I realized you all do not pay me to write this stuff, so I give no apologies for the delay this time around. Unless Mema is reading, in which case I am terribly sorry and you are the best Grandma ever. If i was to apologize to the rest of you, it would have been because I have prioritized wedding gift thank you's over blogging. They say you have a year to write these but really... taking a year to write a 5 minute thank you to someone is pretty pathetic. Our government doesn't even work at that slow of a pace.
That being said, this post will be short. I just thought it was neat where I am mailing all of these thank yous. It really does seem like our friends have scattered a bit. Here is a list of some of the more exciting cities, in no particular order.
Miami, FL
West Palm Beach, FL
Orlando, FL
Inverness, FL
Naples, FL
Tampa, FL
Sebring, FL
Jacksonville, FL
Destin, FL
Augusta, GA
Atlanta, GA
Sandersville, GA
Washington D.C.
Nashville, TN
Memphis, TN
Chicago, IL
Dallas, TX
Houston, TX
Boston, MA
Philadelphia, PA
New York City, NY
Falmouth, ME
San Fransisco, CA
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
London, England
Some City in Brasil (I married a Brazilian so I can spell it that way)
If I forgot your city, feel free to hack Lia's gmail and make any necessary changes. Her password definitely has nothing to do with babies.
On to Wedding Awards:
Lia's uncle Dr. Geraldo Abreu wins the award for traveling the greatest distance, flying all the way up from Brasil.
I am keeping the competition for the most expensive gift open until April 2, 2012 in the hopes that I will spark some kind of gifting war. Official Rules: the spot price at the time of receipt of any precious metals will be used in the valuation (Gold is hot right now...), the present value of any future costs associated with keeping something alive will be deducted from its current value (If Lia asks for a Goldendoodle, just say no) and sentimental value in tangible terms will be valued at a maximum of 8 cents.
Back to writing thank you notes... and in case anyone would like to outsource their notes to India, it costs about 25 cents a piece for hand written notes including overseas shipping. I definitely did research it. You would have to be OK with them using non-union labor though.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Return of the LIA
Lia here...I decided to finally return from my blogging hiatus. I am sure you have all been missing me wildly and have been waiting for my return with bated breath. Well, fear no longer dear readers, for I am back!
You may be wondering what I've been doing while NOT blogging. The answer, some pretty awesome stuff. I successfully baked cinnamon rolls from scratch on my first attempt. I only had a small meltdown in the midst of the baking where I realized I didn't know how to knead dough. I sent out a SOS call and my dear husband came to the rescue and pulled up a youtube video on "how to knead dough". Doesn't everyone bake using youtube?
You may be wondering what I've been doing while NOT blogging. The answer, some pretty awesome stuff. I successfully baked cinnamon rolls from scratch on my first attempt. I only had a small meltdown in the midst of the baking where I realized I didn't know how to knead dough. I sent out a SOS call and my dear husband came to the rescue and pulled up a youtube video on "how to knead dough". Doesn't everyone bake using youtube?
Recipe credit: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/06/everyday-cinnamon-rolls/
Yum in my tum, you should be sad if you didn't get to try one.
I used these to bribe my husband for snuggles and a goldendoodle. I also bought friends at work with them. Mission accomplished.
During the small amounts of time we are actually home I've been cooking scrumptious dinners. I basically had cooked like 3 meals in my life before getting married so Sean was pretty nervous about the fate of his belly. Thanks to my great resources (blogs, blogs and more blogs) I've discovered some excellent recipes. So I use all my reading comprehension skills and create masterpieces like this...
Mahi Mahi and rice. Sean liked it! Score!
So it being 4th of July and all I had to bake something patriotic. If you don't bake something red, white or blue (apple pie also counts) on the 4th then you AIN'T MERICAN'. Hence the red velvet brownies.
So, moral of the story is I spend my time either out of town exploring the lands (NYC post coming soon), snuggling babies at work, researching the goldendoodle we won't be getting for at least a year and ensuring that Sean and I stay happy and plump.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Cheecago
So.. in keeping with the theme of me never being home I decided to fly up to Chicago last weekend and attend the bachelor party for one of my best friends/roommates from college, Tyler. He is marrying a girl from college named Mallory in Ohio on July 9th, so be happy for them or something. That is my next destination in line with my strategy to reduce my power bill by never being home.
