seattle half pr

it's become tradition for us to run the seattle half on thanksgiving weekend. despite the cold 28F weather, we made it out for the race and kevin felt better than ever for this run. i could tell because he left me in the dust for the entire race, always 100-200m ahead of me - sometimes more! and good thing, because he still had some gas left in the tank after the finish. 

we both ran our PRs for the course and all time! :) 1:42:48 for me, or 7:42/mi pace! see what happens when you don't practice ...

it was a great way to kick off the morning and a great way to end our trip. the rest of the day was followed by DELICIOUS taiwanese breakfast at dough zone dumpling house, shopping at the half-priced bookstore where i found myself gravitating towards the home crafts, gardening, and interior design section. as i leaned against the bookshelf flipping through the books, i suddenly felt like i was watching my mother. oh gosh :p maybe this is what happens when you reach your mid-thirties.

anyways, got my first book on zakka sewing *excited to try out some of these projects*! and maybe make my own ornaments for our future christmas tree ... though that might be a while ... 

checked out a couple mcmansions in bellevue for fun, which were swarming with chinese househunters, and finished off the day with fort-building with kevin's nephew, liam, and a hotpot dinner at swish-swish.

best: kevin waiting up for me on lakeview ave after i'd dropped a glove and fallen back.

worst: the darn hill half mile before the finish - crushed me last year and this year! we need to do some training so we can own it next year ..

smile: watching liam build forts with uncle kevin :) i'll have to upload a video of it sometime.

turkey day

happy thanksgiving :)

woke up around 4:30am from the time difference and mosied around the downtown bellevue starbucks with the local senior citizens (who else is up at 5am?) before heading up to greenlake for a run. greenlake is where matthew inman, creator of the oatmeal and the blerch, organizes his runs.

it was our first time to the greenlake area, which seemed to be another lovely neighborhood of seattle, a bit more residential with more single family homes than multiple dwelling units. it was pitch black when we arrived and we were pleasantly surprised to see locals pulling up into the parking lot to use the indoor pool. what a great community ... i think both kevin and i would like to join a community like this one day when we're done with finance and nyc.

there's a wide path around the lake, perfect for running, dog walking, or just strolling. the full loop is about 2.8 miles, and by the end of our run, we saw fishermen lined up with their tackleboxes, bait, and large thermoses of coffee. apparently they were fishing for trout!

without a doubt, top pot doughnut is always one of our first stops in seattle/bellevue as well so we picked up breakfast for the family on the way back and spent the rest of the day preparing a 10 lb turkey, side dishes, and catching up with the family. dinner was an assortment of american and taiwanese dishes, with heather's meatballs and kevin's brussel sprouts front and center as the crowdpleasers! unfortunately i didn't get a photo of the turkey in its entirety so i'll have to get that from my FIL later.

best: my MIL prepared these tasty dumplings for us for lunch! they were filled with napa cabbage, ground pork, and *SURPRISE* corn! definitely going to pick some of those up ... and maybe try to make them ourselves one day.

worst: 84% humidity. hahaha .. great for the skin, but it definitely cuts the run short :)
smile: listening to everyone give thanks at the dinner table. for the second year in a row, my MIL's eyes welled-up in tears as she exclaimed how every day since she moved to seattle are the happiest days of her life (because she can be near her grandson).

red-eye monday

after a relatively pleasant 4-5 hr nap, arrived at newark airport and following in my friend, daisy's footsteps, i used the public transport system for the first time to get home. pretty easy with just a carry-on and about 55 minutes door to door.

work work work ... in my next life, i would like to have a career where thanksgiving, christmas, and independence day holidays are slow, rather than the busiest times of the year! (>.<)

best: early dinner with girlfriends on a monday evening! what an amazing way to start off the week ... 

worst: at a loss for words all day (all weekend for that matter) due to leaving my brain in the wrong time zone! i'm terrible with time zone changes, even 3 hrs :/

smile: rose and i are about to embark on the cuyana lean closet movement! or some version of it anyways. in search of ways to simply our lives and our homes, we will do our own massive closet purges and then limit ourselves to future purchases. the terms are to be determined .. getting ready for 2015!

emile & austin

the main reason we came out to LA this weekend was for my cousin, laurie's, wedding at the trump national in rancho palos verdes this sunday! 

a side perk however is that we get a chance to hang out with kevin's brother's family and our good friends, mel and gary, and of course, their collective munchkins: emile and austin! and in a month or so, we'll have two more little reasons soon too (bryant & hudson)!

emile is walking now!!! the last time we saw eric, carlin, & emile was in the end of august for jaime's baby shower in boston and she was just starting to totter around then.

now, confident and chest puffed, emile can walk around us adults in circles! i found emile and her abe in this adorable reading nook on saturday morning and frantically snapped the next photo in the afternoon at central park in pasadena with her older and more experience playground pal, austin.

