I know I have a bunch of stuff to update - adding photos from pretty much the entire month of May and first half of June - and I want to blog about my old roommate Chris Greene's wedding in Knoxville, TN (home of "Rocky Top") and my trip to Natick, MA to visit my dad/step-mom, but I just found out the coolest thing - my brother Justin (he & his wife Leslie live in NYC - they're both do-gooders, he's a social worker, she works in recruiting but is trained as a CSI-forensics person), is being interviewed on Friday for a spot on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.  I'm so excited for him.  He & his wife have caught the exercise bug and now they're addicts and he's lost like 70 lbs in 3 months - all on his own with diet and exercise.

So proud.

I upgraded to the new Messenger last night and wasn't too sure how I felt about it.  No longer being a 'Softie, I feel much more empowered to be critical of the products.  In truth, I think I'm even more protective of the Microsoft brand then I was before...granted, Drew does still work there, so my health insurance needs to stay secure, but I'm still no longer a true insider.

Anyway, I went home last night not really sure what I thought of the new Messenger - the layout is a little confusing and there's way too much crammed into a small space, considering most people that I know keep their messenger wiindows fairly small, but I like the features - including a quick link to "my space" as part of my messenger login and the contacts piece, really clever thinking.  I wonder if it's too complex for many of the non-technical population - there are so many new features that I wonder how many people will truly take advantage of them.  I think that's the 90/10 philosophy about which I've heard.  90% of the people only use 10% of the features or something to that effect.  Or is it that 90% of features developed are only developed for 10% of the people :-).Anyway, hats off man for trying.  I still love Messenger much more than AIM, which I only use because everyone I work with now uses it.

Spent the weekend with my Uncle Pat and his new girlfriend Jennifer.  We did a ton of touristy stuff - ate at Betelnut in the city (my favorite), toured Alcatraz, did the Waterfront stuff, Half Moon Bay, went to Napa, saw Stanford, etc.  It was fun having some company but tiring.  By Monday, I was looking forward to my weekend!!

The most exciting event of the weekend was when I decided to try and show off my exceptional cooking skills.  Actually, I wasn't attempting to show off anything.  I worked from home on Friday to get through a lot of administrative stuff I needed to get done and while making my lunch set the microwave on fire.  Yet again proving to myself that cooking is really beyond me.  Seems the "potato" feature on the microwave is having some issues.  Normally, I put the poked potato wrapped in a paper towel in the microwave and hit "potato" and it comes out great.  On Friday, I did the same routine, went back into the living room to do some work, and when I returned 20 minutes later, the kitchen was filled with black smoke & the microwave had flames in it.  The potato was burnt to a crisp and yet the microwave still seemed to think it had another 7 minutes to go :-). 

Drew & I head to Charlotte tomorrow for our buddy Chris' wedding in Tennessee this weekend.  Woo-hoo!!

Yeah, add me to the list.  What the heck is the point of having a blog if you don't actually update it?  Ack. 

The problem for me is I have this really sweet digital camera and I started carrying it everywhere - and I actually use it!  However, I don't want to load the photos to my laptop from work so I have to wait until I'm at home to load the photos on our home PC, and although it only takes a minute to do it, it just never happens.  Oh well.  So hopefully, in the next week you'll see some photos from my recent treks around the US and visits with my friend.

So, let's see, since the last post I've travelled to Urbana-Champaign, IL (nice people but a small city); a nice long jaunt to Charlotte for my best buddy Kate's baby shower and Mother's Day with the in-laws; Ithaca, New York - zig zag weather - 80 degrees one day and 50 degrees the next; Chicago, IL (oh my gosh - everyone should be required to see Body Worlds at the Chicago Museum of Science); Milwaukee, WI (my first trip to Wisconsin - a whole new state!) where I bought over 5 lbs of cheese (various flavors); and Seattle (for my good friends' John & Cindy Hegland's 25th wedding anniversary).  In between all of that I managed to see the play Hairspray and celebrate Drew's birthday! 

Now I'm home for about a week and a half.  I'm looking forward to actually cleaning my condo and hosting some company - my uncle Pat and his new girlfriend are coming to visit.  Pat is only 5 years older than me, so he's more like an older brother, but when we were little he used to put make-up on his face like Gene Simmons from Kiss and run around the house and scare me.  I'm still recovering.

Oh and the biggest news is my hair is dyed back to normal.  I'm now officially boring again.  I must be so mousy that United Airlines, partner of my dear beloved USAirways (where I am queen bee of the frequent flier program) decided to put me in a middle seat two rows from the back for a 5 hour flight.  And, to top it off, my friend Rachel who was with me who has no status on any airline got an aisle seat.  I hate United.  I can't wait for them to go under.  I also can't wait until I actually really look pregnant instead of just plump.

For those of you who care, I have a due date - October 22nd. 

