German care package

Any German living in the US can probably tell you that they miss German chocolate. One of my only conditions for my German friends when they come to visit and stay with us is simple and easy: bring chocolate!! With that, you can stay in our guestroom as long  as you like (well, eventually we will kick you out but it takes a while if we like you) and I will even cook and bake for you and show you all things Floridian :)

Jede/r Deutsche in den USA kann Dir sagen, dass er/sie deutsche Schokolade vermisst. Wenn meine deutschen Freunde mich besuchen kommen, habe ich nur eine einzige Bedingung: bringt mir Schokolade!! Dann koennt Ihr Euch so lange Ihr moechtet in meinem Gaestezimmer breit machen (na ja, irgendwann schmeissen wir Euch wohl raus, aber wenn wir Euch moegen, kann das schon eine Weile dauern), und ich werde sogar fuer Euch kochen und backen und Euch alles rund um Florida zeigen :)

Every once in a while I will get a great little package from Germany, filled with all kinds of goodies. My birthday a few weeks ago was one of those special days. One of my best friends in Germany sent me a huge care package filled to the top with chocolate and my birthday gift. We have known each other 20 years, it's hard to believe sometimes! Way back when New Kids on the Block was the cutest boyband around, my friend was looking for other fans to become penpals with. Oh yes... remember the days when we had penpals and we would actually sit down and HANDWRITE letters? I was a penpal geek. I had a ton of them, from Germany and from all over the world. And I do still keep in touch with a few of them! So I saw my friend's little penpal "ad" in a New Kids magazine (oh yeah, laugh if you;d like!), responded and she wrote back! Over the years she has become one of my best and closest friends in the world, and recently she has been visiting every 6 months, so we get to spend lots of giggly girl time together.  We both are no longer New Kids fans, but I still love to tell the story of how we met, mostly because it embarasses my girlfriend!

Zu besonderen Anlaessen erhalte ich ab und zu mal ein Paeckchen aus Deutschland das bis zum Rande mit tollen Sachen gefuellt ist. Mein Geburtstag vor einigen Wochen war so ein besonderer Tag. Eine meiner besten Freundinnen hat mir ein tolles Paket geschickt, dass mit Suessigkeiten vollgestopft war. Und ein Geburtstaggeschenk war auch noch mit drin. Wir kennen und schon seit 20 Jahren, kaum zu glauben! Damals, vor vielen Jahren, als New Kids on the Block noch die tollste Boyband aller Zeiten war, wollte meine Freundin andere Fans kennenlernen und Brieffreundschaften anfangen. Kennt ihr das noch? Als wir noch Brieffreunde hatten und richtige Briefe per HAND geschrieben haben? Ich war ein totaler Penpal Geek. Ich hatte ganz viele aus Deutschland und ueberall auf der Welt. Und mit einigen bin ich sogar jetzt noch im Kontakt :) Auf jeden Fall habe ich das Inserat meiner Freundin in einer New Kids Zeitschrift (oh ja, lacht nur!) beantwortet und sie hat mir sofort zurueck geschrieben! Mit der Zeit ist sie zu einer meiner liebsten Freundinnen geworden und da sie uns in den letzten Jahren alle 6 Monate besucht, koennen wir auch ganz viel Maedelzeit miteinerander verbringen, und dabei wie die Huehner gackern. Inzwischen sind wir beide keine New Kids Fans mehr, aber die Geschichte wie wir uns kennengelernt haben erzaehle ich immer noch gerne, hauptsaechlich weil ihr das etwas peinlich ist :)

I love the actual box my goodies were in... all the major European cities displayed in such an adorable way.

Ich liebe das Paket... all die grossen Staedte Europas auf so eine suesse Art  und Weise dargestellt.

My girlfriend definitely knows what I like :)

Meine Freundin weiss auf jeden Fall was ich mag :)

Lots of Milka, Knoppers (my favorite since she can't bring me my beloved "Milchschnitte", Duplo, and and and!

Ganz viel Milka, Knoppers (mein absoluter Favorit aber nur weil man Milchschnitten nicht einfuehren kann), Duplo und und und!

