Living the Suite Life

Its been an interesting last few days for me. Wednesday and Thursday of last week I spent the whole day in time management training. I think it may really help, not only the way I get work done, but also the ways I spend my free time. The training focused on a technique of dumping all the little projects you have running around in your brain, and then thinking about what physical action you can take on them next. It offers a surprising amount of mental clarity allowing you to focus on the things you can actually take action on at that exact moment. On Friday I got a visit from my old friend Jackie, a USF MBA classmate. She was in San Francisco for 4 days for a trade show, and I swung by on my half day on Friday to check out her booth. Her company sells Fiberglass doors that look like real wood. She was actually working, so I took off to find W's internship in Fremont so I could pick up our tickets for a baseball game on Saturday. Later Jackie and I sat down for sushi at my favorite sushi place, where the owner knows W and I by name. I warned Jackie she might get the evil eye when we walked in, and sure enough she got it. I assured the owner that W was at work, and our meeting had her blessing and that I was bringing home leftovers for W, and then everything was fine. Saturday we were fairly lazy, with the exception of a trip out to the A's Giants game. W's internship had paid for a suite, and provided copious amounts of pizza, wings,salad, chips and popcorn. The A's lost 1-0, but our view was amazing. We were high above Center field looking straight ahead into the catchers mitt.
Sunday, I sat around and watched the Olympic trials for a while, and I find that my heart still beats a bit faster when they ring the bell for the last lap. I even found myself motivated enough to go out for a run. It actually felt good, and our weather is cool enough I actually had to dress warmly to fight off the breeze coming off the bay at sunset. Have I mentioned how much I love living here?

Dear Blog, I've been kind of a Jerk

I haven't written to tell you what's going on, and really a lot has. Meanwhile you've sat here in the dark space of the internet just waiting to hear about my next adventure. You don't ask for much, just that I stop by once in a while and tell you what's going on, and encourage people to visit you. and I haven't really done much of either. Enough apologies, Lets get to the business at hand. What have I been doing since I last posted on April 2nd? Let's start with my Happy mother's day wish picture I meant to send out for mothers day. (These birds live rent free above our entrance, and crap on our stairs all the time, but they made a great mother's day grouping for me) What else have I been doing? A lot of saving, including giving up my daily cup of Peet's coffee in the morning. My co-workers miss me coming on the journey every morning, but the baristas who seemed so nice everyday never even noticed I stopped coming in. I've even learned to bring in my lunch everyday. I managed to get back to Florida for a weekend for the annual Cathryn Yvonne Herron memorial golf tournament and my grandmother's 90th birthday. We had another great year at the tournament, raising lots of money, and I came oh-so-close to winning a Blackjack II in the raffle on Friday night. ( I really, Really, Really need a new phone) I had to buy a ticket on my old friend Airtran Airways, and got a super cheap ticket, apparently right before oil and ticket prices went absolutely insane. Back in the good old days, I used to fly Airtran from Atlanta to Tampa for $96. The cheapest one I could find right now was $239. Grandmas birthday turned out to be a very nice event that included multiple cakes, and lots of friends and family in town to wish her well.Mom Threw a great party at Grandma's place and then we had a big giant dinner at El Greco the special of the night was a spanakopita with grouper. It was awesome. Plus we got a chance to order some Saganaki and yell Opa!!!
Since I've been home work has been... well... work, but I'm mostly putting my head down and fighting through. Oh, Did I mention W and I finally got engaged. Oh yeah, I guess you'd probably like details. The Frequently asked Questions
1. Have you set a date yet? No, we're working on that, details to follow.
2. Did she know it was coming? Sort of. Our schedules are crappy, so we had to pick a day and say we're going to do it on this day. So she knew what the final outcome would be, but didn't know how the night would play out.
3. Did you get down on one knee? Yes!
4. Did you go someplace nice? Yes, I decided to find us a table someplace nice in the city and found some room at Jardiniere in the city. I am now a big fan of the magic of opentable.com, my official new best friend.
5. How's the food? Amazing! We sprung for the 7 course tasting menu with the sommelier's pairings
6. Seven courses?
A. Seared Bigeye Tuna, Avocado, Jalpeno and Grapefruit Gelee, Tsar Nicoulai Caviar
B. Salade Riche: Lobster Foi Gras and Summer Truffles, Walnut Vinaigrette
C. Housemade Gnocchi with Devil's Gulch Rabbit, Porcini mushrooms and parmigiano-reggiano
D. Liberty Farms Duck Breast, Blackberries, Farro and Watercress, Vanilla Gastrique
E. Prather Ranch Lamb Corn and Bacon Bread Pudding, Rosemary Jus
F. Rabiola Due Latti, Brooks Cherries, Hazelnuts and Toasted Baguette
G. Apricot, Honey and Goat's Milk Ices, Pistachios, and Sea Salt Tuile

During the first course I found myself trying to get every last little bit of caviar off my plate. (there is no polite way to do this). I'd never eaten foi gras before, but already find it a new favorite) I can assure You I'd buy up a bottle of each and every bottle of the pairings that we had with each of these. It was a fabulous dinner, and our service was excellent. The waiter even asked us why we were there, and when our dessert arrived, "congratulations!" was written on the plates in chocolate. After dinner we went on a little trip. We boarded a miniature 747 and flew to Frankfurt, which looked a lot like our living room. We had a nice Riesling, and then took a little train ride to Brussels which looked a lot like our spare bedroom. I had some prints of some of my favorite pictures from Brussels, and had put them up around the room so it would look like the Grote Markt. I even reproduced the snack we ate there and served our favorite Belgian Beer, Stella Artois.
Frequently asked questions continued:
Did she cry? No
Did you cry? No
Finally, We manged to finally push W all the way through college, and got to celebrate all over the place. Saturday morning I cooked everyone pancakes, eggs, bacon, a fruit salad, and an Entenmanns pastry that we picked up from our new favorite place to shop the Entenmann's/Orowheat outlet. Then it was off to the graduation. It was outside in the stadium, and was the most casual graduation event I'd ever been to. It was essentially anything goes from umbrellas and balloons to walking around and talking through the entire event and tossing tortillas. We then threw quite a party at the Englander and had about 40 people come out to celebrate with us. Even my old friend Wayne who I ran cross country at Auburn with made an appearance. I managed to forget sunblock for the day and was absolutely beet red for the night. Sunday morning W's dad threw a brunch at the Spinnaker in Sausilito. The Eggs Juneau (Salmon and a poached egg on an English muffin with hollandaise sauce) were delicious. We also got a great view of the city from outside

