July 8

One year ago today, our backs hurt from old Poang chairs, I had Korean fried chicken for lunch with summer associates at work, and I was annoyed by Google+ trying to take over every part of our internet lives. (Today, backs still hurt, even though now on sofa, we had Korean fried chicken last week, and I'm still annoyed by Google+.)

Two years ago today, I had a Japanese food crawl lunch and then a midsummer reception after work (for work), while A went with his coworkers for a BBQ feast in Brooklyn. (We had BBQ last night.)

Three years ago today, I had a summer associate lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant (seems to be a popular day for summer lunches?), sushi for dinner while working late, and somehow had enough energy to exercise at home after leaving work at 11 pm.  (Need wedding energy and motivation again.)

Four years ago today, we worked a lot, our air conditioning was broken, and we were in the middle of planning a birthday party for my dad. (Thank goodness we have A/C today.)

Five years ago today, we got engaged. :)

No matter what happens, July 8 will always be a special day.

Happiness List 07.05.12

Been awhile since I did one of these but the need to appreciate the little things in life that make us happy doesn't ever end.

1.  Celeste zesty 4 cheese frozen pizza.

2.  A new episode of Awkward.

3.  The Cabo episode of Trip Flip, with the surprise visit from the sea lion on a fishing trip, proving that even extensively planned travel days can be full of amazing surprises.

4.  The reasonable prices at Earl of Sandwich.

5.  Not being a contestant on Love in the Wild where they had to pick up and carry tarantulas.

6.  A mini marathon of the early episodes of New Girl.  I stopped watching early in the season because it wasn't clicking but started to love it at the end.  Watching the early eps again but knowing the characters better from the later episodes makes the early eps seem better now.

7.  Finally got to watch Teen Wolf.  One of the best summer shows.  When did MTV get good TV (between this and Awkward)?  Of course there's no more music, but I'll take good TV.

8.  My knee didn't hurt the way it did yesterday when it felt like it would snap.

Foursquare Update

Dear Foursquare,

I like most of the new features of the web upgrade and the new iPhone app but, in the event you find this post, here are a few things that need improvement.

1.  Bring back the old trending places list!  One of my favorite things about the old Foursquare was that I could see where everyone was.  The hundreds of people checked into a show or a sporting event or the airport on a Sunday.  It was a good way to see what was going on around town that we might want to check out.  The new "trending" option on explore is not the same and doesn't bring up most of the popular places.  Maybe this is your way of stopping the [insert holiday]-apocalypse places but there has to be another way of doing that.

2.  The grouping of checkins needs improvement.  I understand the motivation - trying not to clutter people's news feed if someone is, for example, on vacation and checking in at a lot of different places.  The problem is that, with the groupings, it groups together too much.  Two checkins 20 hours apart probably shouldn't get grouped together.  Maybe there is a way to group together checkins that are consecutive on the feed and not broken up by someone else's checkin?  That seems to make more sense.  As the days have gone on since the update, it seems like more and more is grouped together.

3.  Specials.  Not really any good way to see what specials are nearby and people do go to places because they have a special.  (I have.)

4.  Mayorships on the app feed.  I don't know if someone is a mayor at the place unless I click into that particular checkin for more details.

That's all I've got for now.  I'm not one of the people who cares about the nearby v. worldwide filter, the fact that it's harder to find the scoreboard, or the change in the check-in button.  But I do think those things need some work.

Hope that helps!

Recovering

It's been a long week.  We returned from vacation a little over 10 days ago, but it feels like we've been back for much, much longer.

I got sick shortly after we got back (this happens every time).  I had started feeling congested the day before we flew back to New York and the flight, of course, didn't help at all.  Although I did my best to fight it, taking decongestants and gently forcing myself into an earlier morning routine and trying to feel normal, I wasn't strong enough to beat it on my own.  By Wednesday night, I was at the doctor's office with a deep chest cough and sinus pressure that was so bad that I thought my face was going to explode.  I worked from home on Thursday due to my sinus infection, hoping the antibiotics would work quickly.  But recovery progressed very slowly and I still wasn't feeling 100% after the medicine was done.  On top of all that, last weekend was my 10th college reunion, which I agonized for awhile over cancelling but ultimately did (and now it remains to be seen whether we will see a penny of what we paid refunded).

