René of the Day // 12.3.11 // Aloha!

I’m just jealous. My parents and my niece are in Maui for the week. They’ve rented a condo at Maui Eldorado for a few years in a row and I’m hoping to go in the next few years. In high school I dreamt of going to the University of Hawaii and even ordered a sweatshirt.

The condo is on a golf course and has a full kitchen with granite counter tops, a private patio and a cabana on the beach with a web came so we can watch them play in the surf. There’s great snorkeling nearby and with a car rental, a decent drive to the craters and waterfalls. They took a boat cruise and Chip and Kylie took surfing lessons – cowabunga! They attended a traditional luau with a suckling pig and Kylie picked up the fallen plumerias from the bushes each day and they strung a lei with the sewing kit they packed – how fun! They said it smelled wonderful but unfortunately you can’t bring them back home.

Ky is such a lucky little girl to go on such an amazing trip at this age. I think she loved the adventures – Mom said she was a great traveler and she would choose her to go with her on the Amazing Race because she can bolt through an airport with a backpack and a rollercase like a pro! LOL Hopefully I can take her on a fabulous trip some day, too.

It sounds and looks like they had a wonderful Hawaiian Christmas holiday – mali kaliki maka! Here are some of my favorite photos from their trip:

Kylie hanging ten! 

René of the Day // 10.18.11 // New York Times Visual DNA

Take the quiz: http://nytimes.visualdna.com

My results:

CULTURE CURIOUS

You are culturally adventurous in all walks of life and love to explore different avenues of tastes and trends. Because your body is also important to you, you look for flavors that are unusual but still healthy and delicious, and you are constantly on the lookout for the next food trend. When all is said and done, you are a bit of an intellect with a tendency to do a spot of soul searching from time to time.

You're sophisticated and inquisitive with a real passion for art and culture. You pride yourself on being an early adopter of the latest music and films and always like to have a good book on the go. Your ability to bring together very diverse and even dissenting opinions is rooted in your appreciation for all points of view. You believe in immersing yourself in interesting experiences that make you look at people, places and opportunities from new angles. Being sensitive and creative you want to feel connected to the world around you and actively seek out opportunities to explore it. It's all about broadening your horizons and living life to the full. Anything else would not fulfill your curious nature. You'll love the list of The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, the Critics' Picks and Arts Beat.

Collage computed from my choices

René of the Day // 8.26-28.11 // The 'Villes

Another wonderful weekend spent in Tennessee… I must admit, I’ll miss Rocky Top when MR eventually makes his way home for good. Friday night we had a delicious dinner at a creole restaurant –boubon chicken, grilled asparagus & grits with cheese and  Yuenglings - in Cookeville with a really nice stone patio with bricks walls and ivy and sparkling lights in the trees. It was nice to catch up and enjoy a quiet evening – the challenges of long distance love. After dinner we had drinks on the deck and listened to music – it seems to be our Friday night tradition. As we went to bed, MR made a comment about the earrings I was wearing. They were just simple CZ studs – so of course after a bottle of wine I retorted with a snarky comment and before I could find, a box appeared in his hand across the bed. My jaw dropped and a huge smile spread across my face and the first thing out of my mouth was, “Where did that come from?!” and he just grinned at me. I started to untie the little black bow on the box and he laughed and told me to pull up… I was too excited to figure out the mechanics of the packaging, I just wanted to see the treasure inside! Sliding off the top, I found a pair of gorgeous diamond earrings – what a sweet surprise – just because. He seemed to enjoy my reaction – I put them on and jumped up to look in the mirror… Of course I put them back in their safe place for the night but I slept very happily.

Saturday we had lunch at their favorite spot, Broad Street Deli. Rebecca does a great job – her chicken salad with Craisins and pecans was delicious and she uses Boars Head meats and cheeses so we filled up for the afternoon. Then we hit the outlets on the way to Nashville but didn’t see anything we had to have.

We arrived at the Opryland and I was so ecstatic when I heard we had a Garden View room. The view was spectacular, looking over the gardens and the little river in the Delta wing. We had planned to stay there since we came for Ice last Christmas time so it was really fun to finally make it happen – thanks Kenny! We had a few drinks and got ready then MR’s co-workers picked us up to head downtown. After hearing about each other every day, it was nice to finally meet everyone and put faces to names. Dinner at Big River was good – awesome beers brewed on site. Then we walked across the bridge and saw the Nashville Bang This twins! Killer club level seats at the Titans vs. Bears game at LG Stadium – Charlie Daniel’s seats were at the end of the row but that night his son was there so we missed the ole devil ;) After the game we were exhausted so we had drinks on our balcony and relaxed – it was hard to justify not spending time in a room that has a price tag for one evening that’s close to what I pay for rent each month!

