9:20 – Fold laundry that was left in dryer from night before
9:30 – Eat dinner
10:00 – Fold more laundry while watching House Hunters, NYC!
10:20 – Wash dishes and clean up kitchen
10:35 – Get ready for bed
10:45 – Finish watching House Hunters International
11:00 – Turn out the lights and go to bed

Yeah, I know. It is exhausting. And all of this is after working all day. So I have been thinking, how can I use my time efficiently. One of the biggest time wasters is my commute home. Now it isn’t super long – it probably takes me 40 minutes door to door, but it is a lot of wasted space. So that got me thinking… what if I was able to get my work out in before I got home.

When I worked at a school, that answer was easy – coach the track team and work out with the kids from 3:30pm – 5pm. Workout done before I left work. Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury any more. So I had to think harder.

That’s when the light bulb went off — what if I started using running as a mode of transportation? Brilliant!

(via)

So today, I ran home from work. It was only 3.5 miles and took me 30 minutes. Yeah, that’s right, I just shaved 5-10 minutes off my commute and by the time I arrived home, I had already finished my workout. Genius.

That’s right. Blogger, philanthropist, wife and now, genius!

 

Weekend at the Beach

This weekend, Matt and I have been lucky enough to have been invited to our friends lovely home in the Hamptons. I am looking forward to relaxing around their pool, soaking up a little sun (emphasis on the little) at the beach and getting in some quality time with their adorable 4 month old son. It is certainly going to be a different Hamptons experience than the one Kinsella showed us but that doesn’t mean that I am not SUPER excited!

Tonight Matt and I are packing for the weekend. Here are my top 5 things you should bring when you go to the Hamptons for a weekend of summer fun.

1. Sunscreen

After years of burning, I’ve come to realize that I am not someone who tans. It is the harsh truth. Took me 29 years to realize it, but I have finally accepted it. As a result, I’ve become somewhat of an expert on sunscreen. I’ve tested multiple brands and Neutrogena is far and away my favorite – particularly the Ultra Sheer, Dry-Touch style. This is a must have for everyone who wants to prevent skin cancer and wrinkles!

2. Sunglasses

Almost as important as protecting you skin, is protecting your eyes. Ideally you should look for a pair of sunnies that block 100 percent of UV rays and that also absorb most HEV rays. Unfortunately if you are like me and notorious for loosing your sunglasses it might be hard to justify the expensive price of Ray Bans. Thankfully, you can buy knock offs on the streets of NYC (and in most Target stores) for $5 a pair. Sadly, they probably don’t have the UV ray protection you need. Another place worth checking out is newcomer Warby Parker, who are quickly becoming known for the on trend frames and philanthropic model.

3. Maxi Dress

A maxi dress is a great option for dinners out when the temperature might drop, the AC might be blasting or to cover a sunburned leg! Dress them up with heels or go casual with a fun summer flat or classic style like Jack Rogers. Plus with the right material, this is a piece that can be added to your weekend tote without the worry of wrinkles.

4. Beach Tote

Make sure you bring a purse or tote that is big enough to carry everything you need to the beach and is water/sand friendly. I’ve made the mistake of just bringing a regular purse on beach trips and then not having anyway to bring my towel, sunscreen, book, etc to the beach. A nautical themed tote is a nice touch for a seaside town.

5. A Gift for the Hostess

If you are lucky enough to be invited to a friend’s home like we are, make sure you don’t show up empty-handed. Gifts don’t have to be expensive but gifts that take either your, or the host’s interests into consideration go a long way. Bring your favorite game, a jar of homemade cookies or the makings of their favorite brunch cocktail.

Staying Put

After looking at more than a dozen apartments in Brooklyn, Matt and I have come to the decision that we are going to stay in our current apartment for another year. While I am disappointed that we won’t have a new neighborhood to explore and a new home to decorate, I know that it was the right decision.

It seems like every day there is a new article written about the crazy rental/real estate market in New York and Brooklyn is certainly not excluded from that. After seeing what was out there, Matt and I decided that our current place wasn’t so bad and we could handle it for another year.

So now the real fun begins: trying to rethink the current layout of our apartment. Particularly because Matt wants to incorporate an office/desk space for himself. I thought I was being generous by offering up my craft table, but apparently Matt isn’t good at sharing and needs an areas that is “all to himself.” Good luck finding that is our already packed one-bedroom apartment!

So I’ve turned my “When We Move to Brooklyn” pinterest board into “Redecorating.” First on our list – bedroom furniture. Any suggestions? We are trying to be a little more grown up than Ikea, but not quite ready for the maturity level (and money) it takes to shop at Pottery Barn!