Trip Planner-Paris

Okay, so I've finally updated my Trip Planner for Paris. You can read about our trip in excruciating detail. Be sure to leave a comment there so that I can feel loved!

Paris in the Spring!

We're back! We were supposed to return on Saturday night, but the flight was overbooked and they asked for volunteers to fly back on Sunday. They gave us each vouchers worth $400, and put us up in a hotel. But of course, that's not what you want to hear.

The trip was so great! We stayed right in the middle, in the Saint Germain de Pres neighborhood. Our hotel room was small, like most European hotel rooms, but the staff was very friendly. We walked everywhere, and every night we were so exhausted. We tried to pack in as much as we could in a week, but there was so much more that we missed. In addition to Paris, we visited Versailles (a 45 minute train ride out of town), and there was a few worrisome hours there when we discovered that some of the workers were on strike, but only for the morning.

One surprising discovery for us was the Sacre Couer basillica. It was so beautiful, inside and outside.

Of course, we had to visit the Eiffel Tower. Out of necessity we visited it at night, and luckily it had rained earlier so a lot of the smog was cleared out.

The food was sooo good. The French really love their bread and dairy products, and honestly I don't know if there was a meal that I had that didn't involve bread and cheese (even in the morning, there was usually a cured meat out). Also, I've decided that I really, really dislike foie gras (duck liver). I had it several times in Paris, because they are obsessed with it, but I don't see the appeal. I went to Paris with an open mind about food, and I'm glad I tried it, but if I can avoid it, never again.

Oh, and the song of the trip was "La Camisa Negra," by Juanes! We heard it everywhere!

Anyway, I'll probably blog more about Paris later. And I'll definitely have more pictures up soon.

America the Beautiful

So in the midst of all of our Paris planning (we leave tomorrow!), we've also had to make a few decisions about at least one of other trips this year. Traditionally, we get the hell out of DC for Fourth of July because Tourists! Ew! and we head off and celebrate America in another way--we visit a national park. Last year's trip was awesome, and we decided to do another trip out west. Actually, we usually choose a park to go to on January 1st, but this year we didn't make a decision until a few weeks ago, for various reasons. I was really pulling for Rocky Mountain NP, and I thought it was a done deal, but then Yellowstone reared its head, and it was decided we would go there. Unfortunately, we were not the only ones who had that idea, and all the campsites for the Fourth were taken. So we decided on another California park--Lassen Volcanic.

Even though I've been to this park before, I'm still really excited about going back. If you've never seen a volcanic area (I guess I've seen four volcanic parks now), its definitely very striking. If the eruption is recent (like in the last 100 years), a lot of the trees are gone, and the land seems barren. But then you notice all the plants that flourish in that kind of environment.

Oh, but here's the sucky thing...they've raised the price of the National Parks Pass from $50 to $80 and they've given it a dumb name: the America the Beautiful pass. Granted, it now provides access to all other federal recreation areas (seashores, forests) that may charge a fee, but really, how many of those areas charge a fee? The price may be prohibitive, since we'll have to visit parks at least 8 times in a year, and honestly, I'm not sure if we can do that. They may have just shot themselves in the foot because I'm sure there's a lot of other folks like us that want to support the parks but don't want to be overcharged. Maybe we'll get it, just to be supportive, but I'm not so sure.

Give DC a vote!

Did you know that DC residents are not a part of any state? That means that we don't have any voting members in the House or the Senate. Yet we still pay federal income taxes. What happened to "no taxation without representation"?

This week, the House will vote on a bill that would give DC a voting member. Currently, DC has a non-voting delegate in the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton (you may remember her from her appearances on the Colbert Report). Politically, DC is very Democratic. Despite the fact that the bill also gives Utah another voting member (Utah is a very Republican state) due to population growth, the White House is urging Republican members of the House to vote against the bill. Even if the bill passes, the White House says that it will veto the bill. Right now, the bill has bi-partisan support, but the threat of a White House veto could deter some Republican Congressman.

It is outrageous in this day and age that U.S. citizens are not being given their Constitutional rights. Please urge your Congressman, Democrat or Republican, to vote for H.R. 1433.To read more about this issue, please visit the Washington Post's Metro website: . You can visit your Congressperson's webpage by visiting http://www.house.gov.

