freebies

John goes to a lot of conventions. I swear at any given time, somewhere in the world, there is a computer convention going on. 

Last week, John went to a "Geek Day" convention in Washington DC, which was actually sponsored by his company.  Of course, I don't know why they call it "Geek Day" when it lasts the better part of a week.

Anyway, John tends to come home with a bunch of crap they were handing out for free.  Sometimes it's free stuff given away by the convention hosts (t-shirts), other times it's stuff given out at various booths.  Most of it being crappy toys I let the kids play with until they break it or forget about it, then it mysteriously disappears into the trash.  (the kids won't let me throw out the biker jacket wearing rubber duckies with the HP logo on their bellies)

And every once in awhile John will win a drawing for something exceptionally cool, like the time he won the Bose alarm clock.  That was super awesome back then (14 years ago) because I am fairly certain the retail cost of that thing was more than John made in a week.

Anyway, this week John brought home something that I was a little surprised I hadn't seen lining the candy shelves at check-outs across America.

Basically pixie sticks for big kids and grown-ups.  Tubes of caffeine laced artificially colored and flavored sugar.  With this society's obsession for caffeine and sugar you'd think it would be a no brainer.  I am sure they were a hit with many of the convention goers. Probably a nice change from all the redbulls the computer geek population supposedly consumes.

Personally, I find them a little intriguing.  Not sure I will be sucking one down any time soon, or spiking my orange juice with one, but I don't want to throw them away either.

Zach asked for one.  The answer was a resounding "NO".  When Nick found out they had caffeine in them he demanded I throw them out.  My response was "And what exactly is one of your favorite sodas?" (Mountain Dew)

To which he responded with. "I see your point.  Well then don't eat them all at once, okay?"  I thought that was a fairly reasonable request.

Spring Break! Woo-hoo!

-or-

It's a good thing there was no school last week since we all caught the plague.

Madison started Spring Break off right by throwing up in front of the whole 6th grade only minutes before school let out for a week.

She spent Saturday recovering, and by Sunday she felt well enough to go to church. 

We had crock pot chicken pot pie for dinner.  I don't think either of us will be eating that any time soon as she threw it up all over the kitchen floor and I was the one who had to clean it up.

Monday she spent recovering.

Tuesday she felt well enough to go a friend's house where she ate a bunch of cookie dough.  For dinner we had "Taco Tuesday", usually a big hit with the kids.  The chicken tacos are pretty tasty, and for only $10 I can feed my whole family. (Christopher usually opts for a pb&j or something from the freezer). 

"Taco Tuesday" will not be on the menu any time soon.  Madison threw up immediately after eating one, and just the smell of the tacos was more than she could stand.  A similar incident with Nick several years ago has prevented us from eating at Del Taco since. 

I was getting worried that there was something wrong with her, as she was getting sick only in the evenings, and each incident was about 48 hours apart.

Then Zach started puking.

The kids being sick was bad news for Nick as he had invited some friends over to watch Doctor Who and celebrate pi day (3/14). 

Good thing he cancelled because he was throwing up before his nerdy get-together would have ended.  Which was REALLY BAD NEWS because he was supposed to leave bright and early the next day for this super fun mountain man rendezvous campout that he had been looking forward to for weeks. As a scout troop they even made knives in anticipation of this event (and as you recall another mother sat up sewing him his capote).

He spent Thursday recovering, and John was able to take him and meet up with his troop bright and early Friday morning.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, Christopher threw up all over his bed and floor around midnight one night during the week.  I finally trudged to bed around 430 am, after he finally passed out. 4 hours of crying will do that to you.

And then it took some convincing by me to make John and Nick go camping on Friday morning when John caught me hugging the toilet at 3 in the morning.  I could see it in his face that he planned to stay home and take care of me.

He might have stayed if we didn't have such great kids.  He put Maddie in charge of taking care of me.  I was easy, I just needed sleep.  They took Christopher on bike rides, to the park, I gave them money for frozen yogurt, I let them go to the dollar store.  And I slept and slept and slept.

