Birthday adventure

GAH came to town and we spent the weekend exploring MD. It was a fun wonderful weekend.
We went to PA and visited Fallingwater, a Frank Lloyd Wright house. We did the "long" 2 hour tour. It was definitely worth every penny.
http://www.fallingwater.org/



We stayed at The Summit Inn Resort. It was very nice, but we our visit was "out of season" so we were not able to take advantage of all the In-House activities.
http://www.summitinnresort.com/

We met friends in Bethesda for a b-day dinner at Jaleo. It is a Spanish Tapas restaurant, that was very tasty! I would definitely recommend the Mejillones al vapor - Prince Edward Island mussels steamed with a bay leaf and a pinch of salt. Keep the sauce to dip your bread in.
http://www.jaleo.com/

Enjoy!
-ELT

The Birthday Box

Once upon a time, two girls met in the 4th grade and became friends. Their friendship blossomed throughout the years and the girls became BFF in high school.
Their junior year ELT decided to put EMN's b-day present is a white box that she had painted black with a sharpie. Unfortunately, the black marker ended up getting everyone who touched the box, hands black with marker. As a joke, EMN kept said box until ELT's birthday in November, but with the addition of stickers to prevent black marker hands. And so started the tradition of The Birthday Box. Each year the girls send The Birthday Box back and forth with gifts that fit into a 6"x6"x4" box. The box has survived ~12 years and it has had many sitickers added to it and clear packing tape, so no more black marker hands!
The End.

I love traditions and once I saw The Birthday Box in the mail last week, I wanted to cry and smile all at the same time. I love my BFF and our tradition.

Enjoy!
-ELT

update

Exciting things have been happening, but I have been tired (not sleeping well) so I have been slow on updating the blog.
We set a wedding date -> 10-2-10 (nerdy date!) at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, GA. The venue comes with it's own caterer, so I am nearly done with planning :) HaHaHa.
The Knot page is coming soon...

At work, my building/division had a chili and brownie cookoff and I won for Most Unique Brownie Ingredient! I made NM red chile brownies. Add 1/4 cup of dried, crushed red chile to your favorite brownie mix and sprinkle some red chile of top after putting the mix in the pan.
If you are really daring, replace the water with green chile juice.
"green chile juice" = true New Mexican have frozen green chile in their freezer and when it defrosts you have green chile juice.

T-minus 8 days until the big 3-0!

Enjoy!
ELT

Baltimore Half Marathon

Yesterday, I finished my first 1/2 marathon.
Besides the rain (on/off sprinkles) and some wind, I finished in 2hrs and 16mins.
Mile splits:
1 - 9:52 (ran this straight)
2 - 10:11 (the rest of the race I used the Galloway method - 3min run/1min walk)
3 - 10:24
4 - 10:00
5 - 10:36
6 - 10:16
7 - 10:48
8 - 10:34
9 - 10:05
10 - 10:35 - 1hr 43 min (3 min faster than Annapolis 10mile race in August)
11 - 10:56
12 - 10:31
13 - 10:57
13.1 - 2hr 16 min

At mile 10 my right knee started to hurt badly. I just kept telling myself "it is just 3min of running, then you can walk."
I do want to more races, but I need to do more 10mile, 1/2 marathon races, before increasing my distances. Need to not have the right knee hurt around mile 10.

-Enjoy!

Happy 3 years!

Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of my first date with GAH. We went to Taurus restaurant in ATL. It was a fun night. I was nervous and talked about very random things (I think that helped me!) from the surgery on my feet, Michigan football, a knife that had found an interesting home on the balcony, etc.
The last three years have been amazing and I couldn't have found a better match. He calms me and makes me a better person. Love ya GAH!!

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's 60th birthday. She is celebrating the day with lunch with a girlfriend while sporting her very fancy new red patent leather purse (from Dad) with matching Kate Spade wallet with red patent leather trim (from me and my sister)! Then my parents are off to Sandia to celebrate the night!
My mom is an amazing lady who has taught me many things. I love her dearly and hope she has a wonderful, special day.

