Monday, October 01, 2007
Monday, September 03, 2007
This week.
This week is the wedding!! I can't believe it's finally here. It literally still does not seem real. I don't think it will until I'm actually saying "I do." Beginning tomorrow, the influx of out-of-town guests arrive and chaos ensues- I can't wait!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Nothing drives me to blog more than something that really ticks me off...
And I'll get to that in a moment. First of all, I had a great weekend. Friday night we joined some friends and attended the Denver Modernism show. It took place in a warehouse type of building and was a glorious spectacle of mid-century furniture, artwork, and household goods. I oohed and ahhed over the Mies, Noguchi, and Saarinen. I think I just about drooled on every Eames chair I walked by. The event was complete with a Tiki bar (which had some amazingly strong drinks) and a hilarious retro slide show presented by the fabulous Charles Phoenix.
Saturday we had a classy night at the theater to see the Pre-Broadway production of The Little Mermaid at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. We went to dinner before the show at Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House. Kevin Taylor is probably Denver's most famous chef. Like a local Bobby Flay or Emeril. Because of this, I was expecting a fabulously divine and interesting meal. I've also been watching a lot of Top Chef lately, and I think this has made my expectations extremely high. Anyways, the meal was definitely good, but somewhat of a disappointment. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but I really thought for the reputation and prices, this meal should have kicked some major butt. After dinner we headed up to the Opera House to see The Little Mermaid.
It appeared that everyone, adults and the little ones dressed in their Disney princess costumes alike, overwhelmingly enjoyed the show, due to the standing ovation that began immediately when the ensemble came on stage to take a bow. Call me an uber-critic, but I don't give standing ovations to just anything. I was a bit confused when the mass public rose before the main characters had come out to take a bow. They were giving a standing ovation for the actor that raised the sail for 5 seconds in the beginning of Act I and the actress that handed Ariel a towel after she got her legs and washed ashore. Really? Were these actors deserving of a standing ovation? Did they really knock the socks off of us viewers so much that we (when I say we, I mean everyone in the theater aside from Brian and I) stood up the second they ran back out on stage for their final bow? Experiences like this, in a way, make me lose a bit of respect for my fellow theater-goers.
Don't get me wrong. The musical was quite entertaining. I was blown away by the sets- it really gave the illusion of an underwater landscape. And the transition between under the sea and up on land was quite smooth. The actress who performed the part Ariel had a killer voice and looked remarkably like the Ariel in the original film. My main complaint was the ending, and I will not give anything away, aside from the fact that it jumbled, quick, and all too-easy.
This brings me to the something that ticks me off. To give the illusion of floating or swimming, the actors wore Heelys: you know, those damn shoes with the wheels in the back of them? You see kids (and now adults) gliding around these on sidewalks, through the grocery stores, on their way to school, at the mall. Yeah, I HATE these shoes. I LOATHE them. But, I think that they found their one appropriate place to be worn: on stage in the production of The Little Mermaid. Makes sense. Does anyone else hate these shoes? I hate them so much that I hate the parents that buy them for their kids. I think I hate these shoes even more than Crocs (Which, as Colleen proved in Las Vegas ARE actually comfortable. Still not attractive, but comfortable). Actually I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I hate these shoes twice as much as Crocs. We were at the mall the other week and saw a Mom and child wheeling around on these stupid shoes, getting in our way, zipping in and out of the crowd nearly knocking over mothers holding babies and old men with canes. I exaggerate, but I have never seen something more ridiculous than a 40-some-year-old woman on Heelys. Ok, rant over.
Saturday we had a classy night at the theater to see the Pre-Broadway production of The Little Mermaid at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. We went to dinner before the show at Kevin Taylor's at the Opera House. Kevin Taylor is probably Denver's most famous chef. Like a local Bobby Flay or Emeril. Because of this, I was expecting a fabulously divine and interesting meal. I've also been watching a lot of Top Chef lately, and I think this has made my expectations extremely high. Anyways, the meal was definitely good, but somewhat of a disappointment. Perhaps I was expecting too much, but I really thought for the reputation and prices, this meal should have kicked some major butt. After dinner we headed up to the Opera House to see The Little Mermaid.
It appeared that everyone, adults and the little ones dressed in their Disney princess costumes alike, overwhelmingly enjoyed the show, due to the standing ovation that began immediately when the ensemble came on stage to take a bow. Call me an uber-critic, but I don't give standing ovations to just anything. I was a bit confused when the mass public rose before the main characters had come out to take a bow. They were giving a standing ovation for the actor that raised the sail for 5 seconds in the beginning of Act I and the actress that handed Ariel a towel after she got her legs and washed ashore. Really? Were these actors deserving of a standing ovation? Did they really knock the socks off of us viewers so much that we (when I say we, I mean everyone in the theater aside from Brian and I) stood up the second they ran back out on stage for their final bow? Experiences like this, in a way, make me lose a bit of respect for my fellow theater-goers.
Don't get me wrong. The musical was quite entertaining. I was blown away by the sets- it really gave the illusion of an underwater landscape. And the transition between under the sea and up on land was quite smooth. The actress who performed the part Ariel had a killer voice and looked remarkably like the Ariel in the original film. My main complaint was the ending, and I will not give anything away, aside from the fact that it jumbled, quick, and all too-easy.
This brings me to the something that ticks me off. To give the illusion of floating or swimming, the actors wore Heelys: you know, those damn shoes with the wheels in the back of them? You see kids (and now adults) gliding around these on sidewalks, through the grocery stores, on their way to school, at the mall. Yeah, I HATE these shoes. I LOATHE them. But, I think that they found their one appropriate place to be worn: on stage in the production of The Little Mermaid. Makes sense. Does anyone else hate these shoes? I hate them so much that I hate the parents that buy them for their kids. I think I hate these shoes even more than Crocs (Which, as Colleen proved in Las Vegas ARE actually comfortable. Still not attractive, but comfortable). Actually I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I hate these shoes twice as much as Crocs. We were at the mall the other week and saw a Mom and child wheeling around on these stupid shoes, getting in our way, zipping in and out of the crowd nearly knocking over mothers holding babies and old men with canes. I exaggerate, but I have never seen something more ridiculous than a 40-some-year-old woman on Heelys. Ok, rant over.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Yikes.
It's been a looooong time since I've blogged. Definitely not due to a lack of fun and exciting things to share, but more because of the insanely busy past few months. The summer has been great, though, and is definitely passing by ridiculously quick.
I can barely remember back to June, but I do know I was in Dallas for a week for work getting ready for a HUGE meeting with one of our customers and also our biggest trade show of the year. The huge meeting went extraordinarily well, so all of the hard work and travel was worthwhile.
Early on in June, a college roommate, Deborah, was in town with her husband/film writer/producer/director for his movie's premiere at the Breckenridge Film Festival. We drove up to the mountains to meet them one evening and had a lovely night in Breck- my first time there too! Unfortunately, we had prior commitments during the afternoon, so we did not make it in town to see the actual movie's premiere, but we did get our very own DVD copy of the film which now I'm thinking I should have made Sean autograph for kicks.
The end of June brought us to the Chicagoland area via a roadtrip. I do believe I could be a truck driver if this whole graphic design thing doesn't work out. I started out at 630pm driving out of Denver and didn't quit till about 3 in the morning. I love roadtrips. Brian took over for a couple hours till we were almost to Illinois and then I grabbed a hold of the wheel for the final few hours into Chicago. We arrived at my parent's house about 9 in the morning on Friday and began our week-long whirlwind visit to Chicago. We attended my college roommate's, Daniella, beautiful wedding in Arlington Heights on Saturday. It was a blast and I got to catch up with a ton of Bradley folks that were at the wedding. Some I had not seen in years (like since graduation!), others I had seen just weeks before (Deborah in Breck)... It was totally fun and gorgeous and Daniella looked absolutely amazing.
On Sunday, my wonderful bridesmaids threw me a shower at my parent's house. We had quite a few people attend, including many of my family members from New England, Brian's parents, and of course a lot of locals! I was completely overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone. Such a wonderful day; it really made me feel like a bride!
The rest of the week was somewhat a blur, but I was able to catch up with friends downtown and in the burbs, Brian's parents, and all of my family that had came into town from RI and MA. The only bummer of the week was that we didn't make it to either Portillo's or Dunkin' Donuts while we were in town. :(
I know I'm really skimming over things here............. And I do apologize about that! After the wedding, I surely will have more time to blog! Anyways, the rest of July was fairly quiet, had a brief business trip to Pittsburgh. No, not Pittsburgh- Hermitage, PA. I just flew into Pittsburgh, then drove an hour to the little wee town of Hermitage, PA. Filled with VFW's and little cute New England looking houses, and itty-bitty stores. It really was darling; however, I spent 90% of my time inside an aluminum can factory attempting to do a press check on our Cantu Oil Sheen Can. They had some major issues there matching our colors, and me being the pickiest of pickiest, I absolutely would not approve something that was the slightest bit off. I ended up spending 11 hours at this factory sitting in their windowless customer lounge, drinking a ridiculous amount of Diet Coke. I did venture out here and there, donning safety glasses and ear plugs (sexy) to explore the factory a bit. That was the fun part- seeing how the cans start (looks like an aluminum hockey puck), then extruded, brushed, decorated, palletized, etc... interesting stuff.
And finally, my latest and greatest adventure has to be my bachelorette party in Las Vegas the first weekend of August. I had 5 great girls join me in Vegas and I'm pretty sure, from what I can remember, we had a blast!! We stayed at the Venetian, while the guys, who were having their own bachelor weekend, stayed across the strip at Treasure Island (yes, I know, now ti). We ended up meeting up with the guys quite a few times for drinks, dinner, gambling, etc. But during the days, we lounged by the pool, did some shopping, and slept in. Friday night we went to Tao for drinks and appetizers (HUGE disappointment with customer service there), drinks at the Wynn, then a late night/early morning dinner at Grand Lux Cafe. We called it a semi-early night at 2am in order to rest up for our Saturday night-o-fun.
On Saturday we lounged by the pool during the day, bumping into Kate Walsh from Grey's Anatomy who was also attending her bacherlorette weekend. :) That evening we went to Battista's Hole in the Wall for a delicious Italian dinner and then moved on to Tangerine at TI for some dancing and drinks. After losing the majority of my girls at Tangerine (most had early Sunday morning flights and/or were quite tipsy), Danielle and I headed out from there and bumped into the guys (or did I call them??) playing poker at TI, got the key to the guy's room that was full of beer and drinks and ended up hanging out up there for a while for some free drinks (not that free drinks are hard to come by in Vegas). After that, we went back to the Venetian and had a late night/early AM snack at 6am or so at Grand Lux Cafe. This really sobered me up... a bit... and then we found the guys and did some gambling at the Venetian, others played in the 7am poker tournament. I think I ended up getting back to my room around 830 or 9am. It was a LONG night!! But totally fun.
