Thursday Date Night 2018

Thursday! For no reason! It's like we're young and free again! We had Vietnamese and then did a beer tasting at Zipline Brewery. Woo!

My tasting on the left and Kevin's on the right

Kevin's 38th Birthday 2018

For Kevin's birthday this year, he wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibit on David Hockney. We made a day of it and also went to a good Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and tried a brewery he'd herd good things about in Brooklyn.

David Hockney exhibition

Lots of people at the exhibit

iPad art!

Outside in the regular exhibits

Dark like my mood

Near the Temple of Dendur, an Egyptian temple from 10 B.C.

We actually went to lunch before the museum, but it's my blog, and no one reads it anyway, and I liked the pictures in this order better.

Vietnamese coffee

Everything here is so delicious

After lunch and the museum, we drove out to Other Half Brewing Company in Brooklyn. The crowd was really different than our last brewery, Trillium. Haha. I felt a little-- but not quite too -- old. 

The brewery was completely packed and loud 

The beer was sublime

My 35th Birthday in NYC 2014

We sort of unintentionally celebrated my birthday for two days because we made our birthday plans for Saturday but my birthday fell on Sunday and we kept doing fun stuff. So I'm counting all of it as part of my birthday.

Grandma Kathy was visiting so I decided that I would love to go to Target sans toddler for the first time in almost 3 years (1). I got to slowly walk down aisles and pick out stuff I wanted without having to worry that James was freaking out. I am such a mom-stereotype/meme. I even bought myself a huge purse with some of my birthday money (2). When we got back, I ate Chocolate Lucky Charms for lunch like a boss (3). Kevin kindly watched James for a little while so Grandma Kathy and I could go get our nails done (4). The weather was so amazing I went without my coat! (5) And high on the warm weather, I got a ridiculous Eastery-purple on my nails. (6) Before Kevin and I left for dinner, I got a group family photo, because I love it. (7)

The 3.5 Clous on my 35th birthday

For dinner we trying to go to Chuko, a ramen place that I went to with Michele and her brother eons ago, but at 6 pm the wait was an 1.5 hours! Luckily there was a 4-star sushi place across the street. Inaka was delicious and I especially recommend their mango roll. (8) I ordered a Thai iced tea but they were out, and the only other fun non-alcoholic beverage was a Japanese soda, so I got that. Opening it was super involved and it tasted like bubble gum! (9)

Sushi dinner at Inaka

We had tickets to a flamenco show at New York City center. I'm a fan of flamenco, and these tickets were cheap and on my birthday. (10) It wasn't so good, but who can really complain about seeing flamenco on your birthday in Manhattan? Not even me. Also, I made the best blog-inappropriate joke ever after the show, which though Kevin did not admit was funny, I assure you he found it hilarious. (11) Ask me in person and I will tell you. But only in person.

Flamenco Show at City Center!

Since I have a cell phone for the first time since 2008, I was able to take photos and check-in everywhere on my own phone. Like a person who exists in this millennium! (12) And since Kevin drove us to Brooklyn, and we took the subway in to the show, we were able to drive back home instead of being at the mercy of the LIRR. (13) Ah, it's the little things.

Grandma Kathy let us both sleep in on Sunday, which hasn't happened since whenever the last time Grandma Kathy let us do that... maybe in December? (14) When I got up, James sang "Happy Birthday," to me. This is the first year he's been able to do that and it was amazing. He even pointed when sang the final "to you."(15)

Grandma Kathy had never had a banh mi sandwich before so we went to a restaurant with good reviews on our way to the museum, Vietnaam. We all had banh mis (16) James and I shared a bubble Thai iced tea (17).

Enjoying out sandwiches and drinks

Next up, Grandma Kathy asked to go to The Met to see an exhibit on Pompeii that interested her, so off we went. (18) She went on a big trip to Italy in October to celebrate her 60th birthday and got to travel to the actual ruins of Pompeii and got really into all the archaeology and art work there. When we walked into the museum and into the big Greek and Roman hall James said, "Wow!" His wonder and excitement never gets old for me. (19) Even though he mostly just wanted to throw pennies into the fountain rather than actually appreciating ancient art. Haha.

Grandma Kathy, James, Kevin in front of The Met


Part of the Pompeii exhibit

Family picture at The Met? Yes please! (20)

Grandma Kathy had popped tortellini in the slow cooker before we left so when we got home dinner was ready for us. Yum! (21 ) And Kevin even got me an ice cream cake with my name on it! (That should count for 2 things right? Because it's ice cream AND cake? 22-23) More happy birthday singing ensued, I made a wish, and James helped me blow out my candles. (24)

Ice cream cake!

Helping me blow out the candles

I am 11 "Fun things" short here so I will add that I got three birthday cards (Grandma Ruth, Kathy, and Kevin) and fun little gifts from Janice, plus calls from mom, Grandma Daisy, Ash, Michele, and Onel, as well as some random emails, text messages, and Facebook messages. (35) Bam.

But really, it's more than enough to celebrate my 35th birthday pregnant with a healthy baby and to have my family healthy. I think of my friends struggling with their health or their family's health nearly all the time, and I appreciate how lucky I am this year-- and I hope we're all lucky in the years to come.

• My 31st birthday dinner in Chinatown with my college girlfriends, the Opera, and a visit from my parents
• I celebrated my 32nd at my baby shower and low-key birthday dinner with Kevin
• My 33rd birthday getting in trouble in Brooklyn with Michele
• My 34th birthday with my girlfriends sleeping in Long Island

St. Patrick's Day 2013

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Woo! We kicked off Kevin's Spring Break last night with a St.Patrick's Day bar crawl. We celebrated early, because if St. Patrick's Day falls on Sunday, Saturday is the designated party day. And then Sunday is also the party day. Haha, no, but we are celebrating some more today with Kevin's delicious corned beef sandwiches. They are pretty amazing actually.

Grandma Kathy babysat James for us. Brady came in from Philly to party, and the three of took the LIRR into the city. It started snowing on our way over. We met a green-eye-shadowed Sarah at Dempsey's. Lukas got sick and couldn't join us, but he generously encouraged his nurse Sarah to join us anyway. Dempsey's was a lot of fun because we got there early so we got a table and they played fun dance music and Irish jigs.

Sarah, Brady, Kevin, and me at Dempsey's

The ladies

The menfolk: Kevin, Jon, and Brady

For dinner, we though Vietnamese made perfect sense for St. Patrick's Day. Last year we got sushi for dinner, so maybe there's an Irish beer-Asian food symbiosis. Alternatively, I have a Pavlov's dog response to seeing Jon, because nearly everytime we visit him and Ben in Brooklyn, we pick up Vietnamese after. Anyway, V-Nam Cafe had awesome banh-mi, and very good Pho.

V-Nam's Cafe

We briefly considered going to Swift, but they had a cover and they were crowded so it would have been a lose-lose. So we head over to Scratcher's where things were less Irish but way more chill.

Snuggling at Scratchers

After Sarah left, the rest of us decided we were better off in Brooklyn so we could easily catch the LIRR back from Atlantic without a lot of advance planning. We ended up at 4th Avenue Bar which we really like, and we missed fully three trains back while we got more drinks, expressed our outrage about drone strikes and weighed the relative merits of Harper's or The New Yorker. Um, yeah.

The Clous celebrating at home today

Last St. Patrick's Day we went out in our Irish neighborhood with Jon and Michele. The previous year, in 2011, I was pregnant, so Jon, Briggs, Lukas, and Sarah came here for Kevin's corned beef sandwiches and some canned Guinness. Here are some St. Patrick's Day pictures from 2002-2011.