We Need A Little Help Over Here!

                                     

Last year, around this time, my father-in-law said that this year, we needed to get a Christmas Tree for Rachel.  His reasoning was since we would have a baby around, we needed a tree for the baby.  This puzzled Ping a bit because he never had a tree growing up.  I think they were encouraging us to start our own traditions since we would have our own family.  I, obviously, would love a tree as I grew up with one.  But, Rachel is not here.  It would be a nice thing to do for her in her memory, but there are a few practicalities we need to work out.  I thought maybe you could help us. 

1) where would we put the tree? (Obviously only those that have been to our place would know this)

2) should we get a fake or live tree? (remember, fake means storage space….which we pretty much don’t have)

3) How should we decorate it? We have no ornaments or lights, so we would have to buy these things. Since this year’s tree would be a thing for Rachel, is there a special way we should decorate it?

4) How big of tree should we get?  What is manageable for a NY apartment?

5) Since Ping’s parents just moved to China yesterday (yes yesterday) and Ping’s brother will be in Atlanta with his Fiancée for Christmas, it is just Ping and I.  What should we do for Christmas?  (Sorry, we will NOT be flying to Seattle.)

Takin' It Easy

It's been a few months since I've given an update.  The summer has been very busy and thus has flown by.  I can't believe that next week will be September already!  Aside from me working at Boon's Summer Camp this summer, Ping and I have tried to get out more.  We saw 2 movies: Twilight: Eclipse, and Inception.  I would highly recommend inception.  Ping would recommend both.  We also spent a weekend on the upper westside visiting Harlem and The Cloisters.  It was quite a trek due to some trains not running, but we made it.  Our first stop was in Harlem for lunch at the famous Amy Ruth's restaurant.  Good ole soul food straight up.  They are famous for their waffles paired with a fried meat dish.  They also have good mac and cheese (from what I hear).  Let me tell you, Amy Ruth's has THE BEST Belgian waffle I have EVER tasted! It was lightly crisp on the outside and immediately melted upon entering your mouth. Mmmmm....I'm salivating just typing about it!  Paired with our waffles, Ping ordered the fried chicken wings.  Very delicious.  Since I had been to Rosco's Chicken and Waffle house in L.A., I decided to try the fried shrimp with my waffle.  Very good, but not as good as the chicken. 

After lunch, we headed up to The Cloisters.  The Cloisters is a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that features medieval European art.  Now, Ping and I both are not art savy, nor are we the type to stand in front of an object, ooh and awe over it and try to interpret what the artist wanted to tell us.  The museum was beautiful I have to say, mostly because of the building it was located in had incorporated elements of the French cloisters and from monastic sites in southern France.  The Cloisters is located in beautiful Fort Tyron Park.  Fort Tyron is composted of quiet lawn areas, pathways, stairways and floral gardens.  All overlooking the Hudson River.  I have added some pictures in my album for you to see.  Enjoy!

Brooklyn Half Marathon

It's been quite a while since I've posted here.  I feel like my life have been strangely busy this past month and with VBS/Summer Camp coming up, it's not going to slow down.  May 22nd, I ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon.  This race felt a little different compared to the last two years I've ran it.  The crowd was a tad smaller due to some, ahem, poor registration execution on the organizer's part.  My parents were in town and they had the opportunity to watch my race for the first time.  This gave Ping the excuse to come watch as well!  My parents flew in the early evening prior.  We headed straight from the airport to the baseball game (Subway series: Mets v. Yankees) and decided to have dinner at the ballpark.  We chose to have crab cakes and french fries.  I could have played it safe and gone for pizza, but the crab cakes looked SO good!  The fries were doused in this creole seasoning which was overpowering without dipping them into the cheese sauce that came with it.   Mets lost, Yankees won and we headed home.  With just under 5 hours of sleep, My parents, Ping and I headed out to the start.  Ping dropped us off at Prospect Park and continued out to the finish at Coney Island and waited for us there.  The weather was nice...mid 60s and partly cloudy.  I took my GU with a few other people near a water fountain and trash can on my way to the start corral.  I lined up, said good-bye to Mom and Dad and was ready.  I was a little emotional because the last time that I ran in Prospect Park, I was pregnant with Rachel.  The gun went off and it took only a minute for me to get to the start line.  We did 2 full loops (first 7 miles) of the park which meant climbing a large hill twice.  I saw Mom and Dad twice in the park and planned to see them at the finish line.  I felt really strong and my pace was always between a 8:30-8:45 in the park.  I started to get a little worried around mile 6 because if I was going fast now, I would crash on the parkway.  We exited the park and onto the parkway.  There was water and Gatorade every stop (unlike most NYRR races) and this year, they were well stocked and manned.  I took my first GU at mile 6.  The parkway was nice an flat, slight downhill too.  It was still mostly cloudy so I didn't get to have to fight for limited shade on the parkway.  The miles just flew by.  Around mile 10, I was starting to feel the need to use the restroom.  There was no toilet around and felt I could still hold it.  However, just at mile 11, I felt a gas bubble come through. Along with the gas, came a little liquid form of poo.  OMG!  I was so embarrassed!  I've NEVER crapped myself on a run before!!  I guess you could say I am a hard core runner now. haha.  I thought for a second as I saw a porta john there if I should go or just book it to the end.  I felt more coming and ended up choosing the toilet rather than greatly defecate all over myself.  Thank god there was one open and I forced it all out to cut down on time.  I felt better now that I was empty, and booked it out of the toilet, jumped the guard rail and back onto the course.  I decided to run the last 2.1 miles like a 5K so I could make up for the lost time.  I was really pushing it.  I crossed the finish line in 1:56:33!  Not a PR (1:55:47), but a sub-2 which is what I wanted!  Ping was there at the finish line and my parents missed me as the train took longer than expected.  I ended up having a huge streak of the runs.  I went another 6 or 7 times in the next few hours!  I later figured out that you should NEVER mix Gatorade and GU or any other energy gel.  Oops!  Lesson learned!  Here is a picture of me finishing my second loop of the Park.  You can see more pictures here.