Well (e:Anne) and I are back from our Europe trip, as she mentioned in her most recent post. Naturally one of the first things I did when I got back was organize all of my photos, plus her photos, which ended up being a grand total of 584. Amongst that ginormous collection of photos are some I took specifically to put them up on estrip, so I present them to you now. Here is an album of everything we ate in Milan and Madrid, (e:Paul) style.

(e:Anne) enjoying some yogurt at Toronto's Pearson Airport, getting ready to fly to London-Gatwick.

A white-chocolate macademia nut cookie from Starbucks. It was so good.

(e:Anne) enjoying her first European Fanta since 2005. She swears it's better than here.

A baguette from some place in Gatwick's food court.


Now we are at our first dinner in Milan, and this was our four cheese (quatro formaggi?!) appetizer. Mmmmmm...

Authentic Italian pizza...and yes we ate every bite!



Next day walking around Il Duomo, the 3rd largest cathedral in the world. We got sandwiches from a stand right near by (the worker was in love with us too, he kept telling us how beautiful we were, awww)

.

Cookies.


Next day's lunch. We stopped at a supermarket and ate in a random playground. I love brie.


OMG gellato. OMG uuggggghhhhhhh it's so good.


Our last dinner in Milan. This is a plate of some random cheese, tomato on bread, some kind of fancy ham, a word I can't remember (the stuff in the middle, (e:anne) knows it) and fancy liver on toast. Liver makes my mom gag so I ate hers. I don't love it but I'll eat it. Of course after that I figure I've had enough liver for the year.

Our main courses.


This dessert was sheer heaven. That's a pear on top, which I took off and gave to (e:Anne) - she said it was also really good.


Lunch in the Milan Malpensa Airport, waiting for our flight to Madrid.


More gellato. This was better than what we had had the day before.


Now in Madrid - we didn't get in until approx. 10:30 and sat down to dinner around 11:30. Looking back on it, this meal probably wasn't that fantastic, but I was starving and it was warm and salty. Delicious.

By the way those thing that look like mozzarella sticks are croquettes, which were full of some kind of dough and ham and cheese.


Happy 4th of July, aka (e:Anne) 's birthday!!! We started off our day with Chocolate con churros, which is basically sticks of fried dough that you dip in warm puddling-like chocolate. Mmmmmmm...

Birthday lunch - Paella Valencia, which is rice, vegetables, saffron, chicken, mussels and prawns. I really liked it except for the fact that the prawns still had EVERYTHING attached, including eyes legs and antenna. It grossed me out too much so I gave those all to (e:Anne).

Apparently Pano's has great paella. I want to try some now.


Birthday dinner, haha.


"I can't wait to eat this ice cream!"

"I can't take one more bite."

"I'm going to explode."

But we did it!!!!


Thursday -
Thrilling croissant from Starbucks.

Madrid has a Dunkin Donuts!!!!

Lunch (yes I got pizza even though I was no longer in Italy!) It had four cheeses, and one of them was blue cheese which I had to scrape off most of. Unless accompanied by chicken fingers and wing sauce. blue cheese should not be on pizza.

This was the greatest thing I've ever eaten I think. Melted brie and white aspargus on toast. MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMmm

Dinner/Dessert/Snack later. More gellatto. The vanilla tasted like lemon but the chocolate was great.


Now we are in London for a day before we fly back to Toronto. This was Friday's breakfast.



Mars bar! I love them and eat many of them when I am in Europe. I know they are just like Milky Ways but I swear they're better.

Dinner in Covent Garden.
FISH AND CHIPS AND MUSHY PEAS mmmmmmmmmmm



Saturday morning, getting ready to leave. : (
I think it's funny that I could easily find a bagel in an Underground Station in London, but (e:Mike) and (e:Jill) couldn't find any in an airport in Tennessee.



Unfortunately, my last meal of the trip. Hoooooray, airplane food!


So to sum it all up, we ate some pretty delicious food. But we walked a lot too, so none of us came back with too much extra "baggage". Notice the difference in portion size, as well?

Have a good day peeps. Go eat something yummy!!!!!!!

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ok, also in this entry, some pictures from the big (e:mk) and (e:anne) move out to richmond - two weeks late. oh well!

Bringing the U-Haul home to load up.


Mommy bought us breakfast :)

The puppies wanted some of it.


(e:Anne) and company loading up the truck.

Meanwhile, i was already at the apartment signing our lease and paying the first month's rent. i had lots of time to explore before they got there. this first picture is a drawer that was left by the previous tenants. thanks for all the extra supplies!

Back balcony - the view




My favorite part of the whole apartment...a little window between the living room and kitchen.



My room, a little bit moved in.



This is our peace lily. His name is Mahatma.




Fast forward to yesterday and my first charcoal grill lighting experience. I must say it went pretty well except that I probably didn't light enough and the chicken took like 45 minutes to cook. But what's the rush really?



This is marinade (pronounced like "speedy" sauce). It's made somewhere near Binghamton. It's like their version of Chiavetta's but way tastier.


(e:Mike) and (e:Jill) and I had our own housewarming party last night, complete with mini umbrellas.



Sometime we'll have a bigger housewarming party and we'll let y'all know!

have a goooood weekend :)

wow I was such an asshole for like 2 years.

I'm going back and reading all of my old entries and from like March 2004 - September 2005, I mentioned how I missed my friends and hanging out in like every single entry. I kept saying like "I hope we can hang out tonight! I hope I can do stuff this this weekend! I miss you guys!"

