Resolution of 2009 RESOLVED

I spent a little bit of time today making sure I enter in my year’s volunteer hours into the Intel Involved database, so that if my organizations qualified, they would get the volunteer matching grant. (Intel offers $10 per hour that each employee spends on community service to that organization.) After tallying up my hours, I realized that I had surpassed my goal to do an average of 2 hours of community service a month in 2009!

I’m currently at 37 hours for the year. I’m very excited because I got off to a very slow start this year… not getting to my first project until June. My hours include a few projects I did with the local Intel office, as well as a few projects I found on my own through Chicago Cares. Through this process I’ve been able to find a few different fun organizations I would like to continue contributing my time to.

Northern Illinois Food Bank
Greater Chicago Food Depository
Lakeview Pantry
Open Door Youth Shelter

Some of the Intel folks, after beautifying Dulles Elementary -- part of the Academy for Urban School Leadership -- on 9/11"

Note to self…

Remedy for wintry chapped lips.

Cosmo says if your lips are tight and dry but not cracked open, you need a waxy balm that blocks moisture from evaporating  so your lips can stay hydrated from within. Try something like ChapStick Fresh Effects for $3.

If your lips are chapped, flaking and cracked, you need an ointment with petrolatum, The oil-based ointment gets in crevices to seep into tears to heal from the inside. Try Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream for $25.

Busy busy bee

Life has seemed to be out of control the last few months.  I think it started with the sabbatical coverage-coverage that I did this summer starting in June, and just picked up when I returned to my normal job in August.  The last week of my coverage I was out in Phoenix with a customer and immediately after I returned I was off to Turks and Caicos with the team and it has been pretty much nonstop travel and busy-ness ever since.  I am way behind on my updates and will attempt to get you up to speed in the next few posts.  First, let’s take a look at what the last 2.5 months have looked like.

All those blocks are dates that I have been out of town… except for the one that says Jaysin’s visit (that was really busy too).  I just did a count.  I have been out of town roughly 34 days out of the last 77.  Yikes!  It’s not going to get any better from here.  November and December will be spent mostly in Portland because of the holidays.

Anti-Aging tip

“Wear sunglasses so you don’t squint.”
- Found on a jar of Bliss The Youth As We Know It.

Back to Paradise, part 3

Day 4
Since this would be our last full day on the beach, Olivia and I decided we had to get everything on our to-do list done. We needed to go kayaking, “sailing”, and beach volleyball. We had to eliminate snuba from our list because we had asked our personal concierge to make a reservation for us, but it was all booked up.

The group had organized a little beach volleyball tournament against the staff of the club and it was going to be a big event. We woke too late to participate, but trekked down to the beach to watch.  After a while, we decided it would be best to take advantage of everyone being preoccupied to take the kayak out. O and I went out for 40 minutes down the beach to check out the other resorts. More than halfway through she finally discovered that she had been holding the oar the wrong way, meaning I had been doing the majority of the work the entire time! Later in the afternoon we were finally able to get ahold of one of the “hobie cats” and convince one of the staff guys to take us on a ride. We had considered going on our own, but when we got out on the water, we realized there was no way we would have been able to do it on our own. Our ride ended up being an hour long (poor guy!).  Olivia requested going to the island that we could see from our resort, which looked closer than it actually was. Turns out this island is called Iguana Island and is home to wild iguanas. Super interesting! When we reached our destination, the sign said visitors had to present tickets for their vessels, which we didn’t had so we couldn’t walk around much. Olivia and I took a few pics of what we could see… and then all of a sudden, we spotted an iguana moseying along on the walkway. AWESOME! Made our 30 minute trip totally worth it.

our sailing trip

Relaxed more on the beach and had yet another caesar salad and a mahi mahi taco until it was time to go in and get ready for the big party that night.

There was a surprise this year… Instead of being held on the beach like last year, we had gotten permission to have our party over on the estate side of the resort. Our events coordinator had to get permission from every single resident and invite all of them to our party. It was beautiful. The DJ was good, there was a dance floor, and even an amazing 5-minute fireworks show. Way to cap off this trip to paradise!

Back to Paradise, part 2

Day 2
‘Twas a lazy day full of relaxation and just taking in the beach. Olivia and I woke up and nabbed breakfast to go from the morning buffet. We made spa appointments for deep tissue massages and headed to the beach. A shared caesar salad served under our umbrella on the sand held us over until after our spa appointments. Caught up with some of the other folks at the pool bar and grabbed a club sandwich and a ‘dirty banana’ (mudslide + banana = yum). We contemplated a nap indoors, but thought better of it and opted for time by the adult (quiet) pool for the rest of the afternoon. Cooling off in the pool was no option though, it was so warm in there!

Pool time!

captured by Sarah with her zoom

Our pool time came to an end when we had to go in and get ready for the evening’s welcome cocktail party for the entire group at the hotel’s famed Infiniti Bar.  Infiniti martinis all around!  We enjoyed a late dinner with the rest of the team right on the sand with tiki torches. I got yet another Caesar and split the Chilean sea bass with O. It was SO GOOD!