I {heart} Mana

Its only taken me about 15 years, but I finally got to see Mana in concert last night. My sister happened to mention to me late last fall that Mana was touring, so I decided to check out if they were going to be in my area. Surprisingly, they were playing a few miles away in Virginia. So last night, Matt and I braved the icy rain and drove an hour out to Virginia at the end of rush hour to see Mana.

I have to say, this was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. I own half of their albums, but you know its a great concert when you're really enjoying the music you've never heard before. Matt had only heard their songs when I would play the CDs, so he was really unfamiliar with their music. Yet he was really enjoying the music, totally rocking out.

What I loved: I loved that the drummer Alex was smiling throughout the concert. His drum solo was so awesome, some guy jumped on the stage and started doing the "we're not worthy" bow before he got tackled by security. I loved that they made it rain on stage. I loved that there were Latinos from all over Latin America at the concert, waving their banderas, and Fher wanted to see them all.

What I didn't love: Fher's pants. He is really tall, and he was wearing these black and white striped, high waisted things. I kept telling Matt, "Why won't Fher change pants?" Also, Fher endorsed Hillary Clinton, saying she was the voice of the Latinos in the U.S. What, no love for Obama? Also, they didn't play my favorite song, "Selva Negra."

This was a great band to see live, and even though these guys are in their 40s, they really rocked the house, for 2 and a half hours. I can't wait to see them again.

Time flies (like I will in a week)

Well, despite my rather pathetic efforts to learn French , the time for Paris is almost upon us. I can't believe its been seven months since we booked this trip, and I'm still kind of in shock that its finally going to be here. In addition to trying to learn French, we've been planning our trip. We're going to be mostly in Paris, with a day excursion to Versailles. Since we're only going to be there for five days, I think that's our best plan of attack.

Matt and I journaled during our trip to Italy two years ago, and I'm hoping to do the same for this trip. I found it was very relaxing to take 20 minutes to recount the day's adventures. This time, I'll probably post some of that writing on my Yahoo! Trip Journal (note: the Paris trip is not listed there because I'm keeping it private while we're still in the planning stages. But, hey, look at all those people who like my trip to Philly!).

I'm really hoping that a lot of people in France speak English, because basically the only thing I know how to say is, "Bonjour, monsieur. Excuse moi de vous deranger. Parlez vous Anglais?". Which translates into, "Hello sir. I'm a little crazy. Do you speak English?" Kidding! Actually it means, "Sorry for bothering you." I think that will be a very useful phrase.

barbecue in DC

After my visit to the gym this morning, I was really hungry. I mean, really hungry. The kind of hungry you get after working out for an hour and half. There's this barbecue place across the street from my gym that's pretty good, and the owner is from Texas, so it has the right intentions (but alas, its not quite the same, mostly because while the owner is from Texas, the cooks aren't). I went in fully intending to get a sausage sandwich, since I do love sausage, but instead ended up with a pulled chicken sandwich, since I was feeling guilty.

I didn't really like the bread, so I focused mostly on the meat. Like I said, pretty good, just not excellent. But here's the weird thing: the entire time I was in there (about 30 minutes), I was the only female there. Then I realized that most of the times I've been in there, I've been one of the only women there too. Very strange.

Most of my female friends (I refuse to use the term "girlfriends") tend to like meat, and food in general. I wonder if we are just DC anomolies?

Matt's a nerd

For the last eleven years, Matt has flaunted his perfect 20/20 eyesight. Everyone told him he would never get out of college without getting glasses. We were wrong. Then we all told him that there was no way he would get out of law school without getting glasses. Wrong again. Finally, a mere month after his 30th birthday, I made an eye appointment for him, and guess what? He needs glasses for reading, computer work, and driving. He's officially a nerd.

Trip Planner

I just found a feature on Yahoo! Travel that lets you plan your trips, blog about it, and post your pictures. I just returned from a weekend visit to Philadelphia, and now you can read about it
here. The link will also be on my main page.

Ines of my soul

The good thing about plane rides is that they give you a large block of time to read. Going to and from Seattle, a five hour flight, I had plenty of time to start and finish the latest novel by Isabel Allende, Ines of My Soul, which was published last fall.

Allende, a Chilean author now living in California, tends to write about those two places, and this novel was no exception. Taking place in Peru and Chile during the Spanish conquest, Allende introduces us to the real-life Chilean historical figure, Ines de Suarez. Born in Spain, Ines travels to Peru in search of her husband and adventure. After learning of her husband’s death, she is determined to stay in the New World and later takes up with the Spanish conquistador, Pedro de Valdivia. Together, she and Pedro de Valdivia decide to found Chile, and conquer the native people in the process.