Sunday we had brunch at one of our favorite places in Nashville, Ellendale’s. The food and service didn’t hit the spot as it usually does. We tried to go to a movie and learned that showtimes on Sundays are 1:30 or 4:00pm so we just decided to head home. One more packed and playful weekend under our belts… It’s fun when every weekend is like a vacation but it is quite exhausting. It will be neat to look back on these days eventually… Until then, we’ll just keep hangin’ and bangin’. 

My gorgeous surprise!

Titans vs. Bears game

On the Delta River gondola

Our Garden View room

Our balcony was the third up on the left

View of the Delta wing at the Opryland from our balcony

View of the Delta wing at the Opryland from our balcony

René of the Day // 8.17.11 // Presente dall'Italia

After our trip to England, my mom and my aunt jetted to Italy for the next week to celebrate their 50 birthdays - how fabulous! I certainly envied them. They spent a few days in Rome and a few days in Florence, visiting museums, areas of interest, drinking wine and gorging on pasta, cheese and fresh produce. Surprisingly, they were not overly thrilled with the food. This was sad news to hear, as I think many of us dream of a culinary cruise through Italy, marinating our insides with fine wine and eating until we must be rolled back to our hotels. But it sounded like the trip of a lifetime - of course they saw the Trevi fountain, the Arch of Constantine, the Colosseum and the Leaning Tower of Piza and more...

I visited my mom the week after she came home and she gave me two very sweet gifts - an apron with a really neat illustration of the country of Italy and it's different cities and landmarks painted on the front. And a silver rosary - with little roses for the beads that she bought from a nun at the Vatican. This was such a sweet, thoughtful gift and my mom knows I'm researching the RCIA process and how I admired my grandmother and kept little plastic rosarys in a shoebox at her house as a kid. I have a plastic orange one behind her photo on my desk at home that I got at Gate of Heaven cemetery where she rests.

Below are a few fun photos from their trip and my beloved new rosary.

The rosary - my presente dall'Italia

The vineyard where they enjoyed a wine tasting & dinner

Classic, Kiki!

Arch of Constantine & Colosseum

René of the Day // 8.13.11 // Goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

Continuing in my quest to make the most of summer hours, and taking advantage of MR having a Friday off of work, we spent Friday afternoon at the Cincinnati Zoo! I hadn't been since last summer when my sister took my mom and I to Wild About Wine for our birthdays. I don't think he'd been there since grade school and we doubted there'd be many more opportunities to go without a stroller and we had a great time!

Although the weather was much nicer than it has been lately - it was under 90 and there was a breeze - most of the animals were sleeping - lazy bones. MR's favorite was the white tiger - he had memories of when they used to bring them to the Bengals game in a cage when we were kids. I loved a little baby monkey who kept running up to the glass and entertaining us - so cute! He was trying to interact with a little toddler boy and his stuffed monkey - really neat to watch. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the giraffes, who our friends got to feed when they went on Sunday! - or Gorilla World but it was a really cool way to spend our afternoon together - something we rarely get to experience. He got stuck on a few work calls - typical - so I teased him because he was still pointing out animals to me that I couldn't spot, he was like Crocodile Dundee - and I made a game of our visit - 10 points if you spot an animal sleeping, 50 points if they're doing it, etc. LOL My favorite - the polar bear - was asleep, facing the other way - big ole lug.

After the zoo we went to A Tavola in OTR - a fairly new pizza place with a massive brick oven that was imported from Naples. Loved the bacon and goat cheese bruschetta although I'd expect more than 2 pieces for $8. The fig spread, proscuitto, fontina and arugula pizza was delicious. We'll definitely go back to try the bacon and banana peppers - MR drooled when he saw that one, I'm sure. After dinner we relaxed on our buddys deck and enjoyed his craft beer kegerator... I let the boys chat late and I snuck inside to nap on the couch until we went home. It was nice to have that extra half day together - that must be what it's like to be a "normal" couple ;)

Our baby monkey buddy!