But did I actually make effort to change this? NOOOO I just kept NOT hanging out with people that LOVE ME and ENJOY MY COMPANY and instead spent all of my free time with my awful ex-boyfriend.

Why didn't everyone hate me? Well actually I think you did probably. I specifically remember both (e:Mike) and Diana writing entries a couple summers ago that might not have been aimed at me exclusively but I know I was definitely the target partially.

I'm sorry. Seriously, I feel like the biggest jerk when I read those. I feel like I never came home, never went out, never spent any of my summer weekends with my friends. I know that people get caught up in relationships but I feel like I was really stupid. And I'm sorry. I will nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrr let that happen again.



I promise that even if my adventure tomorrow yields something that is long-lasting, I will not be an asshole! You have my word!!!

He sent me an email and I'm too nervous to read it

Sooooo here I am at school while the kiddos are in exams. Since I'm only part time, I'm kind of coming and going as I please. They don't pay me enough to sit here all day, especially since I can't even enter my grades until Monday. So I brought in an empty box and eventually I'll start packing up my desk. Eventually...

I really want this guy to ask me out on a date. I still don't know him very well but if he asked me to hang out I would say yes. We've only hung out with other people, and our mutual friend is very talkative and so she generally leads the conversations. And that's fine because we have a good time but then I don't feel like he and I ever actually talk to each other, and I get really shy and quiet if she ever gets up and leaves us by ourselves. I mean that's awkward no matter who it is. But anyway I just want to see if it's a possibility. I'm always afraid that I'm not giving the right vibes. I DID make sure to sit across from him when we were playing cards the other day so that we would be partners. Do guys notice things like that?

Well whatever...here's hoping for something to happen!

Job hunting really sucks. I feel bad for (e:Anne) but at least she has gotten lots of interviews (and a very nice new suit that we went shopping for last night). Job hunting especially sucks for teachers. There was definitely a time when there were tons of teachers retiring and positions available, but I'm pretty sure I missed it by about 4 or 5 years. There are a ton of young teachers at my school. I'm really lucky that I got the maternity leave position that I did because who knows what I would have ended up with? I feel badly for people that have to leave home and go out of state if they don't really want to just because they need a job, especially those from the Buffalo area. There's always tons of music teacher jobs posted in Long Island, but that's not ideal for most people (other than the pay).

(e:Anne) said she's going to run a race with me in July. YAY!!!!!!!!!

My friend wants to do the Rochester Marathon in September. Which probably means I have to start running again. Blaaaahhhhh. Oh well at least that means I might be more bathing suit ready when (e:Mike) and I go to the beach every day as usual.

p.s. (e:Mike) said he was going to call me to run to Target the other day like we always do but now I live far away and it seems silly and that made me a little sad.

p.p.s. I am definitely loving where I live so far though. I went running up and down the strip twice this week. I just like being out among all the e-strip dwellers, plus there are like a zillion cute dogs around to look at. I really like being out here, especially now that the weather is beautiful.

Okay, peace out, peaches. Can't wait to get internet on TUESDAY!!!!

So (e:Anne) and I are officially estrip residents.

More details, including dates of a housewarming party and pictures to follow...

wow i just checked my post its. i had some going all the way to december i never knew about. sorry (e:enknot) for never responding!!!!!!! i feel bad.

who's coming by on saturday? :)

blah

omg everyone is driving me crazy with all this mysterious talk about (e:mike). WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

p.s. come help me and (e:Anne) move into our apartment next weekend on Richmond. we will have breakfast AND lunch as bribery. we enjoy all the help we can get and could definitely use some strong guys.

Well, I did it. I finished the Buffalo Half Marathon in 2:09. That's two minutes, nine seconds. Ha ha ha...! It was a great time for the most part and I can't wait to do another one. I spent most of the race in the middle/back which I like because I think the people are cooler, less into getting an amazing race time and just taking it "easy." We had some good times around mile 7 quoting some Dane Cook with some random couple, and around mile 5 talking to some girls who were wearing grass skirts and coconut bras over their running clothes. I hit a big wall around mile 9 (meaning I had the strong desire to STOP) and again during the last stretch. I got really excited when I saw that mile 12 marker, which I think made me run faster, which was not a very good idea. I was pretty much feeling like it was never going to end until we got to Franklin St. and some random man yelled to us "TWO BLOCKS LEFT!" That just sounded so insanely short that I got a second (third? fourth?) wind and I made it to the end!

I must say that I feel totally exhausted and sore. And if I feel this bad, I can't even imagine how marathon runners must feel afterwards. I'll find out someday but for now I'm just going to sit back, enjoy a delicious dinner, and probably go to bed around 8. I'm sooo glad I don't have school tomorrow.

As usual, a few pics of the (very early) morning...

Me and Nicole in front of Hyatt (pre-race, about 6:30 am)


Me, Nicole and (e:jessbob) at the starting line between Chippewa and W. Tupper on Franklin. (The marathon runners started at the same place but on Pearl St.)


And they're off! I'm over in the left hand side of the pic waving my arms around at my dad.


I DID IT!!!! (This is back at my house because I didn't have a place to leave my camera during the race)


Celebrating the moment with my two favorites


Me and my medal that I'm still wearing and plan to wear for at least two more days. I'm on the phone with (e:mike) who said to me "Wow, did you beat everyone? I'm driving and there's still tons of runners!" (I wish, but he was talking about the full marathoners)


A close-up shot of my medal, my newest favorite accessory.