February 20, 2009 - Marc & Jenn Meet Andrew

Andrew Gets Baptised!

Thursday was an awesome day! Our flight to Tampa was perfect and as soon as we walked in to the terminal, we were met by Baby Andrew! He is such a cute baby!

We pretty much played for the rest of the afternoon. You know how it is...........I talk to him, he looks at me.........I hold him up, he looks at me.............I make funny sounds, he looks at me - so we definitely had a great afternoon.

Andrew: "Who is this goofball holding me.....ugghhh" ahhahaa

I will say that it took me a little while to become comfortable holding him. I was not sure how tight to hold him, was I suppose to hold his head, how physical could I be with him....and all that stuff. After about an hour watching Bill and Leslie I became more comfortable and started playing rough like a good Uncle!

Before we left the airport I took Andrew for a walk around the terminal. I asked Jenn to hold my ring because I wanted to see if I could really pick up chicks with a baby. Well, I walked around for a few, but nothing happened. I think Jenn & Leslie were following to closely, but whatever ;-)

Here is the picture I took of Jenn following me around the Airport with my stuff. I think she was giving all the girls the evil eye! Just kidding, I was taking a picture of her and I snapped it too quick. She had a beautiful smile in the next picture, but the picture above was more fun to post!
This is the real picture of me and my lovely wife!

Here is one more picture of Jenn & Andrew! Something tells me she is going to make a good mom in a couple years. Please note that I referenced a couple years!

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February 16, 2009 - Lindsay Lohan was in our building this weekend!

Lindsay Lohan was in our building this weekend!

Lindsay Lohan was in my building this past weekend! I thought all the cameras were for me, but it appears that she ran in the building before I walked in the door....... Well, it felt good to be a super start for a minute:-)

CHECK OUT HER VIDEO HERE!!!


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February 15, 2009 - Valentine's Day Night in New York City

Night Out On The Town!

We had a great Valentine's Day & Night. We basically did a lot of nothing during the day. Jenn made me breakfast in bed around 11am......but she made me get out of bed to eat:-) She made eggs and waffles special for me! After breakfast we basically just laid around all day, went to the gym, played with the dogs, then went to dinner with Byron and Jess!

We went to a great place called The Red Cat around the corner from our place on 10 avenue. Their food is awesome! Jenn and I split their famous grilled porkchop and mashed potatoes. Jess had the porkchop and Byron had the cod.

As you can see from the picture above, this is no ordinary porkchop.

As you can see from the picture below, this porkchop did not last very long!

Before you think I am a total pig for cleaning my plate - Jenn and I split the dish, so she had a couple bites too!

After dinner and a few bottles of wine, we ordered Red Velvet cake with cream cheese ice cream! Yes, you read that correctly......CREAM CHEESE ICE CREAM! The only bad part was we ate half of it before we remembered to take a picture.....

Check this out! After dinner we went to a place called "Please Don't Tell" . This place is a hole in the wall - literally! Well, kinda.....it was actually a phone booth in the wall......

Here is the cool part...........you have to have reservations because you use a secert phone in this phone booth above, which is inside a hot dog restaurant on St. Marks street in the East Village. Once you find the hot dog place, you go inside the phone booth to confirm your reservation - then a door opens on the other side to let you in the bar.

The pictures above show the gang walking thru the wall. We watched the hostess inside the bar turn people down all night. We felt so special.....until we got our drinks......they were not really that great..........but we were inside a secret bar, so that made up for the limited selection of drinks....hahaha

We really did have a great night!

They did have dead animals on the wall - so I think Jenn felt like she was back in Texas...hehe

I know exactly what you are thinking........"There is no way they walked into a hotdog place, thru a phone booth, into a secret bar called Please Don't Tell and did not have a hot dog???" Well you are right on the money! We totally grabbed a hotdog on our way home. It just seemed like the right thing to do on Valentine's Day Night after a great dinner, desert, and drinks!

That is about all for today's blog! Hopefully you enjoyed our Valentine's evening...hehe But before we go, I just wanted to show you a picture of my little princess. Isn't she cute just hanging out and claiming her space in the bed!