Straight chillin'

MR's favorite

Endangered white lions

René of the Day // 8.8.11 // Toodles, Britain!

So our trip to England was rolling towards the end. On the last night, we had dinner at the local pub, The Hartwood, that A&A frequent and brought the whole crew - Ricky, Vicki, Stevie, John & Louise and Pinzi. After dinner we hung out around their kitchen table, drinking and laughing - I wish I could easily pop over to do this with them regularly. I started cooking Cincinnati-style chili before we left for dinner and it just smacked you in the face with delicious wafts when we got home. Our ingredients weren't quite exact to what we would use at home - the cheese was thickly grated white cheddar (but no one can do the amazing finely shredded cheese that Skyline serves), hot dogs came from cans, buns were packaged as "white finger rolls" and Andi insisted that it would be disgusting to use an entire can of tomato puree (paste) and we debated which to use at the store - and it turned out that puree was perfect! We found yellow "American" mustard and chopped a beautiful onion from her garden.

They were all a little miffed by the 3-way chili idea so we passed on that. We were laughing out loud as we explained the coneys, 3-4 & 5-ways and what they included. But they LOVED the coneys! It was so much fun to make them for everyone and see how much they enjoyed it - I left an extra spice packet for them and plan to send more around the holidays so they can have a taste of Cincinnati chili in the cool winter months :) Rick even said, "Why can't you get these all over the world? I'm going to speak to my county about this!" lol Bless his British heart.

It was so fun to have Pinzi stay the night on my last night - I truly appreciate that she & Andi arranged for her to come visit from Scotland while I was there. It reminded me of so many nights in the tens in the woods of Connecticut, catching up and laughing in the dark til we fell asleep. In the morning it was convenient because her flight was around the same time as ours so we hung out in the airport a bit before we separated to go to our respective terminals. The flight home was much more relaxed than the trip there... it went quite fast for a 7 hour jaunt! They fed us lunch, and then pretzels & a drink and then a panini - I was lucky I fit in my jeans when I got home. And our luggage made it just fine :)

These days, we don't cry, Andi, her mum & I. We've grown up and learned that we *will* get to see eachother again and now we can communicate via text, Facebook and more than just the frequent emails we had in the first years of our friendship. It was incredible to finally return, refresh memories and to witness their gorgeous wedding. They're such a wonderful couple and can't wait for Alan to come to Cincinnati. I believe her parents will be staying with mine next summer,  around the time of my sister's wedding... And our story continues. Now I must write a letter and send photos to People to People to tell them "our story."

Cincinnati cheese coneys, English-style!

Cooking coneys with Jenna!

The beautiful onion from Andi's onion - proud gardener!

Vicki & Ricky :)

René of the Day // 8.7.11 // Full English Breakfast

When you first hear the term "full English breakfast" it eludes to thoughts of a special occasion - like Easter brunch or Christmas morning. But in England, this proper feast is served quite regularly. Every little restaurant offers these delicacies every day until 4pm and they're cooked at home seemingly at least once a week.

What is served? Bangers (sausage), eggs, bacon (theirs is more like our ham), baked beans, a grilled tomato, a grilled mushroom, toast, potato triangles and HP sauce (almost like a cross between BBQ & A1). It's a gorgeous, salty, delicious spread that will allow you to skip lunch (dinner as they say). I was lucky enough to enjoy this home-cooked meal twice during my 10-day stay - once by Mum and once by Andi.

It's funny, I think I only saw the entire line up once - sometimes places would exclude one of the grilled veggies or potato triangles. But I am determined to cook a full English breakfast soon and see how closely I can replicate it... My mom says you can now find bacon similar to theirs here - everything else is on tap at our local grocery stores. One thing I may add is crumpets - with tea and milk. Crumpets, which sound so absolutely lovely and British, are like our English muffins only thicker and doughier. Almost like a bagel texture inside with the nooks and crannies creating little caverns all the way to the bottom so the butter oozes down and fills it with sweet and salty cream - divine! I brought a 6-pack back in my suitcase.

America doesn't seem to have a standard meal like this - we do pancakes, eggs, waffles, omelets - all of which I enjoy. But it's so interesting how the full English breakfast is a staple in their culture.

