Our New Office

1. Puerto Rican restaurants serve plantains and yummy avocado dishes.

2. Seaside condos are more affordable in Puerto Rico.

3. Old Town San Juan has charming colonial architecture and a HUGE fortress.

4. Puerto Rico is an enchanted island.

5. Puerto Rico has a better ratio of old folks to bikinis.

PS – I’ve never been to Hawaii so everything in this post could be completely inaccurate.

PPS – I only wrote this post because a certain someone(s) insists that Hawaii is better than Central America and the Caribbean EVEN THOUGH there aren’t any monkeys in Hawaii.

PPPS – I’m sure Hawaii is a nice place. I mean no offense to Hawaiians or travelers who like to go there.

PPPPS – If you’d like to share your frequent flyer miles with me, I’d gladly accept and write a more positive review.

It’s been a very cold and very busy month at our office.  We’ve had several friends visit and my parents visited too, which gave us a chance to go on a few sightseeing adventures in New York City. Here are some of the highlights. Hopefully, this helps get you into the festive spirit.

Ho ho ho!

Ahhhhh. Ice skating in Central Park.

The famous Rockefeller Center.

Macy’s on 32nd Street. Eight floors to this place and it takes up an entire city block!

Even the Regis & Kelly LIVE show celebrates the season (notice lights in the background). We were lucky enough to get tickets to a live taping a couple weeks ago.

Holiday window displays abound.

Wall Street knows how to celebrate too.

We laugh in the face of cold weather and wind.

Big snowfall is rare in these parts. But today we woke up to 10 inches of snow!

Can you tell us the name of the TV family that lived in this house?

The U.S. Navy just commissioned the latest and greatest USS New York in New York city last Saturday (Nov. 7th). The New York steamed into the city early last week, and after it participates in the Veteran’s Day parade tomorrow, it will officially begin service as a vessel in the U.S. Navy.

Lucky for Sara, myself, and anyone reading this post, the New York was open for public tours this week…and we got to see her yesterday.

Here are the highlights:

Permission to come aboard, el Capitan? We felt like we were honorary members in the VFW while visiting because we were completely surrounded by retirees. They were a little rowdy, but it was a good group overall.

This was a hands-on, “gee that sure is neat can I press that big red button sir?” kind of tour. Kudos to the military for offering the tour in the first place, and double-kudos for letting everyone climb up on the tank.

What a yokel I am! I thought it would be a funny picture, but instead it’s just weird.

The New York is a San Antonio-class Platform Loading Dock…which means it hauls U.S. Marines + equipment wherever they are needed in the world. The inside of the ship is basically a big parking garage filled with tanks, Humvees, amphibious assault vehicles, and two giant hovercraft. These vehicles are secured using lots of tie-down ratchet straps (shown above).

Up on the “roof” of this giant parking garage (a.k.a. the deck of the ship), there are a bunch of Marine helicopters. Cobra attack helicopters, Sea King cargo helicopters, and the big Osprey shown above. It was an exceedingly nice day, so everyone was happy to hang out on the deck and enjoy the weather.

All jokes and B.S. aside, I was really proud to be an American yesterday, and NOT because of the potential havoc and destruction our mighty armed forces can bring to bear. That’s cool, mind you, but that’s not what had me buzzing.

What put a smile on my face were the people. Everyone on this ship – and I mean everyone – was really happy and excited. The sailors and Marines were happy to be giving tours and answering questions. The tourists and New Yorkers were happy to be on board, and everyone understood the sacrifice these young people were making and they all seemed grateful.

It was a cool way to spend a lunch hour on a Monday.

Just kidding! New York is anything but boring. We’ve found all kinds of fun things to keep us entertained.

New York Marathon went right through our neighborhood. In the morning it starts off serious and by the afternoon its a huge party. The bars were overflowing!

Yankees made it to the World Series. Not that we’re huge baseball fans and not that we got tickets, this photo is from a game in the summer, but sports mania makes things a little more interesting.

Cathedral of St. John the Divine competes with the cathedrals of Europe. This place is amazing!

Central Park is my favorite. Something about the greenery among all the cement makes it that much more interesting. Not to mention all the different gardens, sculptures, and paths.

Here we are in Central Park again. This place is huge!

The Empire State Building is lit up with different colors every night. I’m somewhat fascinated by it. On this particular night last summer, it was lit up in orange, white, and green to celebrate the Federation of Indian Associations, 29th Annual India Day Parade.

There’s no denying that one of the best things about New York is the food. Not only can you get anything you want at any time of day, but the entire experience is usually a treat. Here are some of the highlights.