Life is Full of Difficult Choices

So, it will be a while before my posts are as fun as the last five, In the meantime you can entertain yourself with the full set of 300+ pictures here. I'm finally starting to lose my patience for Kodak Easy Share software. It's convenient, and is intuitive, but has a bad tendency to slow our computers down something fierce, and Picasa has a few more fun editing toys to play with until I actually take the time to teach myself how to use Photoshop. I jumped right back in to a job interview this week, taking the drive down to Sunnyvale to do 4 rounds of 30 minute interviews. I thought it went pretty well until the recruiter left me a message today asking if I'd still be interested if the role was materially different than what I thought I was applying for. I'm not sure how to read it, but am worried now since this will be the second time someone had interviewed me and then changed their mind about what it was they wanted in a candidate. I've been skipping out of my current gig to go to a lot of interviews, so I may have to slow down just a bit to minimize the suspicion level. Even with invisialign, I can't possibly need as many dentist appointments as I've had to take off for lately. Essentially I'll have to decide if commuting for a bigger paycheck is worth it, or if losing some of the extra responsibility they'd originally told me about sours the deal. Last night i was up super late because I had to drop W's car off at SFO. She was due in at 4 a.m., so my choices were either the 45 minute drive and the hour plus ride on BART plus a taxi home or getting up and going to get her in the middle of the night. Let's just say it's real quiet on Bart after 10. When I got back I needed to do a little late night grocery shopping so I dropped by our local Foodmax. I was really really really tempted to buy some Cod or Salmon, until I looked at the label to see it was a product of Canada. All I could see was my sad little lolseal (which did not win the contest unfortunately) and I ended up with the rotisserie chicken.

Day 6, Another Brick in the Wall

Remote Outpost
Originally uploaded by jrherron

On our sixth and final full day in china we had arranged to be picked up at the hotel at 7 to be whisked off to the Mutianyu section of the great wall. Yes, We'd been there in November, but Francie had never been, and the weather had no choice but to be better than the first time we were there. As you can see we got significantly improved conditions from the first time. A side effect of that was that we had to share the wall with more people on this day, As you can see from the pictures, it was a fair trade. It was a beautiful day, we'd brought snacks and drinks, and we were ready to do some walking. Instead of Taking a left after the lift we took a right, and found the climbing to be much steeper. The right side is actually much shorter too, so we were able to turn back at the end of the fully restored portion and walk a little back the way we'd gone originally. We spent about 3 hours up there and napped a little on the way back and asked our driver "Victor" to recommend us a lunch place. He took us someplace in the Lido district near where some of W's fellow employees stay when they're in town. The sign outside said Welcome flight crews (in English) and we actually chatted up a flight attendant from the Beijing/Chicago flight while we ate.

Up close and Personal
Originally uploaded by jrherron

There was a dish called famously delicious green beans on the menu, and it turns out they were as good as advertised. Salty and with just enough pork to make them interesting, they went down wonderfully. Then we stopped by the Ladies street market to find some silk flowers Francie had been admiring at the Massage place, and then to the Framing store to pick up our goods. We were pleased with all but one of the frames, but we ended up not getting charged for it. After that it was back to the hotel to drop off our goods, and then a final trip to the pearl market to pick up a few last minute items. We had some trouble catching a legitimate cab back out to the lake district, but eventually found someone to take us and we ate inside at the same restaurant as the afternoon before. We went back to the hotel to pack up all our goods, and W and I snuck out for one more massage.
We knew we had too many bags to fit in one cab in the morning but the concierge arranged us a bigger luxury car for just under what it would have cost to get 2 cabs. We were immediately given business class seats on the plane, and did some last minute shopping at the Olympic store, and wandered off to the plane where we got upgraded to first class. I watched 2 movies and then crashed hard waking up just in time for breakfast. After a quick shower I ran off to work for a 1 pm meeting that I really needed to attend. I hope nobody was watching me too closely because I was nodding off frequently and would wake up just as my head was starting to drop.

Day 5, Power Tourism

100_2652
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our 5th Day in Beijing (Sunday if you're somehow trying to keep track) W and I split up to accomplish important Vacation Goals for ourselves. I wanted to go out and see some more sights, and W wanted to rest. And since it was just the 3 of us including Francie, we could actually do what we wanted. So Francie and I mapped out a route plan and got rolling around 9. Our first stop was the Lama Temple, a place Madhura had highly recommended we visit since we had tourist time. We took a cab directly there and spent an hour or so marveling at it's architectural details, Admiring the Giant Sandalwood Buddha, and choking on all the incense that was being offered up by worshipers there. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed of the giant Buddha, but you can find some here. Ready for more adventure and some fresh air we jumped on the subway ($.50 for both of us) to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden Palace. It was so busy in the square that I only got offered a Mao watch one time, I was (almost) disappointed.

I gave Francie the abbreviated tour, and we even found a part that costs an extra 10 RMB each that W and I missed on our first trip there. It had beautiful pieces of Jade and Gold artwork and the enormous official seals of the emperors. We took a quick cab ride back to the hotel to meet up with a rested and happy W and then were ready to Go check out the lake district and the old summer palace. We were starving by that point and decided to detour to the lake district first to find a little lunch. We found a great restaurant with some outdoor seating that served wonderful regional dishes served over a Sterno burner. It was a picture perfect day, so we rented a little electric boat and cruised around the lake for an hour.
We only got rammed by another boat once, and that was mostly because the wind was a little stronger than our piddly electric motor and the other boat's human peddle power. We continued our journey around the lake and were constantly accosted by peddi-cab drivers offering a Hutong tour. We found a cute little bar with comfy couches and settled in for a beer and a review of the maps. and then cruised off for a massage. I went along for the ride and sat comfortably in a chair watching tv and grabbing a little nap. I watched the most ridiculous state media coverage of the events in Lhasa, and have never been so angry at the TV before. I won't say too much about it here, since I do intend to go back again and would prefer not to be arrested in customs as a dissident the next time I visit.

Time for Reflection
Originally uploaded by jrherron

But some day ask me what the internal news coverage looked like. Oddly enough in the same news coverage there was news about the 5th anniversary of the Iraq war that I completely agreed with. It was crazy juxtaposition. We went back to the hotel and rested from a busy day, and to mentally prepare ourselves for our last day in town.

Day 4, More shopping + Malaysian Food

So once again the morning started with a crazy rush to the airport, and a less than stellar Chinese style breakfast on board a China Eastern Airlines flight. We swung back by our hotel dropped our junk off and went for some lunch at our new favorite restaurant near the pearl market. We shopped some more spending an insane amount of time helping Betty buy a Wii. The Wiis sold by our favorite and highly recommended electronics guy (Who's name and shop I won't mention here) are Japanese models chipped to play lots of games easily available in the market place. We decided to test it pretty thoroughly on the spot, and I had to teach them how to sync the wiimote to the machine. The menus are all in Japanese, but as long as you buy games in English it works fine. After surviving the super lengthy purchase process, It was time for dinner at our favorite restaurant in Beijing, Cafe Sambal. We had a big group and found a lady standing outside the pearl market with a van looking for some people to give a ride to. She was charging at least double what a cab would have cost, but since we would have needed at least 2 and possibly a third cab, it suddenly seemed like a good deal. Fortunately Betty knows the neighborhood so well that when our driver didn't know whee she was, Betty knew exactly where to go. The restaurant is hiding in a Hutong but is filled with the most delicious Malaysian food you ever laid eyes on. Exhausted from a full day we crashed early.
To start the post I've given you a look at Xi'an's calligraphy street, below, a little bit of awesome grammar for your viewing pleasure. I'm accepting definitions for the word "areaturnover".

