Anyone who know’s Deanna, knows that she loves the holidays! She is a Christmas spirit! In order to make the most of this I planned a holiday adventure around NYC. We started off at the Union Square Market at noon and ended at B Smith’s for dinner leaving after 11pm. We went to holiday markets to shop and shop windows to watch. Some of the windows were amazing. Macy’s took the cake. They included stories, visuals, and even ways to interact with passer-byes.

We saw numerous holiday sites like St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Bryant Park Ice Rink. Funny story, we tried very hard to get a picture in front of the tree. The first guy took 2-3 pictures, only when we got the camera he hadn’t actually taken any. Then the next group took a photo of us so close there was no way to see that we were even in front of the tree. This whole time I’m taking pictures for them in return thinking, WTF. LoL Eventually we found a couple that was able to press a button and line up a tree with a 2.5 inch digital screen. LoL.

And we ate! We had a wonderful lunch with Champaign at the Plaza, some decadent dessert at Serendipity’s and an amazing dinner at B Smiths. The manager of B Smiths was one of RestaurantScheduler’s first customers and he treated us like royalty. We got a plate with 4 desserts at the end. You could have rolled us home, and we planned to roll into a taxi, but we couldn’t find one.

Ya, couldn’t find a taxi in NYC – you would be surprised at how often this is been happening lately. So we drudge soar feet and protruding stomachs to the subway and slowly made our way home. It was fun watching Deanna get so lost (directionally challenged). Sometimes I wonder what she did before me And Radar was truly upset over being left alone all day, but he was happy to see us have so much fun!

Be sure to check out more pictures in our Gallery.

Karen (on top of hosting our party) took us out wine tasting. As usual I have no idea where we went so if you read this Bruce feel free to comment on the location. We actually bought the wine for the party that day. Not to mention had a heated game of Bocce Ball where the girls claim they won… not gonna say they ended the game the second they scored more points than we did… Saturday morning was a whirlwind. We had Pete’s with Jill and then off to the party.

First, Bruce and Karen you guys were amazing! All the work put in to find tropical decorations (Everyone who came did get leid) and organize all the details… we just couldn’t have done it without you. The party went off with out a hitch.

We had grass fed steaks and jalapeño burgers compliments of Eric for the meat and Mark for the grilling. The food was great. As the night went on we transitioned to some beer pong. I’m honestly not sure I won a single game, but when you are able to play beer pong, at night, next to tiki torches, and with good friends, how can you not win? The party started at 3pm and the last people left somewhere around 1-2am. I’d say that’s a winner of a party if you ask me!

Afterwards, I got to see some other close friends: Brendan and his family (most I had not met yet), some more of Sean, Tammy, Eric, Bruce, BJ, and more. Then Eric and I took off for a 3-night adventure at Yosemite Park. We averaged a good 15 miles of hiking a day. Man that place is beautiful. Thanks so much Eric for planning that trip!

I also learned a little thing about myself. I am a Super Bowl kinda guy. Let me explain. Earlier on the trip Brendan and I were talking about how in a 7 game series, generally the better team wins. Whereas in say the Super Bowl or World Cup it’s just the best team that day, doesn’t matter if one team could win 9 out of 10 times. Well there were numerous times that I played the world series and lost, but then when we played the Super Bowl winner take all, I always won. Crazy 8’s with Brendan – he won the World Series 4-3, I won the Super Bowl game. Bruce and pool – he won the World Series like 4-1 and I won the Super Bowl. Finally Bruce and basketball shoot ‘em games – he won the World Series and the only game I won was the Super Bowl. The rest weren’t even close. Not sure what that says really, but being that I prefer football, I like it!

For more pictures check out our Gallery.

