What Christmas Cookie Are You?

According to Martha Stewarts' Cookie Quiz...it tells me:

You are undoubtedly Molasses-Gingerbread Cookies.
You're warm, spicy, and multifaceted.

SEC Champs!

Going to the Beach in December...only in Florida

Friday night, we went over to Goo Ma's house for dinner of beef noodle soup (So great! Too bad it wasn't colder out though! Guess I can't complain about the weather though...see below)

After soup, we made a Publix run and stocked up on some haagen daaz. We then headed off to Hoffmans Chocolate Shoppes to check out their garden all lit up for Christmas.

Maybe its because I was younger, but I swore that place had more stuff when I was there before. Dah Jeh Jeh says Hoffmans was hit hard a few years back with one of the hurricanes and that they're rebuilding. I don't know... We walked through it in like 5 minutes. Then we headed inside to look at the chocolate shop. They have a pretty large candy making room, but there was no one there making any chocolate :( We did end up with some candy though. We waited in line and got 2 pieces of candy and instead of having to go to another line to pay, the candy lady let us have our Almond Jitterbug and our Chocolate Covered Apricot for free!

Here is a inflatable Christmas decoration from the garden:



The next morning, we all met up in Lake Worth for breakfast at TooJay's and then headed off to the beach for a morning stroll to walk off our food!

We walked along the beach and cooled off every now and then by walking in the water (it was HOT outside!!!) My mom collected some sea shells...twice! First time, she went to wash them in the ocean and the tide took them all back out to sea before she could fish them back! :(

Dinner with the Parents

We decided to go Pei Wei for dinner one night but on the way there, my mom decides to go to Buca di Beppo instead.

Once we sat down, we saw on the placemat that Buca celebrates your birthday (within 7 days) with cake and a $5 credit off your next visit.

My mom's birthday was 8 days ago...but our waiter let it slide :)

Apparently they make you stand on a chair while everyone in the immediate eating area helps sing to you.


After my mom got serenaded to, we got 2 slices of red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting :)

Christmas Season Beginnings

Thanksgiving's over...and it's on to Christmas! Well, for me...its just more like "It's VACATION time!!!"

I'm in between projects right now and that mean's I've been hanging out in West Palm since Thansgiving spending time with the family.


Picking out a Christmas tree at the Home Depot with Goo Ma and Dah Jeh Jeh.


Goo Ma is an almond cake making machine!


And of course a trip to Goo Ma's has to include food...and more food! (Home made wonton soup for lunch one day...yumm)

Happy Halloween!

Emily's Visit to Boston

After much planning and sorting out a weekend that worked out for both of us, my friend Emily finally made it out to Boston to visit.

Here are the highlights of our whirlwind weekend:

Em got in Friday afternoon and of course things at work were "falling apart" so I didnt get to leave the office as early as I would have liked. Em was a trooper about it though. She made it to the apartment on the T and helped herself to the couch and some VH1 marathon of 2 guys teaching other guys how to become pimps. I dont know....I didnt watch, you'll have to ask her.

We spent some time catching up and then headed out to Franklin Cafe in the South End for dinner. Good thing we got there early (at like 6pm) because the place was tiny and by the time we left, it was packed. The food was great, the service was just so-so.


(Me at dinner)

After dinner, we wanted to go find some cupcakes so we started off towards Sweet Cupcakes. We later found out that they were closing soon and that they only had a few cupcakes left...and only cappuccino flavored ones. We decided to pass and walked over to Newbury instead. I remembered seeing a "Johnny Cupcakes" there.

A quick stop at the Apple Store to do some research (Thanks, Apple for the free internet) and we discovered that Johnny Cupcakes didnt actually sell cupcakes....but clothing instead. Bummer. Luckily, JP Licks was right around the corner.

So turns out that Johnny Cupcakes was having a "TShirt Release Party" of sorts that night. We walked by and saw kids lined up several blocks deep....some with lawn chairs and tv's set up (some had been there for days) all there trying to get their hands on $65 limited edition tshirts. Interesting.

