Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Oh, the places I'll go
Although I never posted it here, one of my major resolutions for 2008 was to spend more money on experiences (specifically, travel) and less money on stuff. While I wasn't able to give up the stuff entirely (hey, I needed a new bike...but maybe not three new sundresses), I did make considerable stride on the travel/experiences front. In 2008, I traveled to 15 different states and three different countries. While many of these trips were for work (although some, like the ones to Alberta, New Mexico and Maine, were posh press trips that didn't exactly qualify as drudgery), I did manage to squeeze in a good bit of non-work travel as well. And so, since I've been a pretty lax blogger all year, here's my last-ditch attempt to make up for it with a little year-in-review travel special:
Location: London
Date: President's Day weekend
Travel companion(s): Autumn
Highlights: The joy that comes with casually mentioning that you're jetting off to London for the weekend (that alone was worth the ticket price); seeing Richard Coyle from Coupling in a play; dancing until the wee hours at Mahiki and Boujis; visiting the Oxford Street Topshop and used bookstores on Charing Cross Road; hanging out in my old neighborhood; buying British tabloids, bringing my collection of British tabloids featuring cover stories about the state of Victoria Beckham's skin to 2.
Lowlights: Not running into Princes William or Harry; realizing I'd paid $18 for a vodka cranberry thanks to the alarming exchange rate; witnessing the downward spiral of the rest of Oxford Street past Topshop; learning of the death of Cafe Society; severe exhaustion that results from being a late-night-clubbing jet-setter.
More: Pictures are here; a more well-written version of the events that transpired on our journey is here.
Location: Orlando
Date: Mid-March
Travel companion(s): Gusto, Susan, Austin, John of FARC, Cara
Highlights: Dancing to "Baby, One More Time" with Cara at her wedding reception; plague-mask party favors from Susan; reminiscing about college days.
Lowlights: Post-wedding hangover...just because you're hanging out with college friends doesn't mean you should drink like you're still in college.
More: Pictures are here.
Location: New York
Date: Early May
Host(s): Monika, Danielle, Anne
Highlights: Brunching and shopping in Soho; taking in the lovely scenery and culinary delights of Hoboken; drinking way too many Blue Moons at Anne's all-you-can-drink pub fundraiser; catching up with the lovely ladies mentioned above.
Lowlights: The long line and disappointingly stale cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery. I think I'm taking Anne's advice and defecting to the Buttercup Bake Shop. (I do love that Magnolia icing, though...sniffle.)
Location: The Pacific Northwest
Date: Memorial Day weekend
Travel companion(s): Kate
Highlights: Nonstop Grey's Anatomy references (including an imitation of Addison Montgomery-Shepard throwing her wedding ring off the ferry boat); magical conjuring of cute local eateries; enough pie, cupcakes and donuts to make me sort of ill by the end of the trip; a lovely tour of Portland courtesy of Scott Collins; dinner at The Farm Cafe; the chalkboard door at our Portland hotel; digging for (and then feasting on) clams and crabs with my aunt, uncle and cousin.
Lowlights: Thinking it would be a good idea to try to execute a tricky parking maneuver after drinking pretty much the entire beer sampler at McMenamin's Kennedy School. Thank God I had my economic stimulus check to cover the damage to the rental car!
More: Pictures are here.
Location: Shenandoah/Charlottesville
Date: Labor Day weekend
Travel companion(s): Kristen and Nikki
Highlights: Getting the news about Nikki's bun in the oven; being passed on the road by a strange ambulance that called "Yee haw!" at us; shopping in adorable downtown Charlottesville; seeing Mamma Mia (for Nikki and me).
Lowlights: Seeing Mamma Mia (for Kristen); nearly dying on the side of a mountain after I made the unwise decision to drive up to a mountaintop winery (which ended up being closed anyway) at sunset.
