Warning this entry has TONS of pictures!

I am mucho late with this entry about my dearest Mimi (better known as Maryanne).   We've had many visitors since we moved up here but whenever people came I was never really able to fully enjoy their visit b/c of work or other circumstances. But when Mimi came up I decided to have my own mini-vacay and see the sites with her. I made a list of  places that I'd been meaning to check out and also added places I've been to and really liked and wanted to show Mimi. Mimi was the 20th (give or take) guest to our place so I was really able to perfect my list of places to go in NYC/NJ. (this entry is also for my friends that were asking about places to take their guests, especially guests that have already done all the touristy things and want to indulge in the food)  Her visit was a much needed break for me. I had a great time and got the pics to prove it! hehe

First Day- it rained off and on throughout the day so we decided to not venture to the city. Instead, oppa and I took Mimi to Mitsuwa, a Japanese food court/super market. Here we ate several different Japanese dishes (all under $7/dish) and had mochi dduk with red bean ice cream inside. (yum yum, my fav) We walked around Mitsuwa and checked out the treats and then went to the cute Japanese gift store next door. Afterwards, we chilled with my friend Janet and watched some TiVo'd stuff Mimi requested. =P Later that night and also through the weekend, we rented some $1.50 dvds from the "box" at Pathmark. Ppl in Jersey, if you haven't used the box, you should! It's awesome and has the latest dvds. Also, if you type in your email addy they will send you a rent 1 get 1 free coupon. You can't beat two dvds for $1.50. We were able to catch up on movies we wanted to watch.

So the next day we headed out into the city and started the day at Bryant Park to catch "Arias in the Park," presented by the NYC Opera, which is a week long free program they do every August during lunch hour. One of the great things about NYC is all the free cultural events! I use New York Magazine's event guide to find out about all the latest happenings in the city.


Then we headed over to my two fav beauty indulgence spots in the city. Park's Nail's on Bway and 50th (for mani and pedi combo) and Unique Threading Salon on 36th and 7th Ave (for threading). We walked from the nail salon to the threading place, going thru Times Square and watching the street performers.

Afterwards, we headed over to Chelsea to check out some art galleries (which are all free to enter).
The one below is Mario Testino's "At Home" at Yvon Lambert on West 21st St.
    
Looking at art made us hungry for cupcakes! So we headed to Billy's Bakery's, one of my fav sweet shops and then walked around Chelsea, making friends with every dog we met along the way.

Eventually, we ended up at the Chelsea Market, which is a great place to go when it's pouring outside. Inside more eating fun was had but not before the picture taking...
                                                                                                    

                 (these are cakes!!)

Ronnybrook Farm's Dairy- their mac n cheese was yummy!

  
There's a new cafe in the Market all the way in the back called T Salon. The cafe has a great eco-friendly feel to it and tons of teas to choose from. The decor was fresh and the seats comfy. Mimi discovered the owner's maltese and fell in love.
      
Italian market

The rain let up for a bit so we headed out to SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown.

  
Mimi demonstrating the proper way to get every last drop of soup out of the dumplings.
 
I haven't been to many places in Chinatown but we love taking our guests to Joe's Ginger (Joe's Shanghai is always was too crowded) and Fay Da Bakery is great too (walnut choco bun is killer!). I rediscovered New Malaysia Restaurant (48 Bowery) which Mimi and I went to on Spring Break 2004 and absolutely love (delicious and affordable)! We wanted to go to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory after dinner but we were way too full. I've heard great things about that place and must go soon.

The next day we took Mimi to try out Noches de Columbia, a Columbian place I'd been dying to try ever since I saw a coworker with takeout from there. The place was packed but this was no problem because we got everything to go and headed to our favorite place in NJ- West New York, yes it's a city in NJ. hehe You can't help but take tons of pictures when you come here. The view is gorgeous and the weather was soooo nice-it was a picture perfect day! keke  We saw several bridal parties and a quinceanera court taking pics all along the park.
 
   
I would love to live in one of the townhouses below!
                    
