Tag, You're It!

I've been tagged, by Collateral Evidence.

1. Pick up the nearest book (one of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the page to 123.

3. Find the 5th sentence.

4. Post the next 3 sentences.

5. Tag 5 people.

I have to admit, I had to dig through my nightstand to find something other than a People magazine. I finally came up with Capote's In Cold Blood, a book I started at least two (three?) years ago. I'm not sure I ever got past the first chapter.

"Hitchhiking his way to New Mexico? No, he said, he was driving his own car. And it was parked down the lane a piece."

Hmm, maybe I'll try this one again. Thanks, Amanda!

Now off to tag Robyn, Laura, the other Laura, and JeAnne. Yeah, I know that's only four people - I couldn't come up with five.

Bit by the travel bug

Che & I are in the fortunate position to be able to do quite a bit of traveling now. Well, putting aside the fact that I do have to work on pretty much every vacation I take and can't generally avoid calls on my cell phone, emails on my Blackberry, and sticking to locations where I can be wired and accessible. Umm, does that even COUNT as a vacation??? Anyway...

For my left-brained, OCD, dysfunctionally-anal retentive self, 90% of the fun in travel is planning the trip. Works out well for Che, since all he has to do is show up and go where I tell him. I know, I must be totally crazy. Or a travel agent at heart. That's not to say I plan every minute of every day of every trip. At least not anymore. :)

That said, booking our "big" trip of the year turned out to be a huge headache, even for me. And we're not quite there yet, but we're close enough that I'm no longer panicking. And we're super excited to head to Thailand (Phuket and Bangkok) and Hong Kong for two weeks in September!! What's funny is that we're almost as equally excited to return to NYC in July for a long weekend, a trip we impulsively booked last night just because we had the airline miles and hotel points to do it. We can't wait to spend more time in NYC - we had a great time there last year but our two days (plus) there was not nearly long enough.

But before that, we have our first trip to Chicago to look forward to next month. We've been looking forward to visiting Chicago for a long time. So far, the agenda includes a trip to the Shedd Aquarium, tickets to Wicked with my friend Debie (who is great enough to come down from Michigan to hang with me for a couple of days!), and dinner reservations at Everest (it was a very tight toss-up between Everest and Tru, not that we could go wrong with either).

Despite having to be completely connected to the office on my trips, at least I'm not IN the office, right? I can't tell you how much I look forward to these getaways throughout the year - I think I'd go insane at work without them. Now to break the news to my boss that I'll be needing three weeks of vacation in the next six months.

Bend Trip Report

I guess technically that should be Redmond, Oregon, which is where we were staying at Eagle Crest Resort. We spent most of our time in and around Bend, about 20 minutes away. But our 2-bedroom condo/townhouse was great, and the resort grounds were beautiful. I especially enjoyed the running path along the gorgeous Deschutes River:


Che's buddy Rik joined us for the first few days. For most of the week, the weather was GORGEOUS. We spent Saturday tooling around town, had lunch at Deschutes Brewery, and had a fabulous dinner at Deep. We already had plans to meet up with our friends Cory & Lisa at Deep on Monday night, but you can never have enough sushi. Monday's dinner was even better:




Sunday we hit the slopes at Mt. Bachelor. After a private lesson, I was still nowhere near ready to go. What happened to my confidence in seven years? Sure enough, at the bottom of the first run, I took a pretty hard hit to the head and was done for the day. Learned my lesson, though, and decided to rent a helmet the next time out. The boys, on the other hand, were tearing it up. They spent all day Sunday and Monday on the mountain. I spent Monday shopping, lunching, and spa-ing with my Lisa.

Rik went home on Tuesday, and Che & I were pretty much on our own the rest of the week. We did have a great dinner with my friend Alycia at Cork on Tuesday night, enjoyed a couple of massages (at our resort and at Jinsei Spa), did some shopping, ate some great food, and caught up on some R&R. Oh, I can't forget to mention breakfast at the Mustard Seed Cafe in Redmond - AWESOME.


The weather turned cold and snowy on Thursday. We hit Mt. Bachelor for the last time on Friday and boarded as long as we could until the visibility turned to complete crap:




We had a fun week, but man, I do not miss the cold.

Next trip up - Chicago in eight weeks!

Snowbound!

We haven't really seen much snow since leaving Oregon six years ago, so this year we decided to take a "snow" Spring Break trip instead of a "sun" one. We get plenty of sun living in Arizona. We leave on Saturday for a week in Bend/Redmond, home of Mt. Bachelor. This is us, about 6 1/2 years ago, on our last trip to Bachelor:

I am excited to hit the slopes again, after a refresher lesson, of course, and to spend some time hanging out with my dear friend Lisa, who lives in Bend. Che's buddy Rik is also joining us for the first couple of days. I can't wait to leave. Then again, anything that involves me not having to be at work is a good thing in my book.