And then, when I finally ventured down the stairs- I expected to find the house a disaster, but instead, I stumbled upon a scene that made this poor mother's heart melt.  They were cleaning.  And not just picking up, but scrubbing the table and sweeping.  (Before this I had my doubts to whether the kids could tell the difference between a clean and dirty table, as the sticky messes seem to bother only me) Madison had even purchased flowers from Sprouts with her own money. 

The next morning I was treated to breakfast in bed (applesauce and soda crackers) with little get well notes written on the napkins.

I think the kids took better care of me than I did of them. I can't decide if that means I have exceptional kids or my mothering/nursing skills need improvement.  I'm going to ignore the voice in the back of my head telling me otherwise and choose to believe option one.

So, if you are counting, by Friday morning, 5 out of 6 of us had been sick.  John escaped by being out of town.  Unfortunately he did spend about 2 days in town which is just enough time to catch what we had and take it to Washington DC with him this week.  He plans to puke after class.

So that was our big spring break.  For once I'm glad I didn't have anything big planned like Disneyland or out of town guests. And as soon as he brings up his science grade, I'll let Nick re-invite his friends over for another doctor who nerd fest. :)

My Funny Valentine

I thought it only fitting that in my Update-A-Day project,  I should highlight John on Valentine's day.

Would you believe out of the two of us, he is the romantic?  I'm actually not a fan of Valentine's day.  It feels forced and cheapened.   The giant tent outside the grocery store for your "One stop shopping Valentine needs!" really bothers me.  Ridiculously over priced roses.  Crappy chocolates in giant red boxes.  Tacky ugly stuffed animals.  Just because the date on the calendar tells you so.  Talk about a scam.  I would be insulted if John came home with any of the above.  And yet the giant tents that have set up camp make me wonder if I am in the minority in my way of thinking.  (I did however purchase season 2 of Downton Abbey and told John he got me that for Valentine's day.)
 
I don't need a particular day to know that John loves me.  It's in the little things he does every day.  For instance, he helps with laundry and the errands when he's in town.  And he doesn't need a special day to pick up some chocolate for me if he runs across something he thinks I will like.  Except for now we are both on diets so hopefully that will stop.  I gave him grief for supporting me in word, but not in deed. "But you like chocolate, and I thought of you and had to get it."

Anyway, he's gone this week. That seems par for the course.  Good thing I'm not all about Valentine's day or I might get my feelings hurt.  He's traveling as much as ever.  I barely bother to keep track. It changes day to day.  He just hit diamond status (the highest level) with Delta.  And he's the highest level with Southwest as well.  Yes, he travels that much.  And at least with Delta, he gets upgraded all the time and is actually annoyed if he has to sit back with the commoners in Coach.

There's even talk of him going back to Belgium sometime in the near future.  For like three weeks. I've got my fingers crossed he can put it off until June, then maybe I can join him for a week. They really like him in Belgium.  Last time he found a job application on his desk.  It's only a little tempting. 

A few years ago, we were looking to work abroad for a couple years.  Belgium in particular.  I wanted it so bad it hurt.  We knew a guy who did a two year stint, kept his house in the states, made a bunch of money (tax free, he was working for Uncle Sam) paid off debts and traveled all over Europe.  And what an awesome experience for our whole family!

But alas, it was not meant to be.  So we accepted that we are where we are supposed to be and continued on with our lives.  And Nick went to high school and is having an awesome year, and Christopher is going to a special kindergarten and is doing AMAZING, and I am sure any experiences we would have abroad would be awesome, but I think these are the experiences we are meant to have today.  Besides the job offer isn't for a 2 year stint.  It would be permanent.

Even in this economy, job security isn't something I worry about.  I am grateful for that. They seem to value him at his job.  John is a hard worker.  He's a really smart guy, but not arrogant, and people just like him.  And he actually gets job offers all the time. Nothing we ever considered even thinking about.  Most of them require moves to places like Washington DC or San Jose.

