I arrived in Sofia a couple of weeks ago. Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is the largest city in Bulgaria with 1.3 million people. It's incredibly old going back centuries BC. Some of its history is visible at ground level with exposed stones from the Roman empire and Ottoman ruins. Most of the landscape, though, is modern buildings, euro-style of course, shops, restaurants, subways stops, etc.

Entering the country was refreshingly easy. Because it's part of the EU, and because it's still small compared with other global airports, the customs area was organized and simple. Not to mention, I changed planes from a larger one to a two-by-two before arriving in Sofia, so there were fewer co-passengers to form long lines.

I'm staying relatively near the city center, so everything is convenient to reach both on foot (35-minute walk) or by cab. Having been in a few cabs in NY, I can really appreciate how dirt cheap it is to take a cab here. You can't sit down in a cab for less than $5. But even that being the case, I've never taken one anywhere for less than $30 in Manhattan, or $10 in Brooklyn. Well divide that by 10. The cab fare here is $3 or less for about 2 miles. If you're going further, $10 max will get you there. Tipping cabbies is also very simple. You just round up and add 1. So if the fare was 2.35, you give the driver 4. Simple.

Yesterday, I had the pleasant experience of heading to a mall. I like window shopping, no matter what country I'm in. I was surprised to see that many of the prices were the same or close to American prices. The average income in Bulgaria is much lower than the average income in the States, so I expected the prices of clothes to be lower also in proportion to that. Later, I asked someone about that. She said brands are brands, so they like to keep their prices high, but some more local stores are less expensive.

While shopping, I had to try on a few European styles, of course. I had a couple items and headed to the dressing room. Surprisingly, there was a big dude in the dressing room directing traffic. I've definitely been shopping with Christopher where he was kicked out of the dressing room. So I was not expecting to have such a presence. But after I'd shopped at a few stores, it was clear that they either have a huge shoplifting problem they are trying to stop or they have never had any shoplifters for fear of the angry looking men standing around.

I've had a lot of fun so far, touring the city on foot, dinners out, hanging out. I'm looking forward to whatever comes up next!

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Hurricane Sandy was known as "Frankenstorm" all weekend long prior to her arrival. Pretty much all anyone talked about on Friday at work was how we would be affected come Monday. As it turns out, they had right to be concerned. We, on the other hand, remained aloof on the topic.

Saturday, the grocery store was a zoo. I didn't go, but one of my neighbors told me about it. Later that night, I grabbed a gallon of water to keep in the fridge from one of the corner stores.

Sunday, it was cloudy and drizzling. We learned that MTA decided to shut down all subways and buses. ALL subways and buses. Wow. So clearly, we weren't headed into work the next day.

Monday, the winds started to come as did the rain. Renn and I went out around 2pm to try to get in a potty break before the storm. We were successful, but we came back in relatively drenched. Sometime between lunch and the evening, we decided that we were under-prepared. Although we still weren't convinced anything would be seriously damaged in our neighborhood. So, we went to the store and bought peanut butter, jelly, canned soup, and some bread. (I made spaghetti for dinner and used half of a baguette for garlic bread - delicious!!)

Monday overnight the lights flickered regularly, and we received an courtesy call from the power company that our power might go out. So, we shut down as much as possible and filled the bathtub with water. This, I learned, is so you can still flush the toilet and - in dire cases - boil the water to drink it.

Now it's Tuesday. Still no public transportation, but the worst of the storm is over. We currently have power, although I'm not convinced it still can't go out. So, we are keeping our power use to a minimum. The system is very stressed as there are a lot of people/building without power including much of downtown Manhattan last time I checked.

All in all, our neighborhood was very fortunate compared to those that are under water. And it also seems like we'll have some extra canned soup for later.

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I suppose the lack of posts lately is due to a lack of motivation to find something to say that perhaps you’d like to read. Lots of interesting things have occurred, but maybe nothing that’s super interesting for the blogging we usually try to do. That being said, I’ll give you a little update, and you can decide for yourself.

In August we had our 8th wedding anniversary. Christopher asked me to choose what I wanted to do. In the past, we’d gone out to “special occasion” type restaurants for a nice dinner. But I really just wanted to do an activity that I’d never done before. So I chose for us to go to a Jamaican restaurant in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Coney Island is a neighborhood in southwest Brooklyn that’s on the water and has a Midway and small amusement park along with a stadium and a strip of restaurants. Of course, that includes the hot dog restaurant it’s famous for. I really wasn’t in the mood for a hot dog though. Instead, we went to a cozy (loud) Jamaican restaurant.

It turned out to be really fun. We sat at a booth almost on top of two other couples in booths on either side of us. One of the couple’s started a conversation with us. As it turns out, the wife was Jamaican herself and the husband was a Dallas Cowboys fan. She assured us that we’d picked a good restaurant to try authentic Jamaican food. Christopher had jerk chicken, and I had curry chicken with fried plantains. She also taught us a little Jamaican history including the fact that it was Jamaican Independence weekend. Add to that the Olympics were on the television and everyone in the restaurant was rooting for the female Jamaican short distance runner. So the atmosphere was really great.

After dinner, we took a walk on the Midway. The people-watching was fantastic. The types of people there included big families, teens loitering around, and couples. There was also some sort of old car show. I couldn’t tell if it was an organized event or if people just came and parked their cars there on Friday nights in order to show them off. It must have been organized in some way, since parking there otherwise would have been illegal. We didn’t play any Midway games or ride any rides. I didn’t really feel the need to spend two dollars to get a chance to knock over cans and win a goldfish.

On the way back home, we both agreed that it was a really fun night – but now that we’d been there, we could cross it off the list and not need to return. Not unless we were taking someone new there or going with a big group.

The rest of August was spent extremely busy with work for the both of us. Plus, I caught a cold that had me at work but probably only mentally actually in the game about 50% for about a week. I’m very glad I got over that through liberally consuming vitamin C and zinc.