The whole having a baby thing is pretty bizarre - since I'm not really showing yet, how do you tell people?  Or do you not say anything and can I leverage this a bit?  Like the whole middle-seat thing?  I think I have the right to - and darned right will I use that whole "expectant mother" parking spot at the grocery store when I'm wobbling, but right now, it doesn't really seem moral or ideal.

The other thing on my mind right now is my job.  It's been a year since I left the SOFT and I actually have learned a whole lot in my new job.  It has been an experience I really needed to have but there are a lot of things I'm rethinking these days.  One of them is that my manager has really committed to making me a director by the end of the next fiscal year (in February/March) but now I'm not sure if she will really do it - and if she won't then do I really want to stay here?  I need to do something more impactful - not that finding great college students jobs isn't impactful, but you know, I want to feel like I'm growing and right now I feel like I'm in groundhog's day.  Any thoughts out there?

Okay, couple of more things -

Since my last post, I got to spend a great weekend with all of my good buddies in Seattle.  I really miss my MSFT friends like crazy.  I mean, there are certain parts of my current job that are just what I needed from a career perspective, and I work with some really fun cool people, but some of my best friends in the world still work on my old team.  And I miss them.  And it's really hard not being a part of that family anymore.  I got to spend some great quality time with Jenn, Stacey, and Lindsay.  In addition, we hung out with Chris Dickens (who runs the "I Don't Watch Movies" blog - and has managed to lose so much weight that we don't even recognize him - hello, single ladies, he's hot, he's funny, & he's smart ...duh).  I'll attach a few photos.

In addition, I have to mention the really fun movies I've seen lately.  On the flights to/from HK, we saw National Treasure a few times.  I thought it would be lame, but it was totally fun.  We also saw some movie with Selma Hayak and Pierce Brosnan that was fun.  And, the biggest surprise was we both really enjoyed Spanglish.  Nice touching film.  Surprised it didn't do better.  Okay, now yesterday I finally saw "Fever Pitch" in the movie theater.  HELLO RED SOX FANS - this was the best!  I think everyone in the theater hated me because I kept calling out the players and the plays from last season :-).  Great flick if you at all like baseball and chick flicks.

I also read a few fabulous books on vacation - the first was a fun one - "Hypocrite in a White Poufy Dress" - hysterical.  Then, on the flip side, I read "Their Eyes Were Watching God".  Now, I missed the Halle Berry tv movie, but what a phenomenal book.  It also happens to take place all in the areas of Orlando where I grew up and I'm so angry with my old school system in Titusville (good ole Astronaut High) that never taught this book in school (or any real African-American literature).  I can't believe I've gone this long in life without any Zora Neale Hurston.  That is certainly changing.  I read some others, too.  "The Rule of Four" was very DaVinci Code like (quite a bit lighter) and takes place at Princeton which made it really fun.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming ... Alias still rules.

Oh, so it's been almost two whole months since I've last written.  Hmm... Not sure what to say other than I've been a bit distracted with other areas of my life.  See, since my last post, I found out that Drew & I are going to experience some monumental changes in our lives, in about 6 more months. 

Yeah, so since the last post, I found out that we're expecting.  Not that I expect this blog to turn into a pregnancy/baby site (come to find out there are thousands I've those) and since a good portion of my friends/readers of this are male, I figured most of you guys would rather remain in ignorant bliss.  However, we're super excited and from time to time I may have to slide in some comments.  The hardest part to date was keeping the darned thing a secret!!

Anyway, for ten days in early April, Drew and I went on our big vacation to Hong Kong & Phuket, Thailand.  I had cashed in a ton of miles to fly us business class from San Fran to HK and then to Phuket and then back to HK, and then home (of course, these miles are on the shaky USAirways, so it made a lot of sense to do it).  We really wanted to make the trip on the fabulous Singapore Airlines but had to settle on Asiana Airlines, which was nicer than our honeymoon trek on Northwest business class, but nowhere near as nice as Singapore.

We headed to Hong Kong first, via Seoul, where we were met at the airport by Drew's brother David's fiancee, Crystal (lovingly referred to normally as the HK Girl).  She & David are planning to marry at Thanksgiving in Hong Kong.  I felt so bad not being able to tell her throughout the trip that I won't be back in November for the wedding, but hopefully Drew will still be able to make the trip.

Hong Kong ROCKS.  I would move there in a heartbeat.  As I've been describing to people, it's a great mix of cultural old-world customs & new urban planning and high-tech planning.  English is everywhere, the subway is clean and super easy to use (it makes the Metro in DC or the NYC subway seem way complicated) - plus, they have this cool subway card that works kind of like a smart card - you can have it in your purse and just wave it over the card reader versus having to stick it in the reader to get on/off the subway.  This "Octopus" card can also be used in 7-11s, most tourist attractions, and some stores - in addition to all of the public transportation modes - buses/ferries/subways.  You can add money as necessary - and because you leave a deposit on it, you can even go into debt on it as long as you add money before you try to use it again.  It was super clever. 

