In London. Can’t Sleep

I did make it to London, arriving in Luton Airport at about 11:15 am and getting all the way to the hotel by about 1:00pm. I took a short nap, worked on an RFP and attended to other work things and then went for a coffee and a walk around Regent Park with my boss and friend, Tricia. It was a nice day out and a mixture of tourists and natives were taking advantage of the big and beautiful greenspace.

I Hate Cars

It finally happened. We came brutally close on our trip to Florida. I didn’t sleep and we left just after 4am for a 6:15am flight out of JFK. Getting to JFK via subway isn’t hard. You take the F to Jay St and transfer, literally 10 ft away, to the A train which takes you to the Airtrain which takes you to the terminal of your choosing.

Vacation with the Sales in Panama City Beach

From left to right: McKenzie (6), Addison (2), Ethan (2), Nicolette (4), Lauren (3)

Aren’t they the cutest?  Unfortunately the blue eye dynasty ends with me, as my more powerful, dominant Asian genes will prevail

So on Friday night, after dinner, Dawniel, Cyrill, Dies and I headed back to the LES and had a drink. By the time we got home, it was 2am, and Diesel decided he wasn’t going to bed lest we’d miss our 4am wake up call. So there he was, playing video game, while I took a short nap. At 4am, we left with our bags and took the subway to JFK for four days with his parents, brother and family and sister and family.

In total there were five kids plus 2 more (friends of the family) under the age of six. We had lots of fun with all the kids and look forward to next year’s trip!  More pics of the kids here.

Loving It

Our new Sony eReader

Last month Diesel and I were really obsessed with getting either a Kindle or the Sony digital reader. We even went to the store and played around with the Sony one. As for the Kindle, I had it in my Amazon cart and was ready to hit the “buy” button before I realized that it was in backorder and who knows when we were going to get it. Looking back, even with an employee discount that would have cost way more than we wanted to pay (of course now that we don’t want it, it is IN STOCK).

Anyhow, this one was FREE! While we were in Seattle, Diesel mentioned he REALLY wanted an eReader. His boss was like: I got one from the leadership conference and don’t want it. Do you want it?

And of course Diesel shamelessly said “yes.”

And now we have it!

Days Fly by - Dawniel and Cyrill Visit

After a busy trip to Seattle, we finally came home and had more visitors from Seattle: Dawniel and Cyrill. Both are fellow foodies, so of course their trip was planned about some restaurants they were dying to try out. Dawniel sent us a wish list a while back, so it was 2 nights of some very delectable meals of copious amounts of food and wine.  Dawniel was a sommelier at the W and she currently says wine, so we had our very own sommelier pairing each course with a wine).

Our first meal was at Peasant. As many of you have seen during trips to this city, most restaurants in NY have some sort of gimmick, which they hope will give them pole position in this very competitive restaurant market. Peasant’s claim to fame is its upscale versions of peasant food, all cooked in either a wood fire brick oven or oven. Nothing cooked on the stove top, salamanders, microwaves or any other sort of heating system.

7th Ave, Brooklyn

My last meeting of the day on Friday was with a small startup that was introduced through a colleague. After an hour and a half of discussions and demonstrations, we went to a nearby Belgian bar on 43rd and 6th. The last time I went there, I ended up in the emergency room with an appendicitis, but I don’t think that was their doing. The beer selection is great, with Delerium Tremens, Duvel, Corsendonk, Leffe, etc. This bar is one of the few places that I like to visit in mid-town as most of the stuff around there is very touristy and overpriced, at least that I know of. I’m sure there are many more local haunts in the area that I’m not familiar with.

Diesel and his Guitar

Last Monday I came home to a surprise. Diesel was sitting on the couch playing his NEW GUITAR.  He said he was going to get an used one off of craigslist, but apparently that idea went down the drain.

When we first started going out, he played used to play his electric guitar, but somehow his interest faded and he didn’t start talking about it until recently.   Sitting on the couch, I listened to him play.

Kelly: So what are you playing right now?

Diesel: I don’t know.

Kelly: So do you know how to read music?

Dies: Uh…not really.

Kelly: So how do you play? By ear?

Dies: No.

Kelly: So did you just waste OUR money????

I’m happy for him though, and thankful enough that although his interest in playing the guitar has returned, the vinyl pants have not.

In and Out of Seattle

Phew!  Sorry to disappoint our three faithful readers, but last week was super crazy and I realize neither Diesel nor I have blogged in a while.

I had a sales meeting in Seattle, and Diesel timed his quarterly trip to his company’s headquarters so that we were there at the same time, which is awesome, since he was in Vegas (work) the week before that and will be in London (work) in a week and a half and Vegas (my bro’s bachelor party) again the week after.

Anyhow, the trip was jam packed with meetings from 8:30am - 5pm, plus having to catch up on regular work and a big work dinner.  When I took the job I thought I’d be getting a free trip to see my family and friends every quarter, but let me tell ya, there’s no such thing as a free meal.  In the middle of all the craziness, however, I was able to see some old friends from work, the Revolution girls + Emily and my family.  The trip felt very short even though we were there Tue night to Sun morning.

I’m In! - NY City Marathon

So today I received the following e-mail from NY Road Runners:

Dear Kelly,
We are pleased to confirm that you have been accepted for entry into the 2008 ING New York City Marathon. Our records have been updated to reflect your acceptance. Your entry number is 237470.

I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. I couldn’t believe my luck. And I couldn’t believe my bad luck. There’s just no excuse now, I just have to start running for REALS. Adios Shack Shack, adios Micky D’s. I shall miss you all, poisonous, but delicious food. Adios laziness. Now I have to get my $160 worth and get off my lazy butt.

Week in Review

Mussles and Micky D’s fries

It’s been a pretty cool week. No celeb sightings yet (which people say is unheard of, being that we live in the hipster-infested Lower East Side, or LES), but this week was sunny, fun and I got to hang out with some cool people.

Monday - Met Molly, Wendy and two new girls for book club. It was a great meeting, as we all went off on tangents and started discussing The Real Housewives of New York, and other such important topics after our book