Day 3, Warriors, Come Out and Play

Warriors, Come Out and Play
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our second full night in Beijing I was doomed not to get any sleep at all. We had to catch a 7 a.m flight the next day which meant needing to walk out the door at 5. Our room didn't have a clock that lit up so it was very difficult to tell what time it was without getting up and finding enough light to read a clock. I woke up at 3 and only dozed for the next hour. It wasn't fun, but it was far from the most painful part of the day. We rushed like crazy to get everyone downstairs to the 3 cabs we had ordered, and arrived at the airport and got ourselves checked in pretty smoothly. The hard part would be the security line. We stood in this huge mass of people with everyone growing more and more nervous about actually making their flight. Standing in line is not something built into the Chinese culture like it is into ours, so at every conceivable opportunity someone would try to push past you as if you weren't standing there or cut under the rope that made the line orderly. We knew we were cutting it close and ran through the terminal after having our bags picked apart and having each and every liquid or gel sniffed by a security person. We got to our gate just in time to find out it had been changed, and had to backtrack to a different gate. We then waited on a bus for 15 minutes to gather all the flight's stragglers and got on in the very back rows of the plane. (That'll learn you to make your reservation 2 days before you want to go). The flight was short and they served a bad breakfast (you could opt for the Chinese style breakfast of porridge, or the even less appetizing egg and sausage western style breakfast). The good news was the seats were actually quite comfortable equivalent to W's employers upgraded seats, and was far less scary than you might think. The flight attendants were quite helpful, and all spoke at least some English, and in typical Asian style went through a couple of wardrobe changes even for such a short flight. We went to the information booth and scored a van big enough for all of us for something like $10 per person for as much time and mileage as we needed. We went straight to the Terra Cotta Warriors museum and and began to take in the sights. Under the massive domes you can shove your way up into the picture taking throng and struggle to hold your camera steady enough to get good pictures. (Flashes and Tripods are forbidden D'OH!!!) It's hard to imagine that the Soldiers are over 2000 years old. The compound itself is huge, and makes for a solid 3 hours of walking around snapping pictures and taking in the history. When we got done we stopped by the little cafe to have a Vienetta on a stick. It was awesome!!!! We had an hour ride to the hotel, and ran right back out to eat our first real meal of the day. Needless to say most of our party was cranky and hungry by that point and patience with wait staff and each other was wearing a little thin. We ended up at a hot pot and seafood place, but didn't eat either, settling on some non-threatening typical Chinese food. About half the group had bailed to the KFC, and actually missed out on a very tasty soup and a nice fried rice dish. In the process we learned that the hand signal for 8 is not what you'd expect it to be. Your instinct tells you to hold up 8 fingers, when in fact you should just make an L shape with your thumb and index finger, if you want to be understood that is.

The South Gate
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Use of the walkies reconnected us with the group on top of the city walls, where we really wanted to rent a bike and ride the 9 mile trek around the city, but we'll have to save that for next time. Most of the group went to the Xi'an branch of their favorite massage place, but I went back to the room at the Sheraton Xi'an and promptly fell into a ridiculously deep sleep. W even brought me a dessert home that I had to eat for breakfast the next morning. Which was good, because I had to face another early flight and boring Chinese Porridge again for breakfast the next day.

Here's almost the whole crew hamming it up on the ancient wall of Xi'an From Left to right you've got Millie, Francie, Shin, Heather, Betty, Madhura, W and Me. The Tripod and Camera are managing themselves and Jen stayed back in Beijing since she'd already been to Xian Before

Day 2,Shoppers Paradise?

On our second day in Beijing We had much shopping to do. We rolled out of bed at 9, and grabbed new travel buddy Shin and rolled out to the framing store. We knew it was near the workers stadium, but unfortunately our cab driver dropped us off on the wrong side of it. We strolled around and put in our framing order in, and then it was off to experience the Pearl Market.
I learned a quick lesson on the way that if I memorized the Chinese names for places, I'd actually understand when the cabbie asked me to confirm. (The name of the Pearl Market is Hongqiao [pronconced: hong chow])Since I was the tallest in our party most of the time I had front seat privileges, which also meant having navigation and negotiation duty. We never visited the pearl market on our first visit, so this would a new experience. We made a side trip to the noodle restaurant across the street from the pearl market and were pleasantly surprised by its awesomeness. Unfortunately I don't know what it's English name is, but I recommend it.

When you walk in some one in front yells something across the restaurant and several waiters seem to compete to serve you. There was a very tasty eggplant dish, and a really great sweet/spicy chicken dish with nuts. With full stomachs we walked back across the catwalk for some power shopping. A few gadgets and purses (from the super secret around the way purse shop) and some scarves later it was time to meet up with the other half of our party for some shopping and dinner at the Silk Market. We all had walkie-talkies that had impressive range, and we arranged to meet at one of the coffee shops on the street level. We grabbed a few things from our favorite jeweler, and then it was time for some Peking Duck at Quanjude. This branch seemed a little more touristy than the one we'd eaten at in November but our duck and side dishes were still very delicious. After Dinner we made an early night of it, since we had a 7 a.m. flight to Xi'an the next morning.

Repeat Offenders, Day One

Next in Line
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Early Tuesday morning it was time to throw off the shackles of work and do what we do best, jump on a plane travel far away and make a town our own. This time we meant business, since we'd already been to Beijing once, and knew what to expect in a lot more situations. Getting on the plane was mostly drama free, scoring some first class seats for Me, W and travel/food buddy Francie. I watched Alvin and the chipmunks, Superbad, and 3:10 to Yuma. There was time for a little nap mixed in there, but I found myself unable to get a real night's sleep and knew I'd pay for it later. We arrived in Beijing early Wednesday afternoon and had much running around to do. We met the rest of our travel party at the hotel, and then broke out to the Sheraton Great Wall, where we had to go sit with the travel agent to arrange the final details of our Xi'an trip. We grabbed a little food at a little place the Sheraton Concierge recommended right around the corner, where we dove right into our first Chinese food and our first Tsingtao. We had to go back to the hotel after that, since W had to take one of her finals online. After her test, we were ready for some Peking Duck. We asked specifically how to get to the Famous place in town that we'd been to last time, but instead got pointed to a place right near the hotel (The Marriott Executive Apartments) that we got lost trying to find. We went back, and someone else at the concierge desk actually walked us there personally. It was a nice gesture, but the place was already closed, so she nicely walked us to a nearby noodle shop that had great food, little spoken English, and a cat that wouldn't stop crying while we were there. I know what you're thinking, and the cat was a very well taken care of pet on a leash who was just a little noisy, he was never in any pain. We enjoyed a great meal that included fresh made noodles and then went back to the hotel and crashed pretty hard.