Tyler's lil brother and the best man in the wedding, Alex, was kind enough to host me for the weekend. We did lots of fun things, and what things we did that really should not have been fun were made fun by the combination of our incredible intellect and striking lack of maturity. Since I am bound by section 34D of the Bro Code not to openly discuss the bachelor party, I will tell you about the other fun stuff we did up in the frozen tundra.
One of the highlights of my weekend was definitely watching the Cubs stomp the Yankees at Wrigley field. This is one of the highlights of the game, as ARod is about to strike out right when the Yanks need him most. Alex had an extra ticket so I convinced my boss to let me wake up and start working at 6am so that I could take off early and head to the game. Definitely worth it. The weather was perfect and Wrigley was an awesome experience. I highly recommend the North Side Twist pretzel... just don't try to eat it alone. I also got to meet Alex's little in BYX and his girlfriend. Both cool people. I'm glad BYX is still recruiting the best and brightest Vandy has to offer!
The Whitmores have always been more than generous in hosting me on my trips to Chicago, so I try to chip in on the chores while I am bumming around the house. Last weekend they happened to get some new furniture delivered for the beach house, so Alex and I remained strictly professional as we unpacked the boxes.
We did not begin work on our real masterpiece until all the other silly work was done. Alex and I were quite proud of our creation, and I can personally attest that absolutely nothing was used in the construction of this magnificent tower except the boxes themselves and ancient Egyptian building techniques. Tape is for losers and nails are not environmentally friendly or something.
After all of the hard work was done, we proceeded to knock down the boxes by throwing a volleyball at the tower repeatedly. It was so solid that this technique barely got us half way. The rest was disassembled safely using certified union labor and proper Chicago building permits. It took 13 years.
So the one downside to staying with the Whitmore's is their ferocious attack dog, Biscuit.
Now I know what you are thinking... awww, isn't she adorable? I could see how you would think that. The wonderful youngest Whitmore, Olivia, nearly had me convinced that this animal was perfect in her weekly newsletters. I can't keep up with many sports or whether or not Obama has decided Keynesian economics are stupid yet, but I always find time to read Livvy Weekly.
Anyway... enough with the pleasantries re: Biscuit.. I now reveal to the world the real Biscuit!
This attack left me in agony for hours and I still carry with me the psychological damage.
Anyway, the final thing I would like to discuss is the Baha'i temple randomly located in Wilmette, IL. We drove by it and it is really cool looking.. but kind of strange.
In line with my laziness-induced ignorance, I had never heard of that religion before but apparently they have built some pretty spectacular temples all over the world. Take a look for yourself: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-temple/bahai-temples-around-the-world/ I don't endorse their beliefs, but I do support their idea of building cool random stuff all over the world.
Oh yeh, the bachelor party was a ton of fun too. Jon, Scott, Tyler and Myself won. Winning. That's all you get. Stay tuned for NYC!
Tyler's lil brother and the best man in the wedding, Alex, was kind enough to host me for the weekend. We did lots of fun things, and what things we did that really should not have been fun were made fun by the combination of our incredible intellect and striking lack of maturity. Since I am bound by section 34D of the Bro Code not to openly discuss the bachelor party, I will tell you about the other fun stuff we did up in the frozen tundra.
One of the highlights of my weekend was definitely watching the Cubs stomp the Yankees at Wrigley field. This is one of the highlights of the game, as ARod is about to strike out right when the Yanks need him most. Alex had an extra ticket so I convinced my boss to let me wake up and start working at 6am so that I could take off early and head to the game. Definitely worth it. The weather was perfect and Wrigley was an awesome experience. I highly recommend the North Side Twist pretzel... just don't try to eat it alone. I also got to meet Alex's little in BYX and his girlfriend. Both cool people. I'm glad BYX is still recruiting the best and brightest Vandy has to offer!
The Whitmores have always been more than generous in hosting me on my trips to Chicago, so I try to chip in on the chores while I am bumming around the house. Last weekend they happened to get some new furniture delivered for the beach house, so Alex and I remained strictly professional as we unpacked the boxes.
We did not begin work on our real masterpiece until all the other silly work was done. Alex and I were quite proud of our creation, and I can personally attest that absolutely nothing was used in the construction of this magnificent tower except the boxes themselves and ancient Egyptian building techniques. Tape is for losers and nails are not environmentally friendly or something.
After all of the hard work was done, we proceeded to knock down the boxes by throwing a volleyball at the tower repeatedly. It was so solid that this technique barely got us half way. The rest was disassembled safely using certified union labor and proper Chicago building permits. It took 13 years.