We took the subway to the heart of Kowloon and then took a cab to our hotel, the Sheraton.  Drew & I used points for the hotel, and because we stay at Starwood properties all the time, we were upgraded to a great room overlooking the entire HK harbor (just amazing view) and got free breakfast plus access to the special lounge with free drinks (not that I was drinking anything stronger than a coke) and snacks.  Plus, they had a fruit basket in the room with fruit and cookies when we arrived.  Nicely done.

From there, we all went for some dim sum, and then started our shopping trek.  Hong Kong is a shopper's mecca.  For those of you that know me, you can now begin to understand why I fell in love with the city.  The malls and stores are all open until at least 10 pm every night - and people shop everywhere.  We walked through many a mall and then headed to the Woman's Market - a crazy flea market like environment - packed with people - tourists and locals - and shopping every kind of fake item you could possibly want.  We sat down at a little drink stand where Crystal & I had mango cream drinks and Drew had a coke (of course).  From there, we headed back to the Kowloon waterfront, where we walked by the art museum and saw the nightly laser show right on the water. 

The next day, Crystal met up with us again and brought a friend of hers.  We all headed to Stanley Market to tour around - and to get there we took the bus all around the city - we sat on top (kind of like a British double-decker, but closed in) and I was about car sick as we winded around the mountain tops at some crazy speeds.  From here, we had some amazing views of the waterfront and some amazing homes.  Stanley Market was very touristy, but we managed to go have afternoon tea at this fun little tapas restaurant on the water where they had a great little band going around playing favrorite sing alongs.  Totally fun.  From there, we headed to HK Park and then took the cable car up to the top of the Peak. Then we rode the Star Ferry back to Kowloon.  The views were incredible.  It was the perfect evening. 

The next day, Drew & I headed to Kowloon Park and wandered the city.  We also headed to see the world's largest sitting Buddha.  i was super psyched.  First, we took a very sketchy bus ride on one lane roads quite a long way and then when we arrived, we bought tickets for the "vegetarian lunch" which allowed us to tour inside the Buddha.  We had to climb a ton of stairs to get to the top - but it was well worth the views.  We toured inside the Buddha, bought a few souvenirs, and then toured the monastery grounds.  We didn't burn any incense but did leave some fruit as a gift to the gods.  The bathrooms were similar to Europe - a nice hole in the ground where you squat.  :-).  I was happy that I found some toilet paper that some nice American probably left behind.  We skipped the vegetarian lunch and headed back toward the train on the bus.  Beautiful land, mountains, and beaches, but scary driving conditions.  When we returned, we went into the Peninsula Hotel to see what the fuss was about and did some more shopping.  All in all, we didn't really buy much, but I did buy a new MP3 player that is about an inch and a half long and half an inch wide.  It fits into the inside pocket of my running shorts :-).

The next day we headed to the airport - this time by taxi which was considered expensive (around $40).  We then flew to Phuket via Bangkok.  Phuket is one of the islands hit very hard by the tsunami.  You could see a lot of the devastation in the air in terms of beach erosion.  We landed and a representative from our resort met us.  We were staying at the Amanpuri Resort, a very very very swanky place, and had it not been heavily discounted trying to lure in tourists, normally out of our price range.  We had a beautiful pavilion and the oceanfront was amazing.  I was really all about plopping my butt in a chair and reading a good book - and of course, swimming like a mad woman in the ocean.  Most of the time in Phuket, that's what we did.  Had some amazing meals.

One day during the week, we did head over to Phuket Town, and spent the day looking in the markets and stores "in the city" - some of the old town buildings - but it reminded us a lot of Kuta Beach in Bali - dirty, smelly, and touristy. 

On our last day, we decided to pay the big bucks for a boat tour to head around various islands and most especially to James Bond Island.  This was the best day of the trip.  There were five of us on this huge cruiser - and we sat on the boat and saw some beautiful uninhabited islands, took a little motorboat inside some caves of a deserted island, and of course, saw James Bond island (famous from the movie, "The Man With the Golden Gun").  We also had some time to swim off the side of the boat and they had this huge luncheon spread for us.  It was amazing - an experience we truly could not replicate anywhere.  We also met some other Americans (the first we met in Thailand) who were from NYC (darned Yankee fans are everywhere) but since they had lived in Seattle for a while, we bonded over that.

We headed back to Hong Kong, and spent one last night having dinner with Crystal, and doing a bit more shopping.  Then we flew back to the states.  Of course, I got sick for the first time - as we were landing at SFO.  Why, oh, why, do these huge planes no longer stock vomit bags in the front seat pocket?  As if, you know in advance you might get sick, so are smart enough to grab some of the bags from the bathroom in time?  I also managed to get sick in the cab on the way home, but was prepared by then.  Crazy.

Anyway, here are a ton of photos of our vacation.  Enjoy :-).

I think that line was from the movie "Sideways" which I finally got to see last Friday (slipping it in before the Oscars) on the flight home from Atlanta to San Francisco.

