Oink!

Hello from Bentonville, Arkansas, home of the Walmart Home Office. I'm here for my semi-quarterly visit. I kicked this trip off with a finger lickin' good meal at the Whole Hog Cafe. The restauarant is across the street from my hotel but we drove over in our enormous Dodge Journey. When in Rome.

At Whole Hog, I enjoyed 6 baby back baby back baby rack ribs, beans, an iceberg lettuce salad wrapped in saran wrap, the most delicious dinner roll, and some good conversation. All for $9.99! What a deal.

Even though I was about to pop after all that fine pig, I didn't want the good times to end so we continued on to get ice cream at Andy's Custard. I exercised some self-restraint and ate a small vanilla custard (on a cone!) and Julie enjoyed a very thick milkshake called a concrete. Andy's only has a drive through window so we parked and ate our ice cream in Julie's rental car. It kind of felt like high school or what I would imagine high school is like in a small town.

My body thinks it's 8pm but the clock says 10pm, so I better put my very full self to bed.

Let's try this again

I signed up for a Twitter account but feel like I need more than 140 characters to properly express myself. My 7th grade English teacher said that I could write and write and write and still have nothing to say. Hopefully only the former is true these days. You be the judge.

So what inspired me to write? My 1996 Honda Civic just turned over 70,000 miles. I'm not sure why this particular non-event prompted me to write for the first time in a year and a half, but it did. So there you have it. I've driven about 5,300 miles a year for the past 13 years. Fascinating. Maybe my 7th grade teacher was on to something. I'll work on more interesting subject matter for my next post.

The Honeymoon's Over

Just kidding! It's our one year wedding anniversary! Well, it's actually tomorrow, October 28, but we kicked off the celebration today.

New York Restaurant Guide

We've been meaning to post this forever, but here's a quick run down of our favorite restaurants.

Piccolo Angolo - great neighborhood Italian
Blue Hill - the tasting menu is expensive but AMAZING!
Good - especially brunch
The Place - cozy, perfect West Village restaurant
202 - wonderful lunch and brunch
Momofuku Saam - be sure to order a ssam, a Korean burrito
Supper - incredible pasta
Blue Ribbon Bakery - order the chocolate chip bread pudding for dessert
Little Owl - make a reservation and order the pork chop
Otto - Mario Batali pizza deliciousness
Corner Bistro - cheap burgers and beers
Levain Bakery - the best cookies ever
Bleeker Street Pizza - grab a nona maria slice
Grimaldi's (Brooklyn) - make a day of it and walk across the Brooklyn Bridge
Spotted Pig - order the cuban sandwich
Noodle Bar - casual yet awesome

Yum!

Target, I Still Love You

Hello from week #2 at Walmart.com. I'm doing marketing for digital life and services, which includes ten categories ranging from music to photo to pharmacy. If you're a Walmart.com customer or want to become one because I work there, I would love to hear your feedback on the site related to my categories:

Books, Music, Movies
Photo
Pharmacy
Gift Cards

I am really enjoying my job so far, but I haven't forgotten my first love: Target. Despite my loyalty to my employer, I don't think I'm going to be able to end things with Target. I don't know whether it's my history with that store, it's proximity to my home, or all of that red, but I just love that place.

I'm off to Bentonville, Arkansas next week for meetings with the Wal-Mart home office. It should be a fun adventure!

As for Elliott, he's been eating leftover raisin bran, chicken tenders, and sliced mozzarella at Chef's Best. He's also doing a bit of writing and editing.

Missing New York (Just a little bit)

My relationship with New York is kind of like an ex-boyfriend. I remember the good times, but have brushed aside the bad. We don't regret our decision to move to San Francisco for even a split second, but there are some things we miss about NYC:

- Pizza
- Effective public transportation
- Restaurants with ambiance
- Sabor Latino La Yogurt which included flavors like horchata, dulce de leche, guava
- Random and frequent celebrity sitings
- Warm summer nights
- Friends (duh)

On the flip side, there are things that we la, la, love about being in San Francisco:

- Going on peaceful walks
- Asian and Mexican food
- Having a car
- Easy access to nature
- Wine country
- People who are weird rather than NY hipsters who are just trying to be weird
- The nice people at Safeway and Trader Joe's
- Toilet seat covers
- Proximity to Stanford
- Friends (duh)

Stanford 24, USC 23

Go Stanford


I grew up a Trojan fan. My grandfather, uncle, and both of my parents went to USC. We still have season football tickets that were originally in my grandfather's name. Most of my friends' parents went to UCLA, so I was always defending my dear Trojans. My parents generously supported my decision to go to Stanford and have actually rooted for the Cardinal...especially when Stanford is playing UCLA.

