Young Women's Leadership Forum

Today was an interesting day. It's a Saturday but I got up at 6:25am to go to Richmond to volunteer as a mentor for the Young Women's Leadership Forum sponsored by my company. It was an inspiring day. Since my role was to be a mentor, I sat at a table with 5 girls ranging from 10th grade to 12th grade. We talked about what their plans were for the summer all the way through what they want to do in the future. It was very eye opening to hear about what some of these girls have already accomplished or want to accomplish. For example, one wants to put off her first year of college to live in Italy for a year. I would have never thought that possible when I was graduating from high school. Certainly, all the girls at the conference hadn't had these types of experiences. The key note speaker was a person named Liz Murrary. As a little background, she had a movie made about her life and it aired on Lifetime. You can read more about her here and here. The main theme of her message is that each day we need to listen to what she called the "what if" voice in the back of our heads. That is, what if I did what would really make me happy today (that is if you're not happy with what you're doing now). Her message was that life is about choices (I know, we've all heard that one) but she made the point that it's about all types, not just the big ones. I don't want to bore you with the entire story of her life. With that background, you'd understand better about what's so inspiring. So, I'll just say, try to see the Lifetime movie. In the afternoon, the girls went to workshops about leadership, budgeting and finding their paths. The mentors went to a networking session, a discussion about differences in communication between genders and a feedback session. All in all, it was a great day.

NYC Timeline

3/17
5:30pm - Arrived Penn Station and head to 49th&5th to drop off my bags at EE's office
6:15pm - Headed to Saks to try out the hot chocolate in their new chocolate cafe on the 8th floor. It was wonderful - not too sweet, not too rich.
7pm - Sat down for dinner at Morrell's Wine Bar
8:30pm - Headed to Edgewater, NJ and turned in for the night
3/18
8:00am - Woke up
9:15am - Ate breakfast at Panera - tried out their new egg souffle pastries - nice change for a breakfast item
10:34am - Caught the bus to go into the city (it actually was late and didn't arrive until after 10:50am)
11:45am - Sat down for lunch at "good" - of course, EE and I weren't hungry since we'd just had breakfast at 9:30am!
12:45pm - Checked out KS and MDH's apt in Tribeca - very nice place with a view of the water and it's convenient to many subway lines
2:00pm - Arrived at the box office to find out that they don't open until 3pm - we decided we didn't want to stand in line for an hour so we head to the Whitney Museum
2:30pm - Arrived at the Whitney Museum to find a line out the door and we also realized that we were hungry so we decided to go to lunch - yes, we didn't plan this part of our day very well
3:00pm - Happened upon a wonderful place called Payard - I had a wonderful entree - Potato Tourte Layered with Goat's Milk Brie, Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions and Walnuts. EE had the three Mini Lamb Burgers in Olive-Fennel Fougasse Bread, Vegetable Bayaldi, Arugula Salad and Harissa-Yogurt Dipping. We were content after that meal.
5:00pm - Headed to Saks for shopping
7:00pm - Headed back to Edgewater after we figured out that we were very tired
8:30pm - Ordered Italian food from Noni's Italian Bistro - everything but the Eggplant Involtini was very good. We had discussed watching a movie but somehow ended up watching the story of Beyonce on E! It was interesting. We also watched a Chris Farley SNL Memorial show. I couldn't believe how many of the skits I remembered. That's KSD and MD's fault. We must have watched them when we lived together in Atlanta. They loved that show. I'm sure 2.718 must have watched it with us too.
11:30pm - Asleep
3/19
7am - Drank my bottle of water so that I could go for a run at 7:30am
7:45am - Left a little later as SA and EE decided to go for a walk while I went for my run
8:45am - Returned from my run
9:34am - EE and I caught the bus - very impressive that we were able to take showers, get dressed, dry my hair and both put on make up and walk to the bus stop in that short amount of time!
10:15am - Arrive at the Port Authority - there was traaffic in the Lincoln Tunnel so it took longer than on Saturday
11:00am - Arrived at Le Pain Quotidien
12:00pm - Shopped at the Lincoln Jazz Center
2:30pm - Headed to Penn Station
2:55pm - Arrived Penn Station
3:06pm - Train left on time for DC and my trip to NYC was over

As usual, the theme of my trip was eating. That's not a bad thing although ETK was very adamant that we should have eaten at least one Turkish meal. I guess that EE has enough Turkish food at home.

Am I Boring?

So, ETK hasn't posted for a while because she was told her blog is boring. Personally, I didn't find her blog boring but even if it was, who cares is what I say. I figure that more than half the people who read my blog probably don't make it through the entire posts because they're not very interesting. I guess you have to ask yourself "why am I posting to the blog". Is it for venting (getting out your thoughts), is it for gratification or something else? Whatever the answer, it's for you and that's what counts.