The book goes into many details about the wars between the Spanish and the natives, and does not sugarcoat the hostility between both sides. Yet, despite her role as conquistadora, Ines proves to be a very sympathetic character, a fictionalization I’m sure.

Actually, the sympathy I felt toward the Spanish was a little surprising to me. The Spaniards did terrible things to the native people, and the natives fought back with equal brutality. In the book, Ines says she does not blame the natives for fighting for their land, since the Spanish did the same when the Moors invaded Spain (if you look at the cover, you'll see that the figure they chose to portray Ines has some Arabic features...). This view, I’m sure, was not shared by the original Ines. However, one cannot help but feel sympathy for a group of people who, with their food supplies practically destroyed by the Indians, are forced to eat puppies in order to survive. Yes, puppies.

This sympathy leads to the question: which side do I root for? As a Mexican American myself, with both native blood and Spanish heritage, these types of things needed to happen in order for me to exist. Often times, we assign brutality to the Spanish side, but the natives were no less brutal. We forget that the Inca had systematically conquered other native tribes before the Spanish conquered them. And we find out that Pedro de Valdivia meets a terrible end at the hands of the Indian youth, Lauturo, who (according to the book, at least) he had treated like a favored nephew.

History is relative, however, and historical fiction even more so. My own research could uncover little more than what is widely known about Ines, mainly because most of the books written about her are in Spanish and have never been translated. I’m glad that Isabel Allende is giving Ines a greater audience than she had previously had before.

charitable donations

Its tax time again. For me, that means gathering up all tax-related documents, including charitable deductions, for 2006. After looking at our contributions, Matt was a little chagrined that we aren't really keeping up with our tithing as much as we should (7 percent of our total income), but I pointed out that we do give to several non-profit organizations, and even gave money to organizations which we can't deduct (thank you, Webb for Senate, even though we don't live in Virginia, but that's another story).

Of course, giving isn't about how much we can deduct on our taxes. I honestly believe in the work of every organization that we give money to. In an effort to up our charitable donations for the year, Matt and I have agreed that we will give a set amount to a charity every month, and will alternate who chooses the charity. This month, I chose the local public radio station, since its pledge drive time (why does it seem that its always time for a pledge drive in public radio?).

Speaking of giving money, DCFoodies.com seems to be upping his charitable donations as well. He'll be donating ad revenue from his site to a local DC organization. That's a class act, if you ask me.

I encourage everyone to give back to their community in some way, whether it be by volunteering time or making a financial contribution.

Poor George

Well, the day after I wrote about using my George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine, I tried using it to grill some fish. The machine didn't really heat up very much and a lot of the controls didn't work. I think the innards got wet. Bah.

However, this did call for a trip to Target, which I always love, to purchase a brand new George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine. I ended up getting one with removable grill plates to make it easier to clean. Today, is the inaugural use of the new George for Sausage Fest. I have about 9 lbs of sausage, including half smokes, which is DC tradition. I got inspired to buy half smokes after reading about them in Washington City Paper.

Where is my motivation?

After a brief and small (3 lbs) success early on this year, I've managed to gain those back in the last 2 weeks or so. My excuses: Matt's 30th birthday blowout, conference in Seattle (although I ate a lot of seafood), just plain laziness. Matt has decided to get back on Weight Watchers and that helps. This week I signed up for 10 hours with a personal trainer, in one hour increments. I hope to start that next week.

I've been really hungry lately, so I'm making it a point to eat oatmeal every morning. Last night I got out of work late and it was a real challenge for us to not go out to eat at our favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant, Dino, because it was right there. We managed to stagger home and make dinner together: boneless, skinless chicken thighs on the George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling machine, steamed zuchhini, a great quick mashed potato recipe from the WW cookbook. As I was inhaling my food, Matt said, "I bet if we were eating shit on a shingle it would still taste good to us right now." I beg to differ. Shit never tastes good.

