Feliz Cumpleanos a Mi

Jess' bachelorette party is in Miami this weekend, but she was happy to celebrate my birthday on Friday as well. The guys were here last weekend, but I think we have dropped more in one day than they did all weekend. That's not difficult since 18% gratuity is automatically included on everything. Regardless, yeay for poolside booze, bikinis, and Cuban food!

We have visited Mangos twice. Not much has changed since last February. The service is indifferent at best, but the view is nice. I still don't really get the sheer leopard-print catsuit with moon boots, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

It is monsooning now; I hope I don't get delayed.

America Runs on Dunkin' ... in Aruba

I really need a vacation, especially after someone from work called me while I was in the cab on the way to our hotel.

Aruba is a perfect balance of relaxing and convenience. We are within walking distance of a lot of great non-chain restaurants, but it's not too crowded. A family friend gave us some recommendations ahead of time, and so far they've been great. The hotel's restaurants are all right and a little overpriced, but luckily all the hotels are connected, one of them with a beachside Dunkin' Donuts!!!!

One thing to note, it is impossible to read the NYTimes on the beach because the tradewinds are too strong. Bring cheesy mass-market paperbacks instead. Also, avoid DePalma Island, unless you enjoy water parks and shallow-water snorkelling with fish that don't respect personal space.

In Vino Felicitas

J's frosh-year floormate got married on the left coast last night, so we all flew out to SFO to celebrate with her. They liked Mike and Lisa's wedding at Raphael so much, that they had theirs at a winery as well. We definitely did not complain!!! Flying home today is going to be rough. I really wanted to take the day and take J on a special wine tasting and picnic, but we couldn't risk taking a red-eye and arriving late.

Mental note: do not allow Mike to plan a wine tour again unless tolerance is at a peak.

Bring on the Hog

Yeay for barbecue! J and I went to the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party. It was friggin crowded, but the lines we waited on is worth it. We had Big Bob Gibson's pulled pork sandwich, sausage and brisket from Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Texas, and beef ribs from the soon-to-be-opening Hill Country BBQ in New York. Hooray for more fab joints coming to town!

Thank God J doesn't keep kosher :)

Alleluia The Strife Is O'er

J took his test today. They shut the AC off in the Armory halfway through. I'm thrilled it's over! To celebrate I made all the things he liked, although he would have preferred some hours of shuteye.

Onto Level 2...and two back-to-back weddings this month.

T Minus One Week!

J takes CFA Level 1 in less than a week - hooray!!!

Went to my friend's wedding stag. It was a lot of fun. When the Romanian pop/quasi-techno came on, everyone would grab hands and dance in a circle. Lots of aerobic activity!

CONGRATS ANDREEA AND JON!

There's No Place Like Home

Exhausted. Working late. At least there is good food here in Vancouver, especially Asian.

Can I go home yet?

Thank God for Small Miracles

After a hellacious day, before an 11pm flight to Vancouver, I managed to swing an invitation to the BA lounge. It's just lovely. Even though I didn't get upgraded to biz class, I have a seat open next to me.

[It's been a while. Will be retroactively updating the blog while away. My company does not allow me to post during work hours, nor am I supposed to talk about work. Not that I really have, but I may tweak old posts here and there...]

There's the Beef

Today is J's birthday. To celebrate, we and his family ate at Ben and Jack's. Why can't all steak taste this good?

Four weeks to go until the CFA (a/k/a that effing test)!!!

Took mom and auntie to Ouest for their birthday dinner. My hanger steak was scrumptious. However, the whole point was to have their Ouest Sour, which is no longer on the cocktail menu :(. They did give me the recipe:

gin
yuzu juice
simple syrup

Will have to try it, if I can find a good source of yuzu juice...

Can You Keep a Secret?

I loved wine touring in the Shenandoah Valley. It was so relaxed, and talking to the owners and vintners was really interesting. Plus they actually provide decent pours. Before we left Sacramento, we bought some gourmet goodies for a hillside picnic at Amador with a bottle of their Rosato. We had so much, by the time we hit Noceto, my palate was so burnt.

I hope the masses don't find these places. My fear is that they will become as snotty and overrun as Napa and Sonoma...

Time to go home. No upgrade :(

California Dreamin'

Headed out to Frisco for a conference, hope to catch up with some friends as well.