Location: Peru
Date: End of September
Travel companion(s): Bri and Heather
Highlights: Coming over the Sun Gate and seeing the first glimpse of Machu Picchu; a post-Inca Trail hot shower; meeting such memorable characters as Jorge, German Combover Guy and Lavender Overalls Guy; shopping for souvenirs in San Blas and at the Pisac market; Heather telling a taxi driver to take us to "Szechuan" instead of Sacsayhuaman; the bloopers video they showed on our flights to and from the rainforest; making new friends on our sandboarding trip; seeing many alpacas (including the trash-bag alpaca and the one that startled Heather when it barreled around a corner at Machu Picchu); drinking many Inka Kolas and Pisco sours.
Lowlights: Squat toilets on the Inca Trail; not showering for four days; annoying hiking companions and German tourists; the rent-a-cop at the Ica bus station who stole my contact solution; crappy hostels in Lima (actually, pretty much all of Lima was a lowlight).
More: Pictures are here, and a full recap of the adventure is coming. (I promise! Now I just have to start writing it...)
Location: Birmingham
Date: Early November
Travel companion(s)/host(s): Dave, my family/Chris, Lee, Francesca
Highlights: Meeting the adorable Naomi Scalici; having a fabulous dinner with Chris, Lee, Terri and Alex; getting the news about my sister's engagement at brunch with the family.
Lowlights: Being forced to watch A LOT of football. But this is what happens when you go to Alabama in the fall.
Location: Gatlinburg
Date: Thanksgiving
Host(s): Dave, my family
Highlights: Zorbing; go-carting; hot-tubbing; a pre-meal hike up to Chimney Tops on Thanksgiving Day (despite the fact that said hike was fairly treacherous, thanks to a combination of an icy trail and hiking boots with no tread); Dave's stop-motion movie of a duel between two of the little cookie turkeys my grandmother had made to decorate the table.
Lowlights: Again, being forced to watch a lot of football; the long drive, made even more interminable by our poor selection of audiobook. (If you value your time at all, do not waste it on "Baby Proof" by Emily Giffin. Just don't.)
Although I never posted it here, one of my major resolutions for 2008 was to spend more money on experiences (specifically, travel) and less money on stuff. While I wasn't able to give up the stuff entirely (hey, I needed a new bike...but maybe not three new sundresses), I did make considerable stride on the travel/experiences front. In 2008, I traveled to 15 different states and three different countries. While many of these trips were for work (although some, like the ones to Alberta, New Mexico and Maine, were posh press trips that didn't exactly qualify as drudgery), I did manage to squeeze in a good bit of non-work travel as well. And so, since I've been a pretty lax blogger all year, here's my last-ditch attempt to make up for it with a little year-in-review travel special:
Location: London
Date: President's Day weekend
Travel companion(s): Autumn
Highlights: The joy that comes with casually mentioning that you're jetting off to London for the weekend (that alone was worth the ticket price); seeing Richard Coyle from Coupling in a play; dancing until the wee hours at Mahiki and Boujis; visiting the Oxford Street Topshop and used bookstores on Charing Cross Road; hanging out in my old neighborhood; buying British tabloids, bringing my collection of British tabloids featuring cover stories about the state of Victoria Beckham's skin to 2.
Lowlights: Not running into Princes William or Harry; realizing I'd paid $18 for a vodka cranberry thanks to the alarming exchange rate; witnessing the downward spiral of the rest of Oxford Street past Topshop; learning of the death of Cafe Society; severe exhaustion that results from being a late-night-clubbing jet-setter.
More: Pictures are here; a more well-written version of the events that transpired on our journey is here.
Location: Orlando
Date: Mid-March
Travel companion(s): Gusto, Susan, Austin, John of FARC, Cara
Highlights: Dancing to "Baby, One More Time" with Cara at her wedding reception; plague-mask party favors from Susan; reminiscing about college days.
Lowlights: Post-wedding hangover...just because you're hanging out with college friends doesn't mean you should drink like you're still in college.
More: Pictures are here.