So the one downside to staying with the Whitmore's is their ferocious attack dog, Biscuit.
Now I know what you are thinking... awww, isn't she adorable? I could see how you would think that. The wonderful youngest Whitmore, Olivia, nearly had me convinced that this animal was perfect in her weekly newsletters. I can't keep up with many sports or whether or not Obama has decided Keynesian economics are stupid yet, but I always find time to read Livvy Weekly.
Anyway... enough with the pleasantries re: Biscuit.. I now reveal to the world the real Biscuit!
This attack left me in agony for hours and I still carry with me the psychological damage.
Anyway, the final thing I would like to discuss is the Baha'i temple randomly located in Wilmette, IL. We drove by it and it is really cool looking.. but kind of strange.
In line with my laziness-induced ignorance, I had never heard of that religion before but apparently they have built some pretty spectacular temples all over the world. Take a look for yourself: http://www.bahai.us/bahai-temple/bahai-temples-around-the-world/ I don't endorse their beliefs, but I do support their idea of building cool random stuff all over the world.
Oh yeh, the bachelor party was a ton of fun too. Jon, Scott, Tyler and Myself won. Winning. That's all you get. Stay tuned for NYC!
Work Place
Hey Strangers,
I am once again way behind, so forgive the lack of timeliness on this post. Anyway, I am staying at a hotel in Orlando for work which happens to be a block away from the Orange County Courthouse.. which some of you weirdos may realize is the site of the Casey Anthony trial.
The place is an absolute media zoo. I can't walk to get a calzone or pita without weaving through all of the reporters.
Unfortunately, my lovely wife is the cause of all these problems. She finds the case fascinating. I will admit, Casey is one crazy lady, but how people can sit there day in and day out and watch lawyers say a bunch of words that don't mean anything is beyond me. It would have been more interesting if she would have testified.
Anyway, I just thought it was cool that I sleep a block away from the psycho mom herself. If you would like me to yell a message at the gigantic building where she is kept while not looking crazy on TV, I might consider it... but then again, that is a pretty tough judge.
I am once again way behind, so forgive the lack of timeliness on this post. Anyway, I am staying at a hotel in Orlando for work which happens to be a block away from the Orange County Courthouse.. which some of you weirdos may realize is the site of the Casey Anthony trial.
The place is an absolute media zoo. I can't walk to get a calzone or pita without weaving through all of the reporters.
Unfortunately, my lovely wife is the cause of all these problems. She finds the case fascinating. I will admit, Casey is one crazy lady, but how people can sit there day in and day out and watch lawyers say a bunch of words that don't mean anything is beyond me. It would have been more interesting if she would have testified.
Anyway, I just thought it was cool that I sleep a block away from the psycho mom herself. If you would like me to yell a message at the gigantic building where she is kept while not looking crazy on TV, I might consider it... but then again, that is a pretty tough judge.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
A Week in the Life
Hey There Friends,
It has come to my attention that many of you do not realize how cool Lia and my life together is. I use the term cool because it is a positive adjective that means absolutely nothing. I am still awake tonight and it is entirely Lia's fault because she works nights. We all know Lia is very counter-cultural, and one way in which she expresses this is by working from 7pm to 7am three nights a week. Me, being the fantastic husband I am, try to stay awake real late with her and then sleep in to 3pm so that she has someone to keep her company. It works out great, because I adjust sleeping schedules very quickly and have Call of Duty Black Ops to keep me company while she works.
Now I try to spend as much time with Lia as possible when I am home because I travel a little. That may actually be an understatement. I have flown about 90 segments in the past year. I leave on Monday mornings to travel to Orlando and stay in a hotel until I fly home on Thursday nights. Sometimes I throw a trip to Chicago, Nashville, Portland or New York in there to confuse Steve Jobs who is tracking me through my iPod.
And the reason this is on my mind is because I have a plethora of work-related news. Our team's contract with the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Orlando expired at the end of May and they have decided not to renew (we were paying them 100 bucks a night while the average price of a room was around 300). The reason this is sad is because of all of the good times and famous people we got to rub elbows with while we stayed there. It is by far the nicest hotel in Orlando, so we got to hang out (sort of) with Oprah, Lebron, DWade, Dwight Howard, Lil Wayne, Geraldo, Rick Ross and many more.
