Beauty & The Geek finale!
I went to the Beauty & The Geek season finale taping last week. It was super fun. I love that show. I met Amritz and Sarah there.
Here’s a shot of us in the audience!
Gifts from India!
I was completely surprised today when Subbu at work brought in gifts that the offshore guys (Danny, Sivakumar and Krishnan) in India that we work with mailed to him (check out that run on sentence!). They sent me a beautiful hand carved jewelry box, an elephant keychain and a miniture caparison. It was very thoughtful! They said it was a gift of thanks for all my help (I’ve taught them a lot of flash/actionscript). They sent a gift for my supervisor, Tim as well. They sent him a hand carved elephant candle holder, keychain and caparison as well.
A caparison is usually a gold plated decoration that is put on the head of an elephant during festivals in Cochin, India (that’s where the guys are from). I’d love to visit India someday although the one experience I had with Indian food wasn’t the best. I loved the naan, but the rest was just ok… I’m willing to give it another shot though. They say Indian food is very different from each region of India. Plus the culture is very interesting to me.
I want to ride an elephant!
now playing: New Young Pony Club - Get Lucky
Holiday glum
Thanksgiving is here! Holidays are kinda sad for Josh and I because we miss family and it’s rather lonely having dinner for 2 on these big holidays. I try to do some kinda dinner thing but it never works out and it’s just not the same (I’d rather work on these holidays to keep my mind off them!).. then I get homesick and Josh and I plan on moving back East. Each year we get more and more itchy about moving. This year is no exception. If only we could decide on a city/state! Any suggestions?
I’m very opposed to the Carolinas and a lot of the South… because of what little I’ve seen/heard in these places.. but still open to convincing… maybe?
In May we’re taking a train back to Buffalo and may look into places to move to. I’d like to live outside of NYC.. but Josh wants to live someplace warm and sunny.
What we love to do in SoCal - and hope to find where we move to…
- Wakeboard/Jetski (basically we need a lake nearby)
- Josh likes his sand/dirty toys - atv, dunebuggy, etc.
- I love a big city nearby for the artsy community, music, etc.
- Liberal cities are a plus because of their open-mindedness
now playing: TV On The Radio - Staring at the Sun
Birthday visit!
Tracey visited for our birthday! We had a lot of fun. She arrived at lunch time on Thursday so I picked her up and she spent a few hours in my cube until we went home. We were really hungry so we made a quick decision to grab pizza at BJs and got a pizookie! They didn’t understand the twins part.. and gave Tracey the pizookie but we shared it.
Then when we went home, we opened up gifts from Mom and Dad via web cam conference. Mom and Dad got me a cute button up jacket and a nice silver cuff bracelet along with the monetary ability to go shoe shopping with Tracey! Tracey got me a cute headphones zip up I wanted, a game called “Don’t Quote Me”, a really clever paper clip holder that looks like a sink and its magnetic so they stick to the faucet!! and the book “Handmaid’s Tale”. Josh got me a totally awesome Diesel watch that I really liked. LB got me a gift certificate for Maggiano’s/Chili’s/Macaroni Grill/Corner Bakery.
We went to Cheesecake factory the next night with Tarrah, Josh and Ruben. Ruben got both Tracey and I a box full of goodies from Origins. There’s this really nice “peace of mind” sensory therapy stuff that relieves tension and stress; it contains peppermint, basil and eucalyptus (stress relief = just what i need). Everything from Origins is 95% certified organic. yay Earth! Tarrah gave us our stockings! She was disappointed last year when the dogs had stockings but we didn’t, so she made Josh and I each a stocking 
now playing: Electric Six - Gay Bar
Mind the gap!
Amritz and Sarah got me an awesome door mat for my birthday And 2 dish towels that have underground stops on them too- Paddington and Hyde Park
Tracey’s coming next week! Stars is tonight!
Things have settled down just a bit around here. I’m finally all caught up at work, got rid of the cold and the laundry pile at home has receded.
