Fuggedaboutit!!!!

I'm not sure if it's officially fall, or if we just got to experience what the weather man is calling "a fall preview", but the weather was definitely beautiful this weekend.  As you know, Michael and I have been out of town the past two weekends, so New York welcomed us home for the weekend with a little bit of football weather.  I love our travels and I wouldn't trade our fun, crazy life for anything in the world, but we have come to cherish our weekends home in the city. 

There is no shortage of things to do in New York City, especially during autumn.  We've lived here for a year and a half together, and we can find something new to do or somewhere new to go every weekend.  So this weekend's adventure was to the Saint Gennaro festival in Little Italy.  We recruited the Bucks to come join us for a festive evening embracing the Italian culture in New York.  It's shameful, but I have not ventured out to Little Italy for a meal since living in the city.  I think Mike always thought it was a tourist-y thing to do, and there is SO much great Italian food in Manhattan.  So we braved the crowds (literally hundreds of thousands of people) with one of our favorite couples on a perfect Saturday night.  

After navigating through the swarms of people, we stumbled upon a little Italian restaurant (aren't they all "little"?!?) and got a seat outside right on the border of the festival.  The little white Christmas lights were twinkling, Italian flags were waving, and the smell of zeppoles filled the air.  We thought we found a quaint place for a bite to eat, but it ended up being one of the most famous Italian restaurants in New York.  So famous that we ate at a table adjacent to the ONLY remaining member of the Ramones...Marky Ramone.  My husband is really good at catching rock star sightings.  But he was pretty recognizable.  

When we were seated by the adorable old Italian man, he said "the kitchen is going to be slow tonight".  Our dinner could have taken 4 hours to come out, but none of us would have cared in the slightest.  We had a delicious bottle of Chianti and enough great people watching to keep us happy and satisfied.  

But the food DIDN'T take 4 hours, and it was amazing...so amazing that I didn't even feel bad about the carbs, or the the friend mozzarella mini sandwiches for that matter.  And what Italian meal is complete without a little dessert.  I was determined to try zeppoles for the first time in my life....but was quickly distracted by the "best cannoli on planet earth" sign.  So naturally that's where I ended up...and it was delicious.  "best cannoli on platnet earth" is a big claim, and I'm not sure I've had enough cannolis to agree/disagree with that, but there are few things that I like better than a good ol' fashioned Italian cannoli.  I think we all felt a little bit more Italian after our experience....even though I'm the only REAL Italian of the group.  

 The night ended with us spending an unrealistic amount of money on carnival games.  But it paid off though, because we won three goldfish!!!  I donated one to a sweet little girl on our way home, but we did keep two of them, which I've named Cannoli and Parmesean...duh!  My husband was not happy about undertaking the huge responsibility of having two more pets...because "goldfish are a lot of work".  But they are happy and healthy and enjoying a new life in a tiki-filled paradise.