There are so many other things that I miss from Germany... fresh rolls, German bread, the huge variety of honey, Quark (a type of fresh cheese), the various types of cheese and deli meats and so much more. It's funny how we associate food with home, at least I always do. I think I'll have a piece of chocolate now :)

Es gibt so viele Sachen, die ich aus Deutschland vermisse... frische Broetchen, deutsches Brot, die tolle Auswahl an Honig, Quark, die verschiedenen Sorten Kaese und Aufschnitt und so viel mehr. Irgendwie schon komisch, dass man immer an Essen denkt wenn man von der Heimat spricht, wenigstens geht es mir so. Und nun werde ich mir ein Stueckchen Schokolade goennen :)

With love,

Phanit

Going to the ballgame!

If you knew me well, you'd ask "What? You went where? To a ballgame??"

Wer mich gut kennt wuerde jetzt fragen "Was?? Wo warst Du? Ballgame??"

Yep, I don't like sports. Not a fan at all of watching any kind of sports. I think the only time I will actively push the remote to select a channel that is playing some kind of sports is during the Olympic Games (Gymnastics can be fun!), or during the Soccer World Cup when I'm cheering on Germany.

Ja, ich mag keinen Sport. Ich mag es ueberhaupt nicht, jegliche Art von Sport im Fernseher zu gucken. Ich glaube die einzigen Mal wo ich bewusst den Sender mit Sportuebertragung auswaehle ist waehrend der Olympischen Spiele (Gymnastik ist doch toll!), oder waerend der WM wenn ich Deutschland anfeuere.

But other than that, I do not watch any sports. Ok, I have to admit I also haven't participated in any sports.

Aber ansosten mag ich einfach keinen Sport gucken. Na ja, ich treibe auch keinen Sport.

When I met hubby I was soooo excited to hear that he - as an American guy - does not like to watch sports either! Yippeeeeeahhhh! I think I hit the jack pot! No football, no baseball, no basketball... yay for me!! Instead, he watches other weird stuff that I don't like to watch, but that's another story.

Als ich meinen Hubby damals kennengelernt habe, war ich soo entzueckt zu hoeren, dass er - als Ami - gar keinen Sport guckt! Ja, ich habe das grosse Los gezogen! Keinen Football, keinen Baseball, keinen Basketball - yay fuer mich!!

Stattdessen guckt er sich anderen komischen Kram an, fuer den ich mich nicht begeistern kann, aber das ist eine andere Geschichte.

So why did I go to a Baseball game?

Warum bin ich also zum Baseball Spiel gegangen?

Because I have a really cool employer... who gave us free tickets, free parking, free food vouchers, and a Baseball cap came with each ticket! I was even allowed to bring my baby (ok, only because others cancelled, but yay!). That's probably one of very few times you'll ever see me with a baseball cap. Not that I hate them. I just don't have many around, and my hair is so thick that unless I put it in a ponytail the cap will rise high, and I think my head is just too big for a cap period. 

Weil ich einen echt coolen Arbeitsgeber habe... der uns Freikarten gegeben hat, Parkplaetze umsonst, Essen umsonst und es gab sogar ein Baseball Cap mit jeder Karte! Ich durfe sogar mein Baby mitbringen (ok, nur weil andere Leute abgesagt haben, aber super!) Das ist warscheinlich das einzige Mal, dass man ein Foto von mir mit Baseball Cap zu Gesicht kriegt. Es ist nicht so, dass ich sie hasse, aber wir haben einfach kaum welche, ich hab so viel Haare dass die Muetze ohne Pferdeschwanz total hoch sitzt und ausserdem ist mein Kopf irgendwie zu gross fuer eine Muetze.

I wasn't the only freak who brought her kid :) my boss brought his son, my peer brought his son, others brought their sons... hmm, noone brought their daughter. Anyway, the parking was great - right across the street from the stadium, we had awesome seats almost at the front, and we had $11 each to spend on all sorts of junk food! I took the day off so I could bring Julian, and he kind of had a good time! He was busier playing with the cool seat that folds up and down, and playing with coworkers around us. By the end of the day, I could have easily given him away to my coworker, he would have gone with her! Not that she'd ever be able to pry him off me.