Okay, so I should finish updating my last few weeks.  After the embarrassing singing at the Border Cafe the night before my birthday, the next day I flew to Orlando.  I was very impressed that the check-in agent at Song Airlines noticed it was my birthday (Song was quite disappointing btw ...).  After landing, I headed over to Titusville and my mom was nice enough to give me a free massage (she is a massage therapist after all).  Then we headed to an Asian restaurant which served sushi and Thai food.  Hmm...Asian food in Titusville.  Might need to rethink that.

On Friday, I headed over to visit a school and then over to our Orlando office.  After spending endless hours in traffic (hmm...note to self, do not travel in Florida when it's the Daytona 500, winter break, and a long weekend), I headed over to Pleasure Island and hung out with my buddies Jackie & Dave for another evening of birthday celebrations.  Since the wait for dinner was almost two hours, Dave & I ate a little snack at McDonald's first and then enjoyed a great seafood dinner.  From there, we went dancing at this fun little 70s/80s place.  Not only did I learn that there are still many bad dancers, bad dressers, and bad mannered people, but that Jackie is in love with Rick Springfield (see photo to be posted later). 

Silly me, I had an early flight the next morning so in my hungover state I headed to North Carolina.  While in Charlotte I got a little haircut from my favorite stylist Lisa (isn't it crazy that I have to fly all the way to Charlotte from CA to get a good haircut?) and then hung out with Kate.  She hosted a little birthday shindig with some of my Charlotte friends and I got to see how big their babies have gotten just in the last couple of months.  It's mind-boggling how quickly kids grow.

Sunday we went to the best brunch in the world (MERT'S HEART AND SOUL) and then watched the movie, "Saved" which was awesome.  I truly recommend it if you are the type that gets a laugh from all the phony Christian folks out there.  Then I had to leave (sob, sob) and head to Atlanta - which wasn't sooo tragic since my good friend Brian (better known to most of my family and friends as "Little Brian").  Brian used to work at Microsoft but now is a fancy schmancy exec guy at a start-up called 352media and they do super cool stuff.

Monday & Tuesday were spent in "hotlanta" with my buddy Kriste, who unfortunately lost her wallet at the Westin and I felt so bad for her.  What a nightmare - all your credit cards, ID, money, etc - and she had to fly the next day.  I did learn though, that to get on the plane, all you need is a copy of the police report and it's up to the airlines to decide to let you fly - not the TSA.  Interesting.

Tuesday night I headed to Pittsburgh and met up with some cool work people there.  They cracked me up.  This one guy Steve is a muckety-muck who is probably one of the best ones we have.  He's a straight-shooter (which you know works for me) and wicked smart.  He cracks one liners left and right, which is key to my enjoying time spent.  I wish all the people I worked with were like this but oh well.  He does wear white socks with black shoes and black pants, but we're working on a coaching situation with that.

Wednesday night I headed back to Atlanta where I stayed until Friday night and headed home.  We got in around 11 pm and of course, my in-laws showed up about 12 hours later.  Woo-hoo - the in-laws are coming, the in-laws are coming! 

Sunday night, at my friend MattyH's cool pad, we had a little Oscar shindig.  I am such a wussy girl some time.  Yes, I cried during the Oscars.  I am soo gullible.  Oh well.  I love this stuff.   One of the reasons I like my current job so much is that I'm required to read People magazine and Entertainment Weekly to stay "up" with popular culture.  Darned work is so hard sometimes.  You're all jealous now, aren't you??

This week has been spent catching up with people at work and keeping myself from being fired.  I really do have the best intentions in life, but boy can some people be dumb and I just can't seem to hold back.  I'm working on it.  Really.

Anyway, I'm now trying to get caught up on a month's worth of television - I watched five episodes of Everwood already ;-).  Good thing repeats start up in March - give all of us Tivo/Media Center folks some space.

More photos soon...I promise!

So, it's been almost a month since I last wrote and now it's super hard to write because I'm in the Christmas card scenario - you get so far behind, you know that you will never make the deadline and then it's the big decision as to whether or not to still continue.

Big sigh.  Anyway, I just finished this book called "Prep" - it's fiction by a first-time writer who writes for the NYT & Fast Company.  She's very talented.  Ever since I was a kid, I've been a pretty voracious reader, and when I get on a roll, well, I can't seem to stop.  This is the 3rd book I've finished in three weeks.  So I might not be sleeping or keeping in touch with my friends, but I read.   Anyway, Prep was a lot of fun - it's all about a girl from the midwest going to some hoity-toity northeastern boarding school and it's pretty much told from all of her observations of what's going on around her.  It had two quotes that struck me as very telling.  The Kafka one above and then one about marriage "cutting sorrow in half and doubling joy".  I really liked that reflection.

Well, since my trek to Boston with poor Dave, I've been to Ann Arbor, MI, witnessed my NE Patriots win another super bowl (woo-hoo), traveled to LA for much sunnier happy weather than my last visit, and spent a few nights at home with my poor deserted husband ;-).

