Happy Memorial Day everyone!
I hope everyone had a great time - whether they were at the beach, having a barbecue or just enjoying the time off.
It was a pretty long weekend for me - starting at about 6:30 pm Thursday evening, when Andrew and I started the 7 hour car ride to my parents' house in VA. After getting in around 3:00 am, we had to get up to get back on the road after some bad news. 7 more hours of driving around in VA and we were finally able to go back to my parents' house and actually stay for the rest of the weekend.
It was a quiet weekend, with some family friends visiting on Sunday and then a very quiet rest of the weekend - much needed rest, but unfortunately, still not enough.
With all the changes, Memorial Day 2009 will mark on of the longest weeks of my life. I can only hope that something good will come out of all of this. Wish me luck!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
travels around the area
Friday marked my five year anniversary with my fiance with a simple and comfortable celebration at home. A home cooked meal of steak, homemade mashed potatoes and vegetables while watching a silly movie. After five years, we find that just being able to enjoy each others company without interruptions is the best type of celebration possible!
We slept in a bit on Saturday, despite our plans to travel around CT to explore - hey, we are getting old and sleeping in was a treat! We got on the road around 11, with our first stop at the Dunkin' Donuts (what did you expect?) We were thoroughly amazed to see the line of cars for the drive-thru that continuously wrapped around the building while we enjoyed our breakfast inside with no lines.
After a late breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts, we finally got on the road...yay! It was off to Mystic, CT! We made a quick stop at Mystic Seaport, but decided that we really were not interested in paying $24 per person to wander around the seaport. I mentioned that I had read that downtown Mystic had small shops and a nice area to walk around, so we decided to find downtown Mystic, which wasn't too hard - follow the traffic.
Parking was a pain, but we were able to find a good spot off of a side road. People were everywhere, despite the cloudy overcast day. It was still pretty and we were able to get ice cream - which ALWAYS makes a trip better!
After walking around and browsing the over-priced shops, we decided to head off to Rhode Island. Providence, here we come!
About an hour later, we were still somewhat disappointed. Traffic and parking and just trying to figure things out got too complicated! We visited the large mall, which had nothing unique, however, I got a picture of the State Capitol Building - which was kind of cool. We did some more driving and ended up at India Point Park, which was tucked away in a strange spot. We walked down to the water and what did we see? Two white swans! Very cute! Then, out of the blue, what would show up but...drum roll please...the ice cream truck!
After hanging around the park for a bit, we headed back to the car to make some decisions - where to next? A few rounds of debating later, we decided to head back to the outlets near Clinton, CT to visit the Haggar store. One hour later and $80 lighter, dinner was calling our name.
Andrew's friend who lives in Clinton mentioned that the Chinese restaurant near the Log Cabin (which we visited last time,) was very good and pretty authentic. Since Andrew and I have been searching for good Asian food, we decided to give it a shot, and were sorely disappointed. While reviews for the Taste of China in Clinton, CT on yelp.com and many other sites raved about how wonderful it was, I have to assume they were delirious. The service was terrible and it was very apparent. The food? Really not up to par - who DEEP FRIES scallion pancakes? What is wrong with these people? Not only were they deep fried, they were lacking in flavor - literally just layers of plain fried dough - gross. Andrew ordered hot and sour soup and it was terrible. Not only was it not spicy (and I tasted it and was like, wow, there is no fire here), it wasn't very flavorful. We ordered the twice-cooked pork and the chicken with black bean sauce and again were very disappointed. The twice-cooked pork was too salty and the chicken with black bean sauce was lacking - literally. The chicken was about as bland as bland can be - which was surprising given it was supposed to be black bean sauce!
So, we are back to the drawing board for Chinese food. I can only hope that something comes up soon! If you have any suggestions, let me know!
We slept in a bit on Saturday, despite our plans to travel around CT to explore - hey, we are getting old and sleeping in was a treat! We got on the road around 11, with our first stop at the Dunkin' Donuts (what did you expect?) We were thoroughly amazed to see the line of cars for the drive-thru that continuously wrapped around the building while we enjoyed our breakfast inside with no lines.
After a late breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts, we finally got on the road...yay! It was off to Mystic, CT! We made a quick stop at Mystic Seaport, but decided that we really were not interested in paying $24 per person to wander around the seaport. I mentioned that I had read that downtown Mystic had small shops and a nice area to walk around, so we decided to find downtown Mystic, which wasn't too hard - follow the traffic.
Parking was a pain, but we were able to find a good spot off of a side road. People were everywhere, despite the cloudy overcast day. It was still pretty and we were able to get ice cream - which ALWAYS makes a trip better!
After walking around and browsing the over-priced shops, we decided to head off to Rhode Island. Providence, here we come!