Ich war allerdings nicht der einzige Freak, die ihr Kind mitgebracht hatte, mein Boss hat seinen Sohn gebracht, und andere Kollegen kamen mit ihren Soehnen...hmm, niemand hat eine Tochter mitgebracht. Auf jeden Fall waren die Parkplaetze super - direkt vor dem Stadion, wir hatten super Plaetze ganz weit vorne, und wir haben je $11 gekriegt, um uns alles moeglich an Junkfood zu kaufen. Ich hab mir den Tag freigenommen damit ich Julian mitbringen konnte, und er hatte schon ein wenig Spass gehabt. Er war eher mit den tollen klappbaren Sitzen beschaeftigt und hat mit Kollegen gespielt. Am Ende des Tages haette ich ihn an meine Kollegin abgeben koennen, er waere sicherlich mitgegangen! Nicht dass sie ihn aus meinen Haenden gekriegt hatte.

Oh, our team won - Tampa Bay Rays. I had no clue what I was watching. I think I kinda annoyed my coworker sitting next to me with my silly questions.

Oh, unser Team hat gewonnen - Tampa Bay Rays. Ich hatte keine Ahnung was da vorlief. Ich habe meine Kollegin neben mir sicherlich mit meinen dummen Fragen genervt.

Hey - there is me with the cap on! Julian wouldn't wear his. He was busy licking his hand. Yes... my son licks his whole hand instead of just his messy doritos fingers.

Hey, hier bin ich mit Baseball Cap! Julian wollte seinen nicht tragen. Er war damit beschaeftigt seine Hand zu lecken. Ja... mein Sohn leckt seine ganze Hand anstatt nur seine schmutzigen Doritos-Finger.

There he is throwing peanuts... my coworker decided to have him throw peanuts at her, so she could catch them with her cap. Revenge is coming when she has her grandchildren.

Und hier schmeisst er gerade Erdnuesse... meine Kollegin hat ihm Erdnuesse in die Hand gedrueckt, damit er sie zu ihr schmeissen konnte, die sie dann mit ihrer Muetze auffing. Rache kommt wenn sie mal Enkel hat.

Me with a "say cheese" kinda grin - even though Julian didn't want to cheese it up.

Ich mit meiner "Say Cheese" Grinse - obwohl Julian einfach nicht Cheese sagen wollte.

I needed proof that I was ACTUALLY at the stadium. BTW, Julian's has been using the word "actually" since last week. I always have to giggle when he does. "Mommy, me want my water please. (pause) Actually, me want my milk now please."

Ich brauchte einen Beweis, dass ich WIRKLICH im Stadion war. Und die story oben laesst sich nicht gut auf deutsch uebersetzen :)



Sunday funday

Today is Tanja's last day with us before she heads back to Hamburg (OMG it's snowing over there!!!).

She loves going to the Thai temple to have noodle soup, so that's what we did today!

Not without a quick FaceTime session with my parents in Bangkok.

I already felt guilty for mssing their call last weekend since we were so busy with our guest.

Julian's newest game to play with his daddy is "Door Salesperson" lol

Hubby will knock at the bedroom door.

Julian opens the door.

Hubby does his sales spiel "Hello sir, I am selling vaccuum cleaners, would you be interested in buying one?" (he does it much better... the things he comes up with!)

Julian patiently listens to daddy's sales pitch, then holds out 3 fingers (he has to keep the other two down with his other hand) and tells his daddy "Yes, 3 please".

Hubby tries to upsell "Only 3? But these are highly efficient vacuum cleaners, can I possibly interest you in buying 5?"

Juilian thinks for a moment "hmmmmm..."

Then nods and says "No, 4"

Hubby closes the deal and says "Thank you sir"

Julian responds "You're welcome" and slams the door shut!

They played the same game over and over and over... at least 30 minutes lol

In the end hubby ran out of things to sell to our little man :)

It was simply gorgeous at the temple today. We had quite a lot of rain last night, so it cooled down a bit, the sky was blue, the sun was out and the temple was crowded again!

Hubby (in the red shirt and sunglasses) and Julian on the dock feeding the catfish with bread.

For some reason they decided to like the sticky rice another kid was feeding them with!

Julian didn't care though, he happily ate the honeywheat bread the fish didn't eat :)

And we saw the big choo choo train drive by... the highlight of his day!

Shopping Day

Hubby had to work again, so Tanja and I went shopping... with Julian of course :)

He found this cute little kid size lawn chair with an umbrella! Too cute! Made from cedar, $69.99 at Costco!