Somewhere in there, we also went for a mid-morning Saturday walk with some co-workers through the Financial District and across the Brooklyn Bridge. The weather was great that day, and the walk was a lot of fun with good photo-ops.

Now, it’s September, and we have some more fun things coming up soon.

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This summer is going by so quickly – our recent trip to France was now over 6 weeks ago. Our flights to and from were pretty eventful due to the strike in Portugal. But the week we were there was relaxing, if a bit jam-packed. From there, Christopher flew immediately to a business trip in Japan. And I came back home to return to normal office work. Now he’s back, and we’re nearly half-way through July!

The weather is finally hot in New York. It’s not the same kind of Texas hot. I prefer Texas hot. New York hot includes humid subway platforms and no-central air apartment buildings and shops (larger office building and department stores have central air). In Texas summers, I can leave a building and sit in the car without turning it on (I know, I’m weird), and breathe in the heat. And with newer construction, I don’t really have to worry about the electricity bill being outrageous at the fact that we’d all like to avoid heat stroke. In New York, I try not to breathe in too deeply on public transportation, and the window A/C units aren’t exactly air tight. That being said, summer is still my favorite season; so I’m not letting the disadvantages get to me too much.

For a new summer activity, and all around new hobby, I bought a pet trimmer. Pet grooming can be costly. It’s $50 minimum for each grooming appointment. And the pet trimmer was $80. So, by the time I use it twice instead of taking Renn to the groomer, it will have paid for itself. And after that, it’s all money saved. Renn was a pretty good client and was relatively patient with my unskilled hand. I watched the DVD first that came with the trimmer. It was more or less unhelpful. It demonstrated three types of doggie haircuts in rapid succession, none of which I particularly wanted on Renn.

Before getting to work, I gave Renn and bath and got the folding table out with a towel down on top of it. After Renn was dry, I got to work. Cutting the hair on his back and sides was easy. His face wasn’t too bad, but his ears, neck, chest, and legs were quite different. His fur there (ears being the exception) is really curly and would catch on the trimmer. As a result, I had to leave those areas much longer than his back. So, when I was all done, the shape of the cut was more like a Schnauzer than a Poodle or any other cut. I was very glad not to have given him razor burn or nicked him anywhere. I was concerned that my zeal would result in injury.

I think I’ll get better the more I groom him. Even though he’s a bit uneven in places, the parents of his neighborhood doggie friends have noticed and said he looked good.

In other lazy-summer news, Christopher finally got me to watch the series Lost. It gave me something to do while he was on his business trip. I think if I had been watching it as it aired, I wouldn’t have made it through the first two seasons, which I did not like very much. I did like seasons 3, 5 and 6. We also watched the season/series finale of Awake, which I found to be very disappointing.

Hopefully soon, I’ll get some of Christopher’s Japan pictures and be able to share those.

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We’re not wealthy enough to afford a butler, personal shopper, assistant, and maid. But I don’t like domestic activities enough to continue to do them myself if we were. I’d gladly give over dish-washing, vacuuming, and lunch-making responsibility. I might keep cooking every other night – or something – since I enjoy that. In the city, I get to pretend to be that wealthy in some respects.

As you may know, it’s crowded here. Parking is a huge hassle; space in stores is very limited. When I take Renn to the local doggie supply store, all the goods are crammed in two aisles spilling onto every shelf and even the floor. Renn and I can fit down the aisles, but not if there is someone else already there. The smaller corner markets are the same, just no dogs. And the larger grocery store (about a block-ish away) would be roomier if not for all the shoppers with carts.

Rather than deal with the crowds, we use Fresh Direct. Fresh Direct is a grocery service that delivers to your door when you want them to! It’s pretty great. They charge a $5 delivery fee (or $60 for 6 months of no individual delivery fees). I went with the $60 for 6 months, and I get stuff delivered pretty much every week. Their selection is good for the foods that we buy. I find their prices on organic apples and grapes to be high. But their prices on organic everything else is the same as any major grocer. I’ve recommended the service to co-workers who don’t already know about it.

We have in-building laundry and at least 4 laundromats nearby. But as I discovered, I don’t need to spend all morning on one of my in-short-supply weekend days sitting and waiting for cycles to finish, collecting quarters, and carrying detergent around. Instead, I can drop off our laundry in the morning and pick it up in the afternoon all washed and folded for me. It’s not as expensive as you might think, they charge by the pound (so the bill goes up in the winter due to the sweaters and whatnot). And, they don’t discriminate; they’ll do sheets and towels as easily as jeans and shirts.

Finally, why cook all the time? Ok – I admit, I like cooking and I generally prefer to eat something I’ve made over something a restaurant has made. But we eat out regularly too. When we want to order in, we use Seamless.com. Seamless has a bank of restaurants with minimum order amounts and delivery estimate times. The restaurant menus are available for perusal with descriptions of menu items. Once you’ve decided what you want and from where, you order it directly from the website. It’s so much more convenient than keeping a bunch of restaurant menus around and calling in an order.

I do feel like convenience is a high priority on any service-oriented place I’ve been to around here.

