Father/Daughter Day NYC | Movie Tours & Cuban Food...

Last weekend I had the opportunity to take another tour with On Location Tours (They invited me to go on their newest offering the When Harry Met Seinfeld Tour this time) and for this one I brought my father along with me. Since we were traveling into the city, we decided that we'd go in before the tour started (This tour started later than the NYC TV & Movie Tour I went on with my sister) and we'd have lunch at Victor's Cafe because it was near the starting point of the tour and I'd never been there before.

Can I just tell you, I feel like such a fool for not going to Victor's Cafe sooner because the food was amazing. My father and I order way more food than two people could ever need, we had drinks, my father told me about the time he brought my Abuela to Victor's back in the day and how he played a song he wrote for her there. It was just a great time and I loved ever bit of it.

After stuffing ourselves with all of the delicious Cuban food we ordered, we walked up a few blocks to McGee's Pub where the tour began and found our guide who proceeded to checked us in and told us to take a seat on the bus. And about ten or so minutes later we were off. We spent the next two driving around New York City learning about various movies and television shows.

I must admit that I was a little worried going on this tour because on the NYC TV & Movie Tour we covered a lot of ground and I felt like there was going to be a lot of repetition but to my surprise there wasn't more than one or two over lapping facts and locations.

So just like the NYC TV & Movie Tour, the When Harry Met Seinfeld Tour was super interesting. We stopped at Café Lalo from You've Got Mail (1998), “Monks” from Seinfeld (1989-1998) and the steps of the Met. We saw filming locations and learned facts about Cruel Intentions (1999), Men In Black (1997), Gossip Girl (2007-2012), The Nanny (1993-1999), Keeping The Faith (2000) and one of my father's favorite movies The Devil's Advocate (1997), plus more.

I really enjoyed the tour and surprisingly my father who typically hates bus tours (You're probably asking yourselves why he went with me if he hates bus tours, well he is retired and has nothing better to do and asked me if I had anything interesting to do coming up from or for the blog and this came up) had a great time too. He enjoyed all the random facts and seeing New York City in a way he had never seen it before.

After the tour we hopped on the subway to Penn Station and then on to the LIRR to head back to Long Island. Once I dropped my father off at home I headed out to Toni's house where I met up with her and Day, so that we could go out to one or two of the local bars for a few drinks and then a late night trip to Applebee's for half of appetizers. Which was a great way to cap off an awesome day.

Sisters In The City | Movie Tours, Musicals & Cuban Food...

As I mentioned in passing in my Stuck In My Head | Gloria Estefan post back in September, I was invited by On Location Tours to pick out and go on one of their tours with a guest for free. So I asked my sister if she wanted to join me and when she said yes (She rarely says no when I ask her to be my guest to random events), we set up a whole sister day in New York City based around going on their NYC TV & Movie Tour and seeing On Your Feet: The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan on Broadway.

If you follow me on Instagram you know that we went and had our sister day a little over a week ago and here's how everything was...

Because we had to be at the meeting spot in front of Ellen's Stardust Diner by 9:45am for the tour Kris and I caught a decently early train, which we were glad about because we were able to get ourselves some coffee and it left us with a little wiggle room in terms of getting to where we needed to be. And can I tell you, it was good thing we had that wiggle room because for some reason the subway was running wonky. The line we needed was running on a different track and it took us a little while to realize that.

After we figured everything out everything was good. We got to Ellen's with time to spare, we waited on line with the other tour attendees and chit chatted with each other before we were escorted to the On Location Tours' bus which was waiting for us across the street by our tour guide.

Once on the bus our guide introduced himself, told us about the tour we were taking and showed us a little video of with Willie Garson talking about what it's like to film a movie/television show on location in a city like New York City before we were off.

The tour, which lasted about two and a half hours, brought us past site where various movies and television shows had filmed over the years all over New York City and included stops at Columbus Circle where scenes from I Am Legend (2007) were shot, the FDNY Hook & Ladder 8 Firehouse in Tribeca that was the home of the Ghostbusters’ (1984) Firehouse, as well as the Greenwich Village apartment that Monica, Chandler, Joey and Rachel lived in in Friends (1994-2004).