OK - last picture for today........... I promise! This picture below is of Dex & Maddie sitting next to me on the couch as I am typing this blog entry. Of course, that lasted for about 2 minutes.......Dexter has been on and off the couch begging me to throw the ball.

Check back in a few days for an update......

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February 12, 2009

Blackberry vs. iPhone

This is a HUGE decision in a persons life - "Do I stick with the Blackberry? OR Do I try something new?" Many of you know me pretty well, and know that I am pretty loyal to my Blackberry. As a matter of fact, everyone made fun of me when I got my first Blackberry back in 2004.........NOW everyone has one! Sandy Capell, Robert Reese, Kevin Epps, Jeff Malone, Amanda Estes, Chris Jones, and a bunch of other people that swore they would never need one. Ironically, all of my friends who have one (there are too many to list), just about everyone is addicted.

Over the past few weeks I have been thinking about picking up a new phone. Many of you that know me well, know that I like to think long and hard about certian decisions...........especially a decision like changing phones & breaking up with blackberry! So, I went to about 5 differnt cell phone stores to get 5 different opinions, did my homework online, then asked everyone who had either of the phones if I could play with them.

On Wednesday, I walked to the Apple store on 14th street for one last glance at the iPhone before I made my final decision. At this point my mind was pretty much made up, but I need to play with it one last time. So, I walked into the store and met Troy. He was very helpful (unlike the AT&T Stores), he answered all of my questions, and even showed me a few tricks. So, after about 15 minutes blasting him with questions, I decided to buy the iPhone! Yep, after years of being a loyal Blackberry user, I decided to do something different. I am not totally committed, I have 30 days to return the phone, but so far I like it, so we will see what happens.

I will post an update in a couple days with details about the phone and all its bells and whistles. I downloaded a few apps, started taking pictures, adding music, and all that stuff - so my update should be pretty informative.

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February 7, 2009

The Art of Making Bread!

I say the art of making bread because it is truly an art! Over the past couple weeks we made two batches of bread and I have a new respect for my Grandma & Mom! The bread turned out wonderful - so I guess it runs in the family!

Here are the tricks for good buns:
Fluffy
Rise up - not out
Crunchy on the outside
Soft on the inside

Here are the ingredients:
1 block of yeast or 4 packs of dry yeast
4 cups of water
2 tsp. of salt
6-8 cups of flour....this could be more, depends on the flour, so don't worry if you have to use more.
Olive oil (for your hands)

Directions:
Use warm water.
It should be warm to the touch, but not HOT. That will kill the yeast.
Be sure your bowl is warm too so it won't cool off the water too much.
Put all the water in a bowl and melt the yeast in the warm water.
Add the salt and let it sit for about 5 minutes.
(Typically some sugar is added to yeast to help it rise, but in this recipe, sugar is NOT used.)

Mixing:
We used a KitchenAid mixer to knead the bread.
My Grandma and Mom made it by hand - you have no idea how hard that is until you try.

Add the flour one cup at a time and mix (with a spoon) in a little more flour after each addition.
After about 4 cups it will start to get pretty thick, so start using your hands for the rest of the flour. (If you have a mixer, you can mix everything with the machine)
Put olive oil on your hands, just lightly, do not put it on the dough.
Now keep mixing in the flour until the dough stops sticking to your hands. It should be nice and soft, but not sticky.

Let is Rise:
Now put some olive oil in the bowl, just enough to smear in the bowl.
Put the dough in the bowl and roll it around so the dough has a little coating of oil.
This is very very light.
Put a towel over the bowl and let it raise for about 45 minutes.
You can warm up your oven a little to help the bread rise. Be sure if your oven does not have bread proof setting, that you turn OFF the oven! You only want the oven barely warm.

Now, after the 45 minutes you can do one of two things:
1)Punch it down, knead it, and let it raise again.
2)Or form into buns or put into bread loaves, let that raise and bake it.

