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Random December List.

Random thoughts and things.

1) I got back from my trip to India on Sunday morning. Amazing trip. I was in Hyderabad for work for ~8 days (it’s a city in the south of India – in the state of Andhra Pradesh). JFK–>DEL the previous Saturday (after a 5 hour delay at JFK due to plane malfunctions – thanks Air India – a 14 hour flight total), did sightseeing on Sunday in Delhi, and then took a short 2 hour flight DEL–>HYD. Worked with an incredible team all week long, and then began the journey back to JFK this past Saturday. Two unexpected things about this trip to India: 1) I didn’t get to do any yoga aside from sun salutations in my hotel room and 2) there are way fewer vegetarians than I expected. I was just about full VEG for the whole trip. (I think I had a chicken sandwich in the airport on the first day.)

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(A sign at Golconda Fort, in Hyderabad – ha! I thought it was funny.)

2) Home renovations are still in progress. I am still very excited about them, but at this point I am getting very anxious to get my kitchen and bathroom back. Showering at the gym is getting old, fast. It’s been over a month now! I think we started on 11/14.

3) More travel plans this week. Bobby and I are going to visit his family in Miami and we leave on Thursday. Construction will continue while we are gone – and hopefully be nearing completion by the time we return. ::Fingers crossed:: Cats are headed to New Jersey.

4) I have only gotten to 4 yoga classes this month so far. But then again, I have only been home for ~8 days of the month so far, so this is actually a good record: one class every other day. Hoping to get to one more before we go to Miami (Wednesday morning?), and 2 more after we return. Bobby has been going with me because he joined my same yoga studio. ::Happy dance::

5) After Miami, we are going to NJ the following weekend to visit my family. Hectic hectic month!

6) I am obsessed with candles. I recently bought this avocado mint candle and this frosted maple candle from Anthropologie (not only do they have beautiful clothes, but they have wonderfully aromatic candles). I also have 3 from this line (also at Anthro).

alexei-frosted-maple-candle-anthropologie

(^^frosted maple^^)

avocado-mint-candle-anthropologie

(^^avocado & mint^^)

whipped-cream-pear-candle-anthropologie

(^^whipped cream & pear^^)

7) My favorite breakfast as of late has been a sugarless berry scone from Butterfield Bakery (unsweetened – not with fake sugar). These things are gigantic but somehow I manage to finish them. On the days I don’t get a scone I get either a fresh croissant (also from Butterfield) or a whole wheat bagel with butter from the deli around the corner.

butterfield-sugarless-scone

8) My heart goes out to the families affected by the terrible school shooting in Connecticut.

I think that is all I have for now. I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season so far. Wish I could spend more of it in New York – NYC at Christmastime is one of my favorite things.

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Mara: Food Blogging and Marriage

Aloha! My sweet friend Mara wrote a great guest post for me specifically about food blogging, marriage, and honeymooning! I will let her tell the story…

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Hi Salad Girl readers! I’m Mara, and I write a little food and cooking blog called “What’s For Dinner?” where I chronicle my adventures in cooking, and more recently, baking.

When Maggie asked me to do a guest post on weddings/marriage and how they relate to food and food blogging, I jumped at the chance! See, I got married to the love of my life this past November, and our wedding coincided nicely with the anniversary of my blog.

Not only has blogging my dinners made for more interesting meals in our house, it’s also helped to teach my husband, Adam, about various flavors that exist in the world, as well as the importance of having food that looks as good as it tastes.

But that’s not going to be what I write about. Oh no. Adam and I were put to the test mighty early in our marriage when we had a travel nightmare when trying to get to Jamaica on our honeymoon. How, you might be asking, does this relate to food blogging?

If you don’t want to click over, the nightmare in a nutshell was:

  • Flew out of Chicago into Philadelphia just as the first Noreaster snowstorm hit.
  • Got stuck in Philadelphia and missed our connecting flight
  • Waited 8 hours at PHL for our bags, which, in turn, were sent without us to Jamaica.
  • Spent the first night of our honeymoon in a crappy motel
  • Spent the 2nd night of our honeymoon in a less crappy hotel
  • Rearranged resort accommodations (Thanks Sandals!) and got put back on a flight to Chicago to wait for our new Jamaica flight
  • PHL to Chicago flight got cancelled minutes before we arrived at the airport.
  • Adam and I drove the 14 hours back to Chicago to wait for the Jamaica flight
  • We never received one cent back from US Airways for extra expenses incurred.

Well, for one, without my food blog, I would not be able to remember that the first
night of our honeymoon’s dinner was:

And Adam’s was:

Thanks to my food blog, I was able to chronicle every moment of the nightmare that occurred between leaving Chicago (home) and finally leaving home again for Jamaica, and have it on a public and much-read forum. Thanks to my blog, Adam and I are able to relive exactly how remarkable it is that we made it through our ordeal without killing each other, and came out of it stronger in the long run.

Because of my food blog, we were able to recall small details of our trip that ordinarily would’ve been forgotten, and thanks to more technology, we were able to chronicle our road trip via Facebook! We are reminded every day exactly how well-deserved our honeymoon was once we actually made it there… and we enjoyed every moment.

Congratulations Maggie! I hope you enjoy every moment of your wedding and honeymoon! My advice? Remember to be tolerant! You never know when a difficult time can turn into the adventure of a lifetime!

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Thanks again, Mara! Thankfully our honeymoon has been almost snag-free so far (there was a glitch with Expedia and our rental car… I’ll update after it is resolved).

Have you ever had an issue with an airline? I’ve had lots of delayed flights, and one time Bobby and I were stuck in the Las Vegas airport overnight because a delay out of Philly (apparently PHL really stinks) on our way to California (SFO) – we ended up missing the last flight out because of the delay.

P.S. If you have been enjoying these marriage/food-related guest posts and want to do one yourself, send me what you got – magpie707 (at) gmail (dot) com. I am going to keep on posting them periodically after I’m back 🙂