Charlotte, NC

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New pup pictures

Santa brought Rocky this new puppy on Christmas Eve. He was born October 6th and he is a toy Golden doodle: toy poodle+golden retriever mix. His name is Shug and he is the sweetest puppy ever. More pictures to come soon!!

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Merry Christmas!!!

A holiday classic! I used to love this!

Graduated, again!

So I graduated Monday, the 13th with my MBA from Auburn (again), and it’s exciting, but I am going to miss my class! It was a fun (and stressful) year and a half.  Now onto the job search!

By the way, Auburn has had an amazing football season this year, 13-0, and SEC Champions.  We went to the SEC Championship in Atlanta, which was a fun time, and are going to Glendale, AZ for the National Championship game vs. Oregon Ducks.  Hopefully, I will have some pictures to add, and hopefully, we will come back with a victory!

Hanson & Rooney Concert!

I attended the best concert I’ve ever been to last night.  Hanson  + Rooney.  I loved Hanson in middle school, and Rooney was my favorite band in junior & senior year of high school.  They happened to be in Asheville the second night we were in town! It was an amazing show!! A bunch of girls my age filled the venue. Greg enjoyed it too, though!  Pictures below…  Video will be posted soon :)

Kit-Ten Caboodle!

So Greg got a new kitten last Thursday to surprise his mom.  He adopted it from a vet in Gulf Shores, and it is just adorable.  There’s no name for him yet, but trust me, we have brainstormed.  Twidget was the name he was given at the vet, but our list is pretty much any name imaginable, including, but not limited to:

• “The Entertainer” (Greg’s favorite)
• Kit-Ten Caboodle
• Dog
• Cutie Pants
• Solitaire (Rocky’s)
• Alejandro
• Kicky (Rocky’s)

Ok, so all of those names are jokes, but we’re trying to brainstorm here! I shall let you know when we come up with a solution to this cat-naming nonsense, but for now, here’s pictures of the lil bugger:

The album below is ALL of the pictures we’ve taken, which is quite a bit!

Taylor Swift visits Auburn spur of the moment

I didn’t attend, but this is cool – I don’t know if I could have done the whole hundreds of screaming girls in a packed place :) , anywho for anyone who is interested, here’s part of what happened today at the AU Hotel & Conference Center, Aubie even joined in!  WAR EAGLE!

Taylor Swift In Auburn :: April 26, 2010 :: AHugfromTaylorSwift.com from Robert on Vimeo.

Just Jared Jr. Link

Perez Hilton Link

What started it all : AHugFromTaylorSwift.com

Day 9: Milan

This morning, we went and got breakfast downstairs again.  Again, I only got fruit, but it’s really good.  Then we went to the lobby to meet for our tour of Milan.  We got to experience the Metro, and rode to town where the cathedral is.  There were some men right when you get up the stairs trying to sell bracelets, and they just put it on my wrist after I said no like 8 times, I didn’t end up paying for it, but it was pretty ridiculous.  We then went to the cathedral, and this time  we browsed around inside for about 30 minutes.  Whole group in front of cathedral:

Afterwards, we walked to an old castle, that was also unbelievably huge.  It looked like a spot that one of those ghost hunter TV shows would go.  We must have seen like 3 or 4 Chinese brides, I guess it’s not uncommon to get married around there, or maybe they were just getting pictures, but it was odd. The tour finished about noon, and we were on our own.  Check out the map of this castle, click below:

The group I was with went to Prada to look around, then to a spot with some restaurants, but it was so crowded most of us got Burger King because it was the quickest and cheapest.  Everything from BK was exactly the same as in the states, maybe better! They had chicken wings though! Then we headed to a GIANT department store.  We rode up about 10 escalators to the top floor, where it was mostly foods.  We then rode down, and headed out.  We hopped on the metro again and went to the hotel.  Linden left for Serbia about 2:15, and Jessica and I went to get some gelato.  I got chocolate this time, and it tasted like brownie mix, it was SOO good, but very rich, I couldn’t finish it.  I then got back to the room and took the best bubble bath ever.  And I just about finished up packing.

That night, we went to eat our “farewell dinner” at Trattoria Bagutta.  We had a big salad, rice with saffron – pretty good, they gave us tons, the main course was breaded veal cutlet, which completely made up for that veal bratwurst.  This was actually really good – it kind of looked like a country fried steak, but it was veal. For dessert, we got “Creme Caramel”, which YES it SOUNDS delicious! BUT, yikes. It looked like flan, wiggled like Jell-O, and was a yellow-white color with a thin caramel-ish sauce on it, and most of us just ended up playing with it after we took one bite – trying to make it look like we actually ate some! All in all, this was a great restaurant, I will admit.  We headed back to the hotel, and packed up for an early start tomorrow.

Day 8: Milan

Well we got the breakfast for the first time at this hotel, and it wasn’t as impressive unfortunately, but they had great fruit, so that’s what I ate.  We left the hotel, and headed to Mila Schon, a fashion company, and listened to them present.  This is the company Linden and I did a report on, so we knew some about it beforehand. 