Meet my new ride!

Happy belated birthday to me. :D Today, I am the proud new owner of this 2008 Infiniti EX Journey:



Isn't it bee-yoo-tee-ful??? The color is Dark Currant, and the interior is Wheat:

This thing is loaded with bells and whistles, not the least of which is a fully-integrated communications center, which is my interactive navigation system, 9.3 GB musicbox hard drive, satellite radio, iPod interface, Bluetooth phone, voice recognition for audio/phone/navigation commands, and oh yeah, an around-view monitor (cameras all around the vehicle to show you obstacles) combined with a sonar system, which beeps when something comes within a few inches of your bumpers.

This is my first "luxury" vehicle, and I love the details that Infiniti adds to its cars. Like the embroidered "Infiniti" logo on the front seats:

It was a lot of back and forth for me before I ended up deciding to go for it. It is a lot smaller than my last car (a Nissan Murano), and I had a lot of concerns about that. Truth is, I still do. I'm still not 100% sure I made the right decision, and I hope I don't end up regretting my choice in six months or a year, wishing I had stuck with a bigger car. For now, though, the EX has me won over.

Happy Birthday To Me!

We returned to Amara Resort and Spa for one night, compliments of the hotel to make up for the trouble we had in December. They more than came through for us on this trip. First, they let us book just one night, when they otherwise had a two-night minimum for Valentine's weekend. Then, they upgraded our already-free room to a king suite with a whirpool tub and a patio that opened up to Oak Creek for a gorgeous morning view. On top of that, they gave us a gift certificate for dinner in their restaurant, which was fabulous.

This was my birthday meal of a half butter-poached Maine lobster tail and claw, two seared Maine diver scallops, an organic olive oil cake, and truffled brussels sprouts petals in a black pepper-tarragon lobster emulsion. YUM. Dinner was so delicious, I didn't even bother with dessert.


And this was the view from our hotel room the next morning as we enjoyed a room service breakfast of pancakes with warm Vermont maple syrup, fresh berries, and applewood smoked bacon.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day, despite its bad rap as a commercial, sappy, "Hallmark Holiday." Maybe because it's so close to my birthday, so it's like a weeklong celebration of me, starting with Valentine's Day.

So I'm sitting in my office yesterday, working away. Little did I know that Che was lurking outside my office door. Fortunately for him, my coworker next door saw him and dragged him into her office without me seeing. Ten seconds later, I get a call from another coworker, whose office is five doors down the other direction, asking me to come down and help her figure out what some kind of document is. Had I thought harder about it -- and had I been even the slightest bit suspicious -- red flags would have gone up, since this coworker graduated first in her law school class and is sharp as a tack, so the likelihood of her asking me to help her figure out a document is pretty lame. But nice distraction.

Anyway, off I go, and when I come back to my office, this gorgeous arrangement is on my desk:

Mmmmmm, ice cream!

So my dear friend Sandy emailed me last week and asked if I would be home on Tuesday afternoon to accept a package that was time-sensitive. Um, I can be. What time and WHY? She wouldn't say, but I could tell she was just giddy about it. Turns out it wasn't quite sensitive enough that I couldn't go the gym early and then head home, which I did. I arrived home at 5:45 and found this styrofoam cooler on my doorstep:


Oooooooh, I've heard of this stuff!! Oprah loves it!!!

I carried it in and tore it open to find six delightful little pints of ice cream and sorbet inside, still frozen rock solid. Yippeeeeeee - guess what I'm having for dinner!



Man, how do you decide where to start?? Actually, it was easy. You start with the sorbet. Then move on to the GOOD stuff. (No offense to sorbet, which I do love. But c'mon, ice cream has CREAM. And FAT. And tastes sooooooo yummy.)

First up:



This was amazing sorbet - creamy tasting and bursting with sweet raspberry flavor.

Next up:

Oooooh, so refreshing! Light lemony flavor with just the right amount of tart to give it that bite that I love from lemons.

And now for the good stuff:

This one I was a little hesitant about, given my aversion to fruit mixed with chocolate. Sue me, but I think chocolate should be pure and unadulterated. Unless it's mixed with a nut flavor, then it's OK.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was! The black raspberry flavor was really rich, and holy smokes - there are some huge chunks of chocolate in there!

Next up:

I have never been a huge peanut butter fan, with the exception of Reese's Peanut Butter cups, although I am learning to like it more and more. Wow, another pleasant surprise! The peanut butter flavor is distinct without being overpowering, and again with the huge chunks of chocolate. Can't beat that.

The first of the two I was really looking forward to trying:

Mmmm, chocolate and almond - two of my favorite flavors. The only thing better than either of them individually is the two flavors combined. This did not even come close to disappointing - I could have easily eaten the whole pint in one sitting. DIVINE.

