Personal

Potted Potter

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While I was in London MC picked up pictures to the show Potted Potter.  They were relatively inexpensive and we had fantastic seats.  All week leading up to the show MC wanted to watch the movies so she could know what they would be talking about.  Since i didn’t want to see the movies again, she didn’t see them since she didn’t want to watch them alone.  Turns out you really don’t need to see the movies or read the books to enjoy the show.  It was really funny.  We had a blast.

We had dinner at shake shack before hand, and then walked over to the show.

The High Line

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MC and I went to the high line for the first time today.  We walked around before meeting up with Aileen for dinner to celebrate her graduating.  After dinner we took her to the high line for desert.

On my first two attempts back from London I was able to get Pims.  One at a bar near the high line and on e at dinner.  Too funny especially after Colin said it was tough to do in NY.

My Alone Day in London

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Since I headed to London early to get a weekend in seeing the city I had a full day to kill Sunday.  I was originally going to possibly see Tony and hang out a bit but he had to cancel.  I thought about my options and then opted to see the Tower of London.  I slept in a little since i was tired from the flight over Friday night.  I then got advise from the hotel on a place for lunch and found a row of pubs not too far from the hotel.  I picked one and had some fish and chips.  While eating i planned my day and route to the tower.

I headed over to the light rail station and took the DLR to goto the tower.  I paid for the audio tour.  After doing that with MC at Moma i am totally getting those when i can.  so much easier to see historic sights and museums with the audio tour.  The Tower was fun and interesting.  I got some good photos.  i wasn’t however that impressed with the crown jewels.  Sorry England.  I had heard i wouldn’t be by a few people and their expectations were spot on.  Overall it was a good choice for my one day free.

First Day in London

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I spent the morning getting from the airport to the hotel. And I unwound a little. I walked over to Canary wharf mall near where the office is. I need to get a SIM card for my Galaxy Nexus phone and iPad. I was impressed at how easy it was to get, and the price was not that bad either.  I wasn’t happy I couldn’t use my AT&T iPhone 4S because it was locked to AT&T, but I was glad I had an unlocked Galaxy Nexus that i could use.

I tried to have some breakfast at Starbucks but ended up just having a Danish because he did not have the sandwich I wanted.  After that i headed out to meet Colin by the London bridge station.  Well first it was at another station and i didn’t see my text until i was already at the location i was originally going to.  I then turned around and headed to the London bridge station.  It was only a 15 minute detour.  Once there Colin was running late.  I walked around a bit, then just goofed off on the internet and read a bit in the sun until he arrived.

We checked out an open air market.  had some food.  I got some fudge.  We then walked and had a drink at a pub.  After that we walked all the way down towards were we were going to eat dinner.  it was right near the London Eye.  We walked along the river.  it was fun.  We were early meeting his wife so we had a drink outside by the river.  i tried Pims for the first time.  Colin insisted.  it was good.  We then meet his wife and had dinner, and then they had to rush off to get a delivery.  We parted ways at the tube station.  I made my way back to the hotel.

It was a good finally meeting Colin.  I considered him a friend for a quite some time since I start working at Reuters, however other than Skype video chat’s we have never met in person.

Cruise Day 2 – At Sea

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Day two of the cruise, or the first full day at sea we were scheduled to tender at a private island in the Bahamas. The seas were extremely rough and apparently the ship was unable to conduct tendering in that kind of weather. That meant we were spending the entire day at sea along with the next day at sea until we get to our first port of call. I wouldn’t have minded an extra day at see if the weather was good. Today all we were going to do was lie around on the beach in the Bahamas, so I could’ve just like around by the pool on the boat. what prevented that from happening for a lot of the day was it was extremely choppy water. Even on one of the world’s largest cruise ships it was very uncomfortable. I had some trouble walking on the rough decks every once in a while, MC didn’t feel so good from moving Seas.

Most of the day was generally low key. With some time at the pool, spending most of it in the Jacuzzi and reading. We also took some time to relax and take a nap since we neither of us are feeling so hot. There was some exploring of the ship, but not too much.

One bright spot of the day for MC was she went and got a massage. I am planning to go later in the week.

Dinner was one of the fancy dress-up nights. That means I got to suit up! MC was her usual awesome looking. We had dinner at our table in the main dining room. We didn’t do that yesterday because we went to the specialty restaurant for the mystery dinner. There should’ve been two other couples or three other couples I can’t remember, but only one of them showed up. The food was delicious, and overall I was a great meal. I have to say the service on the cruise ship so far have been fantastic.