I'm not going to lie, at first when we started the tour I was a little unsure of how I'd feel about it because I'm from New York and I go into New York City frequently. But as soon as we started all of that went away. I learned some pretty interesting facts about some of my favorite movies and television shows that I didn't know, and got to experience the city in a way that I never had before.

So over all the tour was really pretty good. The only thing that would have made it better is if I totally was unfamiliar with New York City, and that's on me. But yeah, if you are interested in film and going to be visiting New York City I highly recommend checking out what On Location Tours has to offer.

After the movie tour Kris and I wandered around a bit trying to figure out what we wanted to eat before heading over to the Marquis Theatre to see the matinee of On Your Feet: The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan -- Which was amazing, we both loved it and would totally recommend it if you enjoy Gloria's music.

Once the show was over we hopped on the subway and headed downtown to have Cuban food in the village at Cuba. And can I tell you, we ordered so much food. It was great.

When we were done stuffing our faces we hopped back on the subway and headed uptown to Penn Station, where I caught a train home and she waited for her boyfriend because they had plans in the city for the rest of the evening.

It was such a great day. I love doing randomness with my sister and I can't wait for our next little random sister date day.

Dinner Date...

Last night I had a little dinner date with Erin and Maria at Havana Central, here a some pictures I snapped (The lighting sucked in the restaurant, so I didn't get to take as many as I would have liked)...

This was my first time ever going to Havana Central, if you aren't looking for real Cuban food it's an okay place. I think if I ever go back I'll stick to drinks at the bar and maybe a little dancing.

Month In Review: May 2012...

Adventures Of The Month: Highlights...

• Watching myself on the television.
• Having a Cinco de Mayo taco party with my friends.
• Attending a jewelry party for the first time.
• Going to Erin's college graduation.
• Spending an entire day in NYC with all of my college friends getting wasted.
• Throwing a BBQ at Justin's Memorial Day weekend.
• Celebrating my sister's 25th birthday.
• Spending Memorial Day drunk at Citi Field. 
• Receiving the most awesome Send Something Good package from Alisha.
• Trying Milky Way cake.
• Planning a road trip across the south east with Erin.

Favorites Of The Month...

POSTS

• More Works Of Art... 
• Mom Of Pain In The Ass Teens... 
• Smack My Librarian Up... 
• Cinco De Mayo In Instagram... 
• Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend...
• Tea Time... 
• Crap My Coworkers Actually Said... 
• I'm So Angry...
• Much Needed Retail Therapy... 
• Apartments With No Power... 
• What's In My Bag... 
• All About My Mom... 
• My First Glam Bag...
• Tea Party... 
• Pomp & Circumstance...
• You've Got Mail... 
• Let's Have A Party...
• Booze-Fest In Instagram...
• Partying With 8-Year-Olds...
• Two Year Blogiversary...
• Revlon ColorBurst™ Lip Butters...
• "Julia" Fail...
• Memorial Day Weekend BBQ In Instagram..
• Memorial Day With The Mets...
• We Gon' Party Like It's Yo Birthday...
• 25 Years Of My Sister... 
• Send Something Good Boxes...
• Fire...

PICTURE

INSTAGRAM

New To Me As Of This Month...

BLOGS




♥ Dermie Pie
♥ Kaci Scarlet
♥ Calico Skies
♥ See Me Rwar

MOVIES/TV SHOWS

• Dark Shadows (2012)
• Duck Dynasty (2012-Present)
• Total Blackout (2012-Present)
• What To Expect When You're Expecting (2012)
• Snooki & JWoww Best Friends Forever (2012)

BOOKS

• Yes, Chef: A Memoir by Marcus Samuelsson (I had an advanced readers copy it's out 6/26/12)

IPHONE APPS

• BEA Mobile (I honestly only downloaded it for a chance to win an iPad)

25 Years Of My Sister...

Today is my sister's 25th birthday (Or the 25th anniversary of the death of my only childom), so we went out for dinner in Queens. We went to the Cuban restaurant I'm always talking about and we had a fest of yummy yummy Cuban food.