And finally, the piece de resistance. Turns out I really did save the best for last!

O. M. Gaaaaaaawd. This was INCREDIBLE. I love coconut, and there are actually big chewy flakes of coconut in this, not just fake imitation coconut flavoring (I'm sure there's that too). I couldn't actually stop at just one small spoonful of this stuff like I did the others. I had two heaping spoonfuls and savored every last calorie. Good thing Che doesn't love coconut - this one is all mine! And will be gone by the weekend, I'm sure. Thanks, Sandy - you are the BEST.

Where The Wild Things Are

Most people who know Che well know that he is a HUGE fan of Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are. It's his favorite childhood book, and he still worships Max and company. Back in 2000, Todd McFarlane (creator of Spawn) collaborated with Sendak and released these action figures of Max and company:


I promptly bought up the whole set on eBay for Che for Christmas that year, and they've been a favorite of his ever since. He was loathe to remove them from their never-opened packaging, but he really wanted to display them, and I'm glad he did. They were on display in our house in Austin but they've been in a box since we moved here, although he plans to dig them out this weekend and put them back out. Each figure, except for Max and Goat Boy, is about 6" tall, so the whole scene does take up a bit of room. I think they're going in our "game room" (aka dining room, which is occupied by a pool table - sigh).

In any event, my dear friend Emily, who apparently paid attention when she visited us in Austin (and has probably been around Che when he's been wearing his favorite Max and company t-shirt), sent us these wonderful nesting dolls from Russia for Christmas:


Che's eyes lit up like a little kid's when he saw them. The pictures don't do them justice, but they are fabulous. The artist that painted them is so incredibly talented - they are a spot on replica of Max and his friends. And just for fun, I took a close-up of each of the dolls.

Tzippy and Moishe:

Max and Bernard:

Tzippy:

Max:

And my favorite, Max sailing in his boat:

Em, if you're reading this, thanks again - you rock.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve is generally a pretty quiet evening for us. Last night, we joined friends (who happen to be my bosses) for dinner at Furio. They were doing a special prix fixe menu for NYE, which turned out to be fabulous. I wish I had thought to bring my camera so I could have taken photos of the meal. Bummer.

In any event, the meal consisted of five courses. We had our choice of two items for most of the courses; for the main course, we had our choice of four. First course for most of us was the Peppercorn and Herb Crusted Ahi with a Potato-Leek Cake. The ahi was seared a little better than rare, which is not my favorite, and the peppercorn was a bit overpowering for me, but everyone else loved it. I did, however, savor the potato-leek cake, which was excellent. While we were enjoying our ahi, Dave was enjoying his Baked Oysters with Lemon and Olive Oil Drizzle.

Second course for me was the Baratta Cheese Pizzette with Baked Plum Tomatoes and Baby Greens. Excellent, my favorite course of the night. I'm not familiar with Baratta cheese, but it reminded me of a rich, fresh buffalo mozzarella melted atop the tiny pizza. YUM. The rest of the group ordered the Kobe Beef Carpaccio with Baby Arugula and Goat Cheese Salad. Che especially loved it, but raw red meat is not my thing.

The next course for three of us was the Tomato and Dungeness Crab Bisque with a Petite Candied Pancetta and Tuscan Grilled Cheese Sandwich. The bisque was a little bit of a disappointment for me (not enough for me not to lick the bowl clean, but not the rich creamy bisque I had imagined it would be), but the tiny little sandwich was to die for. Julie must have loved the three Saffron and Shrimp Tortellini with Roasted Garlic and Gorgonzola Sauce, because her plate was clean before I even started to eat my soup and sandwich.

For three of us, the main course was Vanilla Poached Maine Lobster with Artichoke Au Gratin and Grilled Asparagus. The presentation was adorable - all of the lobster meat had been removed from the shells but arranged with the empty tail and head shells to look like a whole lobster on the plate. The lobster was buttery and sweet, with just a hint of vanilla, which was a nice contrast to the sharpness of the marinated artichokes in the au gratin. Che, of course, went with the red meat option: Filet Mignon with Braised Cabbage and Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes. I had a taste of his smoked gouda potatoes, which were sooo delicious. His steak was cooked to medium rare perfection.

Finally, dessert. I was the only one who chose the Ricotta Blini Strawberry Shortcake. Not really knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised. The blini were these silver-dollar sized pancakes sandwiched with layers of a ricotta strawberry cheesecake-like filling. Yum. The rest of the group, being the chocoholics they are, ordered the Chocolate Bomb with Caramel Mousse, which was a huge serving of rich creamy caramel mousse served in a bowl made of dark chocolate, topped with fresh berries. I had a bite and while it was very good, it was much too rich for me. Che and Dave cleaned their plates and then finished off what was left of Julie's, after she ate off the fruit.

After dinner, we shared a champagne toast to what I hope will be a wonderful 2008.