Lunch at the Varsity

Happiness, after rings, an F.O., and a regular C dog on Saturday before Springsteen. Wonder what all that is? Check out the Varsity dictionary here.

Yes, all the boys humored me for the photo.

Vicksburg friends in Oxford

We enjoyed seeing Alex and Sophie -- and little Manu -- at Double Decker this past Saturday. He's grown so much! You may remember that he was very little back in December. We look forward to having all of them return to Vicksburg this summer.

Headed to see the whale shark

Wow.

25 songs, 3 hour set. Started with Badlands. Stump the Band (the game where members of the audience request songs via posterboard signs) gave us 96 Tears. And the first set ended with Born to Run. Encore included American Land and Detroit Melody. Amazing. Full set list here.

At the show

Waiting for Bruce. Ned's taking the photo. Patrick ditched us for
third row seats.

5 Years, 600 Posts Later

Today is a big day. It not only marks our 600th blog post (they count for us, we're not that neurotic), but it also is five years to the day that Ned and I met each other at the Double Decker Festival in Oxford, Mississippi. We ran into each other early in the morning and there were brief introductions, but conversation didn't last long because my girlfriends and I were in search of some folks who were delivering a keg to our party. How romantic. I did remember his name, though -- good thing he's a Ned and I'm a Nancy Drew fan. Later that night, after we were both separated from our friends, we ran into each other again on the Square. Here's where the name memory came in handy. If I'd have forgotten his name, I'd probably have just avoided eye contact. But I didn't, we talked, and he offered to buy me dinner at Ajax since the night shows were rained out (I had the veggie plate: mac and cheese, green beans, and squash casserole, and I think he went for the roast beef po-boy.) Best first date ever--and totally spontaneous. We're headed to Double Decker tomorrow to celebrate happiness in April.

Seriously.

Of all the places in all of NYC where we could get coffee, we stopped here. But, in my defense, the iPhone's battery was dying and we needed the GPS to find our way back to the hotel on the subway. They had cheap hot tea and available electrical outlets, and we made good use of the space for 20 minutes.

Look who we saw in NYC!

Here we are, from our view in an office above Times Square. (Thanks for the office tour and sneak peek, David!)
And, if you didn't recognize the guy on the screen, it's Mississippi's own Eli.

See that?

First tomato of the season!

Three Amigos (and a smudge on the lens)

We saw lots of good friends when we traveled to NYC. Photos will appear in the coming days. First up: Allison Korn. The last time we saw Allison was at our wedding. But still, she was kind enough to invite us to her Brooklyn apartment on our last night in town so we could have a free place to crash. I still have her keys, and promise to mail them soon. Too bad she lives so far away now, but it was GREAT to catch up with her.

Is parenting really this hard?

I have a couple of friends lately who have announced that they're expecting. We're excited for them, but a little worried about all they'll have to consider when they buy toys for their kids. This is the sign at FAO Schwartz. Nothing like a little extra pressure when the kids are screaming for something in the toy store!

Sunday at the ballpark

I came to ask for money

But Ned and I are apparently small enough to fail.

At the National Botanical Garden

Happy Birthday to Daniel!

Mary Beth's older younger brother is 27 today. Hard to believe he can grow chin whiskers!

The Easter Toast

Best bar sign ever?

Less than two weeks until Springsteen

Just got home from one long trip, and MB leaves this weekend for another one. But our most exciting travel still looms two weeks away on the horizon: Springsteen on April 26 in ATL. Can't wait!

End of a long day

Egg dying and whiskey drinking ended at 3:30 a.m., and Mass began at 7:30 a.m. Then there was all the cooking and cleaning and family visiting this afternoon. Ned's a trooper, albeit a very tired one.

Easter!

Easter eggs with the Lasseters

Saturday morning at home

Travel woes

We left the plane. Got a rental car. Now we're driving to Valdosta sans luggage. Hoping for luggage delivery to Valdosta by Sunday. Sarah will return our rental car for us (no one way rentals were allowed) and Patrick will drive us back to ATL to get our car on Monday. Thank goodness for family everywhere! Meanwhile, our plane still sits in Savannah and they were going to have to send another one b/c our pilots' air time limits had expired. Team Mitchell loves adventure!