I spent Valentine's Day with a work colleague who is now a friend, Rachel, in Boston.  We had dinner at the bar at Legal Seafoods chatting it up with some thirty year-old bartender.  We were definitely a sexy couple, I tell you. 

I dragged Rachel to Filene's Basement as well - no trip complete without it and she learned the magic.  We each bought a few things - more stuff to carry around on a two week trip.  On Wednesday night I had dinner with my dad & Alesa at The Border Cafe, home to the best margaritas.  They had warned the waitstaff of my birthday and of course, they sang and my face turned as red as my hair.

On Thursday, I flew Song to Orlando.  It was my first time on that airline, Delta's little spin-off.  Now, I was kind of psyched about this because it's supposed to be like Jet Blue with Direct TV at every seat and flight attendants who wear Kate Spade designed uniforms.  What I found was something only slightly nicer than Southwest, very small seats and space underneath them for your crap, and Direct TV that looked real cool except none of the movies or music worked, and we could only get four stations.  Huge disappointment.

Thursday night I had sushi in Titusville with my parents.  Now, most of you would know nothing to be wrong with that statement having never visited Tight-ass-ville.  However, sushi in a small southern town, despite it's proximity to the ocean, is a strange concept.  It wasn't bad but it wasn't great.  Oh well, next time I order the noodles.

Friday I visited Florida Tech with some of the Orlando people with whom I work and visited the studio again.  Then my buddy Dave and our friend Jackie who we work with took me out for my birthday - we went to Pleasure Island in Orlando.  I'd never been to the clubs before in all my time in FL so it was an interesting cultural experience.  We were going to have to wait almost two hours for dinner (between 9 pm and 11 pm) so we had some appetizers at McDonalds before heading to the bar and then eating.  Then we went dancing at a cheezy 70/80s place and laughed our butts off.  Jackie, evidently, is a huge fan of Rick Springfield.  Oh the things you learn.  Pictures to be posted soon!

Next post:  more birthday celebrations ... and five flights in six days :-).

Last Thursday, after a visit to the University of Florida, I headed to Boston to observe MIT’s annual 6.370 Programming Competition.  I needed a “real” game developer to come with me (since as a recruiter, I have zero credibility, right?) and I asked my buddy from Orlando, Dave, to head with me.  He’s like the perfect guy for this stuff – he’s personable, knowledgable, looks like he’s still in his early 20s (when he’s really not), and has been doing this stuff forever.  He also really enjoys giving talks and mingling (which is often hard to find in programmers) so he’s a natural. 

Well, when I invited Dave, I didn’t realize he had never been to Boston (yes, I live in a sheltered world where I assume EVERYONE must have visited Boston at least once).  Thankfully, he likes to travel and so signed up despite the 30 inches of snow on the ground J. 

On Friday, we had a long afternoon of schmoozing and scouting talent at two different events (some day soon you'll see inserted photos of Boston/Charles River).  After all of the socializing, I asked Dave what he wanted to do – he looked a little tired, but not exhausted, so I thought he could handle a little shopping.  We got on the “T” and headed to my favorite Boston shopping haunt – Filene’s Basement.  Now, FB is a huge undertaking.  It’s really daunting and should only be shopped by those who a) shop a lot; b) like a huge bargain (and shop a lot so they know they’re getting a good bargain); and c) don’t mind digging through bins/racks and generally mass chaos & disorganization.  I tried to warn Dave and he seemed up for it, but as soon as we got there his eyes glazed over and I started to get worried I would lose him for the night.  Turns out, he survived, but I only did a quick 30 minute breeze through and we left without purchasing anything.  From there, the cold Boston air (and I mean, cold, cold, cold) woke us up and we walked over toward Fanueil Hall so he could see that, stopped by Starbucks, and then kept walking through Haymarket over to the North End for dinner.

We had dinner at one of the hundreds of Italian restaurants in the North End – it was so cold that night, that none of these places had a line.  You could eat anywhere that night.  After dinner we stopped by Mike’s Pastries which had a short line, but nothing insane like it sometimes is – and grabbed some goodies to go.   There is no better dessert than a black & white cookie.

We headed back to Cambridge on the “T” and ate our goodies at the hotel.  From there, we motivated and looked for a place to go out.  Everywhere was totally dead.  I mean, I understand that Harvard was in intersession, but it was a ghost town in Harvard Square.  We settled on Brother Jimmy’s just because we could watch sports there and hung out and eventually got up and danced with the group of 21 year-olds (or at least they had ID that said they were 21) until we were exhausted. 