American Goat Cheeses

I went to another cheese tasting this past week. It was on Thursday night. The theme was American goat cheeses. Some of you may be crinkling your nose right now because you think of goat cheeses as pungent and weird tasting. It turns out there's a reason you may have tasted goat cheeses like that. The owner of Cheesetique explained that goat's milk is very delicate and must be made into cheese almost immediately after it comes from the goats. If it's not, the cheese does not taste very good. Thus, it means that the cheese is from a lesser farm. The tasting included some very interesting cheeses. There was a hard cheese called Midnight Moon that's aged for almost a year. It did not taste like any goat cheese I'd ever had before. The Purple Haze does have that goat cheese taste but it also has an interesting flavor from the added lavender and fennel pollen. There were many others but I won't bore you with the descriptions. Basically, my favorite was the triple creme. We will have that one at our next party for sure.

The Grill Still Works

Due to the great weather, we were able to test out the grill this weekend. Originally, a group of us were going to a St. Patrick's Day festival in Arlington but it turned out to be so crowded that we would have had to wait at least an hour to get in. So, instead, we headed back to Alexandria, picked up some fresh made bratwurst at the Whole Foods and grilled them to perfection. It turns out the Whole Foods is the place to be on a Saturday afternoon. There were cheese tastings, wine tastings and even a beer tasting. The cheese tasting was for Irish cheeses. So, we ended up buying an Irish brie. It was really good. When I say "we" went to the grocery store, of course, that was the girls. So, what were the boys up to while we shopped? Bocce ball, of course. They played until they could no longer see the ball due to there being no sun or moon. All in all, the day turned out to be a lot of fun.

Tonight, MTH and I will have some chicken burgers and grilled asparagus. We'll probably just play Scrabble, no bocce for me.

Beautiful Weekend

We've had wonderful weather this weekend. Friday it was in the 70's. I worked from home in the afternoon with the windows and doors open. It was great to get so much fresh air. Yesterday, it was again in the 70's and today is more of the same. I'll write more later. I've got to go take advantage of the wonderful weather.

The Weird Cheese

QY was definitely interested in the new cheese I brought up this past weekend. She was very worried about the ash in the middle of the cheese. So, I took a picture of it so that she could see what it looks like.

Mobay Cheese just before MMH finished it all!

The part of the cheese on the left is goat's milk and the part on the right is sheep's milk. The blue line in the middle is the ash. You can eat all of it and it tastes wonderful. It's not pungent like you might think of a goat cheese tasting. It's milder like a sheep's cheese but with more robustness.

Yes, I know, I'm crazy about cheese. It's my new chocolate.

If a tree falls in a forest...

I was reading an article earlier this afternoon about the "millenials". Haven't heard of them yet? I hadn't either but it seems that people who were born between 1980 and 2000 have been tagged with that title. I guess I'm considered a Gen X-er but I'm actually not sure.

Anyway, the point of the article is that these people are extremely connected. They download their TV shows so that they can watch them at any time. They instant message, email and text message more than they talk on the phone. One of the people being interviewed summed it up very well - "It's like, if you don't check your email and you turn off your phone, it's almost like you don't exist"

That blurb definitely struck me. If you don't see a lot of the people that you email or text message very often, it is like they no longer exist if they stop.

Another interesting tidbit: It also said that only 9% of 30 somethings read or have blogs. I guess MTH and I are in the minority.

Spring is peeking through

In mid-February the daffodils in our front yard started peaking through the ground. Now, they've bloomed.

Close up of a daffodil bloom - Note that picture was taken with one hand with cell phone

Early St. Patrick's Day Celebration

The 2nd Annual St. Patrick's Day Brunch was a success. People stopped over for brunch yesterday morning. We enjoyed coffee, leprechaun breakfast and cinnamon rolls with mascarpone cheese mixed with orange marmalade. MTH made some great pots of coffee. And, of course, we had mimosa and Guinness - no green beer though.

Then, we headed out to Old Town to watch the parade. We missed part of it because we didn't leave the house when we should have. The next part of the day was supposed to have been spent in one of the Irish pubs in Old Town. We had decided to go to Murphy's. It has traditional Irish music and several Irish beers including Guinness on tap. But, it way too packed - we would have been miserable. So, we went to House of Klaus instead. It's a dive bar right beside Murphy's. They had Guinness - in a can. We spent the afternoon there - playing darts and hanging out. It turned out to be pretty lazy day. MTH and I arrived back at the house around 6pm where we promptly fell asleep for a few hours. We then ordered out pizza and went to bed around 11:30pm.