Our return flight to Denver was not till Sunday evening, so I struggled to get through the day without passing out mid-stride walking about the strip, at the booth at Denny's, and in the massage chair at Brookstone. We went to the airport early, with my newly purchased travel blanket from brookstone, and I slept in the fetal position curled up on an airport chair for about a half hour. After my little nap, I felt the need to devour some food and drink some more beer, so we hit up a little Mexican restaurant for dinner before getting on the plane back to Denver.
So, this kind of brings us up-to-date. Aside from another trip to Dallas, the past couple of weeks we've been taking care of final wedding plans and now we are 17 days away from our big day. I'm absolutely beyond excited and am just trying to savor every moment!
I can barely remember back to June, but I do know I was in Dallas for a week for work getting ready for a HUGE meeting with one of our customers and also our biggest trade show of the year. The huge meeting went extraordinarily well, so all of the hard work and travel was worthwhile.
Early on in June, a college roommate, Deborah, was in town with her husband/film writer/producer/director for his movie's premiere at the Breckenridge Film Festival. We drove up to the mountains to meet them one evening and had a lovely night in Breck- my first time there too! Unfortunately, we had prior commitments during the afternoon, so we did not make it in town to see the actual movie's premiere, but we did get our very own DVD copy of the film which now I'm thinking I should have made Sean autograph for kicks.
The end of June brought us to the Chicagoland area via a roadtrip. I do believe I could be a truck driver if this whole graphic design thing doesn't work out. I started out at 630pm driving out of Denver and didn't quit till about 3 in the morning. I love roadtrips. Brian took over for a couple hours till we were almost to Illinois and then I grabbed a hold of the wheel for the final few hours into Chicago. We arrived at my parent's house about 9 in the morning on Friday and began our week-long whirlwind visit to Chicago. We attended my college roommate's, Daniella, beautiful wedding in Arlington Heights on Saturday. It was a blast and I got to catch up with a ton of Bradley folks that were at the wedding. Some I had not seen in years (like since graduation!), others I had seen just weeks before (Deborah in Breck)... It was totally fun and gorgeous and Daniella looked absolutely amazing.
On Sunday, my wonderful bridesmaids threw me a shower at my parent's house. We had quite a few people attend, including many of my family members from New England, Brian's parents, and of course a lot of locals! I was completely overwhelmed with the generosity of everyone. Such a wonderful day; it really made me feel like a bride!
The rest of the week was somewhat a blur, but I was able to catch up with friends downtown and in the burbs, Brian's parents, and all of my family that had came into town from RI and MA. The only bummer of the week was that we didn't make it to either Portillo's or Dunkin' Donuts while we were in town. :(
I know I'm really skimming over things here............. And I do apologize about that! After the wedding, I surely will have more time to blog! Anyways, the rest of July was fairly quiet, had a brief business trip to Pittsburgh. No, not Pittsburgh- Hermitage, PA. I just flew into Pittsburgh, then drove an hour to the little wee town of Hermitage, PA. Filled with VFW's and little cute New England looking houses, and itty-bitty stores. It really was darling; however, I spent 90% of my time inside an aluminum can factory attempting to do a press check on our Cantu Oil Sheen Can. They had some major issues there matching our colors, and me being the pickiest of pickiest, I absolutely would not approve something that was the slightest bit off. I ended up spending 11 hours at this factory sitting in their windowless customer lounge, drinking a ridiculous amount of Diet Coke. I did venture out here and there, donning safety glasses and ear plugs (sexy) to explore the factory a bit. That was the fun part- seeing how the cans start (looks like an aluminum hockey puck), then extruded, brushed, decorated, palletized, etc... interesting stuff.
And finally, my latest and greatest adventure has to be my bachelorette party in Las Vegas the first weekend of August. I had 5 great girls join me in Vegas and I'm pretty sure, from what I can remember, we had a blast!! We stayed at the Venetian, while the guys, who were having their own bachelor weekend, stayed across the strip at Treasure Island (yes, I know, now ti). We ended up meeting up with the guys quite a few times for drinks, dinner, gambling, etc. But during the days, we lounged by the pool, did some shopping, and slept in. Friday night we went to Tao for drinks and appetizers (HUGE disappointment with customer service there), drinks at the Wynn, then a late night/early morning dinner at Grand Lux Cafe. We called it a semi-early night at 2am in order to rest up for our Saturday night-o-fun.
On Saturday we lounged by the pool during the day, bumping into Kate Walsh from Grey's Anatomy who was also attending her bacherlorette weekend. :) That evening we went to Battista's Hole in the Wall for a delicious Italian dinner and then moved on to Tangerine at TI for some dancing and drinks. After losing the majority of my girls at Tangerine (most had early Sunday morning flights and/or were quite tipsy), Danielle and I headed out from there and bumped into the guys (or did I call them??) playing poker at TI, got the key to the guy's room that was full of beer and drinks and ended up hanging out up there for a while for some free drinks (not that free drinks are hard to come by in Vegas). After that, we went back to the Venetian and had a late night/early AM snack at 6am or so at Grand Lux Cafe. This really sobered me up... a bit... and then we found the guys and did some gambling at the Venetian, others played in the 7am poker tournament. I think I ended up getting back to my room around 830 or 9am. It was a LONG night!! But totally fun.
Our return flight to Denver was not till Sunday evening, so I struggled to get through the day without passing out mid-stride walking about the strip, at the booth at Denny's, and in the massage chair at Brookstone. We went to the airport early, with my newly purchased travel blanket from brookstone, and I slept in the fetal position curled up on an airport chair for about a half hour. After my little nap, I felt the need to devour some food and drink some more beer, so we hit up a little Mexican restaurant for dinner before getting on the plane back to Denver.
So, this kind of brings us up-to-date. Aside from another trip to Dallas, the past couple of weeks we've been taking care of final wedding plans and now we are 17 days away from our big day. I'm absolutely beyond excited and am just trying to savor every moment!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Freak out!
Yup, it's been a gazillion years since my last post. But I have excuses. Tons of them... First of all, I officially moved into Brian's, errr, 'our' house. Secondly, I've gone on three trips in the past month! We went to Seattle the last weekend of April for Brian's friend's wedding. It was a very quick trip, and both of our first times in Seattle, but we were able to sneak in visits to Pikes Place Market, the original Starbucks location, and the awesome Archie McPhee store. The wedding was really nice- the reception was on the bay or lake or whatever they call the water around Seattle. Weather was decent- not too much drizzle, not too cold. Honestly, at this point (a month later and 2 other trips later), I don't remember many of the details, I apologize. I will not ramble on about the uninteresting memories I do still have!
We came home for just less than a week and then were off to Dallas for a business trip/wedding trip combo. Brian had a meeting in Dallas for the first part of the week and as most of you know, my office is in Dallas, so I went down to work for the week from the office. The wedding we attended that weekend was for coworker of mine. Her wedding was absolutely gorgeous. And hands down, THE most fun I have ever had at a reception. The ceremony took place at a gorgeous church near downtown Dallas (in Highland Park) complete with a nearly 40 person choir. Immediately following was the reception at the Four Seasons in Las Colinas. The cocktail hour was accompanied by delicious passed hors'deourves (give me a break, I don't have time to look up the correct spelling), and was followed by a delicious dinner with wine pairings for each course in the ballroom. The ballroom was decorated spectacularly and Brian said us attending this wedding was 'trouble', as I kept getting more and more ideas and thinking about more stuff we could add to our big day. We danced the night away to the fabulous sounds of the Emerald City Band (who are apparently famous and performed at Bush's inaugeration!) which was followed by a DJ later on in the night. I seriously was a little worried about this wedding, mostly because Brian didn't know ANYONE, and I really only knew my coworkers that were attending, but in the end it was a seriously awesome time.
After being in Dallas for a solid week, we were definitely ready to come home and attempt to attend to the multitude of boxes and furniture strewn about the house... Well, I should be honest and say we're STILL trying to attend to this.... But, we're getting somewhere. Where that is, I don't know. But it is coming along. Also, my birthday was a couple weeks ago, and in my grand tradition of making birth DAYS into birth WEEKENDS, we had a great weekend full of baseball games, dinners out, shopping, and sitting outside enjoying the sun.
Last weekend was the third and final trip of the past month, and that was to Florida (Boca Raton/Fort Lauderdale area) to visit Brian's parents and sister/bro-in-law/new baby! Actually it was more than just a visit, it was me meeting his parents for the first time! The weekend went quite well and we had a great time. Brian's new niece is absolutely precious- all 8 pounds of her... and I couldn't get enough of holding her! Such a cutie. Brian's aunt from New York was also in town and it was great to meet her as well. We ate seafood every day, I got my Dunkin Donuts fix, and stocked up on Dunkin Donuts coffee beans. I couldn't ask for anything more. We also went to the Hard Rock Casino where Anna Nicole Smith died and I doubled my money on some poker slot game that to this day, we still don't know how it worked and how I won. One afternoon we went to the pool for a bit and soaked up some rays. Not too many rays though, since I get pink in like 15 minutes, I was in the shade not too long after we arrived at the pool! On Saturday evening, we went to dinner with everyone, then down to Fort Lauderdale to walk along the beach and enjoy the salt air.