Work has been insane.  I started working on a deal last Wednesday which really kicked into gear last Friday... because it needed to close by this morning.  A deal is doable in one week but on a lean team, it's not easy.  It explains why I was up until 3 or 4 in the morning this week, wrecking my sleep schedule and officially losing all the benefits Europe had left on my internal clock.  It probably didn't help that our client and everyone we worked with were in California, pushing the schedule later and more toward my natural timing.

After all of that, I was really looking forward to today.  End of the week, deal closing, over a week after I started antibiotics so hopefully I would be feeling better, etc.  It was a long day but at work, it wasn't so bad.  The deal closed.  Another emergency project took up the afternoon but ultimately was resolved to everyone's satisfaction.  I was exhausted and kept passing out, but decided to feel better by napping through the end of Team USA's crappy performance (despite the win) against Antigua and Barbuda in the World Cup qualifier.  I was able to see A for both lunch (kofta!) and dinner (salad box full of healthy vegetables from Maoz).  Finally, the week was ending.  Finally, I could try to relax and get some sleep.  Finally, things were looking up.

But Azure had other plans.

Azure is our car (yes, I named my car when I got her).  About a month ago, we accidentally left the light on in the car and it killed our battery.  We had to get a jump, drove the car for awhile (at least 20 minutes, which everyone told us was all the battery needed to get back to normal), and everything was fine.  The battery didn't seem to go completely back to normal, giving us little fits every so often, but we really didn't think it would be dead when we got to the garage today.

Nope.  Car wouldn't start.  Had to call our garage's person again for the jump (which costs $30 each time but we're in a garage and don't have another option) and then we were ready to go.  A released the parking brake and - boom - I felt my body drop straight toward the ground.  Not a good feeling.  Not a pretty flat tire either.  Not low.  Completely flat.

Off to the gas station and the free air pump (thank you Hess!).

Eventually we were on our way and then we hit traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike (shocker!).  It was for construction where they were narrowing all the lanes to one lane.  But the "construction" was less than the equivalent of one city block and the one lane traffic went for miles.  Seeing all that empty space was frustrating.

Also frustrating was that, with one thing after another piling itself on, the week just refused to end!

Almost two hours after leaving our apartment, we finally reached our destination.  It is finally the weekend (although I'm now sleeping 2 hours after I planned).  It is finally time to recover from a really long week.

Frosting

Do you use bath scents that smell like baked goods?

Our current body wash is this bath gel I got free from Sephora as part of my birthday gift one year which smells like vanilla cupcakes.  I don't usually go for super-sweet scents so the first time I opened it, it was overwhelming and powerful (and not in a good way but kind of like that overly sweet frosting on Magnolia cupcakes).  I couldn't imagine using it on my skin because all I could think of was cupcake frosting.  Why would I rub cupcake frosting on my skin if I were trying to get clean?  I think I actually cringed the first time I had to use it.  I don't know that I could use it as a bubble bath (its other use) without feeling like I was stepping into a vat of frosting.

Over time it's gotten to be less of a powerful response but it still smells really sweet and I don't really like using it.  Also, the scent fades a lot once you're out of the shower so you don't walk around smelling the inside of a cupcake shop.

Is this just a matter of personal preference and I'm never going to like this body wash?  If you like these scents (but didn't in the past), how did your tastes change? I only ask because I'm not sure if there is another one of these in the closet and I would really prefer not to waste it...

Goodbye to The Finder

The Finder is gone.  No one watched it and that's a real shame.

If you've never heard of it, it's about a guy (Walter) who finds things.  That sounds simple, like a detective, but it's not.  It's an overwhelming compulsion to find things where he can't rest until he does.  And he's good at it.  All season, they alluded to the fact that bad things happen when Walter can't find something.  In the season (series) finale, they showed it.

I only got around to watching the finale this week, but with how they left things, I'm really sad it's over.

