It's Like We Know What We Are Doing

I've come to a horrible realization. I will have to have surgery this year. I thought I had dodged a bullet. But I know now that the bullet was apparently more of a boomerang. It can be dodged, but it will always turn around and hit me square in the ass. Or I guess the foot. About a year ago, my foot started to hurt. Not a ton, but enough that I noticed it. I didn't think of the pain too much. Every once in a while, I'd feel a twinge of something and look down. It wasn't until a little while into the process that I noticed my foot was becoming more and more deformed by a Tailor's Bunion . In early October, I finally bit that bullet and went to the Podiatrist. My WebMd diagnosis was correct. Tailor's Bunion. It was a bit inflamed and filled with fluid. So I gritted my teeth and got shot up with cortisone. The doctor said it should help with the inflammation for a while, but it would come back. He mentioned orthodics (which I'd like to thank ...

Food is highly important in my life. I love everything about it. I love cooking. The process of turning separate ingredients into a dish that makes your head explode with joy...priceless. But I do love when others cook for me. So I enjoy a good restaurant. We knew what to expect with Next . Paris 1906 was a glorious experience . While we knew we didn't need to go back to experience Paris again (we've already done that...and we don't need to lighten our bank account a second time...even though it was amazing), we knew we were going to go back to Next. We just had to wait for the team to announce the next menu. And then, they did - Thailand. The foodie community started rumbling. We all started running back to the Facebook page. When was the last Paris 1906 date?? When was the new menu going to start?? When would we get a chance to buy tickets?? Tickets!! We can't wait!! First, the menu was released. We gasped at the menu. It all sounded great. B...

"Tiz. Where's that name from??" "Poland." That's all I ever knew. Dad's relatives were from Poland. So I was Polish. I needed to like pierogi's and paczki's and other stuff Polish folks eat. I knew in my head that this was not all of my heritage, but it was all I knew, so it was all I could hold on to. Until recently. Dad started on Ancestry.com. It was a good project for him. He had a purpose for a while and the entire family (and extended family) was able to figure out where they came from...without having to do any work for themselves. Win-Win!! The results were not in any way surprising (the Tiz side...uber-Polish) and quite surprising. Quite surprising in the fact that I've got a crazy amount of Irish heritage in me!! I KNEW my hair should be red without chemical help!! And it also explains the sun and my tentative "friendship" (if you count "friendship" as me liking the sun and it's lovely ray...

I've been home for a week now.  I haven't completely unpacked.  Not everything has been put in their rightful places.  I don't feel like I have completely gotten back into the swing of my daily life.  But here I am, on an early Saturday morning, pouring through a travel magazine, looking for where I can take my next adventure. It's almost sick and wrong. Everyone keeps asking, "Where are you going next??". I guess that's what is expected of me now.  Not that I mind, of course.  I want to hit the road again to find something different around the next corner.  And if both finances and vacation days were plentiful, the next trip would happen ASAP.  Last summer was filled with unexpected trips.  Little ones that overtook the summer.  This summer, I've gone on a trip hiatus.  Nothing is planned.  Nothing can be planned.  Mostly, cause of my lack of vacation days, but mostly because I need a break. The South American Adventure was an 8 month planning...

Our last night in Lima was spent having a fantastic dining experience. We reserved our table a the day after the San Pellegrino list of the top 50 Restaurants in the World was released. Astrid y Gaston was ranked #42. The thought was that we would have a great last meal before we made it back home. It was the best idea we had on our trip. And we had a lot of good ideas. This was our chance to finally dress up (been lugging around a cute outfit this whole time) and see more of the city at night. Adele kept trying to figure out a time to go Salsa dancing, but we were running so hard and the weekends were never spent in Lima, so the final night really was the only time we had for a night on the town. Sadly (for Adele), there would be no Salsa dancing. But there would be eating. Plenty of eating. The plan was simple. We would chow hard on the Tasting Menu. 12 Courses. 3 Hours. 170 Soles. Add some wine to the mix and we were in for an evening to remember. Let's get s...

Day 16 - Homeward Bound I woke up this morning with the iPhone in my hand.  I had obviously heard the alarm and turned it off, but promptly went back to sleep and woke up 25 minutes later when I heard Adele's alarm go off.  I can only hope this is not an omen for things to come. We were highly groggy this morning.  Mostly from the late hour we fell asleep, but partly from the dinner last night.  We were still really full and needed to relax while food continued to digest.  Unfortunately, we had to catch a flight.  We did most of the packing last night, so it wasn't a massive production. Checking out of the hotel and getting through the airport was no big deal.  We're well versed with the Lima airport at this point.  So now we begin the wait... Things I'll Miss About South America -  Coca Tea.  I'm not exactly sure why Coca Tea has captured my love so much.  I attacked it with gusto when we got to Cusco because I was completely worried about altitude sickne...

Day 15 - #42 Morning...where apparently I am unable to sleep in no matter where I am. We had the conversation last night.  Is there anything else we had to do in Lima??  The answer was basically...no.  We saw a few cathedrals.  We went to a few parks.  We wandered around a few neighborhoods.  We made it to the beach.  We hit just about everything on the list of "things to see in Lima". Originally, we didn't have a full day in Lima.  We were doing an overnight flight to Ft Lauderdale tonight, then flying to Chicago early tomorrow morning.  But a few months ago, Spirit cancelled our flight and rebooked us.  They tried to rebook us to come home on about Day 12, which would have been fine had we not been on Easter Island at the time.  The only other flight out was on Wednesday.  The problem was that we were getting in around 11p instead of 9a.  Which will make for an interesting work day on Thursday.  But I digress (and maybe should be telling this story tomorrow)... ...