Locks, Stock, and Two Smokin' Igloos

I know, I know. It's Spring now, so what right do I have to post something about winter? Well, I'm sorry. I'm late. But, without any further ado....

Never a dull moment in New York. That’s what they all say. We’ve had a good host of humorous moments here in the city (as you all get to read about), and there probably won’t ever be an end. So I’ll keep supplying them.

So, one January evening, Christine complains that her key is sticking in the lock of our door. I say I’ll look into it and possibly switch keys with her so that I’m the one who has to deal with the sticky key. Of course I didn’t look into it. The next morning rolls around, and I remember the key thing as I’m leaving for work. With a loud sigh, I go back in and try both keys in the door, with both working. I don’t think anything of it and leave for work. I’m too annoyed that I was delayed 23 seconds to care.

Fast forward to an hour later, and my phone rings. Who could it be? Yep, it’s Christine. The key is stuck in the lock. She’s been trying for 5 minutes to get the key out, and it’s surely stuck in the lock. After some discussion, she gets her keychain off the key and locks the other lock and heads to work. I head up to our apartment to get the key out, not wanting to give free access to our room. I get there, and I have to take the entire lock off the lock and spray Pam (the cooking spray, not the person) in the lock hole to get the key out. You better believe that dang thing works better than new now, though. Moral of the story: grease your locks, people.

It’s cold in New York - so cold that when our cheapskate landlord doesn’t feel like turning on the heat, we have to walk around in parkas and mittens. We have two radiators in our place – one that we leave on all the time and one that we normally keep off, because when the heat actually is on, it’s ON. So, in order to stimulate some heat throughout our apartment, we turn on the second radiator one fateful day (can you see where this is going?) to allow some steam heat to warm the place up. Christine’s mom and bro are in town, so we leave to go to the museum for the afternoon, having high hopes that we can return to a cozy apartment.

Christine and her mom arrive first to the scene. A faint sound of a fire alarm can be heard in the hallway, but nothing is thought of when they go to the door, because, if the fire alarm was going off in our apartment, then surely the neighbors would say something or try to check it out. Nope. They don’t check it out. They’re in their own world, and when the door opens, a wave of steam and smoke-like material pours out into the hallway. Visibility is down to about 2 or 3 feet, so Christine has to hold her breathe and blindly feel her way into the apartment to shut off the steam heat. A pool an inch thick of condensation is lying at the base of our kitchen table. Pictures and windows are completely steamed over. I get a call with a single sentence: “Eric, get home NOW.”

I know “this kind of stuff happens,” but seriously? What else is going to happen here? All for the sake of comedy, folks.

With more cheery notes – it has snowed a lot this winter, and the snow fall is pretty beautiful in New York. On one such snowy Saturday, Christine and I made the trek through the concrete jungle to spend time in Central Park. Our goal was sledding, but we forgot one key thing for that: a sled. So, we did what all New Yorkers tend to do, and that’s try to use a garbage bag. The snow was a little too thick though, and after trying to smooth away about 15 feet of snow with the weight of my behind, we gave up on the sledding escapade and turned towards more important things, like building a spectacular igloo.

We set off to work mid afternoon, with hopes that our efforts could finish before sundown. We worked tirelessly hauling snow and packing ice into the perfect formation for an icy oasis. We lost feeling in our hands 15 minutes after we started – but we pushed through till the end to make it happen.

What became of our attempts turned out to be one of the greatest sights that these weary eyes have ever taken in The warmth of our own igloo rejuvenated our spirits. There were a group of kids building an igloo across the field from ours, and ours was totally better, like no comparison.

Ok, so I promise I'll update more. Stay tuned.

It's CHRISTMAS time again, Charlie Brown! (and a New Year!)

¡Feliz Navidad! and: Prosit Neujahr!

Officially, 2009 is, as they say, in the books. It was a pretty good year. Some things happened worth mentioning: UC Bearcats went undefeated in football (until the bowl game, let's not go there), and something else I can't seem to remember that I think is kind of important....oh yeah, we got married! So it was a great year. And a great decade. That's why we decided to go out with a bang this year, spending Christmas in Cincinnati with family and friends, and watching the ball drop in New York (not Times Square) for New Years Eve.