At Noches, they didn't ask for my name when we ordered the food. I wondered how they were going to know which orders was ours. Then I saw the receipt. heheh The food was great- delicious and inexpensive.  
  

Later that night we had a mini reunion with part of the Northeast Chapter of CCF of UF. We went to a diner near our apt known for its giant burgers. Check out that bad boy below!

After dinner we decided to go home and play games. We played a crazy round of Hoopla! The girls won, resulting in the guys getting punished.
    

The next day before church we went to our favorite bagel place- Celebrity Bagel in Tenafly.

Afterwards church we settled in with dvds from the "box." =P

The next day was jampacked with things to see, places to eat and things to do...

We started out stopping by the office

Then headed to Wall St. for the annual Downtown Dance Festival

    
Afterwards we spent a big chunk of the day hanging out in the Village. We went to Mary's Fish Camp for lobster rolls, walked over to see Friends at Grove & Bedford, found a chill park on a pier, got stuck in an apple, chilled at Mimi's fav place in NYC, found the Garden of Eden and Bleeker St. Pizza... 
                  
Afterward the Village we found ourselves in Union Square for Max Brenner's, Herald Square for Macy's and Ktown for Pinkberry.

Then we headed home.

The visit was too short but seriously sweet. Thanks Mimi for stopping by!
Here's a video montage I made at Animoto.

The weather today in NYC is GORGEOUS! The high is 76 and the low 58 w/ clear skies all day! Suseok oppa and I took a walk around the neighborhood this morning and man oh man was it beeeeyootiful in Joisey. Fall is on the way and I couldn't be more excited!! Fall in the northeast is my favorite time of the year. However, the summer was super fun and super busy. Here is a much belated photo update.

July

For my bday this year oppa planned a whole evening of activities, without any input from me. This was a sweet and very challenging gesture as ya'll know I'm the event planner and also a total foodie. But he did a great job. We had dinner at Marseille, a French bistro, and then went to the movies to see Harry Potter and ended the night at a cool cocktail/hookah bar called Kemia. We didn't take many pics from the night but here are two dark ones.

The following week I got together with two other girlfriends from church that are also married, Julia and Janet. We thought it would be really fun to cook a meal together and teach our friend Julia a good, simple meal for her father-in-law's visit. Janet's cooking lesson turned out awesome and it was even more fun eating the meal with our hubbies. Note the first picture what the wives are doing in the background and what the guys are doing! hehe

August

Before Kyu moved to Pennsylvania the NJ Chapter of CCF got together one last time at Six Flags!!! Ever since we moved to NJ I've really wanted to go so this was a huge treat for me. This is by far the best roller coaster themepark I have ever been to. Even better than IOA in Orlando!

We started the day at Five Guys, an awesome burger place (highly recommended!)


Then went straight to the park! We were all a lil nervous getting on the rides...

Then we were all warmed up and excited to get on the big rides!

Here's a picture of us going down the big drop on El Toro, which has the steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the world!!

We also rode Kingda Ka, which is the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster. I don't have a pic of it but it's seriously sick! If you like roller coasters you need to try this one out. It was nuts!
After all the coasters we decided to goof around to decompress.
]

The following weekend we celebrated our friend Jeff's 30th birthday with him and some good friends from church at the Jersey Shore. His wife Julia planned an awesome party at a beach club right on the water. It was a lot of fun! Our friends at church pray hard and play hard!

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3!!

Then the next week Jeff planned a surprise pary for Julia's bday. We got Julia so good!

OK...I know that was a lot of pics but there's more to come! Blogging only comes to me in phases so I must take advantage of this mood! hehe

This past Sunday we received an unexpected but very much welcome visit from my cousin Jong Yun unni and her hubby. We had a nice dinner and then walked around West New York to see the Manhattan skyline.

On Monday we had a slew of visitors! First, Suseok oppa picked up Marie from the airport (welcome back to America!!) and then James oppa came over and then we met the whole Yo Family for dinner and a big slumber party at our place.
 