Standing up for a worthy cause

Jason, San Leandro, CA
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Attached is my entry into the HSUS Anti seal hunt campaign lolseal contest. I don't really think I'll win, but W is such a seal person it was only fitting that I at least enter and show my support. I've been running around a lot lately trying to find a new gig. My fate was "sealed" on that one when I had a meeting with my boss a couple of weeks ago. I said, I think this job is substantially different from what I thought it was going to be and is much more difficult based on some new structural changes. The response I got was I don't really see what the problem is, the other guy used to do it. So at that point I actively started looking. The results have been slow, and not all that great. I had an inteview with a startup software company that would have been perfect. I had to drive to Palo Alto twice, spent a total of 12 hours including travel time, just to have them decide they wanted some one LESS experienced so it would be cheaper. I almost threw up. For perspective you can find my countless other posts about not getting a job because I didn't have any experience. Another potential job sent me to Brisbane for 3 hours worth of 30 minute interviews. I impressed my potential manager, but did not impress the next level up guy because I couldn't quote the job description very well. I had another phone interview with someone today and you can be sure I'd committed the job description to memory. This week we are packing our bags again, and I'm not working for a whole week, so you can assume lots of pictures and excitement are coming your way very soon.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day

Froggy Love
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

You didn't come here to read about how busy I've been, So I won't bore you with the details. Lets just say a few days last week working from 7:30 to 9:00 which hasn't left me time for a lot of fun or creativity. But the night before Valentine's day I was up late baking for our annual Valentine's day baking contest, and asked my friends here to do a little posing for me before they met their untimely demise. For the record my pie finished in second place behind some strawberry cheesecake bars, which means I didn't win the flat screen monitor (for work purposes only) that was up for grabs. Lemon desserts can be polarizing, some people, W included, just plain don't like them. That's O.K. it gave me an opportunity to make one, since it would be almost 3 years since my last one.

Heron at the Moon
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

This past weekend W and I took a nice little trip out to Lake Chabot to get some exercise and enjoy the suddenly very nice weather. As usual I had the camera with me and grabbed this shot. It's a good thing we got out when we did, since the bay area decided to dive right back into winter and throw more rain and cold at us.

Au Revoir Belgique

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Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our third day we moved even slower, knowing there would be little open in the morning. I found some breakfast at the food maker, one of the few open locations down the street with come croissants and a coffee riding around in our stomachs, we could venture off to see the sights of Brussels. We took the metro to the center of the city, and wandered around the Grand Place, taking pictures and milling about with the other tourists. We then dropped by to see the Manneken Pis, although he was not dressed up on this day. We wandered around a bit looking at the little shops and then went back to the Grand place for some food and and authentic Belgian Beer. We enjoyed a beer and some salami and cheese, and then had a strawberry ice cream sort of dish and a spiked coffee drink to warm ourselves back up.

Alley to history
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Yes it was a tourist trap, but the beer was tasty, and we needed a snack. On our way back to the hotel we dropped back in to the food maker for something to drink, and went to the hotel to rest up a bit. Finally we walked down our little restaurant street and found a brasserie where we ordered some tasty beers had a great meal and enjoyed our final night in Brussels. I finally sat down to the huge portion of Mussels and fries (Moules et Frites) that I'd seen everyone else eating since we'd gotten to town. They are just as good as advertised. The hotel was out of irons, so they did our ironing for us the next morning, and we took the train and a bus to Brussels airport. We got slightly less cozy first class seats on a 767 on the way home, but it was certainly more comfortable than the coach ride we took from D.C. to San Francisco.

All dressed up with no place to go

All dressed up with no place to go
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Fortunately for us the whole city of Brussels gets off to a slow start on weekends, so when I got up around nine, there was still not a lot of places open. Even the sun gets off to a slower start here, with sunrise not until after 7:30 a.m. I scored us a few croissants in the metro station, and then did some reading while W slept some more, trying to rest off whatever she was fighting. We grabbed a delicious light lunch at the food court in the shopping center next to us at a little place called le pretexte. We had a really tasty prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich and then went off to try to find the grand place. It was raining and windy and crappy and we didn't know exactly which way to walk, so I ended up just dropping W back off at the hotel. After a snack I went out and wandered around, just getting know where things were and riding the metro a bit more so I'd know my way around. I found the botanical garden, a few interesting churches, and then by accident wandered right into the grand place. I turned a corner and bumped into Belgium's most famous landmark, and he was even all dressed up for the occasion. When I'd gotten wet and cold and tired enough I went back and dragged W out for dinner, this time choosing La Vigne, on the same little street we'd eaten on the night before. We ate in authentic Brussels style starting with an apertif, a starter of cheese croquets, and I had sole fillets with mussels, and W had a very tasty cordon bleu. I had a fabulous mousse au chocolate for dessert that seemed absolutely sinful. Early to bed again, for one more big day.

Bonjour Bruxelles

Clear day in the city
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Our Brussels trip was in trouble on its first day when W woke up with an earache. Spending 9 hours on a flight would certainly not be fun with sinus and ear pain, She took one for the team and decided to tough it out anyway so we jumped on a flight headed for Frankfurt and away we went. We've traveled so much lately that the movies haven't changed much since the last time we flew, but I did have time to check out rush hour 3,(not bad for a sequel) and Mr. Woodcock (not recommended). Because it was the longest of the movies available I also spent too much time watching the end of Into the wild (boring, and sad). The upgraded food on the plane was awesome I had a lamb with apricot curry that I really enjoyed. When we arrived in Frankfurt, W was an unrested, congested, teary shell of her self, so we grabbed a quiet place to sit to consider our options, and then decided on taking the train to Brussels. It would take about 5 hours, but would be a scenic journey. We had mapped out a trip from home already, so we were able to walk up to the automated ticket machine grab some tickets and head for our train. the trip up the romantic Rhine was beautiful, with little villages and castle ruins all along the way.

Train on the Rhine
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

The train was moving too fast and it was too cloudy for many pictures, but you get somewhat of a sense from it here. When we arrived at the North Brussels train station, we knew we had a tight connection, and missed it, but a very helpful English speaker at the information booth pointed us in the right direction. We got on a train on a line I still haven't figured out, and it stopped at one point and we were afraid it had been taken out of service. We arrived at Gare Central (the central Brussels station) and knew our hotel should have been within walking distance, but tired, sick, and quickly getting wet, we just decided to get a cab for €10 and be done traveling for the day. We settled in to our hotel for a bit and then I went out to explore the neighborhood. I found the closest metro station, and some potential restaurants for dinner. After a nap W was starting to come around, so we wandered out for dinner and found Le Délire Parisien. We started with a delicious French onion soup. W had a salad, and I had a delicious duck with Thai style seasonings. For dessert W had a fresh fruit plate and I had the most wonderful sabayon spiked with Grand Marnier. We called it a night early and retired to our room. We stayed at the Sofitel Brussels Toison d'Or. Our room was actually very nice, and the service was friendly and helpful. It was conveniently located near the Louise metro station, with plenty of shopping and restaurants, and one very loud church bell nearby. The room was however, quite warm with the lowest setting on the heater a balmy 20 degrees C. We spent a lot of time with the window open, but it was super windy and that kept moving the door. Definitely the most comfortable bed ever though. We didn't want to get up at all the next morning

