Time off in NYC

It seems that all I have been doing lately is taking time off. And this week I extended my "vacation" by visiting New York. It was actually a Brooklyn vacation, since we spent nearly all our time in Brooklyn, only venturing into Manhattan once, for a couple of hours. But that is what I go to New York to do--visit friends, eat yummy food, hang out in bk, and pretend I still live in the slope. It was a lot of fun, and we got to visit Jen & Andrea, who will be moving to Germany soon, as well as many other good friends.

We also ate some amazing food! Jen & Andrea brought us to Chavela's (in Prospect Heights), a fantastic and cheap Mexican restaurant. Their guacamole & mole were really good. On Wednesday, Alison took me to Tom's Diner, a Prospect Heights institution, where I had a cherry lime rickey and sweet potato pancakes (yum!) We went to Ippudo, a great ramen restaurant in the East Village, for lunch on Thursday. We followed this up by cupcakes at ChikaLicious's dessert club (a s'mores cupcake & a red velvet cupcake). Back in Philly, we continued our foodie vacation. Last night, we grabbed dinner at our favorite local restaurant--an unassuming but great Ethiopian restaurant around the corner from us. We ate the lamb special, which was fantastic. This morning we bought a french baguette from the local bakery and some fruit from Sue's, and had a tartine with fruid salad (mango, banana, and figs in a honey lime mint sauce) and a latte for breakfast.

Today we are working (posting on this blog is work, right?) this afternoon, before taking another break to celebrate the 4th. After today, I must get back to work. I have many co-authors tapping their feet at me... Not to mention an R&R that needs to get done. Oops...