2009 Recap

Happy New Year everyone! Can you believe how quickly the year passed by?
Mike's friend Matt posted a blog entry recapping his 2009. I thought I'd copy his entry and post about the highlights of 2009. It was a pretty eventful year, so I'm excited to see what is in store for 2010.

*Started 2009 off with ozoni soup (no ozoni soup in 2010. I couldn't find mizuna in Texas, so we just ate fried mochi).
*Finished grad school and received my Ph.D, and submitted research for publication.
*Traveled back home to Hawaii twice in one year!
*Bought a new car!
*Attended one of my best friends wedding in Las Vegas.
*Three close friends got engaged!
*Mike and I celebrated our one year anniversary.
*Mike and I traveled to Rome, Florence, and Venice.
*Moved to Texas...and am finally living in the same place as Mike.
*Started a new job that I really enjoy.

So what are the plans for 2010?
At the moment, these are Mike and my tentative plans.
*Train to run a race...not a marathon or anything, but something small and less than 10 miles.
*Buy another car. At the moment we are a single car family.
*Take more culinary courses at a community college...if my work schedule allows for it.

What are your highlights from 2009 and what are your plans for 2010?

Back to Baking~Lemon Crunch Cake

A belated Happy Birthday to Michael! Mike's birthday occurred a couple weeks ago so we celebrated with a game night get together with some friends.

Here's Mike's birthday cake. I wanted to bake him a cake from scratch so I attempted to make a lemon crunch cake. My mom kept raving about a cake she had tasted in San Francisco from a lemon crunch cake she tasted at a Japanese bakery. I searched online and found this recipe. I had also tasted The Alley's lemon crunch cake the last time I was back home in Hawaii, so at least I had a frame of reference of what to strive for.

The lemon crunch cake recipe is basically a chiffon cake recipe without the oil. It had a light texture and flavor and reminded me of a Japanese-type cake. The recipe tasted great and people who prefer less sweet desserts would really enjoy it. It's pretty much the opposite of a Costco or Sam's Club type birthday cake (although I am not complaining about these cakes, because some times they taste good too). If I were to tweak the online recipe to make it more like "The Alley's" cake, I'd stick with a traditional chiffon cake with oil, add more lemon flavoring and sugar, add more lemon flavoring to the whipped cream, and add a really good and tart lemon curd.

Here's the birthday boy with his cake.

Check out this cake that was made for a friend's birthday. If you're a fan of "Settlers of Catan" you'll like this cake.

Italy~Day 1, Rome

I finally had a chance to sit down and review all the pictures I took in Italy, Hawaii, and Las Vegas and I cannot wait to share all the pictures with all of you. I've just completed my fourth week of work (did I mention that I love my job?) and am only now sitting down to blog about our trip to Italy. I have to learn how to manage my time so that I can squeeze in time to blog at least once a week.

Here's a picture of the Colosseum in Rome. Isn't it magnificent? You read about it in history classes (or see it in "The Gladiator"), but when you see it with your own eyes, you cannot help but wonder how the ancient Romans built these amazing structures.
Here's a picture of Mike and me so you have proof that we were actually in the Colosseum. We did not wear matching clothes during our whole trip. We just randomly packed the same shirt and decided to wear the same shirt on our first day in Rome.
Mike's Italy Tip #1, if you want to check out the Colosseum, buy your tickets at the Roman Forum, and you will save at least 30 minutes wait time.

Lauren's Italy Tip #1, pack snacks so that you do not have to buy food at the snack kiosks near tourist areas.
We bought a salami sandwich and pistachio gelato from a kiosk near the Colosseum. Big mistake. We were hungry, so we stopped for a snack, but it just was not as tasty as other foods we ate during the rest of our trip.
Mike will be taking the lead in blogging about our trip to Italy, so stay tuned for his commentary. In the next couple of weeks I'll be focusing on our game plan for "Black Friday" shopping and be traveling for work.

We're Back!

We're back from Italy! Actually we've been back for almost two weeks already, but with the move to a new state, the furnishing of a new apartment, and the start of a new job, blogging has been on the bottom of our priority list.
The good news is that bathrooms are free in the good old USA. As you can see in the picture, we ended up paying 1.50 euros to use the restroom in Venice. That's almost $2.50! Crazy huh? A good travel hint for anyone heading off to Venice is to go buy something from the 1 euro menu at Mcdonalds. Anyway, we'll post more later!