We then went to lunch at Da Cecco, an Italian restaurant.   Our first course was a tray of assorted meats, salami, prosciutto, others,  I tried them all, but didn’t eat any more.  They had an amazing bread there, it was like freshly baked sourdough. Delicious.  For our main course, we had some kind of roast beef or something in a brownish sauce, with a side of grilled veggies and some fried potatoes.  It was pretty good.  Then for dessert we got tiramisu, which was also good.

After lunch, we went to another meeting, and  on the way our tour guide showed us this unbelievable cathedral, it’s the 3rd largest in the world.  It was soooo huge. Anyways, we went to our meeting about the World Expo that will be held in Milan in 2015.  It was pretty interesting what they plan to do, and hard to imagine.  We finished up there with our last company visit, and headed back to the hotel.

Jessica and I sporting the Expo hats:

We planned to go out to dinner for Preston’s  30th birthday at an Italian restaurant Pane e Tulipani (Google maps link), and all 20 of us got reservations at about 7:30.  We were greeted with a glass of free Champagne, 3 different kinds of breads + olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Linden, Jessica, and I split a pizza with mushrooms, artichokes, black olives, and ham (the whole thing was only 8 euro).  It was very good, and we didn’t even finish it.  They also had really good parmesan cheese :) We then went back to the hotel and celebrated Preston’s birthday playing cards and hanging out in the hotel. Only one more day!

Linden and I at dinner:

Day 7: Zurich to Milan

So we woke up in our amazing hotel to SNOW falling, it was pretttty, I mean if it’s that cold, something good needs to come out of it, right?!  We packed our stuff onto the bus, had our amazing breakfast buffet again, and rode to Citibank for the company visit.

After the visit, we went to lunch at Zeughauskeller, which was the most ‘interesting’ lunch.  It was a really cool German-esque place, very big and open.  We started off with the special onion soup, which I actually really enjoyed.  We also had big bread rolls that felt like rocks.  We were then presented our main course – veal bratwurst with potato salad and onion sauce (here’s the pic from their website)… wellll, if I liked potato salad, I would have liked their potato salad, but I’m just not a fan.  the potato salad, in this case, was used to bury most of the bratwurst that I couldn’t force myself to eat.. I DID taste it, but the texture was just no good.  I’m sure the menu was filled with things that all of us would enjoy, but we got stuck with the veal brats, hmmm. Anywho, we DID get dessert afterward, which was ice cream + whipped cream, and we all ate that up. Yum. 

We then loaded the bus again to head to Milan, Italy.  We had a long bus ride,  but it was really beautiful driving through the mountains.  We arrived at the Hotel Michelangelo at about 6:00.  It was nothing compared to the Marriott, but they had an amazing bathroom/tub, so I guess Italians focus on bathrooms instead of bedrooms.  Our beds were small compared to our room, and less than a foot apart, but still a very nice hotel.

After we got settled a bit, a group of us went to grab some dinner.  We stopped at one of the first places we saw, it was a Pizzeria/Bar, and we ordered 5 different pizzas for all of us to split.  For such a small, uncrowded restaurant, the pizzas were great!  Afterwards, we found a nearby gelato shop, and all got a small cup for dessert. Delicious of course.  We then went back to the hotel and played cards for a little bit, went to one of the many McDonald’s, a block away, and got a small snack.  Called it a night. 

We were in Italy, so naturally McDonald’s had a sandwich called the McItaly:

This is also when I started to look for Mario and Luigi for Rocky, but signs were about as close as I could come:

Day 6: Zurich, Switzerland

So this hotel’s breakfast buffet was absolutely incredible, they had everything you could think of, so, it was delicious.  We enjoyed the breakfast and headed to Zurich Insurance Company to hear from Zurich Financial Services Group.  They provided us sandwiches lunch – the one I chose had only cheese and a pickle (strange), and afterwards, we  heard from the president of Peoplefone, which is a service like Skype based on VoIP communication.  On the way back to the hotel, we  had a speed-tour (that included a stop at a church - Fraumünster) of Zurich, but really, we just wanted to get back to the hotel to explore the city ourselves. 

When we got back, we layered on more clothes and headed to explore.  We went to the main strip of shopping, and found, of course, a giant chocolate shop that was unreal.  We each picked a truffle  to try, and of course – delicious!  (Click for video I found of this shop)

After we walked for what seemed like forever to the other side of the  river, we searched for a place to eat dinner.  We finally stopped at a cute restaurant that felt more like a coffee shop on the inside.  Four of 5 of us ordered what sounded delicious – I don’t remember the name of it, but it said it came with bacon, onions, and cheese.  When we got it, it was, what looked like a pizza, on a super thin crust, no marinara sauce, but a creamy cheesy sauce, with onions and bacon on top.  They were DELICOUS, but I couldn’t finish mine.  This restaurant was great because they took American dollars – the only place we went that did.

