This Labor Day weekend we stayed local, but had the chance to still squeeze in lots of final Summer moments.
The fun started on Friday evening with our friend Ranald’s birthday celebration. He and his girlfriend Sandra recently moved from Geneva to Boston and decided that heading down to NYC for the night was the perfect way to celebrate his birthday. We were happy to host them for the night, making great use of our new spare bedroom, as well as put together an evening itinerary proper for a birthday. We started with drinks at the Wyeth for sunset views of the city, dinner at the Dutch and then after dinner drinks at The Lobby Bar at the Bowery Hotel and dancing at the downstairs portion of Acme.
In preparation for the evening, I switched out my pastels for something a bit more appropriate: a black and white outfit complete with a leather skirt.
Bagel sandwiches and iced coffee were requisite Saturday morning before saying farewell to Ranald and Sandra and continuing work on the house. This weekend’s projects included taking the final load of donations to Goodwill, cutting down the last of our cardboard boxes for donations, finishing the guest bedroom, and building another Ikea Pax which is now our linen closet.
Saturday night Bo and I took it easy switching clubs for the couch and fancy restaurants for our grill and kitchen. A few glasses of wine, cheese plate and grilled sword fish dinner were the perfect pairing for a night on the couch.
Sunday I had the opportunity to enjoy a relaxing day while Bo went on a long ride on Palisades Park with his friend Scott. The day included a run and free yoga at Cobble Hill Lululemon, baking chocolate chip banana bread muffins, a sports massage, and afternoon of reading in the back yard.
That night we ended up introducing Scott to Carroll Gardens by way of a miniature pub crawl and dinner at one of our favorite spots, Prime Meats. The weather was perfect for an evening of outdoor drinking and dining, complete with white lights and a mix of craft cocktails and the final Summer brews.
By the time Monday rolled around, Bo and I were both ready to return to our regular schedule. We eased back into the week with an easy shakeout run along the water, an afternoon matinee viewing of Trainwreck and a grilled Summer meal including honey lime marinated shrimp and char-grilled corn on the cob.
Even though Summer was a wonderful blur, I’m ready to light my first pumpkin spice candle, add a few more dashes of pumpkin pie spice to my morning yogurt and find my way back into jeans and tall boots. Hopefully this weekend’s half marathon in Vermont will be our first cold weather run. As of now the morning temperatures are supposed to be 50 degrees – perfect for racing 13.1 miles of undulating hills!
