Coffee.

Tonight we went to a local diner for dinner.

I ordered coffee to drink. Decaff coffee.

It's 2:23 am.

That wasn't decaff.

Katz's

Tonight Joe, Henry and I adventured into Manhattan (and I'm actually typing this from a Starbucks on the Lower East Side) and we ate at the famous Katz's Delicatessen.  I've been wanting to eat here for years, and just never have made it....until tonight!

It's been open since 1888 - and it's delicious.  Katz's is known for it's HUGE pastrami sandwiches, so that's just what Joe and I ordered-and split. Joe could have eaten one all on his own (maybe...), but I quickly hit the wall as I neared the end of my half.

It's $15 for one of these babies, so they are truly banking in in their fame, but I don't blame 'em a bit...if it was cheap eats the place would be mobbed!

Yum.
 
 
 

 
My half. 
 

Don't loose your ticket - if you do you'll be charged $50.  I don't really get it, but whatevs.  Glad I didn't loose our tickets!

My Henry has a First Name...

Henry has been getting increasingly good with his letter writing, he's been doing H for a very long time. He just recently started interest in all the other letters without me prodding, in particular those in his name, so we've been focusing on those lately.

Well, today he wanted to make a picture and write his name...this is the first time he did it ALL by himself, I didn't touch the crayon at all to assist! Yay Henry!

Blogging on the Go

Yep. I found a blogging app.

So now I have no excuse not to update here.

Except, ya know, laziness. ;)

Down at the Laundromat

In most any New York City laundromat there is drop off service.  You drop off your bag-o-dirties, come back later in the day to a bag-o-freshies.  It has ALWAYS amazed me that the employees at the laundromat could fold anything into a perfect little square for these drop-off people.

Seriously.

Even a fitted sheet.

I've seen it!  It's amazing!

So, they fold everything into this perfect little tower of squares, then precisely stack it into the bag to form a perfect square or rectangle in the bag.  It's mind-blowing.  I haven't a clue how they do it.  I've tried and tried.

Today I was in the laundromat and I saw one of the women that work there doing her own laundry.....and much to my delight, she was NOT folding everything perfectly!  Her bag of folded clothes looked like a lumpy tower, like a normal persons.  Like mine.  I even saw her fold a rug and it wasn't precise.

It totally made my day.

And with that, I gave up trying to get perfect squares and simply stuffed everything into the bag.  We hang up almost everything anyway - what's the point of folding to carry the bag for 2 blocks?!  It felt good.  Gone are my days of attempting to make perfect squares.  Hello stuff & go!

Christmas in NY

To cure your Grinch tendencies, here's a bit of Christmas in the city.

Referring to the above pic, we asked a guy who was toting around a huge SLR (thinking he would be competent with our little one), turns out that not everyone with a huge camera knows what they are doing :-)

If you want to see all the pictures from our outing that evening, view our slideshow.

Taco Truck

Before we moved to Astoria I read numerous message boards about living in New York City, raising kids in NYC, and Astoria in general.  On the Astorians.com message board I read many, many rave reviews and reports of the "Taco Truck".

Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like.

A truck that sells tacos out of the side of it.  If you've been to NYC, you'll have an idea of what it looks like.  Street meat is a normal choice of goods around here.

At one point this summer the said Taco Truck disappeared off the streets sending hundreds of Astorians into a panic - and even causing a local food blogger to blog about "Taco Truck Alternatives".  It turns out the owners permit for selling food on the street had expired and had to renew it - they were not gone forever, much to the relief of the local community.

I knew this type of eatery would be right up Joe's alley (and mine!), so I told him all about it and we even had Henry talking about the Taco Truck before we moved here.  We were ready to experience the goods!

However, no matter how much we spoke about it - we never made it down to the area during the evening to dine at the curbside eatery.  Months passed by and we had yet to try it.

One glorious night I was on my run and I passed by a new food truck right off our street, just a few blocks down....it sure smelled good...oh - and wait!  What is that I see?  "El Ray Del Taco #2" graced the front of the truck in red, white and green lettering.

This was not just any Taco Truck, it was THE TACO TRUCK!

That same night I logged onto Astorians.com and quickly read about the "#2" truck opened by the family being parked right here on Ditmars.

Joe and I rejoiced.

Tonight we finally had the chance to dine at the lovely Taco Truck.

2 beef tacos.
1 cheese quesadilla.
1 chicken burrito.
1 chicken huarache.
and $21 later we were stuffed, with huge smiles on our faces.  I get it now - I understand the outrage and concern when the Taco Truck disappeared.  This is a gem!  Sooooooooooo good.  Like, I'm-gonna-crave-it-every-single-day good!

Directly after our meal Henry started to sing, "Taco Truck, Taco Truck!" while dancing around the house.  He and Joe were playing Legos and before I knew it...

They built a Taco Truck.

How many kids play Taco Truck?!?!

:)

Oh, and I forgot to tell you...they deliver...via bike!