All-You-Can-Eat!

This past week was restaurant week in Philadelphia. We made reservations for 2 different spots: The Prime Rib (Tuesday) & Alma de Cuba (Friday). They were both yummy although I liked Alma de Cuba a bit better. Restaurant week is great because you can sample from about 50 restaurants in the area that each have a fixed price 3 course meal for $30/person. Kyle and I were certainly stuffed to the brim and are definitely a few pounds heavier but it was worth it!

The weekend has been busy for both of us. Kyle's been studying diligently for his finals this week. I went into work on Saturday because I have so much to do and not enough time in the week to do it.

OH! Back to the food....So you thought the eating stopped last week...well, our waistlines expanded all the way into Sunday. This morning Kara took Kyle and I to a fun breakfast place she's been talking about forever called Sabrina's Cafe and it lived up to it's reputation! Kara and I split the hugest french toast I'd ever seen. It had this fabulous blueberry cream cheese smothered in between 2 huge slices of Challah bread with maple syrup and strawberries on top. Mmmmm...to die for! The only part I would have changed was that it was a packed shop and we sat at a table very close to the front door and with the temperature in the teens this morning....you can imagine it was quite drafty. We ate with our coats on and yelled at anyone (in true South Philly fashion) who walked in the door and didn't shut it behind them!

A late-breaking footnote: Kyle and I are watching Dancing With the Stars in a state of shock! Stacy Kiebler and her partner were named third place of the last three dancing pairs. What a rip off! Booooo on reality TV shows!

Some R&R & Shabu Shabu!

It's been a relaxing weekend! I was SO glad to have a 3 day weekend with the President's Day holiday. I sure needed a break.

For all those interested in my Shabu experience it was really fun. Definitely a great group activity and the food was pretty good too. Here is a picture of the place before we messed it up. Notice the little pots at each table setting.

And then we started cookin'! It's like a sauna! (That's me on the left in the hot pink shirt)

I was just a little doubtful about some items that I couldn't distinguish the origin but other than that it was good.

The best part was the "juice" that came with my meal....a tapioca milk tea. Sounds weird and it was but it's one of those things the more you drink it the better it gets. It tasted kinda like chai with little tapioca balls at the bottom. You drink it with a fat straw so the tapioca balls shoot into your mouth like little surprise pellets. I think the only reason I really liked the drink was because it had that "fun" element.

Back in Philadelphia, Kyle was elected the co-president of the Wharton Texas Club. The Texas Club helps students who want to get jobs back in Texas and hosts BBQs and other social events.

Our last tidbit is that we WON the Powerball lotto Friday night! We won $6. We actually got the Powerball number twice which is pretty rare. The odds of winning the powerball # was 1 in 69. So out of the $7 we put into it we only lost $1. Woo-hoo!

Another Subway Drama

It's Thursday. 5 PM. I'm so exhausted. I'm in NY today & tomorrow. I've been working like a maniac all week, late nights....my lunch today consisted of Sun Chips and a Peach Iced Tea Snapple. fabulous. Tonight I am going out on the town with my fellow NY co-workers for Shabu. What is Shabu? good question. Click here for more info on that.
Apparently it's Japanese BBQ...and you cook your own meal over a flame? Sounds questionable but I'll report back on my success or failure. Let's just hope I don't pass out of exhaustion onto the open flame and become known as "the chick who Shabu'd her face at the Valentine's dinner".
So I almost got arrested today. I was in the subway trying to figure out how to use the handicap accessible gate entrance instead of the turnstyle. My motto today was "Take No Chances". I decided to spare myself the trauma of fighting through the turnstyle with too much luggage since I was dragging my overnight rollie suitcase, a laptop computer bag, & my big purse. Since I wasn't sure of the routine to get through the gate (i.e. where do you swipe your Metrocard) I thought my best bet was to pause and observe people first:

A lot of people are coming out of the gate door....not a lot of people are going in.....Oh! there's a guy.....he's going in the gate....and....he didn't swipe his Metrocard??....Ok, so I'll do that. Monkey see, monkey do. I walk through the gate holding my Metrocard in my hand with a look of confusion. Do I swipe it once I'm inside somewhere? Where's the swiper?? Maybe you just swipe it when you leave??

My confusion is shattered when I hear a loud...."MA'AM!! MA'AM!!" And a man wearing all black with guns strapped to his hip AND leg is walking towards me. "Can you please go back outside and swipe the card...see that guy over there...(of course the "monkey" I was OBSERVING)...he's getting arrested for going through the gate without swiping his card....that's a good way to get yourself arrested, lady, and I'd hate for that to happen to you this morning"

Yowsers! Thrown in the pokie for not swiping my Metrocard! I narrowly averted disaster. Thankfully my look of confusion (some near and dear to me say this "look" is permanently etched on my face) saved me. So see...what I call my casual/relaxed face really did save me today. So there you have it....it's always helpful to look permanently confused. Try it sometime.

A Valentine Torpedo

I'm just chillin' out today enjoying life (not really, more like madly re-working my project for the 100th time) when I get an email out of NOWHERE declaring my 10 year high school reunion is upon us and to fill out a survey on when/where it should be....blah....blah....HORRIFIC! on so many levels.

