ALMOST THERE :D

with the lazy summer days coming to an end, the last few weeks have been long and tiring at the office. most of my day is spent training my new analyst, cooper, which is exhausting, but hopefully will pay off in the coming months as he gets more proficient with the day-to-day responsibilities. yay.

just gotta stay focused -- in just over 24 hours, we will be on our flight air NZ on our way to auckland via san fran! i wish our plane were the one below tho :p

 i hope we will see all these sheep ... bahhh ...

yoga + spicy dinner

one day of work left and then we're off to NZ! :) starting to feel excited ...

tonight we met on the bryant park lawn for our final evening of outdoor vinyasa yoga, but this time, our party size was five! actually it was supposed to be nine, but a few were not able to join and one friend could not find us on the lawn. kevin doesn't look too happy in this photo, but he is smiling inside :D

it was a difficult class for me because we did some strength training (box workout) at the gym and my groin muscles were seriously burning. the weather was truly amazing though ~ cool with a slight breeze. can't believe it's our final outdoor yoga class! it symbolizes the end of summer and warm weather in a way ...

we rewarded ourselves with a spicy sichuan dinner at wu liang ye a few blocks north. everyone has been traveling and doing so much this summer, it was really nice to catch up. the meal was so so delicious thanks to our knowledgeable friends, claire, yvonne, christine, and christen, for ordering!

rip lehman brothers

today marks the 7th anniversary of the lehman brother holdings chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. i can't believe it's already been seven years! it was a pretty tumultuous time for me and many people i knew, and a day that would change my life forever (and empty out my 401k as well).

thinking back ...

• 7 years ago (2008), i was living and working for lehman brothers in tokyo. my friend, carrie, was staying with me for the week and i felt extremely lucky to have a close friend with me during those tumultuous times. it was also right around the time i met billy and emily, two of my closest friends in japan!
• 6 years ago (2009), i was back in new york city working for nomura securities and getting ready to launch the us index product. our offices were down in the world financial center, which is nowhere as nice as brookfield place is now, but i had a corner seat on the 22nd floor and views of the water. it was a bit distracting to say the least :)
• 5 years ago (2010), rose and i were planning our trip to colombia (october 2010)! as recent friends who did yoga together 2-3 times a week (i miss it ...), we decided to take a weeklong trip together to bogota and cartagena.
• 4 years ago (2011), jordan, forest, and i biked the new york century bike tour. that's +100 miles on the bike through almost all the boroughs (less staten island). it was brutal .. for jordan and forest especially because i was out-of-shape and riding a hybrid. somehow we are still pretty good friends :)
• 3 years ago (2012), kevin and i completed the new jersey gran fondo! well, we biked the first half together, and separated when i opted to do the piccolo fondo (42.6 miles) and kev opted for the medio fondo (62.7 miles). the following weekend, liz and tom, close friends from tokyo, came to visit and stayed with me for a weekend. the following weekend, kevin's younger brother, eric, came to visit and i met him for the first time. i remember it was like +100F all weekend (aka nasty). it was a busy month!
• 2 years ago (2013), we were in chicago celebrating the marriage of our friends, doshi and bijal. it was both of our first times attending an indian wedding (farm animal included, of course) and my first time wearing a sari! it was just a few weeks before our own wedding at the central park boathouse.
• 1 year ago (2014), we were preparing to move out of our union square apartment around this time. i was busy checking up on the renovation at the loft and attending weekly meetings with the architect and contractor. on top of back to back meetings that day, we had dinner at bobby flay's then recently-opened gato with friends. over the weekend, kevin did his second 70.3 half ironman down in princeton, nj. it was a pretty hot and humid day, and the bike and run course was really nothing to brag about, and he did really well :)

war movies

ever since we caught enemy at the gates on tv last month, we [i've] been on a war movie marathon. i'm realizing how little i know about america's history (or world history for that matter, and i'm out to learn as much as i can about our history, our mistakes, our success stories, chinooks, black hawks, little birds, rpgs, and more.

for the last few weekends:

• enemy at the gates
  
• hurt locker
• saving private ryan
• black hawk down

also recently watched:

• lone survivor
• zero dark thirty
• american sniper
• unbroken

and here's our must watch list ... got any others to add to this list?

• full metal jacket
• the thin red line
• behind enemy lines
• schindler's list
• inglorious bastards
• fury
• platoon

runner's diet

it's been some time since we've cooked (weeks?), but tonight we whipped up a simple and tasty nutritious meal for dinner.

dinner menu

black and golden quinoa

wild-caught salmon with lemon herb

sautéed organic kale

roasted russet potatoes with garlic

here's our long-ish run that we got in this morning. we were aiming for 13, but came in at 10 (oops). got a bit of a late start and both of us were feeling pretty winded. we'll have to make it up next week!

we met meb & trackjenny!

after our long run in the morning, we picked up a water bottle for me at the new balance store and a takeaway lunch at maison kayser, and headed over to central park where the nyrr fifth ave mile was taking place. it's a fun annual race which begins at the met and ends at grand army plaza. the course is entirely straight, though with a small incline in the first half and small downhill in the latter half.

