News & Highlights
Life's been going by like a breeze, but that's not to say it has been easy by any means. It has been bustling, fast-paced, twisting, and unpredictable.
Jen and I celebrated our 9th year together and our 2nd wedding anniversary last month with nearly a week long string of parties culminating with an extended weekend trip to Sin City, Las Vegas. My flickr pix is evidence to the decadent fun we had there. Jen and I had a fabulous time eating at Olives in the Bellagio and seeing Cirque Du Soliel's La Reve at the Wynn. When it came to accommodations, we were fortunate enough to be able to crash at Jen's uncle's place for a couple of nights, but for our last night we did it big and were rewarded very generously. With my super shopper ways, I had booked us a jacuzzi suite at the Mandalay Bay for $169 which I thought was a deal already. When we arrived for registration, the super sweet front desk lady hooked us with a penthouse suite! We had our own private bank of elevators straight to the sixth floor. When Jen first entered the place, she first inspected the bathroom and thought it was kinda small, until I yelled to her from across the cavernous suite that she was only looking at our guest bathroom. The place also had 4 plasma tvs, living room, wet bar that stocked Belvedere vodka, a view of the LV valley and a bathroom rivaled many apartments back home. Simply amazing. Not to mention, Mandalay Bay has the most awesome pools in on the strip with a full wave pool that you can body surf in, a lazy river with a waterfall no less, two jacuzzis and two standard pools you'd expect. Coming back home was not an easy adjustment after that.
These last two months were not all filled with fun and games though. Shortly after I posted about Jen's new job under the awesome pastry chef at the Campton Hotel, he put in his notice and Jen ended up working under his assistant that was promoted to Chef. Overall, Jen's experience has been positive, but she does miss the creative control being a chef provided. For a while there, she was very sad by the self-realization that she lost the inner drive to innovate new flavors and recipes. That's hard not to feel when the department of 5 shrink to 2 after the Chef's departure. Jen and I have also been battling a lot of other stresses lately. Jen's aunt has not been doing so well in her fight against cancer while at my job I'm struggling to feel useful. This last April Fool's Day was my 5 year anniversary with my company, and although it was a milestone, it really marked the beginning of an end in my mind (but more on that later). In the month of April, we were also hit with a huge tax bill that totaled near $5K. Selling my Oakland house sure did a number on my finances. Anyone know of a good tax adviser?
In other news, all my hard work with business school apps have paid off and I have been accepted to The Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. My most honest excuse to neglecting my blog is because I've wrestling with all the stresses associated with my decision for months now. I learned of my acceptance offer all the way back in March but didn't know if I wanted to take it until late April. Once that stress was over, I've now had to struggle with closing up shop and transferring my knowledge at work, figuring how we're gonna move our lives 2200 miles away, and seeing all our friends and family before we fly out. This move will be the first time Jen and I have lived away from our friends, family, and the bay area. I could go on and on about all the emotions I've gone through from excitement to fear, but now I just do my best to take it one day at a time and knock off as much from my to-do list before it's too late. So for y'all reading this, let's make a date and have meal or drinks together before I head out. Or at least, start saving up and come visit us out in Pittsburgh. It'll be a long two years if we don't see you.
That pretty much sums up our lives in the last two months. This summer will be amazing time of tremendous change.
- Diana's going to school
- Richie Fong's going away
- Tiff is going on an extended vacation
- Heidi already left for her adventure
- Liz just had her new baby boy, James
- Thuy is pregnate again
- Rachel is pregnant again as well
- Mital is leaving for school
- Seth & Susan is getting married
- April & Jeff already got married
- Trang & John are going to get married
- Dennis Richmond is retiring this Wendesday
P.S. I'm selling my fully-loaded 2002 VW Jetta GLX. Let me know if anyone is interested.
Culinary Word of the Day: Molecular Gastronomy
A branch of food science that focuses on cooking and food preparation (rather than on the chemical makeup of food, as traditional food science tends to do)...The term molecular gastronomy was coined in the 1980s by a French scientist, Hervé This, and Nicholas Kurti, who was a professor of physics at Oxford University in England. Both men were interested in food science, but they felt that empirical knowledge and tradition were as important in cooking as rational understanding.
Source: "Food: his passion, his science"