After stuffing ourselves we headed back home to the most amazing birthday cake I have ever had. My mother and sister went to some bakery that makes Milky Way cakes and it was amazing (I'm honestly looking for an excuse to go get another cake from there).

 

11 Things...

I saw this 11 thing question thingy over at Little Chief Honeybee and wanted to do it. Here was go...

THE RULES...
1. Post these rules.
2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things.
3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.
4. Create 11 new questions and tag people to answer them.
5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you've tagged them.

11 RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME...

1. I want to get my PhD in Library and Information Science because I want to forced everyone to call me Doctor.

2. I'm over 6 inches taller than my sister. I'm not super tall or anything, she is just short.

3. My favorite animals are ducks and I've wanted one as a pet for as long as I can remember, but my parents wouldn't let me have one. Hopefully one day I can have a house with a big ol' yard so I can eventually get myself a pet duck.

4. The only meat I eat is bacon and it has to be crispy, if it isn't crispy I won't eat it.

5. On my 21st birthday (Which was on a Saturday) I found out that I needed my gall bladder removed. Instead of having emergency surgery like the ER doctor suggested I went back to campus (Yup, I was away at college when this all happened), got my friends and had a birthday party. The next day Patrick & my sister (Who came up to visit me for my birthday) drove me back to Long Island. I was admitted to the ER on Monday morning and I had my gall bladder removed Tuesday afternoon. So, March 7th is the 6-year anniversary of me loosing my gall.

6. I have a sick obsession with ghosts, cemeteries and the idea of witchcraft.

7. The Random House Book of Poetry for Children is one of my favorite books from my childhood and I own two copies of it -- I have more than one copy of it because I thought I lost my original copy and bought myself another copy, then I found the original copy and I was annoyed.

8. If I have a daughter I am going to name her Lola in honor of my grandmother.

9. When I evacuated my house because Hurricane Irene I made sure to take my cat's ashes with me because I couldn't bare the thought of loosing what I have left of her -- I had her for 18-years of my life and I loved her more than I love Justin, so not taking them was never an option.

10. I have a collection of random kitchy kitchen items that I am saving for when Justin and I finally move in with each other. I have oven mitts with Japanese food characters on them, odd cookie cutters, mugs & glasses, a ceramic pancake warmer, etc.

11. I love melted Polly-O mozzarella (Chunks of Polly-O melted in a microwave on a plate) and saltines. It's delicious and I wish I had some right now.

THE 11 QUESTION...

1. Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?
Totally. If you read the description of a Pisces you have read an accurate description of me.

2. If you could teleport to any time and place, where would you go and why?
I would love to be on the Titanic before all the chaos. So, April 10th 1912 to April 14th 1912.

3. What are the three closest items to you right now?
My blanket, iPhone and the TV remote.

4. If you had a spirit animal, what would it be?
I'd totally be a wolverine.
5. What is your earliest childhood memory?
I'm totally blanking on my childhood right now.

6. Where do you hope to see yourself in 5 years?
I'm hoping to be the head of the youth services department at my library.

7. Have you kept in touch with your childhood best friend(s)?
No. She and I had a falling out long ago. But I am still friends with my friends from middle school and high school (Erin, Phil, Patrick, etc.)

8. If you had to describe yourself in 5 words, what would they be?
Creative. Loud. Domineering. Chaotic. Cuban.

9. Describe your idea of a perfect day: Where would you go, what would you do, who would you do it with?
My perfect day would consist of me having off from work, some beautiful weather, Justin/Erin/Phil/"Favorite Page #1"/My Sister, my camera, a cemetery/NYC/yummy food/etc. All of that stuff makes me happy.

10. What kind of "weird" foods do you like?
I love this dessert called dulce de leche cortada. It is cooked sweetened curdled milk. It sounds really gross but it is so yummy. It's a Cuban thing...

11. Do you collect anything? If so, what?
I collect a lot of things... LPs, Russian nesting dolls, old cameras, jade Buddhas, shot glasses, nail polish, makeup, etc.

MY 11 QUESTIONS...