No new posts for a while... that can only mean one thing

OK, so its been a while since I made an update, and you know what that means. Sometimes work and other work and wii (this week it's the Simpsons game) and even some old school PS2 (NBA street volume 3) have been getting in the way of my blogging life. W spends less evenings at work now that school's back in session, and the nights when I have the house to myself are the ones that I actually have time to sit down and organize my thoughts into words. So these are the relevant facts.
1. I've been working hard, my relationship with my 3rd boss since I got promoted has been interesting, she leaves at 4 everyday come hell or high water, and since she gets an earlier start than I do I'm frequently greeted by 3 emails before I even get my computer turned on in the morning.
2. Whenever I work hard for a quarter close I usually like to reward myself somehow.
3. There's a 3 day weekend coming up and if I leave the office at 11:30 tomorrow I get four and a half days off for the price of one.
4. W's birthday happens to fall right after this long weekend
5. I really need a globe so that I can spin it and put my finger on it and go to that place that I point to, although for maximum effect it would have to rotate on both axes.
OK, so what I'm building up to here is we looked at our calendars and we looked at the flights and we looked at the weather and "settled" on a quick trip to Belgium. My co-workers at both jobs are understandably jealous. I've been trying to learn a little French. (W took it in High school too, making her partially trilingual) and studying my favorite Lonely Planet and Fodor's books for what to see do and eat.

Welcome 2008!

Welcome 2008!
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

2007 was definitely a year to remember for me, but I'm always encouraged by the beginning of a new year and the hope and possibilities it brings. We brought in the new year quietly at home with good friend Scott and new friend Ann. We ate appetizers, including some reformulated leftover crab rangoons from our dinner party last week. Oh that's right, I haven't told you about last weekends dinner party. We had been to travel buddy Francie and husband Steve's house a couple of times, and they take dinner and entertaining seriously. So when they visited us for dinner over the weekend I had to bring my A game. We started with Steve cooking some delicious sea scallops with a pistachio topping. I then turned out a slightly modified (deep fried, rather than steamed) version of this Crab rangoon recipe, and then followed that with this Tom Yum Goong soup. My original plan was to serve a dish from everywhere we'd been this year but that required a little too much of a mix of flavors and constrained my creativity. For an entree I went to an old standby, nut crusted fish. We went to Costco in the morning and all they had in a white fish was tilapia, so we used that, and picked up some delicious marcona almonds and coated my tilapia with them. I served the fish with a side of this spinach salad with balsamic vinegar instead of the red wine vinegar that's called for. I also experimented with a skillet soda bread, that I like more and more every time I eat it. The skillet makes a great crust on the bread, and its very simple to make. We finished with my famous creme brulee (recipe from my Joy of Cooking cookbook), kicked up with a shot of amaretto with some berries and toasted almonds on the side. It was a great dinner if I do say so myself, and it was complemented nicely with a small sampling of Steve's extensive wine collection.
Our new years eve night was capped with a hefty helping of wii, and and I reached back to my college days and stayed up until 5 a.m. playing baseball with Scott. Count me in for an early night tonight and perhaps a healthy nap this afternoon.

Christmas time in "The Town"

Christmas time in "The Town"
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

I'm settling back into "normalcy" after Christmas today. Work was busy but very quiet today, and I was actually quite productive. I even risked my personal freedom for art today, snapping this picture outside our office building just as a security guard came around to hassle me about taking pictures here. Apparently they have some sort of post 9-11 no photography policy that nobody really knows about. I actually intended to go back and retake this picture in a portrait orientation, but I guess after the stern warning I got today I'll not be showing up with a tripod tomorrow. What did I do for Christmas you ask? Well lets start with the weekend, Where W and I got some work done on our cars, new tires for the Mitsubishi, and a rotation for the jeep, plus the semi-annual smog check for the Mitsubishi. Next it was off to W's co-worker Morly's house for an open house. The invite said 5:30 to 8:00, and sure enough everyone bailed promptly at the prescribed time. We sat around and chatted and laughed for much longer than that. Sunday I worked, and you can imagine how crazy it was 2 days before Christmas. For Christmas eve I spent way too long hanging out at a Boston Market picking up the food for W's work party. I arrived at 1:00 just like I was supposed to, only to discover they couldn't find our order. I reordered, and they said they'd have it ready in 10 minutes. 60 minutes later a bag of food comes out that does not include everything I had paid for. I stroll up say its not all their and the cashier promises me they're making it up now. 30 minutes later when I decided I'd just take a refund and leave, the cashier disappears into the kitchen and comes out with my mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cornbread. I found out later I was still one cornbread and 2 gravys short of Christmas dinner. The lesson here? Pick up your food from Boston Market a day early, otherwise you can expect to get completely screwed. Its just going to sit in your fridge anyway, so pick it up early. Or just don't give those jerks your money at all. I went home and whipped up some braised short ribs for dinner and W and I cooked up more mashed potatoes and gravy when she got home. I actually spent Christmas day at the airport on purpose, enjoying a nice dinner that I'd worked way to hard for with W and her coworkers.

Getting Myself Straightened Out

So life is boring again with no pictures to take and no trips to plan. The highlight of the week is the arrival of Big Brain academy; Wii degree at the house. It's a game for the Wii that you're supposed to play a little bit of each day so you'll be smarter. It is to your brain what Wii sports is to your body. See that, I'm already smarter, throwing in an old school SAT analogy for your reading pleasure. Wendy and I stayed up way too late the night after her last final drinking gin and tonics and competing in brain tests. Work was not fun the next day after that. Last week was also the office Christmas party, and we played my second ever mystery game. This time I was the lawyer of a wealthy man who had recently been murdered. It was a fun role because it had a big speaking (reading) part, and I got to dress up. I rocked a bow tie for the occasion and won the prize for best dressed. I wanted to enjoy a few more drinks, but since only snacks were served I had to stop when I noticed I slurred a word or two. (Company party + drinks + empty stomach + reading a fake will in front of everyone= potential embarrassment)The weekend went by way too fast. I put in an extra 2 hours at the BRO since they're desperate for help this time of year and I have lots of little things to pay for. Which brings us to today when I began my invisalign orthodontic treatment. I have to wear the mouth pieces as much as possible and remove them when I eat, then I'm supposed to brush my teeth and floss and then shove them right back in. I can assure you I'm going to starve. Choosing between another snack or not having to brush my teeth for the seventh time for the day starts to be an easier and easier call. They're squeezing my teeth fairly hard too, and its occasionally uncomfortable. They're also not quite as invisible as I hoped, but that may be my own perception, not that of others who don't really seem to notice. In 18 months I should have a movie star smile. Things around the office are awfully quiet, I'm one of the few people not taking any extra days off. I really do wish I was going home for Christmas. Its been 3 years since the last time I was home for Christmas, and I'd really just like my yearly egg nog with mom after late night service and too wake up to a big plate of sticky buns and sour cream kuchen, and a cup of Barney's Santa's White Christmas coffee.

tschüs

Our second day in Munich began as we ate our typical German breakfast of bread, cheese and salami in our room. We needed to fuel ourselves for a busy day if we were
going to see anything in Munich at all. Our first stop would be the Enlishcer Garten. Its on the list of the must sees, so being good tourists we decided we'd start our day there. In order to get there we had to pass through the Hofgarten of the Residenz, where we snapped lots of pictures and explored. Then we got to the Englisher Garten and were nearly overrun by marauding ducks. Actually they were quite friendly and turned right around when they figured out we weren't going to feed them.