Happy Birthday!!!
xoxox
-ELT

Sadness

My very lovely Grandmother passed away on Sunday. She was a wonderful, caring person who I will miss dearly.

http://www.wasikfuneralhome.com/

Leona Margaret Korenkiewicz

Date:

September 13th, 2009

Death Notice:

Korenkiewicz, Lee Margaret, 9/28/21 – 09/13/09, age 88, second daughter of Helen and Marcel Trzcenski, dear wife of Stanley and mother of Andrea, Mark, Matthew, Patrick and Paul, dear grandmother of Elaissa, Brittany and Andrew. Lee attended catholic grade and high school. Upon graduating she worked for Sanders and the Detroit Bank & Trust (Comerica). When WWII broke out, Lee enlisted in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) US Naval Reserves. After attending boot camp in Hunter’s College, New York, N.Y. and Oklahoma A&M College in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Lee was stationed in Washington D.C., EC (Electrical Communication) School at Anacostia Naval Station. There she met Stanley and became good friends, which later became serious. They were married Feb. 24, 1945 at the Anacostia Naval Station Chapel. Stan was assigned to the destroyer John A. Bole and they both went off to war. Lee was discharged soon after the war ended. Stan was discharged 6 months later and they came to Detroit and lived with Lee’s parents. Stan worked days and in the evenings attended classes at Lawrence Tech. University, receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. They bought a home, started a family and became parishioners of St. Raymond’s. In November of 1987 Stan suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was very ill. After 43 years they moved to Sterling Heights and became parishioners of St Blasé. During all this time Lee was very active in Christian Brothers Auxiliary; a past president, board member and Lifetime Achievement award recipient. Visitation Sunday 3-8 p.m. with a Rosary at 6:00 p.m. at the Wasik Funeral Home, 11470 Thirteen Mile Rd. (west of Hoover) Warren. Instate Monday 9:00 a.m. until time of Funeral Liturgy 9:30 a.m. at St Blasé Church, 12151 15 Mile (east of Dodge Park) Sterling Heights. Interment Mt. Olivet Cemetery. Memorials to: Monastery of the blessed Sacrament, Cloistered Dominican Nuns, 29575 Middlebelt Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334 or De La Salle Collegiate, 14600 Common Road, Warren, MI 48088.

Cemetery:

Mt. Olivet Cemetery 17100 Van Dyke St Detroit, MI (map/driving directions)

Visitations:

3:00PM to 8:00PM on Sunday, September 20th, 2009 at Wasik Funeral Home-Warren Chapel (Rosary at 6:00PM) (map/driving directions)

Services:

In-state at 9:00AM, Service at 9:30AM at St. Blase on Monday, September 21st, 2009 (map/driving directions)

ebooks

I did get a Kindle....and something sparkly and shiny!
GAH and I are getting married!!!!

The location and date have not been set, check back later for updates on the wedding planning. I will post a link to our The Knot page as soon as I create one:)

On to books - Summer books I read/listened to.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Muriel Barbery - Fantastic book!!
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon (Pulitzer Prize 2001) - One of the better PP books
The Reivers - William Faulkner (Pulitzer Prize 1963) - audiobook
Breaking Her Fall - Stephen Goodwin
Comfort Food - Kate Jacobs - Loved it! She is a great author. Plus the main character's name was Gus.
Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult
Julie & Julia - Julie Powell - The movie is good.
Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout (Pulitzer Prize 2009) - audiobook
Alice Adams - Booth Tarkington (Pulitzer Prize 1922) - audiobook
Chasing Harry Winston - Lauren Weisberger - Her other two books are much better.

Enjoy!
The future Dr. H.

ebooks

I am getting a Kindle!!
Or at least I saw one in the mail at GAH's house and assume it is for me, the avid reader. Just hope he doesn't forget to pack it tonight!

Someone told me about a website with free ebooks. I have added it to "blogs I like to read."