And I mentioned he's on a diet too?  He is doing some kind of diet with a couple of friends with an iphone app.  So it's competitive and they can see how each other is doing and keep each other honest. He lost 10 pounds in the first two weeks.  Life is so unfair. I think I was averaging 3 lbs a week with CATZ and I was killing myself to do so.  John cuts his calories, and tries to get some exercise in "even if it's just walking around the airport" And he's already lost the equivalent of my unrealistic goal for an entire month's weight loss.

So that's it.  He works.  He travels.  He's losing weight.  And he gets in a little English Premier League Soccer in between loads of laundry.

That's love.

So remember how I mentioned learning how to make my own vanilla extract when I was taking those cooking classes in Paris?

It's pretty simple, just two ingredients.  Alcohol and vanilla beans. (1/4 cup alcohol for every 4 beans)

And the best part is they can be used vanilla beans.  So, say you are making something like creme brulee and instead of just tossing the used bean away once it's been scraped of all it's goodness, instead of just tossing it (sometimes I would stick it in my sugar to flavor the sugar a little bit)  you can stick stick it in a jar of alcohol and let it stew for awhile and voila! you have homemade extract.

So why bother?

It's supposed to be better than regular extract.

As my teacher explained to us, with regular extract, if you have two identical cakes and you forgot to put store bought extract in one, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

So I'm curious.

I found the vanilla beans on Amazon.  That's the cheapest I've found them, except when Costco had them.  At the grocery store they average about $8 for 2 beans.  YIKES. 

The alcohol proved to be a little trickier.  Being a Mormon, it's not like it's exactly something I buy on a regular basis. Actually, I can't say if I've ever bought alcohol before, except of course for vanilla extract, mouth wash, rubbing alcohol, and cough syrup, etc.

Did you know they don't sell liquor at Target?  I spent 5 minutes in the wine and beer aisle worried someone I know might see me.  Cause that's what happens.

So I sent John to the grocery store.

He sat there in the liquor aisle, staring at the plethora of bottles in front of him. In my class, they said either vodka or rum works best, and their personal preference was dark rum.  So he called a co-worker he knows who is quite the expert in that area and spent several minutes on the phone discussing the different options.  He settled on a bottle, stuck it in the cart, even turned the label inward, trying to be discreet, and then as he was walking out of the liquor aisle, you'll never guess who he bumped into?

Actually everyone I've related this story to guesses right on their first guess, cause it's just so predictable.  That's right, he bumped into our Bishop and his wife.  No, they didn't seem to notice the contraband in the cart, or what aisle he was walking out of, but still...

I mention this today because John brought me home a couple little presents yesterday and it jogged my memory. (that last story happened in December) 

Being the thoughtful guy that he is, he thought of me as they were handing out mini-bottles of vodka at some charity golf event he was playing at. Ü

So, I have the beans, and now I have not one, but two different kinds of alcohol so I can experiment and see what I like best.  I just need to get cooking and use those beans.  See that jar of brown liquid?  That's exactly 1 cup of dark rum.  What you can't see is there is exactly 1 vanilla bean soaking in it. Which means I need to put 15 more in to get it to the right ratio.  Right now it's just slightly vanilla-y flavored rum.

So, hopefully sometime in the not too distant future, I'll have some opinions on storebought extract vs. homemade, and dark rum vs. vodka.  That's the plan anyway.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Last Italy post- I promise.

But we still have Belgium and most especially Paris to talk about.

I've been home for over a month.  I need to finish this soon or I never will.

So we'll lump the last two locations in one last post.

First off, we spent the day at Lake Garda.  It was a pretty, picturesque (albeit touristy) little lake (okay, not so little ) where we spent the afternoon.

We walked around, took in the sights and the ambiance, ate crepes at a cafe, shopped, and skipped rocks in the lake.  Okay, so I didn't skip any rocks, I am deficient in that area, my "skipping" is more of a "plunking" so I watched Nolan and Mindy show off their skills.  John got my camera away from me in a rare moment and busied himself taking some pictures.