On one of our first nights in New York — back when we were sleeping on an air matress — we were out looking for food when it started to rain.  We ran into The Chicken Festival to escape the weather, and we’re so glad we did. It’s since become one of our favorites. Reminds me a little of the food we ate in Panama. (Rice, beans, and roasted chicken. Yum.)

The Today Show introduced us to the Vendy Awards — an annual contest where the people of NYC vote on the best street food. We were so impressed by the idea that we had to try an Indian kati roll at the Biryani Cart in Midtown. As Jason said: “It was so hot it almost burned our faces off.”

It looks harmless, but its pretty darn spicy. And delicious!

Of course, we’ve sampled our share of Chinese food since visiting NYC. Our favorite is the Grand Sichuan, but on our anniversary we visited Our Place on the Upper East Side. This is a picture of the “Amazing Chicken” dish I ordered (chicken on right, some sort of beef on left). I’m not sure if it was truly “amazing,” but it was certainly worth a photo.

And then there is our dining/tourist attraction meals. While it was fun to visit the same Tom’s Diner you see on Seinfeld, the food isn’t all that great (sorry, Tom). If you are here, we recommend you stop by for a cup of coffee and then move along to Sip, just right down the road, for a great brunch.

The last couple weeks we took the office on the road. One of the perks of an location independent career. Here are the haps…

I went to Boston for a long weekend. Got to spend time with our friend Alli and watch a baseball game.

We’re always down for a wedding. Here we are in Madison, Wisconsin, enjoying friends and a view of the lake (that’s what we’re looking at, not you.)

Time with the fam in Iowa. Jason and Sydney are seriously contemplating a design choice here in this photo. Later, Katie posed as a half-dead bride. At least I think she’s a bride.

And check out this photo of my mom and sister at the Des Moines Art Walk. Neat.

If you want to know more about the Art Walk in Des Moines, read a recent article from The New York Times.

I’ll admit it. My eyes are always open for celebrity sightings. I make no apologies. I’m from Iowa. What do you expect?

We shopped with Dave Chapelle at the French Connection. We walked passed Cameron Diaz on the street in the Upper West Side. We even saw Greg Brady (from The Brady Bunch) get out of a cab three feet away from us. But the best celebrity sighting was Johnny Depp. Here I am sharing a moment with him at Bloomingdale’s. That’s Leo DiCaprio right behind us. It was a big day.

Some celebrities are easier to spot than others, especially the ones that don’t move. Here is a strange set of bronze Hello Kitty sculptures that we often pass on the way to the subway. Notice she is crying into a pool of water. Sad.

You don’t have to do anything out of the ordinary to see a celebrity or some kind of activity having to do with pop culture. Jason found someone to play with right on 5th Avenue without even really trying. Here he is playing a little virtual football with Peyton Manning.

Since in New York, we’ve been trying to network and take advantage of the thousands of conferences, conventions, meet ups and networking events. It’s overwhelming, I’ll be honest. But in doing so, we’ve gotten to learn a bit and listen to some big name execs speak about marketing, etc. I even got to sit in on a panel with Wyclef Jean. Neat.

But Jason actually takes the cake with celebrity meetings at conferences. Here he is with Chuck Norris … one of Jason’s heroes. He practices Chuck’s moves when no one is looking.

ps – Johnny Depp and Leo DiCaprio are actually wax. While I certainly have some street cred, I’m not quite that cool. At least not yet.

Came across a hilarious video from a website called CollegeHumor.com about what it might look like if someone spoke in real life like they did on Twitter. The video is filmed in NYC’s Union Square so even if you don’t think its funny, there are some nice shots of the city. But if you know Twitter, you’ll think its hilarious too, I’m sure of it.

Jason and I are on Twitter, and we actually write about things other than our lunch. Well, sometimes we Tweet about lunch, but only when its awesome. LOL.

@SaraLancaster

@SporkMarketing

Since day one in New York City I’ve been surprised at the number of dogs in our neighborhood. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve begun to recognize my neighbor dogs more so than my neighbor people.

Creative Commons Image Credit: Lynt

It’s nice having these cuddly creatures around. They add a lot of character to the area with their dog parks and adorable faces. They also create a nice distraction for me while working at the coffee shop.

The canines are not the only dogs around this place. The stereotype that NYC streets are filled with hot dog vendors just happens to be true. We found a vendor at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and felt the need to document the moment, since it will probably (hopefully) be our last street-side wiener.

Now, for a little bit of humor. This next video has nothing to do with NYC, but a lot to do with trouble-making pooches.

I’ll set the scene. My friend Tiffany plays on a co-ed kickball team in Boulder, Colorado. After each game they pick up an injured teammate and run him or her around the bases. I guess no one was hurt during this particular game so they just did it for posterity. Little did they know that in the process of running the bases one of their teammates would get injured — by a rough and tumble pooch.