The Finder started during Bones last season as a backdoor pilot.  I hated that episode.  I was convinced I was going to hate The Finder as its own show since I hated that episode of Bones (I actually think I fell asleep, it was so terrible), and maybe I wasn't alone since it definitely didn't have the audience that Bones does.

But I tried it out, since I like to give new shows a chance, and I liked it.  It was lighthearted.  It had spirit.  It had humor.  It had potential.  It was about finding things (or people) but it was also a show about characters.  All along I felt like the people who said it belonged on USA had a point.  Characters welcome?  This show is all about characters.  The quirky main character with his odd system of finding things.  His best friend/sidekick with a sad backstory who will always be there.  The girlfriend/marshal who really grew on me.  The "problem child" who is placed with them but comes to find a place in the "family" threatened by her other "family."  It started off a little rocky, trying to find its chemistry and its place, but by the middle of the season, there were some truly enjoyable episodes which led up to a final few that were really great.

Which makes me really sad that it's gone.  The show was different.  It was a procedural but it wasn't about solving crimes.  And now that we finally know more about who these people are, what they care about, and what they are willing to sacrifice for each other, we will never know if they find their way back to each other.  (Spoiler alert, even though it's been over for a few weeks now!)  We'll never know how Walter gets out of jail (although I'm sure he will).  We'll never know how he solves the problem of the painting he's been looking for for 4 years, and what will happen to him if he doesn't (now that we've seen just how "talented" he is).  We'll never know if Willa made it into the sunset to escape her family.  We'll never know how the characters made it through the tough times and back into each other's lives to find things and help people along the way.

It's sad when shows end on a high note, with so much promise for the future, and you know they will never get it.  Very sad.

We're Back!

Been awhile since the last post, but things should go back to "normal" soon.  We're back from Barcelona!

It was amazing being gone for 10 days (I love tacking weekends on to the trip!) which really let us get to know Barcelona at a more relaxed pace and let us feel more like locals traveling (although there's only so much of that feeling you can get in a foreign place).  Although we had planned for a number of possible day trips, we really only took one (to Girona), instead deciding to enjoy Barcelona itself.  And with all of that time, there are still things we wanted to see that we never got around to doing.  Next time!

Recaps to come!

Fall 2012 TV Schedule

Haven't posted in awhile.  It's been so hectic here with work, getting ready for our trip and just everyday life.  This week has been exciting because of the announcements of the fall TV schedule at the upfronts.  I look forward to this every year so I can see what the offerings are (and figure out what the problem time slots will be...).  So, one last break before I get to packing, to set the DVR and look at the fall schedule!

Monday
8 pm - Bones (FOX - on demand) and maybe Partners (CBS) but I can't remember what it's about
9 pm - Gossip Girl (CW), Mob Doctor (Fox)
10 pm - TROUBLE - Castle (ABC), Hawaii Five-0 (CBS), Revolution (NBC) ... I guess Castle will end up being on demand

Tuesday
8 pm - Maybe Ben & Kate (Fox)?
9 pm - TROUBLE - Happy Endings & Apt 23 (ABC), New Girl (Fox), maybe Go On and/or New Normal (Fox), maybe Emily Owens, MD (CW)
10 pm - Vegas (CBS) since I gave up on Parenthood last year and Private Practice this week

Wednesday
8 pm - TROUBLE - Suburgatory (ABC), Survivor (CBS), Arrow (CW)
9 pm - Modern Family (ABC)
10 pm - Nashville (ABC), Chicago Fire (NBC)

Thursday
8 pm - Last Resort (ABC), Vampire Diaries (CW)
9 pm - TROUBLE - Person of Interest (CBS), Glee (Fox), Beauty and the Beast (CW), Grey's Anatomy (ABC - on demand)
10 pm - Scandal (ABC), Elementary (CBS)

Friday
8 pm - Community (NBC)
9 pm - TROUBLE - Grimm (NBC), Fringe (Fox), Nikita (CW)
10 pm - Blue Bloods (CBS)

Sunday
8 pm - Once Upon a Time (ABC), Amazing Race (CBS)
9 pm - Revenge (ABC), Good Wife (CBS)
10 pm - 666 Park Avenue (ABC), Mentalist (CBS)

Why does every day other than Sunday have a trouble spot?  Bah. And this is just with what I know so far about the shows, and I haven't seen trailers for most of them. Problem is that a lot of the trouble spots contain (1) shows I already watch and like and (2) the pilots I knew about and was really looking forward to.  I don't want the new shows to suck to make scheduling easier!  I guess we'll figure it out.  Midseason should be another mess but that's a long way off.