austin was teaching emile how to take the slides down on her stomach and on her behind, and at one point, even trying to catch her at the bottom with eris's help. *sweetness*

although we were not directly impacted by the drought, we did see carlin & eric's neighbor put up this sign on their formerly luscious green lawn. i'm impressed! if only everyone would do their part to be a bit more conscious about the environment and resources ... some of the other neighbors were busy running their sprinklers! and of course, never shocked to see all the masses of SUVs on the freeways with just one person in each vehicle. sigh.

best: seeing my entire family in high spirits on the west coast! i think the last time we all saw each other was at jess & ben's wedding in june 2014, and prior to that, at our wedding in october 2013.

worst: because i'm a coward and a little scared of the wide multi-laned freeways in la, kevin did all of the driving, which included three one-way trips between glendale and palos verdes today.

worse than worst: oh gosh. after dinner with the cheng's and tsai's, i had a tummy ache from what had to be the 5-6 oven-hot chocolate chip cookies i grabbed on the way out (so greasy, so good), so kevin got off the 110 at the nearest exit, which happened to be smack in the middle of inglewood. at the first intersection we arrived at, there were 2 unfamiliar burger joints and 2 liquor stores, lined with couches, chairs, alcoholic beverages, and intimidating characters up and down the sidewalk. we walked right into the middle of a tupac song ... i was actually frightened that for the 2 minutes it took for me to walk from the burger joint back to the car in the parking lot.

smile: austin is going to be such an awesome big brother!! on the swing, he would say "more faster, please" hahaha ... what great manners and the way he would show emile the ropes at the outdoor structure! i can't believe that quarter pounder as i used to affectionately call him is 2.5 already!

off to lalaland

BUSY friday at work scrambling to get notes out before our 6pm flight from newark. interesting flight seating arrangement.

my aunt got my round trip flight upgraded to first/biz class, so i gave kevin my upgraded seat, which turned out to be the row right in front of his economy plus seat. unfortunately in giving him my seat, i got his economy plus middle seat in between a HUGE hair project manager and an even larger black woman, who was lucky enough to be upgraded to plus seating. after 15 minutes of sitting separately, i think we both were a bit miserable, and kevin got up and offered her a second upgrade to first lol. :) so he and i were back in our original plus seats.

traveling in class is no fun alone!

first stop after landing ~ TSUJITA ANNEX. they have the tastiest tsukemen and most QQ noodles! we ate this at what was 2:00am NY time :)

best: relatives who offer their unused free airline fare upgrades! thanks to my auntie, i will be flying back to nyc in biz class, which is especially nice since i will be taking three sunday night red-eye flights back from the west coast in the course of the next month and a half.

worst: super thin united airlines seats. ow ow ow. the aisle seemed extra cramped too - what's going on?

smile: when male coworkers bring up photos of their kids on their phones and walk them around the aisle with big grins on their faces:) of the six dads on this desk, there are 7 daughters and 2 sons. proud daddies!

finding strength

buuuuusy day consisted of:

• male teammates talking about and comparing proper pants fits (i witness this on a daily basis. how awkward! and yes on an equities trading floor)
• work blah blah blah
• coffee and catchup with tom, a recent newlywed friend from HK who i haven't seen in two years!! liz, your husband is so so so thoughtful and always thinking of you :)

best: after work mani-pedis and basta pasta with girlfriends!

worst: the shellac-mani lady (tried a new spot because of a groupon i'd bought for a baby shower which didn't end up happening) doused my nails with acetone multiple times before and after applying the shellac. that is SO not cool and damaging for my nails :(

smile: receiving a text from a friend who is going through a very difficult time, especially today. while my friend was clearly sad, the text evoked the first ounce of strength that made me even more confident that she will be alright.

hump day

happy hump day.

i found myself nibbling on two of these at work. and a container of fresh pineapple chunks. that's a lot of pineapple LOL.

busy day at work. so busy that i managed to send out two erroneous versions of forecasts by noon and a third/final version shortly after. left the office at 3:30 to make the annual S&P advisory panel meeting down on water street and then back up to midtown for a client dinner which was surprisingly easy going and interesting. home around 930 zzz ... not much fun to write about today!

best: clients who tell your boss and colleagues that you are invaluable and the reason they will trade with your firm. thanks, mike!

worst: industry small talk. bleghh that's why i'm in a research role i guess!

smile: arriving home with a huge smile on my face because the most stressful part of my week was over and have been making some progress on the work-catch up front. also was a little tipsy from dinner. thank goodness.

smirk: dinner for four at a typical $20 entree times square restaurant included 3 apps, 4 entrees, and 2 bottles of wine (ordered by the sales guy). total bill excluding gratuity +$600. must have been some fancy wine.

we are going to london+paris!

despite weeks of flip flopping between japan, argentina, and france, we finally booked tickets to heathrow, and are planning to spend 3 days in london and 5 in paris. i was clobbered with remodel stuff the last few months so was a little disappointed (understatement ha) when i realized that all flights to japan and buenos aires had gone through the roof, and i didn't have enough time or energy to plan a trip somewhere new.

looking forward to wandering the cold, wintry streets of london and paris with kev :) and exploring all the little shops, coffee spots, and architecture! it's been a year since we've visited somewhere foreign!

