In all the world...

If I could take an all-expense paid trip to anywhere in all the world, I would definitely be headed to Africa. 

For many reasons, but here are the top three...

I have always wanted to go on a safari.  Always.  Something about it sounds so intriguing to me.

I have always wanted to go on a mission trip.  I know there are many opportunities for serving on this beautiful continent.

I'm also wildly fascinated with South Africa and all of the awesome places there.  I loved reading all the amazing recaps from Nicole over at Treasure Tromp.  She lived there for several months so I guess my trip will need to be a bare minimum of one month to even begin to cover the ground that she managed.  SO many amazing places!!

Where would YOU go?

Andrea :)

Book Review: Ready Player One

In November, I joined The Chronicles Book Club, a virtual book club on Goodreads headed up in part by my pal, Mia.  Our first book was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.  Here is a synopsis of the book from Goodreads:

It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune -- and remarkable power -- to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved -- that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt -- among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life -- and love -- in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.

A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?

This book is totally not something I would have picked up on my own.  However, once I got into it, I found it very entertaining.  There were stretches of the book where I simply could not wait to find out what happened next.  And there were a few stretches that left me wondering if I would be able to muddle through to the end.  As a result, I gave the book three stars.  If you love the 80's, you will enjoy this book immensely.  If you like a good adventure story, you will enjoy this book immensely.  If you prefer something a little more grounded in reality, it might not be the book for you.  Upon finishing it, I recommended it to a co-worker and a couple others that I thought might like it.  I'd say definitely worth a read, but be prepared for some corny storylines along the way.

Andrea :)

The Long Distance Years: 2012

Check out The Long Distance Years: 2010 and The Long Distance Years: 2011 to catch up!  Project Relocation was in full force, but was a slow and frustrating process!  Christopher and I were spending as much time as possible with one another and very much looking forward to being in the same city as soon as possible.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY-MARCH

I was gone with work for nearly all of January, but Chris joined me in Indianapolis at the beginning of February for Super Bowl XLVI.  A couple of weekends later we had a blast at Caucus Weekend in Albany.  And then finished off the month with a fun birthday celebration for Chris along with our first hockey game together!

APRIL

We celebrated two wonderful years together.  Our parents met for a second time when mine were in town for Easter. And we spent some time at the NFL Draft.

MAY

We had a lot of fun celebrating Cinco de Mayo with friends.  And we spent Memorial Day Weekend meeting my new niece and exploring the Muhammad Ali Museum in Louisville.

JUNE-JULY

We saw some broadway shows and enjoyed a High Line picnic.  We met Chris' godson, went to a French soccer match in Jersey with friends, and celebrated my birthday.

AUGUST

We took our first "real" vacation together in August.  We traveled by train down to Providence for a few days.  We had a lot of fun seeing the sites, eating delicious food, and relaxing!

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER

We made a couple of trips to Pittsburgh in September and October.  Once for the annual Pitt football game and the other time for Trey's christening.  We also visited our final covered bridge in Vermont, carved a pumpkin, and dressed in our first couples costume for Halloween!

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

All smiles at Leslie and Jarrod's wedding

We traveled to Charlotte in November for a Panthers-Broncos game and a visit with friends.  In December, we attended Leslie and Jarrod's wedding and rung in the new year in Albany with friends there.

Andrea :)

The Invisible Hand

After seeing Ayad Aktar's Disgraced, we immediately went home and scoured the internet to find out more about him and his works.  We saw that another show, The Invisible Hand, was running over in the West Village so we figured we would check it out.  And we even had a chance to grab some yummy Belgium fries at Pommes Frites before the show.  We'd been talking about going here since we visited Brussels two years ago!

Pommes Frites is an extremely small spot, but we managed to find some space to devour the yummy fries before we headed over to The New York Theater Workshop just a few blocks away.  The experience was much different from broadway.  The venue is quite intimate and the set protuded over the audience which gave us a feeling of being included in the environment.

The play takes place in a Pakistani militant holding cell.  Nick Bright (Justin Kirk), a high-level Citibank employee from America, is held captive.  He interacts with three different "guards" varying in power - Dar, Bashir, and Imam Saleem.  He has constructed a different approach to each one as he works to gain his freedom.  Eventually, he agrees to dip into his own Caymen Island account to use the funds to make the money his captors are requiring as his ransom.  Not being allowed access to a computer himself, he guides and teaches Bashir the ins and outs of futures trading with much success.  The greed associated with the almighty dollar proves to be a major turning point for all parties involved.

We liked this one, but not nearly as much as Disgraced.  The show is very well written and directed, but the subject matter at hand was not as identifiable across the board.  It certainly did not resonate with me.  I did feel that I learned a good deal about the complexity of trading futures, but I got lost a bit in the mix of all the business talk.  I much preferred the commentary on greed and the feelings of inferiority to the trading talk.  The play was relevant and modern.  The actors performed their roles quite convincingly.  In the end, I felt like everyone learned something, but there really wasn't a sense of closure or resolution.  If you have interest in business, world politics, or economics then this show is a must see. 

