Best of 2011

I thought I'd bring back the traditional of the Best of posts this year. I managed to accidentally skip last year, but here's the one from 2009.

2011 has really been a truly crazy year. I feel like I've turned life upside down and things are just starting to finally settle in a good place. The upside of this is that there are a lot of great things that have happened during this crazy year for me to reflect upon. Here's an assortment in no particular order.

1. Travel: Italy & Australia - I doubled the number of times that I've been out of the country in my whole life this year and added a new continent.
2. Graduating from Haas - How did the 2 years of b-school fly by already? I'm glad to be done, but do find myself missing the community, growing opportunities, and fun of Haas.
3. Starting my post-Haas career at eBay - So far so good on my re-entry into the real world. It has been a bit of an adjustment, but I'm getting to hang of it again.
4. Moving out of Berkeley - I have looked forward to moving out of Berkeley pretty much ever since I moved there. I loved my classmates, but am so glad to be done with all of the Berzerkeley crazies.
5. Surviving another Nike Half Marathon - ChuThis and I survived another Nike Half. Not our best race, but we made it and had a good time in the process. It's apparently becoming an annual tradition.
6. Winning the most team steps in a day prize in the office turkey challenge - this was both a great way to help me meet new people in the office as well as get off the couch and back into running shape. Hopefully, I can keep this up with my 2012 fitness goals.
7. Seeing the successes and life changes of my classmates and friends (weddings, babies, successful startups) - 8 weddings, at least as many babies, friends with newspaper articles, NPR interviews, successful startups (go Modify!), and so many others. It was great to share in all of your successes this year.
8. Making some really good life decisions for me - while never a fun thing to do, I'm really proud of how I have taken charge of my life this year and really worked to shape its direction instead of just riding with the tides. I'm on a much better course now and can't wait to see where I end up next.
9. Keeping in touch with old friends (no matter the distance) and making new ones - as we move and grow in life, it's really great to keep connecting with friends from the past in addition to meeting new people as you go.
10. More painting & creative pursuits- see my previous post...

All in all, it was definitely a very challenging year, but I have come out on the other side a better and stronger person. Here's to the new challenges and adventures that 2012 brings!

A Piece of Italy

My grandparents spent a good deal of time traveling once my grandfather retired. The traveled to Europe, Australia, and Alaska taking cruises and tours or just going on their own. My grandfather is Scottish, so they traveled to Scotland and toured the countryside often tasting Scotch and checking out castles. My grandmother was Italian, so they also visited a variety of cities in Italy.

On their first trip to Italy, they went to Venice and commissioned several etchings from a local artist. They had one done of a famous bridge in San Marcos square and another of the view from their room on the waterways of Venice. They hung for years in the downstairs hallway of their house along with a similar set of etchings from London. When the moved out of their house and into an apartment, my grandma gave them to me for my new apartment as I had just recently moved as well. It has taken me years to get them reframed so they just made it on my wall last week.

I've included a pic of one of the two etchings. My apologies for the flash in the picture. It was the best that I could do. This etching is the the view from my grandparent's hotel room in Venice. Seeing it on my wall is a nice reminder of all of the happy memories of the times that I had with my grandmother.

Happy Birthday Grandma & Tiramisu!

Today is my Grandma's birthday (or would be if she was still around). I have decided that I will celebrate her birthday every year by enjoying tiramisu on her birthday in her honor. This year, it just so happened that her birthday would have been so close to dessert night that I decided that everyone should have tiramisu in her honor. I don't have a stand mixer, as this blog has address numerous times before, so I decided to go the easy route and buy tiramisu from Trader Joe's. So many of their other desserts are very fabulous.

There were no ladyfingers anywhere to be found in this tiramisu! Crazy I know, tiramisu without ladyfingers, but that's what it was. It was on this sort of a chocolate/coffee cake thing. The whipped cream portion of the cake was good. It wasn't too heavy which was nice and had chocolate flakes mixed into it. This isn't traditional of a tiramisu, but it was tasty.

All in all, I think it was an alright dessert night, but Grandma definitely wouldn't have liked the tiramisu. She was always on a quest to find the best tiramisu and I think she'd agree that Trader Joe's does not have it.

Happy 90th Birthday Grandpa!

Today is my Grandpa's 90th birthday!

It's absolutely unfathomable to believe that someone can possibly be that old (don't tell him I said so). It's totally awesome, just not one of those things that you can accurately grasp, kind of like $1B (how much is that REALLY anyway?).

Anyway, I had a lovely dinner at Mission Ranch in Carmel with my parents, my Grandpa, and my aunt and uncle. Grandpa really enjoyed it and had a great time. Oh and he's going to keep celebrating all year because we got him a subscription to the cookie of the month club so each month he'll be getting another tasty and delectable cookie flavor to try.

Happy Birthday Grandpa! I can't wait for the 100th birthday celebration in another 10 years.