Day 1: Hello Venice!

Our journey started yesterday at 5:30 when our plane took off from DFW. My goal was to sleep as much as possible on the flight so at dinner (chicken, rice, salad) I had a few glasses of wine, watched a movie and then my mom and I both had a glass of baileys when they came around a second time. Of course sleep didn't really happen for more than an hour or so but oh well.

Our next stop was Frankfurt, Germany where we had to take a bus from the plane to the airport and go through immigration and security before finding our gate. The security there is serious, no body scanners so they pat you down. It was slightly uncomfortable. We got to our gate in time to grab coffee and muffins from a near by stand and boarded the plane. To my surprise I ended up with a window seat AND and entire row to myself! It was pretty nice to spread out and put my feet up on the other seats. This flight was pretty short but offered some spectacular views of the Alps and Venice from above.

After landing in Venice we headed to baggage claim and then onto the Alilaguana for a ride to the

Arsenale stop (this is one of the public transport systems in Italy on the water). From there we followed the directions to our hotel and checked in. After a shower and a change of clothes we headed out to explore the city. We headed toward the Piazza San Marco wandering down streets and checking out a few random churches along the way. We also stopped at a stall where my mom, dad, and Kristin bought some art two years ago. I bought a piece here too. After St. Marks we continued through Venice stopping at a few shops, walking through the designer area, and ending at the train station where we bought tickets for our train on Thursday. We took the Vaporetta (public transport) back to the San Marco stop and wandered around until we found a place for dinner. I had pizza which was delicious! After dinner we ate gelato and wandered back to the hotel to turn in for the night. Tomorrow I plan to feed a pigeon in the square!

 Our plane that brought us over from Dallas

 In the German airport they had these for people to smoke in. They smelled terrible.

 Franfurk Airport

 Venice from the plane

 

 On the Alilaguana

 One of the surrounding islands

 A church we saw from the boat

 Some of Venice

 The boat ride was about an hour stopping around Venice and the surrounding islands.

 The Elena stop!

Made it to our stop

Our Hotel! 

 Room 225

San GIorgio dei Greci Church

 One of the canals we passed over (The Rio dei Greci)

 On a bridge

 Zaccaria

 Inside the Zaccaria

 Bridge of Sighs connecting the palace and the prison

 The Doges palace

 Piazza San Marco

 The famous clock. One of the moving statues on top knocked someone off in the 17th C. The first death by robot!

 Up close on some of the artwork on the church. It's very colorful and sparkles in the sun.

 St. Marks

 Pigeons everywhere! Tomorrow we are bringing food for them.

 Out by the San Marco canal

 Me with the artists work I bought! He engraves copper plates and then transfers the pictures to a page unsing the copper to bring out different colors.

 The Missoni shop!

 View from our gondola

 On the gondola across the canal

 I Frari church

 My sneaky photo skills inside the church. Painting by Titan

 Venice at sunset

 sunsetting over the train station

 Me on a bridge by the train station

 Umm occupy train station? We weren't really sure what this protest was for.

 Venice at night

Dinner

One Week!

Well it's been awhile since I've updated. A week from today I'll be headed to Italia! I'm so so excited! In fact I'm pretty much all packed.

 Jasper helped with the packing today (which means he sat on and got his hair all over everything). I was just going to collect stuff and pile it on my dining room table, however the cats kept getting all over it so I just went ahead and stuck it in my suitcase to make sure everything fit. Jasper has now taken it upon himself to guard the suitcase and sleep on it. But anyway, in a week my mom and I will be on a plane headed off to Venice! Our agenda includes:
2 days in Venice
train to Florence
3 days in Florence
and 3 days in Rome
and a plane home

While in Italy we are going on the Scavi tour at the vatican, planning a day trip to a vineyard, eating gelato, tasting new wine, and a whole lot more. I'll keep the blog updated daily (provided I have internet) so you can read about our travels!


Buona Sera!

4th Quarter Update

The holiday season is over!! And I can't say I'm sad to see it go. The insanity of 4th Quarter made it pass quickly but the guest complaints, running out of high demand stuff, and stress over surprise visits make me glad it's done. I'm so ready for the "off" season in retail. Let the vacation begin!
Things at work have already started to slow down, which is awesome. I'm also supposed to be getting a new ETL partner is food which I am looking forward to. It will be weird not to be in charge of everything, but nice to be able to concentrate only on the perishable areas.
All in all 4th Quarter went ok, and now I will know what to expect next year. Everyone came here for Thanksgiving and we cooked at my apartment. We had a good roast, salad, Yorkshire pudding and pumpkin cheesecake! I worked during the day on Black Friday so I missed all the Midnight fun.  I even got a few days off at Christmas and went back to Houston. It was so nice to relax for a few days and not have to think about work. I also had New Years Eve off and started off 2012 in Ft. Worth with a bunch of friends.
Currently I'm working on planning a vacation in March. My mom and I are going to Italy for 10 days! We have plane tickets, a hotel in Venice, and tickets for the Scavi tour at the Vatican! We will go to Venice, Florence and Rome and I am SO excited! I'll have to bring the photo/travel blog back when we go.