Here's some pictures of the day.

MTH and MMH before the party started - Yes, MTH's shirt says Made in Ireland and yes, my hair looks funny

Everyone wanted to pose with MTH before we headed out to the parade (look at those nice legs on MTH)

QY winning at darts

My New Favorite Cheese

I went to my favorite store, Cheesetique this evening. I was buying items for the St. Patrick's Day Brunch tomorrow but decided that I needed a snack for tonight. I tried a cheese called Mobay. You're probably asking yourself - what kind of cheese is that? Well, it's from Wisconsin (shout out to Loud). It's made from both sheep's milk and goat's milk but they're not mixed. It's actually two different cheeses separated by a very thin layer of ash. You eat them together along with the ash to create a new flavor. It's so awesome. I definitely recommend this cheese to everyone!

I also bought some Cashel Blue cheese in honor of St. Patrick's Day since it's an Irish cheese. Also a very nice cheese. MTH likes blues better than me so I actually bought it for him.

Why cats are like husbands

Phoebe and MTH have a lot in common. They can be needy. For example I was on the phone with ES of Baxley. Several times during my conversation, MTH would yell upstairs about something he needed. If hadn't been on the pohne and had wanted him to listen to something I had to say, he would have easily ignored me. Phoebe has this behavior down pat as well. Just a few minutes ago, I was trying to type on the computer. Phoebe decides that I really need her in my lap. Since this computer is a "lap"top, that means Phoebe was actually on the computer that I was trying to type on. Of course, if I wanted to pet her, she would run away and possibly even hiss at me.

I've been informed...

by MAK that the theme of my blog has morphed into "MTH working too much". Since that's not really supposed to be my theme - ok, ok, not sure what my theme is but I don't think that's a great theme - I'll put a moratorium on that talk.

Blog Improvements

I have stolen an idea from Loud. She has a calendar of upcoming events in her life on the sidebar of her new blog, Too Twisted for TV. I really like that idea so I've added one too. Now you can find out what MTH and I are up to over the upcoming months. Note the cool colors for each of the months. March is green in honor of St. Patrick's Day. April is pink in honor of the Cherry Blossom Festival. May is yellow in honor of Cinqo de Mayo. June is blue in honor of the fact that I'll be at the beach twice that month. July is red in honor of Independence Day.

Accomplishments

I accomplished a lot this weekend. Yesterday, I got the wireless on our computer fixed, I sealed the granite countertop, I washed clothes and I planted some pansies in the front yard. I know it's a little late for the pansies but they should last until May and then we'll plant some begonias and impatiens. I also planned our menu for the 2nd Annual St. Patrick's Day brunch tht we're holding next Saturday. Today, I ran with my new running group, I organized my scrapbook/card making stuff, I polished the granite countertop, I re-organized the countertop and threw out a few things and now I'm cooking a beef brisket with Guinness, cabbage, carrots, potatoes and onions - in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

This past week, I made a lot of reservations for some upcoming trips. I've already mentioned that MTH and I are meeting MAK and PT in Vegas in early April. I'm also going to Macon in late April for my 10 year reunion at Wesleyan College (yep, I'm officially old). Then, in early June, I'm heading to Miami to meet up with EE and MAK. Hopefully, CLM can hop over and hang out with us. I'm definitely excited about that trip. We'll be staying at the South Beach Marriott because I had received a nice gift certificate from work for being part of a market research panel. Our cost will be less than $100 per person to stay there for 2 nights. Then, in early July, a friend is getting married in St. Thomas. I've reserved our hotel room but not the flight yet. That will be done soon though.

The thank you notes are not something that I can say are an accomplishment. I did at least write up in Word the wording for a good number of notes. I sent that document to MTH for his thoughts. He wrote back that he had some edits but didn't actually send those edits yet. Therefore, it looks like my updated resolution of finishing the notes by the end of February may not happen. When did I get so lazy!!!!

How did it come to this?

Well, MTH and I stood up our friends last night. I was very disappointed and upset. One of my personal pet peeves is people not following through on commitments so when I'm the one doing it, it doubly upsets me. Of course, I have to explain how it came to this. MTH is very very busy at work right now. He's worked the past few weekends and if you've kept up with my blog, you'll know that he didn't go to SF with me back in January due to work. Anyway, last weekend, there was a party at QY's and MTH wasn't able to make that either. I did go without him but it definitely wasn't as much fun. So, QY was nice enough to have a small get together this weekend with just KK and his wife and us. We were going to have Chinese Hot Pot and chocolate fondue (a melting pot of cultures - ha ha :). But, the long story short, MTH was delayed at work until past 7pm instead of being able to leave at 4pm as expected. Since QY lives about 30 minutes from our house and MTH had to work today (he's there now and who knows when he'll be home), it was too late for us to go out there to eat, play foosball in their basement and watch a movie in their brand new home theater. QY even rented the movie that I wanted to see (and if you know me, you know there aren't many movies that I want to see). She got the Wallace and Gromit movie!!! I feel extremely bad about not making it. I think at this point MTH and I can't make any plans with anyone. It's not fair to them.