we will be staying at these lovely flats in notting hill and saint-german! i need to do some research! it's been +12 yrs since i've been to france ... lucky for me, three of my girlfriends just visited this fall so i am hitting them up for recommendations :)

best: watching friends find love. love that is strong and truthful enough to be the real thing. mutual respect. taking time to get to know each other and learn each others' strengths and weaknesses.

worst: watching friends go through difficult times. and nothing you say helps. i don't know, i'll just try my best to support and rebuild my friend's self-esteem. things will be okay, actually, things will be BETTER than okay in time.

smile: our sectional arrived! enough said. there will quickly be body imprints on the chaise :)

the little things

best: both of us making it home before 6pm and having a homemade dinner together! we had a huge serving of 烏魚子 with our meal, as well as the second half of the sour cream apple walnut pie. the little things in life which make me smile. also didn't hurt that the time warner dvr installation guy and backsplash subcontractor both stopped by in the evening.

worst: realizing that i forgot my cell phone after we swiped into the subway station this morning. NERD! my cell phone feels like my lifeline these days.

smile: the time warner dvr installation guy, aleksander, was a cheerful, polite russian guy. interacting with him was one of the highlights of my day and i gave him all 9+ (on a scale of 1-9) on the tw appointment survey.

good ole sundays

today felt like one of our good ole sundays. the first day in a while where we haven't done anything moving/renovation related, and just got back to our normal weekend routine.

kevin got up before me and start boiling a pot of water for coffee and i rolled around in bed a little longer. went for our first run together since the 26.2 exactly two weeks ago (his fourth run, my first HA) and it felt great. it was 35F and overcast out - perfect weather to keep the tourists off the west side highway. we saw a decent number of runners and riders, which reminded me that these people could be training for boston! amazing.

legs felt pretty good though i was pretty done after the last mile when kev kicked it into full gear at a sub-7min pace. finished it off with some core exercises and foam rolling at the gym and a jog home. felt great :)

made a batch of fried rice with leftover char siu and we ate all of it ... first fried rice in the apt yay.

then off to tennis for kev and the moma for me! kristy and i checked out the toulouse-lautrec and the gober special exhibits. it was really interesting to see and learn about laurtrec because I'd become accustomed to seeing his work in print media, and probably somewhat taken for granted the importance of his work, and the fact that he conceived all his projects before the age of 36 when he passed. 

the gober exhibit was more of a personal narrative through sculptures and it was what i'd consider the essence of modern art. there were several large installations as well as individual pieces, and almost all named "untitled". his works were much more thought-provoking and touched on serious subjects such as september 11th, slavery, transformation, religion, and more.

i loved these coasters at the design store :)

for dinner, we had stewed beef with carrot, daikon, and tofu skin, sauteed kale w/garlic and lemon, and goma kyuri. and kevin surprised me with a little sour cream walnut apple pie from my favorite pie spot, the little pie company! oh man it would be great to have one of these every sunday night ...

i spent the remainder of the night on my laptop trying to buy flights to buenos aires and puerto madryn to no luck. kevin figured out that one of the websites was sending faulty info to kayak. darn! no travel for us over the holidays after all. i sort of threw a tantrum :/

moving part deux

up at 4:30am today, 35F out, volunteering at the nyrr 60k registration desk, with a lucky last minute venue change indoors! phew!

"small, medium, large, extra, can i have your bib # please?"

23rd street, uhaul pickup, holmdel, moving, desk situation, shanghai bun, gluttony, chelsea atelier, al, saw 8b neighbors, organic modernism stool exchange, chinatown 甜麵醬, 蛋撻, unpack, bedframe, coffee table, marble, zzz ...

sorbet friday

yes it was another glorious r1 fleece + jeans friday :) it was very very cold out, so kevin and i both donned our down jackets today. clearly we didn't think through the attire carefully as we looked like a bowl of sorbet with our bright shades of rose and orange. kevin is not a happy camper in this photo at 23rd street upon the realization that we looked like doofuses today. oops :p

the head us agency trader, larry, brought in a box of munchkins today and decided to leave them on my desk. people i haven't spoken to in ages were stopping by all morning making small talk. haha ..

oh yes, and i rocked out with beyonce ALL DAY listening to her 2014 vma awards performance. can i purchase this anywhere please?

finally, my friends ceasar, tom, and mary are launching their PHUMPLINGS at the shwick market this sunday! go out and support :)

baby rimowas

kevin arrived back at the apt late on wednesday night and the first things he does is bust out all the gifts he brought back! :) he's usually pretty calm and collected, so it's sweet to watch him get excited to show me all the cool stuff he's picked up.

this time, he brought back a HUGE box of pineapple cakes and chestnut biscuits from wu pao chun, the bakery at the songshan culture park which won the 2010 masters de la boulangerie in the european style breads category; a brown cotten canvas bag from guang fu hao, the taiwanese brand that his uncle introduced to us last year; and two baby rimowas!!! haha ... our first rimowas, courtesy of eva air :)

best: walking on the trading floor in a super happy high mood and cracking jokes all day long without much effort. i think it's because kevin's back :)

worst: 37F + rainy. it's getting to that time of year again when it's cold, wet and miserable out. noooo ... i won't be able to wear my birkenstocks soon.

