Random things I've bought lately

I haven't done a post like this in a while, so here we go. I've done some shopping lately, and I SWEAR this is IT until Christmas (other than Blake's gift, because the rest of my shopping is done already). Without further ado...

I'm starting with the boots because...well look at how awesome they are. I've been stalking them via zappos and they finally went on sale! Old Gringo boots are the best (and are expensive) so I was really pumped to get there. Also, the heel is a bit higher than normal boots, which is good for me. Oh and they're purple, in case you couldn't see that. I'm going to look sweet at line dancing next week.

As you may know, I love me some outerwear. I got this jacket in black today at the Ann Taylor Loft. It was on sale. And an additional 20% off my entire purchase. Score.

Also at the Loft today...this sweater. But in purple. Yay.

I got this skirt at Banana Republic a few weeks ago and I LOVE it. I had to go up a size, because when silk is on the tight side it starts to look terrible, but no lie it takes 10 pounds off. The layering of the skirt is super flattering. Buy one.

More shoes (of course)! I wanted some black booties to wear with dresses and tights and there Steve Maddens delivered. Good old Steve never does me wrong.

Which is why I also got these Steve Maddens along with the booties. My old go-to open toe pumps fell apart last week, so they needed replacing...and I heart these.

Don't expect another update like this anytime soon (God willing).

Thanksgiving in St. Thomas

I don't have much to say about my trip to St. Thomas...it was the normal beach vacation with lost of laying around and not much else. But here are some pictures. It was very pretty there and nice and warm...though I have about 50 extremely itchy mosquito bites now. Thanks for the trip, dad!

View from the balcony

Also from the balcony...the cruise ships drove right by us to get to the port.

Beach

Giant iguanas and other such lizards like this one are indigenous to the area...and are everywhere. They are gross.

You can't really see it in this picture, but this boat is named Hooter Patrol IV, which is hilarious. Also hilarious: we say a tug boat called Tug Life when we were at the ferry station.

I've been back in the US for three weeks so...

...it was high time I started planning my next European vacation. Now that I've gone once, I want to go back annually while I can (I mean I'm not getting any younger and once I start having kids all of my fun will be over for at least 18 years...I really should have started doing this about 5 years ago). In summer 2011, we already have plans to be in Sweden for Blake's cousin's wedding, so I'm planning to create a Scandinavian vacation surrounding that event, but 2010 is still open.

I've decided on France for two weeks. I ran to the 'brary to get some guidebooks for preliminary research (tip from Jen: never actually buy a guidebook until you book your flight...they get outdated FAST). I think I'm going to hit Paris, Nice, Avignon, Lyon, and the Loire Valley. I'll spend most of the time (I think 5 nights) in Paris though.

I speak zero French, I have no one to go with me (again, Blake has already been to Europe and is totally over it), and the exchange rate still sucks, but I figure I have at least 6 months before I book a flight so those things can work themselves out. Now I just need to stockpile hotel points and airline miles and STOP SHOPPING to save some cash. Says the girl who five minutes ago purchased a new bathing suit from Tommy Bahama (they sent me a $50 gift card in the mail and I leave for St. Thomas this weekend, so this purchase was TOTALLY necessary).

Any advise from those of you that have been to France? Or anyone that wants to join me? :)

Rain rain go away

Of course, just as I'm starting to get into a schedule of running outside, a hurricane comes through. It was so rainy and windy today I couldn't even walk to work, Susan had to drive me. Sigh. It's just as well I guess, as the kitten-sitting has commenced and she needs to have a bottle at 6am, which cuts into my exercise time.

The rain should stop in time for the football game Saturday and then I can start running again on Sunday. Also on Sunday, I will quit my existing gym and join the super-cheap gym (which I tried out on Tuesday morning and was the only person there. Sweet).

In the meantime, my exercising is confined to the evenings, which meant tap class last night (which was awesome, by the way), line dancing tonight, and pilates tomorrow. Friday if it's not raining I may run, depending on when the kitten gets picked up.

Speaking of the kitten...

...how could you not love this? Even though she peed all over the closet this morning. As for the existing cats, Wylie seems to like her, and Norman is petrified of her. He's been inching closer to her and sniffing at her recently, but if she makes a swift movement toward him he runs. From a one pound kitten. I have no idea why. She's a cutie.

Random updates

Bullet points save time, right?

• I have to work a full week this week. I haven't done that since the week of October 5. It's not great.
  
• Had to bring my car in for an oil change and new brake pads...how this work didn't technically total my car I'll never be sure. Damn you, unexpected expenses.
  
• I'm quitting the gym. This discussion requires more clarification and I can't indent bullet points on here, which is BS. Long story short, gym = $92/month, I haven't been there in over 6 weeks, I travel too much for this to be worth it, and the county gym one block from my house is $240/YEAR. They won't do my laundry, but they will save me about $850/year.
  
• Is it considered savings when I'll likely spend most of that on a bike and related biking accessories? And running gear (see next point)?
  
• I've taken up running outside. More like run/walking with a heavy emphasis on the walking. I can only go between a quarter and a half mile without stopping to walk. My goal for the next two weeks is to be able to run for a mile without stopping to walk. Am I too lazy to accomplish this? We shall see.
  
• I'm going to an adult tap dancing class tomorrow night. I hope that this is awesome and it becomes my Tuesday night routine, because it sounds like it has some serious potential.
  
• I wonder if there are adult figure skating classes around here anywhere...
  
• Back to line dancing this week! I'm afraid I've forgotten everything since the last time I was there. Hopefully not.
  