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Having never flown TAP Portugal before, I expected relatively little. I figured it would be better than EasyJet (which I took once on a flight from France to Scotland), but not as good as any business or first class seat one could possibly imagine. Turns out, I should have thought less about the comfort of the plane and more about if I'd actually have a seat on the plane and reach my destination. We booked flights to France back in December (or sometime last year) as we wanted to attend a wedding (that we had been invited to, of course). We chose TAP Portugal because it was cheap. Their tickets cost half of every other airline. So basically, it was a two-for-one flight. Once we had the confirmation, I stopped really thinking about it. The day before our flight, we checked in online and had the boarding information sent to our cell phones. The day of the flight, Christopher received an email letting him know that the flight from Lisbon to France had been "cancelled/delayed." And it also stated that TAP Portugal was sorry our plans "suffered" this change. It then listed the times for our new flights. The email was not very clear about which flight was which, and it looked like it had moved us back a week. I immediately got on the phone to talk to someone about it thinking the worst - that we'd have to go sit at the airport waiting on standby for something to open so that we could go on time. The representative was actually very helpful - a point in TAP Portugal's favor - and he explained clearly what the email vaguely described. Our flights were all in tact, the only change was in the connecting flight. Rather than a 5-hour layover, we now had a 4-hour layover. This was all due to an air traffic controllers' strike. They were protesting something (I never found out what) between 2pm and 4pm Lisbon time on the four days that impacted us. So, we boarded our flight in the US at the normal time. The TAP Portugal plane was a something-330. It didn't have personal TVs or plugs for recharging phones, kindles, etc. Because we wanted to sleep anyway, the lack of entertainment didn't really bother us. Unfortunately, neither of us was able to sleep really at all. We maybe 'slept' poorly for four hours. The meal was a bit lack luster. Plane food generally is, but international flights tend to be a bit better than domestic ones (in my opinion). They offered "fish or meat." They weren't able to offer any more details than that. It came with an odd spreadable Brie and a cold-ish wheat roll. Anyway, I've definitely had better. Upon landing, we sat in the food court for hours waiting for the next flight. We all boarded the tiny plane (two seats on each side of the aisle), and then waited. Our flight had been moved up an hour to try to get in the air prior to the beginning of the strike. Our plane didn't seem to have any air conditioning, so one of the flight attendants opened the emergency exit door to let in air while we waited to see if we could take off. As it turns out, we weren't fast enough. We all had to deplane and return to the airport to wait another 2 and half hours for the strike to be over. We returned to the food court to wait with the rest of the airport. It was a bit more than crowded. Finally, we re-boarded the small, hot plane and were able to take off. The flight itself was fine minus the fact that we had to sweat the whole way - gross. Due to that experience, I'm not sure that I'd book TAP again. The representatives handled the situation well, I thought. But if we can't predict a strike - or if we're not offered fresh air - I think we might be better off booking with a different airline.

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With a dearth of bunnies, what’s a little dog to do? Stalk pigeons of course! We’ve been in New York a month now, and the city is Renn’s frenemy. This is definitely the first time I’ve ever used this word to describe something that related to my life in any way. But it’s simply true. Renn loves and fears New York.

He’s always been a very friendly, relatively skiddish pup, fearing manhole covers and stairs. But now, I have to add to that loud trucks, that seem to honk at just the worst moment to startle him, and litter. Wow, there’s a lot of litter. Denizens can’t really be to blame (well they can actually). Trash pickup occurs on the sidewalk each week and public trash bins don’t have lids. There are a lot of smokers. They don’t have a catchy and slightly threatening tag line, such as “Don’t mess with Texas.” This city is windy. The combination of these circumstances means that Renn is constantly dodging flying plastic bags, possessed empty food cartons, and random pamphlets and flyers. On one windy night, we were walking our usual a path and a large, scary pizza box flipped up on its side and landed square on Renn’s back. It was not a good moment.

Other moments are great, and Renn loves New York. There are two parks within easy walking distance for us. The smaller park comes complete with tall, uncut grass (great for smelling) and a couple park benches that line the path where people always want to pet him. The larger park comes complete with many other dogs to greet and gray squirrels to chase. In addition, New Yorkers are the friendliest people when you’re walking a dog. We are regularly talked to, and one of us is petted (thankfully, that’s not me). They make cooing noises and tell Renn how cute his is.

For us, adjusting hasn’t been too bad. It was annoying to wait for our stuff to arrive. Unpacking wasn’t awful. I built 7 items of furniture and only irreparably put one piece in backwards (a can of white paint pretty much fixed it). Seeing as how it’s build-by-picture and I spent more than a couple years in college, I would have felt better not having put any pieces in backwards. But I can deal with 1.

Work keeps both of us incredibly busy, but for the most part I can still get out on time and make it home pretty easily. Our train doesn’t have a schedule. It says it does, but it’s lying. So we generally wait anywhere between 3 and 16 minutes for the train to arrive to take us home. From there, relaxing at home, walking around the neighborhood, and trying out local restaurants has kept us occupied and happy.

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So you are already aware of the international culture and feel of Hong Kong. I described (at length) the types of non-Asian foods I ate and how I wanted to never eat the same thing twice. Well, I didn't manage never to eat the same thing twice. But, in fairness, I was asked to do side-by-side comparisons of items I had eaten from one restaurant to another. So, it wasn't really my choice. My choice was to try as many different foods as possible.

I'm not one to try a food just because it's weird. I like to try things that people actually enjoy. So, whenever something was proposed, I asked if the speaker actually liked this or that food item before accepting the invitation. I found myself trying every type (or pretty much every type) of Asian food available.

I had Malaysian food at a restaurant in the Wan Chai district. Of all the restaurants I went to, this one was my favorite. Malaysian food involves a lot of spices and is a mixture of Indian and Chinese. They have a lot of curries. At this Malaysian restaurant, we sampled a traditional drink called Chandor. It's a sweet drink with grass jelly and coconut milk topped with some sort of brownish syrup. Don't ask me for further details. I don't know them. But wikipedia may if you're interested. We also shared two appetizers, two entrees, and one dessert (three people). If I wasn't implementing such a strict do-not-eat-twice rule, I would have gone there again.

I had Vietnamese twice. This was one of the times when I was asked to do a side-by-side comparison of the plain jane beef pho I ordered. Both places were good. But I like the first one better, making the fact that I went to a separate restaurant to order the same thing a little disappointing.

