Bianco's in NYC

NYC and Jersey have been a fast blur of events. We visited the Olenslager's (saw my niece Emmeline for the first time) and Giovanni in Boston for Thanksgiving and had a good time. We saw most of the historic sites, got to visit MIT and Harvard, and finally got to eat Raising Cane's again (we have them in Dallas but not Jersey).

Boston Tea Party

John Harvard (we learned not to touch the shoe, thanks Giovanni)

MIT

We stayed in Jersey for Christmas. We had a few feet of snow but only for a day or two. I took Arielle into the city and we saw Rockefeller Center (the tree and ice rink), the Central Park ice rink, some of the windows down at Saks, and some other holiday decor around NYC.

Snow in Weehawken

Dimitri down by his work in Midtown

Rockefeller

Saks window

Central Park ice rink

Rockefeller Christmas Tree

We also had a list of other events and activities which include visiting Hershey in Hershey, PA (stopped by to visit the Knocke's and see some Amish farms as well), went to a Michigan basketball game at Madison Square Garden, have been hiking a little bit in Jersey, and trying to enjoy as much of the tri-state area as possible.

Hershey

Madison Square Garden

Michigan beat Penn

Norvin Green State Forest

Norvin Green State Forest

A lot of 20 exotic cars by our apartment

Nintendo World at Rockefeller

Dimitri's 27th Birthday

Living The Dream (the view out front our apartment)

Dallas to New York & Halloween

In August I received an offer from a company out of New York City that seemed too good to be true and it was closer to the schools Arielle wanted to go to in the northeast. I liked my job in Dallas but we knew we would eventually move so that Arielle could pursue her PhD. It was really hard leaving all my colleagues at Comerica as we had some really good times and most days it felt like home. Once I left we were stuck in a weird limbo. I flew back and forth between Dallas and NY with my company giving me eight weeks before I needed to be moved to NY. I was living out of hotels and corporate housing, working, and trying to find a place to live in NY while Arielle was packing, organizing our move, closing our lease, and working. It was my first time in NY so it was quite the shock.

 

 

View from my Long Island City hotel.

The view from my corporate office.

 On my end I needed to find an apartment so I had Arielle fly up one weekend to help me look. Being from the west coast I required a minimum of 1,000 square feet, a safe neighborhood, and the ability to have cars. This ruled out most of the boroughs especially with the city tax and the fact that rent is crazy in NY. For example, I stayed in corporate housing on the upper eastside in a 300-350 square foot studio, which was on the first floor (this reduces the price) for $4,200 per month. We ended up looking at a few places over a holiday weekend but some of them were closed so we didn't find anything. I ended up going to New Jersey a few times and found a place that met all of our needs and wants.



300-350 sqft studio.

Corporate housing was near central park.

The weekend of the move I flew back Thursday night and ended up packing and working until 1am, got up the next day packed with Arielle, the Walkers, and friends. We got up early the next day and drove to Roanoke, Virginia in a day. Then from Virginia to Weehawken, NJ to our final destination. We were lucky to have the Walkers there to help with driving our second car and unloading all of our stuff.

We're glad to finally be all moved to the northeast and have been exploring around Jersey. New York City is too much to handle for extended periods of time but we love Jersey. Below are some pictures from a park near us.

Fort Lee Historic Park

Fort Lee Historic Park

On top of all this my new job wasn't what was pitched to me so I have been searching for a new job during this crazy move and settling in. I ended up finding a job closer to what I was doing at Comerica with my usual work benefits and I start November 30th.

Also to catch up on Halloween, we carved Pooh Bear (Arielle) and Snoopy and Charlie Brown (Dimitri). We had three kids stop by which was three more than we had last year. That has been the crazy of ending summer and fall of 2015 and Arielle is in the process of applying for PhD programs. Once this settles down we'll be excited for a break in the chaos.



 

2015 Pumpkin

Dallas Spring

For Arielle's birthday this year we went to the Dallas World Aquarium which has both fish and animals. We saw a manatee, alligator, otter, monkeys, birds, and a whole lot more. I made Arielle a chocolate cake with coffee frosting and toasted coconut.

