Sunny California!

Hello, everyone! Abe and I (Allison) are finally back from sunny California. I had to go to LA for business, so Abe flew out and we tagged on some extra days to enjoy a break from the frozen tundra of Chicago.

First, I stayed in Santa Monica, which was convenient for my work obligations. Actually, we had a day between work events (by design), so the group of us went to Universal Studios, where we saw actress Brittany Murphy on the backlot.



On Saturday, Abe and I met his aunt, uncle and their teenage sons at Chinatown for Dim Sum and shopping. We saw traditional lion dances for Chinese New Year, so that was cool.



We spent the last couple of days in the Newport Beach-Laguna Beach-Huntington Beach area. Below is a picture of sunset on Laguna Beach.



Our favorite place, though, was Huntington Beach, were we spent Tuesday at the pier watching surfers and dolphins. It was awesome.


This was my first time to LA, and I really enjoyed it. Yes, traffic stinks and home prices are through the roof, but those are things we have to deal with in Chicago, to some extent. Abe and I really enjoyed our rental car's sunroof and satellite radio. :)

So, now we're back...bundled in sweatshirts and thawing out from another commute home in the cold. Please come soon, spring!

Also, I wanted to say kudos to my smart husband (in Cantonese, my ho lack lo.) He got an "A" in his most recent MBA class. Good job, honey! :)

Ernie is stuck

So Abe here....quick blog post. For many of you that live in the midwest, you already know how lousy this winter has been. Between the snow, freezing temperatures, potholes, etc., well....let's just say that this has been a bad winter from a weather standpoint. Today, however, illustrates just how bad it has been:

Allison--takes two hours to get home from work. Yes, that's right, two hours.

Abe-spends 45 minutes trying to get Ernie (my car) out of my parking space on the side street, but can't due to the ice underneath it. Ernie can get me from point A to B most of the time, but tonight he would have needed ice skates to get anywhere. We tried kitty litter and pushing the car--Ernie wasn't going anywhere. Furthermore, Ernie has developed a nice little crack on his windshield now that probably needs to be fixed. Ugh.

All I can say is--I can't wait until Friday when I can meet my lovely wife in LA--last I checked, the highs were in the lower to mid 70s. Aaaaahhhhhhhhh.....California Dreamin'........

If I see another tortilla...

Allison here...I got back from a long business trip to Texas last night. While I do enjoy Tex-Mex and Mexican food, I definitely hit my full during this trip. My co-workers and I weren't sure if we were going to make it home due to bad fog in Chicago, but we finally made it in. Thank God! I missed my husband so much!

I didn't really get to do any sightseeing, since it was all business. I know Abe and my family were all so jealous since I was in a much warmer place, but I was stuck inside most of the day anyway. But I did enjoy the moments I got to spend outside.

One of my favorite activities to do when bored on an airplane is to read the sky mall catalogue. For those of you not familiar with this, it features the most quirky and totally unnecessary products created for all mankind. Who buys this kind of stuff? I, of course, had to look for my favorite sky mall product of all time, most recently featured in the mid-90s: a dummy you can put in your car (or home window) so people think you're not alone and they don't rob or carjack you. The dummy looks totally ridiculous!