Tanja wanted to try the new Vietnamese restaurant I showed her, so we stopped there for lunch.

After a nice long lap, we all had dinner at Little Harbor, where my little silly monkey wanted to walk in the sand... held by mommy or daddy! He did not want his feet in the sand, he said it was "ick"! Oh yes... we have to work on this again now that it's starting to get hot.

The food was delicious as always.

I ordered the crab cake sandwich. The side was jicama slow with edamame and pineapple, very light and crisp!



Now what do you do with this??? :)

Wishing you a beautiful Saturday!

Friday birthday lunch with the girls

We love it when there is a birthday in the group.

It's a reason to all go out for lunch together, celebrate, yack and gossip, enjoy great food and each other's company.

We don't do this often enough, but I'm sure you know how it is...

Time is rare!

Today we celebrate Rhonda's birthday lunch at Macaroni Grill.

Six of us, having a nice relaxing time away from work.

Even though a lot of times our conversations still circle around things that happen at work!

Either way, I am so glad I work at a great place where I found so many of my friends!

I shared my appetizers with my friend Annette today.

It's always great to have friends who like to share their food :)

Sometimes we order a bunch of different items and all share.

Today's appetizers were sweet pepperdew peppers stuffed with goat cheese,

and meatballs in a spicy marinara sauce.

I loved the sweet balsamic vinaigrette on the peppers... delicious!

My lunch was a simple carbonara... I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of it before, with a poached egg on top.

To be honest, it was just okay... it's much more delicious made at home!





As a special little treat I picked up Julian a bit earlier today and brought him back to the office.

We didn't run into too many people as it was a Friday afternoon, but we did say hello to a few, some that hadn't seen him in a while, others who have never seen him at all.

Julian just loves coming to my office, it's been a while!

He loves swiping my badge to get into the building, pressing the elevator buttons, going up and down the stairs, and most of all he loves playing around in mommy's office!

So I let him play for a while, let him call Daddy and just have fun!

Anyway...  I hope everyone had a great Friday as well!

Animal Kingdom

My friend Tanja flew in from Hamburg last night.

Brought a ton of my favorite sweets... Knoppers and Yes Toertchen!!

And easter candy for Julian :)

Disney was on our list to do today, surprisingly hubby was given the day off!!

We let Tanja decide where to go and she chose Animal Kingdom over Magic Kingdom.

My 3 day Florida pass expired last time we went to Disney, but the deal was just too sweet, so I bought another 3 day pass.

$99 plus tax for 3 days, any days, any park between 4/14 and 5/25, instead of $95 plus tax for just one day!

I'm sure I'll be back with Julian even if it's without hubby!

He does really well on the 1 hour drive and I want to take him back to Magic Kingdom, and Epcot Center.

I was disappointed that the Tree of Life was closed due to technical issues :(

The weather was gorgeous, but it was crowded! Springbreak...

Julian had hs name written in Thai in Asia... there was a little booth with lovely people from Thailand so they wrote his name for him :)

My baby was so tired and exhausted that he feel asleep around 3pm, sitting in my lap... while watching The Lion King show! Incredibly loooouuuuuud music and singing, so I put my hands over his ears once he fell asleep :) I had to fight falling asleep myself! Almost fell over twice!

We watched one more show, went on a ride in Dinoland, and then had dinner at The Rainforest Cafe, I just love this place!

Southwest eggrolls as an appetizer.

Just love all the animals, trees, flowers, the "rain"... I just wonder how they ever clean all of this? Hmm...

And our glorious volcano dessert... brownies with vanilla icecream and lots of whipped cream.

The four of us didn't finish it :)

Busch Gardens and Girl Night

Another beautiful day in Florida.

I just love the spring, when we have around 80 F weather, sunshine, blue skies...

And a nice cool breeze!

As long as I have taken my daily Zyrtec I can actually go outside, and the pollen count has come down just in the last few days.

Hubby had the day off so we decided we should take Julian back to Busch Gardens.

Hubby has been planting the seed though lol kept asking Julian since last night where he wanted to go and feeding him the answer "Busch Gardens!"

We were able to see a bunch of animals, ride the choo choo train (Julian's most favorite part),

and then the additional highlight of the day was Sesame Street World!