smile: baked the first batch of granola in the new oven! they will supplement our 4 dozen greek yogurts nicely.

perpsective

a few weeks ago upon the realization that we hadn't traveled to any new places this calendar year and couldn't get our act together to plan a proper trip over the holidays, i started to get agitated and a bit upset. for the last couple months, as i've brainstormed for places that would make a fun trip over the christmas holidays, kevin has provided little feedback, leaving me feeling a bit helpless. 

when i mentioned this to jess, her response was: "Kevin seems like he just likes to enjoy his time with you!"

i paused and felt extremely sheepish. who's the older sister? and how did i lose my perspective so easily? after that conversation, i felt a bit more appeased. hopefully i can remember it going forward!

but then again, the idea of travel always THRILLS me - the planning, the anticipation, the travel, the culture and interaction, the education. i can't fight it - i can't help it - i love it. and i'm not going to change this about myself, but i will try to keep things in perspective.

a lil shady

why do they make beds sooo comfortable if we have to get up in the mornings for work? (>.<) seriously ... i think the month of october was a humbling experience in terms of living out of a suitcase in someone else's bed! i will never take my much needed sleep and firm mattress for granted again.

and a little update from the loft ~~ we got our roller shades installed! that's right - solar shades in the living room and blackout + room darkening shades in the bedrooms. it's going to feel like a coffin tonight :) i can't wait ~~~~~

but back to the comfy bed issue, these blackout shades will not make it any easier to get out of bed in the morning (>.<)

best: starting to feel more comfortable in my kitchen and finding myself reaching into cabinets and the pantry for items without thinking about it first. finally ...

worst: re-considering backsplash materials! eek! we had pretty much decided to go with large panels of back-painted glass, but now im reconsidering tiling the walls to achieve a more matte and transitional look. still loving the sea green crackle porcelain ann sacks tiles. and marble ... it's like the love affair that will never happen but man so beautiful and tempting.

smile: my in-laws are freaking hilarious. we have a chain of emails going around where my MIL is joking about being an undercover agent, my SIL is telling stories about all the awesome footage from her childhood where my FIL is giving flu shots and cutting frenulums (of the tongue) at home, meanwhile my MIL is making dirty jokes on the side.

random thought: if in families with multiple children, say three, the eldest, middle, and youngest tend to exhibit stereotypical qualities of the eldest, middle, and youngest child, respectively, has anyone ever tried to raise them carefully in different ways? for instance, raise the first without giving him/her as much attention and as high expectations as most people give their first; raise the second with ultra care and lots more attention than the first; and holding the youngest to the highest bar with the strictest of expectations?

happy thot: the hubby returns tomorrow night!!!!!

protein

so we received a $10 off $50 coupon from whole foods as a welcome to the neighborhood! hence, my shopping cart :) 14 fage's, 12 siggi's, and 2 siggi's probiotic yogurt drink. oh and a pound and a half of grass fed stew beef. time to get cookin again!

best: grocery shopping in pajama pants. feels like college again!

worst: bumping into someone from work while grocery shopping in pajama pants. this did not happen to me, but it was an afterthought which will likely stop me from wearing those pants out ever again.

smile: kevin has been running every morning before the sun rises in taipei! i think he's logged in 10-15 miles since the marathon. and yesterday i saw that he posted a running vacation idea in our evernote! LOL ... i have logged in ZILCH since november 2 baaad.

matisse & williamsburg

couldn't sleep well last night without kevin.

woke up around 4:30 and after some wallowing in bed, made myself useful and did some more unpacking and researching online for rugs, doormats, and planters, aka home accessories that could probably wait but are so fun to look at :)

grabbed my first starbucks chai tea latte of the season and headed up to the moma to check out the henri matisse cut-outs exhibit. it was AWESOME! i had no idea matisse dabbled in cut-outs or was commissioned to design so many stain-glass windows, and a priest's robe as well. unfortunately the exhibit prohibited photography, but there are a lot of great highlights here: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/matisse/. i want a swimming pool in my home too!

in the afternoon, i ventured back into williamsburg with kristy and was sad to learn that our smorgasburg date would have to be postponed because it's not open on sundays. duh :p anyways we made the best of our time and explored all the little design shops and jewelry boutiques in the area, as well as mast brothers chocolatier (yummm DELICIOUS choco chip cookies which i wasn't quick enough to snap a photo of :p), mast brothers brew bar, the sketch project, and more.

the sketch project is a pretty cool idea - it's a library of sketchbooks which are purchased blank and created by artists around the world. you can include writing, drawings, collages, painting, water color, whatever you wish, and each sketchbook is identified by an individual barcode. after the sketchbook has been completed, the artist creates tags for it and mails the sketchbook back to the brooklyn art library which then digitizes the sketchbook and uses the dewey decimal system to organize the sketchbooks for public loan (on-site or online). what you get is a room full of hundreds of thousands of sketchbooks created by artists around the world ... 

i think i'd like to make one at some point:)

this is alex proba's 'a poster a day' project that i saw at urban outfitters on north 6th st. it's pretty inspirational ... i guess blogging is sort of a way for me to summarize my life in words. maybe next year i should make posters :) or toilet paper origami. or sketches!