Some of those folks were pretty friendly. Shaq came into our conference room at the hotel and asked us what we did. One of my teammates, Reuben, told him we did healthcare stuff and asked what he did. He grunted and walked away. He was definitely as cool in real life as he was in Shazam.
Here is a video of Shaq creeping on Biebs while he plays the piano. I don't really remember who on my team took the video, but if I figure it out I will yell at them for holding their phone sideways.
So.. we are moving down the street to another Marriott brand hotel, since our directors love the Marriott rewards program. That is only half the news. I also recently received my next project assignment. At the end of August I will start flying each week to Kansas City!
I will be working up there as part of the same nation-wide project. I am excited for the bbq, but not excited to get sick of the bbq and have to deal with winter. I should be up there for a bit more than a year. Anyway, that is my big news.
Also, Lia and I are both going on a 5 day vacation to NYC in about 2 1/2 weeks, so if anyone has any advice on things to do/not to do or cool/cheap/really cheap places to eat, tell Lia.
It has come to my attention that many of you do not realize how cool Lia and my life together is. I use the term cool because it is a positive adjective that means absolutely nothing. I am still awake tonight and it is entirely Lia's fault because she works nights. We all know Lia is very counter-cultural, and one way in which she expresses this is by working from 7pm to 7am three nights a week. Me, being the fantastic husband I am, try to stay awake real late with her and then sleep in to 3pm so that she has someone to keep her company. It works out great, because I adjust sleeping schedules very quickly and have Call of Duty Black Ops to keep me company while she works.
Now I try to spend as much time with Lia as possible when I am home because I travel a little. That may actually be an understatement. I have flown about 90 segments in the past year. I leave on Monday mornings to travel to Orlando and stay in a hotel until I fly home on Thursday nights. Sometimes I throw a trip to Chicago, Nashville, Portland or New York in there to confuse Steve Jobs who is tracking me through my iPod.
And the reason this is on my mind is because I have a plethora of work-related news. Our team's contract with the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Orlando expired at the end of May and they have decided not to renew (we were paying them 100 bucks a night while the average price of a room was around 300). The reason this is sad is because of all of the good times and famous people we got to rub elbows with while we stayed there. It is by far the nicest hotel in Orlando, so we got to hang out (sort of) with Oprah, Lebron, DWade, Dwight Howard, Lil Wayne, Geraldo, Rick Ross and many more.
Some of those folks were pretty friendly. Shaq came into our conference room at the hotel and asked us what we did. One of my teammates, Reuben, told him we did healthcare stuff and asked what he did. He grunted and walked away. He was definitely as cool in real life as he was in Shazam.
Here is a video of Shaq creeping on Biebs while he plays the piano. I don't really remember who on my team took the video, but if I figure it out I will yell at them for holding their phone sideways.
So.. we are moving down the street to another Marriott brand hotel, since our directors love the Marriott rewards program. That is only half the news. I also recently received my next project assignment. At the end of August I will start flying each week to Kansas City!
I will be working up there as part of the same nation-wide project. I am excited for the bbq, but not excited to get sick of the bbq and have to deal with winter. I should be up there for a bit more than a year. Anyway, that is my big news.
Also, Lia and I are both going on a 5 day vacation to NYC in about 2 1/2 weeks, so if anyone has any advice on things to do/not to do or cool/cheap/really cheap places to eat, tell Lia.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The Wife Debate
So.. as Lia bakes me delicious cookies and tells me how I am the best at everything, I am relatively pleased with my decision to marry her. I have, however, been exposed to the dark side of marriage.
Sly and Edu, my cool hipster in-laws, came up to visit us last Saturday. We watched the UEFA Championship (soccer) and then they took us to dinner at a nice little Peruvian place about 2 blocks from our apartment. The food was delicious and the weather was great, so we ate outside. The meal was just about perfect until about 2 minutes after we got our entrées.
At that time, a little old man and his wife were walking by and the gentlemen tripped and hit the ground... hard. He was bleeding a good bit from his nose and a gash on his forehead. Lia ran over and tried to play nurse, but there was already another nurse there and the man was slightly larger than the average premature newborn, so Lia eventually returned to the table. They called an ambulance, but the man stopped bleeding pretty quickly and was fine in no time at all.
So, don't think that this story is about the man, because he was a trooper. I hope he recovers quickly and completely, and based on how tough he was, I have no questions he will. His wife, however, is a different story.