Stories from travelers

The Washington Post online has online chats with their reporters and editors on a daily basis. One of my favorite chats is the Talk About Travel chat. Not only do they take questions about travel-related stuff ("Is $400 too much for a round trip ticket to Alaska?"), but they usually have a random question that they throw out to the public about their own travel experiences. Today's question: "Give us your best hot-to-overheated stories and win a prize. Tell us about a night in Mali without A/C or coming down with a bad case of sunburn on the Equator. With the freezing temps outside, we need the heat."

I chimed in with this, which some of you may remember:

Washington DC: Heat: On our Hawaiian honeymoon 3 and a half years ago, my new husband and I went sea kayaking. Unfortunately, we ran very low on sunscreen. After a few hours of kayaking, my husband noticed that the top of his feet were getting red. A few days later, while playing in the ocean, he saw what he thought was a jellyfish on his foot. He ran out of the water, only to discover that his feet had started to peel and that water was sloshing up under the dead skin, causing it to puff up.
Andrea Sachs: That is so grossly amusing. If the prize is aloe vera, you win!

And guess what! I did win!

Andrea Sachs: Wow, you guys were on fire with your questions and hot travel stories. For the woman whose husband had bubble toes in Hawaii, please email me your address so I can send you some aloe, or whatever else we have laying around for a prize.

catalogs

I've decided I like ordering from catalogs. All kinds of catalogs. Yesterday I ordered sausage from New Braunfels Smokehouse for our latest meat-based party, Sausage Fest. Today I received a catalog of a very different kind, from Coach. Yes, those pretty pretty bags. I've decided that for my 30th birthday (which is only 7 months away, by the way), I want a Coach bag. Oh, and sausage. But since I can get sausage any time, I'm choosing the Coach bag as my gift.

(Get your minds out of the gutter, people. I really am talking about pork-based products when I say sausage. And no, not that kind of pork.)

Of course, the real problem with catalogs is that they seem to multiply. In addition to my Coach catalog, I also got a Lands End catalog. I'll probably get more meat by mail catalogs too. Actually, I think I got the Smokehouse catalog by subscribing to Texas Monthly, which I also received today. So I have lots of things to read now.

I do read normal things, too, of course. I'm planning on posting a blog soon on the latest book that I've read. Stay tuned.

Who needs Craigslist when you've got pawn shops?

Have you ever tried to sell anything on Craigslist? Its a really frustrating experience. You're emailing back and forth with people, and they're trying to bargain you down on a price, and then when you agree on a price, you have to arrange a mutually agreeable time for pickup, and then you just have to hope that they show up. I just don't have time for that. I've posted things on Craigslist twice: some moving boxes that we were giving away for free (FREE!) and a grill that we ended up not selling but which ended up getting stolen (STOLEN!) later. That's why when we got a new TV (in preparation for the Wii) recently, I wasn't sure what to do with my old one. Craigslist was out. I decided to pay a visit to my local pawn shop.

I visited my first pawn shop as a seller when I was about 18 years old. Several years before, when walking my dog, I had found a diamond ring in the street, laying amongst the leaves. The diamond itself was about the size of a fork tine, and I'm pretty sure it was 10k gold. I held on to it, taking it to the flea market once to see if it was real. It was, and I got offered $25 for it on the spot, which I refused. I took it later to a pawn shop, and ended up getting more than that, though not much more.

I pass a pawn shop pretty much every time I go to the grocery store. It has always surprised me to see it there, since its right in the middle of Georgetown. I had never had the occassion to go inside, so I was curious as to what kind of merchandise they had. I hauled my TV inside, and told the affable young man that I would like to sell my television. "How much are you hoping to get for it?" he asked. "Oh, around $50," I said. Which was a total joke. My off-brand TV was pretty much as ghetto as they come. It didn't even have those audio/video/stereo plug-ins, but it was cable-ready. Luckily, he found the joke funny, or maybe not so funny. "I'll give you $20," he said. With my awesome bargaining skills, I was able to get $25. Actually, I thought that was pretty good. Cuz, yeah, ghetto TV.

The good thing about pawn shops is that you don't really get seller's remorse. If I really want it back, I can go back in a few weeks and give them $27 to get it out of pawn. Or, if I'm really desperate in a few months, I'm sure it will be for sale for the low, low price of $40.