I also had Thai, Japanese (black squid ink ramen), Fresh seafood (as in we chose the crab, scallops, mantis shrimp, and razor clams we wanted from the live tanks), and Hong Kong steet food (fried fish balls, stinky tofu, dessert waffle, and bubble tea).

Then there were the different styles of Chinese and Hong Kong-Chinese restaurants where I sampled traditional dishes. I went to two Dim Sum restaurants. Dim Sum style encourages ordering lots of small plate appetizers shared by the table. I love Shanghai dumplings, which I thought were beef - but turned out to be pork. They are little sachets of meatball with broth. I also enjoyed turnip cake, Chinese broccoli, this weird eggy cake ball, red rice sweet soup, and fried octopus.

The list of things I did not enjoy is much shorter. I did not enjoy iced plum green tea or cashew chicken. And, I may not have liked chicken feet. But I wouldn't know. After it was ordered, I chickened out. Frankly, they made me a little sad.

In all this eating and trying and ordering and eating - I only had rice one time. That was at the Thai restaurant, and it came with my garlic eggplant.

For my last dinner in the city, we went to a rather fancy traditional restaurant where I got to try Peking duck. Not really at all what I expected, but delicious.

Now I get to go home and lose the travel weight. :)

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I was really not prepared for the Western feel of Hong Kong. I expected to get lost a few times, not be able to communicate at least once, and perhaps even long for some toast. However, that has not been the case at all. I'm not sure if I should be ashamed that I did next to no research before coming, or just happy at the ease of daily life. I've been told that out in the New Territories it's not as easy to get around and fewer and fewer people speak English the further you go. I'm sure that's true. But around here, the British left a very heavy stamp on the city. This is felt in the language, transportation, and definitely the food.

I've tried to eat at a different place for every meal I have out. When that doesn't work, I at least never order the same thing twice. One of the many convenient coffee shops here is called Cafe O. Their menu is really hard for me to read, because they replace the letter A with the letter O if the word starts with an A. For example, Oll day breakfast and Omazing set menu. I guess it works for them; I actually like them because they are close to my flat and have free wi-fi.

This is their eggplant pizza that I had for dinner one night. It was delicious.

This is the breakfast I ate before heading to the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas last week. The soy latte hit the spot. And no, I didn't put jam on my banana bread.

And this is their chicken and mushroom pasta I had for dinner a separate night. It was gross. I haven't been back since.

For lunch during the week, I've tried to eat as much Asian food as possible, including seafood since they do fish here. But in many cases, I still couldn't get away from the more Western fare.

This is a roasted veggie sandwich with hummus spread. So good!

And this is a restaurant that serves 24-hour-a-day English breakfast. I had eggs florentine with fresh fruit and grilled tomatoes. Beans on toast was an option.

There are a ton of bakeries here as well. With hopefulness and a carb craving, I've tried a few. Unfortunately, the breads and pastries I've tried haven't stood up to the donut shops of the US or the bakeries of France. After the second one, I told myself it probably wasn't worth it to try again. But, I didn't listen to myself and tried "banana cake." It didn't make up for the first two disappointments. In more traditional bakeries they have "moon cake" and "wife cake." These are traditional desserts. The wife cake I've had, and I enjoyed it. It has a light, flaky outter dough portion with powdered sugar, and there's a candied paste on the inside. It would probably be very good with tea; although I had it alone. And, there is a Hong Kong pastry called an egg tart that looks like a tiny lemon custard pie and screams of egg flavor. This particular tart is either trendy or traditional (I'm not sure which one), but definitely a Hong Kong favorite.

And now that I've shown you much (but not all) of the Western food, soon I'll have to delight your senses with the Asian side of cuisine here. Get ready for the Dim Sum!

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Apparently, I am one of the more "adventurous" of visitors to our office here. I put adventurous in quotes, because I don't feel that I'm doing anything truly out of the ordinary. Certainly, nowhere that I have been has come close to out-of-my-comfort-zone. At any rate, I'd wanted to go to the Temple of the 10,000 Buddhas Saturday; so I did.



The public transportation needed to get there is simple and efficient. Public transportation here, overall, is cheap and fast. I arrived at Sha Tin 45 minutes or so after I'd left my flat.



When I got to the temple path entrance, I was met with a steep path abutted with varying gold and painted Buddhas. They each were different from the other - some sitting, standing, leaning, carrying items, smiling, etc. It was creepy in the way that a room full of porcelain dolls makes your hair stand up. But there was not much time to focus on that as I was huffing and puffing at the ascent. I'd thought I could jog up the stairs, but I quickly abandoned this idea when I realized just how far it was up the hill.





This stop in Sha Tin did not disappoint. The multiple temples and shrines at the top were all immaculately kept with really cool detailing in the paintings on the walls and ceiling. This should be a stop for anyone in the area. Enjoy the photos!

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In Hong Kong, I arrange my mornings so that I have plenty of time to wake up, eat breakfast, work out, shower, and channel surf. I have found there are three mostly-English stations. One is the news channel Aljazeera; another is a re-broadcast of American nightly news programs; and the third is a Gaming program.

I haven't figured out the point to the Gaming program. When I flip past in the morning, it is always three hosts dressed in futuristic looking grey and red uniforms talking about games that are being played live, as far as I can tell. The game they comment on is a virtual capture the flag. I suppose it's like Call of Duty, but without the back story, changing maps, diverse weapons, and modern graphics. This capture the flag game consists of a red and a blue team that run around (read, hop around) with plasma blasters trying to steal the other teams flag. I doubt very seriously that this would be an interesting game to play; and I can't really understand why it's on everyday. Maybe it's just filling air space.

But that doesn't beat the local programming. I came across a gem involving food presentation and a beauty pageant. It was poorly dubbed in English, which made it even harder to stop looking at the train wreck. There were 20 beauty contestants all dressed up in glittery bikinis. There was an audience of men, who I can only imagine were going to vote on the winner - although I didn't stick around that long to find out. The portion I watched was some sort of food presentation challenge. The beauty contestants were given a theme and they had to arrange a dish and explain their logic.