Seeing old, familiar, lovely faces always brings me so much joy! Even though it was only for a short time it was sooo great to catch up and chat and dine together. I love you guys and miss you!!

I don't know where I was last season but I just got into the show Heroes. Yeah, I know I'm slow. I never watch shows when they are on their alloted times. My awesome hubby downloads them for us to watch at our leisure. And since I got an Ipod as a gift a few months ago he's been putting them on there so I can watch during my commute. Time has never flown by so quickly before! I love this show!!! I'm still finishing up season 1 but I can't wait for next season!

This past weekend oppa and I went to Newport, RI with two other couples. This trip had a lot of firsts- first time exploring New England, first time going on a trip with just married couples, first time I had lobster (well in the shell) and the first time I went swimming in the ocean north of VA.

Here are some pics of the trip:
 
We enjoyed great seafood throughout the whole day. First we had fish n chips and my favorite- New England Clam Chowder.
 

Newport was really picturesque. I loved seeing all the colorful hydrangea everywhere and Queen Anne's Lace! Very romantic and sweet...

After lunch we went to the beach, which was surprisingly nice. By no means like the beaches in FL but the water was nice and cool and the sand was soft and I love swimming in the ocean so this was a much needed treat. Although I think watching the crazy, enormous seagulls steal ppl's food was the best part of the beach.

After the beach we went on the Cliff Walk, which was awesome for this
Florida girl. The Cliff Walk is a public walkway right on the Newport
shoreline that takes you behind the yards of some of the most gorgeous
homes I've ever seen. Florida being so flat and all doesn't have cliffs
on the shoreline, so it was so cool to see these stately mansions on the
right of me and then a 70 ft. drop on the left.

After the Cliff Walk we headed back to the Newport wharf and walked around and found a great place to eat right by the marina. (Sunah check out that store name!)

It was a fun and definitely food-filled weekend. Thanks to Jason & Janet and Jeff & Julia for making it so great!
       

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I know everyone gets bad breath, especially me with my love for garlic, onions and kimchee. However, this morning on the bus this guy sits next to me and I swear he almost knocked me out with all his coughing, sighing and phone conversations - anytime I got a whiff of his toxic breath I cringed. I seriously turned toward the window and got as physically far away from the guy as possible and then plugged my nose and breathed through my mouth. To make things worse this morning the traffic was horrendous, so my normal 30 min commute was over an hour!!

I tried to be as discreet as possible about my bad breath defensive tactics but now that I think about it maybe I shouldn't have been. I didn't want to hurt his feelings but maybe if I had let him known his breath was foul he would have been able to spare the coworkers, friends or other ppl he will encounter today.

Eeessshhh....whatever...I was just so happy to get off the bus.

Everyone have a great halitosis-free day!

I got to go to Kwik-E-Mart last week and drink a Squishee and Buzz Cola! I was surprised at how decked out the store was. Please check out my coworker Monsur's xanga to see more pics. This is the most awesome movie promotion ever.

So last month we had a quite a few visitors- Jami, Mikey, Eric and Peter. Since each of their visits were for more than a week we got to spend quality time with each of them. The guys' visits all overlapped so we spent a lot of time together. It was a good preview of what having three boys would be like. 

We did a lot of fun things together...

Played poker...although the guys didn't do so well...
this picture cracks me up

Can you tell who won both hands?

We went to see a Mets game

 
And of course we ate lots of food...
 

Yay for family, friends and yummy food!!

** Update**
The movie was sooooooooooo awesome! I wanna watch it again!!

We're gonna watch Transformers tonight!! Yay for early releases!
I rarely buy movie tickets ahead of time but this is like 15 years of anticipation being relieved tonight. hehe
Back in the day Jesse and I used to watch the Transformers cartoon religiously and then play with all the Transformers he had. Sometimes I would secretly take them when he wasn't around and play "Barbie Falls in Love with a Transformer."

All weekend long the song has been in my head...you know... "Transformers, more than meets the eye...."

Ok, massive picture update...was working on this last night and fell asleep! keke

            
I leave you with this clip. The day was unexpectedly cold.