We brought Julian's new swim clothes (had to buy a 3T shirt and 2T pants for him) and we spent almost an hour just walking around the kids pool area.

To our amusement, Julian's favorite toys were fallen leaves.

He would pick them up, throw them in the water, pick them up again, throw them again, etc.!

We were on time to watch the live animal show as well, and Julian loved it!

Seeing the birds fly freely around in the arena, the dogs, cats, etc... so much fun!

Right after dinner, I was ready to leave for my girl's night with my dear friend Shelly.

We were neighbors many many years ago and stayed close friends all these years.

Just a quick girl's night out, but still great time to chat in the car and just watch a cute movie together.

We picked "The Vow", based on a true story.

A young couple gets into an accident, the wife wakes up not remembering her husband.

But he fights to win her back and of course.. happy end.

I just love Rachel McAdams and the male lead definitely was eye candy as well!

Friday with friends

Spring is definitely here in Florida.

Look at the beautiful blue sky... temperatures around 80 F every day...

I love how the pink/lilac blossoms cover everything.

Unfortunately whenever March comes around, it also means mad allergies for me!

Zyrtec is my daily friend right now :) without I would be miserable!

Friday's lunch date took my wonderful girlfriends and I to Ybor City... El Puerto, a local gem, a South American Grill. Famous for their skirt steak and chimichurri sauce.

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the food. It was so crowded and service so slow today that we were starved when the food finally arrived after over an hour of waiting.

Luckily we had plenty of thigns to talk about :)

Happy Friday and a wonderful weekend to everyone!

Cuban lunch

I just love Cuban food. I'm not a huge Mexican food fan, I do like a few things.

But I LOVE Cuban food!

And there is a perfect little place right by work...

Food is served cafeteria style, portions big enough for lunch & dinner, changing feature entrees daily,

and always delicious!

Today's lunch with a dear friend:

Beef Boliche stuffed with Chorizo, yucca boiled with lots of garlic and onions, and steamed cabbabe.

Almost Friday!

Took my supervisors out to lunch at Acropolis today as one of them got a promo starting next week. I love this place! Afterwards we stopped at a cute Yogurt place, one of the sups treated the group, yum!

Dinner for Julian tonight was Pad Woon Sen and Bamee Goong!! He loved it! Followed by caramel ice cream and a hot dog lol I did offer him healthy baby carrots but he didn't take one bite. At least he had broccoli for lunch together with a whole peanut butter jelly sandwich and two bowls of cereal as an afternoon snack. And a whole bottle of Pediasure before bed.

After Julian went to bed I made myself a pizza as we still had dough in the fridge from Publix. Plain with salami and red onions and omg sooo delicious!! I saved half for lunch tomorrow! Must do this more often! Publix had a BOGO deal, but really I just need to practice and make my own pizza dough. Flour, water and yeast... can't be that hard right?

Happy anniversary!

To me!

Today marks my 11 year anniversary at my company, wow! Hard to believe... time just flies. Seems like just a few years ago I graduated from college, or got my MBA. When I think of the actual year and count back how many it has been been I am always a little shocked... ok, I admit hugely shocked at how old I am!!!! I graduated from college in 1997... and got my MBA in 1999. Uuuugggggh, that's 13 years ago??

But you're as young as you feel! That's right!

Hehehehe... taken at my MBA graduation in 1999!!

(Actually I walked in December 1998, I only had 1 more class to finish
in the spring of 1999 but that's when I "officially"graduated with
all credits)

Fun times!

Pho-licious

I love, love Pho! Even though it's not easy to satisfy my cravings considering there is only one Pho place in the area so I was excited when I found the new Pho place at the Mall Food Court and it was so good!

Julian is back to almost normal so I dropped him off at the babysitter's today, and went out during lunch to buy a few things at the mall. Hmmm... perfect opportunity to have their Pho! This time I also tried their fresh spring rolls, they were delicious too. Affordable, fast, and attainable :)

What else did I get at the mall? I love Victoria's Secret... but today I bought a gift for a friend, and some lipgloss to send to my sister in Italy.

How can you not love the combination of red and pink? *sigh*

These have become my most favorite lipglosses! Infallible from L'Oreal. They go on smoothly, and they stay without sticking too much to the point that you have to scrub your lips raw at the end of the day to get rid of the colour.