Sorry for missing yesterday; the Ms. and I were wrapping up our periodic “oh right, this is why we could never live in New York” trip. Nothing against The Center of the Known Universe© (other than the Yankees); it’s just not our preferred stress level (that is, EXTREMELY HIGH, ALL THE TIME). Full disclosure: me being sick and it being extremely cold the whole time may have played a role.

It wasn’t all bad, though—there were a lot of great things about the visit. So to that end, this week’s list is actually a 5-item list of our favorite parts of the visit:

Top 5 Best Things About Our NYC Visit:

5. Visiting and catching up with  some of our friends and family
4. Getting to walk down Broadway in Soho and visit all the different boutiques and see what other designers are up to and into
3. Experiencing Strand Books for the first time. That place is incredible (though the organization is not at all intuitive)! If you’ve ever been to the Amoeba Music in Los Angeles, it’s like that, but with books; kind of paralysis-inducing, it’s so full of books. You just don’t know where to start, and before you know it it’s been three hours and you’ve only scratched the surface. I wanted all of their beautiful leather-bound classics (sorry cows! Let’s hope it was synthetic.) But I did pick up a very cool book on modern poster design for inspiration.
2. Our dedication to food tourism is well-documented here, so it was great to discover Cocoa V in Chelsea Saturday night, a tiny, very cute and romantic chocolate & wine bar that sells artisanal bon bons and caramels that are so pretty you almost don’t want to eat them. Following our visit to Cocoa V, we ate at Pure Food and Wine (between Union Square and Gramercy Park) on Sunday evening and had a raw food extravaganza. The food was wonderful, the service impeccable, and despite it being a little on the loud & crowded side, a really cozy, romantic atmosphere.
1. Le Scandal burlesque show Saturday night at the West Bank Cafe on 42nd St. Sooooo hilarious and entertaining; completely made up for the rocky trip up. Not for the straight-laced, but if you enjoy bawdy humor interspersed with occasional pasty-covered breasts (who doesn’t, amirite?!), then this is definitely worth checking out.

Also, I am super-envious of NYC’s cab fleet. Nice, new-ish, clean vehicles with TV’s that take cash AND cards? Sign me up!

What about you guys? What are some of your favorite things to do in the Big Apple? Let me know in the comment section below!

Just a quick note to let you all know we picked a favorite comment for December:

“*GrumbleGrumbleGrumble* At this rate, I’d rather be a handbag! ”
-Damaris wrote in response to Title This Tuesday: This is Why Alligators Hate Kids

Keep your entertaining comments coming, we’ll pick a new winner at the end of January.

Also, I designed a new tee for the Valentine fans:

My Valentine weekend would have been mostly charmed, had it not been for the bad and ugly, but that will wait. First, the good:

My girl and I took a road trip to Philadelphia. We went to this amazing bakery called Vegan Treats. According to her, it was located in a “suburb” of Philly. Note to all you Pennsylvania neophytes—80 miles is a bit far for a town to be considered a “suburb”. Anyway, we ate cake for breakfast!!!

After the sugarfest we made our way into the city proper and wandered around South Street for a while. We got spicy chai at a tiny Moroccan cafe and really good Syrah at a wine bar. Then we went to dinner at Horizons, which was the best food I’ve ever had in my life!

The menu:
Saffron Tomato Bisque with smoked foccacia croutons and a roasted eggplant “dumpling”
Wild Mushroom Crepe with creamy truffle sauce, golden beet tartare, and seaweed caviar
Baked Seitan Terrine with dijon glaze, potato chive crust and red wine sauce
Pan Seared Tofu Hanalei with hearts of palm and lomi tomato salad and warm lemongrass butter
Chocolate Covered Red Velvet Cake with lemon-vanilla bean ganache and toasted coconut

My camera didn’t really do the food justice because of the sexy lighting but here are a few shots:

Now onto the bad and ugly: Friday night we noticed our furnace was making funny noises. It kept turning on and immediately switching off. We called an HVAC service. The HVAC guy said the off/on issue was the result of a dirty sensor (which he cleaned) but then he said it looked like we had a broken seal on our furnace that could cause carbon monoxide leakage. He said repairing the problem would cost almost as much as a new furance.  He also said he’d have to rip out the dry wall to repair or replace the furnace since it was in a closet. Then (unbeknownst to us) he turned the gas off to the heater so we had no heat.

Amid a lot of cursing and bitching, my girl insisted we call another HVAC guy to get a second opinion because she wanted to make sure this was a legit issue and she was not about to go two months with no #&!#% heat!!! At least our cat Oliver gave us a lot of cuddles. When the house is 30 degrees he gets very affectionate.

The second HVAC tech took apart our furnace (thankfully leaving our drywall intact) and told us all the heat exchanger seals were fine and the  only problem we had was that the gas was disconnected. He said the dirty sensor may have been an issue but it wasn’t now and our furnace is fine. So it cost $400 to pretty much find out nothing was wrong with our furnace that a little soap and water wouldn’t cure. Ouch! At least we don’t need a new furnace, so I won’t have to sell my kidney or anything.

Also, my girl got me this for Valentine’s Day:

No, we don’t have a new cat (yet). What she did was sponsor a kitty in my name at the MDSPCA. We aren’t quite ready for a new kitty in our family yet, so sponsoring a little guy at our local shelter was the next best thing.

Oh, and I designed two new shirts this past weekend:

Valentine’s Day is coming, so I designed some romantic tees to put everyone in the mood for lovin’.

If you’re a robot (or if you’re like me and love robots) you’ll probably like this Robot Romance tee:

If you like your tees to be artistic and educational, here’s one that teaches you how to write LOVE in braille.

Finally, if you prefer lust to love (and who can blame you, lust is fun) you might appreciate the Weapon of Mass Seduction tee:

All you heart breakers and love birds will get 10% off on any orders before Valentine’s Day if you use coupon code BEMINE10