Christmastime. It really is the most wonderful time of the year, isn't it? Family, friends, food, fun, and folly (alliteration). We were actually able to go home to Cincinnati this year, so we decided to make the most of it and take 5 days and experience all that Cincinnati has to offer (mainly the three trips to Skyline in 5 days, a trip to LaRosa's, and Montgomery Inn sauce). Some of you may have actually joined us, but on the Tuesday before Christmas we got together in Mt. Adams to hang out, eat, drink, and benefit the Leukemia society in the celebration of the late Bill Kramer. I'll let the pictures do the talking here, people. Thanks to all who came out - we raised ~$400!!

This Christmas (I gave you my heart...) we had the pleasure of traveling cross-City multiple times. Our families don't really all live close to each other - thanks, guys. Thanks for making it difficult for us. We were, however, able to drive the Plageman's sweet new car and drag race some high schoolers down on River road with it. So, in the end, it was worth all the traveling. Christmas Eve was spent split between the two families, and pictures of course were taken.

Christmas day! The joy of awakening to see the tree and all its splendor! The smell of cookies, and bacon, and presents and joy! *cue Charlie Brown Christmas theme* We started the day off opening gifts at the Wolf abode, and made our way to the Plageman side of the family by lunchtime. We had a great time seeing everyone - even though there never seems to be enough time for anything, anymore.

Christmas day at the Mayhaus family turned into a dance party before you could even blink. For those keeping score at home, I 'won' the dance-off between Emily and I. Christine had some good looking moves too. Those who didn't have good looking moves? My dad and uncle Bill. No offense, guys.

Snow Tubing. The essence of all things wintery and Christmastime. And fast becoming both of our family's new holiday tradition. This was so much fun. Highlights of this was the 18 and 20 person train that got to go down the hill at the same time, crushing every downhill speed record on the way. Many friends and family alike joined us. If you see yourself, holler.

Christmas was great - 5 days wasn't nearly enough time to spend at home and see everyone, but it was a good time. Of course our flight was delayed on the way home. Did you really think it wasn't going to be? Luckily we had an early enough flight that we still got in early enough to New York. There's always something with this City...

With only a 3 day break (for our sanity), Charlie and Katie flew up to New York to hang out for New Years Eve. We tried something a little different this year. We actually went to see the ball drop. I know what you're thinking - "That's crazy!" Yes, it is, but we weren't in Times Square. We watched it drop from 59th street and 7th avenue - a full 17 blocks away, but all the fun with half the craziness. Right behind us, fireworks were set off as well. It was a New Year's Eve wonderland. The best part was trying to get back to the subway and home. The subway station was the most crowded I've ever seen it, but we somehow got through fairly quickly and made it home in one piece. Check that off the list of things to do before we leave New York....

Katie had never been to NYC before this trip, so we did it up in style. Restaurants, subway trips; you name it, we did it (within reason). We went shopping on 5th avenue. When I say "we" I mean Christine and Katie shopped while Charlie and I wandered around for 25 minutes looking for a street gyro. It tasted delicious when we found it, as it usually does. We also went to see one of Broadway's most famous plays: Phantom of the Opera! What a great show, indeed. Our trip there, however, was not so great. We had great plans to go eat dinner right across the street from the theater at John's Pizza, take our time and casually walk across the street to see the show. Nope, it didn't happen. We get there, and the place is totally packed. So, we decide to walk a bit to find a place. The only issue with this plan is that it was 8 degrees out with hurricane-like winds whipping through the streets and alleys. I don't think i could feel my entire body when we finally stumbled into a restaurant.

On another note, Katie and Charlie were able to feel our pain as their plane was delayed leaving New York. What a great city for traveling!

Sorry this wasn't updated earlier. As you may notice, it's about a month late. I vow to make a better stance at posting blogs. We've had some funny stories, and I'm sure everyone is on the edge of their seat waiting to see what happens next. Stay tuned.....

The Cooking of the Great Bird

Thanksgiving. Some remember it for a time to be with family and celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Others about Pilgrims, Native Americans, and the harvest. Still others choose to celebrate the Holiday strictly for the eating of delicious foods that make you pass out while watching football. Whatever reason, a day for thanks.

This year's Thanksgiving was unlike any other. For starters, it was the first time Christine and I made our attempt at cooking a turkey. For seconds, Justin and Jennifer Little also graced us with their presence for the Great American Holiday. Just look at them. Who wouldn't want to let them live with you in a small apartment for 5 days? Well, I guess we did anyway. Little (no pun intended!!!!) did we know, that this would come back to haunt us....

