All good things come to an end

Hello fellow blog readers,

Thank you all so much for reading about our journey across the globe and back. It's been a ton of fun but all good things must come to an end. The blog posts have significantly decreased and it's not that exciting without the daily adventures! We've been in denial for sometime and often think back about our experiences but alas it is time to let go.

However, if you would like to follow us on our new journey, we have decided to start a new blog in anticipation for the next phase in life: http://40weeksforanne.blogspot.com

A 40 week journey usually means that "there's a bun in the oven". Since I was competely oblivious to pregnancy talk, this was a new one for me as well. Hope you join us on our new journey and get a few laughs! I promise not to be one of those, "too much information, too touchy/feely, too mom-ish" type of bloggers. If it does happen, I'm blaming it on the hormones. :)

My bragging days are over....

Since I’m so in love with myself, you’ve probably heard me brag about numerous things… one in particular, my 20/15 vision. Well, a 40 minute routine eye exam this past Saturday certainly changed things. Last year, my doctor told me I had 20/15 with a very slight prescription for reading / computer glasses. I didn’t really understand how I can be 20/15 but still have a slight prescription – then again, I’m not an optometrist. I decided to forego the reading / computer glasses since I felt fine.

A few months ago, I don’t know how it came up but Bill thought I should try on his glasses while we were watching TV. “WOW – the colors are so much brighter… I felt like I put on a pair of Hi-Def glasses” Needless to say, I thought it was time to fess up to my need for reading / computer glasses (aka: glasses for the aging). People might argue this by saying “but I had glasses when I was a little kid”. This is different. If you’ve always needed glasses, it’s who you are. But if you need glasses mid-age, it’s who you’ve become… aging. HAHAHA

To be honest, I was kind of excited about getting a pair of spectacles. When Bill had to get his a few years back, I tried on a few and liked how it looked. First stop – the optical section right at the doctor’s office. The salesperson was of little help, picking out some outrageously ugly frames. I explained, “my face is really round, none of these are fitting me properly – do you have different sizes?” He looked at me like I had three eyes and requested 1.5 pairs of glasses. No worries, I’ll head over to another place with a larger selection. Last night, Bill and I headed over to PearleVision. Not embarrassed by my very round face, I said the same thing to the salesperson and asked if he had any suggestions/ recommendations. His response, “well, we have the frames organized by designer so you’ll just need to try them out – here’s the women’s section, I wouldn’t suggest going into the children section”. REALLY? Thanks for pointing out the blatantly obvious Mr. Salesperson. I must have mistaken you for someone that might know a bit more than I in regards to glasses… since you work here and all. After trying on several pairs, I strolled over to the men’s side with the thought that frames might be wider? Our super helpful sales person says, “Oh yeah, try out the guys, they might be bigger, no shame in it”. Thanks for the encouragement, if there was a store for the round & wide, I would be there already. At this point, I was thinking that I might not really need glasses.

Last stop – Lenscrafters on the other side of the mall. I walked in… need frames, round face, etc,etc… at this point, I wasn’t expecting much. My back-up plans was to head out to Cali or NY, where there are more Asians, more rounder faces and maybe more frame options. Luckily, I found a salesperson that actually knew what he was doing – picked out 3 that fit perfectly and made some really good recommendations. He was very knowledgeable and I’ll be getting my very first pair of glasses in 10 days. Good bye fuzzy letters, hello Hi Def eyes!!

England & Switzerland

Greetings blog readers!

Work brings me to England and Switzerland in the last few days. My journey started last Tuesday when we landed in Heathrow and took a shuttle to Oxford. Oxford is absolutely beautiful. It almost made me regret not having the opportunity to study abroad here. Did you know that Oxford is actually made up of over 30 colleges in the area? If you knew that fact… well, you didn’t learn something new from reading this blog. A few things about Oxford:

• The dining hall from Harry Potter was filmed at Christ Church
• The Turf Tavern is where Bill Clinton claimed that he “did not inhale”
• All of the stores (except taverns) close at 6pm
• Has really good Chinese food!





I was in London over the weekend where Britain experienced their first hung parliament since 1974 – very big news. With less than 36 hours in the city, I took the Big Bus to hop on/ hop off all the major tourist sites. However, it was so cold! I was bundled in my coat and scarf and just took some less than average pictures from the double decker bus. What I learned in London:

• Big Ben is pretty big but not as huge as I thought it would be
• Travel in a different country that still speaks English is much simpler than traveling in a country like China or Japan
• If you go into a tavern and order faggots, you will get a plate of delicious sausages
• Although Heathrow only has 5 terminals, the airport is HUGE

Sunday night, I arrived in Geneva. Lucky for me, I decided to visit two European countries that does not take the Euro. I’m really amazed at how traveling to foreign places doesn’t cause me much anxiety (as long as it’s not in current civil war or anything). I wrote down a few key phrases in French (Hello, Good bye, Thank you, Please, I am lost and Do you speak English). My hotel room looks out directly to Lake Geneva and I’m currently eating the best chocolate ever. Learning for the day:

• You can refill your Evian bottle at the alps… which is a short train ride away
• If you buy 100 francs of chocolate, you luggage will get significantly heavier
• Mosquitoes are all over the place, will make you feel right at home (if that’s MN)

March!