A) that I am even old enough to have graduated high school a decade ago
B) that I haven't even seen these people in forever and wouldn't know what to say to them
C) that I am even old enough to have graduated high school a decade ago

An unexpected torpedo in an otherwise normal day. It threw me off a bit but I shook it off and continued life as usual.

We celebrated Valentine's Day in a unique way this year. I had to work late which is a delightful way to spend a V-day evening. Then, we got to share the love with Kyle's Austrian friend Chris. He was in NYC for work and decided to come the short distance to visit us. We cooked up some steak and veggies and enjoyed the company. We were happy to have him join us! Kyle succumbed to his manly Valentine's duties and bought me some beautiful tulips and a box of chocolate covered strawberries from our favorite place for all things edible - Reading Terminal Market. YUM!

The new business school rankings are out from the Financial Times. Click here to see that report.

It's bed time! I'm exhausted....at least I have President's Day vacation to look forward to!

Happy Valentine's Day! Hugs and Kisses from us to you on this special day of love!

WHITE OUT

They predicted and it came. This morning we woke up to a CRAZY amount of snow. Parts of Philadelphia got 16"-22" of snow. I think in our area it was about 12"-14".
This was the view this morning....

Kyle and I ventured out at about 10 AM to play in Rittenhouse Park before people trampled the untouched snow. The snow was still falling and the streets were still covered and everything looked so beautiful. It's how I would imagine the perfect Christmas to look like. These are pictures of our walk to the park. Check out the snow on and IN the trash can.... A beautiful old snow-covered church. Looks like a figurine in the little lighted Christmas village my mom sets out every year....Rittenhouse looks so pretty..... A kind soul took our picutre in the park....there were lots of people out taking pictures and kids....it was fun. Everyone was so excited.... Kyle and the lion statue (rrrrrooOOOOAAAAAARRR!!!) Goodbye Rittenhouse Park!!!!
And, boy, was I craving one of these on our way home.....how cute does this look?!

Unfortunately, by tomorrow all the roads will be cleared and we will have to go to work/school with no excuses! After all, since the move, I'm now only 3 blocks away from work!

The Big Move

It's been a crazy couple of days (what else is new??) Yesterday I officially moved my computer and general BOO (Base Of Operations) over to the client's offices instead of the architecture firm I where I was stationed. I was a little nervous about talking to the head of the architecture firm and telling her I was moving becuase I didn't want her to feel like I didn't like it there. However being near the client has been really helpful. I enjoy it here and I even get my own office, my OWN personal printer, office supplies, & filing cabinets! The filing cabinets are really a highlight of the move because I am a weirdo about organzing and at the other place I had no filing, no organization at all. It was killing my efficiency.

This morning I was trapped in a 3 hour IT meeting that was almost the death of me. I've never heard so much about "CAT-6 cables" and "fiber"and "RG6s" and how it's possible to have "10 gigabit transmission over sheilded cable" (!!!!Hallelujah!!!! I'd been wondering if that was a possibility) Towards the end I was looking for a sharp pencil to stick in my eye. It's like a room full of people speaking Alien and I speak English and nothing makes sense. When they busted out the server rack catalogues I made an excuse to scram. I tried to relate their excitement for server rack catalogues to my excitement when I get Lucky magazine in the mail but I still didn't get it?

More big news: there's a big snowstorm headed our way. I'm so excited. We haven't had snow since Thanksgiving?! And you would have thought I had moved to Alaska when I came here. The way I was so worried about freezing my butt off. Not a speckle of snow for months all winter but we could get up to a foot of snow by Sunday!! It's time to put my freaky hat back in business.

Kyle's still been interviewing. He's going to be a pro at this soon. The prospects are looking bright so we are excited!!

Broadway Continued!!!!!

SO, I was walking to work today and as I approached the Today Show area in front of my building I heard the sounds of our favorite song from the Pajama Game! One that Dee & Kim & I could not stop singing ALL day Saturday after the show! I raced to the plaza and was hoping to catch my dear friends Harry and Kelli singing this knock-out number but, alas, they were inside the studio. All I could enjoy was the plasma screen showing the broadcast of them singing! It had me jivin' all the way to the front door of my building. I checked the Today Show website so if you're interested in hearing the SUPER CUTE song click here and then type in "Connick" under the MSN video search box. It's the 4th video on the left column. Hope the link's still up when you visit!!

Going to bed soon. I gotta go back to NYC tomorrow. Two days in a row for me.

Kyle's busy with interviews still. Pray that we are led to the right internship opportunity this summer. We know something will come up, it's just the wait and see part that can be trying.

Broadway!!!

Saturday was so great. I met up with Kim and Dee in NYC to see a new Broadway show called The Pajama Game, starring Harry Connick Jr. & Kelli O'Hara. Never heard of Kelli but we all sure knew about Harry. We hadn't really heard much about the show and since the official "opening night" is not until later in February there were no reviews to rely upon. We sat about 20 feet from the stage and so close to all the action.

I'll state my own review here: Two Thumbs Up! Five Stars!!! The story was fun. The songs were cute and catchy. And with Harry's unique singing voice I can't imagine it being any better.

Cameras & flash were forbidden but Dee snuck a pic of Harry doing his curtain bow in his jammies.

Kyle stayed in Philly and attended some study groups. And today it's back to the grind of the work week!