The girl I saw had the theme "Chaos and Organization." She said of her dish, and I roughly quote from the poorly dubbed English, "My dish is chicken and crab. These things - tee hee hee - do not go together at all. Uhm. But, I think that the chicken and crab work very well together here, and - like the 20 contestants - bring unity to each other. And, tee hee hee, I hope that the 20 contestants here can be like the chicken and the crab and work together to bring unity even though we are very different."

I watched with mouth agape. Then flipped back to the news.

In other food news, there's a BLT Steak restaurant here. Christopher and I have wanted to try a Gordon Ramsey-owned restaurant, so I won't be trying it. Of course, we have to go together! But it was neat to see it, and the menu looked good from what I saw outside the restaurant.

I'm trying to take photos of what I eat while I'm here, and I'll put those together later for your viewing pleasure.

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I am writing to you from 14 hours in the future. And the future is humid. To get to this legendary place, you must first board a delayed plane, sit in an international-hub airport for 3 hours, board another plane, wait on the tarmac for an hour, then fly for 16 hours to arrive in the future. Once you get here, you'll become illiterate and resort to basic gestures and perhaps a little grunting as a means of communication. You may be disoriented, groggy, and/or dehydrated. And, you'll definitely have big frizzy hair.

I'm talking about Hong Kong of course. The flights themselves were uneventful, which is excellent since I spent 18-19 hours in the air. I haven't been here long, but I like it already. The city feels very alive with a plethora of shops, bars, restaurants, cafes, and convenience stores. I could do without the constant advice on what to eat and stories of how Westerners usually react to traditional Chinese food. But I think everyone gets a kick out of sharing these tips, so I let them.

I woke up to a foggy foggy day, and I knew it was going to be temperate, but I didn't imagine the humidity level. I put a receipt on the kitchen table and woke up to a fully curled piece of paper. Had I bought a brochure, I'm almost certain it wouldn't have been mentioned. And thus it is my duty to warn you. Don't straighten your hair in Hong Kong. It won't matter 5 minutes later.

I'll get back to you soon with stuff that I have actually done. For now, I'll leave you with a couple of photos.

This one is looking down from the 27th floor where I am to the street below.This one is Hong Kong on a foggy morning.

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Lexie circa 2001-2002 was in college and had a CD burner. I remember spending many hours - because that's how long it took - deciding which 15-20 songs I'd mash together on my CDRWs. This was also before Napster's immorality had been decided. So, as I begin the process of cleaning and packing for our upcoming move, I find myself relying on a very old binder of CDs. The ones I listen to more regularly are at work (and anything else comes courtesy of Pandora). So, I picked one out of the barrel entitled "Mix CD 2." I was quite creative, as you can see.

And now, I'll list for your entertainment, the 18 songs that I've been listening to as I am cleaning and packing. Lexie circa 2001-2002 didn't have bad taste. Although she really had no qualms whatsoever with mixing genres. And, I least I know all the words...

1. Jeremy
2. Desperately Wanting
3. Come as you are
4. Jack & Diane
5. You're Gone
6. Son of a Preacher Man
7. Jeremiah was a Bullfrog
8. Trouble Me
9. I'm Outta Love
10. Black Velvet
11. Lean on Me
12. Closer to Fine
13. I Try
14. Dust on the Bottle
15. Safe in the Arms of Love
16. Cumbersome
17. Sister
18. Whiskey in the Jar (Metallica)

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In the past year, Christopher and I have been on 4 business trips collectively. Perhaps for some people that isn't a lot. For us, it is. Especially since 3 of those 4 have been made solo leaving the other person at home. What we've reinforced, that we certainly already knew, is that we don't like being apart.

Not only does being apart suck for all the lovey-dovey reasons you'd expect, but also for the mundane stuff that you don't. For example, I spent ALL WEEKEND cleaning. And with Christopher away that same weekend, I thought it was a perfect timing. Ok, well perhaps the all caps is a slight exaggeration, but I seriously cleaned. A war on dust was declared, and I was the victor. I even borrowed the world's best vacuum from a friend, because wars are not won on hopes alone. I called in backup (by having the maintenance guys replace the air filter at the A/C intake). And I sacrificed my knuckles for cleanliness. When I was finished, the place looked amazing, and I was exhausted. But then, I could only look around and say, "good job self, you're definitely going to breathe better now." But my victory was a little hollow without Christopher there to also marvel at the sparkling counter and dustless baseboards.

It's also very hard to be motivated to cook dinner for one. A couple of nights I did well by making a normal-sized dinner and separating portions out to eat as leftovers on subsequent days. But it's much more fun to make dinner for others.

On the other hand, the fact that being apart sucks is just another reason our marriage is awesome, right? There are probably couples out there who'd like time apart, and fortunately, that's not us.

In other news - the kickboxing groupon I bought is paying off. It was my first groupon purchase, and the fact that it has been successful makes me want to continue to rely on groupon and try out new places. I can't believe my month of kickboxing is almost over already. I have 5 more days to go to classes and burn about 500 calories each time. The women I have met there all seem cool. There are men too, but they don't seem to introduce themselves. For those of you in town, the first class is free. So, if you'd like to go in the next 5 days with me, give me a call. And, I'll be filling you in on the next groupon activity in due time, I'm sure.

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What a busy busy end to 2011. I went to Israel, again. After finally finishing up a couple posts about our trip earlier in the year, I was already on my way to the Holy Land for the second time. It really is amazing that I got to travel to such an amazing city twice in one year. So, in this post, I have a couple new photos for you - as well as updates about normal life and holidays.