• I'm back into my cooking routine...making parmesean risotto with bacon and peas with a side salad tonight. Blake will not be pleased with the percentage of meat involved, but it sounds so tasty! The left overs are going to make risotto cakes on Thursday and everything!
  
• Sometimes, I get a 25% off coupon for Banana Republic. Then I go use it. And then the next day I get an email from them with a 30% off coupon enclosed. Bastards. I'm not supposed to be shopping right now.
  
• We're kitty-sitting for Carrie and Scott's 4 week old kitten that they've been raising since about 5 minutes after it was born and its mommy abandoned it. PLEASE LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS. Hopefully our cats won't try to eat her.

That is all.

World Series game 6

Here's the story on why my Italy posts took forever to get finished.

After the Phillies forced the World Series into a game 6 on Monday night, my dad was informed that his company tickets for game 6 were his. He was already going to be in NYC for work on Tuesday, so he just had to extend his stay slightly. I got a text message Tuesday at 6:45am telling me to get a flight.

So I did. It was a bit pricey for Blake and I to fly up there, but when else would we ever be able to possibly see a team win a championship in person? Probably never. Blake is a Phillies fan, but he was pumped up nonetheless.

We were only in the NY/NJ area for about 24 hours, but it was totally worth it.

There was a lot of traffic, so we didn't get to enjoy the buffet before the game (dad and I did sneak in there in the top of the 5th to get some lobster tail which was very delicious...and we turned around in line and saw that Mary J. Blige was right behind us, true story), but we did get to see history happen. And also, we ate a whole bunch of other free foods.

Here are my pictures from the event. It was awesome. Thanks, dad!

Scott Broscious throws out the first pitch (random)

Jeter and Cano warming up

Andy Roddick sitting three rows in front of us (his wife was there too, but she was blocked)

Me and The Enemy

DeLuca family pic

Mariano Rivera comes in to start the ninth

One out left

Celebration

More celebration

Yay.

Rome: Other random stuff

As I have mentioned, we did a lot of wandering in Rome, so I do have several other pictures of sites to share. And here they are.

This is a view of St. Peter's from our hotel room. We stayed a bit outside of the city center because I wanted to use my Marriott points. The hotel had a shuttle to and from the city every half hour and it was also only two blocks to the train station that connected with the Metro line, so it saved money and worked out pretty well.

Here's the Spanish Steps. We hung out in this area for shopping and food a few times.

Here is a view of Piazza Navona. In case you are unaware and have never read Angels and Demons, there are a crap-loan of squares and fountains in Rome.

Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of the Trevi fountain. And my mom's hand is in it. It's apparently much more awesome looking at night, but it is also difficult to get good pictures then.

This is a stray cat that we say sitting on a motorcycle seat at a train station in Ostia Antica. Cuuute.

And that concludes my Italy posts. There were several other interesting things to do and see in Rome, so I feel like I could go back there 100 times and not see everything. If I was to make a return trip to Italy though, I would definitely go back to Venice (2 days), Siena (2 days), Florence (2-3 days), and Rome (2-3 days). I would also like to explore a bit south of Rome, like in Sorrento and Capri. Maybe when I can convince Blake to come with me some day, and when the exchange rate isn't a complete botch, I can make that happen.

Rome: Anciant sites

Finally, by our third day in Rome, the rain stopped. Our second day was spent wandering and shopping because we couldn't get into the Borghese Gallery and being outside was lame. So there's not much to say about that.

We started at the Colosseum. It is very very large. There's not much else to say about it I suppose. See for yourself:

Next, we went to the Forum and Palatine Hill. We began to tire of the endless ruins around this point.

We then walked through the Piazza Navona to the Pantheon. Pics from the Piazza will be in the next post. Here's the Pantheon.

The next post will be other random stuff from Rome and then my Italy posting will be complete and we can move onto other things like the World Series.

Rome: Vatican City

Sorry for the long time between Italy posts; it's a long story that involves going to the World Series last minute (awesome pics from that coming up too, I promise). I'm going to separate my Rome stuff into three posts, so here is the first one on the Vatican City sites.

We went to the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's the first day we were in Rome because it was raining and those are both largely indoor activities. After seeing the museum and the church, we went to the Piazza del Popolo and wandered around. I don't have many pictures as a result of the rain and the fact that flash photography was allowed pretty much nowhere, But here's a few things.

View of St. Peter's from a window in the Vatican Museum

Sistene Ceiling

Michaelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica

Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo

Piazza del Popolo

The next post will be a picture-heavy Ancient Rome post, so be on the lookout for that.

Vernazza

Vernazza is one of the towns that makes up the Cinque Terre. They're five little towns built into hills on the water, and they are really best known for the plentiful hiking trails in the area. I just wanted to go so I could say I spent time on the Italian Riviera. Unfortunately, it rained the whole way there and the whole time we were there. I got a few pictures when the rain briefly stopped.

The way there was a disaster because our train was running late so we missed our connection and wound up sitting at a train station for two hours. By the time we found the hotel (which was lovely) we just wanted to eat and go to bed, so we did. The next day check out was at 10am (what????) and our train to Rome wasn't until 1, so we did a fair amount of sitting around and going to the internet cafe. Fun.

I bet it would be awesome if the weather was nice and I wanted to hike, but it wound up being a bit out of the way of everywhere else and added a lot of unnecessary travel to the trip. But you can't change the weather, so what can you do? At least we relaxed a bit.

I'll start up the Rome posts tomorrow. :)