AV check!!

this morning, we got a text from jordan around 6:30 and he was a few blocks away! we scurried over to murray's to see one of kevin's best friends who moved to hk over a year ago and was back in the states for the first time since! coffee, egg and cheese bagels, and good company is the best way to start a saturday morning.

jordan is one of the easiest people to talk with, and he lives an adventurous lifestyle so there's never a shortage of stories. i could clearly see how much kevin has missed hanging out with jordan and it was really sweet that we were the first people he saw when he landed. let the bromance begin! i had to leave the guys after an hour to meet the AV guys at the apartment, but an archer night with food and booze is already brewing in my mind :)

vincent and shannon are the best! they arrived around 8 and got to work right away. while they worked, i continued to unpack and clean. kevin and jordan stopped by a while later and then kev and i picked up some num pang. it was COLD out. 30-40s today ... 

V&S started giving us the demo and walk-through around 2, though some bugs came up and we didn't end up finishing until 3:45. ran a couple errands, ORDRED OUR NEW SECTIONAL (:D), and headed over to christl's farewell at the distilled in tribeca. interiors were cozy, service was excellent, and food was pretty good as well. it was touching to see how many people came out for her big farewell and i'm excited for her upcoming disney half!

we left on the earlier side so kevin could go home and finish packing, and he left at 10pm for a direct flight to taipei. more free time for me to clean and unpack ... november kinda sucks with all this travel, but i'm it'll be thanksgiving before i know it and we'll be relaxing in seattle :)

best: starting to put toiletries away in our master bath :) everything is finding its place ... yay

worst: finding boxes of stuff that requires fishing through and determining what stays and what goes. im pretty sure it can all go, but i want to at least sift through it one last time.

smile: one of our av guys, shannon, was rocking out to the top hit list all afternoon at the apartment. one of the funniest and nicest guys i've ever met. he also added my ingrid michaelson station to his pandora - impressive when a guy can appreciate ingrid!

r1 friday & carpe donuts

jeans friday has transformed into r1 fleece friday :)

woke up to light streaming in our shadeless north facing bedroom windows and kevin to my right. big smile on my face. friday was finally here! it was a busy day at the office, but imagine a helium-filled balloon - nothing was holding me down (for long)!

today i wore my patagonia r1 fleece with jeans and birkenstocks to work. this is one of my FAVORITE tops because you can comfortable wear it through the fall and winter, and its design allows it to adjust to your body temperatures so you're never too warm or too cool. i think if you had seen me strolling around the city on friday, you'd thought i worked at a tech company or something. haha ... 

walked to diginn with daisy to pick up lunch, a weekly tradition we've had going for about a year now? it is the highlight of my work day. we treated ourselves to spicy meatballs, a loop around bryant park, and warm cinnamon sugar donuts from carpe donuts nyc, one of the donut shops mentioned in the nytimes article i read about a couple days ago. i brought back three for the guys on the desk and they were perfectly amazing. truth be told, they tasted a lot like churros! i can't wait to go back and try them with kevin and pair it with their hot apple cider!

we ended the work week with a quite dinner at ootoya times sq, which to my delight is literally next door to my office and makes it convenient when trying to scoop a table for two without reservations. we shared the usual suspects - tofu salad (sooo tasty), tsukune, and pork belly wrapped tomatoes, and kevin had the oyakadon and i had the soborodon. seated and finished in under 45 minutes!

the rest of the night was filled with unpacking, taping down furniture piece ideas, vaccuming, swiffering, and laundry. it was nice to be back together and putting together our new home together.

best: taking the time to step off and unwindulax with daisy picking up lunch and donuts. work and life can be so stressful, we all need to learn to give ourselves a break.

worst: too much square footage to vaccum - it's never ending! i am definitely on the market for a roomba starting NOW.

smile: kevin still gets my coat and holds it out for me to put on when we go out. sometimes it's easy to lose track of what's important, and to me, it's the little things :) the romance never ends.

hubby is back!

today was a long long day.

checked out of the sheraton toronto at 6am and boarded an 8:15am flight back to nyc. nyc was gloomy, cold, and rainy! ride to the apartment took as long as the flight (1.5 hrs) and i wasn't feeling well - tired and with a headache. stepping into the apartment felt pretty amazing ... mike and one of his subs were there, working away quietly on installing the bathroom vanities and working on punchlist items. i'm going to miss seeing and interacting with these guys! they have been my right arm and leg for the last three months.