We studied the map and realized we couldn't possibly explore the entire park in the time we had so we wanted to at least go find the waterfall and then head on to the Residenz. The waterfall was gorgeous, and seemed like a really great thing to have in the middle of a city. After a few minutes taking pictures and enjoying the sights and sounds at the waterfall it was time to work our way to the Residenz. We wanted to see a castle while in Germany, and this was the closest that we were going to get.

No Surfing Allowed
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our way out we passed the best surfing in Germany, but I thought it was a little chilly for me to jump in. Even the Wikipedia entry describes this as an unenforced sign, it just made us laugh to see this crazy man surfing out in the cold.
When we get to the Residenz we're surprised to see how reasonable a ticket was, and the price includes free use of the self guided tour. We chose to see the treasury first, and realized we were in trouble when the description of the first item in the collection lasted at least three minutes. We had to choose carefully what to listen to or we would have been there all day.
There were some really great items in the collection, but alas no flash photography. So some of my pictures are either dark or shaky or both, You have to check your backpack, and I neglected to take my tripod out before checking my bag. Coolest items include the one pictured here, and the baby's rattle that was attached to a badger claw. I can't hear badger without thinking of the addictive phenomenon that is badgerbadgerbadger.com. After reviewing all the items in the treasury it was off to tour the rooms of the Residenz. It's huge inside and serves as what the tour called a "museum of decoration". The walls and the furniture were very interesting to look at, and we tried to speed through because we still had a lot of day to go.

Antiquarium
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Not to mention the fact we'd already walked around a lot and our German breakfast was starting to wear off. If you make your way to Munich some day the courtyard and the Antiquarium shown here are absolute must sees. They are the oldest rooms in the Residenz and are amazing to look at the detail they contain. We were starving after our two tours, so it was time to grab a pastry and a coffee at the San Francisco Coffee Company. I know it sounds ridiculous, but the coffee was quite good, and we sat at a little table outside and had a nice little rest. Our next mission was to check out the Victualmarkt, a farmers market where your average resident of munich shops for food for the next few days. We detoured to get some lunch and bumped into the Christmas market, so we wandered around downtown menu shopping for the perfect lunch. The last street we turned down before committing to a restaurant led us to the world famous Hofbrauhaus. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the prices were reasonable, and they had the red cabbage that Francie wanted to eat and the Schweinhaxen that I wanted. We pulled up at a table (you seat yourself wherever and with whomever you can and wait patiently? for someone to come wait on you. We had some giant beers and a delicious lunch and overall a pretty fabulous time. By the time we got out it was time to explore the Christmas market, enjoy some more gluhwein and take in the Glockenspiel for its 5:00 performance. We position ourselves nicely with cameras in hand, and waited. Except that for some reason the moment never came. Long after the 5:00 church bells rang the clock stood still and we had to move on. I'd been called a glockenspiel many times in life and was finally about to witness one in action, and it left me more than a little disappointed.

Sunset at the Christmas Market
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Hmm, Guess this just means I have to go back. We took in the rest of the market, visited the frauenkirche, (No pictures inside of course) and then were ready to go back to Tollwood for dinner. We grabbed some brats and some crepes and then sat down in our same tent from the night before and enjoyed a beer. It was a great finish to our day. The next morning it was off to the train, still a nice short walk from our base camp at the courtyard marriot for our 45 minute ride out to the airport. We scored sweet first class seats on our way to Washington DC. I watched one movie and crashed for the next six hours. Customs in D.C. is ridiculous, but we managed to get to the first San Francisco flight just in time. We sat in the back, In 3 of the last six seats, but at least we got home safe. It was bumpy in DC and I felt sick most of the way, but I'd survived another crazy adventure. We barted home and went straight to bed, real life was waiting for me on Tuesday morning

Guten Tag Munchen

Night Time Cathedral
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

This weeks adventure began with my alarm at 4:45 a.m. on Friday, which brought me back to an old familiar place. I jumped in the shower, grabbed my carry on bag and rushed out the door for the 5:45 bus, just like I used to do back in my first days at the MOHP. The Newspaper guy was shocked to see me so early again, it has been at least 2 years since I was on that schedule. Every working day he sells me a Chronicle for 25 cents, and even lets me borrow one on the one day a month or so when I forget to grab a quarter on the way out the door. The same guy was driving the 6:08 BART train too. He always pulls up to the station waving both hands, and sounds just like Bootsy Collins when he makes the station announcements. I crammed out a bunch of work in the morning and grabbed an 11:40 train to the airport to meet up with W and traveling bud/awesome dinner party hostess Francie. We knew there were only 2 first class seats for 3 people, but W graciously offered it to me, knowing that she'd have 3 of the roomier economy seats (trademarked name intentionally omitted) to herself. Just as I was finishing my second glass of preflight champagne, a flight attendant comes by with a new ticket for me and swiftly banishes me back to one of W's 3 magic seats. I was furious, but because someone who had actually paid for a business class seat that was broken wanted it, I had to go to the back. Francie provided us with the occasional first class ration, carting cheese, champagne, port and ice-cream back to us, and the flight attendants felt bad, and kept us equipped with beverages to ease our pain. 9 painful hours and a viewing of Transformers (again...) and Stardust later, we finally arrived in Frankfurt. We had decided that as long as the timing and the financials were right, we'd take a 3 hour train ride through the German countryside to Munich. It seemed like the perfect plan until we were faced with a 3 hour ride costing 100 euro per person, or a 5 hour ride costing 60 euro per person. We took option C, the one hour standby flight on a certain European airline that's a business partner of W's employer. Of course after we made that decision, we found out the flight was delayed. To compound the delay the had a plane change, and a crew change and once we got on the plane lots of seats were double booked including mine, so after shifting us all around we finally got under way. We finally arrived in Munich and grabbed our first German food, and then took the 45 minute train ride into downtown. After all the delays and this train ride we arrived at the downtown station a few minutes after our 5 hour train would have gotten us there. We checked into our hotel which was an extremely convenient walk from the train and made our way to the Aldi. We picked up lots of chocolate and goodies and some food to eat for breakfast, and then dumped it in our room. The front desk said we should visit the Tollwood Festival, it would be open until 10:30 and was easily walkable. They even gave us a real map and circled our starting and finishing point. It was a welcome relief from our Beijing post office incident.