Update

Sorry for the lack of posts. It's been a busy couple of weeks. Did I mention...

*I defended my dissertation and passed.
*Dropped off my dissertation to the thesis office yesterday...so it's official, I'm done with school! ~*~woot woot~*~
*Been cleaning and packing up my apartment for the past few days. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in 4 years!

*Flying to Vegas on Saturday (2 days from now) to hang out with my sister and to attend a friend's wedding (get this, she planned it so that she and guests could attend the UH game against UNLV).
*Flying from Vegas to Hawaii~send me an email if you want to hang out in Hawaii
*Flying from Hawaii back to Illinois to clean up my apartment and move out.

My sister has already emailed me an itinerary for my trip to Las Vegas and its filled with LOTS of restaurants. I will try to blog about them, but I'll be on vacation and enjoying my new found FREEEEEDDDOOOOMMM!

Our Anniversary

Today marks Mike and my one year anniversary. The year flew by so quickly, and I cannot believe that one year ago we said our vows to be together forever. I also cannot believe that we have been together for almost six years (5 years & 11 months). I guess we must really like each other. :P

Unfortunately we are not spending the day together and have spent most of the year apart than together. Our "forever" will just have to begin later on this year after I defend my thesis. I told Mike that he didn't have to make a special flight to Illinois to be with me on our anniversary. After all, it is just one day and we have a lifetime to spend with each other.

I've mentioned to people that being in a long distance relationship has been the most difficult challenge for me throughout my four years here pursuing a PhD. Surprisingly, it has not been the rigor of the program or the occasional 14-hour days of research; it was knowing that the love of your life lives 5,000 miles away and is a 5-hour time zone away (Thank goodness for cell phone family plans). But on the other hand, it makes the little time that we have together much more precious.
Mike, if you're reading this, don't get mad at me for wasting time blogging. :) Happy Anniversary! I love you very much, husband!

Sick!

I do not think I've had a cold for over a year. Allergies got me in the Spring, but this past weekend some nasty bug hit me fast. I was in bed all weekend, drank a whole bottle of cranberry juice, a half-gallon of orange juice, gallons of water, and went through a box of kleenex. Maybe my cold wasn't so bad, but I was a pansy about it because I haven't been sick for a while.
It's funny, when I did feel like eating, all I wanted to eat were plain foods like white bread or tea and rice. I hate being sick because eating isn't pleasurable, it's more of me thinking I need to get some Calories in my body.

Being sick put a damper on my dissertation process, and I've lost a bit of my momentum. But I did manage to submit my thesis title page to the Thesis Office for review today, so I guess I accomplished something.
I was trying to edit a paper and spent half an hour trying to figure out what "wan" meant:
"The MDS plot program used to analyze the data wan multiple iterations of the data to create a MDS plot containing..."
I then realized I meant to write "ran." Ugh.

Mike thinks I got sick because I was lacking sleep and overworked myself at the gym, so my body's resistance to disease was caught off-guard. I'm getting better, but now have that froggy voice. Mike and I are now on this "get healthy" kick because we're trying to trim up before we head off to Italy so that we can gain all the weight back eating tons of pizza and gelato. We're basically both pretty healthy people, but we're trying to be extra good.
Mike's Plan
*Go to the gym 4 times a week, play ultimate frisbee once a week
*Limit fast food to less than two times a week
*Limit full Calorie soda

Lauren's Plan
*Go to the gym at least 3 times a week (but really I was going like 5 times a week until I got sick)
-my weekly plan included: lap swimming-once a week, kick & core class-twice a week, cardio camp class-once a week, workout with advisor-once a week.
*Cut out my refined sugar intake (cookies, cakes, etc), cut out potato chip binge-eating
I read all these blogs and wonder how people can stay healthy while consuming all those tasty treats they post about. What's your exercise/diet plan? How do all you foodies balance eating yummy food with a healthy lifestyle?

Product Reviews

I am a snacker. I am also a food scientist....and surrounded by fellow food scientists who like to eat. I take pleasure in leisurely walking down the aisles at grocery stores and purchasing new products that are out on the market.

Here's some of the new products I've tasted this past few weeks.

