The In-Laws are Coming, the In-Laws are Coming!

The calendar on the wall in our kitchen has been rapidly filling up since March. I just returned this week from Seattle/Portland where I spent five days with my sister, family and friends. One of the main highlights was the Sixth Annual Seattle Cheese Festival, a tradition that my sister and I have kept up since we accidentally stumbled upon this amazing festival during its very first year. As I say to anyone who gives a quizzical look, just imagine a street full of booths with (free!) cheese samples from around the Northwest and the world. We have attended in pouring rain and blistering heat, and since our second or third year we've learned to tote along our own loaf of bread and bottles of water. This year some of our favorites were the Rogue Lavender Cheddar and the Rogue Ale Cheese.

Oh, I guess I should address the title of this post. The in-laws are coming on Wednesday! (As I was saying before about the calendar--just returned from Seattle, in-laws are coming for a week, then a week later we leave for our month long trip to Europe!). We are so excited to have the Mito B&B open for guests again. When my dad, stepmom and sister visited in October, we had such a wonderful time here making coffee in the morning, playing Wii and cribbage after dinner, and cooking some really delicious meals. Hopefully we'll have just as much fun with husby's parents--only with much better weather this time! Local gorges, a day trip to Niagara Falls, and some enjoyable walks around Ithaca are already on the itinerary.


I can hardly believe Chris graduates next weekend and will have his masters degree after only one year. I married a genius! I'm very much looking forward to Richmond when he won't have to spend all of his time studying. And if I can find a job that offers work during normal business hours (sorry Starbucks, but 5:30am on a Sunday is getting to be a little much!), we'll be able to spend our weekends exploring Richmond, D.C., the beach, and other parts of our new state.


Ok, enough for now. I've got to get back to tidying up our B&B to impress our new guests!

Pike Place

Birthday Treat

I enjoy a leisurely morning. I like to wake up, pour myself a bowl of Kashi cereal with blueberries, read the New York Times (online), check my email, and browse some of my favorite blogs. All of this before I head out the door at 5:15am is a tricky thing to master. A really good morning is when I don't have to work at all. I sleep in, make a coffee cake, and then eat the whole thing with Chris while watching Hulu episodes we've missed that week.

So. These blogs. I'm kind of in love with them. (See for yourself, I've listed them over there on the side.) They document beautiful things in the fashion/design/photography/culinary/etc world that make me feel like I'm living in the pages of an Anthropologie catalog. One day I saw this from Oh Joy! Eats, and I mentioned to Chris that it might singlehandedly be the most awesome contraption we could have all summer. Husby took a mental note, and come my birthday (yesterday!) a beautifully wrapped box from Williams-Sonoma arrived at our door.

I can just picture us now...absentmindedly brushing off the summer heat of Richmond while sitting on our balcony with these delectable treats. Ah heck, even though it may snow in Ithaca this weekend, I'm going to make myself one of these tasty pops and dream of summer sunshine!

(Find all of the info here. Watch the video and I swear you'll be sold.)

The Confederate Capital

To start things out, our weekend by the numbers:
17: hours spent on the road
10: hours out of the 17 that were spent listening to This American Life
7: bottles of wine purchased from Trader Joe's
4: states traveled through (NY, PA, MD, VA)
1: apartment on a tree-lined street

We began our stay in nearby Glen Allen, where I readily took in all of the comforts of suburbia. The Qdoba where we picked up dinner (traded a burrito for a birthday coupoun that arrived in my email!), the Costco where I plan to stack my cart with bulk paper towels and twelve packs of pasta, a World Market where the future furnishings to our apartment are sold, and the Trader Joe's where they have bottles and bottles of delicious, cheap wine from reputable areas like California and Spain. Seriously, you should have just seen me in there. Giddy is the only word that can really describe it. Chris--Mr. Voice of Reason--had to talk me out of buying nearly the entire store. But I did make it out with some dark chocolate covered pretzels, dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds, red wine, fruit leathers, and cats cookies. Mmm mmm mm.

The next day we hopped on the freeway and into the heart of Richmond. I will say that I got a little worried when we took the exit into downtown...the abandoned industrial buildings, dusty parking lots, and sprinkling of fast food restaurants made me want to run back to the comfort of the burbs. But then things changed. Within one block, the buildings turned into brick houses from the 1920s, the streets were lined with trees, and instantly I fell under the charming spell of Richmond. Seattlites--picture a very, very flat Queen Anne type of area. Portlandians--picture something like the streets of NW 23rd. Everyone else-- picture historic heaven.