On Saturday, we had lunch at Legal Seafood (again, Dave needed the FULL Boston experience) and then we started the long walk.  I warned him that we were in for quite a bit of walking, and he seemed up for it.  I mean, Boston is really a city that needs to be walked – even with snow piled up everywhere.  I had good boots on (Dave didn’t – he had nice brown shoes that I worried about all weekend) and stomped all over.  We took the T over to BU so I could walk around there and go to the bookstore for some rah-rah BU stuff – and he could see Fenway Park.  From there we walked up Comm Ave over to Newbury Street for, guess what, more SHOPPING.  We shopped down Newbury Street, I took Dave over to see the Bull/Finch (Cheers bar), Boston Common, and the Statehouse.  Then it was back to MIT for the finals of the competition which were very entertaining.  I ran into a number of students that I know from my Microsoft days, and that was really fun.  Picked up myself a free Google shirt, too.  Now, I’m not a big Google fan, but like any other geek, I’ll take a free t-shirt when offered J.

When that finally ended around 9:30, we headed over to the Border Café for dinner, which was a big mistake only because we had to wait for 40 minutes for a table and you really shouldn’t have dinner around 11:00 at night.  I was so starving but then today – I feel so ill …

Anyway, I think Dave had a pretty good time in Boston – if he didn’t, oh well, sorry.  It was a free trip, right?  I had a good time.  Boston is a great city and I kind of miss going there almost every week ;-).  Plus, showing a newbie around was super cool.  Dave could be scarred for life from all the shopping but hey - he's being trained for some future wife.

January 17th – MLK Weekend:  Phil heads west from the east coast and spends the weekend with us for the first time since our move.  Hopefully I’ll someday post the photos from our visit to Half Moon Bay, 12 miles from our condo.

January 23rd – Jenn heads south to Stanford and stays at our humble abode.  It was great having her in town.  I hadn’t seen her since right after Thanksgiving and then it was a real short visit.  This trip I got to see her for five days and even though I monopolized her whole trip, I still was sad to see her leave.  With all of the email, cell phones, blogs, and occasional snail mail, you’d think that staying in touch would be enough – but her visit (and my visits with others) really just proves how important human contact – actual face to face contact – is truly important. 

During Jenn’s visit, we ate at some of my favorite restaurants – including Sushi Sam’s for sushi.  The ambiance isn’t fancy, but the fish melts in your mouth as you eat it.  Yummy.  We also saw “In Good Company” with Topher Grace & Scarlett Johannson – all three of us liked it on the whole but I hated the last 10 minutes.  Do they not test this stuff with women??  I mean, come on …regardless, I have to say that Topher will definitely have a pretty long career past “That 70’s Show”. 

On Saturday, Drew/Jenn/myself met up with one of the world’s most connected men on the planet, our friend Bubba.  Now, I met Bubba long ago when he was an intern at Microsoft and dropped this recruiter on her butt during a boat cruise.  Left quite an impression.  Of course, he was tight with Jenn, and then it comes around that he is friends with a number of my all-time favorite hires (as a recruiter, I have to be honest, that there are some people you become much closer to over time then others).  I’m sure the feeling is mutual by some of the hires as well.  I’m not for everyone.

Anyone, we met up with Bubba and headed into downtown for some shopping.  Outside of Drew & Phil, who I have to say have the patience of shopping saints, Jenn is my all-time favorite shopping buddy – except for the fact that she looks absolutely gorgeous in everything she tries on – and for me, forever wishing to be one or two sizes smaller, it’s a bit intimidating.   We do have a great time together – Jenn has amazing style as anyone who knows her will tell you.  She predicted the whole brown/pink craze over a year before it really caught on – she can take fabrics, colors, and prints and put together a fabulous look without any effort – and it would be better than half the stuff you see in a runway fashion show.  Anyway, Jenn found this really great blazer that everyone will of course have 6 months from now and she’ll have worn it about 50 times before then but it will always look a little different.  I found a cashmere/rabbit hair sweater that I just had to have.  It’s the softest thing I’ve ever owned.  It’s pretty amazing and I just love it.  My face gets all lit up when I think about it.

The boys did some shopping on their own too (wise men to separate themselves every now and then for survival purposes).  Bubba met perhaps the most amazing salesman/personal shopper ever in Nordstrom downtown and bought himself a fancy suit for the zillion weddings he’s always invited to (pictures to be posted soon, I hope).  After we closed all the shops, we headed to my favorite SF restaurant, Betelnut (2 weekends in a row!) and enjoyed some libations and tasty treats.

Then on Sunday, Jenn & I were exhausted – a tiny bit hungover and Drew headed out to NYC for a meeting on Monday morning.  Except he never quite made it to NYC – he got as far as Dallas where he was stranded.  Needless to say, this was not one of American Airlines’ finest hours – he spent hours trying to get rebooked to Orlando (having to explain multiple times why he no longer needed to get to NYC since he was missing the only meeting he needed to be at if they couldn’t get him there), then he had to find a hotel on his own, and of course, he had no luggage.  NO LUGGAGE from Sunday, January 23rd until Saturday, January 29th – yes, it took a week for them to finally track down his suitcase and get it delivered to the house.  Thankfully I was joining him in Orlando so I was able to bring him some clothes – and they did give him $75 a day for two days (yeah, as if $150 was really going to buy dress clothes for meetings with customers).