Erika brought these back from Trader Joe's in Chicago. I was really intrigued and excited when she brought in these "Cookies with Perks" which are coffee cookies with chocolate chips. I took one bite and couldn't finish it. It was not a crowd-pleaser in our lab. The cookies had savory notes to it and almost had a meaty quality (I think it's because it was quite salty). Blah. So my advice, do not waste your money on these cookies. Instead, buy the mini chocolate chip cookie tub...now those cookies are addicting.

Moving on to Beer chips. I'm not a fan of potato chips. Give me Cheetos, Doritos, or Fritos before potato chips. But something about these beer chips makes me really like them. Maybe it's the kettle-cooked texture of the chips, or the slightly sweet taste to the chips, or maybe I'm just stressed and these potato chips satisfy my need for something fatty, salty, and crunchy. I don't even like drinking beer, but I like the taste of these chips.

So Monday is over. Only four more days of this panel. The dumb moment of the day was when I tried to convince the computer tech guy that whirling noises were coming from the computer. I had him almost convinced that it was the computer, until we both realized it was the fridge. So Erika, if you're reading this in India, the computer is fine. Anyways, it's okay the computer guy thinks I'm a little off, he's actually from Hawaii and my sister's high school classmate. What a small world!

The second week; my Crock Pot Meal

The second week of my panel is over! Whoo-hoo! With the help of my two awesome undergraduate assistants, I'm ahead of schedule! That means in my "free time" I can edit my journal article and thesis drafts which have been on my desk for weeks. I am starting to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Oh and what is this light? Graduation!!!!

Let's not forget that the husband also helped and labeled over 5,000 cups prior to the panel. As he has said numerous times, yeah, it's not fair that I am getting a PhD and he gets nothing for being my lab grunt and reading over my thesis drafts. He's way smarter than me, so smart that he was wise enough not to go to grad school. I love you Mike! He's back in Hawaii working longer hours at work than me. He works 6-7 days a week and has been pulling 12-hour shifts. With the time difference and our hectic schedules, we were lucky to have a phone date and celebrate Valentine's Day by playing online Scrabble. For now I have my "temporary husband" Aaron taking care of me. (I'm allowed to say this because Mike knows Aaron and is comfortable with our long-distance marriage.) He makes sure that I am eating, brings me beer chips (when I'm stressed, I am a chip binge-eater), and goes on lunch food runs with Erika.
So here's the crock pot meal that was waiting for me at home on Wednesday.
Recipe:
2 large chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes-Mexican flavor(?)
1 can of corn (drained)
1 can of pinto beans (drained)
1/2 cup of tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic
1/2 c. water (I would have omitted it, so it wasn't so soupy)
1 T. kosher salt (add more to taste)
1.5 t. cumin
1/2 t. Mexican chili
1 T garlic powder
1 chicken bouillon cube

Instructions: Throw everything in a crock pot. Turn the heat on to low, let it cook for 8+ hours. I let mine cook for about 12 hours. Stir and fix up the flavors to taste. Shred the chicken with a fork. Serve and eat.

For my first crock pot meal, it was not bad. It took less than five minutes to prep, and it was nice to have a meal waiting for me at home. I even threw the chicken breasts in frozen. If I were to make it again, I'd also add some chopped onions and chipotles or something to add heat to the dish.

Frozen dinners. blah! Hello crock pot meals!

This past week in review

I survived the first week of my sensory panel. Whew! My basic day consists of waking up at 7:00am, arriving at lab by 8:30am, leaving the lab at about 8pm. I go home and eat dinner while vegging out watching television shows (Mondays-"Heroes", Tuesday-"Leverage", Wednesday-"Lie to Me" and "Top Chef", Thursday-"Burn Notice", Friday-"Psych"). I shower, do a little bit more work, and then go to sleep. Then it's wake up at 7am again, and the cycle continues. I guess this is what it must feel like to have a "real job."

Highlight of the week: Aaron walks into the lab carrying a crock pot with cans of food in it. He tells me, "throw everything in the crockpot, add chicken, turn it on in morning before you go to school, and when you go home you'll have dinner waiting for you."





I'm salivating at the thought of walking into an apartment that smells like yummy food after a 11-hour day at the lab.
Aaron, if you're reading this, I *heart* you!