Later we drove to Milan.  Our flight was leaving the next morning from Milan so that's where we stayed.  We got there in the evening and wandered around.  I was amused by the fact that our hotel was on Via Giorgio Washington. As in George Washington - First President of the USA.  I guess we were in Milan after all.  It is considered one of the fashion capitols of the world.  Plain old "George" must not have been good enough. Ü

With very little time we visited the duomo in town.  Unfortunately, it was closing time so we didn't get to go up on top of the duomo.  I hear it is amazing walking around the spires and statues.  We did get to go inside and check out the stained glass and other artwork, and even a couple of dead people on displays (priests? bishops? cardinals?) While many other people felt the need to take pictures, I didn't.  **soapbox alert** While mildly interesting, it sorta bothers me how tourists wander around talking and snapping photos inside cathedrals or duomos or whatever they are called.   I may not have the same religious beliefs as the people worshipping there, but I think I would be really annoyed if tourists walked around my church talking and snapping photos while I was trying to worship peacefully. I may find dead corpses on display a little morbid and even a little humorous,  but I still think snapping pictures while church is in session is a tad on the disrespectful side. I do give huge points to the fashion police who stood outside the doors and turned away anybody who wasn't dressed properly. (no bare shoulders or bare knees)   stepping off the soapbox now...

As the duomo was right next to the galleria, we stopped inside to see the one attraction I found more interesting than all the high end stores-  the floor tile mosaic in the center of the galleria.  In the mosaic there is a picture of a bull, and legend has it that if you spin on your heel on the bull's testicles you will have good luck for a year.  You wouldn't believe the divot in the floor where the lower half of the bull once was.  My ever accommodating husband spun for me so I could take a picture.  (I've taught him well, once upon a time he would be totally annoyed everytime I asked him to pose for the camera)

That's it, I guess.  Except for the random painted elephant statue we'd see here or there. 

The next morning we said good-bye to our travel companions at the airport.  We were sorry to see our time with them had ended, we'd had so much fun with them and sharing all these experiences with them, but I think they were more than ready to get back home.  I think we wore them out dragging them all over the place.  But as they were headed back home, our fun wasn't quite over yet and we were headed to Belgium.  Since we were over there anyway, John was asked to swing by NATO to help out with some stuff.  And since that meant we would be on separate continents for our 15 year anniversary, we decided I should stay and hang out for a day or two. 

Of course, since he had to work very full work days to get everything done, and since there isn't much to see and do in Brussels, especially since I've already been there before, and since Paris was a short train ride away, after spending an evening wandering around Brussels together, I headed off on and adventure of my own for a couple of days.

  

To be continued...

The Dolomites

The Dolomites are the the southern part of the Alps mountain range in the Northern part of Italy.  I was excited to see this area for a couple reasons- for starters, I totally fell in love with the Alps a year ago when I visited Austria and Germany.  {go here and here and here and here and here to read about that}   Secondly,  (and I found this totally fascinating) without actually crossing a border, it's like you're visiting an entirely new country- namely Germany or Austria (I guess you could take your pick.)  

Years and years ago, that area was part of Austria,  but then wars and border disputes landed this area in Italy.   The people weren't thrilled to be Italians, and were given a choice to stay and assimilate, or move North.  Most of them elected to move North, but before they could, World War II broke out, thus effectively stranding them in Italy. 

They've managed to maintain their German/Austrian roots while living in Italy.  The street signs are in both languages (German and Italian), but the food, architecture, and even clothing are definitely more German/Austrian in design.  (think sauerkraut and leiderhosen)

We spent a day exploring the region.  First we parked in Bolzano,  (bought some warmer wear, as the temperatures were decidedly cooler) then rode the funiva (tram) up the side of the mountain to the smaller little town of Oberbozen. 

We walked around, enjoyed the scenery, and stopped at a cafe and warmed up with some hot cocoa.