we caught the end of the achilles runs, the amateur champs, and then, the elites! in the men's elite, nick willis from nz took first in 3:53 (for the third time) and in the women's elite, jenny simpson, from the us took first in 4:29 (for the fourth time)! the women's race was very tight up until the last 150m when jenny's kick and stride outpaced the second-place finisher.

after the race, we met briefly with meb, winner of the 2014 boston marathon, and i got a chance to meet my running inspiration, trackjenny! i think kev and i were both a little starstruck!

childhood friends

my childhood friend of 20 years, janice, is moving out west!

with her little bundle of joy and thriving career at mgh, janice has been really busy the last couple years, but i am always amazed at how she makes time to catch up with me one-on-one each time before she moves. today i also had a chance to see her mom, brother, and little one, jordan at their hotel! 

it felt so natural and comfortable, probably because that's how we used to hang out in holmdel too. and jordan was really sweet to me, giving me chips, peaches, and grabbing my hand to play cars with him. *melting*

yanks - bluejays

according to kevin, the toronto blue jays and ny yankees are neck and neck on the road to the mlb playoffs! apparently the blue jays are leading by a 1/2 game. this meant very little to me.

so when my friend and client, creighton, reached out to me this morning about going to the bluejays-yankees game tonight, it was a no brainer. we managed 

to get seats in section 116, which is behind the yankees dugout, and found ourselves sitting two rows behind alain vigneault, head coach of the new york rangers! between hits, fans lined up to take photos and congratulate vigneault on the rangers' 2015 stanley cup.

the game was pretty exciting, with the bluejays kicking off the first inning with three runs right off the bat. sadly, the yankees didn't have much of a chance ... they lagged by 3-5 runs for the majority of the game and when we left after the seventh inning stretch, they were down 6 runs (11-5), and that was also the final score. i guess the yanks have even more weight on their shoulders now to win their upcoming games!

the first photo below is lucas hoarding our waters :)

girl crush

i have a girl crush and i'm not afraid to admit it!

her name is jenny simpson and she is an 8-time track & field champion recordholder in the 1500m, as well as olympic gold medalist in the 2012 london olympics 1500m, and silver medalist in the 2013 world championships 1500m.

most recently, jenny competed in the iaaf world championships in beijing china where she was expected to take the gold or silver in the 1500m. in second place with 700 meters to go when another runner clipped the back of her sneaker and eventually she had to kick it off. she finished in 11th place with just one sneaker on and one bloody foot, and if you check out her interview, man, how modest and graceful she is about the whole thing. in addition to being an amazing runner, she has a warm, kind spirit as well.

today jenny ran the 1500m in the diamond league championships in brussels, and i managed to watch it in real-time at work! she did not podium this time, but it was a great race nevertheless. and i'm looking forward to seeing her run and possibly meeting her on sunday at the nyrr fifth ave mile! WOOHOO!

busy as a bee

so i haven't mentioned it yet, but i finally hired an analyst to join my team so i've been pretty busy training him up the past few weeks (hence the delayed posts). not to mention, i've also been spending my free time planning our upcoming trip to NZ.

it's going to be a little quiet ... but will be back soon :)

oddball comedy fest

happy labor day weekend!

we kicked off the long weekend with a longish run and a ride down to holmdel with daisy to have some good ole shanghai bun and watch the oddball comedy fest. the headline acts were amy schumer and aziz ansari! i hadn't seen any of aziz's stuff before, but loved some of amy's recent stuff:

we placed a large order at the local taco bell (finally! someone else who loves taco bell as much as me!) and made our way over to the show. initially before we entered the venue, we got worried that we wouldn't be able to bring food in, so here daisy and kevin are transferring the goods into a clear plastic bag in the middle of the parking lot jersey-style. when we got inside, we popped a squat on the lawn and enjoyed three hours of comedy.

the comedians included: jeff ross, todd barry, jay pharaoah, michael che, jim norton, anthony jeselnik, nick kroll, amy schumer, and aziz ansari! a couple of them were not my "style" so much, but for the most part, they were excellent haha! my favorites were aziz ansari, michael che, anthony jeselnik, and todd barry.

happy friday!

it's been a long week, possibly the first full five day week that I've worked in a while. in addition, it's been tiring training my new analyst, but it should pay off ... i hope!

i saw these guys on my way home. it's closing time for everyone! happy friday and labor day weekend!

happy hour

last thursday after our outdoor yoga class, kevin and i stopped by the starbright floral design for their 6-8pm happy hour! this shop is bright, spacious, and well-maintained. their assortment of plants are always in great condition when we pass by, and i'd been into their shop a few times, but always when on my way out. 

i had been eyeing one of their rubber plants for our garden. tonight we brought the little guy home, and picked up a cactus as well, and both for half off (woot woot)! in the pic below, they are recently reported and basking in the eastern and southern light. please don't grow up too fast!