1. Who is your favorite author?
2. Do you remember your dreams? If so, what did you dream about last?
3. What did you want to be when you grew up?
4. What is your favorite article of clothing?
5. If you could have one superpower what would it be?
6. What is your ultimate comfort food?
7. Do you suffer from any phobias?
8. As a child did you have an imaginary friend?
9. What is your favorite sound?
10. Could you go a week without going on the internet?
11. What would your "last meal" be?

I tag: Lou, Jess, Mandi, Jessica, Kaity & any of you lovelies that wants to do it.

365 Days Of Pictures: Day 136...

Miami: Day Four...

Today my Tia went nuts because the apartment was filthy -- This was mainly due to the fact that she had men working in her kitchen putting in a granite backsplash, but we got the brunt of her wrath. Because she was acting like a lunatic and the boys were being pains, my cousin and I ran away to have Cuban food for lunch. It was good, not the best I've ever had but it hit the spot.

Eventually we headed back to the condo and my Tia was on an even bigger tear, so we got the boys and headed to pool for a few hours. While at the pool I introduced my cousin to the humor of Katt Williams, the boys got yelled at by a little old man in Spanish for playing with their water guns (They had no idea why he was actually yelling because they don't speak Spanish, but seeing as it happened every time they used their guns that is why we thought he was getting mad) , a palm frawn fell off the tree closest to our table (This was funny because before we headed down to the pool my Tio told me to not sit near the palm trees because the frawns fall off and can kill you), etc.

When there was no more sun by the pool we headed up to the apartment and had dinner. The kids continued to be pains, so my cousin and I left to find frozen yogurt/ice cream. We got it and then we hid in a parking lot eating our dessert and avoiding the apartment.

Now that we're back my cousin's kids have forced her to play Risk: Halo Wars and they are arguing. I feel bad for her, but there is no way in hell I'm gonna play with them -- I've decided to blog and watch Man vs Food Nation.

4th Of July Weekend...

Saturday: I went to Game 2 of the Subway Series at Citi Field with Justin, my parents, my sister and her boyfriend. Before the game we went out for Cuban food at Rincon Criollo -- Best Cuban food in New York.

Final Score - Mets: 2 Yankees: 5

Sunday: Justin and I headed back to Citi Field for Game 3 of the Subway Series. We stayed all 10 innings to see the Mets come back and beat the Yankees.

Final Score - Mets: 3 Yankees: 2

After the game we hung out with a couple of our friends. Justin built a fire, we roasted marshmallows and played video games until 1:00am.

Monday: My Fourth of July wasn't very exciting, but it was still a lot of fun. I basically spent the entire day (10:00am to 5:00pm) on the beach with Justin, Erin, my sister, her boyfriend and a couple of other friends. We tanned, drank, swam and all of the other wonderful things one could do on the beach. After the beach we went back to my house where my parents were grilling up some BBQ and had dinner. Once dinner was done I ended up passing out because playing in the sun is draining.

Father's Day...

I hope everyone is having a great Father's Day and that you spent it doing something fun, I know my dad and I did. I spent this fine Father's Day by bringing my dad to Citi Field to see the Mets play the Angels and then we went out for some Cuban food. It was a good day.

Mediocrity...

Today was extremely mediocre, I basically spent my day listening to the music on my iPhone® and ordering books from various catalogs/journals. At one point I left the library to go read to the kiddies at the elementary school and then I returned to do more of what I had been doing earlier.

Nochebuena...

Seeing as I am Cuban (and that I live in a house full of lapsed Catholics) Christmas Eve is way more important than Christmas Day, so we've been celebrating all day.

My darling friends Erin and Nicole joined my family for our traditional gluttonous Christmas Eve meal of seafood paella, pernil, etc. -- Of which I was in charge of cooking the paella and FYI, it was banging. We had a lovely meal, great conversation and tons of fun. We took about a ten minute break after dinner and then we had coffee and desserts -- We ate a lot of food, before we even sat down at the dinner table we ate four different appetizers.