Afterwards, we started on the trek back to the hotel, and passed a bar that had a giant margarita on the glass, so we tried it out, because we all had some francs left to spend (by the way, Francs were so pretty! Click here to see ).  We walked in, felt like we wanted to get in and get out because it was so smoky and dark. We got one drink, drank it, and left. I did visit the bathroom, but couldn’t stand the sight of it, so I turned around and walked out – it was disgusting.  We returned to the hotel afterwards, and went to bed.  Overall view of Switzerland – beautiful, just too cold to enjoy most of it :(

Day 4-5: Lyon, France

March 8: So we started off the day with the delicious hotel breakfast, and headed to hear a presentation on the Lyon Economic Development Agency.  Afterwards, we went to a nice restaurant for lunch called le Bistrot d’Auguste.  Our meal included the yummy Lyonnaise salad, chicken and potatoes were the main course and a “fruit-cake” which was more like a fruit pie, with raspberries, peaches, and figs - which was actually pretty good.

After lunch, we went to our second business visit, which ended up being one of everyone’s favorites – Jet Metal Technologies.  The CEO and another man talked to us about the company, and it was a laid back presentation, and actually very interesting what they do.  When we finished, we rode back to the hotel, and Jessica, Linden, Jamie, and I walked around Lyon a bit, and went to dinner at Grand cafe des Negociants.  Our waiter was great, he spoke English, so that was nice. We even had a menu in English, so that made it easier to decide.  Also, one of my favorite things about this place is, before the meal, he brought out a little dish with pretzels and green olives :) yum.  I ordered the “penne au gratin” which is exactly what it sounds like, pasta + cheese, and it was delicious, because really, how could you go wrong with pasta and cheese.  It also had a little cherry tomato on top, which it seemed like every meal we had included a single cherry tomato somewhere.  Since it was ridiculously cold this night in Lyon and I started feeling cold-sick, we walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

 

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Day 5, March 9, 2010: Lyon to Zurich

So we got up and finished packing for our bus trip to Zurich.  I grabbed a  quick breakfast to take on the bus, and we headed to Geneva for our next company visit.  We stopped for lunch in Geneva at Au Carnivore.  This was one of my favorite meals: salad, steak with mustard sauce and french fries, and “spanish cream” which was just creme brulee.  Nothing was bad about this meal, it was probably one of the most American meals we had.  We were all up in a private room of the restaurant which was sectioned off into different rooms, it was a pretty cool atmosphere.  We then walked back to the bus, and this was possibly the coldest temperatures we felt the whole trip, it was unbearable!  We drove a short distance to our next stop, Universite Hospital Geneva We were running about an hour or more late, so the presentation by Slim Slama ran short.  This is also when I had my first coughing attack that seemed forever!  After the presentation, we got back on the bus and headed to Zurich. We watched National Lampoon’s European Vacation, I had another cough attack, the most ridiculous thing ever.  Got to the hotel, which was a five star Marriott, and one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed in.  They had American outlets, which was nice!  The group met in the hotel’s restaurant for a meal of salad (yum), chicken + noodles (eh..), and fruit & ice cream on sugar tart (yummmy).  We got done with dinner pretty late, so just stayed in the hotel that night.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES FROM LYON TO GENEVA TO ZURICH

Day 3: Lyon, Chateau de Bangols + Saint Verand Winery

So today we got up about 8 to go get breakfast, which was delicious again.  We left  the hotel on a bus about 9:30 and headed to Chateau de Bangols.  It was beautiful.  We had a tour of this hotel, which cost about 500 euros per night.  Greater than 500 dollars.  Ann told us that both Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman; and Demi Moore and Bruce Willis had been there to stay, obviously its not such good luck!  Anyways, after the tour, we had lunch in this room with one giant table for all of us.  Our pre-appetizer was like a quarter sized triangle won-ton with snail in the middle, fried + a half dollar sized fried potato.  Both were actually very good.  Our appetizer was salmon sushi, which I tried, but just couldn’t  take it! Ick.  Then our meal was a beef carrot thing.  It was like a layer cake of beef and carrots, cooked for a super long time, so it tasted like a pot roast.  I ate the beef, but couldn’t do the carrots.  Our dessert was like a cake thing, on top of it was an apple cider ice cream, and thinly sliced apples were added into the top.  It was very good.  Then we got like a second dessert which were like tiny little candies for everyone on a tray.  One was chocolate, one was like sugared mango (reminded me of that orange slice candy), one was a white  chocolate thing, and one was like nougat.  They were all ok.  Chocolate was the best.  We finished up with that, and got on the bus and headed to  Saint Verand Winery about 15 minutes away. 

The group at lunch:

We got a tour of this giant building, and he told us how they make the wine there.  We got a tour of the place, then we had a wine tasting.  We tried 5 wines.  They tasted good.  We then went to the actual place they grow the grapes, and he told us the whole story – of course, there were no  grapes there, but there were TONS of fields.  We finished, and got back on the bus, and headed about 45 minutes back to the hotel.  So now we’re here at the hotel.  It started snowing on the way back, and I think it still is, like two hours later.  I don’t know if I’m getting into anything tonight, but I will update! 

Us at the wine tasting: