One thing that I've wanted to do since we came to New York last year was to go running in Central Park. I love seeing people run around, and I always want to join them. And what place is more spectacular for running then Central Park? So this morning Jon and I put on running clothes and went in to the city. We entered the park around 86th Street and ran around the reservoir for a while, then ran around some trails and along the road. We exited the park on the northwest corner, after doing 3.5 miles. We tried to find a cafe for lunch, but were unsuccessful, so we just went home. We got gyros and lemon potatoes from Kali Alto, a Greek restaurant in Queens. It was yummy, but tons of food.

For dinner, we went to Ben's, a Jewish deli. It was very good. We had matzoh ball soup, potato pancakes, and stuffed cabbage rolls. Also, there were half-sour pickles, which are awesome. Yum yum.

Today we spent all day in the city. We took the subway early in the morning, and went to the Met. They have an exhibit of Samurai Art that was very nice. Lots of sword blades, with decorative hilts and scabbards, as well as sets of armor and helmets. Some of the helmets were crazy, with huge decorations on them. My favorite piece was a scabbard that was decorated with very intricate mother-of-pearl birds and mountains.

We then met Jon's aunt for lunch at the King's Carriage House. It was a very nice little place. I had the pea soup, the portobello and goat cheese omelette, and the oatmeal fruit crumble for dessert. Delicious. Then we took the subway all the way up to Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters. Unfortunately the Cloisters closed early because its November, and we only had 15 minutes. They let us come in and wander around a little, and it was very cool. We should return when we have more time. The park around the Cloisters is also very nice. Lots of flowers and bushes, and we could hear interesting birds singing.

We caught an express train back downtown and found the theater where we have tickets to the 39 Steps. Its a comedy of the Hitchcock movie. It was amazing. Very funny, very good show. Jon and I both loved it.

Today we started sight-seeing. We went down to Wall Street. It wasn't that exciting, just a street. We didn't go into the stock exchange, but we did stop at the bull. We then went to the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Unfortunately, the floor with the Holocaust exhibit was closed because they were shooting an episode of Law & Order: CI. We did get to see the exhibits about Jewish life before and after the Holocaust, and they gave us a free pass to come back and see the rest.

We wandered around some downtown, and went into the World Financial Center for lunch. We just had some burgers from P.J. Clarke's, but they were very, very good burgers. Impressive, even. Afterwards we went back to wandering. We walked through the cemetery of Trinity Church. There were graves from the 1700s there, the oldest I've ever seen. Some of the headstones were so degraded, only a stump of rock was left. A few blocks away we stumbled upon the African Burial Memorial. Some years ago when the city was working on Broadway, they dug up a cemetery of African-Americans buried in the 1700s. The people were slaves and free people, and had all been buried with ceremonies and dignity. The city had thought all of the graves had completely decomposed and it was ok to dig, but once they started they discovered the graves were still there. Very interesting.

Our first day of vacation, but we didn't do much. We didn't even go into Manhattan, we spent most of the time on the couch. We did go for a run around a little park a couple of blocks from Jon's house. It was nice.

Vacation! This is not my bed. It is the guest bed at Jon's parents house in New York City! It has been a long day. The flight was a little bumpy, but ok. Flying is never that great anyway. When we got here we went out to lunch with Jon's parents and brother, and then later for dinner we went to a Korean hot pot restaurant with his brother. It was fun. We got a lot of assorted meat, seafood, mushrooms, and vegetables to cook in a pot of boiling broth on our table. I chickened out when it came to trying the cow stomach or sea cucumber. I did enjoy most everything else. It has been a long and tiring day, and I am glad it is time for bed.

Remember my lemon tree from February? (I bought a dwarf Meyer lemon in February and put it in a large pot on my patio.) I now have 16 lemons! In the spring and summer there were wonderfully scented flowers, which grew into tiny lemons, which grew into all of these golden lemons. I'm very pleased with this tree. I just need to figure out what to do with all of the lemons.

The thing with going on vacation soon is that you don't have much food in the house. Luckily, I have cereal. I like cereal, so this is my dinner. I'm also pretty tired and lazy, and don't feel like making much else.

This is my cat burglar outfit. Its also my cold weather running outfit. Thanks to daylight savings time, it is now light enough outside to go running in the morning before work. Unfortunately, its very cold. But I need to run to offset the truffles and other holiday yummies. I only did 1.5 miles this morning, but it was a struggle. I was running faster than usual because of the cold. I'll just consider it more interval training.

This is a truffle Karyn made. I do not know how she makes them, but I must learn her secrets. They are delicious. One day a year she and her friends make a few hundred truffles, and distribute them to some lucky friends. They are all sorts of yummy flavors, but I cannot tell which are which. They're all chocolaty to me.

I do enjoy laying around reading books. I got two new gardening books this weekend, one on organic vegetable gardening, and one on growing fruit and nut trees. Last week all of my classes and workouts and softball games ended, so now I come home to lay on the couch and read. I'm sure it won't take too long for me to find new classes to take. I already have a few on my to-do list. I like learning things.

I have a chace to lay down! Yay! We didn't do much today, mostly relaxing. It was gorgeous outside, so we went and played disc golf. We are definately getting better. And now we're laying on the couch :).

This is the aftermath of the party. I didn't have a chance to take a before picture, but it looked fabulous. We had everything scheduled pretty well, too. Jon cleaned most of the day while I fixed things, then when it got closer to party time we both fixed things. We were just finishing up the last two dishes when the guests started arriving. The food was delicious. Not everyone could make it, but I think we had a good time. I thought it was great fun. So here's the menu:

Assorted Fruit, Assorted Vegetables, Antipasto, Baba Ganoush, Cocktail Weenies, Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes, Stuffed Mushrooms, Bacon Wrapped Scallops, Deviled Eggs, Potato Skins, Mushroom Bruschetta, Assorted Cheeses, Finger Sandwiches, and Radish and Butter Sandwiches. For dessert we had Caramel Popcorn, Raspberry Shortbread Cookies, and Chocolate Fondue (with Pound Cake, Marshmallows, Graham Crackers, Strawberries, and Bananas for dipping). We had Egg Nog, but we never got around to drinking it.

Before the party I ran the JSF 5k. I ran too fast on the first mile (10 minutes!!) and was dead for the next mile. My legs were also very sore from being catcher last night. I was tired all day, and just wanted to lay down.

Jon's fridge wasn't empty before, but now it is stuffed to the hilt with ingredients. Tomorrow is the appetizer party. We made shopping lists, bought groceries, and figured out what things we can make early, and which have to wait until the last minute. We even made the caramel popcorn and raspberry shortbread cookies tonight.

Tonight was also my last two softball games of the season. My team finished first in the league. We have a good team. I didn't get a hit tonight (I did walk several times), but I did make two plays at the plate, so yay!

Hoy es la ultima clase de espanol. Termino todas las clases que TCC tiene. Pienso que puedo hablar ok ahora, se mas que antes de las clases. Necisito practicar mas con escribiendo, leyendo, y hablando. Espero que practico mas y ayudo mas. La verdad es no quiero tocar mas clases, pero quiero ayudar mas.

No class tonight! Yay! Jon and I decided to go to the movies instead. We don't go to the movies very often. Most movies aren't worth going to the theater (at least I don't think so), but even when there are good movies out there, we're usually to busy to go. Tonight we are seeing Zombieland. I don't like horror movies at all, but Zombieland is supposed to be more comedy/horror. I also read all of the spoilers, so I'm prepared.

I love movie theater popcorn. You can't enjoy the movie theater experience without popcorn, with lots of butter. I wish they would put some popcorn in the bag, put on some butter, more popcorn, more butter, etc, because only the top layer is really buttery enough. I know how unhealthy it is, but like I said, I don't go to the movies very often.

Zombieland was cute. It was kind of gross, but it is about zombies eating people and people killing zombies.

And happy Veterans Day!

Today is Jon and my two year anniversary! Jon gave me these beautiful flowers. He's very good at picking out flowers, and these are just so unique and pretty. They are kale, with blue thistles, and some other little pretty things mixed in. I also got one red rose :). People at work kept stopping to admire the flowers and wish me a happy anniversary. I gave Jon a book that he has wanted. No one stopped to wish him a happy anniversary though. Maybe next year I should give him flowers too.

Tonight was the final exam in the tax class I've been taking. It was actually a lot harder than I was expecting. We had to prepare a tax return, that had a lot of stuff to go on it, but wasn't hard if you just paid attention, and then there were several multiple choice questions. Some of them did make me think a bit. But I passed, and graduated. I made a 92. Yay me. Even though I don't plan to do taxes for money, I had fun, and I learned some interesting things.

Jon and I do not always cook fancy, complicated dinners. Sometimes we just open a can of soup. Like tonight.

Jon and I are scheming today. We are planning an appetizer party next weekend. Jon loves to order appetizers, as anyone who has gone out to eat with him is aware. And we both love to cook different things and entertain. We have a long list of appetizers we are planning to make, as well as some tasty dessert things too. I can't wait. I hope everyone can make it!