Right after the man went down, instead of rushing to his aid, she just stood there. A minute later, she sits down. She then begins hyperventilating and sure enough, starts throwing up repeatedly right next to her poor husband. Everyone leaves the side of the man who was actually injured and rushes to the aid of this lady. When the cops arrive, they think that the lady is the one in distress until one of them notices the guys blood. When the ambulance finally arrives, they carry her away on the stretcher!
At this point a lot of people in the restaurant were completely baffled. The man has been up, walking around and trying to console his wife for a good 15 minutes. He walked himself over to the ambulance and rode with her to the hospital.
Now some of you are going to say that it was a traumatic event in her life and that I am a bad person. You are probably right. I do however present the argument that being unable to handle stress combined with a flare for the dramatic makes you a liability to be around. If something bad happens to you, do you want to be with someone who will assist you or try to one-up you? So, all of you single people, before you take the plunge, make sure that your spouse is a nurse. I have a single male cousin who just graduated from nursing school if any of you ladies are interested.
Sly and Edu, my cool hipster in-laws, came up to visit us last Saturday. We watched the UEFA Championship (soccer) and then they took us to dinner at a nice little Peruvian place about 2 blocks from our apartment. The food was delicious and the weather was great, so we ate outside. The meal was just about perfect until about 2 minutes after we got our entrées.
At that time, a little old man and his wife were walking by and the gentlemen tripped and hit the ground... hard. He was bleeding a good bit from his nose and a gash on his forehead. Lia ran over and tried to play nurse, but there was already another nurse there and the man was slightly larger than the average premature newborn, so Lia eventually returned to the table. They called an ambulance, but the man stopped bleeding pretty quickly and was fine in no time at all.
So, don't think that this story is about the man, because he was a trooper. I hope he recovers quickly and completely, and based on how tough he was, I have no questions he will. His wife, however, is a different story.
Right after the man went down, instead of rushing to his aid, she just stood there. A minute later, she sits down. She then begins hyperventilating and sure enough, starts throwing up repeatedly right next to her poor husband. Everyone leaves the side of the man who was actually injured and rushes to the aid of this lady. When the cops arrive, they think that the lady is the one in distress until one of them notices the guys blood. When the ambulance finally arrives, they carry her away on the stretcher!
At this point a lot of people in the restaurant were completely baffled. The man has been up, walking around and trying to console his wife for a good 15 minutes. He walked himself over to the ambulance and rode with her to the hospital.
Now some of you are going to say that it was a traumatic event in her life and that I am a bad person. You are probably right. I do however present the argument that being unable to handle stress combined with a flare for the dramatic makes you a liability to be around. If something bad happens to you, do you want to be with someone who will assist you or try to one-up you? So, all of you single people, before you take the plunge, make sure that your spouse is a nurse. I have a single male cousin who just graduated from nursing school if any of you ladies are interested.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
The Taming of the Mane
Hello Valued Readers,
I have shocking news for all of you. First off, I am way behind and you all should expect a barrage of posts soon. Secondly, Lia chopped off her beautiful mane and paid someone to rub carrot juice in her hair which makes it straight like white people hair. She looks quite cute, but this is one of the most drastic steps she has taken yet towards integrating into american society. The last grasp for acceptance into white culture this significant was when she married me. Don't worry, this was much cheaper.
So you all remember the beautiful amazonian princess that I married, pictured above with her full flowing mane. Now take a look at the transformation! She can pretty much walk through Arizona now without anyone even thinking about asking to see her citizenship papers.
So that is my story. My wife no longer has the long flowing locks of her youth. I think this symbolizes a new stage in our lives, a step forward into maturity. Goodbye to video games and tv, and hello to... better video games and HDTV? Growing up isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be.
I have shocking news for all of you. First off, I am way behind and you all should expect a barrage of posts soon. Secondly, Lia chopped off her beautiful mane and paid someone to rub carrot juice in her hair which makes it straight like white people hair. She looks quite cute, but this is one of the most drastic steps she has taken yet towards integrating into american society. The last grasp for acceptance into white culture this significant was when she married me. Don't worry, this was much cheaper.
So you all remember the beautiful amazonian princess that I married, pictured above with her full flowing mane. Now take a look at the transformation! She can pretty much walk through Arizona now without anyone even thinking about asking to see her citizenship papers.
So that is my story. My wife no longer has the long flowing locks of her youth. I think this symbolizes a new stage in our lives, a step forward into maturity. Goodbye to video games and tv, and hello to... better video games and HDTV? Growing up isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be.
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