After that, we hopped in a cab and headed home. We had to get up early the next morning for our date with sticky buns at Flour Bakery and Newport.


(Yumm! Sticky buns! We didnt get pictures of our just as tasty breakfast sandwiches!)

Full after sticky buns, breakfast sandwiches and chocolate bread pudding to go, we walked over to Hertz and picked up our Trailblazer and were on our way to Newport, RI to check out the Seafood Festival and the Newport Mansions for the afternoon.


(Em at the Seafood Festival which should be more appropriately named Newport's Fried Food Festival. This picture was right before her string of bad purchases...gross lobster fritters and then a really hard caramel apple)

Lunch was a bust (except for the kettle corn) so we went to try our luck with the Mansions. We had just enough time left in the afternoon to see The Breakers. We bought our tickets and got in line for our hour tour of the once summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II.


(The house from the front)


(A view of the house from the grounds out back


(Me and Em at the back of the house)


(Pictures werent allowed inside, but here is a shot of the tiled roof of the "patio" in the back...so beautifully crafted)

Finishing up the tour, we walked out back and got onto the Cliff Walk. It was a pretty chilly day, so we didnt make it too far along the path. We did get to take a few pictures of the water and the houses that lined the coast though.




So long, Newport. We got back on the road and headed back into Boston (with a detour to the Dollar Store and to Walmart). Back in Boston, we bummed around in the apartment, got pizza and disappointingly stayed up to watch all of SNL (when Sara Palin made her guest appearance). The show itself was pretty bad...not a funny skit during the hour and an half we stayed up for to watch.

Sunday, more Flour Bakery and more STICKY BUNS! :)



Then we were off to catch the final day of the Head of the Charles. Another cold day, but we bundled up and found ourselves a nice hot baked potato for lunch...along with other goodies.

(Us with our Kashi goodie bags...they really make you work for the free stuff here. It really was pretty chilly, its not like we were the only 2 really bundled up...honest)

(A view of one of the races from a bridge above)

(One of the boat houses....Maybe this one is Harvard's???)

It got pretty cold and closer to Emily's flight time, so we called it a day and went back to the apartment to get her all packed up for the aiport.

All in all, a fun weekend hanging out with Em! Always a blast and will have to plan another weekend soon!

餃子 Making!

This past weekend, we went down to West Palm Beach for part one of the birthday celebration.  More to come on the birthday fun...

Saturday was spent making Jiaozi (餃子) and here is what I consider to be the PERFECT ONE! :)

Labor Day Weekend with the Parents

For Labor Day this year, my parents decided to come up to Boston and spend the long weekend checking out the New England sites.

Friday night, I met my parents at the Boston airport and we headed back to the apartment. We got back around 10:30pm so we just hung out and watched tv while they unpacked and checked out the apartment.

Saturday morning, we woke up, got ready and headed out for a day in Boston. The weather was great for walking and the forcast didn't call for rain until the late afternoon (luckily, it never rained Saturday). We started our day out with a walk from the apartment to Faneuil Hall for breakfast. Dad got the usual, pancakes. Mom found an egg sandwich on a bagel. The pizza place wasn't open yet, so I settled on a bacon and egg sandwich on toast with hashbrowns.

After breakfast, we headed across the street to catch a trolley tour of Boston (the same tour company where we took a tour of Savannah, GA). We got on at stop one (Faneuil Hall), rode through the North End and got off at Stop 3 and visited the USS Constitution and the USS Cassin Young where we showed up right on time for a 45 minute guided tour of the destroyer.


In front of the USS Constitution


Ammo loading station on the USS Cassin Young

After viewing the ships, we got back on the trolley and headed over to Boston Common where we rode on the Swan Boats.



We took the trolley a few more stops and got off at the Prudential Center to grab lunch before getting back on the tour to take us to Cambridge. Once in Cambridge, we took the T (subway) 2 stops to Harvard Square to check out Harvard's campus.



After walking around the school for a bit, we stopped to get some ice cream at JP Licks before heading back to catch the trolley.