napped for 15 min before heading into the office before noon, fully aware of the fact that i would have to work late into the evening for a big msci index rebalance announcement. worked till 7, trained back, but kevin wasn't back from drinks yet. met at 7:30 for a quick bite at chipotle up the street. not the most romantic reunion, but sometimes that's how we have to roll.

not a terrible day, but a lone one. good to have my husband back :)

best: uber from laguardia rocks! no waiting, clean car, professional driver.

worst: work for two! i need an analyst ... quick. hopefully the search is winding down.

smile: for the past +3 months, i've spent so much time interacting with our contractors, it feels like mike, our foreman, is a part of the family, or at least a fixture in the apartment. since we moved in, he has been extremely respectful of our space and personal belongings, and making sure he leaves no tracks when he works each day. there's almost no evidence of him coming through the apartment, except for improvements and new fixtures being added on a daily basis! i guess what i'm trying to say is that he's earned our trust and i hope he will stick around as a friend of the family even after our project is over.

ps. bathroom vanities have been installed :)

toronto

today was mostly spent in transit to toronto and entertaining clients over cocktalis and dinner at an event our firm hosted after the BIMA conference (buy-side only) in downtown toronto.

here is a photo of my view of the toronto city hall and civic square (designed by finnish architect viljo revell) from my hotel room. it was a cold gloomy day! too bad i didn't have a chance to do any exploring - next time!

also, here is a photo from our cocktails and dinner venue right in downtown. it was a relaxing evening with lots of great food and interesting conversation!

blurrrrrrr

work: blurrrrrrrr

mood: busy, distracted by work, looking forward to getting back to the apt

history of donuts: http://nyti.ms/1rZBAkO

highlights: used the microwave for the first time to heat up leftovers for dinner! yay. ran the dishwasher for the first time ~ works like a charm. hoping for no leaks. ran two loads in the washer and dryer for the first time ~ yay! a bit lonely in the apt without kevin and with only a quarter of our stuff unpacked, so rose came over after her mani-pedi to keep me company yay! *lucky* introduced her to my auntie's delicious sun-dried persimmons. moved all the boxes in the master bedroom against the wall and moved our bed into the center of the room. heavy, but was able to remove all the floor protection and lean them against the wall for easy contractor disposal the next day. zzz ... long day.

best: LYLAS - love you like a sister. recalling how i used to write this all over my gfs' yearbooks growing up :)

worst: realizing i didn't know how to operate any of our appliances yet. had to read manuals to use the microwave, dishwasher, and washer & dryer! yes, i know, #firstworldproblems

worst#2: band next door (or in the next building?) that practiced throughout the night - singer, guitarist, drummer, the works. luckily i sleep like a rock ...

smile: girlfriends who come to your rescue on the drop of a dime.

pamper principle

mondays are usually the worst! 

but post-race mondays aren't that bad because im a firm believer of the post-race pamper principle. this started with a baller lunch with my colleague and fellow-runner, amanda. we had a mini post-race recap on our walk to cafe zaiya and i picked up tuna avocado rolls, gyoza, yakimochi, and a large size container of sesame biscuits. my garmin told me that i had about 3100 calories to make up for from the previous day :)

towards the end of the day, i hurried back to the apartment to meet with our architect and try to catch mike, our foreman, on his way out. missed him, but caught up with the super on a few electrical issues that we had over the weekend (all fixed yay) and with the AV guys. caught up with one of my closest childhood gf's, allyson, over the phone for what felt like a while, but still not long enough :(... and then met with rose for our body scrub appointment! :)

after steaming, scrubbing, and massaging, we had a super relaxing and tasty dinner at daruma-ya, which opened in place of the old greenwich st grill. the ambience was very nice, the food was delicious (!!!), though our soba's took a little while to come out and we were falling asleep at the table. maybe that's bc we had gotten pampered just before though ... we had the handmade tofu with ikura & uni, kaiso salad, chicken rice, grilled saba, nameko oroshi hot soba, and shrimp & vegetable tempura soba. the hot soba broth was a wonderful way to finish off the meal and put us to sleep zzz ... the menu is plentiful and i'm looking forward to coming back with kevin to try some more of the small plates! my favorite dishes were the tofu and chicken rice.

best: picking up a copy the nytimes at the newsstand by our apt. it's a completely different world in there, and it's quite interesting. i feel like you could have a reality tv show set inside one of those with all the characters that walk in.

worst: realizing that we had miscommunicated and only made one appointment for the body scrub :( rose volunteered for a massage instead. #firstworldproblems

smile: one of our AV guys, shannon, is the nicest guy in the world! super friendly and excited about his work, he has done an amazing job designing our AV system, installing our ghost speakers, and wiring up the apartment. he and his wife recently celebrated their 10 year wedding anniversary by renewing their vows and their only guests were their 19 month old baby girl and 4 yr old boy. life is sweet.

marathon day!

temperatures dropped and wind speeds heightened on sunday, november 2, just in time for the nyc marathon! kevin, gary, and i were up by 5:15 for our pre-race breakfast routine: murray's raisin bagels, peanut butter, and bananas. we were out the door by 5:50 and boarded the 6:15 staten island ferry with thousands of other runners. 