Old and New
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

To get to the festival we had to walk by the Paulskirche, and it was just begging to have it's picture taken. We were hungry so I promised the girls I'd wait until we were on our way home. As we walked past the bells were ringing, and it was an amazingly powerful sight and sound. It seemed to be ringing all the way in to my bones. The festival was huge and crowded, but there was beer and food and gluhwein everywhere. Because it was a cultural festival, German food was actually the hardest to find, but find some brats we did, and then we settled in for some beers too. W's new favorite beer that we buy at the Englander in san leandro was on tap, so it was nice to drink the Franziskaner Weissbier directly from the source.

We settled for a while near some Mexican Tex mex food that included chicken wings? and a few other things that were more than a stretch at Mexican. We sat with a nice young German couple who at first pretended not to understand English but were quite helpful and fluent when I had asked W to try to interpret a sign for me, They snapped a picture for us too. After enjoying some food and drink we headed back to the hotel, I took some pictures along the way and we crashed early, it was going to be a big second day.

You signed me up for what?

So going to Germany to go to a Christmas Market sounded like a good idea, but take a look at what we're in for when we get there. We won't let the weather stop us, but it will surely be a stark contrast to the weather we saw on our first trip of the year to Bangkok. I just have to manage to stay focused enough to actually get some work done this week and do something fun to entertain Todd as he visits again this week. He's headed off to one of my favorite towns, Hong Kong. We thought for a brief minute about trying to join him, but the idea of seeing something new won the battle. W's Never been to Munich, but does speak German, so this should be a really great. As soon as W showed me Munich's Christmas market website I was sold. You should check it out here. Be sure to check out the pictures link.

Turkeys and Retail or Retail Turkeys

I finished the last China post without even telling you the last of the story. We knew from Betty's handed down knowledge that we should prepare to leave the Hotel about 9:45 a.m. to give us plenty of time at the airport to get last minute souvenirs and to hit the Olympic store. We finished packing, had a leisurely breakfast and made our way downstairs with all our junk in tow. ( I personally hate to pay for luggage service at a hotel, but given how much junk we had I made an exception to my policy) We got in a cab, the first one driven by a female of the trip and were comforted by the fact that she didn't drive like she had something to prove. Most of our other freeway trips were driven as if lane lines and common courtesy had not yet been invented in that part o f the world. My opinion changed however when I realized she'd craftily covered up the meter and asked to be paid far more than what the fare should cost. We discussed for a few minutes and agreed upon something a little more reasonable and were on our way. Our trip through passport control was actually pretty easy, and we were actually given boarding passes for business class seats at the gate. We shopped some more picking up the magnet I was contractually obligated to bring my boss (she's a magnet collector, she got one from Hong Kong too) and a few final things at the Olympic store. We then found a nice quiet Hawaiian themed cafe within earshot of our gate. As we're sitting there they call us up and say we have one upgrade, will you split up? I love the lay-flat seat of first, and W actually prefers the business seat, so we said yes. A few minutes later they called us again and had managed to find 2 First class seats!!!! We even traded with someone to sit together and settled in for our flight. I got to see the Simpsons Movie and Transformers and thoroughly enjoyed the good life for 10 hours.
Real life came calling again once we got home, but thanksgiving has been a nice diversion too. We ordered the Boston Market turkey breast with all the trim. Friends Michael and Cyrus came by to help us celebrate, and we chatted and laughed until it was time go to bed early. W and I both worked, because I sold my soul at the BRO so I could have next weekend off. What could possibly be worth going to work on black Friday for? Well, we've got one more adventure to squeeze in, more to come. By popular demand I've included a picture of that which made our last day in Beijing so difficult. This is a sample of what we had done, if you want to see the rest, you really should come visit us.

Beijing Day 4

100_2115
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our 4th and Final Day in Beijing we decided we should finally get over to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden Palace. We started with a quick breakfast with Betty before she took off, and then had to fugure out how to get our enourmous set of frames home, so we had someone look into shipping for us and then mozied out to the square. It wasn't quite like I'd pictured it once we were there, mostly because there weren't actually any tanks trying to mow me down like the only image of the square I'd ever seen before, and it was painfully cold when we first got there. We wandered around a bit and then went inside the forbidden palace to get inside the walls and out of the cold air. The inside of the palace is pretty cool except they were doing maintenance on some of the larger rooms so we couldn't go in. We debated for a long time about getting the audio self guided tour, but were glad we didn't when we saw how much was actually closed for the winter. I guess this means we'll just have to go back sometime closer to tourist season. After taking in the wonders of the palace, we wandered around a bit trying to find a reasonable cab. Sometimes the cabs right outside of tourist areas find any way they can to charge you too much, so your better off walking away a bit to find a regular cab that will use the meter and take you where you want to go. We had the concierge give us the address to a shipping place that shall not be named before we left for the morning so we went there next to see about shipping our stuff home. W is supposed to get a corporate discount, so we figured that would be the way to go. We could not get anyone there or on the phone to actually acknowledge the discount but at the very least they gave us a huge box until we figured out what to do. You should have seen me in the subway with this huge box on a train that was completely packed. When we were trying to get out at our station I had to wrestle like crazy to get it out and still only managed because I handed it around some guy that was standing in the door. So We stopped by the hotel decided we'd try to pad the frames and check them like regular luggage. That would require bubble wrap. I don't know about you, but I don't know the chinese word for bubble wrap, so once we got past that language barrier the conceierge recommended the post office as a place to get some, and we could take the subway or just walk. Well the directions we got sucked, and we couldn't find it. After an hour or so of wandering we got in a taxi showed him the word post office someone had written in chinese for us even he didn't take us to the right place. Frustrated tired and hungry we got on the subway went back to the hotel and paid someone to run out and get us bubble wrap and tape. It was not good use of a vacation day. After getting all our stuff wrapped up we went for happy hour and then a delicous korean dinner. I had the most wonderful beef dish that came on a hot flagstone. Tired but with full tummys we went back to the hotel where we scored a massage for W and a place to sleep for me.