I got a pertussis vaccine today. There is a little knot on my arm, and it is sore. It should go away in a few days. I believe in getting vaccines. The scientific and medical community agrees that vaccines are important, and have saved millions of lives since their invention. Basically the only people against vaccines are crazy celebrities and people who are too stubborn to get a shot because they think they're healthy enough. If you get the flu by getting a flu shot, you're doing it wrong. I will believe doctors over someone's anecdotal evidence, and I would appreciate it if everyone else would get a vaccine too, to stop the spread of a virus.

Today I realized that my fingers don't hurt and aren't swollen any more. When I got into the car accident in January, I sprained two fingers. They were swollen and sore for a long time. Even recently, it hurt to make a fist. But now they seem back to normal. Yay!

Game 6 of the World Series is on tonight, and it looks like the Yankees will win it. I'm trying to stay up and watch, but its getting late and I'm getting sleepy. I love watching baseball, and haven't seen enough of it this summer. I think baseball is the perfect summer spectating sport, because it goes at a calmer pace, so you can sit back and enjoy a drink. Its too hot to be jumping around for three hours. But then a great play will be made, and there is enough excitement in baseball to keep it interesting. I enjoy great pitching matchups and impressive shows of defense, all of the subtlies are very exciting to me. I'm not such a big fan of home run slugfests.

I wish the Phillies would win the World Series, even if they are my divisional rivals. I always pull for the National League, and never the Yankees. (I will root for the Rangers, but only because I live here). I think the Yankees have this one though.

Today is election day. There weren't any offices to vote for in my town, just some state constitutional amendments. I always try and go vote, but only if I know the issues to vote on. Thats harder when there are people to vote for, because all of the advertisements like to twist facts. I looked up all these amendments, and discussed them with people, and filled out my sample ballot to take to the polls. I think knowing whats going on is an important part of being a citizen, and voting is important too.

Eating Lean Cuisine dinners before class may be healthier than Wendy's, but it leaves me hungry at night. My tummy is growling. I'm usually too lazy to eat anything though, and just go to bed. I'm not sure if thats good or not. Eating fewer calories is good, but not listening to your body is not good. So complicated.

Texas is very windy. I don't remember being surprised when I found that out, but apparently new comers don't realize there will be lots of wind. The spring has much more wind than the fall, but today is fairly windy. We are on top of Benbrook dam too, so that increases the wind. The lake is very high, and they are pouring water out into the spillway into the river. Thats a good thing, much better than being low. There is a measure on the pumping station that says the lake is at 700. 700 what, I do not know, but earlier in the summer it was around 500.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! I love Halloween. It was my second favorite holiday as a child (remember the first favorite?). I do admit that I'm too lazy to dress up, but I love the trick-or-treaters. Halloween is a great holiday for kids. I wish people would quit ruining it.

I carve a jack-o-lantern every year. After work today I went to 3 grocery stores and Wal-Mart, and no one had pumpkins for sale anymore. How pathetic is that? It wasn't that they were sold out, they had removed them from sale to bring in more crap. Hello, the holiday isn't over yet. So I am sad that there is no pumpkin carving this year.

I handed out candy for Jon, and we had about 25 kids. Our favorite costume was a little boy dressed up as an X-wing fighter pilot. His jumpsuit was complete, even with ejection straps, and he had the helmet too. It was awesome. Jon is very jealous.

Jon and I went driving around nice neighborhoods tonight, just to check out the really cool houses. We went to Ridgelea Country Club and Mistletoe Heights. They are both very nice. All of the houses are built in different styles, and have so much character. Not like the subdivisions full of ranch houses today. The neighborhoods are also very old, so they beautiful, large trees. Mistletoe Heights was amazing, with several craftsman style homes from the 1920's. A lot of houses were for sale, but they were far, far above our price range. Its still fun to dream though.

En las semanas pasadas, yo comi en las restaurantes despues del trabajo y antes de las clases. Pero estoy gordita, y no quiero la comida rapida nada. Ahora traigo mi cena al trabajo con mi. Pero despues de algunas semanas, quiero la comida rapida mas. Queiro una hamburguesa y las papas fritas de Wendy's. Es muy bueno.

After taking the tax class for several weeks, I finally learned of a new deduction I can take. I already know about the sales taxes, mortgage interest, property taxes, student loan interest, and charitable contributions I can deduct. Now I know that I can deduct the tuition and fees that I'm paying for TCC for my Spanish classes. Horray! Still doesn't amount to much money. I've also learned that a lot of good stuff is phased out at my income level. Boo.

These are the softest pajama pants in the world. Jon has a pair that his parents gave him, and after hearing about their rave reviews, they bought me a pait too. Very nice of them. The pants are soft and warm, great to be wearing after running hard all night. It started to get cold as I was finishing my workout too, which was not fun, but made me run faster. I stretched, but now I am stiff and cold and sore. I will be better in the morning though.