Ok, so that just about brings us up to date... And THIS very date marks the day that we are officially 99 of those days until the wedding. Double digits, baby. And yes, I am freaking out a bit... Just about what's left to do and how little time there is left to do it! This weekend I'm hoping to assemble the invitations so that's out of my hair. Oh, but here's my little vent. With the postage rate hike (no, I'm not going to crab about the extra 2 cents a stamp costs), and apparently the post office not anticipating the rate hike (give me a break), they have 3 choices for 41 cent stamps at the moment. We're talking about that ever-patriotic Flag stamp, the historical Liberty Bell Forever Stamp, and the just released Star Wars stamps. Well, I need to get my stamps to put on the RSVP envelopes and these are my choices. So, when you get your invitation and see Yoda or Chewie on your RSVP envelope, you'll know why and where I'm coming from! It'll add a nice touch of kitsch to our classy invitations. :)
We came home for just less than a week and then were off to Dallas for a business trip/wedding trip combo. Brian had a meeting in Dallas for the first part of the week and as most of you know, my office is in Dallas, so I went down to work for the week from the office. The wedding we attended that weekend was for coworker of mine. Her wedding was absolutely gorgeous. And hands down, THE most fun I have ever had at a reception. The ceremony took place at a gorgeous church near downtown Dallas (in Highland Park) complete with a nearly 40 person choir. Immediately following was the reception at the Four Seasons in Las Colinas. The cocktail hour was accompanied by delicious passed hors'deourves (give me a break, I don't have time to look up the correct spelling), and was followed by a delicious dinner with wine pairings for each course in the ballroom. The ballroom was decorated spectacularly and Brian said us attending this wedding was 'trouble', as I kept getting more and more ideas and thinking about more stuff we could add to our big day. We danced the night away to the fabulous sounds of the Emerald City Band (who are apparently famous and performed at Bush's inaugeration!) which was followed by a DJ later on in the night. I seriously was a little worried about this wedding, mostly because Brian didn't know ANYONE, and I really only knew my coworkers that were attending, but in the end it was a seriously awesome time.
After being in Dallas for a solid week, we were definitely ready to come home and attempt to attend to the multitude of boxes and furniture strewn about the house... Well, I should be honest and say we're STILL trying to attend to this.... But, we're getting somewhere. Where that is, I don't know. But it is coming along. Also, my birthday was a couple weeks ago, and in my grand tradition of making birth DAYS into birth WEEKENDS, we had a great weekend full of baseball games, dinners out, shopping, and sitting outside enjoying the sun.
Last weekend was the third and final trip of the past month, and that was to Florida (Boca Raton/Fort Lauderdale area) to visit Brian's parents and sister/bro-in-law/new baby! Actually it was more than just a visit, it was me meeting his parents for the first time! The weekend went quite well and we had a great time. Brian's new niece is absolutely precious- all 8 pounds of her... and I couldn't get enough of holding her! Such a cutie. Brian's aunt from New York was also in town and it was great to meet her as well. We ate seafood every day, I got my Dunkin Donuts fix, and stocked up on Dunkin Donuts coffee beans. I couldn't ask for anything more. We also went to the Hard Rock Casino where Anna Nicole Smith died and I doubled my money on some poker slot game that to this day, we still don't know how it worked and how I won. One afternoon we went to the pool for a bit and soaked up some rays. Not too many rays though, since I get pink in like 15 minutes, I was in the shade not too long after we arrived at the pool! On Saturday evening, we went to dinner with everyone, then down to Fort Lauderdale to walk along the beach and enjoy the salt air.
Ok, so that just about brings us up to date... And THIS very date marks the day that we are officially 99 of those days until the wedding. Double digits, baby. And yes, I am freaking out a bit... Just about what's left to do and how little time there is left to do it! This weekend I'm hoping to assemble the invitations so that's out of my hair. Oh, but here's my little vent. With the postage rate hike (no, I'm not going to crab about the extra 2 cents a stamp costs), and apparently the post office not anticipating the rate hike (give me a break), they have 3 choices for 41 cent stamps at the moment. We're talking about that ever-patriotic Flag stamp, the historical Liberty Bell Forever Stamp, and the just released Star Wars stamps. Well, I need to get my stamps to put on the RSVP envelopes and these are my choices. So, when you get your invitation and see Yoda or Chewie on your RSVP envelope, you'll know why and where I'm coming from! It'll add a nice touch of kitsch to our classy invitations. :)
Monday, April 09, 2007
My cat.
Lola is addicted to Turkey. It all started Thanksgiving when I thought it would be cute to give her a little turkey. Well, every time we had leftovers she was always undertoe meowing for a tasty tidbit. Now, Brian has turkey sandwiches for lunch nearly every day and she constantly harasses him for a turkey sandwich of her own. Today she even resorted to batting Brian on the leg, even after she got several turkey bites. We have created a monster. A Kitty-Cat Turkey-Eating Monster.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Oh my...
It's been a very long time since my last post and a lot has gone on in the last month!
First off, my mom visited us the end of February/beginning of March and we had a great time. We visited the reception site, tried on my dress, went out a few nights, did some random running around, devised centerpieces for the reception, went to cake tastings, etc...
Let's talk about cake: we went to 2 cake tastings and cake began to become a theme for my mom's vacation out here. The second day she was here, we went to our first cake tasting at Shamane's Bake Shoppe in Boulder. It was divine... We tried 5 different flavors of cake:
After the cake tasting we went to the Renaissance, where the reception is being held, for dinner at their restaurant, FLATZ. It was delicious as usual and I think my mom was thoroughly impressed. If the reception food is half as good as the restaurant food (it's the same kitchen), it'll be the best banquet/reception food ever. Seriously.
On Saturday, we went to another cake tasting. Yes, we had already decided on the cake, but this other shop has cake tasting open houses and my mom is a cake afficionado, so we decided to take advantage of another cake tasting. This cake tasting, being an open house style, was a bit of a zoo. But in the end, we had tried 14 different flavors of cake. My mom loved this cake, but Brian and I thought it was a bit over the top-sweet wise. The buttercream was super sugary and the cake flavors were a bit artificial tasting.
That evening, we went out for pizza at Proto's, and then went downtown to celebrate Kimberly's birthday at Wynkoop Brewery. We played some darts and called it a semi-early night... We had been going non-stop since my mom arrived and we were all a bit exhausted.
The rest of mom's visit was busy- we spent some time packing at my apartment, I brought her to Dream Dinners one day and put her to work, we did some more running around, and ate some more cake. YES, we figured to continue the tradition, we had cake two more evenings for dessert! We had a such a great time and I was very sad to bring her to the airport on Thursday. :(
Since my mom's visit, I've been super busy with work and also working on the wedding invitations and busy with the dentist. Yup, I had been having problems since November with my 'face' hurting... First I thought it was a sinus infection, then an ear infection... Then my doctor suggested I go to the dentist and after a couple days of absolute horrid pain, I went to the dentist to discover that the previous dentist most likely damaged a nerve while filling a cavity way back in October. The new and awesome dentist gave me vicodin and scheduled me for a ... root canal. I was frightened. Scared. Terrified. I don't mind the dentist, but had heard all the horrible stories about root canals. EEEK. So a week later, I went to the endodontist for the root canal. They numbed me up and I have to say that the worst part of it all was the needle with the numbing stuff. I listened to my iPod during the procedure and was baffled when it was over, because there was NO PAIN. No pain whatsoever. It was a piece of cake and I proceeded to tell them how awesome they were and that I would totally go back for another root canal anytime. Well, anytime I really needed one!
Yesterday I went back to the regular dentist and was fitted for a crown. This procedure was also totally fine. With the exception of my jaw hurting a bit just from holding it open for a while, I'm doing good, and in 3 weeks I go back to have the permanent crown put on. If anyone is looking for a good dentist in Colorado, I can highly recommend mine, he's got such a good personality and is very informative (if you want him to be, which I did) and I think he answered all my questions before I asked them and totally walked me through the whole procedure before starting so I knew what to expect.
I know I'm missing some stuff that's gone on.... OH! We booked our honeymoon! I am sooooooooooooo excited! We're going to Jamaica for a week and can not wait!!
First off, my mom visited us the end of February/beginning of March and we had a great time. We visited the reception site, tried on my dress, went out a few nights, did some random running around, devised centerpieces for the reception, went to cake tastings, etc...
Let's talk about cake: we went to 2 cake tastings and cake began to become a theme for my mom's vacation out here. The second day she was here, we went to our first cake tasting at Shamane's Bake Shoppe in Boulder. It was divine... We tried 5 different flavors of cake:
- Chocolate Cinnamon
- Hawaiian Honeymoon
- Raspberry Citron
- Maple Spice
- Champagne Toast
After the cake tasting we went to the Renaissance, where the reception is being held, for dinner at their restaurant, FLATZ. It was delicious as usual and I think my mom was thoroughly impressed. If the reception food is half as good as the restaurant food (it's the same kitchen), it'll be the best banquet/reception food ever. Seriously.
On Saturday, we went to another cake tasting. Yes, we had already decided on the cake, but this other shop has cake tasting open houses and my mom is a cake afficionado, so we decided to take advantage of another cake tasting. This cake tasting, being an open house style, was a bit of a zoo. But in the end, we had tried 14 different flavors of cake. My mom loved this cake, but Brian and I thought it was a bit over the top-sweet wise. The buttercream was super sugary and the cake flavors were a bit artificial tasting.
That evening, we went out for pizza at Proto's, and then went downtown to celebrate Kimberly's birthday at Wynkoop Brewery. We played some darts and called it a semi-early night... We had been going non-stop since my mom arrived and we were all a bit exhausted.
The rest of mom's visit was busy- we spent some time packing at my apartment, I brought her to Dream Dinners one day and put her to work, we did some more running around, and ate some more cake. YES, we figured to continue the tradition, we had cake two more evenings for dessert! We had a such a great time and I was very sad to bring her to the airport on Thursday. :(
Since my mom's visit, I've been super busy with work and also working on the wedding invitations and busy with the dentist. Yup, I had been having problems since November with my 'face' hurting... First I thought it was a sinus infection, then an ear infection... Then my doctor suggested I go to the dentist and after a couple days of absolute horrid pain, I went to the dentist to discover that the previous dentist most likely damaged a nerve while filling a cavity way back in October. The new and awesome dentist gave me vicodin and scheduled me for a ... root canal. I was frightened. Scared. Terrified. I don't mind the dentist, but had heard all the horrible stories about root canals. EEEK. So a week later, I went to the endodontist for the root canal. They numbed me up and I have to say that the worst part of it all was the needle with the numbing stuff. I listened to my iPod during the procedure and was baffled when it was over, because there was NO PAIN. No pain whatsoever. It was a piece of cake and I proceeded to tell them how awesome they were and that I would totally go back for another root canal anytime. Well, anytime I really needed one!
Yesterday I went back to the regular dentist and was fitted for a crown. This procedure was also totally fine. With the exception of my jaw hurting a bit just from holding it open for a while, I'm doing good, and in 3 weeks I go back to have the permanent crown put on. If anyone is looking for a good dentist in Colorado, I can highly recommend mine, he's got such a good personality and is very informative (if you want him to be, which I did) and I think he answered all my questions before I asked them and totally walked me through the whole procedure before starting so I knew what to expect.
