Snow Day!

Yesterday was my first snow day since moving here! What a nice day. I woke up at 6 am, feeling that I had a ton to do as I was supposed to leave for Boston yesterday afternoon for training and hadn't begun to pack or anything yet - plus I had meetings all day. I happened to peek through the blinds and saw inches upon inches of snow outside. I tried to wake Hasan up to go play in the snow with me, but he just yelled out NO! So I got to work on my "computer errands" as I like to call them. When he awoke, he was more amenable to going outside - although I gotta say he didn't get his jacket and boots and gloves and hat on fast enough for me. I rushed out ahead of him, and ran for the snow to make a snowball to hit him with by the time he got outside. Lo and behold the snow was hard as ice - ICK! What a disappointment. I was a frowny face by the time he got outside. Nevertheless we went for a short walk, and then proceeded about the business of de-snowing and de-icing our cars. By the time we were almost done with the first car (mine), my hands were in major hypothermia and I wussed out and got in my car with its heated seats while he cleaned off his car. I know - selfish. But if your fingers felt like they were going to fall off, you'd have done the same thing.

I proceeded to work from home, feeling anxious about the travel thing. But, thank goodness, I checked my flight status around 10:30 and found out that my flight had been canceled - YAY!!! So I had a fairly light day of work, phone meetings all day...interspersed with investigations into getting a cat. I'm on a campaign to get us a cat - Hasan loves the idea, but he's being the financial warden on this one and making sure we can afford to properly take care of it. So I just have to make a plan for it and then we can get one. I think he's already named the cat anyways...so I think this will be an easy sell ;)

I finished up work around 4:30 and proceeded to sit my butt on the couch, watch loads of Tivo'd shows and went to bed at 9 pm.

Couldn't have asked for a better day.

Return to the homeland

I just got back from a lovely 6 days in Miami. It's always always ALWAYS good to go back to Miami. I was there for the Internet Retailer conference, but I got there a few days early just to spend time with my dear friends Fabiana and Karen. What a perfect time to go - sometimes winter in Miami can be downright cold (in the 50s) but the weekend was just gorgeous (in the 70s) and a PERFECT break from the 20 degree temperatures in Philly. I stayed at the historic (and storied) Fountainebleau resort. They recently spent $1 billion to renovate the hotel. The hotel was very beautiful, but kind of a pain when you think of the fact that it was about 30 blocks north of South Beach where everything is going on, so you are beholden to the hotel for food and drink. And it was expensive - $9.10 for a small latte and plain croissant! Thank goodness for being able to submit expense reimbursements to the office.

I got to spend a wonderful day in South Beach with Karen - going to the Art Deco street fair on Ocean Drive (and buying a pair of earrings), having lunch at the Front Porch Cafe, and sangria at the Hotel Victor. But of course the highlight of my trip was little Gordito (his name is actually Rob) - Rob & Fabiana's son. He's crawling now and ever so eager to walk.

I did miss Hasan terribly - strange since we've spent so many months apart in our relationship. I was even eager to come back to the cold temperatures. The trip gave me plenty of motivation to come back to Philly, work our plan, and figure out a way to get back down there permanently. Who knows where we will be next year?!

Here are some pictures from the trip.