I went to Israel for two weeks, rather than the three-week stay the first trip had been. I was able to sight-see and visit additional religious and historic sites where I'd not previously gone.

This time, I was very set on going to the Mount of Olives. The day was absolutely gorgeous. Cool enough that I wore a sweater, but not too cold to make walking around outside unpleasant. The Mount of Olives is amazing, and I'm very glad I went. In my head, I hadn't really come to any conclusion as to why this place was called the Mount of Olives. When I arrived there, it was obvious - duh - the olive trees!

The sky was clear, and it was gorgeous. Did I mention it was gorgeous? I was able to enter the Church of the Ascension as well as Mary's Tomb and the Grotto and Garden of Gethsemene. This is a photo of the front of the Church of the Ascension.

I don't know why, but this is my favorite photo of the whole trip. I think the tall columns just look really cool. And, I have some good pictures. But something about this one makes it my favorite.

And speaking of favorites, the food in Israel didn't disappoint. I went twice to a (tiny!) restaurant called P2. The pizza was made by hand after you ordered it with ingredients bought fresh daily (including fresh pizza sauce and dough) and stoked in a pizza oven. The crust was so paper thin - just barely strong enough to hold the toppings which included fresh mozzarella. Luckily, I stayed away from the falafel and convenience store snacks (think mixed nuts and candies) this time, so my waistline didn't expand as it did on the first trip. Phew!
There wasn't much time between that trip and Christmas. Christopher and I traveled to California to spend an early Christmas at my parents as well as attend a wedding of an old friend. The wedding was lovely and Christmas was great. The only negative aspect of the trip was Christopher got pretty sick. He was basically sick the whole trip, but he managed to enjoy himself anyway.

I had taken my vacation from work for the rest of the week after our return home. Of course, since I was finally home and able to rest, I got sick. I stayed pretty sick for 5 or 6 days, which included the time we spent with Christopher's family to celebrate Christmas. And I finally got well-enough just before the end of the year.

New Year's Eve was a lot of fun. We went to dinner, out to the symphony, to a bar to spend about an hour until midnight, and then finished the night hanging out with friends. That was much more active than our usual New Year's Eve activity of staying in and watching a movie.

Perhaps this post isn't as long as I expected it to be when I started. The end of the year definitely flew by, and this year doesn't seem to be slowing down any. And, if I haven't spoken to you in person recently - Happy New Year!

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Why do I have all this free time in the first place? Well, it may help to know that the first 9-hour movie marathon started as an attempt (success!) to stay awake for the full 9 hours of a 9-hour international flight. The second movie marathon, which I am about to describe, was an attempt (fail!) to stay awake for the even longer return flight. I don't think I can remember all the different programs I tried. I do know that I at one point watched an episode of Say Yes to the Dress - Atlanta. Sad.

While on my trip, I described the outbound flight to another person including the stipulation that I wanted to watch things that Christopher and I would not watch together. She recommended that I watch The Ugly Truth on the way back. "But isn't Gerard Butler a jerk?" I asked. And I may have used a less polite, insulting common noun. "I don't know about that, but his character is that way through the entire movie, so it works." She replied. So, this was my first film on the trip. I give it a yawn and a single smirk. Gerard Butler isn't recognizable from his 300 breakout. (Was it a breakout? It was the first time I'd heard of him anyway.) And, I felt oddly distracted by his manner of speech. Katherine Heigl (sp?) was ok. She was a little less goofy than I would have liked. I feel like she's trying to fill Meg Ryan's shoes. But Meg Ryan does a much better job at playing neurotic romantics. So anyway, I gave it a smirk, because there is a scene where Katherine's character gets stuck in a tree, and that was humorous. It's a rom-com, so I'll let you fill in the plot, and you'll likely be right.

I briefly tried to re-watch When Harry Met Sally. This was a movie I thoroughly enjoyed between the ages of 16-18. In this case, it insisted on including Chinese subtitles and a black border bar on the top and bottom of the screen. I had little patience, so I turned it off.

After that, I moved to.... let's see, what was it? Oh yes, Vicky Christina Barcelona. I liked the music in this one. Penelope Cruz was in it, as was Javier Bardem. They both did great work. I really like Penelope Cruz; she played a very believable manic ex-wife. The plot revolved around two friends (Americans) who spent a summer in Spain. This one was more a drama than rom-com. In fact, it was all drama, no comedy. Scarlett Johanson (sp? - I have no idea how to spell these actors' names, and I don't care enough to look it up, even though I'm clearly on my laptop as I type) played a flirty open-minded girl looking for love. This was the same character she played in He's Just Not that into You, which I watched in my previous movie marathon. These being the only two things I've seen her in, I have to wonder if that's all she can do. Anyway, this was a pretty good drama, and I stayed awake. You have to be ok with voice-over narration, and the plot is very (VERY) simple. But Penelope Cruz's performance really did it for me. So I'd have to say I can recommend this one.

I thought, "Ok, you just made it through a drama. A drama, Lexie. Good girl. Let's try another." I enjoy a good self pep talk, don't you? So I clicked Larry Crowne without restraint. It has Julia Roberts in it, and I love her. Christopher and I definitely would not watch it together as he doesn't like her. My apologies, Julia, I've tried to convince him. Sadly, I didn't make it far enough into the movie for Julia's character to make an appearance. Larry Crown (Tom Hanks) is a middle-aged man who loses his job and decides to go back to school. I think I got through 20 minutes before turning it off and sleeping. It moved so slowly! So, if you're trying to stay awake, I don't recommend it.

And that's it. It was a very poor attempt on my part to stay awake. After waking, I moved to TV episodes. I figured I'd set smaller goals. That way, I could just stay awake for 50 minutes at a time, rather than pay attention for an entire movie. As I mentioned, this portion of the trip included episodes of reality TV not limited to Say Yes to the Dress. To be honest, I'm actually a fan of TLC, I think that some of their reality shows are fun. But I was just not in the mood for it, so it was almost a chore to get through the show.