Beijing Day 3

Through the Arch
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our 3rd day in Beijing we had arranged for someone to pick us up and take us to The Badaling portion of the great wall, the best restored and most visited portion of the wall. It was rainy and overcast and cold as we left, and we thought we might actually see a little snow on the wall. We woke up early (around 5:30 a.m), Cashed in on our breakfast and said goodbye to Dave, and then jumped in our car for the 2 hour ride out to the wall. It stopped raining but was still cold and gray outside. As you can see from the pictures, my camera had trouble getting through all the low hanging fog, but it was reminiscint of a dark misty kung fu movie, exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to see if you believed everything you saw on the big screen. You start your journey on a chair lift (which having grown up in Florida and never been skiing I'd never ridden on before) that lifts you up to the wall. There were a few vendors at the start and a few other tourists there, but we managed to beat the big groups and it was nothing like visiting during the peak of summer tourist season. We started out in coats and gloves and hats, and as we climbed the steep stairs and hillsides we warmed up quite nicely and were down to just a long sleeve shirt by the time we finished. In my wildest imagination I never actually pictured myself standing on the great wall, when suddenly I looked around and realized there I was in one of the world's most amazing places. The views and the late autumn colors were amazing and the steep climbs and fast descents made it a really fun adventure. As more people arrived at the wall it was fun to watch the choices of footwear, including some high heel boots, that people chose for the climb. We walked out and back for a little more than 2 hours and were rewarded with a ride back down the toboggan ride. Picture a luge that you sit in, running down a curvy metal half pipe. Is it touristy and totally out of place? Absolutely! But was it really fun? You bet! Except for the people who went down before us were really slow and we stopped one time to let them get farther down, when someone crashed into the back of W and hit head to head. That was not so fun. She toughed it out though, and on she went. We then talked our driver Lucy into taking us to a roadside fish place for lunch. Picture a trout farm sort of place where someone scoops your lunch up with a net and then cooks it for you. They really wanted us to eat the sturgeon that they had sitting in the bottom of the pool, but you can't imagine how much that grosses you out if you see someone scoop it up off the bottom of the pool before you eat it. We passed and went for a trout looking fish instead. It came fried in a brown sauce and was awesomely delicious. We also ordered an Eggplant dish that was crisp on the outside and was the most delicious eggplant I'd ever eaten. After a huge lunch (The fish we got was huge, and we ordered too many tasty veggie dishes) we journeyed back to the city, napping along the way of course, and had Lucy drop us off at the spa Wendy and Betty liked. I sat and watched The Mysterius Island on TV and had a beer while they got massages. It was relaxing for everyone. We then proceeded back to the frame shop to pick up our goods and were very pleased with the results. We grabbed some snacks and some drinks at Happy Hour, and then it was back to the silk market for more shopping. I got myself a new backpack by totally turning Chinese culture upside down and insisting I couldn't pay the asked for price because W had all the money and would only let me have more than US $20 to pay for it. Meanwhile W was breaking the spirit of the purse lady in the booth across from my backpack. You do not want to negotiate with her. Then as the market was closing I picked up 3 pairs of shoes for about US$20 each that alleged to be much fancier brands than they likely are. One pair even claims to be made in Italy. By the time we took the very convenient subway home we were too tired to venture out for dinner so we tried to get some room service but for a second day in a row couldn't negotiate the phone system and decided to just go to bed.

Beijing Day 2

Fall at the Temple of Heaven
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

We didn't exactly set the world on fire getting out of bed on our first full day, but eventually made it for our breakfast at the hotel, they served a nice mix of english style breakfast and a few chinese dishes and lots of fresh fruit, including dragon fruit a new favorite of mine. Our first stop was the framing store to get a few of my pictures framed. We needed something else to decorate the walls of our house and wanted something to remember our travels by. So we had lots of decisions about frame styles and matting to make. We then grabbed a snack at a cute little French bakery that I really should have taken a picture of so I'd remember it now, but life's like that some times. Then we decided we wanted to go see the temple of heaven. We didn't have one of the hotel cards that had it's name written in Chinese, but randomly Betty had a postcard with a picture of it on it, and we jumped in a cab and said please take us here. it worked, and off we went. It was a gorgeous afternoon, and there were still some great fall colors to be seen. its hard to believe how much beautiful stuff is nestled in among this smoggy city of 7 million people. The best moment of the trip came when the four of us were huddled around a sign trying to figure out where to go next when a young Chines boy walked up to us with a big smile and waved and said hello. Our tourist instincts made us think he wanted to sell us something when in fact he just really really wanted live subjects to practice his English skills with. We were honored he chose us. We Grabbed an early meal at a really great Malyasian place called Cafe Sambal. They served really great samosas, a mango spring roll, a fried whole fish dish that was amazing, and despite the fact that we were sitting outside in the cold, we really enjoyed. We also had the four sided bean, a new vegetable for me that our waitress recommended, and I would gladly eat it again and again. Then it was off to the Silk market, which according to the shopping bags they give you is one of the 3 must do experiences in Beijing. (The great wall, and eating roast duck being the other 2) I got myself a nice new jacket right at closing time that is a super Polo knockoff.

Ni Hao Beijing!

When working to hard gets us down, sometimes we have to get out and travel a little bit. This time we decided on Beijing. We didn't plan much except for some shopping and we'd been referred to someone who could frame pictures for us, but other than that had done little more than book a room and start watching the flight loads. As the day to leave drew closer we suddenly realized the flight we wanted from SFO was really full. However the flight out of Washington (IAD) was nice and empty. All we had to do was get ourselves there by Friday morning. The red eye on our favorite airline was full, so we once again leaned on our friends over at Jetblue. Flying standby over there gets you a ticket right away, so as soon as we got our bags checked the rest of the day was pretty stress free. We arrived at IAD nice and early, so I rechecked our bag on Airline number one wandered back through security and we grabbed a quiet space in the terminal to get a nap. After nap time W's parents wandered through on their way to Frankfurt and hung out with us while we waited to be called for our Beijing flight. The also dropped me off a very nice birthday present. We got awesome business class seats, drank lots of wine and got to check out the movie Hot Rod, got a little sleep, and finally looked at a few of the guidebooks to figure out what we should do. We got to Beijing around 3:30 local time and met up with Wendy's friend Betty who flew in on the SFO flight. (she had to settle for coach) Then it was off to the hotel. The cab ride is already sort of long, but our cab driver decided we should take the scenic route and drove us around a bit more in an effort to run up the meter. It was actually pretty cool because we got to see the birds nest and the cube, so we didn't have to make a special trip out to see them later. Once we got to the hotel we met up with past travel buddy Dave, changed and went to the executive level happy hour. They brought us prepared snacks and you could pour your own drink, so we had to guard against getting too relaxed before even heading out for dinner. We had the concierge refer us to a place to eat some Peking duck. They sent us over to Quanjude, where we had to wait a while, but it was definitely worth it. To pass the time we sampled a bottle of a fortified rice wine that was powerful enough to knock you off of your feet. The duck comes out to your table whole, and some one comes out introduces the chef who will prepare it, and it is expertly sliced while you watch. It reminded me a lot of house of prime rib, except that it was about 1/10th the price. We crashed pretty hard ready for a busy day on Sunday.

One quick catch up post before the fun stuff

I can't possibly begin another post telling you how crazy I've been the last couple of weeks but lets put it this way, I earned myself some more comp time and needed a creative way to burn it, more on that to come. In the mean time we did survive the largest bay area earthquake since Loma Prieta in 89. The house shook for just long enough for me to crawl under a table and watch all of the pieces of furniture I hadn't tied back down after we put the new floor in. Nothing fell down, we were just pretty well shaken by the time it had finished. The seismological map looked like this