Official 2010 Nochebuena Menu

Appetizers

• Fried shrimp with dipping sauces
• Steamed mussels in a garlic seafood broth with bread
• Baked clams
• Lobster bisque

Main Course

• Seafood paella
• Pernil

Dessert

• Crème brûlée
• Apple walnut cake
• Almond cookies
  

After dinner my sister, Erin, Nicole and I exchanged gifts. As we were doing so Maria showed up with a gift for me -- It was half for Christmas and half for baking her over three dozen cupcakes between midnight and 2:30am (Short version of this long story: she lied to her boss and said she had to leave early to bake cupcakes for a party at work, she didn't really do it and I ended up doing so at an ungodly hour because I make the bestest cupcakes). Here are my lovely gifts...

Nicole: Love Spell Book • Erin: Matryoshka • Maria: Ed Hardy Makeup Palette

Once we finished exchanged gifts and hugs, I busted out the cranberry vodka mixture I made and we mixed it with some Moët. We drank, took some pictures, talked before the ladies had to exit to go to Maria's house for Nochebuena dinner because she is Chilean/Argentinian -- Luckily, they have their dinner madd late and we have ours between 5:00pm & 6:00pm. But when they are done with dinner they should be coming back to drink boozy hot chocolate and to watch The Muppet Christimas Carol (1992).

30 Day Challenge: Day Twenty-Seven...

Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Really? The whole month? This has been the least exciting month I've had in a while. I guess I'll do a version of my month in bullets for everyone.

♥ May 29th 2010 - June 29th 2010 ♥

• Worked
  
• Celebrated my sister's 23rd birthday
• Went to Cherry Grove -- Fire Island
• Threw an impromptu BBQ
• Dealt with Erin's "divorce"
• Watched a lot of True Blood (2008)
• Dealt with Erin being broken
• Went to baseball games
• Hung out with Justin
• Went to New York Brewfest
• Took my father out for Cuban food for Father's Day
• Bought randomness -- Unii Palette & Konad
  
• Watched a movie being filmed
• Recycled
• Went to and celebrated Phil's Law School graduation
• Had dinners with various friends
• Yvette and the dog came to visit
  
• Went to a meeting for work
• Made Missy
• Put a down payment on my trip to Europe
• Read some books

FYI - These weren't in any particular order

Father's Day 2010...

For Father's Day we took my father to a Cuban restaurant in Queens called Ricon Criollo. It was awesome, we all really enjoyed it -- My father was born in Cuba and is really picky about Cuban food, but this food was real old school Cuban food and he really enjoyed. We totally pigged out and ordered way too much food -- Which is the norm when we go out to dinner, so we took tons of food home.

The best part of the meal was dessert. They had Dulce de Leche Cortada --In English they called it "Curdle Milk Dessert" which is in the picture next to the Cuban coffee. It sounds weird, but it is so good and it is so hard to find.

Graduations, Sex & Cuban Food...

Yesterday I was super busy, thus I didn't get to post so I'm going to make up for that today.

The day started off with Justin's little sister's pre-school graduation and showcase. It was really cute -- Gotta love a room full of four and five-year-olds singing and dancing. After her graduation/showcase his family and I went out for breakfast at the restaurant that my sister & Nicole work at. Nicole just so happen to be working and I made plans with her to have dinner with Erin at this Cuban restaurant a couple of towns over.

When breakfast was finished I had to go to work. While at work I found out another set of kids were caught having sex in our auditorium. We are having a sex epidemic! It is like a sex crazied outbreak monkey has attacked the tweens/teens of my library. Honestly, I'm very hard to offend and I have my own twisted set of morals so it is pretty messed up that these kids have seemed to disgust me -- Missy is also not amused.

We also had anothr nuke go off in the picture book room. I swear to God I'm taking those toys out of that room when I go to work on Sunday. Screw everyone.

After work I went and had dinner with Erin and Nicole. We had a great Cuban meal -- I have very high standards for Cuban food because I'm half Cuban and my dad has taught my sister & I to be super picky about our food. I got to meet the owner and she was über nice.

By the time we got out of the restaurant it was after 9pm. I drove the girls home, dropped off the food my father asked me to pick up for him and drove to Justin's apartment with his dinner.