I know I'm missing some stuff that's gone on.... OH! We booked our honeymoon! I am sooooooooooooo excited! We're going to Jamaica for a week and can not wait!!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Pics from the FDR Memorial
I was giving Frankie a nice little massage here:
I totally made Brian pose for this one... What a good sport. :)
I totally made Brian pose for this one... What a good sport. :)
Seriously...
What else could I have worn to make me look more like a tourist? Perhaps a camera around my neck?? (Ah, if you could have seen me when I wasn't having my picture taken with MY camera).
Wedding Update!
We are now under 200 days from our big day! 199 to be exact! AND... I got my dress today! Too bad I don't have anyone around to help me put it on. I tried to try it on, but it's a bit involved, as most bridal gowns are, to "zip" it up. I'm so excited.
Another AND... My mom will be here in exactly one week- I can't wait!
Another AND... My mom will be here in exactly one week- I can't wait!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
One down...
Four more to go... Weddings, that is. We returned from our Baltimore/DC weekend last night and I am still completely exhausted. The weekend was a blast and full of drinking, eating, and much merriment, and because of that, I am still recuperating and will be for a day or two more!
We arrived in Baltimore Thursday early evening and after getting our rental car, we began the drive to Alexandria, VA to Brian's friend Jason's apartment. With our flight being delayed a bit and of course having to wait for our luggage and get the rental car, we were running a little behind schedule, so upon arrival at Jason's we modified the evening's plans a bit. Instead of going into DC for dinner, we had a quicker, but most definitely just as delicious dinner at a chili restaurant in Olde Town Alexandria. It's a small chain in the DC area and with Brian having lived there in the not-so-distant past, he was due for his fix and also to introduce me to the yummyness that is called Hard Times Chili. I had 4 Way Cincinnati Chili and a couple local brews- it was so tasty and totally hit the spot after a long day of traveling.
After dinner, the 4 of us, Jason, Dawn, Brian and myself headed down the street (Jason thankfully drove the couple blocks because it was so insanely cold in DC this weekend) to a bar he made reservations for us at. Yes, a bar that requires reservations... It's what you would call a speakeasy- no sign on the exterior, just a door with a blue light over it. You have to ring a doorbell, and someone comes to answer, and provided if you're dressed appropriately (men are required to wear jackets) they may let you in. Being that we were all dressed so tastefully well, they let us in, had us read the "rules of the house" posted in the stairwell and the doorwoman led us up a flight of stairs to the bar area and then into the front 'blue' room where we had 2 swanky couches reserved for us. In addition to our 2 couches, there were two other couches, each with a couple sitting on each, the couches all faced each other, one on each of the 4 walls with a small square stool/table in the center. After being seated and checking our coats, we began to peruse the menu... The whole menu was full of classic cocktails made with homemade ingredients and also some other cocktails that I had never heard of before, but all sounded good. My first drink was a homemade ginger ale and ketel one vodka served in a copper mug. The drink was really delicious and the ginger ale was spicy and delicious. We all tried different drinks and after 3 rounds, we had nearly tried all of the drinks on the menu (some more tasty than others... Brian ended his evening on a not-so-good one). The atmosphere of the place was very cool- it was chill with jazz music playing in the background, until a different group got sat in our room and kind of made it a little rowdy... The service was lacking- I was brought the wrong drink first and it took basically until the rest of our group was ready for their second for me to get my correct drink. The whole thing with this place is that it's not supposed to be fast paced, but you'd think if you screwed up, you might make an exception and bust that one cocktail out a little faster than the rest. Another thing that bugged me was the supposed dress code. We got all dressed up, with the boys in jackets and the girls in skirts and when we arrived, one of the men seated in our room had on jeans and hiking boots. So that was a bit disappointing. I just figured if they are trying to get this whole reputation built, they might actually enforce their rules. If you want to check out the place, you can access their website through: http://www.eamonnsdublinchipper.com/ You have to click on the blue "PX" on the bottom right of the screen to actually get to the right website. So mysterious. Anyways, it was cool and we got to try a lot of good drinks and overall had a great time.
After the bar, we went back to the apartment and stayed up till 4am talking, drinking green apple martinis, and eating baked cheetos (they are really good!).
The next morning, we obviously woke up later than we had planned since we had such a late night and after getting ready, we began our little tourist day in DC. The last time I was in DC was probably when I was in the eighth grade, so I was looking forward to seeing the sights again. The one downside of visiting this weekend was the weather and it was under 30 degrees with some mean winds and it literally hurt to walk for any length of time outside- not something that is easy to avoid when sightseeing in DC! We headed into DC and made our first stop at the FDR Memorial... After walking the short block to the memorial and checking it out- which it was very cool- I'll post pics soon, we decided that being outside was absolutely miserable. On top of that, I didn't bring a hat, so I was very gingerly wrapping my scarf around my head and neck hoping to cover as much of my head as possible with very little luck. About midway through the memorial, my toes began to feel like I had been outside sledding all day. At this point, Brian was ready to hop on one of the trolley tours and just see DC that way... I was ready to get back to the car and get warm.
We ended up going back to the car and decided to just hit the memorials that had parking close and we wouldn't have to be outside for any length of time. Pathetic, I know, but if you had been there, my guess would be you'd just want to head home or to a bar for some drinks. Oh, and also, I forgot to mention that DC had been hit with a nasty snow/ice storm the day before we arrived so most sidewalks were not cleared and were just 3 inch thick sheets of ice. No joke. Every other step we took, one of us was sliding and nearly falling. We did a couple loops around the Jefferson Memorial area and after not being able to find any parking any where close to the vacinity of it, I decided I had seen enough of it from the comfort of our rental car. We then began to loop around the Mall area because one thing I really did want to see was the Lincoln Memorial. Brian found a killer parking spot basically right next to the Mall and on the end that the Lincoln Memorial is. It was also conveniently located next to a street vendor selling hats, so we stopped there first before trekking across the ice laden sidewalks and up the icy stairs of the memorial. I got an awesomely cheesy pink hat that says "I DC" on it and proudly wore it the rest of the day. I think Brian was a bit embarrassed, and honestly, I was too, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I have an awesome pic of me in the hat I'll have to post. On the walk to the Lincoln Memorial we slid down the sidewalk next to the Vietnam Memorial and saw that which was cool to see. And after seeing the Lincoln Memorial (basically the only one that we went to that had any sizable of people there- at FDR, we were all alone), we walked over to the Korean Memorial and saw that as well. We decided it was much too cold to try to walk over to the WWII Memorial, so we headed back to the car to warm up. It was getting late in the afternoon and knowing that we had to drive to Baltimore that evening, we decided to get some dinner. We drove to Adams Morgan to have dinner at one of Brian's favorite places, an Ethiopian restaurant, Meskerem. It was my first time eating Ethiopian food and I must say I was impressed- it was very, very tasty and warming and just overall a fun experience.
After dinner, Brian took me on a quick driving tour of his alma mater, American University, and then we headed to Baltimore... in the middle of rush hour traffic... on a Friday... on a holiday weekend... in DC where almost everyone gets President's Day off. Yay. I was soooo tired and after only going a few miles in what seriously took over an hour, I had to close my eyes and sleep a bit. I felt bad that Brian was driving, but I just couldn't take the heavy eyelids anymore! All-in-all it took us 2.5 hours to get to Baltimore that night. We arrived at the hotel around 8pm, checked in, and pretty much had to get ready to go meet up with people right away- no rest for us!
We met up around 10pm at a bar in Fells Point where I got to meet some more of Brian's friends from DC and of course the bride and groom and also got to catch up with some friend's of his that I had already met when we were in Hawaii last year. We called it a semi-early night, or I thought that, but discovered on the elevator ride back up to the room it was past 1am. So much for getting to bed a bit earlier!
Saturday morning we slept in... I swear I have never slept in such a comfortable bed, though I think it was just because I was so tired and it felt so good to sleep in general. We didn't make it up for breakfast, but did have just enough time to walk to a restaurant for lunch. My one goal was for a crabcake. Well, my goal was to eat as many crabcakes as I could the entire time we were there. We ate lunch at a restaurant named Bertha's in Fells Point and I had my first crabcake of the weekend. It was absolutely divine. Bertha's is apparently known for mussels, which they did sound fantastic, but we didn't get any and I didn't think mussels were an appropriate food to cure a mini-hangover nor prepare for another long night of partying and drinking! By the time we were done with lunch, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the ceremony.
We carpooled with Dave and Paula to the ceremony, as we were all staying in the same hotel. The ceremony was really beautiful and made me think lots about our upcoming nuptials, of course! It was also a Catholic ceremony, so that was good to see, since ours will be too, and it's been a while since I've been to one. After the ceremony, we headed back to the hotel to hop on the shuttle that would take us to the reception. We made a quick pit stop in the room and then headed back to the lobby to wait for the shuttle. And waited we did... The reception started at 4pm, and it wasn't until about 445 that the shuttle arrived. By the time we actually got to the reception, we nearly missed the entire cocktail hour- oh no!
The reception took place in a really beautiful ballroom with gorgeous chandeliers and a cool old school wooden bar. We started the evening off by grabbing a drink, Van Gogh Double Espresso, Double Caffeine Vodka on the rocks, the signature drink of the happy couple (I later heard that's what the groom used to woo the bride when they first met). It was so yummy and smooth, I was amazed it was simply vodka on the rocks. We had a few hors d'eourves including tasty shrimp, baked brie, and of course crab cakes (my second crabcake of the weekend, actually 2nd of the day, as well).
We all took our seats for dinner and were served a delicious meal of filet and black bass, asparagus, and mashed potatoes accompanied by a salad and bread. After dinner, there was a dessert buffet with the wedding cake and fresh fruit. All of the food was really good. After dinner, there was dancing and we all had a good time busting our moves on the dance floor. The reception ended around 9pm and we headed for a bar via cab to all hang out. The bride and groom even joined us all later on in the evening. We stayed at that one bar for a while and then decided to call it a night, but not before stopping at the 'sip and bite' for a little food before heading back to the hotel. I had a cup of crab soup there, which was quite tasty, though I was a little frightened of it when it was served with half a crap hanging over the edge of the bowl! It was seriously just sitting there looking at me. The soup was good, and I had a gyro, which didn't compare to a Doggie Diner Gyro, but it was all good. We split a cab with Brian's friend's Eveline and Rich back to the hotel and were treated to a true party cab ride. Meaning, this cab was equipped with a disco ball, strobe lights, other various dance lights, and some bumping music. All we could do was laugh hysterically... But there was really no better way to end a night!