After my layover, I slept for the full 3-hours of my final leg. Thankfully, on both legs, I was in a row of three with no one in the middle seat. Score!

Jet-lag and general apathy towards housework led me to spend the day following my trip on the couch, scrolling through Netflix. I started with 28 Days and remembered how much I like Sandra Bullock's hair. I ended my movie marathon with Girl, Interrupted (I know, drama!). I didn't realize how old his movie was, but the information on it said it won an award in 1999. Winona Ryder plays the main character with general issues coping with life. I thought the movie was good overall, but I wanted more of the time leaps that displayed Suzana's illness. That, and it didn't quite keep me fully awake. Luckily, Christopher called at some point in the middle and that woke me up so that when we were done talking I could finish the movie.

And there you have it. Hopefully now you can add or avoid a movie or two in your own Netflix queue. I don't have any more international flights in the very near future, so I can thankfully know that my rom-com watching days are over, for now.

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Ever have 9 hours with nothing to do and no where to go? I found myself in this situation Saturday. To pass the time and stay entertained, I had my own personal movie marathon. I chose four rom-coms, and settled in with low expectations.

The first movie I watched was The Backup Plan with Jennifer Lopez. I almost couldn't make it through the opening credits, they were so boring. I generally don't give these types of movies very much lee-way before I decide not to waste my time. However, after the first 15 minutes or so, it actually got a little funny. I think I even laughed out loud once. And by laughing out loud, I of course mean audibly chuckled. Let's not exaggerate. I remember the turning point was when I discovered that Jennifer Lopez's occupation was pet shop owner. And her two-legged dog was present throughout the movie. That dog was so adorable.

The plot revolved around a single woman who had in-vitro and met the man of her dreams on the very same day. I'd describe the rest, but I'm sure you can figure it out. There were no special twists, it pretty much was exactly as you expect it to be.

Since that movie wasn't a total disappointment, I started up the next one. Friends with Benefits with Justin Timberlake. My movie choices were a bit limited. I wanted to watch something that I wouldn't want to see with Christopher. And the two of us rarely watch romantic comedies. We like more of the satire or slap-stick comedy. Of course I didn't want to see an action movie, because we definitely watch those together. I don't watch horror at all. And I generally can't stand dramas, unless they are suspense thrillers. That left romantic comedies. In retrospect, I should have looked at the "World Cinema" category, because there may have been a good French film to watch. But, I didn't think of that at the time.

Anyway, this movie centered around a couple of friends. The plot, again, was predictable with no twists to speak of. I suspended reality as best I could. But, occasionally, Justin's poor acting made me think... gosh, why did they cast him for this again? They made pot-shots at romantic comedies in the movie itself. I suppose they were trying to be clever. But, it just seemed to make the movie feel less and less original as the minutes ticked by. The only good scenes were with Justin's family. His sister was played by Jenna Elfman, and she did a great job.

Second movie down, two more in the line-up. The third one was He's Just Not That Into You. I expected this one to be the funniest. After all, it had a superstar cast, and was shot a bit like a series of short stories. Alas, the descent into Boringsville just continued at lightening speed. This movie was set around a handful of characters, all at various stages of relationships. Each person had to work out their own relationship delusions and find their own path to happiness. I will say that the actors each did a good job of playing their role. I never once thought, oh man, if only so-and-so wasn't cast. Or, why did they choose so-and-so? Unfortunately, that was not enough to help this movie. Not even close. I think this was a book first. I'm guessing the book is better. At least, I hope it is for its sake.

Saving the worst for last, I managed to then sit through Confessions of a Shopaholic. I'm really not even sure why I tried. I guess I was already at the bottom of the barrel, so I figured I'd try to see what else I could scrape up while I was down there. Not funny at all. Terrible acting. And the writing was even worse. The chemistry between the lead actress and the lead actor was non-existent. Please save yourself an hour and a half and just trust me. It's not worth putting in your Netflix queue at number 62.

Still under my 9-hour wait, I just napped for the last hour or so, because my movie choices had only gotten worse and worse. I was not to be trusted to choose another at that point.

In good movie news, last weekend Christopher and I went to see Immortals, which we both liked. Lots of special effects, battles, and gory drama. If you're into that kind of thing, I recommend it.

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My birthday happened over a month ago now. And, if you read this blog, you were probably there for part of the day. Unless you're a cyberstalker. In which case, you wouldn't have been invited. Maybe next year. It was an amazing day all around. I decided to do a birthday crawl and invited my friends and family to stuff that I felt like doing all day long.

It started out with manis and pedis. Then lunch at the Salad Stop. After that, we hit up Starbucks and drove to the aquarium. There were too many people to be able to efficiently move through the aquarium as a group, but we tried! Then, there was a break for a little while until dinner, coffee, and cake at the Global Peace Factory.

We'be been very social lately. Much more social than normal, and that's a good thing because we are seeing our friends more than quarterly. We still like our homebody time. And last night we decided to watch Jonah Hex, which had been in our Netflix queue. We popped some popcorn and turned out the lights, movie-theater style.

The movie was much better than I anticipated. I knew absolutely nothing about the comic or the story, in general. But the action sequences were good, and the main characters were believable in their roles. I really liked the make-up on Jonah Hex, because he had a whole in his mouth where you could see his teeth, and I think whoever the makeup artists were did a really good job.

I also liked Megan Fox as the independent hooker. I don't know her from anything else as I have not seen Transformers. And, her character was one-dimensional. Nevertheless, she complimented the guy who played Jonah Hex well.