I guess he felt sorry for me because I told him I'm too tired at the end of the day and have been eating a grapefruit for dinner and random stuff in my fridge that I can zap in the microwave. The other night it was rice and kimchee, the night before it was rice, kim chee, and korean nori.
I've lost that "food spark" and am not really excited to eat anymore. I am, however, excited that an 18lb bag of grapefruit is only $5 at Meijer. That's about 18 dinners! (just kidding...well sort of).

And Chou, I did try your super food challenge, but I did not get to post it by your deadline. I'll write more about it later. I tried to batter it with those new jumbo rice krispies, but it didn't come out. I ended up making a french toast battered in the rice krispies and topped it with avocado.

My research

For the past few years, my "job" has been being a Food Science graduate student. I'm specializing in Sensory Science which involves evaluating and understanding foods/products, etc. using human senses. It also involves a LOT of statistics. I'm not doing the discipline any justice with that definition, but trust me, it's super duper cool and if you're interested, here's a link to the Institute of Food Technologists' (IFT) Sensory Evaluation Division (SED).

Sometimes we run acceptance tests to determine the level of liking of a product. Other tests like a Descriptive Analysis panel involves training panelists to hone in on key attributes(sweetness, flavor, texture, etc.) of products and rate the samples on these attributes. It's a great field to be in, plus there never seems to be a shortage of sensory scientist jobs on the mainland. You could work for companies focusing on food, pet food, skincare, household products...pretty much any company that involves consumer insight.

Yeah, so my lab is great! We all really enjoy food,like to eat, and like to study food. That's probably the reason why most of us decided to pursue Food Science and specialize in Sensory Science.

In February I'll be conducting a Descriptive Analysis panel for 4 weeks, so the blog posts will probably be sparse next month. I'll be training my human subjects to be "instruments" in rating attributes in solutions.
Does it sound like fun? Email me uiucsensory 'at' gmail.com if you're in Champaign, IL and interested in participating. This semester a few of my labmates are conducting panels, so if you want to be a human guinea pig, let me know.

My panel runs from Feb. 2-Feb. 27 (~1 hour/day, five days a week, four weeks) and we're paying you! Plus every day you get a snack (chips, snack bar, etc) too.

Closure~Out with the old, in with the new

What's Mike doing?
It's something about the new year that makes me want to start fresh, it's a new beginning; a clean slate. Each year, my mom would make us all clean the house and make sure all the clothes was washed before the new year. So this is my closure for the end of the year.

I FINALLY took care of all the paperwork associated with changing my last name. I trekked over to the Champaign SSN office and got that changed, then I found out that I could mail in a request to the Honolulu DMV to have my license changed. After that, I changed all my credit cards. I will start the new year with a wallet full of new IDs and credit cards.

Second thing to clear up...Thank you for all your comments about the pros and cons of living in Hawaii. I appreciate all of your responses and will use them in the decision-making process.

We are still in the process of figuring things out about Hawaii and the mainland. The fact that I did not do my homework and that there is no August graduation/deposit deadlines for doctoral students means that I cannot receive my degree until mid-October. And to defend my thesis by April 17th is out of the question for various reasons. That put a wrench in our plans so I'll be in Champaign longer than expected. I made a mistake by posting on this blog about it. We ended up hearing back from people in Hawaii about all sorts of things that we did not even know about ourselves.

He's feeding the squirrels. FYI, the trash bag was already there. He was trying to feed the squirrels Kibbles and Bits, but they didn't like the dog food.

And in case you were wondering, this is what Champaign looked like last week. This is what it looked like today. All the snow is gone and it's the middle of winter!

Happy Holidays!

Okay, this post was originally set for Christmas, but I got lazy and forgot to post it. Merry belated Christmas and Happy Early New Year!