I went home last weekend for Amanda's 30th birthday. Coincidentally, Stanford was playing USC and we decided to go. Good decision, huh? As we made our way to our seats, I counted a total of eight Stanford fans at the LA Coliseum. Everyone was decked out in Trojan gear with the exception of me, an old man in a Stanford Indians shirt, and the Band.

Unlike most games that have exciting moments, the whole game was fun to watch (at least as a Stanford fan). When Stanford held SC to a field goal in the first quarter, I was feeling good. When SC scored only one touchdown in the second quarter, I was feeling giddy. Seeing Stanford intercept to score a touchdown in the third made me jump up and down like a cheerleader. I honestly couldn't believe what I was seeing.

The other reason I couldn't believe it was because I was the only one cheering. Seriously. I couldn't hear any other voices besides mine. I kept thinking I missed something. That was a touchdown, right? I have never been to a game when you can't hear the visiting team cheering. The band was up in the rafters so I could hardly hear them either.

As any of my friends or family can attest, I am a loyal Stanford fan. Why do you think I lose my March Madness pool every year? If Stanford has a slight chance of winning, I have them going to the Final Four. I have had season basketball tickets since graduating and make it to every football game when I am in town. Heck, Elliott and I would be in sports bars in NYC until the wee hours of the morning to watch games that started at 10:30EST.

Part of being a Stanford fan, however, is knowing how to lose. In basketball, it's the second round tournament curse. In football, it's dealing with a 1-11 season last year. But unlike many Stanford fans, I am not fickle.

So imagine how excited I was to be at the USC game and seeing my beloved Cardinal winning. Well, Stanford didn't have the actual lead until the last minute of the game, but from the tone in the Coliseum it felt like Stanford had the lead during the majority of the second half. USC fans were either silent or booing their team and Carroll. Amanda and I were the only ones cheering in earshot.

Seeing Stanford win was amazing. We jumped up and down, yelling and screaming. I didn't care if the USC fans hated me because I loved the Cardinal more than ever.

I walked out of the stadium beaming (see above picture). USC fans congratulated me on my great team. I was like, uh, not really but they were great tonight!

The post-win glow has not faded yet. My friends have been sharing stories, sharing articles, sharing college football history.

Even if Stanford doesn't win another game this season, I'll still be there rooting from the stands.

At least I don't have a blue beehive hairdo

I lost my voice yesterday. I didn’t lose my voice in the sexy/raspy way, but more in the cannot-talk/squeaky way.

I cannot remember the last time I lost my voice. It’s actually quite debilitating. I had to lead a meeting yesterday and it’s hard to command authority when you sound like Marge Simpson. I sounded so much like Marge that Elliott kept making me say, “Bart” and “Oh, Homey” last night.

I am going to the doctor this afternoon. Hopefully he can help me exorcise Marge. D'oh!

Happy 60th Birthday, Laurie

Laurie and Paul (aka mom and dad) visited us in New York last weekend to celebrate mom's 60th birthday. We spent most of the weekend gorging ourselves at fabulous restaurants, but spent one special evening gorging ourselves with song.

My mom wanted to go to a piano bar and sing Broadway showtunes for her birthday. We honored her wish at Marie's Crisis, a divey bar in the West Village with a piano and a bunch of dudes singing their hearts out.

We had a great time singing songs from Sound of Music, Wizard of Oz and Annie and watching Laurie sing the rest of the songs from Wicked, South Pacific and a few other musicals we never heard of.


Laurie and Paul at the beginning of the evening.


Nothing goes better with singing than jazz hands.


Think we should have another scotch on the rocks?


Yessssssssssssssssssssssss!

Happy, happy birthday!

Deb's Latest Online Music Obsession

I listen to music at work and love new discovering music sites online. Previously, I wrote about Pandora. While I still like Pandora, my latest favorite site is Finetune.

On finetune, you can build a playlist of your favorite songs from their extensive music library. For legal reasons, your playlist has to contain at least 45 songs and you cannot add more than 3 songs from any one artist. It's a great way to listen to cheesy artists and songs I like but would never buy, like Justin Timberlake and Bread.

I have notoriously erratic taste in music, but if you want to listen to my playlist, you can from our blog. Enjoy!