Day 3
Olivia and I woke too late for breakfast but needed to get some food before the group catamaran cruise at 12:30.  We went down to the grill at 11:00 and talked the staff into making us a Caesar salad to share. They were happy to serve us. (Love this resort!!)

lunch at the grill

The majority of the day was spent cruising on the waters around the island. It was simply gorgeous! We made two stops on the trip. One for a 45 minute snorkel and the other for an hour at a small quiet island for exploration and lunch on the boats. Olivia and I had our fears about snorkeling without lifevests, but we also didn’t want to wear them because we didn’t want them in the way annnnnd… we didn’t want to look like dorks. So under the watchful eye of the captain of our boat, we tested things out without the vests and got the hang of it. Olivia was a bit freaked out at first, but she ended up not wanting to get out and we were the last ones out on the water. We saw many interesting things. The coral growth was amazing, the fish were abundant, and the best… we saw a shark! We first saw it below us a ways (about 40 feet) mosey-ing on by, then as we were circling around saw it again hanging out on the bottom. I was actually not scared about this at all… possibly the wrong reaction?

The island we visited was the same as last year… just incredible. We could walk the entire width of the island to the other side to a small inlet and soak in the water. It was so amazing and so clear and calm. Simply irresistable, this water!

pics from the cruise

my favorite shot of the day: at the little island. perfection.

Upon return from the cruise, we freshened up and headed to yet another cocktail hour. This one was being held right on the beach. Our fun lasted about 40 minutes before it started to rain on us. The party was moved over to the grill quickly and that’s when the band kicked on. Every song was reggae, but it was fun. Intel started the electric slide for a song and then bounced off to our dinner reservation at Coco Bistro. Food was amazing, but we were so stuffed with alcohol and random appetizers that few of us were able to finish our entrees. I ordered the lobster (Caribbean lobster is DELICIOUS!) and it was served abundantly (3!).  Good thing I have a kitchen in my suite, I took the rice and snow peas with me.

Back to Paradise, part 1

I took a few trips recently and thought I should revive my blog by writing about these adventures.  The first of these trips was one to the island of Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos islands.

Turks and Caicos on a map of the Caribbean

One of my previous posts is about the trip I took there last year.  And last year, I had the misfortune of outstaying my welcome and being stranded on the island for 3 days because of Hurricane Hannah when I had decided to extend my initial trip by a day.  There was no way I was going to put up with that this year. No trip extensions for me!

The Intel team tracked the weather map closely for a week before the trip at www.stormpulse.com.  We were a little worried when tropical storm Bill was upgraded to category 4, but luckily he blew over without any effect on Turks.

Day 1
This year I decided to invite my sister along on this trip.  Unlucky for her, there is no easy flight route to get to the islands from Portland.  She left at 4pm on Tuesday afternoon to fly to LAX, waited a few hours, then took a red eye to MIA and waited for me for 4 hours to show up there at 10am on Wednesday morning. We grabbed some lunch a drink from the airport bar to pass time.

We finally made it to the island around 3pm and were greeted with rum punch at check-in.  It was good to be back at the Grace Bay Club!  We spent about 15 minutes in awe of our suite–I was upgraded to 2 bedrooms this year!  We spent a little bit of time wishing our friends and family could have flown down and joined us, cuz seriously, with 4 beds and a sectional, we had room for almost 15!  After the oohing and ah’ing and a call to Mom, we proceeded to change into swimsuits and hit the beach.

Suite and views from the patio

After a few hours of sun and a plate of chicken strips and fries (which were suprisingly tasty), we got ready for a partners dinner at the famous Da Conch Shack.  I went here with my mom for lunch last year and we got gorgeous pictures, so I was hoping we’d get the same this time around.  We arrived right before sunset and were fed pitchers and pitchers of rum punch.  A demonstration of how they harvest conch was given  and then platters and platters of fried food were served.  Lobster, shrimp, fish, chicken, fries, conch fritters, cracked conch… We at the Intel table yearned for anything but fried!  We ended up ordering plates and plates of peas and rice and coleslaw.

It was only 9:30 when we returned to the hotel, but we were all pretty beat from a day of travel we all went back to our rooms and crashed.

Easy Lemon Cookies

Stef has been super busy, but she was able to find time to send me the recipe for her lemon cookies last week.  I rushed out to pick up ingredients and make myself a batch.  They are so refreshing and the perfect snack and pick-me-up for a hot summer day.  Enjoy!

YIELD: ~60 cookies

• 1 package lemon cake mix (18.25 ounces)
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine cake mix, eggs, oil and lemon extract.  Mix until well blended.   Drop teaspoonfuls of the dough into a bowl of the confectioners’ sugar.  Roll around until they are lightly covered.  Once sugared, place them on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 8-11 minutes.  Bottoms will be light brown, the insides chewy.

The Best Hummus

A staple that I always keep in my fridge is a container of hummus.  And boy have I taste-tested every hummus to find the best one out there.  From the big grocery store brands like Athenos, to the multiple varieties at Trader Joe’s, to the fresh-made types at Whole Foods… I’ve had them all!  And I have to tell you, the most reliable time and time again is definitely this one below.  Trader Joe’s Mediterranean Hummus.

It is the perfect texture, not too chalky.  It is creamy but holds its texture.  The flavor is just right. (TRUST ME).  It comes in a 16 oz. container topped with olive oil, bits of red pepper and parsley and sprinkling of pine nuts.  Delicious!  One draw-back is that this hummus is so popular that the shelf where it normally sits is often empty when I get there too late on  Sunday afternoon.  I’ve tried its sister-product the mediterranean white-bean hummus, and even the one with basil, but they just are not up to par.

This one is simply the best one out there and never lets me down.  I highly recommend this one, try it and let me know what you think!

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