We hope your holidays have been spectacular!
We went to a few holiday dinners this week, but forgot to bring our camera to the events.
So we'll leave you with some of our Christmas "feast." One of our friends took us to Sam's Club and we went a bit crazy shopping.
Mike drinks sparkling cider like its water. So that's why we bought 2 4-packs of Martinelli's cider. At the moment, we're down to 3 bottles. Oh he also drinks beer like its water too, so that whole case is his. I don't drink beer.
*Random Note*If you ever are at a loss of what to buy Mike for a gift, you can never go wrong with sparkling cider (any kind, apple, grape, mixed berry, etc) or lobsters. Every time I ask him what he wants, he replies with "a hundred billion lobsters." I roll my eyes at him and then he says, "A hundred billion dollars." So trust me, sparkling cider works well for him.
Mmmmm.....crab cakes, my seafood weakness. These were actually pretty good. Better than crab cakes sold in restaurants in Champaign (since most of them make crab cakes from canned crab meat).
Mike's lobster tails. He's lucky I'm not a fan of lobsters. Yeah, my mom said my sister and I are cheap dates since we're not big fans of lobster, shrimp, and crab. We'll eat those crustaceans, but we're not big fans of them.
Fresh mozzarella and goat cheese.

We will post pictures of our dinner later on. But here's a funny story to tide you over...today we decided to go into my lab to get some work done and then end the day with working out at the gym. Mike forgets his running shoes at home, so he goes home in the afternoon to get his shoes. He spends a couple of hours at home, then walks to the gym. I receive a phone call from him saying that he walked to the gym and then realized that he forgot his running shoes again. I guess he's getting his workout in by walking up back and forth from the slippery icy sidewalks.

I resisted and did not go "after-Christmas" shopping. I was like a "real person" who actually went into work instead of had the day off.

Randomness & our new favorite product

The semester is winding to a close and it's been a hectic month. Just gave my research presentation in seminar class yesterday (it's mandatory prior to graduation). Isn't this crane mobile pretty? It's hanging from the ceiling in the corner of my office. When I'm taking a break from my work, I sometimes just stare at it and relax. Mike made it for me a few Christmases ago.

My basil plant is dying. Mike said I should not have starting growing it during the winter months. Today the weather report said it was 13F, but it feels like -1F. Welcome winter! I'll be bundled up in down jackets, mittens, hats, and scarfs until late March.

Our new favorite product. Oreo Sipahh straws! Yes, they are geared towards little kids who like to drink flavored milk. But they are yummy! If you have not seen them before, I'll give you a lowdown about the product.
Instead of adding chocolate syrup or mix into a cup of milk, you drink a cup of milk through a straw filled with chocolate and cream flavored pellets.
It's not too sweet, but flavors the milk. Plus it's innovative and it's fun for kids (and adults) to watch the milk and pellets travel up and down the straw.
Well Mike and I are off to the AFT progressive dinner tonight. I'll post about that too!

Cool presents (which we purchased or are in the process of purchasing)

Every year, Mike asks me what I want for Christmas. I admit, the boy does try, but I am quite difficult to shop for. Whenever I see something I want, I just buy it. This year we both agreed that we're just buying things that we want when we see them.

Here's the items that have caught my eye:


I'm debating whether I want this book or not. It's called "The Science of Good Food" and is supposed to be similar to Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking" and include food science information about cooking processes. I requested this book from our school's library to check it out. If it's good, I'm going to ask for it for Christmas. I have too many Food Science textbooks, so if it's a crappy book, I do not want to add it to my collection since I'll be moving after I graduate.





Another item that I've been eying out is the IOGEAR Mobile Digital Scribe - GPEN200N. I have to look up the reviews for this item, but it's a digital pen that saves what you write in a USB receiver thing and uploads and transcribes your handwriting into a Word document. How cool is that? Pens like these have been out for a while, but the reasons why I am considering this pen are: 1)You do not need to purchase a specific pad of paper to write on; 2)You do not need to be near a computer to use it; 3)You can use generic ink refills; 4)The price dropped from ~$100-->$60.

This is what I was going to buy for Mike for Christmas, but he saw it online and bought it himself. Threadless is one of his new favorite stores. They have cute/witty shirts for reasonable prices. I think this will be his 7th shirt from Threadless. This is a great online store to purchase one-of-a-kind t-shirts. Well, these shirts are popular on college campuses, so you might see a lot of people wearing these kinds of shirts in college towns.






Frixion pens. I've seen the ballpoint pens out there, but I want the highlighters. These pens are uber-cool! Erika went to Japan this past summer and brought back this highlighter. You can highlight items, and then use this plastic(?) ball on the end of the pen to erase what you highlighted. Yes, it's a novelty pen, but if you know me, I love pens and post-its.