About an hour later, we were still somewhat disappointed. Traffic and parking and just trying to figure things out got too complicated! We visited the large mall, which had nothing unique, however, I got a picture of the State Capitol Building - which was kind of cool. We did some more driving and ended up at India Point Park, which was tucked away in a strange spot. We walked down to the water and what did we see? Two white swans! Very cute! Then, out of the blue, what would show up but...drum roll please...the ice cream truck!
After hanging around the park for a bit, we headed back to the car to make some decisions - where to next? A few rounds of debating later, we decided to head back to the outlets near Clinton, CT to visit the Haggar store. One hour later and $80 lighter, dinner was calling our name.
Andrew's friend who lives in Clinton mentioned that the Chinese restaurant near the Log Cabin (which we visited last time,) was very good and pretty authentic. Since Andrew and I have been searching for good Asian food, we decided to give it a shot, and were sorely disappointed. While reviews for the Taste of China in Clinton, CT on yelp.com and many other sites raved about how wonderful it was, I have to assume they were delirious. The service was terrible and it was very apparent. The food? Really not up to par - who DEEP FRIES scallion pancakes? What is wrong with these people? Not only were they deep fried, they were lacking in flavor - literally just layers of plain fried dough - gross. Andrew ordered hot and sour soup and it was terrible. Not only was it not spicy (and I tasted it and was like, wow, there is no fire here), it wasn't very flavorful. We ordered the twice-cooked pork and the chicken with black bean sauce and again were very disappointed. The twice-cooked pork was too salty and the chicken with black bean sauce was lacking - literally. The chicken was about as bland as bland can be - which was surprising given it was supposed to be black bean sauce!
So, we are back to the drawing board for Chinese food. I can only hope that something comes up soon! If you have any suggestions, let me know!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
could things be any worse?
so, I had mentioned that it had been a long couple of days...well, they got longer.
On Sunday, on the way to the store, my sister's car got rear-ended. Good news = the guy who hit her car was really nice and actually worked for the JMU police. Bad News = my sister has a big hole in her bumper.
other good things:
1. Dad came home from the hospital
2. things calmed down as the weekend ended
3. the A/C was fixed on Monday and the house is finally cool again
bad things:
1. my allergies are terrible in VA
2. I have to find a new job
but, over all, things could be a lot worse!
I am still very lucky and I know things will work out!
On Sunday, on the way to the store, my sister's car got rear-ended. Good news = the guy who hit her car was really nice and actually worked for the JMU police. Bad News = my sister has a big hole in her bumper.
other good things:
1. Dad came home from the hospital
2. things calmed down as the weekend ended
3. the A/C was fixed on Monday and the house is finally cool again
bad things:
1. my allergies are terrible in VA
2. I have to find a new job
but, over all, things could be a lot worse!
I am still very lucky and I know things will work out!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
phew...
TIRED!
it's been a long couple of days. After working pretty late Tuesday night and packing stuff up, I got up EARLY Wednesday morning (6:15, yuck) so I could pack the car and head to Stamford to meet with a recruiter at Excel Partners. I hit the road about 7:30 and arrived around 8:20 - talk about long commute! At least there wasn't a whole lot of traffic!
After meeting with the recruiter, I searched for Panera using my handy dandy GPS. Closest Panera? Port Chester, NY, about 7 minutes away.
I found the Panera but then saw a gas station and decided to fill up first. Good thing I did - when I left Panera, it would have been hell to try to get back to the gas station with all the traffic!
I dragged half of my car into Panera so I could change into a pair of jeans and a comfy sweatshirt - my usual attire of choice (if you didn't know that by now, you don't know me at all!)
Working at Panera was AWESOME. This was the slowest Panera I have ever been to - no one was in there using the wi-fi connection...which meant I had it ALL TO MYSELF! SWEET! I'm a nerd - I was so excited about having the Internet work quickly at Panera! I got a bit of work done and hit the road at about 1pm to head to VA.
6.5 hours later, I've hit VA. Only one small bit of traffic along the way due to construction, otherwise it was smooth sailing through NY, NJ, PA, MD, WV and VA.
since then, it's been busy! the phone has been ringing, people in and out, little brother driving everyone up the wall. to top it off, the A/C froze today, and will not be fixed until sometime this week...yikes.
hopefully things will calm down and the weather will cool down just a bit.
it's been a long couple of days. After working pretty late Tuesday night and packing stuff up, I got up EARLY Wednesday morning (6:15, yuck) so I could pack the car and head to Stamford to meet with a recruiter at Excel Partners. I hit the road about 7:30 and arrived around 8:20 - talk about long commute! At least there wasn't a whole lot of traffic!
After meeting with the recruiter, I searched for Panera using my handy dandy GPS. Closest Panera? Port Chester, NY, about 7 minutes away.
I found the Panera but then saw a gas station and decided to fill up first. Good thing I did - when I left Panera, it would have been hell to try to get back to the gas station with all the traffic!