it was so exciting to be with a group of strangers, knowing that everyone around you has been doing similar training for months all around the world in pursuit of a common goal - it's thrilling! the runners came in all shapes, sizes, ages, and nationalities. it's quite likely that we've run among or passed by these runners along the west side highway, at central park, or during races.

after docking, we boarded a short minute bus ride to take us to the start village. "start village" turned out to be more of a "hobo village". imagine +50,000 runners sprawled across fort wadsworth park grabbing every plastic bag, cardboard, and styrofoam around to try to stay warm in the 39F weather. we arrived at 7:08 and weren't scheduled to start until 10:05.

kevin wore a $14.99 blue puffy coat that he bought across the street the previous night and a pair of sweats. gary wore a sweatshirt and sweat pants. i wore two long-sleeve cotton shirts and a pair of sweat pants. we all had beanies on, but it was not enough - it was SO DARN COLD. dunkin donuts had a table with coffee, which was surrounded by hoards of cold hungry athletes. they also gave out fleece beanies which was really nice of them. i brought bubble wrap from our packing boxes for us to sit on, which turned out to be AMAZING as it kept our bottoms warm, and i ended up stuff it inside my top as well. 

note to self: bubble wrap is AWESOME insulation!

oh yea, we saw a lot of interesting moments during our THREE our wait. we saw a group of italians hold a little picnic with bread, butter, jelly, drinks, etc. we saw the same group of italians singing to keep their spirits up. one of them tried to take our bubble wrap - not cool lol. and we saw lots of athletes shivering and curled up in strange forms trying to retain as much body heat as possible.

finally 10:05 rolled around and we were getting into our corrals and people started stripping. off came the pants, the hats, the jackets, and lastly, the bubble wrap :) all the clothing would be donated to goodwill. and finally, the corrals collapsed and we were led to the start line which was at the beginning of the verrazano bridge. the sun started peeking out from behind the clouds at this point, my spirits were lifted at the prospect of finally moving, and we were off! :)

the race course was technically not too challenging since new york city is relatively flat, but there were a couple areas which we were warned about: the verrazano bridge (mile 1), the queensboro bridge (mile 16), and carnegie hill (miles 22). as it turns out, there were so many people on the course, we couldn't actually ever see any of the climbs which was enormously helpful mentally.

some highlights (ok, this ended up being more of my own post race analysis):

• queensboro bridge: it was SO DARN WINDY!!! haha ... kevin and i had trouble just going straight and staying upright as gusts of wind came from the northwest. we saw countless pieces of disposable clothing and tarp fly right across our eyes over the bridge. the helicopters were nowhere nearby thank goodness (i had envisioned choppers hovering around the bridge and like an action movie, was afraid i'd have the urge to jump off the bridge and hang onto the helicopter, climb up to the cockpit, and take out the pilot :p).
• brooklyn: talk about CROWDS and MUSIC!!!! there were crowds lining the ENTIRE course (with the exception of the predominantly hasidic jewish areas where it was uncomfortably silent) and there were live bands performing every few blocks - thank you daisy & bram for coming out to support! it was so much fun and a pleasant distraction to look at all the spectators, their signs, outfits, the storefronts, and countdown the streets as we ran along third and fourth ave towards the williamsburgh savings bank in the distance.
• williamsburg: a smile lit my face as we turned onto bedford ave, as i knew it would ultimately lead us to pass our old pad on grand avenue! the course got much narrower at this point, which made it difficult to continue at our original 8:30 pace. in addition, there were water stations around every mile marker in which people would stop to drink water and not always stay out of the center of the course, slowing down the race in general. regardless, it was so much fun :) i think i was starting to understand why people run the ny marathon, over, and over.
• greenpoint/queens: mile 13.5 was the point where our friends, emily and cuong, were going to be cheering! i've never had anyone come cheer (especially not my own parents haha) so i was super excited :) unfortunately we didn't coordinate exactly where at mile 13.5 so we didn't end up finding each other. darn. it was still very cool to cross the pulaski bridge though - onto QUEENS and halfway done with this thing!
• queensboro bridge: the queens portion of the race was only a couple miles long, and in the corner of my eye was the queensboro bridge. we owned it when we practice our queensboro bridge repeats, but how would we fare today? we took the pace down a couple notches and breezed across the bridge. i think we both wanted to make sure that we had enough in the tank left for the second half, and personally, i needed to make sure i could get to mile 20, and i thought the last six wouldn't be too much of an issue.
• upper east side: we thought brooklyn and queens crowds were amazing, manhattan right when you come off the 59th st bridge was off the hook! mountains of people screaming their lungs out for you, strangers to them, pushing you along with their smiles, shouts, and funny signs. this race would be over before we knew it ... still no sign of powergels yet though!
• bronx: taiko drums! we crossed the willis avenue bridge into the bronx and the 138 east madison avenue bridge back into manhattan and were greeted by japanese taiko drummers! it was sooooo cool. powergels and bananas were handed out around mile 19 finally and i grabbed three. kevin wasn't feeling great during most of the race, and couldn't hold it in any longer, so he told me to go ahead while he beelined for a porta-john.
• manhattan: the last 4-5 miles were really nice. i think because we had taken it slower earlier, i was feeling energized and not totally spent, and tried to pick up the pace for the rest of the race. the most exciting part? probably when we turned into the park around 90th st. this was our turf, our park, the place we had shed our blood sweat tears and wedding vows. i knew it like the back of hand .. unfortunately i also knew there would be a slight uphill in the last 400 meters going into the finish line. that was a little tough ha, but it felt great to finish! 3:51:09