Sunday morning we slept in as late as we could, packed up our bags and then headed out to meet up with some more of Brian's friends from college who weren't at the wedding, Tim and Meghan. We met them at an Irish restaurant not too far from Fell's Point along with their adorable kids. When I say adorable, I mean it... Their son, Liam, is about 4 years old and entertained us with a performance of Kelly Clarkson's "Since You Been Gone" pre-lunch and as a post-lunch performance, he dazzled us with his vocal stylings while singing "Breakaway". He knew absolutely all the words, the intros, bridges, endings- it was quite impressive! They also have a daughter who's about 1.5 or so and every time she looked at Brian she started crying- that was pretty awesome (and okay, it wasn't every time, it just happened twice). Let's hope our kids don't have that same reaction to looking at their dad! As with all of Brian's friends, Tim and Meghan were both awesome and so nice and I also got to hear some good stories of Brian's college days.
After lunch, we headed to the airport to begin our journey home. Oh wait, I forgot to mention that for lunch on Sunday, I had a crab cake sandwich- so that was crab cake #3 of the weekend- not too shabby!! Our flight home was fairly uneventful, though because of southwest's unassigned seating assignments, a little 6 year old boy got stuck sitting next to me and not his mom (who was a few rows behind with a even littler one). I basically had to entertain and babysit this kid for the 4 hour flight, including disposing of his garbage, requesting drinks for him, playing some crazy tic-tac-toe game he made up in which I never won, the 'crayon' game where I had to guess what color the crayon he drew was and of course he was the only one who knew the answer and I was, of course, never right. It was a little annoying, but the kid was actually pretty cute and we had a good time. Brian was on the other side of me and was I think on purpose ignoring me for most of the flight so he wouldn't have to start playing games he'd never win. Brian is much too competitive for that.
We got home Sunday evening and pretty much called it a night- that was a lot of partying to recuperate from!
We arrived in Baltimore Thursday early evening and after getting our rental car, we began the drive to Alexandria, VA to Brian's friend Jason's apartment. With our flight being delayed a bit and of course having to wait for our luggage and get the rental car, we were running a little behind schedule, so upon arrival at Jason's we modified the evening's plans a bit. Instead of going into DC for dinner, we had a quicker, but most definitely just as delicious dinner at a chili restaurant in Olde Town Alexandria. It's a small chain in the DC area and with Brian having lived there in the not-so-distant past, he was due for his fix and also to introduce me to the yummyness that is called Hard Times Chili. I had 4 Way Cincinnati Chili and a couple local brews- it was so tasty and totally hit the spot after a long day of traveling.
After dinner, the 4 of us, Jason, Dawn, Brian and myself headed down the street (Jason thankfully drove the couple blocks because it was so insanely cold in DC this weekend) to a bar he made reservations for us at. Yes, a bar that requires reservations... It's what you would call a speakeasy- no sign on the exterior, just a door with a blue light over it. You have to ring a doorbell, and someone comes to answer, and provided if you're dressed appropriately (men are required to wear jackets) they may let you in. Being that we were all dressed so tastefully well, they let us in, had us read the "rules of the house" posted in the stairwell and the doorwoman led us up a flight of stairs to the bar area and then into the front 'blue' room where we had 2 swanky couches reserved for us. In addition to our 2 couches, there were two other couches, each with a couple sitting on each, the couches all faced each other, one on each of the 4 walls with a small square stool/table in the center. After being seated and checking our coats, we began to peruse the menu... The whole menu was full of classic cocktails made with homemade ingredients and also some other cocktails that I had never heard of before, but all sounded good. My first drink was a homemade ginger ale and ketel one vodka served in a copper mug. The drink was really delicious and the ginger ale was spicy and delicious. We all tried different drinks and after 3 rounds, we had nearly tried all of the drinks on the menu (some more tasty than others... Brian ended his evening on a not-so-good one). The atmosphere of the place was very cool- it was chill with jazz music playing in the background, until a different group got sat in our room and kind of made it a little rowdy... The service was lacking- I was brought the wrong drink first and it took basically until the rest of our group was ready for their second for me to get my correct drink. The whole thing with this place is that it's not supposed to be fast paced, but you'd think if you screwed up, you might make an exception and bust that one cocktail out a little faster than the rest. Another thing that bugged me was the supposed dress code. We got all dressed up, with the boys in jackets and the girls in skirts and when we arrived, one of the men seated in our room had on jeans and hiking boots. So that was a bit disappointing. I just figured if they are trying to get this whole reputation built, they might actually enforce their rules. If you want to check out the place, you can access their website through: http://www.eamonnsdublinchipper.com/ You have to click on the blue "PX" on the bottom right of the screen to actually get to the right website. So mysterious. Anyways, it was cool and we got to try a lot of good drinks and overall had a great time.
After the bar, we went back to the apartment and stayed up till 4am talking, drinking green apple martinis, and eating baked cheetos (they are really good!).
The next morning, we obviously woke up later than we had planned since we had such a late night and after getting ready, we began our little tourist day in DC. The last time I was in DC was probably when I was in the eighth grade, so I was looking forward to seeing the sights again. The one downside of visiting this weekend was the weather and it was under 30 degrees with some mean winds and it literally hurt to walk for any length of time outside- not something that is easy to avoid when sightseeing in DC! We headed into DC and made our first stop at the FDR Memorial... After walking the short block to the memorial and checking it out- which it was very cool- I'll post pics soon, we decided that being outside was absolutely miserable. On top of that, I didn't bring a hat, so I was very gingerly wrapping my scarf around my head and neck hoping to cover as much of my head as possible with very little luck. About midway through the memorial, my toes began to feel like I had been outside sledding all day. At this point, Brian was ready to hop on one of the trolley tours and just see DC that way... I was ready to get back to the car and get warm.
We ended up going back to the car and decided to just hit the memorials that had parking close and we wouldn't have to be outside for any length of time. Pathetic, I know, but if you had been there, my guess would be you'd just want to head home or to a bar for some drinks. Oh, and also, I forgot to mention that DC had been hit with a nasty snow/ice storm the day before we arrived so most sidewalks were not cleared and were just 3 inch thick sheets of ice. No joke. Every other step we took, one of us was sliding and nearly falling. We did a couple loops around the Jefferson Memorial area and after not being able to find any parking any where close to the vacinity of it, I decided I had seen enough of it from the comfort of our rental car. We then began to loop around the Mall area because one thing I really did want to see was the Lincoln Memorial. Brian found a killer parking spot basically right next to the Mall and on the end that the Lincoln Memorial is. It was also conveniently located next to a street vendor selling hats, so we stopped there first before trekking across the ice laden sidewalks and up the icy stairs of the memorial. I got an awesomely cheesy pink hat that says "I
After dinner, Brian took me on a quick driving tour of his alma mater, American University, and then we headed to Baltimore... in the middle of rush hour traffic... on a Friday... on a holiday weekend... in DC where almost everyone gets President's Day off. Yay. I was soooo tired and after only going a few miles in what seriously took over an hour, I had to close my eyes and sleep a bit. I felt bad that Brian was driving, but I just couldn't take the heavy eyelids anymore! All-in-all it took us 2.5 hours to get to Baltimore that night. We arrived at the hotel around 8pm, checked in, and pretty much had to get ready to go meet up with people right away- no rest for us!
We met up around 10pm at a bar in Fells Point where I got to meet some more of Brian's friends from DC and of course the bride and groom and also got to catch up with some friend's of his that I had already met when we were in Hawaii last year. We called it a semi-early night, or I thought that, but discovered on the elevator ride back up to the room it was past 1am. So much for getting to bed a bit earlier!
Saturday morning we slept in... I swear I have never slept in such a comfortable bed, though I think it was just because I was so tired and it felt so good to sleep in general. We didn't make it up for breakfast, but did have just enough time to walk to a restaurant for lunch. My one goal was for a crabcake. Well, my goal was to eat as many crabcakes as I could the entire time we were there. We ate lunch at a restaurant named Bertha's in Fells Point and I had my first crabcake of the weekend. It was absolutely divine. Bertha's is apparently known for mussels, which they did sound fantastic, but we didn't get any and I didn't think mussels were an appropriate food to cure a mini-hangover nor prepare for another long night of partying and drinking! By the time we were done with lunch, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the ceremony.
We carpooled with Dave and Paula to the ceremony, as we were all staying in the same hotel. The ceremony was really beautiful and made me think lots about our upcoming nuptials, of course! It was also a Catholic ceremony, so that was good to see, since ours will be too, and it's been a while since I've been to one. After the ceremony, we headed back to the hotel to hop on the shuttle that would take us to the reception. We made a quick pit stop in the room and then headed back to the lobby to wait for the shuttle. And waited we did... The reception started at 4pm, and it wasn't until about 445 that the shuttle arrived. By the time we actually got to the reception, we nearly missed the entire cocktail hour- oh no!
The reception took place in a really beautiful ballroom with gorgeous chandeliers and a cool old school wooden bar. We started the evening off by grabbing a drink, Van Gogh Double Espresso, Double Caffeine Vodka on the rocks, the signature drink of the happy couple (I later heard that's what the groom used to woo the bride when they first met). It was so yummy and smooth, I was amazed it was simply vodka on the rocks. We had a few hors d'eourves including tasty shrimp, baked brie, and of course crab cakes (my second crabcake of the weekend, actually 2nd of the day, as well).
We all took our seats for dinner and were served a delicious meal of filet and black bass, asparagus, and mashed potatoes accompanied by a salad and bread. After dinner, there was a dessert buffet with the wedding cake and fresh fruit. All of the food was really good. After dinner, there was dancing and we all had a good time busting our moves on the dance floor. The reception ended around 9pm and we headed for a bar via cab to all hang out. The bride and groom even joined us all later on in the evening. We stayed at that one bar for a while and then decided to call it a night, but not before stopping at the 'sip and bite' for a little food before heading back to the hotel. I had a cup of crab soup there, which was quite tasty, though I was a little frightened of it when it was served with half a crap hanging over the edge of the bowl! It was seriously just sitting there looking at me. The soup was good, and I had a gyro, which didn't compare to a Doggie Diner Gyro, but it was all good. We split a cab with Brian's friend's Eveline and Rich back to the hotel and were treated to a true party cab ride. Meaning, this cab was equipped with a disco ball, strobe lights, other various dance lights, and some bumping music. All we could do was laugh hysterically... But there was really no better way to end a night!
