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.

Wednesday May 9th, 2012

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Today i was in the office at 3xsq.  Long day with several face to face meetings as well as calls.  I had lunch with Eamon and we did our 1on1 at lunch.  I also had an interview with a prospective candidate.

I sat at Abhinav’s desk.  Scott showed up for the interview so I couldn’t sit at his desk even though he sat somewhere else and Rajesh sat at his desk.

After work i went for a hair cut.  Leon cut the top of my hair shorter again for me but left the sides a bit longer, or shall i say he faded it in so the bottom was short and the upper sides were a bit longer.  Not sure if i like it but i am giving it a go.  Last month i had the top much longer to try that out.  i didn’t like it.

The Steve Jobs Biography

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I finished the Steve Jobs biography today. It was an interesting book. It confirmed my previous assessment that the guy was a dick, but even then at times i found myself tearing up in some chapters. Maybe it is because my dad isn’t in the best of health, or maybe the book was just touching. I am not sure. Overall it was worth reading/listening to the audio book.

First Day Back at Work

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My 1st day back from a 3 day vacation I decided to work from home. Thankfully I did not have a ton of meetings so they would catch up on mail and my tasks. There was not a lot to report today. A pretty normal uneventful day. Sometimes that’s pretty nice, and sometimes  it’s kind of boring. Today after going to DC over weekend was nice to be it would get stuff done.

Good Friday

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Today is Good Friday, and also the first night of Passover. MC and I went to Michael’s dads for the Seder. My parents thankfully gave us a lift in their car so we did not have to take the subway.

Today was special because it was the first time we had told anyone other than our parents and one or two friends that MC was pregnant. The amnio results were in and we felt confident in finally being able to tell people. MC did not want to make a scene but as I warned her my sister no matter how you tell her she would react very loudly to the news. Carrie did not disappoint. Neither did Lauren. It was definitely a happy occasion. I think everyone was happy except for Zachary. He was disappointed to hear that we were having a baby girl. He was hoping for a little boy cousin to play with, possibly boss around a little bit. We had to disappoint him.

Overall the Cedar was good. Obviously the most memorable part of it was us giving the news about the baby, so it’s kind of hard to remember anything else memorable that happened.

Cruise Day 8 – Going Home

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Today was the last day of the cruise. That basically means we wake up, get to port, and then leave the ship. Because we flew out of Orlando, and we rented a car on the way in, we had to find other transportation back to the airport. We ended up spending the money and getting bus service back to Orlando. It turns out that was a fantastic idea. Our flight was not until later in the afternoon, because we rushed last year to get on an earlier flight. The boat wasn’t late like it was last year, so we got out and cleared customs relatively fast. The downside of that meant we had to spend several hours in the airport in Orlando. I would rather have done that anyway then be worried about rushing to catch a flight.

The flight home was generally uneventful. We caught a cab easy enough and were home in our new apartment. We came home to the same set of boxes waiting for us to be unpacked that we left. I secretly wished that helper elves had unpacked everything while we’re gone. They didn’t.

When checking my voice mail when I got off the plane I got a message from my new boss. Apparently while I was away there was a reorganization and I moved to a different manager. I knew it was coming, but wasn’t sure when. It was weird to know that I have to meet my new manager on the phone first thing the day I get back from my honeymoon!

I want to note that all of the blog posts about the honeymoon or written after-the-fact. Actually I finally got around to writing them sometime in August. I postdated everything since I like to know for me when things actually happened, and not just talk about them past tense. MC will talk about how she won’t go on a cruise for a while, and had a not so great time because of the weather and the rough sea conditions. That part wasn’t the greatest, but overall it was a vacation and I enjoyed it.

Cruise Day 7 – Sea Day

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Today was our last full day of the cruise. It was also and other sea day. My parents and I think of one or two other people recommended for us to do breakfast in the room on our balcony. Up until now we have eaten in the Windjammer and had the buffet. We kept wanting to do it, and never really ended up remembering to schedule it the night before. When it came time to planning breakfast for the last day we had to decide between breakfast on the patio or the formal breakfast in the dining room that we also have wanted to try. Room service won out. It was nice to be able to sit and eat with the open at sea air and the view. We had some minor drama about actually getting the food on time, but the room service people sorted it out and were extremely friendly.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, and reading by the pool.

For dinner we decided to splurge and go to the steakhouse for dinner. Man am I glad we did. The steak was fantastic, the drinks were really good, and the desert was out of this world. As luck would have it we ended up sitting next to the scene couple we met during the mystery dinner.

It was a great night to wrap up what was not always the most enjoyable cruise. MC had a few days of seasickness due to the choppy water, and I think a little bit of cabin fever being on the boat more than we planned. I see her point, and even though I enjoyed myself a lot more than she did I don’t think we will be doing a cruise in the foreseeable future.

Other things we did on the cruise that I forgot what days we did them on were two rounds of music trivia. one of which we were so close in winning, but we blew one answer and ended up in second place. We hung out at several different bars, and I tried to get them to make me a sidecar. One of the bars was very good at it, and other not so much. We saw a dancing panda, some other different trivia games. And decided to not take part in a cupcake making class.

After being on the love and marriage game show, it was funny and a little bit spooky to be constantly recognized where ever we went on the ship. I’m not sure if that is going to be my 15 minutes of fame where I realize what celebrities have to go through all the time. I am not kidding, we got recognized 3 to 5 times a day after that easily. if I had to do that again, I wouldn’t change anything. Well maybe one answer or two but you know what I mean!

Cruise Day 6 – Sea Day

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Today was another sea day. I took this opportunity to schedule a hot stone massage in the morning. It was extremely relaxing. I typically only go for massages on vacation, so it was a real treat to go twice this week.

For lunch, we get another treat and went to Johnny Rockets again. After eating at that place I feel like I need to take a nap. Thank goodness we were on vacation.

We relax by the pool, red, and just generally enjoyed ourselves for the rest of the day.

We had dinner in the dining room again since tomorrow, our last night at sea we’re planning on doing something special.

Cruise Day 5 – St Maarten

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Today was our second port of call in St. Maarten. All MC wanted from this vacation is the line the beach a little bit. The night before when we were planning our shore expeditions the concierge said they did not think the weather was going to be nice so we decided to book a tour since going to the beach did not seem like it was an option. we’ve been having mixed luck on this cruise, so it turned out the weather was fantastic. Unfortunately we already paid for a boat and land tour.

The first half of the tour was a catamaran ride around the bay showing off some sites. I got some fantastic photographs and it was a fun ride on the water. The second half of the tour was a van ride to the other side of the island. The scenery was pretty nice, but overall it was not as fun as the boat ride. We had a nice lunch in a café by the water. And then headed back to the boat when the tour was wrapping up.

We hung out by the pool for the rest of the day. After that we had dinner in the dining room. And hung out.