Making the Buns:
After you let it raise the second time - do not punch it down. When you make the buns, dip your hands into flour to keep the dough from getting too sticky.
Start taking the dough and forming into buns. (Cut the dough - DO NOT TEAR IT)
You will also do this if you only raise the dough one time.
Now that you have the dough formed into buns or loaves, let it raise for 30 minutes in the warm oven

Baking the bread:
Heat the oven to 425 degrees
Bake the buns for about 20-25 minutes.
The browner the buns the crunchier the crust.

Once the bread is done, add some butter and you will be in heaven!

Using the dough to make pizza crust!
Take about 25% of the dough
Flatten out, then roll out the dough
You can make a round or square pizza depending on your pan

Making the sauce:
1 can of tomato sauce
1 can of crushed tomatoes
Italian spices
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of Red Pepper if you like it spicy
Cook on the stove for about 20 minutes

Baking the pizza crust:
Heat the oven to 425 degrees
Bake the crust for about 20 minutes.

Adding the toppings:
Take the crust out of the oven after about 20 minutes
Cover the crust in sauce
Add the cheese
Add toppings
Add more sauce
Add a little more cheese (depending on how you like your pizza)
Put the pizza back in the oven for about 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted

Well, that is how you make awesome homemade bread and homemade pizza! If you use a mixer, you need to use the bread hook to mix the dough. It is fun to make the dough by hand, but it is sooooo much easier to use the mixer.

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February 6, 2009

Check out these videos and pictures of Maddie and Dexter. We shot them at a Dog Park in Annapolis during our New Year's Break.

Everyone always asks us why we bring our dogs to the "big" dog park, instead of the "small" dog park. Well, check out Maddie in the first video.

She definitely holds her own. The best part is that both Maddie and Dexter can run with just about every dog in the park.......except for the grey hounds.

Maddie is full of energy - but when she is done, she will let you know!

Here is my stud with the ball in sight!

Maddie in action.....this Lab is going NOWHERE!

Hey Monkey - dont touch my BALL!

Dexter & Maddie stride for stride chasing a _____________(insert something here).

This picture is my favorite. If I had to add a caption, here is what I would write..... "Is there a problem? If you mess with my sister, you mess with me! Did you say something? What? "

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February 4, 2009

Rise & Shine!

Let me start by saying that I love my dogs. Maddie and Dexter are two awesome pups that are happy and loving 24 hours a day!

Right about now you are thinking..."Wow - I wish I had dogs like that"....and that is a good thought......but this morning around 5am, Dexter jumped from the foot of the bed, all the way up by our heads, then on to my chest where he started licking me like I poured peanut butter all over my face! It looked kinda like this picture - except it was me and not Christopher.....and it was at 5am:-) I guess there is no better way to wake up at 5am!

February 3, 2009

Welcome to New York City!

New York City is an amazing place to live! The people are great, there is always something to do, and the food is wonderful! From Times Square to Little Italy the city offers so much culture and character.

We live in a HUGE apartment in Chelsea. Well, I guess huge is all relative - but that is what the ad said before we came to look at the 600sqft unit! The building is actually great and we love our neighbors. I think half of living in NYC is all about your friends "in the city". I say in the city because we never use a bridge or tunnel ;-) --> -->

Jenn and I were fortunate to see games at Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium as this was their last season. The stadiums were great, but each game was like watching an ALL-Star game which made the experience that much better!

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY - What a great Sunday! The Steelers played 60 minutes of hard nose football. We watched the game in our apartment with Byron, Jess, and Ed. It was all fun and games until the last 4 minutes......when we were all standing in front of the TV wondering what the heck was going to happen as Larry Fitzgerald ran through the middle of the defense for a touchdown. Luckily Big Ben put the team on his back and led them down the field for the last and final score of the game.

Sunday was a perfect night with homemade chili, homemade bread, pig in the blankets, Jenn's cheese dip and a HUGE win by the Steelers!

New York City always brings something new to the table. Today I saw a seagull flying around........WHEN IT WAS SNOWING! I thought birds flew south for the winter - what the heck?




Normally you can see across the Hudson River to New Jersey, but it was nasty out today. The snow did not stick this morning, but by the evening there were a few inches on the ground. Maddie and Dexter love the snow - so tonight when we went out for our walk, the dogs jumped around and played in the snow for about 20 minutes.