This weekend (the 30th), Drew’s mom has flown in and has been taking care of Drew who evidently has been rather ill all weekend.  I’ve been in Boston at MIT since Thursday night and am flying home today (more about Boston in a separate post).

Other than one small incident, this was a great weekend.  First, we had a ton of company in town and there's nothing (literally, nothing) in the world that makes me happier then to be surrounded by friends and family.  Phil came over from Charlotte and my friend Wade from BU came to town with his new fiancee, Erin (that's actually a really funny moment - Wade's first name is really Aaron - so it's Aaron & Erin).

The only bummer was that my step-dad called with news that my mom was at the hospital in surgery with apparent appendicitis.  She's okay now and was released from the hospital late last night but I was pretty worried.  And it was then that it really hit me just how far away I am from the rest of my family and how scary that is.  Normally, I always assume that everyone is a long-distance call away even if I lived in their same states, but in this case, it was really hard. 

Anyway, the most interesting moment of the weekend happened on Sunday after we picked up Wade & Erin in San Fran and were driving out to Sausalito.  We went to a rather large intersection and noticed that in the middle of this HUGE intersection was a person sitting on the ground with a beer can appointing himself the traffic cop.  While sitting.  On the ground.  In the middle of an intersection.  Waving his arms around.  Sitting on the ground.  Again, in the middle of an intersection.  California :-).

Wade, Erin, myself, Drew, and Phil had a great little lunch on the water in Sausalito and then walked around town thinking about the big homes that surrounded us.  I can only speculate that these homes on the waterfront probably run in the 2.5 - 4 million dollar range, but I have no idea.  All I know is that all of us together couldn't afford the mortgage.  Who are these people that have those homes?

I took some great photos of the city from Sausalito but of course, posting these photos would require me to connect my camera to my PC and I'm lame.  I do hope to get to it this week.

On Saturday, we hung out and watched football and then head to the city for some SHOPPING and dinner with a friend of Phil's at one of my favorite restaurants, Betelnut.  Super yummy and she is just the nicest person on the planet.  She does non-profit work and is truly a great person.  I wonder why Phil isn't interested in her??

On Monday, we met up with Lisa & Matt who are still just as cute in their 5 or 6 months of dating as they were in the first month except they now wake up earlier.  We went to Stacks for brunch (my favorite - yummy, yummy, yummy) and met up with a friend from work (Lynn).  My hopes of setting up Lynn and Phil were foiled by the fact that Lynn came late and we ended up eating on Monday instead of Sunday, but maybe next time :-)  From there, we went down to San Jose (and yes, I know the way) and did some more shopping and then back to Half Moon Bay to watch the sunset (again, photos were taken, but you know ...).

Phil took the red-eye home last night and I'm assuming that went fine.  Drew took off for Burbank today and I'm at work.  That's life baby.

On the phone this afternoon, my father reminded me that this almost two full week stretch of being home that I'm about to have is a rare case.  So for just shy of two weeks I will get to avoid all of the normal irritations I have with traveling.  I can wear big clunky heavy shoes, or open toed/faced high heels, or clothes that wrinkle easy, or big large belts.  I don't have to think about my wardrobe five days in advance or worry about where and how I'm going to be working out.  Instead, I can sleep in my own bed, commute to work in my own car, do laundry and other household chores during the week - I might even watch some tv that isn't on the Windows Media Center or the Tivo.  Maybe even get all caught up.

Anyway, as I was thinking about how nice it will be to be home for a while, I was also thinking about major travel annoyances, including a couple that happened to me this week.

#1 - Waking up early to workout in the hotel gym.  Ignoring the snooze and the chance to be lazy - you get up, get ready, and head down in the (normally exceptionally slow) elevator - only to find out that the gym is CLOSED. 

#2 - Said gym is CLOSED for your entire trip and learning when you check-out and complain that you could have used a gym a few blocks away for free.  Now, I'm not quite sure why when I complained about it the first time the person at the desk chose not to mention this - nor when I showed up in front of the gym, fully decked out in athletic wear, that no one at the front desk (who could easily see me) failed to accomodate.

#3 - Why, if most major cities would prefer their visitors to use some form of public transportation like a bus, subway, or cab, are the stops for those things so darned far away from BAGGAGE CLAIM?  At both LAX and San Jose, I had to lug a quite heavy bag a significant distance to get to a cab.  Now you may be asking why I had to carry such a big bag anyway since I'm such a big traveler.  Well, savvy traveler or not, the roll-aboard carry-ons don't work for a woman if she's traveling more than 2 nights and plans to exercise while being gone.  Especially in the winter.  Then, my other option is a very large rolling around black suitcase.  Or, the in between bag - a nice softsided bag that expands if you happen to do a little shopping, and could squeeze into the overhead space if necessary.