Mental note: If you have liquids and need to check your bag, arrive at least 45-50 minutes before your flight. I learned that the hard way, especially since Airtrain stopped and did not move for 10 minutes. Had to take the flight after it and miss a (mediocre) free dinner. ARGH!

I'm Against It

I'm still in the middle of reading Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon. SHould have listened to J when he wished me luck (he gave up after a few pages of Gravity's Rainbow)This tome is over 1000 pages long, and it could kill someone if I threw it at their head. It's a real pain in the neck to read while standing on the subway, not to mention the space it takes up in my attache.

Michiko Kakutani really hit the nail on the head with her review, that it "reads like the sort of imitation of a Thomas Pynchon novel that a dogged but ungainly fan of this author’s might have written on quaaludes. It is a humongous, bloated jigsaw puzzle of a story, pretentious without being provocative, elliptical without being illuminating, complicated without being rewardingly complex." However, it still puzzles me how this book made the Top 100 Notable Books of 2006.


As much as I hate putting down books in the middle, I'm very tempted. This book is too convoluted, has too many characters, and just seems too outrageous and fictional to be even remotely possible. Its historical-science fiction bent reminds me of Neal Stephenson, without the adherence to a central theme and the quality of writing that I'm used to with Stephenson.

Will I make it to the end???

The Fun Continues

Today my company closed on the deal to acquire Giuliani Capital Advisors. This is public knowledge so I'm allowed to post it. The next 60 days are going to be delightful, as that's how long we have to integrate them into our business.

I'm still full from Easter dinner at my cousin's house...

Nazdrovye!

For lunch I decided to treat myself to the Russian Tea Room. Having never been, I figured I should get there before it closes again. The chicken Kiev was very decadent, the foie gras in the center making it especially decadent. Service was impeccable. No snootiness, thank God. The only smudge on an otherwise pleasant treat was the French family with three small children who came in toward the tail end of my dessert and tea service. Would definitely go back, especially if someone else is paying :)

Pre-Seder Sighting

Saw Ed Koch chowing down at Tang Pavilion today. Guess he was getting the carbs in before the chometz has to go away for a week! Tonight we go to Jason's parents' house for dinner. I managed to find kosher prosecco from northern Italy.

Chag Sameach Pesach to all my Jewish friends.

Well-read

Found this meme on the blog of a friend from college/former work colleague. It's questionable to me how some of these books made the top 100 of all time, but I guess it's all relative (sales? hype? newspaper article? amount of watercooler/blog chatter it generates?) Bold means I've read it; italics means that I have it on my bookshelf. Here goes...

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She's Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender's Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones' Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. Tigana (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard's First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Tag, J or M, you're it!

Update: Dump Delta

After a month, I finally received a response from Delta customer service on their horrendous performance during my New Orleans trip. My nastygram to their customer service website got me 5000 SkyMiles. The angry fax to their VP of Customer Service at HQ got me 100 bucks off a future flight (although I can't book it on Delta.com - meaning more fees).

Lesson learned, boys and girls? If you get treated like crap, bitch right back.

Nazdravy na Praha

My sorority sister K and I have headed to Prague for a few days. I like it very much because :

• It's very walkable
  
• It's much cheaper than the Euro zone countries
  
• Food is very edible and beer is very quaffable
  
• There is a lot of culture
  
• My good friend Y from college is our personal tour guide (although I happened to catch him while he struggles with his separation and decision to divorce)
  

The flight over here on Czech Airlines was a little scary. They have Airbus 310s crossing the Atlantic. They especially look like dwarves at JFK Terminal 4 next to the South African and Emirates behemoths. There is zero leg room in coach, and the @$$hole in front of K insisted on leaning all the way back so that his head was in her crotch. The service and the food are passable.

Our hotel (The Holiday Inn Express) is right near the main train station, within striking distance of most major attractions, and has free breakfast. The radiant heating on the bathroom floor is a little weird, and of course the double room has twin beds, but it's uberclean and is perfect for sleeping.

I've noticed that there are tons of Italians here. If you knocked me out and dropped me on the Charles Bridge, I would think I were in Rome with all of the teenagers five-deep smoking, making out, and talking about life.

Shameless Plug

I have a new writing gig. Check it out!