Once back on the tour, we finished the route and ended up back where we started at Faneuil Hall just in time to start thinking about dinner spots. We walked over to the Union Oyster House and checked out the menu. No one was really hungry yet so we decided to walk around a bit and ended up going to CVS to get my mom some new reading glasses. Afterwards, we decided on going to Anthony's Pier 4 since it was closer to the apartment. Dinner turned out to be just so-so which was pretty disappointing since so many people had given that place a good review. The food was just average but the service was just so incredibly slow. It did have a good view of the water though. In the end, we all decided that it wasn't a place that we'd go back to. (Although apparently the leftover halibut made an excellent breakfast Monday morning!)

Sunday morning, we headed back to the airport to pick up our rental car. We decided that we'd go check out Maine and find some lobster since we didnt end up ordering any Saturday night.

Ogunquit, Maine was pretty packed with people but we made our way to check out a lighthouse and some great views. We all got lobsters for lunch and then found some more homemade ice cream for dessert.






Saying "bye" to Maine, we headed back to return the car in Boston. We made a quick stop at a mall along the way to pick up a few things and get some coffee/snacks. Once back in the apartment, we all relaxed at home, ordered some Chinese food (again just so-so), and watched the news of Gustav making it's way to land.

Monday morning was mostly just cleaning up and getting ready to head back home to Florida. What a quick weekend...it all went back so fast! Hope you guys can come back again soon!

Thanks for visiting! Come back soon! Love you!

Day 8: Monday, June 9th - Rome

We started Monday with a visit to the La Bocca della Verità (the Mouth of Truth). Goo Ma had wanted to see it since it was in the movie, Roman Holiday. It's believed that if someone tells a lie with their hand in the mouth of the sculpture, their hand would be bitten off. There was a pretty short line, so we waited to each get a picture with our hands in the mouth. No one's hand got chopped off so looks like none of us were liars :)


After La Bocca della Verità, we walked over to Capitoline Hill. We had quickly driven past it the day before while on the tour and my mom had seen pictures of it in her book of Rome, so we decided to go and check it out. There were a lot of steps (Michaelango Steps) to the Piazza del Campidoglio but luckily they weren't too bad. Once we made it to the top, we followed Rick Steve's tip to take a shortcut (saving us a trip back down the stairs just to walk back up another set) to Palazzo Venezia & the Victor Emmanuel II monument.



After that, it was time to get back on the bus to head over to the Vatican...but not before another snack while waiting for the tour bus.


We planned to go to the Vatican Monday afternoon since they were closed on Sunday. When we arrived, we walked to long walk to the ticket office and headed in to the museum. The museum is set up to where there are a lot of exhibits once you enter and you make your way back to the Sistine Chapel.

Our ticket in


The courtyard into the museum


Toes


A "rug" made out of tiles


David and Dah Jeh Jeh on their way into the Sistine Chapel


My parents found the Vatican to be very thrilling :-)

After the Vatican, it was lunch time! We searched around for a bit but ended up at this kebab/gyro place. After our food, we went across the street and found another gelato shop for some dessert.

The last stop for the day was a walk back towards the bus stop to go and visit St Peters Basilica. It was a great time of day to visit, getting late in the day so there weren't that many people. We also showed up when the sun was starting to get lower in the sky and caught some great looking rays in the stained glass windows inside.



A long day...waiting to regroup to head home

On the way out, we tried to perfect some "jumping shots". What can I say? I'm just not a great jumper!


The best jump...after numerous tries

We then made it back to the apartment for our last night in Rome! We spent the evening packing, playing Yahtzee, getting dinner from a local pasta place, and finishing up with some gelato from the place next door (by far the cheapest - 1 euro!!!)

Dave's lucky Yahtzee streak continues!

Me and some balloon baseball man at the pasta place

More gelato!

My dad can't resist chocolate ice cream no matter what!

Apparently, Katie claims she (Asian girls in general) either don't stink (BO) or was it not need deoderant?!? Dave seems to think otherwise...