Sunday morning we slept in as late as we could, packed up our bags and then headed out to meet up with some more of Brian's friends from college who weren't at the wedding, Tim and Meghan. We met them at an Irish restaurant not too far from Fell's Point along with their adorable kids. When I say adorable, I mean it... Their son, Liam, is about 4 years old and entertained us with a performance of Kelly Clarkson's "Since You Been Gone" pre-lunch and as a post-lunch performance, he dazzled us with his vocal stylings while singing "Breakaway". He knew absolutely all the words, the intros, bridges, endings- it was quite impressive! They also have a daughter who's about 1.5 or so and every time she looked at Brian she started crying- that was pretty awesome (and okay, it wasn't every time, it just happened twice). Let's hope our kids don't have that same reaction to looking at their dad! As with all of Brian's friends, Tim and Meghan were both awesome and so nice and I also got to hear some good stories of Brian's college days.
After lunch, we headed to the airport to begin our journey home. Oh wait, I forgot to mention that for lunch on Sunday, I had a crab cake sandwich- so that was crab cake #3 of the weekend- not too shabby!! Our flight home was fairly uneventful, though because of southwest's unassigned seating assignments, a little 6 year old boy got stuck sitting next to me and not his mom (who was a few rows behind with a even littler one). I basically had to entertain and babysit this kid for the 4 hour flight, including disposing of his garbage, requesting drinks for him, playing some crazy tic-tac-toe game he made up in which I never won, the 'crayon' game where I had to guess what color the crayon he drew was and of course he was the only one who knew the answer and I was, of course, never right. It was a little annoying, but the kid was actually pretty cute and we had a good time. Brian was on the other side of me and was I think on purpose ignoring me for most of the flight so he wouldn't have to start playing games he'd never win. Brian is much too competitive for that.
We got home Sunday evening and pretty much called it a night- that was a lot of partying to recuperate from!
Monday, February 12, 2007
No, you may not play scrabble.
I do not allow you to have fun. There is no boardgame playing on my watch. End of story.
I said no. Now, stop looking at me. -Lola the Cat.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The Long Trip Home
So, I was able to get out of Hong Kong on Friday afternoon. I spent the morning running around TST, the area the hotel was in, grabbing souvenirs from street vendors and the 7-Eleven. I also took a quick walk along the promenade on the bay while drinking my Starbucks. ;) I finished packing and we were off to the airport in a mad rush- the car that was picking us up was late by about 1/2 an hour. After getting to the airport and going through immigration and security, we had just enough time to hit up the Cathay Pacific club for a quick lunch at their noodle bar, accompanied by some (much more normal looking) dim sum-esque dumplings and a coke light. After eating, we made the 20 minute trek to our gate (Hong Kong International is HUGE), and I might add that those 20 minutes also included a tram ride, several escalators, and a series of moving walkways. Upon arrival at the section of gates departing to the US, we had to undergo another security checkpoint. This one was where they physically go through your carry-on bags. Oh, I might add, when we went to the first security line, I kept looking to throw out my bottle of water, because of the US security rules, but didn't have to- they allow that through the initial checkpoint and to all gates departing NOT to the US. It was only during this second security line that I had to get rid of the water. I think... I threw it out during the middle of the line just in case. I never actually saw any signs referring to the whole liquid thing, but didn't want to get yelled at.
The long-haul flight, again, was fairly empty. Chris and I were in the 3 seat section that included an aisle and window which was nice, and then it was even nicer when Chris moved to another aisle seat up a few rows so I could lay across all 3 seats. I got some pretty decent sleep on that flight. In fact, I barely read anything or watched any movies. I even slept through the Cup-of-Noodle snack, though I do faintly remember smelling it as the flight attendants were walking by with them.
I think the only thing I was not prepared for was the whole coming back to the US and waiting in a gazillion lines. The first was immigration, then we had to get our luggage, then we had to wait in another line for customs. Then there was another line to return our luggage to get checked back in. Then, since they couldn't print my boarding pass from LAX to Denver in Hong Kong, I had to wait to check in in LA. Then of course there was the security line at LAX. Thankfully there was plenty of time in between our arrival and our departing flights. We went to the Admiral's Club to wait for our connecting flights and to have a bit to eat. My flight from LA to Denver was very relaxing and comfortable, as Chris was kind enough to upgrade me to First Class for this leg of the trip. I arrived into Denver around 4pm and after meeting Brian at the airport and getting my bags was on my way back home. We got home around 6pm because of traffic and I immediately laid down on the couch. In the time it took Brian to walk from the family room to the kitchen to see what we could eat for dinner, I fell fast asleep!
I ended up waking up around 10 pm or so and we stayed up watching TV for a bit, then I fell back to sleep around 11 and slept straight through the night till about 11am Saturday morning! I attribute all that sleep to getting be right back on Denver time and back on schedule.... Though I have to admit, the nights of Saturday and Sunday I found it hard to stay awake. So that pretty much finishes up my tale of traveling to Hong Kong!
More travel tales to come, especially over the coming months, as we're going to Baltimore next week, Seattle in April, Dallas in May, Florida also in May, and Chicago in June.
The long-haul flight, again, was fairly empty. Chris and I were in the 3 seat section that included an aisle and window which was nice, and then it was even nicer when Chris moved to another aisle seat up a few rows so I could lay across all 3 seats. I got some pretty decent sleep on that flight. In fact, I barely read anything or watched any movies. I even slept through the Cup-of-Noodle snack, though I do faintly remember smelling it as the flight attendants were walking by with them.
I think the only thing I was not prepared for was the whole coming back to the US and waiting in a gazillion lines. The first was immigration, then we had to get our luggage, then we had to wait in another line for customs. Then there was another line to return our luggage to get checked back in. Then, since they couldn't print my boarding pass from LAX to Denver in Hong Kong, I had to wait to check in in LA. Then of course there was the security line at LAX. Thankfully there was plenty of time in between our arrival and our departing flights. We went to the Admiral's Club to wait for our connecting flights and to have a bit to eat. My flight from LA to Denver was very relaxing and comfortable, as Chris was kind enough to upgrade me to First Class for this leg of the trip. I arrived into Denver around 4pm and after meeting Brian at the airport and getting my bags was on my way back home. We got home around 6pm because of traffic and I immediately laid down on the couch. In the time it took Brian to walk from the family room to the kitchen to see what we could eat for dinner, I fell fast asleep!
I ended up waking up around 10 pm or so and we stayed up watching TV for a bit, then I fell back to sleep around 11 and slept straight through the night till about 11am Saturday morning! I attribute all that sleep to getting be right back on Denver time and back on schedule.... Though I have to admit, the nights of Saturday and Sunday I found it hard to stay awake. So that pretty much finishes up my tale of traveling to Hong Kong!
More travel tales to come, especially over the coming months, as we're going to Baltimore next week, Seattle in April, Dallas in May, Florida also in May, and Chicago in June.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Trip Update
So, our first full day in China was good. We had some work to do in preparation for the meeting, but also had time to walk around the area we're in. I bought some cute little tea cup/pot things, Chris had some custom shirts made for himself. This is insane: it was $30 for each shirt (4), and when we asked when they would be ready, they said, is tomorrow okay?? I couldn't believe it.
We were the epitome of lame and went to an English pub for lunch, and for dinner ate at the Italian restaurant in the hotel. Though I ordered normal items - chicken fingers and gnocchi, they are definitely different that what you might get when you're in the US. I'm also so freaked out about having any water, vegetables and fruit and realized ordering around those items is damn hard to do. Chris is apparently fearless of those things and has been ordering salads left and right. We ended up staying up late working, finishing the presentation for Wal-Mart.
The next morning, I slept in a bit. After having coffee and getting ready, we went for lunch. This time, I said we need to have real Chinese food. So, after sitting down at what we thought was a Chinese restaurant and discovering it totally wasn't, the Chinese guy suggested a place across the street. So we head over there, get seated in this large dining hall type of place. The waitstaff at this restaurant speak very little if any English, so we were given this scan-tron sheet of paper with dim sum items on it, which we were to circle what we wanted. After going through the choices, we found about 5 items that sounded fairly good and safe.
Our first item arrives. We aren't quite sure what it is. It was some sort of shrimp in rolled up rice stuff. Not real rice, but like picture a huge rice noodle that is thick. It was accompanied by soy sauce. This one was pretty good. The shrimp looks odd though- it's more yellow than orange like the ones we're used to. Next comes the fried rice with chicken and salt fish- very yummy. Though we couldn't figure out how to eat it with chopsticks, and I was looking around the rest of the restaurant to see how the locals were eating the rice, and it didn't seem that anyone else was actually eating rice. Oh, and I forgot to mention, we were the absolute only white/American people in this place, so I am confident that we truly did have REAL Chinese food. They next brought out the rest of our items. Some sort of shark fin soup which tasted pretty decent and pork rolls or balls or something like it. The pork rolls were my choice and were wrapped in this odd yellow stuff that made my imagination run wild as to what it was, I tasted it, avoiding the yellow wrapper like the plague and it was okay- nothing I wanted to continue eating. I think that if the menu had explanations of what each item was, it wouldn't have been so difficult to figure out what to order. All in all, it was a good experience but we left there knowing in an hour or two we'd be hungry again and in dire need of something a little more American. Wow, I sound like a total ignorant American about this whole experience. Don't get me wrong- I'd go back again, I'd just try some other things and maybe do a little research beforehand.
We spent the afternoon in our conference room setting up for the big meeting. Aside from just setting up the room, we had to do a lot of shuffling on our gift sets- in regards to pricing and changing things out. In the end, we lucked out and Wal-Mart was going to be running 45 minutes late so that bought us the perfect amount of extra time to really finish it all up. Wal-Mart arrived at about 5pm in a flurry. They literally come in with an entourage of about 8 people, sit down and say ok, let's get this thing moving. It's really quite intimidating at first, but realizing they are going to numerous meetings like this one after an another, I'd be wanting to get them over with too! The meeting went very well, in our opinion and it sounds like they will be taking almost all of the giftsets we showed, if not actually all of them.
In desperate need of some solid food, we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner, only after picking up the custom tailored shirts that were made in less than a day for less than $30 a piece. I'm still in awe of this. Dinner was good and so filling. I have to say I have had such an odd appetite here. I'll be all sorts of hungry, put two bites in my mouth and then am full.
It's now about 6:30am Friday morning, and with nothing else left to do, we're going to try to leave today. So, I'm about to hop in the shower and get ready, so I have some time to pick up some souvenirs and goodies for everyone. At first I was thinking I'd stay on till tomorrow, but with a hectic day planned at home on Sunday, I'd rather get back and have Saturday to recuperate. Plus, I am almost certain I'll be back in October to start working on our Holiday '08 sets.