the rest - medals, recovery bag, space blanket, windproof fleece-lined cloak, 72nd st 1-train, awesome sports massage at ohm spa (thank you liz & tom!), and one of THE BEST DINNERS EVER afterwards at hill country with college friends. hill country is a lady's best friend - the guys do the ordering of the food, the pouring of the beers, and there are no dishes to do afterwards. all i had to do was sit and enjoy wonderful company - couldn't have asked for a better way to finish off the night.

today just reaffirms my anticipation for more training and the 2015 nyc marathon :) bring it!!!

best: moist brisket at hill country, obviously :)

worst: 3 hrs at hobo village. next yr im bringing more bubble wrap and wearing two layers of pants!

smile: emily and logan! you guys made my day with your sign. thank you so much! i cannot believe you were out there in the cold!

surprise saturday

i couldn't sleep last night :p i think i was too excited to continue unpacking and putting our stuff away, so around 4:30am, i got up and tiptoed out of the bedroom and continued to move, unpack, and put away our kitchen. la di la. kevin got up and rolled his eyes far far back into the back of his head when he saw me busy in the kitchen around 7:30am.

yes, i have problems getting up before 7am on weekdays, but no problems on the weekends. it's a disease i think.

it was raining lightly out, but we went to the UN for a quick 5k race through the streets of manhattan. there were so many people from so many different countries running! i think they were all in town for the marathon, and marathon runners registered their families so there were lots of kids in this run. we ran down 1st ave, across 42nd street, and back up sixth ave entering central park and finishing at the marathon finish line. kevin and i took it easy and ran it like a slow recovery run. apparently gwen jorgensen won!!! so cool ... 

then back to the apt where our friend gary had arrived from a red-eye flight from la and had let himself him. gary is running the marathon too (for the second time!) so we headed out to gotham west for some grub and jacob javitts to check out the expo. we finally got to try ivan ramen ~ it was pretty darn tasty! i am a fan of his chicken soup base ramen, it's so light! and there were some fun booths at the expo. i decided to give the saucony booth a try and see if i could win a trip to vancouver - ha.

then surprise #1 - my gf, susan, and i had been planning a surprise baby shower for elyse, who is due next month for the last couple weeks. we were going to take her for mani-pedis and then an afternoon brunch at laduree, all under the guise that she was meeting susan for coffee. but elyse felt what may have been early contractions last night so we decided to bag it and she stayed in new jersey. brad is out of town for five days so the baby cannot come out yet!!!

then surprise #2 - i received a voicemail from my dad telling me that he's coming into the city in the afternoon! :) we haven't seen him in +3 months since his retirement in august because he has been in taiwan, but he was coming up to spend the afternoon-evening with us because my mom was going to be busy in flushing with her Qband performance. 

first thing he said when he entered the apartment: "hi kevin, jen, gary. what's the network wifi name and password?" hahaha ... so the rest of the afternoon was spent catching up with my dad, who was busy chatting away with gary and kevin about guy stuff aka jeremy lin ALL AFTERNOON LONG. lol.

for our pre-race dinner, we were originally supposed to have a dinner with cmu friends at spasso, but decided to take my dad out separately and walked over to the meatball shop in chelsea (not to be confused with the west village meat-bola shop). conversation over dinner was much more diverse and interesting, and my dad thanked kevin for paying the bill at the end - what about MOI?? ahem.

i brought my dad about 10 years into the future by introducing him to a few new iphone apps that would simplify his life: njtransit, yelp, and uber, and then he was on his way back to penn station to take train back to holmdel with his senior citizen discounted fare. i'm loving that the apt is so close to penn station so my parents will be able to easily come and go without needing to drive in the future :)

kevin, gary, and i organized our "outfits" for the next day, went to sleep around 10:30 ... 

best: surprise visit from my dad! it was great father-daughter-SIL bonding time. also very glad he could comfortably take the train both ways, and not have to deal with driving, traffic, and parking.

worst: couldn't figure out how to turn the radiators off so the apt is super warm and dry bleghh. sleeping with the windows open and a humidifier helps a bit.

smile: listening to my dad go on and on about jeremy lin's relationship with kobe bryant, and how kobe told him to LEAD THE TEAM and that instantly gave jlin the vote of confidence to up his game. and then listening to my dad watch youtube clips of old jlin nynicks games for hours. it sounded like we had a TV on ALL afternoon, when actually none of the tv's are working yet. my dad is hilarious.