Still stuck in Savannah!

4.5 hours on the plane, and they're still selling the M&M's! Civil order may soon break down b/c of hunger.

After 3 hours in the air

We've been diverted to Savannah indefinitely.

Exhausted after a week in the city

And waiting for a car to the airport.

Yankees and their monuments

A little over the top, ya think?

Williamsburg Bridge and Empire State Bldg

Brooklyn Bridge

Dinner in Little Italy

And wine, of course.

Empire State Building

Touristy, sure, but how could we not go at sunset?

Brooklyn Bridge

View from our harbor tour.

Dredge boat at entrance to Kill Van Kull

Ned has a statue growing from his head!

It's even colder than it looks.

Harbor Tour

We're about to leave for a 5 hour tour. Two more hours than Gilligan.
Hope we get back! (trivia fact: I've never seen that show.)

An evening on Broadway

We're at August: Osage County. Starts in 20 minutes. Dark play. Read all about it here. Trivia fact: one of the featured actors was the woman who played Jerry Seinfeld's girlfriend. Remember the episode where Seinfeld buys Elaine the cigar store Indian as a peace offering? Also, Kramer comes up with the genius idea for a coffee table book about coffee tables. More here.

Ned and Christina are famous!

Ned and our friend, Christina, made the paper on Sunday. Front page, B Section. Click here to see it. And, when you read the caption, now that MB was painting cannons. No way was I going to step on top of graves, even if it did mean I was doing a favor for the dead by cleaning headstones. Too much Lasseter in my genes for that kind of work.

Blogger Difficulties

Thought the iPhone is wonderful in so many ways, its camera is not the best. So we took most of our photos (including one with friend, Allison, last night) using my regular camera to get better images. Our intent was to post a flurry of photos each night so our public could know what we've been doing in NYC when they check the blog the next day. That would have been a great plan, except we forgot to pack the cord that connects the camera to the computer and transfers the photos. So, until next week (or until I can find an office supply store), NYC images will be spotty and grainy and probably not well lighted. But for the curious who want to know what we did, here's a brief laundry list: Seinfeld's restaurant, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, lunch at a Jewish deli, Fifth Avenue and all its excitement, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Times Square, Central Park, the American Museum of Natural History, Rockefellar Center, and the Park Slope area of Brooklyn -- courtesy of dinner with friends there. Great fun, but we're tired. On today's menu: Chinatown and Little Italy.

Mac store

Wow. It's huge and crowded and filled with people wearing headphones from their iPods. The whole city could be described this way, but I'm just talking about the Mac store.

Rainy day in Central Park

MB wanted a big salad

Out with Jennifer

Brooklyn and beer.

And the cocktail!

Jameson's Irish whiskey, St. Germaine elderflower, orange bitters. Served up.

Made it to the airport

First stop: One Flew South for sushi and cocktails. Sushi's for Ned.

Our travels begin

with prolonged debate about who has to get up and shower first. MB wins. Ned's showering.

A day at the park

Jeff and Erin painted the fancy gate. Ned and Christina cleaned headstones. Mary Beth painted cannons. And there were free t-shirts, which is good, because the ones we wore to work are now ruined.

There's an app for that.

I've spent most of the day building our NYC itinerary and trying to record subway directions on that itinerary so we won't get lost. But you know what I just realized? I have an iPhone, and there's an app for that. (I love those commercials!) Anyway, I've downloaded the app and these tired eyes are headed to bed for a few hours. In the morning, we'll wake up early and go to the military park to participate in a "spruce up the park" service project--I hope they let me paint a cannon!

Bread, Sweet Bread

The bread photo, though beautiful, isn't mine. I borrowed it from the NYT. Thanks, NYT photographer! Bread is the newest addiction on National Street. I'm making entirely too much of it -- about a loaf a day -- though we barely can eat half a loaf between us. The leftovers either get made into croutons or thrown to the birds, since fresh bread doesn't keep much longer than a day or two. Here's my new favorite recipe, by Mark Bittman. Too easy, and too good. And it really does look like the image in the photo when you're done. For the recipe from yesterday, see Epicurious here. And our favorite ciabatta bread is here. None of them require kneading, you'll note.

Ta-Da!

Today, finally, I mastered French bread. Surprise, Ned!