What can now be considered "par for the course," the Little's arrived at our apartment after hours (for those of you who don't remember their visit last year, see this post). Once again, I tried to stay up for them, but it wasn't happening and I fell asleep on the couch. But, they arrived without a hitch, and pretty much went straight to bed. The day before Thanksgiving was surprisingly an easy day. Christine had to work (bor-ing!), so JJ and I went to the store for some preparations and hung out in the City. It was fun. It was kind of rainy, but, you know, "fun." A mostly uneventful day, we made our way to the main event...

The morning was brisk. As the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, Jenny and Justin were up and heading down to watch the infamous Thanksgiving Day Parade. Personally, Christine and I were more than content with watching it on TV...with our pajamas on...in the warmth...with a cup of coffee...and with personal space. Anyways, we had a grand task to take on of our own: The Cooking of the Great Bird.

I'll go ahead and say it. I didn't know what I was doing. I don't think Christine really did either. But hey, we can cook, so how hard could it be? Duh duh duhhhhnnnn!

The first step is to scoop the innards out of the turkey. This is gross/not gross depending on how you look at it. It really wasn't that bad, if you ask me. The biggest problem was that I had hardly any help on the matter because Christine was "totally grossed out, Eric!!!!" Good thing I'm a man and can handle literally anything. So we de-gut the bird and put it in the oven, leave it for 6+ hours, taking it out every once in a while to make sure it's "moist." Repeat until ready. This is about the time that Jenny and Justin returned from the parade. I sadly gave up my cooking duties and went out and unfortunately had to watch football and eat hors d'oeuvres with Justin. Justin and I also had "grocery store duty," which means we made no fewer than 8 emergency trips to the store in order to save Thanksgiving.

Benjamin Franklin Wietmarschen and Jenny-Beth Thomas were kind enough to join us, looking dapper as ever. Cute as a button, those two are.

After some delectable finger food that Christine made perfectly, it was onto football time for the dudes. It's not a big deal or anything, but I dominated Justin and Ben. DOM-inated. But, after about an hour, we made our way back to the apartment to help with the Holiday preparations.

Then something happened. Something that will forever stay in our minds for the rest of Thanksgivings to come.

"Christine, I don't know what the deal is, but every time I pull the turkey out of the oven, it seems to be dripping all over the place. Am I that uncoordinated?"

*rolls eyes* "Just put the turkey in the oven."

"But this smoke - what's going on...oh my GOSH!!!!!! there's a leak in the turkey pan! Call the fire department, this one's out of control!"

Yes folks, you read correctly. We were almost smoked out of our small apartment with this mishap. To make things better, the food wasn't done, so we had to sit in the apartment while the smoke just pumped out of the oven. But, to look on the brightside, us men were called into the kitchen to save the day ONCE AGAIN. We looked cuter than ever in our aprons. Our Man-prons, if you will. And, we saved the turkey.

The food was great. The smoke may have caused us eye and lung problems, but the food was fantastic. Take a look at some of the pictures and try not to salivate.

What a fun Thanksgiving! Although we missed the family dearly and wished we could have home with everyone, it was still nice to feel a little like home with such great friends to visit. And it was sad to see Thanksgiving end, but you know what season starts as soon as Thanksgiving ends...........CHRISTMAS!!!! We'll see you all soon!

A SPOOKtacular good time!!!!

First, this:

And now, some Fang-tastic hilarity on the account of a super spoooooooky day!!!!

Q. What kind of streets do zombies like the best?

A. Dead ENDS!!!!

Q. In what room of the house would you never find a ghost?
A. The living room!!!!!

Q: Why did the vampire quit the baseball team?
A: They would only let him be BAT boy!!!

Q.Why aren't there any famous skeletons?
A. They're a bunch of NO BODIES!!!!!!!!

In case someone forgot/didn't care/is weird, last Saturday was Halloween. Halloween is a holiday, that like most others, comes once a year. What originally was celebrated as the night before All Souls Day, and is now celebrated as an excuse to dress up and eat candy until ones stomach screams in frustration, All Hallows Eve is a big deal here in New York. As if there weren't enough interesting people on the streets of New York, I decided it was a good idea for me to dress up as "Miss Piggy." Yeah.