Location: New York
Date: Early May
Host(s): Monika, Danielle, Anne
Highlights: Brunching and shopping in Soho; taking in the lovely scenery and culinary delights of Hoboken; drinking way too many Blue Moons at Anne's all-you-can-drink pub fundraiser; catching up with the lovely ladies mentioned above.
Lowlights: The long line and disappointingly stale cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery. I think I'm taking Anne's advice and defecting to the Buttercup Bake Shop. (I do love that Magnolia icing, though...sniffle.)
Location: The Pacific Northwest
Date: Memorial Day weekend
Travel companion(s): Kate
Highlights: Nonstop Grey's Anatomy references (including an imitation of Addison Montgomery-Shepard throwing her wedding ring off the ferry boat); magical conjuring of cute local eateries; enough pie, cupcakes and donuts to make me sort of ill by the end of the trip; a lovely tour of Portland courtesy of Scott Collins; dinner at The Farm Cafe; the chalkboard door at our Portland hotel; digging for (and then feasting on) clams and crabs with my aunt, uncle and cousin.
Lowlights: Thinking it would be a good idea to try to execute a tricky parking maneuver after drinking pretty much the entire beer sampler at McMenamin's Kennedy School. Thank God I had my economic stimulus check to cover the damage to the rental car!
More: Pictures are here.
Location: Shenandoah/Charlottesville
Date: Labor Day weekend
Travel companion(s): Kristen and Nikki
Highlights: Getting the news about Nikki's bun in the oven; being passed on the road by a strange ambulance that called "Yee haw!" at us; shopping in adorable downtown Charlottesville; seeing Mamma Mia (for Nikki and me).
Lowlights: Seeing Mamma Mia (for Kristen); nearly dying on the side of a mountain after I made the unwise decision to drive up to a mountaintop winery (which ended up being closed anyway) at sunset.
Location: Peru
Date: End of September
Travel companion(s): Bri and Heather
Highlights: Coming over the Sun Gate and seeing the first glimpse of Machu Picchu; a post-Inca Trail hot shower; meeting such memorable characters as Jorge, German Combover Guy and Lavender Overalls Guy; shopping for souvenirs in San Blas and at the Pisac market; Heather telling a taxi driver to take us to "Szechuan" instead of Sacsayhuaman; the bloopers video they showed on our flights to and from the rainforest; making new friends on our sandboarding trip; seeing many alpacas (including the trash-bag alpaca and the one that startled Heather when it barreled around a corner at Machu Picchu); drinking many Inka Kolas and Pisco sours.
Lowlights: Squat toilets on the Inca Trail; not showering for four days; annoying hiking companions and German tourists; the rent-a-cop at the Ica bus station who stole my contact solution; crappy hostels in Lima (actually, pretty much all of Lima was a lowlight).
More: Pictures are here, and a full recap of the adventure is coming. (I promise! Now I just have to start writing it...)
Location: Birmingham
Date: Early November
Travel companion(s)/host(s): Dave, my family/Chris, Lee, Francesca
Highlights: Meeting the adorable Naomi Scalici; having a fabulous dinner with Chris, Lee, Terri and Alex; getting the news about my sister's engagement at brunch with the family.
Lowlights: Being forced to watch A LOT of football. But this is what happens when you go to Alabama in the fall.
Location: Gatlinburg
Date: Thanksgiving
Host(s): Dave, my family
Highlights: Zorbing; go-carting; hot-tubbing; a pre-meal hike up to Chimney Tops on Thanksgiving Day (despite the fact that said hike was fairly treacherous, thanks to a combination of an icy trail and hiking boots with no tread); Dave's stop-motion movie of a duel between two of the little cookie turkeys my grandmother had made to decorate the table.
Lowlights: Again, being forced to watch a lot of football; the long drive, made even more interminable by our poor selection of audiobook. (If you value your time at all, do not waste it on "Baby Proof" by Emily Giffin. Just don't.)