We had a blast. I was chosen by our table to be the person who participated as a character of the plot. Only we could only see so much of the plot at a time. For a while there, in fact right up until the end, I was pretty sure I killed the guy. I had motive, opportunity, etc. As it turns out if I hadn’t had asthma (as the murder weapon was a blow dart gun) I would have surly been indicted. It was a lot of fun even though we didn’t solve the mystery Guess we’ll need to watch some more Murder She Wrote before next time. I did manage to win best actor!

Our friends Pat and Kate recently got married earlier this year. They’ve become great friends since we moved to NYC and so when I started looking to buy a quarter of a cow… yep you read me right, a quarter of a cow. I thought they would be the perfect couple to go halves on that bad boy. They were down for the cow so we made it a triple date weekend. Deanna & Me, Pat & Kate, and Radar & Aubie. Radar said to say that the third was more of a bro date than a date date.

We found a great little farm in upstate NY and ordered our ¼ cow. 5 months later the six of us took off on an apple picking, pumpkin patching, wine/cider tasting, tavern w/a real fireplace dining, and cow hunting adventure! It was a blast! Saturday night consisted of eating crackers and cheese, drinking wine, and playing board games that Deanna always seemed to win.

So one of our first keeping the love dates was a beautiful boat ride on Central Park. We started out sitting on the lake having a cocktail. Then rented a rowboat for an hour or so to wonder the park via water. Deanna was quite the rower let me tell you. She had the paddles for a total of 10 minutes and some how managed to run us into a bridge and pop the button that held the back of her dress together. Hahaha Good times. She was quite the trooper though because we actually made it all the way to our favorite Brooklyn Pizza Place (Luna Rossa) before going home… broken dress an all.

At 10:30 am, the doors opened, and we were given numbers based on our place in line.  We then had a break to go and relax, shower, explore the city.  Mom and I decided to eat…what can I say  We went to my favorite restaurant in NYC, Morimoto, and had the most delicious sushi.

We were back by 2 pm, fortified with spicy tuna rolls and ready for action.  The process is you are assigned a consultant, they help you find the types of dresses you like, and you can try up to 3 on at any one time.  So, though I was second in line, there was a mad rush once the doors were open.  Mom and I divided to conquer and had our 3 dresses immediately.  I tried them on, but didn’t fall in love with any of them.  Second pull, same thing.  Third pull, same thing.  We were losing our steam by this time, but…out of the distance, it appeared.  We grabbed the dress immediately and went to try it on.  It was beautiful.  The style was sophisticated, the fabric luxurious, and unfortunately the price reflected this.  Never fear, that sweet angel (manager of the store) was there.  She whipped out her calculator and came up with a number that was music to our ears.  We said YES TO THE DRESS!  We had my second favorite meal that night, Vietnamese Pho, and watched American Dreamer, my mom’s and my favorite movie.  Oh, life is good. Find more pics check out the gallery.

• Step 1: We actually signed up for Basecamp (an online project management service) in order to track our milestones, to-do’s, communications, etc. I realize this sounds a little… psycho, but with all the other things going on in our lives right now it seemed like the best way not to loose track of what needs to be done.
• Step 2: Find a destination – Although we haven’t found one yet, I think we made a lot of progress. We’re looking at areas like the Greek Islands, Caribbean, and South America. We know what we want, but it’s hard to feel confident about a place based on some reviews and a couple pictures. More on this soon!
• Step 3: Create a website – Here we go! Now it is still under construction, but after 8-12 hours of coming up with a URL, finding the right theme, making the almost right theme the right theme, fixing bugs that were in the theme, we now have a working website. You’ll want to stay tuned because we’ll be posting some crazy, fun, and logistical information here. You’ll be able to keep track of Radar’s Adventures on the way to the isle, see pictures/videos of our events and parties leading up to the wedding, hear what’s going on in our heads along the way, And generally keep up with the logistics (Wedding and Parties Coming to a State Near You)as I’m sure they will change until the very last minute.

Hopefully we’ll keep things fun and entertaining to you. Feel free to drop us a note from time to time using our Say Hi page or by commenting on our posts.