Then we caught the little train to the next town over and did it all over again.  (including the hot cocoa) And yes, for whatever reason I can't recall, I elected to wear flip-flops that day instead of real shoes.

After we finally made it back to Bolzano, we headed on up the mountain to the next town, (I think it was Castelrotto) where we had dinner.  I thought the food was excellent and a nice change from pizza and pasta.

(On a side note, one thing I'd heard before, and totally experienced first hand, is to find places where the locals eat, cause then you know it's good.  Restaurants that are in tourist-heavy places, usually aren't that great. Ask around, and be willing to walk a little farther, and you'll most likely eat better.) 

  

While loving every minute of Italy, every big city, every famous sight on the itinerary, it was really nice and refreshing to do something completely different.

Verona

If you saw the movie, (Letters to Juliet) be prepared for a bit of a disappointment.

(Then again, if you think real life should be like it is in the movies, you're probably used to disappointment. Just sayin')

I mean, there is a courtyard with a balcony in Verona, that they are saying is the Juliet balcony.  You know, if Juliet were real and all.  And I think that was actually the same courtyard they used in the movie (I could totally be wrong though).

But that's kinda where the similiarities end.  Instead of lovely young ladies weeping and sighing and writing lovely letters to Juliet asking her (or her imaginary secretaries) for love advice, you have bus loads of Japanese tourists. (I've heard it's a very popular stop) And instead of the actual letters stuck in the cracks you have graffiti.  Layers upon layers of people who felt the need to write their names in Sharpies upon the rocks.  I do remember seeing a post-it, but that's about as good as it gets.  And for some reason leave their gum as well. (that was pretty gross) 

Oh, and there is a statue of Juliet. 

If you rub her breast, (and apparently get a picture of yourself doing it) you are guaranteed to find true love. 

I was able to talk John into standing next to Juliet, but he didn't feel the need to rub her boob claiming he had already found true love. (me) He's kinda mushy like that.

Venice

I loved Venice. Alot. There's just something about it. 

I've heard some people that it was anti-climatic for them.  Just a lot of old run-down buildings. And water. And boats.  And it can be crowded and touristy.

True.... But... It's hard to explain.

It wasn't too touristy/crowded when we were there.   I've heard it can be crazy. People packed like sardines.  It was definitely busy, but not insane.

I am fascinated by the history of the place.  An entire man-made island built so people could escape invading armies, then became one of the greatest and most powerful cities during it's prime. 

I also just loved sightseeing and wandering around.  I loved the ordinary as well as the grand.

So, you have the Grand Canal that curves through the island, lined with the palaces of the rich merchants.  

Only a couple of bridges cross this canal, (actually four, I think?) the most famous being the Rialto.

And you have the teeny little back alleyways, which were easy (and fun) to get lost in.

Getting lost kinda did Nolan in a couple of times.  He just dropped dead on the ground. Twice.

There are a couple other little islands near Venice.  We visited Murano-  Venice is famous for it's glass blowing, but long ago, they decided that the glass blowing factories were too much of a fire hazard, so they all got relocated to Murano.  You can go there and check out the countless little shops with their displays and even take in a demonstration.  That was pretty cool.

I also thought this was cool- we stumbled upon this piece of art, up close it's a bunch of painted eggs,

and if you stand back, it becomes something more.

One thing I did not do was go on a gondola ride.  Crazy, I know, right?  Here's the thing though- it costs alot.  Like 100 euros. And if you want them to sing, then it's a lot more. (like another 100)  And it just felt so, so touristy.  Like a ride at Disneyland, or something.  I wanted to know that if I was gonna spend that much money, I'd want an unforgettable experience, and I don't mean because one of those big Vaporetti (the boat version of public transportation on the Grand Canal) ran over our Gondola (we totally saw that almost happen).  And so I elected to spend my hard earned Euros on some handblown glass, and cookies at a bakery, and presents for the kids.     

Am I crazy?  Probably.   Oh well.  Hopefully I will have the opportunity to make that decision again and again in the future. Who knows? I never thought I'd get to go in the first place.