I just got a phone call from Mike and he thinks he broke my laptop. Apparently a cup of water was near the laptop and it fell on the keyboard. Luckily, I bought the Performance Plan, so I can get a replacement or else a new laptop would be on my Christmas list!

I passed!

Recap-
*I passed my Preliminary Exam last week! I just a have a little bit more research, my thesis writing to tackle, and then my defense!

*Mike's home alone for a few days while I'm off to Texas. Maybe he'll blog about his exciting adventures.

*I discovered new dishes that I enjoy: 1) yamaimo okura natto nebaneba bo-ru minus the ikura. It's basically a slimy mess of natto, a grated sticky potato, and okra. Oh, it's great! 2)and chicken biryani, an Indian rice dish.

*I treated myself to a present. "Field Guide to Cookies," by Anita Chu from Dessert First. I'm quite excited about this purchase. I've been meaning to buy this book for a while, but needed to find something else on Amazon so that I could receive the free shipping.

Teaser

Something exciting is happening this Saturday!

We've been preparing for it for a while.
This is how we've prepared:
*Mike's been going to the gym every day
*I've been going to yoga and running
*Mike's been resting up (it's currently Thursday 10/23 @ 7:30pm and Mike is knocked out on the bed. I think it's partially because he drank some lychee vodka I made that's been in the fridge for a while).

Curious? Stop by the blog on Saturday morning to find out.

Life,blogging, Trader Joe's, P.F. Chang's

I apologize for the lack of blog posts, this has been a quite busy month. Mike will probably start blogging more since his days are spent playing ultimate frisbee, picking up a new hobby as a day-trader, watching his fantasy football team, and taking care of the house (cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc). In regards to all the housework, he's actually quite amazing, and I lucked out at picking a wonderful husband. Here's some pictures of food that is waiting for me when I arrive home after school.
This is what I have been up to and will continue to be doing for the next few months:
1. Working on my research
2. Writing my thesis
3. Applying and interviewing for jobs
4. TA-ing an online course (which involves going up to Oakbrook, IL once a month)
5. NOT going to the gym, since I messed up my left knee from all the cardio (step and kick& crunch) classes I've been going to. Now walking down the stairs sends a sharp pain through my leg. So it's water aerobics or yoga for me if I want to stay in shape.
This past Thursday, prior to class, we stopped at Trader Joe's, (I heart Trader Joe's!) to pick up snacks, and P.F. Chang's. (I also heart P.F. Chang's too) for dinner. My definition of Trader Joe's is that it's a cheaper Whole Foods. P.F. Chang's is like a Chinese American fusion restaurant.
My advisor must think I'm crazy because I spent about $70 at Trader Joe's. My favorite items at Trader Joe's is their Shave Cream, dried unsweetened pineapple slices, mini crispy crunchy chocolate chip cookies, and dried mango slices.
So here's a list of some of the items I bought: everything listed above and freeze-dried mango (these are yummy! they also sell banana slices and strawberries), black dark chocolate covered almonds, dark chocolate covered edamame, blood orange italian soda, sparkling blueberry juice, sweet potato chips, a mixture of different root vegetable chips, habanero pistachios...
One of my favorite dishes is Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps. Oh they are so fresh and delicious. We also ordered the Asian slaw, which was like your basic cabbage slaw with a Asian mustard mayonnaise dressing. This was also tasty.
The last dish we ordered was the lemon grass prawns with garlic noodles. Boo P.F. Chang's! The grilled prawns were huge and tasty, but those noodles were intolerable. It was spaghetti noodles swimming in liquid butter-oil overly seasoned with coarse salt. It'd be wise to take this dish off the menu or just serve the prawns without the noodles.
My advice, if you're going to P.F. Chang's order the lettuce wraps, Chang's spicy chicken, or probably anything with the "Chang's" in the name.

Only downside to P.F. Chang's is that all the times I've eaten there, I drink massive amounts of water, and then when I'm home still thirsty and drink more water. I love the flavor of the food, but I think it's a little bit too salty for my tastes.

So that's a recap of my week and month. I'm off to another state next month for a few days. I'll give you a hint to where I'm going; the last time I was there was in high school at a science fair when George W. Bush (the governor) was a guest speaker at one of the functions (I guess you can back calculate and figure out how old I am). Second hint, I'll be seeing one of my really good friends while I'm there.