And now... My life in Photos December edition:

The Wreath I made for my front door! Ornaments strung together on a coat hanger. 

My Christmas Tree!

Jasper in his festive bow tie 

Stella enjoyed her first Christmas with us. 

Trivia Tuesday Gang. Every Tuesday we get a bunch of people together and compete in Trivia at the Cellar down on the canal here! It's a lot of fun, and we've gotten pretty good at it! 

One of the best things about going to Houston for a few days. Movie day with Jason and Kevin! We also visited Kevin at his job at Eddie Bauer and went shopping at the Outlet Mall. 

Seeing Ribbon was also fun. He's so friendly now, and loves coming in the house and cuddling. (all other pictures from Christmas were taken on my Dad's camera and I don't have them)

New Years Eve and the Library with Ellie and Barrett

Some of the NYE group

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies! Made with Oil Instead of Butter.

Baylor Homecoming

So this year I happened to be lucky enough to have Nov 4-6 off, so I was able to enjoy my first Homecoming as an alum!

It was strange to not be a part of building the float or anything else this year but it was great to be back on campus and to run into people. Saw so many people I wasn't even planning to see and we won the football game!

 Friday night before walking over to the bonfire

 Ryan's first Judge Baylor pic

 Fireworks! 

 The ADPi float! A Mad Hatters Tea Party

 The winning foat- KOT

 Saturday afternoon hike in Cameron Park

 On the river trail

 Rock climbing!

 More hiking. It was such a nice day!

 Football game! On the alum side- it was weird

 At halftime we snuck over to the other side to hang out with Barrett and Ellie

 Winning!

In other news...
- I had a guest get upset today because we didn't have enough Christmas lights in stock. She bought out what we had of a kind and when I told her that was all we had at the moment she looked at me and said "How do you expect people to decorate their houses?!". Apparently her lights had to be up today and waiting till we got more in was unacceptable
- Thanksgiving is in like two weeks. Work is going to be nuts the next few weeks.
- I was recognized as a quarter 3 top performer at work

A Trip to the Fair

Well my computer seems to be cooperating and has been for a bit so I'll see if I can get a blog out before it crashes. This past weekend I was off so Ryan came to visit! 

Saturday was a day of first time experiences for me. We went to the State Fair with a few friends! I rode the dart (Dallas's version of the subway but mostly above ground) for the first time, and went to the fair for the first time. The fair was basically like the rodeo but without the rodeo events and the concert. It was a lot of fun though. We rode a few rides, ate fried food, and wandered around looking at exhibits and even saw pig races. It was a long exhausting day but a lot of fun. The only thing we didn't find was the deep fried loaded baked potatoes and the walking tacos (a taco in a bag!). After the fair it started raining like crazy and Ryan and I braved the storm to meet up with my friend Ashleigh who was visiting from New York. She moved there after graduation and was back in town for the weekend. We watched the Rangers game with her, her boyfriend and her family. Saturday in photos is below! 

At the fair! 

On the swings ride! 

 It was a lot faster than we were expecting

 Downtown Dallas from the swings

 A deep fried margarita! Interesting, but not bad

 On the Texas Star

 Dallas at night

Sunday was another rainy day. We went to In n Out burger for lunch (one FINALLY opened down the street from me!) and then headed to Ikea. Where of course I found all sorts of good stuff. 

This is how my room looks now with my new dresser! It's so nice to have my whole closet to use now, especially with the constantly growing red and khaki section. I also like the small desk better than my big desk. The big desk was nice at school but not necessary anymore. 

Also scored this cool bowl to go on my coffee table. It looks nice with the couches and my kinda new curtains in the living room! 

I also finally found some flowers to put in the vases I got years ago. They look pretty good in my bathroom. 

This last one has nothing to do with Ikea, I got it a little while ago. It's the new litter box for Stella and Jasper to use! It's pretty awesome. Big enough to share, and it doesn't look like a litter box. I've also switched to feline pine litter so it's not all dusty and a lot better for the cats. It also smells like pine! I mixed it with corn litter to make it clump a little better. The cats seem to like it pretty well. 

It's Already October

It's finally Fall! and not 100+ degrees outside. It's a sunny 77 today and it feels so good. It's crazy that it's already October. We've had our first 4th Quarter planning meeting at work and are already preparing for the holiday season. I've also successfully lead my first surprise visit and navigated through a transition in Produce. The Deli and Meat ones are coming up in the next few weeks. I've also filled out my first guest incident report for a woman who had a seizure, fell and hit her head. Tonight I close the store by myself and lead ad take down for the first time. So work is going pretty well, I've gotten to know my team and every one at the store. It's fun hanging out with the other execs my age, I just miss having weekends. 4th quarter will be an interesting experience, long days, crazy sales, lots of new stuff.
Other than work I've made it back to Waco for a football game which was a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll be back for a few more. I'm going to homecoming for sure. Marianne, Thomas and I have also started meeting up every Friday night after work to eat, get drinks and hang out which is a lot of fun. I'm also working on planning a trip to the state fair sometime next month, and Ryan, Matthew and I are going to go to a Cowboy's game too. I've got to do as much stuff as I can in October before I don't have the time in November or December.