René of the Day // 8.6.11 // Fish Pedicure

I'd heard of fish pedicures somewhere, months ago - most likely on Twitter. When we were in Southport we saw one in a spa window and decided we had to try it! I knew I'd never seen it in the States... and now I know why. It's been banned! Evidently they don't find it to be hygienic. So of course I had to get an illegal spa treatment, right? When in Rome...

We went to a little place in Bolton called Funky Fresh. They have a special until the end of August for $5 for 30 minutes so I treated Pinzi (who came all the way from Scotland to spend the day with us & go shopping at Trafford Centre), Andi and myself - Vicki hates feet and was not interested in partaking so she was our fabulous fish foot photographer ;)

The gal examined our feet then we stepped into a tub of fresh water then settled on the cushions above the tanks and let our feet rest on top of the water for a moment. Once we were ready, we submerged them into the lukewarm water and fish began to feast! At first it really freaked me out - such an odd feeling, almost like pins & needles when your foot falls asleep. I was grilling the girl with questions and she was very knowledgable and friendly - she opened the salon with her mom and friend around 8 months ago - we actually found it because we Googled for fish pedicure spas and found their previous Groupon, which did really well.

The fish don't have teeth - they nibble the dead skin which exfoliates, and it goes out through their gills - they don't actually consume it. The tanks have around 150 garra ruffa fish and they constantly filter the water and change 20% of it a day so every week it is completely refreshed. Each night they're given a few blood meal pills for sustenance. After a while you get used to the feeling but we got squirmy when they've dart between our toes. If you stick your legs in a bit further they'll work on those too! It was so hilarious to watch our faces and hear the girls shriek - Andi had a group of bigger fish so I think it was a bit more intense. Afterwards, you rub lotion on them and you're done - no polish or nail maintenance, just fish exfoliation.

Andi is planning to take her Mum and Alan so I'm looking forward to hearing their thoughts. I'm so glad we found this clean, cute little place - I would highly recommend trying it if you find yourself in a place that allows it. It's become a huge trend in Europe. She said like many beauty regimens, the more you go, the better results you'll see.

My view...

Can you believe that little guys gapper?!

René of the Day // 8.5.11 // Ingleton Falls: Yorkshire Dales

Friday was our first day without the group of 11 of us roaming the lands and coordinating our plans. First I ran errands with A&A: B&Q - Home Depot type place - to look at vaccuums with their giftcards, bought a little pink guitar at a music store for their niece who was turning 8 on Sunday, post office and dropped Alan at her parents - Mum made the boys a full english breakfast then they went "bowling" - but it's lawn bowling like bocce ball, which sounded really fun! My mom and Kiki left that day to spend the next week in Italy and Chip and I were staying until our flight back home on Sunday.

Andi and I drove an hour into the windy, hilly gorgeous English countryside and had lunch at an adorable place called Country Harvest and split 2 butties (sandwiches) - one w/ stilton and mushrooms and the other was brie with mango chutney and bacon - their bacon which is more like ham... and an elderflower cordial. Delicious! And it gave us more than enough reason to need a good, hearty hike at Ingleton Falls in the Yorkshire Dales! The 4.5 mile circular trail led us to amazing waterfalls.... There are about 8 along the way with tons of casacades, sheep just wandering and cows inside and out of the stone walls, each marked for their farmers. If you're quiet you can hear all the bahhs & moos, made us giggle. It was so green, with rolling hills as far as you can see. Like something out of a storybook, really. It is known as the most spectacular waterfall and woodland scenery in the north of England. The stone paths and wooden bridges did not make for an easy hike - it was a challenge. It was sunny and warm with a nice breeze which was lovely because it was a difficult hike! We even were brave enough to climb behind the big one, called Thornton Force! Honestly, it was not safe lol We crab-crawled across jagged, smoothed over slippery rocks to get there - a bit scary. I told Andi, our moms would not be impressed! Ha. We have more photos of the falls I'll have to upload later from Andi's iPhone.

It was a really nice day to finally spend time together, just us girls. We got ice cream after the big workout then we went to the grocery store for dinner ingredients and to have a look around... It's so neat to see all their different items. A lot of Indian food and loads of pies - steak and ale, steak and potato, fish pie, etc. I stocked up our "trolly" (shopping cart) on their wonderful types of chocolate bars - they are so creamy and soft - unlike American chocolate which is full of wax because our temperatures get so hot that it would melt without it! And the names used for things is entertaining - ground beef is mince, for example. And I found it interesting that they don't refrigerate their eggs at home. Andi made chicken satay for dinner and we had some beers on the deck while Alan was still out with the guys. Their neighbors John and Louise came by when Alan got home and we just had some wine in the kitchen and chatted... I really enjoyed just relaxing for the night. Hard to believe the week was wrapping up!