We were the epitome of lame and went to an English pub for lunch, and for dinner ate at the Italian restaurant in the hotel. Though I ordered normal items - chicken fingers and gnocchi, they are definitely different that what you might get when you're in the US. I'm also so freaked out about having any water, vegetables and fruit and realized ordering around those items is damn hard to do. Chris is apparently fearless of those things and has been ordering salads left and right. We ended up staying up late working, finishing the presentation for Wal-Mart.
The next morning, I slept in a bit. After having coffee and getting ready, we went for lunch. This time, I said we need to have real Chinese food. So, after sitting down at what we thought was a Chinese restaurant and discovering it totally wasn't, the Chinese guy suggested a place across the street. So we head over there, get seated in this large dining hall type of place. The waitstaff at this restaurant speak very little if any English, so we were given this scan-tron sheet of paper with dim sum items on it, which we were to circle what we wanted. After going through the choices, we found about 5 items that sounded fairly good and safe.
Our first item arrives. We aren't quite sure what it is. It was some sort of shrimp in rolled up rice stuff. Not real rice, but like picture a huge rice noodle that is thick. It was accompanied by soy sauce. This one was pretty good. The shrimp looks odd though- it's more yellow than orange like the ones we're used to. Next comes the fried rice with chicken and salt fish- very yummy. Though we couldn't figure out how to eat it with chopsticks, and I was looking around the rest of the restaurant to see how the locals were eating the rice, and it didn't seem that anyone else was actually eating rice. Oh, and I forgot to mention, we were the absolute only white/American people in this place, so I am confident that we truly did have REAL Chinese food. They next brought out the rest of our items. Some sort of shark fin soup which tasted pretty decent and pork rolls or balls or something like it. The pork rolls were my choice and were wrapped in this odd yellow stuff that made my imagination run wild as to what it was, I tasted it, avoiding the yellow wrapper like the plague and it was okay- nothing I wanted to continue eating. I think that if the menu had explanations of what each item was, it wouldn't have been so difficult to figure out what to order. All in all, it was a good experience but we left there knowing in an hour or two we'd be hungry again and in dire need of something a little more American. Wow, I sound like a total ignorant American about this whole experience. Don't get me wrong- I'd go back again, I'd just try some other things and maybe do a little research beforehand.
We spent the afternoon in our conference room setting up for the big meeting. Aside from just setting up the room, we had to do a lot of shuffling on our gift sets- in regards to pricing and changing things out. In the end, we lucked out and Wal-Mart was going to be running 45 minutes late so that bought us the perfect amount of extra time to really finish it all up. Wal-Mart arrived at about 5pm in a flurry. They literally come in with an entourage of about 8 people, sit down and say ok, let's get this thing moving. It's really quite intimidating at first, but realizing they are going to numerous meetings like this one after an another, I'd be wanting to get them over with too! The meeting went very well, in our opinion and it sounds like they will be taking almost all of the giftsets we showed, if not actually all of them.
In desperate need of some solid food, we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner, only after picking up the custom tailored shirts that were made in less than a day for less than $30 a piece. I'm still in awe of this. Dinner was good and so filling. I have to say I have had such an odd appetite here. I'll be all sorts of hungry, put two bites in my mouth and then am full.
It's now about 6:30am Friday morning, and with nothing else left to do, we're going to try to leave today. So, I'm about to hop in the shower and get ready, so I have some time to pick up some souvenirs and goodies for everyone. At first I was thinking I'd stay on till tomorrow, but with a hectic day planned at home on Sunday, I'd rather get back and have Saturday to recuperate. Plus, I am almost certain I'll be back in October to start working on our Holiday '08 sets.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Here at last.
Last night we arrived in Hong Kong at about 7pm local time. After getting through immigration, we found the hotel desk at the airport and grabbed a car to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel in a nice Mercedes Benz and were greeted outside by name and ushered in to check in. After arriving in my room, I immediately checked out the view- it's great! I have a view of the city, Victoria Harbor, and Hong Kong Island. Everything was all lit up and it looked awesome.
The room is great, though the bed is a little hard... The toiletries in the bathroom are awesome- they have everything from shower gel to bath salts to shaving cream and razors. I could have just showed up here with clothes and been all set. After my luggage was delivered, a few minutes later, housekeeping stopped by to turn down my bed and brought me hot tea and fresh oranges. The tea was in this little wicker basket holder, it had an awesome teapot and two little tea cups. Very cool. AND the tea was probably the best I've ever had. Since it was about 5am Denver time, I called it a night, and got to bed around 11pm Hong Kong time.
My body clock was all sorts of off and I woke up at 330am. I got up and tried to entertain myself, but was unable because the electricity was off. Apparently, the hotel was conducting annual maintenance to the electrical switchboards and had turned off all power overnight. I have no clue why or for what or whatever, but it forced me to lay back down and i was able to sleep a few more hours. I woke up for good around 630am and am now sitting here ready to go. I'm just waiting on Chris to finish working out and getting ready, then we're going to go to lunch. We may even get to do a little bit of exploring this afternoon.
I have to say I feel a bit hungover or something. I suppose because it's really 630pm in Denver and I'm trying to feel like it's the morning.
I decided to iron some of my clothes this morning while I'm waiting for Chris and apparently here in China, they have super powered irons. I had the iron on the highest setting, which I usually do at home when ironing my dress shirts. So I finish ironing one, and move on to the next. I notice that the shirt is changing colors a bit when I'm ironing the collar, not something that caused me too much worry, as some fabrics do that. Then I move on to the sleeve. Well, it's doing the same thing and I pick it up only to discover that the two sides of the sleeve have fused together! I melted my shirt together. I try very gently to pull it apart. But I have no luck, it totally tears! I couldn't believe it, all I could do was laugh. Damn Banana Republic Outlet shirts! Luckily I brought more than enough clothes with me.
Oh my gosh, I totally feel like I need a nap right now! This isn't right! Well, more to come.
The room is great, though the bed is a little hard... The toiletries in the bathroom are awesome- they have everything from shower gel to bath salts to shaving cream and razors. I could have just showed up here with clothes and been all set. After my luggage was delivered, a few minutes later, housekeeping stopped by to turn down my bed and brought me hot tea and fresh oranges. The tea was in this little wicker basket holder, it had an awesome teapot and two little tea cups. Very cool. AND the tea was probably the best I've ever had. Since it was about 5am Denver time, I called it a night, and got to bed around 11pm Hong Kong time.
My body clock was all sorts of off and I woke up at 330am. I got up and tried to entertain myself, but was unable because the electricity was off. Apparently, the hotel was conducting annual maintenance to the electrical switchboards and had turned off all power overnight. I have no clue why or for what or whatever, but it forced me to lay back down and i was able to sleep a few more hours. I woke up for good around 630am and am now sitting here ready to go. I'm just waiting on Chris to finish working out and getting ready, then we're going to go to lunch. We may even get to do a little bit of exploring this afternoon.
I have to say I feel a bit hungover or something. I suppose because it's really 630pm in Denver and I'm trying to feel like it's the morning.
I decided to iron some of my clothes this morning while I'm waiting for Chris and apparently here in China, they have super powered irons. I had the iron on the highest setting, which I usually do at home when ironing my dress shirts. So I finish ironing one, and move on to the next. I notice that the shirt is changing colors a bit when I'm ironing the collar, not something that caused me too much worry, as some fabrics do that. Then I move on to the sleeve. Well, it's doing the same thing and I pick it up only to discover that the two sides of the sleeve have fused together! I melted my shirt together. I try very gently to pull it apart. But I have no luck, it totally tears! I couldn't believe it, all I could do was laugh. Damn Banana Republic Outlet shirts! Luckily I brought more than enough clothes with me.
Oh my gosh, I totally feel like I need a nap right now! This isn't right! Well, more to come.
The journey-Continued.
More than halfway to China. In fact, I've been on the plane for nearly 10 hours now- less than 5 to go!
In the past 10 hours, I've taken a couple of naps, read the airline's magazine, had several snacks- including cup of noodle, a mini sandwich, and a few glasses of wine, I'm almost done reading "Wicked", and I watched "The Departed." Amazing what you can get done when you're help captive for almost a full day in a 2x2 foot area!
The airplane is actually quite comfortable. The flight attendants are extremely friendly and are more than happy to get you a drink or snack. In addition, they have refreshment areas set up in a few areas on the plane where you can just go and refull your drink, grab a snack, and sit back down. It's actually quite convenient and allows me to get up and walk around a bit.
I have to say, I really have lost track of time. The shades on the windows are all down, so it feels like night. Though after my couple of naps, I'm quite awake. According to the satellite map, we are somewhere over Japan. Actually we're right over Tokyo now. It really amazes me we still have five hours to go. I guess it also baffles me and more accurately, embarrasses me that I have such little world geography knowledge!
So let's see, currently it's 10:52pm in Denver, 1:52pm (Tuesday!) in Hong Kong, and God knows what time it is on this plane! By the time I land in Hong Kong and get to the hotel, it'll be the middle of the night, Denver time. Making that even worse is the fact that I got up at 3am to begin this journey!
We're staying at the Shangri-La Kowloon, which is across from Hong Kong Island and is supposed to have amazing views of the skyline and Victoria Bay. The area of Kowloon we're in is Tsim-Somthing-Tsai or something like that. I did VERY little research for the trip which I'm somewhat regretting now as it seems we'll have some free time here. Oh well- thank goodness for internet access and google!
In the past 10 hours, I've taken a couple of naps, read the airline's magazine, had several snacks- including cup of noodle, a mini sandwich, and a few glasses of wine, I'm almost done reading "Wicked", and I watched "The Departed." Amazing what you can get done when you're help captive for almost a full day in a 2x2 foot area!
The airplane is actually quite comfortable. The flight attendants are extremely friendly and are more than happy to get you a drink or snack. In addition, they have refreshment areas set up in a few areas on the plane where you can just go and refull your drink, grab a snack, and sit back down. It's actually quite convenient and allows me to get up and walk around a bit.
I have to say, I really have lost track of time. The shades on the windows are all down, so it feels like night. Though after my couple of naps, I'm quite awake. According to the satellite map, we are somewhere over Japan. Actually we're right over Tokyo now. It really amazes me we still have five hours to go. I guess it also baffles me and more accurately, embarrasses me that I have such little world geography knowledge!
So let's see, currently it's 10:52pm in Denver, 1:52pm (Tuesday!) in Hong Kong, and God knows what time it is on this plane! By the time I land in Hong Kong and get to the hotel, it'll be the middle of the night, Denver time. Making that even worse is the fact that I got up at 3am to begin this journey!
