Oooh, the Olympic medals for Beijing are so pretty! I love the jade.

The medal for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is designed with inspiration
coming from "bi", China's ancient jade piece inscribed with dragon pattern. The
medals, made of gold and jade, symbolize nobility and virtue and are embodiment
of traditional Chinese values of ethics and honor, sending forth strong Chinese
flavor.

The medals are 70mm in diameter and 6mm in thickness. On the front side, the
medal adopts standard design prescribed by the International Olympic Committee.
While on the back, the medal is inlaid with jade with the Beijing Games emblem
engraved in the metal centerpiece. The design inspiration of the medal hook
derives from jade "huang", a ceremonial jade piece with decoration of double
dragon pattern and "Pu", the reed mat pattern.

Noble and elegant, the Beijing Olympic Games medal is a blending of
traditional Chinese culture and the Olympism. It gives the winners of the Games
great honor and acclamation as recognition of their achievement.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/beijing2008/graphic/n214084743.shtml

"Infants under six months of age are not eligible for travel on NCL
ships."

I was considering taking baby and grandparents on the cruise. I was hearing different age requirements, but now its confirmed. Now the question is if I could leave baby home for a whole week.

Jeremy was given to my by JC for my birthday... along with orchids that didn't make it. He's a Schefflera Lava Plant that so far, hasn't died at my hand. Unfortunately, he's feeling a bit under the weather. His leaves are turning a little yellow, and his water was getting overrun with some sort of growth. I've changed the water, and hope that it helps. Anyone have any ideas?

Yeah yeah, I've been MIA.

I'm not going back out traveling. I know... Boo... hiss. I've got a rail pass that expires in September that I never really got to use. Instead, I'm starting on a whole different adventure...

Little one is due on Jan 16th. The picture was taken around a month ago. before heading to Europe.

Afterwards, JC and I came back to await a new apartment, more accurately, we came back to renovations of a 3 BR apartment. We're ripping out the floors, painting, and contemplating a new kitchen.

Painting the stairs to the master bedroom: No pictures, since the paint is now wet:

Floorless Livingroom and Dining Rooms:

There's a lot of work to be done, and I'm trying to squeeze in swimming and climbing to keep in shape. I *still* want to go to Thailand, but it's going to be a little difficult to pull off a 20 hour flight later. I've decided not to go back to work till after baby. That makes me a *gasp* Housewife! Hopefully I can still keep myself interesting.

*edit* Apparently I'm not too interesting... since I'm repeating my posts!

I had a pretty active weekend. Went to the driving range on Saturday and hit some balls. Today I got in some rock climbing.

JC and I spent about 5 months traveling, and now I'm back in NYC. Probably not going out traveling again until the end of this month. Thailand is on the tentative itinerary. I'm looking forward to three weeks back in the homeland and with my grammy. In the meantime, we got a new apartment... a lovely 3 BR and 1.5 Bathroom. This month is full of renovations. And when the apartment is ready to go, hopefully I'll be headed back to the airport for my last trip.

So what am I doing between now and then? Nothing. I spend my days running meaningless errands.

This is one of my favorite jewelry pieces. But no more spending for me. Eye candy and procrastination tactics are okay.

Senseless Blogging is my procrastination tool. I have until next Tuesday to complete an essay. It really should be easy. But I can't bring myself to get it done. So, as a justification, I'm just blogging to brush up my writing skills. Although, given my last entry, I'm not sure that I'm improving my writing skills.

*sigh*

Maybe if I draft it in Xanga, it won't feel like work?

     While I'm waiting for the pictures to be uploaded, and following the epicure assessment of Europe, is the Paris Shopping recap.

I'm generally not a handbag person... okay, I'm a closeted handbag person. I really couldn't help splurging on bags in Paris. At the quintessential French leather shop, LV, I picked up the Beverly bag for my mom.

JC's mother and got the Madeleine bag in Black. Grandma liked the bag, so we got her one too!

From Longchamp, the mom's also got the Le Pliage (Medium Tote), and we picked up a bunch for the cousins and aunts the Le Pliage Handbag. It was so much fun picking out the colors. We got one of each color below except for yellow and brown. The green one is my favorite. Looking back I should've gotten one for myself.

I'm not the total altruist. I was on a hunt for a little leather shop at 233 Rue Saint-Honore. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find my bag online. I was in the shop for 20 minutes when this baby of a Goyard came home with me:

I am officially DONE with my spending, and I'm now into super savings mode. NO MORE SPENDING!

Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris was too short.

I gave my camera away, so I was working with JC's Olympus, which I wasn't too comfortable with. So, in the end, pictures are sparse, but I'm banking on LC's pictures to be uploaded.

We went to Amsterdam for a wedding, and the groom's family are pure epicures. Our first stop was a Chinese banquet at Sea Palace. The food was GREAT, even by New York Standards. The groom's family really knows their food. There was a lot of seafood, and I lost count of the number of plates.

The next day's ceremony was beautiful, and the first reception dinner was held at an elegant restaurant within the Dylan Hotel. Food was even better!

The next day we were treated to a great culinary experience at

De Jonge Dikkert. Everything was amazing. JC's cousin took pictures of all the courses.

The Reception didn't dissapoint either. I miss the cocktail hour and desserts. Yum Yum.

Then the next day we went off to Paris via Brussels.

The culinary pinnacle was La Tour d'Argent. The food was amazing! The service was impeccable. Ambiance just made you feel like you were so very Parisian!

The next day we had dinnercruise along the Siene. The views were amazing! The food, well, we were spoiled by the amazing food the night before.

I didn't take as many pictures because we gave my favorite camera away. *sigh* will have to wait till LC uploads them.

Borrowers and Bankers - A Great Divide -- NY Times

"So asking Main Street to bail out Wall Street leads to this inevitable
question: Weren’t the financial folks the ones who helped create the
mess we’re in?"
"On the ground, this translates into millions of troubled borrowers,
left to work through their problems with understaffed, sometimes
adversarial loan servicing companies. If they get nowhere, they lose
their homes. Taxpayers, meanwhile, are asked to stand by with money to inject into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage finance giants, should they need propping up if loan losses balloon."

It is scary what's going on. Admittedly, I'm lucky enough to be shielded from a lot of this. What would have happened if the government chose to bail out the mom and pops, at risk of loosing their homes instead of the big financial firms? The big companies would probably be bought out by a foreign bank- most likely a European bank, given the plummeting USD. So, shares would be redistributed. Major executives might have to look for new jobs. And shareholders who have the money to loose, would have taken a financial hit. All in all, it doesn't seem to look so bad. And confidence in the US economy? Come on, as if anyone has confidence now.

But for the households that stand to loose their homes, it's a different picture compounded by rising oil prices and inflation. I know that you can't necessarily defend the ignorant, but with some of the mortgage industry just cranking out loans, it's a siren's song when you're told that you can afford the home of your dreams. And when the bank tells you you can afford it, and you get that big "Approved" stamp, you accept it because you trust the experts wouldn't have extended you this money if you were a bad investment.

It's tempting to look at the housing crisis and think about the houses we could buy at discounted rates. But part of that story is the person who had to move out because they couldn't afford it anymore, whose dreams of raising a family and making some wonderful memories in the house are now tarnished.

The Debt Trap - NY Times
"Eliminating negative feelings about indebtedness was the idea behind MasterCard’s “Priceless” campaign, the work of McCann-Erickson Worldwide Advertising, which came out in 1997."