Andrea :)

Mini of the Month: December

Hot Cocoa in a cupcake?  Yes, please!  I was super excited to try the December cupcake of the month at Baked by Melissa.

Ingredients: Chocolate Cake, Hot Cocoa Icing and Stuffing, Chocolate Covered Marshmellow, Nonpareil Topping

The cupcake was quite chocolatey, but there wasn't quite enough umph on the marshmellow topping.  I think it would have been best to just have a plain marshmellow up there.  No chocolate covering, no sprinkles.  The cupcake wasn't bad, but it could have been that much better if the topping had been right.

Are you a hot cocoa fan?  Do you add lots of marshmellows to yours?

Andrea :)

Disgraced

Powerful.  Moving.  Relevant.  Very interesting...and from so close up.

Chris and I had tickets on the front row for this phenomenal play.  And it truly felt like we were part of the heated dinner party. 

Disgraced is the story of Amir Kapoor, a successful Pakistani-American lawyer, and his wife, a white artist influenced by Islamic imagery, enjoying their comfortable life on New York's Upper East Side.  When a co-worker and her husband come over for a dinner party friendly conversation escalates to heated debate leaving everyone's relationships and beliefs about race and identity in shambles.

While the synopsis intrigued us, what really locked us into purchasing tickets was seeing Josh Radnor (Ted Mosby from HIMYM!!) in the cast.  In the end, the entire cast proved excellent!  There were only five characters, and each played their role flawlessly.

The play won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and it is clear to see why after watching the performance.  It was by far the best play I have ever seen on stage.  It was so good that after work today, Chris and I are headed to see The Invisible Hand, another show by the same writer - Ayad Akhtar.

Andrea :)

The Long Distance Years: 2011

Things started to pick up a little in our second year.  There were the first rumblings of Project Relocation and lots more time spent together getting to know one another and falling in love.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY-MARCH

I was gone on work trips for a good portion of this time period so we didn't see each other too much these first few months of the year.  I did manage to make Chris a candygram for Valentine's Day.  And we certainly went all out celebrating his 30th Birthday!  We also made a quick trip to Philly for a night of karaoke fun with friends.

If only this was an audio clip instead of a photo :)

APRIL

We celebrated our first dating anniversary with a little road trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame and Norman Rockwell Museum topped off with experiencing Charlie Sheen and all his insanity.  Charlie totally wasn't "winning", but we made up for it with an amazing hibachi dinner and a Chris Rock broadway show the following week.

MAY-JUNE

We ventured up to Oswego for a beautiful wedding over Memorial Day weekend and played some mini-golf with my visiting brother and sister-in-law in May.  We took a trip over to Boston to catch the US Soccer team in a friendly in June.

Awesome backdrop at Eric and Coleen's Wedding...

JULY

We had a lot of fun in Cleveland during the early part of July.  We toured the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and celebrated the 4th of July enjoying America's favorite pasttime - a baseball game!  Later that month, we made the trek to Kentucky for my birthday bash.  We saw Rascal Flatts in concert, hit two stops on the bourbon trail, and even managed a wine tasting.  Our time in Kentucky came to a close with a tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum.  And we managed to catch Newcastle on this side of the pond for a soccer match in Colombus before we headed back to NY.

AUGUST

We attended a couple of concerts - Phil Vassar in Saratoga followed by Nas & Damian Marley in Central Park.  We joined some friends for a fun day at Six Flags New England.  And we managed a weekend getaway at Glen Cove Mansion out on Long Island.

SEPTEMBER

Over Labor Day weekend, we attended a wedding in Albany and had some fun at the track in Saratoga before the rain washed us out there.  We also had a lot of football fun - in Pittsburgh, New York, and Kentucky.  Then, we surprised my dad for his 60th birthday!

Hanging out on the golf course at Mike and Jess' Wedding...

OCTOBER

Halloween was exciting as we played the dress up game again.  We also did some apple picking and ventured up to Vermont to check out more covered bridges.  And our parents met.  My parents came to NY prior to our adventures in London, Paris, and Rome so Chris and I figured it would be a good time to introduce them to his parents!  We enjoyed a nice dinner and conversation!

NOVEMBER

My brother joined us for some fun with friends at a Bills-Jets game in Buffalo.  We were a tribe divided for the day.  And we attended a beautiful wedding on 11-11-11 :)

Such a neat venue for Nicolas and Allison's nuptials...

DECEMBER

In early Decemeber, we flew down to Jacksonville for a Monday Night Football game in order to check off another stadium!  And we rang in the New Year with a champagne toast and some fun glasses back in NYC.

*If you want to catch up on our love story*

The Long Distance Years: 2010. 

Andrea :)