We're staying at the Shangri-La Kowloon, which is across from Hong Kong Island and is supposed to have amazing views of the skyline and Victoria Bay. The area of Kowloon we're in is Tsim-Somthing-Tsai or something like that. I did VERY little research for the trip which I'm somewhat regretting now as it seems we'll have some free time here. Oh well- thank goodness for internet access and google!
The journey across the other pond.
As I write this, I am sitting on my very first flight outside of the US. The plane is enormous- the biggest I have ever been on. I met my boss, Chris, at LAX after our flights from our home cities had taken us to Los Angeles. I made it over to the International Terminal with relative ease and waited by the gate for two-plus hours catching up on work.
When I first arrived at the gate, I was the only person there. By the time Chris arrived, as boarding was beginning, the gate was bustling with dozens of people.
We boarded the plane- I got an aisle- thank goodness! Once the plane doors closed, we realized the flight was not quite full and after take off, I moved up several rows to another aisle seat to allow my new friend, Rudy from Manila, an aisle seat of his own.
After take off, we were served a drink of choice- red wine for me, of course and a bag of peanuts. I began to fear this was the only food item i was going to receive for a few hours, so I busted out my stashed bag of pretzels, because I was starving. Luckily, they began serving lunch not too long after the peanut/wine appetizer.
Lunch was sweet and sour pork, salad, roll, cheesecake, and a drink. In traditional plane food fashion, it was semi-hot, sort of tasteless, and not too filling. Nonetheless, I was happy for the meal. Now I am sitting here watching the mini TV in the seat back ahead of me and about to read a bit and possibly take a nap.
After talking to Chris, he seems fairly confident that we won't be too busy. Even suggested we may be able to leave on Friday vs. Saturday. Though, if that is the case, I may consider staying on for the extra day by myself because, I mean, how often do you get the opportunity to be in China??
When I first arrived at the gate, I was the only person there. By the time Chris arrived, as boarding was beginning, the gate was bustling with dozens of people.
We boarded the plane- I got an aisle- thank goodness! Once the plane doors closed, we realized the flight was not quite full and after take off, I moved up several rows to another aisle seat to allow my new friend, Rudy from Manila, an aisle seat of his own.
After take off, we were served a drink of choice- red wine for me, of course and a bag of peanuts. I began to fear this was the only food item i was going to receive for a few hours, so I busted out my stashed bag of pretzels, because I was starving. Luckily, they began serving lunch not too long after the peanut/wine appetizer.
Lunch was sweet and sour pork, salad, roll, cheesecake, and a drink. In traditional plane food fashion, it was semi-hot, sort of tasteless, and not too filling. Nonetheless, I was happy for the meal. Now I am sitting here watching the mini TV in the seat back ahead of me and about to read a bit and possibly take a nap.
After talking to Chris, he seems fairly confident that we won't be too busy. Even suggested we may be able to leave on Friday vs. Saturday. Though, if that is the case, I may consider staying on for the extra day by myself because, I mean, how often do you get the opportunity to be in China??
Sunday, January 28, 2007
And I'm off...
Early tomorrow morning I'll be driving to the airport to begin my very first intercontinental trip. I'll be flying to Los Angeles first, where I will be meeting up with my boss, and then we'll be flying together to Hong Kong. The flight is enormously long- 15 hours, but thankfully Cathay Pacific offers free drinks in coach, so hopefully I'll be able to have a couple of glasses of wine and sleep a bit.
I've been having numerous nightmares about this trip. Well, I can't say they're nightmares, but more little anxiety attack dreams. The recurring theme in all is that I forget something. Mainly, I forget a book to bring on the plane and so I'm left sitting there with nothing to do for half of a day. Even if I really do forget to bring a book (I already have 3 packed in my carry-on), each seat has its own TV with movies and whatnot, so I don't know what I'm freaking out about. In another dream, I forget my passport... And in another, the cords to my laptop. I'm such a worrier!
I'm about 90% done with packing now, just am charging up all of my electronic devices and then those will get packed up and I'll be all ready. My flight is at 6:20am, so I'll be up and going really early in the morning and want everything in its place before I go to bed tonight. I seriously can't believe it's almost 5pm now. I am still in my pj's and feel like I haven't done much today even though I've been running around like a crazy woman packing and printing stuff out for our meeting.
Anyways, not sure what sort of access I will have to the internet while I am there, or if I will have a lot of free time or virtually none, so if I am unable to post during my trip, I promise a post full of photos and tales upon my return to the states!
I've been having numerous nightmares about this trip. Well, I can't say they're nightmares, but more little anxiety attack dreams. The recurring theme in all is that I forget something. Mainly, I forget a book to bring on the plane and so I'm left sitting there with nothing to do for half of a day. Even if I really do forget to bring a book (I already have 3 packed in my carry-on), each seat has its own TV with movies and whatnot, so I don't know what I'm freaking out about. In another dream, I forget my passport... And in another, the cords to my laptop. I'm such a worrier!
I'm about 90% done with packing now, just am charging up all of my electronic devices and then those will get packed up and I'll be all ready. My flight is at 6:20am, so I'll be up and going really early in the morning and want everything in its place before I go to bed tonight. I seriously can't believe it's almost 5pm now. I am still in my pj's and feel like I haven't done much today even though I've been running around like a crazy woman packing and printing stuff out for our meeting.
Anyways, not sure what sort of access I will have to the internet while I am there, or if I will have a lot of free time or virtually none, so if I am unable to post during my trip, I promise a post full of photos and tales upon my return to the states!
Friday, January 19, 2007
Guess where I'm headed...
So, last week I just received word that I'll be heading to China the end of January for a week. I am beyond excited! I'll be traveling to Hong Kong and possibly taking a small day trip to Xiamen. We're meeting with Wal-Mart and our manufacturer over there that does our giftsets (everything else we have made in the US, don't yell at me, all you crazy 'buy American' people out there). So, the past week I've been working on getting my visa (just came back to me today!), making travel arrangements, and reserving meeting rooms and all of that fun stuff.
I know I'll be busy over there, but I had to laugh when I found out the one main appointment I am going over there for is a 45 minute meeting. So essentially I'm heading over to China for a 45 minute meeting. But, really, I'm sure there will be a lot of prepping and possibly follow up. My boss wants me to go with him to assist him, as well as to get acquainted with the people we work with there, as in the future I may be our China liaison. Fun stuff.
I'm going from never leaving the country to traveling clear across the globe- I can't believe it!
This year is certainly going to be one crazy year... After my China trip, we're heading to Baltimore for a wedding. Then we have 3 more weddings out of state after that, before our own! Thankfully the last wedding we have to travel for is the end of June, so we'll have a little bit of downtime before our big day.
Wedding plans are coming along. We have almost all of the major vendors booked now. The only major ones left are the DJ and florist, and we're in the process of meeting with them this week and next. I feel really good now that almost all of the big stuff is taken care of.
My mom is coming out the end of February, so it'll be great to have her here to help me out with some little things and I'm so excited to show her the reception site. We'll also be doing one of the best tastings while she's here... the cake tasting. YUM!
I know I'll be busy over there, but I had to laugh when I found out the one main appointment I am going over there for is a 45 minute meeting. So essentially I'm heading over to China for a 45 minute meeting. But, really, I'm sure there will be a lot of prepping and possibly follow up. My boss wants me to go with him to assist him, as well as to get acquainted with the people we work with there, as in the future I may be our China liaison. Fun stuff.
I'm going from never leaving the country to traveling clear across the globe- I can't believe it!
This year is certainly going to be one crazy year... After my China trip, we're heading to Baltimore for a wedding. Then we have 3 more weddings out of state after that, before our own! Thankfully the last wedding we have to travel for is the end of June, so we'll have a little bit of downtime before our big day.
Wedding plans are coming along. We have almost all of the major vendors booked now. The only major ones left are the DJ and florist, and we're in the process of meeting with them this week and next. I feel really good now that almost all of the big stuff is taken care of.
My mom is coming out the end of February, so it'll be great to have her here to help me out with some little things and I'm so excited to show her the reception site. We'll also be doing one of the best tastings while she's here... the cake tasting. YUM!
Saturday, January 13, 2007
My pretty baby-girl...
Lola all snuggled up in the most awesomest blanket that Jen gave me for Christmas. Actually, speaking of the awesome blanket, Lola and I are snuggled up in it now as I type!
Christmas
Anyways, where did I leave off? Oh yes, so I finally made it to Chicago on Christmas Eve night. My parents picked me up from the airport and we headed to their new house in Lily Lake. I spent Christmas Eve exploring their new home, drinking wine, and snacking on some cheese. We stayed up late catching up and I think I finally got in bed about 2am, after talking to Brian while he was stuck in Dallas on a cot to sleep for the night. :(
Christmas morning we woke up early to go to church, then came back for breakfast and to open presents. We spent the rest of the early afternoon making food for dinner, and then headed over to the LeDuc's for Christmas dinner and to spend the evening with them (and some delicious gingerbread martinis).
The day after Christmas my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came in to town; we spent the day catching up, drinking egg nog, and watching my nephew Jack's favorite movie, Cars, a bunch of times. That night, Jen came over for dinner and a little slumber party. We drank gingerbread martinis, apparently the drink of my Christmas in Chicago 2006 trip, caught up, had a delicious Italian dinner with everyone and all-in-all had a great night. It was so nice to see everyone that day, and I was so happy that Jen was able to postpone our original 'date' we had on Friday for Tuesday when my travel plans got totally goofed up by the crazy blizzard.
Unfortunately, Wednesday morning I woke up and had to start packing to go home. The trip to Chicago was entirely too short.
Christmas morning we woke up early to go to church, then came back for breakfast and to open presents. We spent the rest of the early afternoon making food for dinner, and then headed over to the LeDuc's for Christmas dinner and to spend the evening with them (and some delicious gingerbread martinis).
The day after Christmas my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew came in to town; we spent the day catching up, drinking egg nog, and watching my nephew Jack's favorite movie, Cars, a bunch of times. That night, Jen came over for dinner and a little slumber party. We drank gingerbread martinis, apparently the drink of my Christmas in Chicago 2006 trip, caught up, had a delicious Italian dinner with everyone and all-in-all had a great night. It was so nice to see everyone that day, and I was so happy that Jen was able to postpone our original 'date' we had on Friday for Tuesday when my travel plans got totally goofed up by the crazy blizzard.
Unfortunately, Wednesday morning I woke up and had to start packing to go home. The trip to Chicago was entirely too short.
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