We climbed up behind the falls.

This tree was in the woods along the trail. It's said to be
good luck if you shove money in the wood.

Money mushrooms

The boys bowling.

The sheep were *this* close during our hike.

René of the Day // 8.4.11 // Chester

Perhaps one of the most charming towns I've ever visited, Chester is an old walled city (originally a Roman fort; the wall spans 2 miles) on the River Dee on the border of Wales. We took a park and ride bus from the Chester Zoo and spent the day lunching at a local pub - had a delicious gyreurre and leek tart and a local ale - then visited the old amphitheatre where knights jousted, beasts fought and .... We also went into the old cathedral that had numerous tombs and interesting old grave stones, as well as old headstones of people buried right under the stone floors. A bit creepy but quite interesting...

The village is filled with great shopping and adorable black and white Victorian restoration buildings... it actually made me think of what a little German town might look like.

We saw a few gray American squirrels which have made their way to England and have practically diluted the population of smaller red squirrels - unfortunately it's become an epidemic with the American bullies. I remember when we went to Washington, DC ten years ago, Andi was enthused with taking photos of squirrels because they had so few at home and you could go right up to them to take photos LOL

That evening Sue made a fantastic lasagna and chili con carne for diner then we sat in their garden and enjoyed bottle after bottle of great wine… Lovely end to a very nice day.

Proper fish & chips with mushy peas!

Remnants of the amphitheatre

René of the Day // 8.3.11 // Liverpool, The Beatles Story & Lambananas!

Although the photos below are out of order - Blogger isn't the best with allowing for well-organized photo uploads - they show our tiring and tremendous day in Liverpool with the "scousers" (a term for Liverpooldians). How lucky that we were there a week before the riots broke out! Alan and Andrea's mum are from Liverpool but they'd never gone around as "tour guides" - it was quite fun - see the photo below lol! First we went to the Everton shop at the football stadium (Alan's team) and then we went into the city center and walked through the mall to go to the Liverpool store (Sue's team). From there we walked to the harbor to The Beatle's Story - a museum that tells the tale of their start at The Cavern on Mathew Street in Liverpool through their short years of success from 1963 to 1970... I learned so many things that I didn't know about the beloved band but we were surprised that there were not more relics and actual items from the Fab4. I suppose they were only together a short time and a lot of things are probably in private collections.

We had lunch at Jamie Carraagher's (Liverpool footballer) Café Sports England and sat ouside - he was actually there but we didn't bother him for autographs. Then we walked to the Church of England cathedral and the Catholic cathedral, which was surprisingly modern. We also saw Super Lambananas - created to call attention to GMO food, the fused animal-fruits are all over Liverpool, decorated in funky artistic ways, just like the flying pig statues in Cincinnati and the cows in Chicago. Andi & Alan bought me a little yellow replica for my desk! Hr has been named Lambert :)

Next was the Bombed Out Church - destroyed during WWII, the walls contain a 'secret' garden where they now host movies, art exhibits, concerts and more. It was actually closed as they prepared for a showing of "The Wizard of Oz" but Alan had the guy let us in... We played on the metal tire "drums" and sat in the Compassion Tepe and tied little wishes to the pole - really neat space. From there we walked to the Mersey (mare-zee) River and saw the building and balcony where they announced to the world that the Titanic had sunk - how incredible. We probably walked 6+ miles that day...

We went back to Dave & Sue's and Andi's friends came around for her wonderful homemade chicken curry (tiki masala), naan, chutneys, samosas and other little Indian bites - quite popular dishes in Britain. We had drinks in the garden until we all practically fell asleep sitting upright! Another successful day of travel in England - and the week was only half spent!

Inside the Bombed Out Church

Bombed Out Church

Our fabulous tour guides! ;)

Super Lambanana!

Church of England cathedral

Birthplace of The Beatles

The Cavern - where The Beatles got started

Chinatown - Liverpool

Catholic cathedral

Tying on a note in the Compassion Tepe in the Bombed Out Church