After dinner there was a get together in the nightclub for all honeymooners. Off being on our honeymoon we figured we would check it out. Apparently there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 or so couples who registered with the ship saying that they were on their honeymoon. The staff said there’s probably was even more they didn’t even say anything. Bunch of them showed up for a raffle and cake, then dancing at the nightclub. We didn’t win the raffle, but we had fun dancing and the cake was pretty good. I got some pretty funny photos with some statues, as well as some nice shots with MC.

Cake Tasting

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Today M and I took Metro-North up to go to a bakery to taste cakes for our wedding. We were a bit excited, and our experience exceeded our expectations. We decided on a typical round 3 layer wedding cake. It has an off white looking frosting, and there’ll be some ribbon for decoration. The outside is pretty unremarkable, however the inside was awesome. Each layer has 3 layers in it. We went with chocolate fudge and mouse on the 1st letter, then cannoli cream with white cake for the 2nd layer, and then for the 3rd layer we went with more chocolate fudge and mouse. I preferred cheesecake layer over the cannoli but we ended up going with the cannoli. Both tasted great though I’m really excited. I typically do not eat wedding cake, so I’m hoping that my wedding cake will be the 1st that I have a big piece of.

New Refrigerator

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Today we received our new refrigerator. Last week I noticed stuff in our old refrigerator wasn’t really cold.  I kind of knew something was off but it took me a few days to register. After shopping around online M and I settled on basic model from Best Buy. The downside was we had to wait almost a week to get it. The delivery guys finally got here today. I was thankfully able to work from home to receive it. It’s nothing fancy but a huge improvement over we had. It was an expense we wanted especially since we are planning on moving shortly but we couldn’t live without it.

The High Road to/From Taos

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We only planned on spending one night in Taos so we were upset to check out of the awesome hotel we were staying at.  Before we left Taos we wanted to check out the Taos Pueblo.  It is a UNESCO site or something like that.  Any settlement that has been around for 1100 years is cool to me.  We got a tour and walked around a bit.  It was very interesting to see.

From the Pueblo we took off for Santa Fe.  We took what everyone calls the high road to Taos, yet the guide book suggested we do it going from Taos so that is what we did.  It was only about 30-45 minutes longer than the other direction.  We had more breathtaking views of the countryside.  We stopped at some carpet stores that do their own weaving.  It was interesting but M was more into than I was.

We also stopped for a snack at Sugar Nymphs that was recommended by the books and then we had a late lunch at Rancho De Chimayo before heading off to our hotel outside Santa Fe.

For the last leg of our stay we had reservations at the Hilton Buffalo Thunder Resort.  As hotels go it was by far the worst of the 3 hotels we stayed at.  it was OK, but the other two were fantastic.

After we checked in we went to the indoor pool for a while before going into Santa Fe for dinner.  MC got reservations at a Galisteo Bistro in downtown Santa Fe.  The food was ok.  Compared to the great places we had been to this was nothing spectacular.

Horseback Riding and R and R

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For our last full day in Albuquerque we got up early again (not as early as yesterday) and went horse back riding at the hotel.  We didn’t know this but the hotel is on an Indian Reservation.  We got to rid the horses on a trail on the reservation.  It was pretty cool.  We saw petroglyphs.  Well M did.  I saw them later on photos since I couldn’t see the rocks well enough to see them.

My horse was pretty good.  She actually listened when i wanted her to gallop, go left or right and sometimes stop.  The only thing was she wanted to stop and eat every five minutes.  I was pretty pleased with the horse choice.  The only thing bad was she attacked M’s horse and someone elses.  I am not kidding.  M and I got lined up next to each other for a photo and my horse tried to slam her head into M’s horse.  It was pretty bad ass.  While we were riding back another horse got close to her and she tried to do the same thing to that one.  I thought it was a bit funny.

I was glad to be finished with the ride since it was getting very hot and my legs were starting to kill me.

For lunch we went back into Albuquerque for lunch at the place that was closed on Sunday.  The Grove Cafe.  It was another really good lunch.  After that we we drove around downtown a bit and then went to a nice espresso place before heading back to the hotel to get in some pool time, and reading.

For dinner we went to the Corn Maiden Restaurant at the hotel.  It was very highly rated and it was fantastic.