Currently reading "Julie and Julia" by Julie Powell. The movie was great so I decided to read both Julie Powell and Julia Child's books. So far it is an entertaining book. I may even try a recipe out of Master the Art of French Cooking this weekend....

-Enjoy!

Karma

I am not sure how we angered the Karma gods - but we have.
I always say please and thank-you. I am friendly to people. I recycle everything. We are pretty good tippers (tip related to how long we wait in Restaurant Purgatory). GAH is a faithful donator to his parents church.

Last November GAH's house was broken in to - two laptops taken and a very large pickle jar with years worth of change.
Last February my apartment was broken in to - roommate's laptop taken and some of my irreplaceable jewelry.
This week GAH and a friends cars were broken in to - each person's work bags were taken with two laptops. Also, my old external hard drive was in the bag. 40GB of memories. It was the secondary backup, so not all is lost.
But still.....

How do we appease the Karma Gods?

Definition - Restaurant Purgatory - the time between finishing your meal, getting the check, and paying for the meal. We call is Purgatory because you are stuck, you can't leave. Short time here = 20% tip, long time here = less than 10% tip.

We once went to a local chain in Atlanta that is known for serving bison burgers and a meal for two people took 3+ hrs.
First the hostess forgot about us, even though we were waiting in front of the hostess stand. When the waiter came we ordered salads and our meal. The salads came and ~3min later our meals came (delivered by another waiter). The meals were set down and then our waiter swooped in and told the other waiter we were not done with our salads, so we couldn't have our meals. They took the meals away!!!! We didn't even have time to tell them to leave the meal. 20 minutes after finishing our salads, we still hadn't gotten our meals back. We had been at the restaurant for 2hrs at that point and I was feed up and ready to go. Forget the meal.
A few minutes later, the meals came. We ate and asked for the check. It took ~3omin to get the check and pay the bill. The ordeal took 3+ hrs. No tip was left and we have not returned to that particular location or any of the other ones around the Greater Atlanta area.

-Enjoy

3

Today's post is brought to you by the number 3.



3 seems to be a theme this year for me...

-Moved to my 3rd state (New Mexico, Georgia, Maryland).


-Just about finished with my 3rd month of my new fancy "Adult" job! The best part is the pay check:)

-3year anniversary of my first date with GAH on September 30th.

-Recevied my 3rd degree - PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering.


-Purchased my 3rd Nikon Coolpix (current model S710). Okay the 3rd one was a graduation gift from GAH - but it fits the theme:)

-13.1miles - Baltimore Half Marathon on October 10th - I just want to finish it! (training using the Galloway method - 3min run/1min walk.


-Turning 30 in November! OMG!! The only goal I set (and could control) was to finish by PhD before turning 30. Done! I hope the day is special and I get to spend it with my wonderful friends in DC, MD, and VA.

I am sure there will be more occurances of 3 in the last four months of 2009.
-Enjoy!

Hello

We have started this blog because, why not? Everyone else is doing it. It will be full of random thoughts and reviews of places and products.
1. I recently donated my hair to Locks for Love (11") - everyone I know "loves the new hair" and thinks I look great. It made me start to wonder - did I look bad with the long hair? Personally, I like my new hair, but I do think it makes me look very young. Which is counter productive in my job, where I get asked if I am the intern? No - Senior Staff with a PhD!!!!

2. I just finished read "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" by Muriel Barbury. It was written in French and translated to English. I loved the book. It had many referenced to "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy, so you might want to read that first or check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina

3. Julie and Julia the movie is fantastic. If you love watching any of the cooking shows on Bravo and the Food Network, you will definitely love this movie.

4. Tad disappointed that Project Runway is now on Lifetime :( But excited it is back with Tim Gunn, Heidi, Michael Kors, and Nina Garcia. They also have a 30 min show focusing on the models - pretty neat.

5. Top Chef is back!!

6. I am getting a Kindle soon.....

-Enjoy!