I’m really excited that Tracey is coming to town next week for our birthday celebration. I went to Philly in September but that feels like a year ago!
Going to see Stars tonight with Amritz and Sarah at the Orpheum. Didn’t realize it was downtown! That’s gonna be a loooooong 38 mile drive on the way home… wish I could take the metrorail… we’ll see.
now playing: Alcest - Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde
Mexican Riviera!
So I finally had time to write a bit about Mexico. The cruise was fun. It was nice to relax with Josh and have no phone calls and no work interrupting our relaxing! Josh was sick a day or so before we left, but we had 2 sea days where he could rest and get better. Aside from the news about the fires we had fun.
First port was Puerto Vallarta where we took a scenic coastal drive and saw places like Elizabeth Taylor’s former house and Richard Burton’s former house. The coastal areas were beautiful. Small cobble stone streets added to that old Mexico charm. It was really pretty. We also stopped at Our Lady of Guadalupe church and it was beautiful lots of gold leaf and very white inside.
In the afternoon we did the swimming with the dolphins adventures and it was sooo much fun! Definitely the highlight of our trip. We were in a huge salt water pool with the dolphins. They did all sorts of trick… for example the dolphins would give us fish and we’d toss them back to them and feed them. They’d kiss us and we’d hug them. All the while they swam in and out of us upside down at the surface of the water and we’d pet their bellies. They were super cute. They’re much larger than I thought too… like 7 - 8′ long or so. The trainer said the one was 600 lbs! We even got to train baby dolphins. They were 9 and 10 mos old (the adults were 35 or so). The babies were still like 4′ long. The best part was riding the dolphin. We held onto their fins and and they swam upside down across the pool super fast. It was amazing! We were late after the dolphin stuff getting back to the ship, but it didn’t leave without us because it was Princess booked shore excursion. So it was like a bonus, instead of taking the bus back to the port we got to take a small inflatable boat with engine over the to ship. It was a lot of fun
Mazatlan was nice but maybe just the port area wasn’t so nice.. we went into the “Golden Zone” for shopping and stuff and it was a lot of construction. The sales people were very pushy saying “almost free!” CONSTANTLY. It turned us off and we ended up going back to the boat. But the taxi we took back was cool. The driver didn’t speak much English so I brushed up my Spanish and spoke to him in Spanish. We stopped at each monument and he told us a lot about the area. I translated a bit for Josh.
The next stop was Cabo San Lucas. Cabo as by far the best stop! And we were only there for 5 hours 
We only had time for shore excursion, not much to see the area. We went snorkeling in Chileno Bay. A catamaran took us out there… about an hour ride. The water was SUPER salty. You couldn’t sink if you wanted to. We saw lots of colorful fish and coral. After about 30 minutes of snorkeling or so we got back in the boat and has some snacks and drinks and then back to shore to get back on a tender to go back to the cruise ship. There’s no port at Cabo, so the cruise ship anchors and you take tendor boats out to shore. Both Josh and I want to go back to Cabo again and spend more time there. It was so beautiful.
I get motion sick a lot so I took ginger pills and got sick anyway that night so I took dramamine day and night and so did Josh and that was the only way we didn’t get motion sick. It’s almost like a more pronounced movement on the ship would have been better. The subtle swaying was nauseating especially when we weren’t on the upper decks.
I posted lots of photos in the photo album…
now playing: Stars - Bitches in Tokyo
Philly trip!
Just got back from Philly yesterday. I was there for the weekend visiting Tracey. Had an awesome time. But on the day I left (Monday) I felt sick and I have some kind of cold/flu… my sore throat is by far the worst symptom (i wonder what swallowing fire feels like because i think i have an idea…). I’m really happy that I didn’t get sick until I had to leave though. Christine and I visited at the same time for the weekend and since Tracey and Jay have 2 roomates- Maggie and Adam it was pretty much a slumber party every night.