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Around the world in 80 foods
Over the past few weeks, I have developed some new food obsessions, including:
-Greek yogurt with honey. This has replaced rice pudding (which I was admittedly getting kind of tired of after a year-long obsession with it) as my favorite afternoon sweet treat. I first picked up one of the Fage single-serving yogurt-and-honey packs at Whole Foods a few weeks ago, and since then, I haven't been able to kick the habit. It's just the perfect blend of tangy and sweet. How did I not discover this magical pairing until now?
-The Korean supermarket. At a holiday party a few weekends ago, a couple of Dave's friends were raving about the Korean supermarket chain H Mart (and its bigger, badder counterpart, Super H). Their descriptions of its mind-bogglingly big produce department and super-cheap prices were enough to perk up my ears (especially since the prices at my local Harris Teeter are starting to surpass Whole Foods levels of expensive insanity—$8 for a ball of fresh mozzarella? Are you kidding me?!). When I realized that the Super H was technically (via a slightly slower route) on my way home from work, I decided to stop by. Wow. Super H definitely lived up to its glowing reviews. The produce department took up at least a third of the store, and the selection was amazing. (They even had durian, the Southeast Asian fruit that's so stinky it's banned on public transportation in many countries. It was frozen, though, so it wasn't giving off as pungent of a smell.) I was able to buy pretty much everything I needed to make pad thai AND sticky rice with mango for just $20. (By contrast, I paid nearly that much at Harris Teeter for a half-gallon of milk and the four ingredients I needed to make the cookies below.) I foresee a lot of Asian cooking in my future for the next year.
-Amuse Bouche. My co-worker Sara introduced me to this blog, which is written by her college friend Katie. In one of those weird coincidences straight out of a J.J. Abrams show, it turns out that Katie actually has my old job back in Birmingham. Naturally, that goes a long way in endearing her to me, but her blog is also full of yummy-looking and easy-to-make recipes, so chances are I'd be reading it even if she weren't my career doppelganger. Do yourself a favor and make these before the holidays end and diet season kicks in. I'd share some of the batch I made last night, but I can't bring myself to do it. They're just too good.
Over the past few weeks, I have developed some new food obsessions, including:
-Greek yogurt with honey. This has replaced rice pudding (which I was admittedly getting kind of tired of after a year-long obsession with it) as my favorite afternoon sweet treat. I first picked up one of the Fage single-serving yogurt-and-honey packs at Whole Foods a few weeks ago, and since then, I haven't been able to kick the habit. It's just the perfect blend of tangy and sweet. How did I not discover this magical pairing until now?
-The Korean supermarket. At a holiday party a few weekends ago, a couple of Dave's friends were raving about the Korean supermarket chain H Mart (and its bigger, badder counterpart, Super H). Their descriptions of its mind-bogglingly big produce department and super-cheap prices were enough to perk up my ears (especially since the prices at my local Harris Teeter are starting to surpass Whole Foods levels of expensive insanity—$8 for a ball of fresh mozzarella? Are you kidding me?!). When I realized that the Super H was technically (via a slightly slower route) on my way home from work, I decided to stop by. Wow. Super H definitely lived up to its glowing reviews. The produce department took up at least a third of the store, and the selection was amazing. (They even had durian, the Southeast Asian fruit that's so stinky it's banned on public transportation in many countries. It was frozen, though, so it wasn't giving off as pungent of a smell.) I was able to buy pretty much everything I needed to make pad thai AND sticky rice with mango for just $20. (By contrast, I paid nearly that much at Harris Teeter for a half-gallon of milk and the four ingredients I needed to make the cookies below.) I foresee a lot of Asian cooking in my future for the next year.
-Amuse Bouche. My co-worker Sara introduced me to this blog, which is written by her college friend Katie. In one of those weird coincidences straight out of a J.J. Abrams show, it turns out that Katie actually has my old job back in Birmingham. Naturally, that goes a long way in endearing her to me, but her blog is also full of yummy-looking and easy-to-make recipes, so chances are I'd be reading it even if she weren't my career doppelganger. Do yourself a favor and make these before the holidays end and diet season kicks in. I'd share some of the batch I made last night, but I can't bring myself to do it. They're just too good.
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