Rich for a Day

I work at a hedge fund, and let me tell you, there is a lot of money in this business. I am definitely forcing my kids to go into finance when they get older, so they can take care of me and buy me lots of nice things.

My company has different events throughout the year, and they are always extravagant and something I have never done or ever would never be able to do. Every year, my company hosts an all day outing during a normal work day. This is the first outing I have been to, and I was blown away.

It was held at a country club on Long Island that one of my co-workers belongs to. At the club, there were tennis courts, putting greens, driving ranges, and croquet courts scattered throughout, with a mansion, built in 1910, used as it's main club house. At first I was a little put off because there was a strict dress code, which caused me to have to buy an all white tennis outfit, along with white tennis shoes. Also, when I was not wearing my tennis whites, there was a dress code of blouses or collared shirts, Bermuda length shorts, and no jeans. Having never been to place with such a strict dress code (BYU's not even THAT bad! ha) I thought the day would be really uptight and I would feel really out of my element. However, the dress code made everyone look so nice and I felt really yuppie, which surprisingly I really liked. haha

Prior to the day we signed up for the activities we wanted to participate in, as there were lessons for each sport.

I had an hour and a half tennis lesson from a REAL Tennis Pro, and by golly, I was really good! It made me wish I could have lessons like this all the time, perhaps I would be a tennis genius! You never know! I really enjoyed playing a sport again. It brought be back to my junior high and high school days. I didn't realize how much I actually enjoy these types of activities.

After our tennis lesson it was then time for our croquet lesson. The last time I played croquet I believe I was 5 years old and played with a set my family had in our backyard. I obviously didn't know the rules at that age or the technique of hitting. It was a lot of fun to learn the strategy behind the sport and to once age feel very yuppie and like I should be speaking with a rich old lady English accent.

Once we had our fill of croquet, we headed to the other country club location, located right on the ocean. We took showers and got ready for the evening's activities and the amazing dinner. As we sat on the deck, enjoying a steal drum Caribbean band, bottomless appetizers and an open bar (not too exciting for me as a sipped on my water the whole time), it was almost too perfect. The band even got a few of us engaged in a little healthy limbo competition, which I gladly participated in.

Then. Comes. Dinner.
Holy Moly. I couldn't believe the food. I had my first full lobster, which I had to have a lesson on how to appropriately eat. And who would have known that the meat inside the claws are the best! So delicious.

This day was definitely a day of "firsts." I felt like royalty the whole day, and got a taste of "the rich life," and really liked it.

The Cat Toilet Training Begins!

So I love cats, but I hate cat hair and cat litter. I solved the first problem by getting a Sphynx, but now I am about to attempt to solve the second problem by toilet training Montee.

Prior to getting Montee, I knew I wanted to do this. I saw a few Youtube videos of cats going potty in the toilet and just thought it was the best idea. Then I was watching my favorite show, Shark Tank, and saw a young entrepreneur who invented a product that helped train cats how to go potty in the toilet. Her product is called CitiKitty, and I was sold.

I just received CitiKitty in the mail yesterday and started the process the same night. I have heard mixed reviews on how well this product works and I am really scared about the whole process. A guy at Pat's work tried it and his cats started peeing on the couch! HEAVEN forbid that happens!!

I tried to do internet research on peoples experiences, but there really wasn't much out there. I had so many questions about the whole process, but I couldn't find any answers. So, with Pat working a lot of hours recently, which leaves me with a lot more time to waste, I decided to start a blog documenting the process, to help potential-crazy-cat-toilet-trainers. hahahahahahhahahah I KNOW! So DORKY.

The blog is called The CitiKitty Experiment. I HOPE this is only a month long project which ends with a completed blog and a toilet trained cat. However, this blog could also document the epic failure along with a pee drenched couch. yuck. Lets hope for the prior.


So far Montee has used the CitiKitty once, but it didn't come naturally or easily (you can see the video here) Here is a video of me preparing the bathroom. Montee is used to us keeping the toilet seat down, and well....just skip the video to about 1:00 to see what happened. Poor Montee.

E.T. Phone Home

Yes, we are becoming, if we haven't already become, those weird cat people. Since we don't have kids, our cat has become the outlet for all the attention and love that people would normally devote to a child. OH WELL! It is what it is.

I have been really been enjoying having Montee (except for the fact that he bites my nose really hard when I lay in bed). He is more dog like, than cat like, which I love. The personality traits of hairless or Sphynx cats, are amazing. I wonder why more people don't have them. They are super affectionate, playful, easy going, intelligent and they don't shed! What more could you ask for (for him not to bite my nose)?

Montee, looking very much like E.T. after his bath.

At Pat's work they have a "Cat Wall" where people pin up pictures of their cats. Being around a hairless cat all the time, I forget what a "normal" cat looks like. However, when I saw this wall in person, Montee's "unique look" -- or as some hairless cat haters would say, his "ugliness" -- really stood out.

Front Row Seats to the Nation's Largest Firework Show

Happy Independence Day everyone! Us American's are all so blessed to be able to live in such a great country, where we are free. I am truly proud to be an American.

Yesterday, we celebrated our nation's independence by watching the nation's largest firework show, put on by Macy's, on the Hudson River. The show featured more than 40,000 shells exploding at a rate of more than 1,500 per minute. We were lucky enough to have amazing seats to the show because Pat's work is located very close to the Hudson River. It is the one time of the year that is actually pays off for Pat to work there, because it is located so far from the subway and any other businesses. If Manhattan had a boondocks, his work would be right in the middle of it.

Pat's work has an amazing roof deck; however, during the 4th of July, they close it down for safety reasons. Last year, we watched the fireworks from the 10th floor, which still had a great view. But this year, we snuck out onto the roof (not the roof deck) which didn't have any security. It has been a while since I snuck into anything, so it was fun to feel like a teenager again.

We enjoyed the nights fireworks with our good friends, Johnny and Joanna, and Raquel and Nathan. We felt really lucky to have such a great view of such a great show and to spend our Independence day with such great company.

I have magical hair that makes my face disappear! Take that Harry Potter!

All pictures are all courtesy of Joanna and her new camera! Thanks Joanna!

Getting Out

Living in the city can be a bit claustrophobic at times. People that live here are always talk about "getting out of the city" and often leave during holidays when the tourists come in full swing.

Pat and I have been feeling this need to "get out" for a while now, so we decided to take advantage of the long weekend and spend at day enjoying the destinations outside the city.

Pat had several destinations in mind this weekend, so all I had to do was jump on the motorcycle and enjoy the ride, while Pat took care of the rest. Our first destination was Bear Mountain, a state park upstate. It took about an hour to an hour an half to drive up there. I am not sure how long it would normally take, but since we weren't the only ones with the idea of getting out of the city, we saw a lot of this...

but thank goodness for motorcycles because we did a lot of this...

which cut out time in half.

Once we go to Bear Mountain we walked around a lake and enjoyed the smells and sounds of nature.

The park was really smart to strategically place ice cream machine dispensers throughout the park. We enjoyed a few ice creams to cool us off from the summer heat.

After Bear Mountain we drove to a well known outlet mall called Woodbury Commons. This mall was HUGE and had every store you could imagine. I am glad we took a motorcycle here, because if not it would have been hard to resist all the amazing deals. We knew that everything we bought had to fit into an already half full backpack, so we had to be very selective...thank goodness for our bank acounts sake.

The day was fun, but exhausing. Shopping and riding a motorcycle really takes the energy out of you. But after a good nights rest, we are ready to do it again.