Hello blog readers!
Well, I'm not sure if anyone is reading the blog anymore - the blog counter was down for a while and we've been back in the US for 9 months, which means the postings have significantly slowed down from one every other day to one a month.

March is almost over, the snow has melted and the sun is up! I almost forgot what warm weather feels like. I just saw in the news that the cherry blossoms are in bloom in D.C. Ahhh, about this time last year, we were busy going to all the cherry blossom destinations in Tokyo, which meant eating lots of street food for me!

Not much has happened since the last posting. I went to Memphis and ate THE BEST fried chicken EVER at Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken. Kind of dingy, not in the greatest location but if that meant I could get the best fried chicken... bring it on. Funny thing is, I'm not even a big fan of chicken, let alone fried chicken, but this was pretty darn good.

Back in Minny, Bill and I went in search of good Mexican food at the Midtown Global Market. It's a cute concept and I hope they are doing well and bring in more additions. Specifically, Bill was craving horchata and the powdered mix was just not cutting it. We found some pretty good horchata along with delicious huraches.

Most important - today starts the week long festivities of Bill's birthday. It was this day, 31 years ago, when little William James was born. HAHA We've gotten in the groove of married life, Bill picked out and purchased his gifts two weeks ago. However, he's only been able to use one and I've wrappeed the others. Funny huh? Each day of the week, he'll get a 'surprise', a magnolia recipe birthday cake, some good eats and a visit from the magical birthday pumpkin.

Happy Birthday Bill!

The best cupcake EVER!

Oh so funny - I was just thinking that it was time to put up a new post. When I logged in, I saw a comment "ready for a new post" This one's for you Mark.

For Christmas, my totally cool friend Shanna bought me a cookbook. She knew how much I loved cooking and New York so she got me the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. Magnolia is famous for their cupcakes and sweets www.magnoliabakery.com There was a digital short on SNL that referenced these cupcakes (Andy Samberg, Chronicles of Narnia). About a week ago, I tried the Caramel Pecan Toffee Icebox Pie - delicious.

Today - I decided to try the classic Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream frosting. In the spririt of Valentine's Day, I colored the frosting pink and used festive red cupcake liners. Not really sure how they would turn out - I was hopefully optimistic. Diligently following the directions and making sure the cupcakes were cooled before icing, I finally gave it a good ol' taste test (shoving half a cupcake with a good dollop of frosting in my mouth). WOW - this thing tastes amazing. I'm not an avid fan of vanilla/ vanilla but this is really, really good.

Although I miss New York and all the culinary deliciousness it has to offer, I'm feeling pretty good right now ... it's like Magnolia came to visit me :)

Hello 2010!

2009 flew by! It's been really, really cold in MN so we decided to head to warmer weather. For the holidays, we went back to CT and had the traditional Christmas celebration with the Camerato's (my aunt, uncle & cousins). You're probably thinking... CT... warmer weather... YES. It was in the 40's in CT and -10 in Minneapolis. I almost broke out my shorts. Okay, maybe not. Christmas was filled with gifts, food, fun and laughter. But, all good things must come to an end - when we arrived in Minny, we were greeted with a foot of snow in the driveway, coated with a few inches of icy rain. MMM, lovely. I felt like I burned off all of the extra calories consumed in the past few days during our hour+ shoveling fiesta, but I probably just burned off enough calories to compensate for 1 out of the 3 cannoli's I ate. HEHEHE

My New Year's Resolution:

Instead of going for those very far-fetched ones (lose 50 pounds, climb Mt Everest). I think I'll try for more realistic goals.

1. Be more open-minded
2. Be more aware of my own bias
3. Try to do a better job at staying in touch w/ friends & family
4. Eat more vegetables

That's all for now. We'll see how it goes :)

Sherman like new!

After my last post about my car, I decided to write a formal letter of complaint to the General Manager and Volvo. Right as I was completing the letter, the General Manager gave me a call. He received our survey and apologized for our last service visit. In addition, he also extended the VIP service to our other car. In about an hour, someone picked up my car, dropped off the loaner and spent two days fixing the problem. Turned out to be both the ECT sensor and battery. I picked it up last night, cleaned, washed and shiny like new. When I started her up - she was her old self. I was pretty impressed with the follow up by the General Manager and they picked up the repair costs too!

I guess it does pay to be a loyal customer and have my car regularly serviced. I plan on driving sherman for another 90k!!