Finding the right apartment was extremely tiring and disheartening. To only have 24 hours to find the place you are going to inhabit for the next YEAR is a big task. But we think we've found the one. Hardwood floors, an exposed brick wall, and a balcony that offers views to the museum across the street. More practically, a dishwasher and air conditioning. Right smack dab in the center of the Fan and Museum districts of Richmond--two neighboring areas that are teeming with little restaurants, coffee shops, and local stores hidden among the beautiful residential streets. There was so much that I wanted to see and do there, but there will be time for that. And I guess there will be time to get used to some of those confederate flags hanging about too....

P.S. One more number to add to the list. 

24: as of Wednesday, that's what I'll be!

More Catskills

Take 2: Rhythmic gymnastics audition footage.

Catskills

Since we are living in upstate NY at the moment, I thought I'd include a few video clips of Cat under the title "Catskills." You know, like the mountains. And besides, this cat has got some mad skills.

Take 1: Catdog.

Schwinny Schwinn Schwinn

Craigslist find of the decade! On a random peek through the bicycle section of the Ithaca Craigslist, I found a posting for a vintage Schwinn. (I swear, post anything with the word 'vintage' in the title and my heart is already in love!) So I mosey on down on the gloomy, rainy Sunday that yesterday was, and locked my gaze on the vintage red cruiser that needed to be in my life.


After some research online, I'm able to make a pretty good assumption that this is an early 1960s model of the Schwinn Tiger. I worried about taking it to a bike shop to assess any extra costs related to my purchase, but the tires turned out to be just dandy--a little extra air was all they needed! (Bike shop lady judgment averted, for now.) I doubt I'll be taking it out on the Ithaca hills--it's only a one speed after all--but it should be just perfect riding around Richmond (the terrain feature of Google Maps shows the streets of Richmond as flat flat flat).


Betty, my other lovable cruiser, is being housed in Portland right now because she didn't quite fit in the packed trailer we brought out here. I'm sure Betty won't mind having an older sister from the 60s....


And now I introduce to you...the slightly rust-spotted, still-needs-to-be-cleaned-up, but ever-so-lovely...Trudy.

Cat

When we moved to Ithaca, we met our new neighbor and found out she had the same name as our cat. Since we share a wall with said neighbor, it just didn't feel right to go around saying, "We love you Annie" or "Annie, you're the best!" or "Annie, you sure are bad today." Neighbor might have found that a little creepy. So we started calling our cat by a new name: Cat.

It's fittingly descriptive, to-the-point, and a truthful representation of our sweet little pet. I'll let the pictures introduce the two of you.

hiding

waiting

pounce!

Zimmer

My mom says I'm a mover and a shaker. Sometimes I like to sit back and be a spectator, but in this case, she's right. A week has gone by since we booked our tickets to Europe for this summer and I've already mastered foreign email correspondence with kindly Italian women with rooms to rent, increased the hits on Trip Advisor by about a thousand, and made the new-looking Rick Steves library book I borrowed look like I've owned it for years (sorry, library!). Our four and a half weeks of travel are booked (at least the sleeping parts of the trip) and at budget-friendly prices too!

Here is the plan: one week in a rented one-bedroom apartment in Paris (complete with washer/dryer, air con, and kitchen!), five days in Bacharach (Rhine Valley, Germany), four days in the Swiss Alps, five days in Vernazza (Italian Riviera), one week in a village an hour outside of Rome, and three days in the heart of Rome in a guesthouse run by a woman named Sylvie (I think I already love Sylvie, just because).

I can't believe this is happening! My next task is to figure out exactly how we are getting from place to place...

Oh, and find an apartment in Richmond.

Busy Bee

Well, since I haven't been able stand still or wipe the huge smile off my face, I'll just come out with it. 
...


We're going to Europe this summer. For a MONTH. Eeeeeeeeee!!!


The job offer in Virginia has been officially accepted, and we'll be moving down to Richmond in late July. We decided that since there is a convenient gap of time between Cornell graduation and the start date of the Richmond job, we'd wipe out our frequent flyer miles, borrow a stack of Rick Steves' books from the library, and figure out how to see the sights of Europe on a post-grad school budget.


I was searching for budget friendly hotels with doubles--I figured it might not be as fun to share a bunk-bed with husby in a room with eight other people. When I went to Europe with my best pal from college three years ago, we stayed at this fantastic, artsy hostel in Rome called the Beehive. The owners of the Beehive--transplants from L.A.--now also operate a site called Cross-Pollinate. They list studio apartments, B&Bs, and guesthouses in major European cities. We just booked a lovely little guestroom in the heart of Rome through the site. I can't wait! 'Bee' sure to check it out. :)


I also wanted to show off the new Old Navy dress I got today on clearance--a whopping $6.49! (I couldn't help myself--I also got it in navy blue.) They're definitely making the cut for the travel wardrobe.


Au revoir!