This past weekend, we both had an appt with the optometrist. I decided a while back that I wanted to switch back to contacts. I haven't worn contacts as my primary form of vision correction in many years. I've had back-up contacts that are an old prescription since 2004 (Yes, I know. You don't have to tell me about the dangers of keeping contacts around past their life span.). And, I wore them when going to places where I wanted to see, but couldn't wear glasses (like the pool). But I'm ready to switch back and wear contacts daily only using my glasses at the end of the day when my eyes are tired. Plus, my prescription didn't change at all since last year, so my glasses don't need any replacing. Anyway, the next time you see me, you'll see my whole face instead of my face with glasses. Get excited.

And speaking of birthdays, I had no idea how many people I know have fall birthdays! You'd think that it wouldn't be surprising since it was the same last year. But, it definitely feels like the majority of the people I know are having birthday-related celebrations. Hopefully they are enjoying their birthdays as much as I did mine!

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Sorry for the wait, we've been so busy with work during the week and with our social life on the weekend (surprising, I know!) that I left you hanging with more info on the Jerusalem trip. I'll try to make the rest brief and only hit some of the best highlights. Overall, the trip was well worth it, and we're both very glad to have had the opportunity for this passport stamp. The people, food, and sights are one-of-a-kind. I think I left off the last blog having just spent our first night/day in Jerusalem. From there, we did a lot of walking around the Old City, and we even went to the Dead Sea!

The Old City is amazing. The architectural influence of all the people who conquered, immigrated, worshiped etc is clear. One can't miss religious site for Christians is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This one building includes the altar where Jesus' body was prepared for burial, the site of the crucifixion, and the site of the tomb. I'm no archaeological historian, so I'm not going to argue the possibilities that these three things are not what they are said to be. I just accepted it. And, they are certainly treated with the respect and sanctity that one might imagine. Here is a view from over the heads of the people there to lay their hands and objects on the altar.

And moving through the church, you can see how closely these events all took place. According to the layout of the church, the hill on Calvary is about from the garage to the front door of a big house. Here, you can see the temple structure that now encompasses the location of the tomb. They have dug out the earth and when you go inside, you are able to touch the stone that would have lined the interior. It's located in one particular rotunda of the church, and tourists and pilgrims line up to go inside.


And this is only one holy site in the Old City of which there are many. Pretty much the entire square kilometer is a holy place. What's interesting, in addition, is people live and work there as well. So they could spend the majority of their life living in one square kilometer if they so chose.

As I mentioned, we also went to the Dead Sea! It was awesome! I wasn't 100% that day, so unfortunately, I didn't get to enjoy floating around in the salty water as long as our companions did. But when I wasn't floating around on the water, I was hanging out on the beach people watching.


The weather was surprising cool and overcast for that area and that time of year. So, although I drank a couple liters of water while we were there anyway, I probably didn't need to.

And the last highlight I'll impose upon you is the food! (well, and the markets) I don't think that every street vendor was awesome and served the cleanest freshest food. BUT, when you have capable locals telling you where to eat, you really can't go wrong. We loved so much about what we ate while we were there, not the least of which were the falafels, aerated dark chocolate, lattes, halva and whiskey ice cream! The market was filled with baked goods, spices, vegetables, etc. I'll leave you with a couple pretty good pics from the market (shouk).

This is paprika!


Here are some baked goods (no - they don't use butter at all...).


Dried fruit!

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No need to wait any longer friends and cyberstalkers. It's time to hear about the wonders of the Holy Land. We went overseas earlier this year, partially for work, partially for vacation.


Let's start with our flight over. It was a long one. We flew Air Cananda through Toronto. In the airport before our first flight, we met a random guy outside the ticketing area. He, like us, was waiting for the ticket counter to open. Apparently, there is such a thing as too early for your flight. We started up a conversation, and then went through security and ate Dunkin Donuts (or Einstein's, I forget) together. We swapped business cards, and generally had a pleasant wait until boarding. His stop was in Toronto, so he didn't get to experience the most exciting part of the flight.

From Toronto to Tel Aviv, we watched movies. The whole time. No sleeping for us. I do not remember everything we watched, but I do remember enjoying it. I was in the middle of the middle. But with Christopher on the aisle, it was easy enough to get up and walk around, etc. We would have liked to have had an uneventful flight, but over France we were told that we'd have to make an emergency stop at Heathrow. So, we were almost to Lyon when we had to turn around. This added about 5 hours to the already long flight. Luckily, it wasn't anything life threatening. The toilets on the plane stopped working - all of them. There is some rule about the length of flights and toilet breakage/use. So, we had no choice. I got the impression that the issue was the waste tanks were full. Pretty gross. So, we stopped and then got traveling once again. Given that and the overly chatty families to our right and front - the last part of the flight was the most exhausting.

After arriving, we were taken by taxi to our furnished rental apartment for our stay. the apartment was awesome. There was anything that we could need to settle in, including a stocked kitchen (pasta, some milk, instant coffee) and internet. Not to mention, the first level had a pool and workout area, which we used a couple times. The view out the living room window was very nice. A building next door, part of the garden area downstairs, and then out towards one of the city's parks.


The night we arrived was Independence Day Eve. There was a party in the streets, so we went out to see what was going on. It was a lively evening, generally a lot of merry making and drinking. The photo at the top of the post comes from that first night.

The next day was equally nice as the entire city was off from work and throwing barbeques. We went to a friends house for a party they were having and had some really great food. We also met very nice people. Sorry, no food pictures, but we did walk there rather than take a taxi or other method, so we were able to get some nice shots of the city between our apartments.

Here, you can see one of the city parks where families and friends had gathered to throw down their grills and picnic blankets.

Here is one of the highways as we were walking on the bridge over it.

It was kinda warm/hot that day, but I don't remember being overly sweaty or anything. And the walk took us about 45 minutes. So, I suppose the weather must have been a nice temperature. It was a really great first full day in the country.

As this has already become rather long, I think I'll break it up, and you'll have to wait a bit longer for some more info on the Dead Sea and the Old City.

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