Saturday we had a delicious breakfast at Honey’s Sit ‘n Eat with Tracey, Jay, Christine and Adam. It was really good. I never had turkey bacon that tasted so good. The food is Southern/Jewish from what the reviews say.. but it seemed more like comfort food to me. Very yummy and fattening .. maybe that is Jewish?
We then went on a Watson’s scavenger hunt in the city. It was a 2 hour hunt. Our team was made up of me, Tracey, Jay and Christine. We got every questions answered and were only 2 minutes or so late getting back. So yea, we won! 2007 champs! I forget what our team was called.. Tracey thought of it… we got extra points for creativity for our team name and it took the whole hunt for us to decide on one. We want to do one in LA now and wear our returning champs shirts and have everyone fear us! mwahahaha.
We did lots of shopping on Saturday (well just me, Tracey and Christine) and then stopped by an art show. Then we celebrated Christine’s 14th birthday Lots of guitar hero and karaoke revolution followed. It was good times. I was nice to see Adam. I haven’t seen him in like 3 years which is hard to believe! Time flies. Never hung out with Maggie before and it was lots of fun. Good times were had.
Sunday we shopped more at King of Prussia mall and then went to dinner at Jones with Tracey, Christine, and Maggie. Yums. Stayed up late chatting with Adam. I miss those people. Need more of them around here. It’s so easy to be around them and so easy to have fun.
Visitors!
Joe and Heather visited from Buffalo this past week. We haven’t seen them in a looong time. It’s been over 4 years! They used to live here and came back to visit all their favorite restaurants and relax. Saturday we went to the lake, seados, boats, skiing, wakeboarding and tubing. It was good times. I really miss them, we click so well.
In May we’re going back to Buffalo and trying to extend the visit to be a little longer to do stuff like visit friends as well as Josh’s sister’s wedding… but we’re still working on the dog sitting thing. The vacation time from work looks like it won’t be a problem for either of us though.
I’ll post photos really soon!
now playing: The Shout Out Louds - Tonight I Have to Leave It
Last weekend on the lake?
We went to the lake Saturday probably the last time for summer. Brought the seadoos and met Steve and his wife with their boat again and their friends Mimo (sp?) and Christine. Amritz showed up a bit later in the morning but it was cool because we couldn’t launch right away anyhow. The fancy new battery Josh got for his yellow jetski was dead! It was new as of this summer! We had jumper cables so Josh charged it off of the truck for a long time then when Amritz showed up we charged it off his car. By like 11am we got it started and launched.
The lake was super choppy but the launch was nice and empty at 11am We had yummy food. Steve and his wife brought all kinds of good stuff. Big sandwiches from Ralph’s, whole big shrimp and cocktail sauce platter, tostadas, and more! It was crazy. I can’t eat that much at the lake though. Something about knowing I’m gonna wipe out on the wakeboard or tube later… and I’d rather not do it on a full stomach. I drink tons of gatorade and water instead.
Amritz rode the war chariot for the first time and had a blast. I took some cool pics this time, more air shots But took them on Sarah’s camera, so I gotta wait to post them. Steve again rocked the tube. Not sure how he can almost surf on it at the speeds we’re going but yeah… Steve and Mimo tried wakeboarding and couldn’t get up. I got up for a little while. It was waaaaay easier off the boat. For some reason I can stay up much longer while crouching down. Something throws off my balance when I stand fully up. The rope gets slack so I pull it in closer and then it gets slack again and I have nothing to do now but fall… I think there’s another solution involving positioning the board and my body, just gotta figure it out though.
The rope got caught in one of Steve’s jets in his boat when it was Mimo’s last try. Good thing he has 2 jets! As soon as we pulled the boat out, we got it cut out no problem. So, it was fine Everytime we go out something happens, just part of the good time! 
Summer is almost over! I think we might have a barbeque next weekend to celebrate the end of summer. That’s what labor day is for, right?
now playing: Biz Markie - Just a Friend