 

Arielle with a sloth

 

Arielle w/ a manatee and a catfish



Penguins in the background



Arielle opening presents

It has been fairly hot in Dallas but we've been trying to get outside as much as possible. We've been walking at a nature area and have seen some cool animals. We've seen three tarantulas that were about 4" across, a normal turtle, a snapping turtle, and a pair of bark scorpions doing a mating dance. Arielle wasn't too thrilled about the spiders though.

For the 4th of July we viewed Kaboom Town on July 3rd from a city away so we didn't have to deal with the traffic and a second fireworks show on the 4th. The city where it is held is smaller than Post Falls, ID but during Kaboom Town they had a total of 500,000 people show up. They ended up running out of space and had to turn people away. Kaboom town was rated #2 best firework shows this year by Yahoo. I made a blueberry pie as well.

Blueberry Pie

Kaboom Town from Carrollton

Spring in Dallas

 

It snowed in February which makes it difficult to get around due to the lack of snow equipment in the city. The real problem is that a lot of freeways in Dallas are bridges where multiple freeways merge and pass over each other. The bridges freeze and then cars can no longer drive up the icy bridges.




A view from my building downtown.
 



Dallas warms up much sooner than the north and so we have been taking advantage of the warm weather before it becomes too hot. Dallas is very flat which makes it difficult to find hiking areas. We ended up finding a few hikes in a hiking book we got for Christmas and suggestions from co-workers. The Cottonwood Nature Trail had a few old buildings from some of the settlers of Texas.

 

We also took a trip to Fort Worth for a Michigan men's tennis match and went on a hike afterwards.

UM vs. TCU

Trinity Trails - Fort Worth


Bluebonnet flowers are a big deal in Texas and so we drove out to Palmer, TX to see some flowers. We also ended up seeing Indian paintbrush and feeding some Clydesdales, a donkey, and a baby donkey. The pictures where we are in the flowers we made possible by a nice family that allows people to take pictures in their yard.

 

 

The baby donkey

 

Fall/Winter 2014

Fall in Dallas was hotter than we were used to but we got out and had some fun. We went to the Texas State Fair and had fun people watching. The best part about the fair were all the animals that you could pet and feed. We also took up roller skating and that has been fun as well.

Halloween came and we were able to carve some pumpkins this year. Arielle carved a haunted house and I carved Sheldon Cooper from The Big Band Theory. We bought some candy and were hoping some kids would stop by our apartment complex. We figured a few of our neighbors would stop by since they had kids, but no one came. We ended up driving through our neighborhood to see if Halloween was big here. Once we got into the houses there were kids everywhere and about 75% of the houses were decorated for Halloween which was a nice surprise. We also got a free bag of suckers that someone had left with a sign that said free suckers and happy Halloween in the hall of our apartment complex. Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful but Nicholas came up and helped us eat all the food we made which was nice.

During the Christmas season we drove around Dallas and found a really neat neighborhood. Just like Halloween, Christmas is a huge deal in Dallas. The neighborhood that we drove through had a lighting ceremony, horse drawn carriage rides, and blocks of mansions decked out in lights and decorations. I helped Arielle make some sugar cookies for work and they turned out really well. We also had a small Christmas in Dallas before we headed to Spokane for the holidays.

 

 

As we headed off to Spokane we realized that our flight was delayed and that we wouldn't make our connecting flight in Denver. Arielle went and talked to someone and surprisingly the man at United moved us to an earlier fight that was delayed to our original time and we got bumped to first class. Flying first class was great as we got drinks before we took off and better snacks such as Kettle chips and fresh fruit. We were both missing the lack of snow in Dallas. Spokane didn't get very much this year but luckily there was just enough to go skiing and snow shoeing. We had a lot of fun spending time with family and friends.

Overall 2014 was one of the best years for the Bianco's. Arielle graduated at the end of 2013 but walked at graduation with me in 2014 where we both graduated from programs that were top five in the country. Michigan was one of the best experiences and we still love and miss Michigan. I got a really good job and we are finally starting to really settle into Dallas. We are excited for 2015 as many opportunities continue to lie on the horizon.