Adventures on the bus

There are parts of D.C. that are notorious for bad parking. My neighborhood is one of them, but at least we don't have the bands of roving drunks that are prevalent in Adams Morgan, a hip neighborhood that has cheap restaurants, partying college students, and lots of bars. Despite the abundance of restaurants, not a lot of them are any good, with the exception of Amsterdam Falafel, which isn't really a restaurant, and San Marco, which is scheduled to close soon, if it hasn't already. So, me being me, I don't really have a lot of reasons to go over to Adams Morgan, unless I'm invited to a party, which is why I was there the other night.

There's a bus stop a few blocks from my condo that takes me straight to the heart of Adams Morgan, and parking in Adams Morgan being what it is, I try to take it. However, like many bus lines in D.C., this particular bus line seems to have more than its fair share of eccentricities. I've had a strange experience every time I've ridden this particular bus line, and Saturday night was no exception.

Everything was going well when I first boarded the bus and paid my fare. Since my stop is actually at the beginning of the line, buses will idle at this stop for several minutes before actually leaving. The bus driver announced that we'll be leaving in 8 minutes. There were several people already on board, including a woman who asked me if I knew where a certain street was. I didn't, and neither did anyone else on the bus. It turns out an elderly woman was lost. She had been riding different buses for several hours hoping to find her way home. She lived in Hyattsville, MD, which is nowhere near where I live. The bus driver decided that there was no way she was going to take off with this woman on her bus, and more importantly, let this woman get off the bus, when it was very obvious she didn't know her way home. She decided to call her supervisor to come pick the woman up. A noble choice indeed, but now we were delayed. We waited 20 minutes; no supervisor, but another bus pulled up. We all got off the bus, but discovered that we had to wait another 15 minutes for that bus to leave. The elderly woman was fully prepared to board the 2nd bus, even though it had been explained to her that a supervisor was coming to pick her up. She had no idea that we were delayed because of her, she was just ready to go home.

I ended up taking a cab to my destination, and pretty much got ripped off by the taxi driver (thank you D.C. for failing to put meters in the taxis). If I had any confidence that the elderly woman knew her address, or that a taxi driver wouldn't try to rip her off, I would have offered to give her money for a cab ride home. I think the bus driver did the right thing, even though it turned a $1.35 ride for me into a $10 one.

Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Latte

Today I was looking around for a bathroom and decided to stop in at Starbucks. As I was finishing up in there, I noticed a sign for the seasonal "Cinnamon Dolce Latte." I hadn't really been planning on getting anything, but the sugar-free syrup option really piqued my interest, so I decided to get one. Unfortunately, the people in front of me didn't speak English, so I had to wait an extra few minutes while they mimed their order to the baristas.

I decided to try the no-fat, no-sugar Cinnamon Dolce latte, and despite a slight artificial sweetner aftertaste, it was pretty good. Best of of all, when I calculated the Weight Watchers point values, it was only two points! A very nice treat for me, indeed. I can only imagine what a treat a full fat, regular Cinnamon Dolce latte would taste like.

I want to quit the gym!

Remember that Friends episode where Chandler wants to quit the gym but they keep trying to stop him, and he and Ross end up getting a joint bank account? I kind of felt that way today when I told Curves that I need to cancel my membership, except since its a women's only gym, there was no hot guy to try to convince me otherwise, so it was a lot easier.

I decided to quit Curves because my work gives me a huge discount to become a member of the Washington Sports Clubs, and I can use any of their facilities in DC, Philly, NY or Boston. With the discount, its even cheaper than Curves, and of course the hours are better and they offer classes and a personal trainer. It was a hard decision for me, mostly because I try to be non-confrontational, and also because Curves gave me a lot a support through my initial weight loss. Of course, they wanted to know why I was leaving, and I told them that I got a good deal through work.

Anyway, let's see how I do.

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions

A few years ago, I decided that I don't think New Year's resolutions are effective. Basically, a lot of people are all deciding to change their entire lives on the same day. And they do it not because they really want to change their lives, but rather because the new year seems like a good time to start something new. As a result, new year's resolutions tend to fall by the wayside by mid-February.

I'm not making any resolutions because of the new year, but still have my own personal goal to lose more weight. Today, I made my first recipe from my new cookbook: hummus. Usually, hummus is pretty high in fat because of the olive oil and tahini. This recipe uses no oil and less tahini. Still delicious. Thanks to my family for buying this for me!

I think I enjoy losing weight because I enjoy cooking. I know that seems strange, but I now have the opportunity to make new recipes and try new dishes. Who knew it could be so much fun?

Everyone has to have their own motivations, I guess.