Now to finish setting the DVR so I can pack...

Goodbye to Best Friends Forever

Best Friends Forever, you never had a chance.

I had no idea what you were about or that you even existed, but saw a free preview on Hulu before the TV premiere and checked it out.  Best comedy I've ever seen?  No.  But I have sometimes found that comedy ensembles take time to hit their stride (glad I gave Community that chance) and to connect with the audience.  And, considering BFF was better than some other comedies out there that are succeeding (laugh track comedies and 2 Broke Girls, I'm looking at you), I hoped NBC would give it a chance.

Oh well.

If you never tuned in, BFF was (is?) about 2 best friends (with a truly believable friendship, as I think they are also real life friends?), one who recently split from her husband and another in a serious relationship.  The recently split one moves in with her best friend and her boyfriend, and they find a way to make it work in their crazy NYC lives.

I guess we'll never get to see more than a handful of episodes but it's getting burned off sometime at the end of May/beginning of June, so it's still possible to catch it.  But it's tough to commit to a show when you know it has no future.  I think this one had potential so it's kind of sad to see it go.

So, goodbye Best Friends Forever.  I'll tune in to the burn-off so I can see how the season would have gone.  Thanks for providing me with some laughs and a portrayal of a good friendship.

Goodbye to The Secret Circle

(FYI: If you haven't seen the full season of The Secret Circle, there are spoilers in this post!)

On Thursday night, I stayed up late, glued to the finales of The Vampire Diaries (one of my favorite shows) and The Secret Circle (not as great as TVD but entertaining nonetheless).  I knew The Secret Circle was a bubble show, but out of all the cancellations in the past few days, this is probably the one I was least expecting.  I had resigned myself to Nikita getting cancelled (but happily, it was renewed), as well as two other CW shows I had given up on over the course of the season - Ringer (which was cancelled) and Hart of Dixie (which I was surprised had been renewed but I guess I hadn't paid much attention to the rumors and ratings lately).  I guess if you were to give me a choice between Nikita and The Secret Circle, I would probably choose Nikita (despite being 4 or so episodes behind right now), so I can see where the CW was coming from.

The Secret Circle had a lot of promise, especially for the CW's usual audience.  I like shows that center around high school and magic so, even though I haven't read the book(s?), I knew I was going to watch this.  I also thought, since it came from the same team as TVD, that it would have the same awesomeness that TVD does.  I still think it could have, but it just didn't match up to TVD.

For example, pacing of the story.  TVD moves really, really quickly.  Things that would be season finales on other shows happen in the middle of the season and not even during sweeps.  You never know who is going to die (or be brought back to life) or face some other supernatural circumstance.  The Secret Circle was slow.  Maybe part of that was due to them being new to witchcraft and maybe they thought it would be a good idea to show their journey.  But after watching TVD, the Secret Circle just seemed to crawl.  Once they bound their circle, they didn't do much magic at all.  I wanted to watch people do magic! Talking about magic and spells isn't anything like seeing them done. In the finale, they unbound the circle, got their individual powers back, and it was fantastic.  I feel like if this had happened at midseason, maybe things would have been different.

From the finale, it looks like the direction they were going to head in was filled with a lot of dark magic and people discovering what they could do individually with their powers.  I think that would have been really interesting and just wish that had happened earlier.  We could have skipped over the whole drug dealing and creepy guy with girlfriend in a coma part and maybe we would have gotten here sooner.  I'm sad that we won't be able to see the directions the characters are going in, since, other than the hilarious foaming jellyfish that turned into a crystal skull, the finale was actually pretty good and had potential.

I guess we'll find out on Thursday what the CW is going to pair with the Vampire Diaries next season.  Maybe Cult so that Alaric stays close to his Mystic Falls pals?