I will be so much happier when he's not quite as busy at work. I'm sure he will be happier than me!

4 Things Updated

This post has been updated. All updates are in red.
ETK had the good idea of replying to CLM's email in her blog so I'll steal her idea:

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Senior Statistician
2. Teaching Assistant
3. Math Tutor
4. Secretary

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Wedding Singer
2. Steel Magnolias
3. Fried Green Tomatoes

Four places you have lived:
1. Alexandria, VA
2. Richmond, VA
3. Atlanta, GA
4. Macon, GA

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Pretty much anything on Food Network
2. Myth Busters with MTH
**that's it, I really don't watch much TV

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Barcelona, Spain
2. Dublin, Ireland
3. Paris, France
4. Honolulu, HI

Four websites I visit daily:
1. washingtonpost.com
2. gmail.com
3. yahoo.com
4. blogger.com

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Goat Cheese
2. Seared Tuna
3. Grilled Salmon
4. Eggplant Involtini

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Relaxing with a fun drink on the beach with MTH
2. Shopping for some new shoes
3. Massage
4. Anywhere as long as it's with MTH - I'm not really that needy, I just haven't seen MTH very much lately!!!!

Online Again

While MTH was online Wednesday night, the wireless connection died. When I got home Thursday afternoon, I couldn't figure out how to fix it. So, in order to work from home that day, I had to lay in bed becuase that's where the DSL router is located. I took the Apple computer and wireless router to the Apple Store this morning. He couldn't find anything wrong with it but he did change the channel that we're using for the wireless connection. Who knows if that's what fixed it but one of the by-products of that change is that I can now be on the phone and the internet at the same time!! Our 2.4 gHz cordless used to interfere.

So, unless we have another freak outage, I'm back!

Day Off Update

Things haven't worked out quite as planned. I met TV at her house in order to see her kitchen renovation ideas. She has some good ones but I'm so glad it's not me. MTH and I already dealt with renovating a kitchen and it's really no fun at all. Then, we headed for St. Elmo's get a muffn and some coffee. Our plan was to then go to the National Gallery to check out the new Cezanne exhibit but we decied that it would be mobbd due to the holiday and so we would go to the new Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit at the Phillips Collection. We get over to Dupont and walk to the museum to find... it's closed on Mondays!!! So, we walked to Connecticut Ave and just checked out a few stores. She then dropped me near Georgetown and I walked the rest of the way to meet AL. We met near Wisconsin Ave and then headed to Cafe Bonaparte - a little creperie several blocks up Wisconsin. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a table at 1:45! People were definitely enjoying their day off. We didn't leave there until close to 4pm. We had a nice lazy lunch and all we ate were crepes! Then, we went to Banana Republic, Coach and White House Black Market. I found a nice pair of pants and a sweater for MTH at Banana (I had a 15% discount card so I had a good reason to spend money :)

Now, I'm finally back home and still haven't made it to the grocery store or the airport to pick up my rental car for the drive to Richmond. I have to leave in a few minutes or they'll take away my reservation for the car. I may write another entry again tonight since I'll be gone until Thursday night.

Running Update

Last week was a good week for running. Even though I wasn't able to go on 2/12 due to the snowstorm, I got up that Monday morning and ran my 4 miles on a treadmill. Then, Tuesday night before my girls' Valentine's Night out, I ran 3.7 miles (time was short as I had to take a shower and meet AL in the hotel lobby at 8pm). Then, I did my Thursday run on Friday morning as I had plans on Thursday night. Yesterday, I did my long run (5 miles) with the new running group. I'm so glad that I joined the group. I would have had a really hard time getting myself up normally since it was 15 degrees outside!!!! But, since I was meeting people there, I had that extra push to get out there.

This week is shaping up to be good. I'll be able to run Tuesday night and then my Thursday night run will have to be on Friday morning again as I'll be driving back from Richmond that night. Then, I'll meet up with the group again on Sunday morning. I've also been doing my Pilates DVD here and there. I'll try to do it Wednesday night in the hotel room - I can use my laptop as a DVD player.