Christine completed our perfect costume by being a perfect Kermit, or as "muah" would like to call her, Kerrrrmiiiiieeee!!! Oh, and we won the costume competition. It's really not a big deal or anything, but we won.

We had a rockin' good time at our Apostolist Hallowen party. The theme was costumes, pumpkins, and candy, naturally. With Kermit, Miss Piggy, a cupcake, a cow, and Abraham Lincoln dressed up both as a zombie and as a basketball player, you could say it was a frightenly good time! It was so good it was scary. Ok, I'm done.

Enjoy the pictures below. I apologize for some of the pictures of me dressed as Miss Piggy. No one should really have to see something that scary, even on Halloween, and if you have small children, you might want to shield their eyes....

Hope you had a boooooootiful Halloween!!! Go Bearcats!

The Humble Mayhaus Abode

I've been getting a ton of emails recently, saying things like, "Eric, I love catching up with Christine you, but I want to get to know the real you," or, "When do we get to see where you live?" or "I want to stay in your apartment for a free trip to Manhattan!" Slow down, everyone, we had to get our apartment ready to show you, and "free trip?" Ha! We'll see about that!

Christine and I will now take you through a detailed, fun and exciting tour through what we both venture to call "our apartment." Also, this post relies heavily on the pictures, so if you can't see the pictures in your email, click here.

C: Hey everybody! We're so excited to take you through our apartment!!

E: Yay!

C: Look how cute our door is!!!! We didn't even do this, or anything! We saw it when we came to the open house, and just knew this was our new home!

E: yay!

E: Right away you can see our cuter-than-life kitchen. This is where we do things like: cook, store food, refridgerate and freeze certain items, bake, and get glasses of water. Most other "normal" activities like watching TV and sleeping are done in other rooms of the apartment.

C: *rolls eyes* Oh, Eric. I just love the pot rack and the yellow paint that we (I) decided on. It really gives it a homey feeling, and brightens the room up. Yay Le Creuset!

E: This is the "Bathroom." 'Nuff Said.

C: Our first main room area is a quasi-kitchen, library, desk area, and dance floor mixture. Normal nights are spent eating dinner on our kitchen table, but you better believe that on Friday nights I'm out in the middle of this floor breaking it down while Eric flickers the light on and off like a strobe light with the bass pumping through the air.

E: ....and then we go to our second main room, or as we like to call it, "Room Awesome." The only thing of note in Room Awesome is the totally sweet and rad-tacular HD tv, perfect for sports and 24 watching. Moving on to the...

C: You forgot to mention the cute couch, rug, and audamin! Not to mention the paint color and curtains! We got such great deals on all of these, from the couch to the new pillow cases. Oh, and we need to talk about getting cable soon - Project Runway has started.

E: Sorry. Project Runway is on at the same time as The Office. I'm not skipping hilarity for fashion. Done.

C: Er-IC! We will be watching Project Runway. Actually, it's on after The Office, so we can watch both!

E: *silence*

C: And how about this cuuuuuuuuute bedroom?!? Just look at this bedspread, it's so cute, I can't even stand it! The color was my pick again, and I like how the light blue cleanses the palette after a tough day, and can brighten up your morning on a lazy Sunday! Oh yeah, look at these super cute hooks I got from Anthropologie! Aren't they just adorable?! And my cute jewelery box! And this cute....

E: *cuts off* If I had a nickle for every time we moved the bed around in this room, I'd have 15 cents (3 times moving x 5 cents each time = 15 cents).
C: *still talking in background*
E: I mean, it's a bedroom. We sleep here, sometimes read, sometimes watch tv. It's dece, I guess, but nothing to dwell upon. Now that TV out there....
C: ....and this great little closet right here! So, that's the master bedroom! Onwards to the guest bedroom!!

E: The guest bedroom is much like one would imagine it to be. A bed with a dresser and a closet. As you can see, this is where my stuff is stored.
C: *glancing around room* Oh, Eric, we need to clean up that guitar, fix the dust ruffle, actually wash that bedspread, and dust off that shelf finally......

E: So that's our apartment. It's pretty darn sweet if you ask me. What I didn't say earlier is that it's right in between two phenomenal parks - Central Park and Riverside Park. We're right by a subway stop and within a block of the grocery, laundry, and the local watering hole. We hope you've enjoyed this wonderful tour, and now if you'll excuse me, I've got some 'cleaning' to do...