#4 - Speaking of carry-on luggage.  Why is it that flight attendants are allowed to carry three and four pieces of rather large luggage on the plane but those of us who are paying customers are expected to abide by the "one piece that fits in the overhead compartment or in the space underneath the seat in front of you & a small personal item".  Personal item being determined by whichever irritable security person or airline personnel at the door.

#5 - Why even bother having some sort of first class or fancy-schmancy preferred/elite line if it moves slower then the regular people line?

#6 - Why even bother to have check-in kiosks if you can't check your bag with them?   Same goes for why even bother to check-in at home if you still are going to have to stand in some form of line to check your bags.  Or, even moreso, why bother to have the check-in kiosks if they are NOT EVER WORKING.

#7 - I love that our trusty secruity force thinks it's their objective to either treat you as if you are five years old (even if it's the preferred/first class/I am special line and therefore do know to take your laptop out of your bag) or feel the need to touch everything you own in the process.  And, if this is some sort of government "policy" and "procedure" why is it different at every single airport?  At the end of the day, it really shouldn't matter if my coat and shoes go together in the same bin or not?

#8 - Just because I'm female and wearing jeans doesn't make me less important than the guy in the business suit.  The white guy in the business suit I should say.  Over the last eight years of traveling minimally of 100K miles a year, I have been ignored, abused, and frankly disrespected by flight attendants who assume that I must not be nearly as important as the person in the business suit.  Cracks me up.  It also cracks me up that other passengers make those assumptions. 

#9 - Why do hotels bother to tell you that you've been upgraded to a superior king room from the regular king room when it really means nothing?  I can't tell you how many times someone has told me that I've been "upgraded" and I see someone elses room who has not been "upgraded" and it's exactly the same.  Hello, that's called fraud.  Or, the flip side, is when you know what an upgraded room is (like at certain Westins if you're platinum you get free bottled water, a robe, and Molton Brown toiletries - which is nice) and they don't give it to you and act all pissy when you request those amenities.

#10 - The snotty service people.  My biggest pet peeve of all.  The W Hotels are the worst about this - and the W Times Square is the epitome of it all.  HELLO!!  You open the damned door for a living.  Drop the attitude.  Show some respect.  I find it interesting that in general, if you are at a really, really, really high class hotel, everyone is polite regardless of who you are.  And, the middle-tier hotels (the wanna be high class) are the snottiest.  I'd stay at the Four Points Ann Arbor over the W Times Square any day of the week.

Okay, ranted and rambled for a while.  I'm excited for the weekend as it's the first time in eight years that I've had MLK as a holiday.  Phil is coming into town tonight, my friend Wade and his new fiancee are coming to town this weekend, and then Jenn comes to visit on Wednesday.  Casa McCreary - no vacancy.

Just because I travel for work doesn't mean I can't travel for fun!  Sometimes it's nice to stay home and chill out when I can, but Drew & I got an invitation to stay at the NY/NY for free plus some free goodies thrown in for any weekend in January.  Since this past weekend was the only weekend where we weren't going to have company and we were both heading to nearby directions, we headed to Vegas.

Well, right off the bat, everyone knows that nothing in life is free.  I should have taken the free weekend as a sign that we will lose, lose, lose.  I also should have known that since the Consumer Electronics Show was still occuring (which we attended last year and got stranded in Vegas for an extra day due to a four hour security line) AND that it snowed in Vegas on Friday, we should have stayed home.

However, we decided to book free tickets on United using USAirways frequent flier miles seeing as we don't have much faith in their future survival anymore (I personally have burned over 400K miles in the last few months).  We headed to Vegas.  The first sign of "stop throwing money away" should have been that the one casino where I NEVER lose at the slots, the Westin Causarina (just off the strip near Bellagio/Ballys) - is I lost about $20.

$20 you all say - whoopee!  Well, combine that $20 with a few other misadventures at Pai Gow Poker and Blackjack at the NY/NY and MGM Grand ... oh and then the Bellagio, and you add up the House always wins ... nothing in life is free ... and it goes on and on.

Anyway, we still had a good time - despite the pouring rain, the losses, and the surrounding geeks.  And, it was the first time we had left in the negative in almost a year (at least so Drew tells me), so I guess we're almost even - but, I hate to lose.  I don't know why it bothers me so much but it does.   Insert big sigh here.

Now I'm in Los Angeles.  Home to Hollywood and sunny beaches.  Oh wait, make that home to Hollywood & rain.  It's really not what I imagined, but my company has a SWANK SWEET office.  It is decked.  I'm a little jealous.  Oh well.  I live in the Bay Area - overall, a better package in my opinion.

Anyway, it would be great if these various college career centers would take employers trying to hire their students for full-time jobs and internships a little more seriously.  The number of schools that refuse to still use email (!!!) or fail to return phone calls to set up college visits, is shocking - and these are technical schools!!  I'm scared to find out what happens at non-tech places!! 

One other thing ... is there anybody cooler than Sidney Bristow on Alias? Oh my gosh.  I wish I could be her.  Jennifer Garner rocks.  If you do not watch this show, you are lame.