I dragged half of my car into Panera so I could change into a pair of jeans and a comfy sweatshirt - my usual attire of choice (if you didn't know that by now, you don't know me at all!)
Working at Panera was AWESOME. This was the slowest Panera I have ever been to - no one was in there using the wi-fi connection...which meant I had it ALL TO MYSELF! SWEET! I'm a nerd - I was so excited about having the Internet work quickly at Panera! I got a bit of work done and hit the road at about 1pm to head to VA.
6.5 hours later, I've hit VA. Only one small bit of traffic along the way due to construction, otherwise it was smooth sailing through NY, NJ, PA, MD, WV and VA.
since then, it's been busy! the phone has been ringing, people in and out, little brother driving everyone up the wall. to top it off, the A/C froze today, and will not be fixed until sometime this week...yikes.
hopefully things will calm down and the weather will cool down just a bit.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Hungry for a piece of cold camera...
and a slice of tissue?
Talk about a busy weekend! Andrew and I went out Friday evening with his coworkers to a place called the Harborside Bar and Grill. We had a good time - except for the small cold that Andrew caught.
Andrew's mom, sister and two nephews came to visit this weekend and it was quite the full house! We had a great time - meeting them early Saturday morning at UConn to take a tour of the campus for one of his nephews. We then spent the evening in the apartment eating some pretty yummy food - ribs, dumplings, meatballs and salad. After dinner activities included shooting hoops, volleyball, ping pong and racquetball at the community recreation center - pretty fun stuff.
Sunday was spent visiting Ikea, feeding Andrew medicine to help him get better, a little bit of outlet shopping and dinner at a restaurant called the Log Cabin in Clinton, CT. The restaurant was pretty good and the portions were ridiculously large. Service wasn't so great, but still worth a trip!
We got home about 6pm where Andrew, under the influence of medicine, proceeded to put the bag containing a box of tissues and a camera in the refrigerator. yum yum. After a long hunt Monday morning, I finally located the bag in the refrigerator - plus side - the camera is okay. down side? I don't think cold tissues taste very good...
Talk about a busy weekend! Andrew and I went out Friday evening with his coworkers to a place called the Harborside Bar and Grill. We had a good time - except for the small cold that Andrew caught.
Andrew's mom, sister and two nephews came to visit this weekend and it was quite the full house! We had a great time - meeting them early Saturday morning at UConn to take a tour of the campus for one of his nephews. We then spent the evening in the apartment eating some pretty yummy food - ribs, dumplings, meatballs and salad. After dinner activities included shooting hoops, volleyball, ping pong and racquetball at the community recreation center - pretty fun stuff.
Sunday was spent visiting Ikea, feeding Andrew medicine to help him get better, a little bit of outlet shopping and dinner at a restaurant called the Log Cabin in Clinton, CT. The restaurant was pretty good and the portions were ridiculously large. Service wasn't so great, but still worth a trip!
We got home about 6pm where Andrew, under the influence of medicine, proceeded to put the bag containing a box of tissues and a camera in the refrigerator. yum yum. After a long hunt Monday morning, I finally located the bag in the refrigerator - plus side - the camera is okay. down side? I don't think cold tissues taste very good...
Thursday, April 16, 2009
For Rent!!
FOR RENT!! Yes, for rent.Since Andrew and I have moved to CT we have been posed with a slight dilemma - we need to rent out our townhouse in Glen Allen, VA.
curious?
here are some features:
- 3 Bedrooms
- 2.5 Baths
- master suite w/ giant walk-in closet
- gas fireplace
- great deck w/ storage shed
- easy access to all major highways!
want more information? go to www.rentinrichmond.com and search for 11410 Friars Walk Court!
know anyone who might be interested? please help us out by passing this along!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Pho
Pho. Ridiculously delicious, ridiculously hard to find in New Haven.
Andrew and I went to Pot-Au-Pho in New Haven, CT and were very disappointed. Not only was the Pho incredibly overpriced for the yuppies (about 2 times the amount of normal Pho restaurants,) it wasn't that great. It was not very hot, the service was terrible, and where were the jalepenos?
After a google and yelp search, I've concluded there is no good Pho in the New Haven area. It looks like we're off to Hartford in the near future to find something better. At least the reviews tell us the prices are reasonable...but if the reviews are similar to the ones for the A. Dong Supermarket, we will yet again be severly disappointed.
Andrew and I went to Pot-Au-Pho in New Haven, CT and were very disappointed. Not only was the Pho incredibly overpriced for the yuppies (about 2 times the amount of normal Pho restaurants,) it wasn't that great. It was not very hot, the service was terrible, and where were the jalepenos?
After a google and yelp search, I've concluded there is no good Pho in the New Haven area. It looks like we're off to Hartford in the near future to find something better. At least the reviews tell us the prices are reasonable...but if the reviews are similar to the ones for the A. Dong Supermarket, we will yet again be severly disappointed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
