Finally!

I love surprises, love them! And I'm okay with secrets, but I'm a horrible liar. I think it's because I used to get caught lying about my bad grades when I was little? I just can't do it anymore. So about two weeks ago my roommate Greg told me he had just bought a ring for our other roommate Kristen! It was very exciting and he showed me right away. Bad news is that I had to keep it a secret from her for a week! It's hard to do when you live and work from home with someone....and you hang out together because you're both so cool. Needless to say, I did my job and this past Sunday Greg proposed to Kristen at the Patriots game! Everything went great and she said yes!

I really wanted to be home when they got back, but I was in New York City. I had another sales meeting on Monday so I headed down to the big apple Sunday morning after fun evening with Nick and Bistra. I love my GPS and because of it I had no problems driving straight into Manhattan. I was a little worried, but I did it. I have a good idea of how the city is now that I've been a few times, so once I was close to 5th Ave. I parked on Park St. Seemed like the right place to park??? :-) Then I hit up 5th Ave. I walked up and down a few times buying lots of good stuff. Then I walked down to Times Square. It's so busy there and I always like to see the lights, but it's difficult when you're carrying about six bags! After four hours of shopping and walking around, I met up with my friend Bernie for some dinner. It was a nice little pub to grab a bite to eat in. We were starving so we asked if they had nachoes, but the waitress said they didn't..."Oh, but if you want corn chips, we can bring you those?" We thought that would be perfect. But it was like they had never heard of nachos or chips & salsa before. We laughed everytime a server walked by with a tray of chips and salsa! I did have my camera with me but didn't take any pictures...I really couldn't with all those bags. But if someone took my picture it probably would have looked like this...



Ok, so the meeting on Monday was pretty boring. Actually, it was very boring and I was wondering why they wanted me to come all the way from Boston for it. But afterwards I was doing my usual round up of paperwork and flyers...you know, things that aren't always easy for me to get. I also got some samples to bring home. There's a few people in New York who I'm really starting to get to know and I love feeling like I have co-workers! I've got a few people coming to work with me over the next two weeks and although that means I'll be really busy, it should be fun too. So I asked to see our special produce that we sell. This is the mushrooms, some organic fruits, veggies, nuts, and yes, Truffles! I was so excited to see them! Of course those came last so I had to pay attention during my lesson of Maitake, Shiitake, Hen of the Woods, and so on.... The truffles are kept in a completely different part of the warehouse and they are locked up. We got the keys and put them out onto a table so that Ed could come and give me a lesson on them. Right now we carry both the white and the black, but the white truffles don't have much longer in the season. I know I'm kind of a dork, but I was just so excited to see some of these in real life! I could probably write about these forever but I won't bore you with that information. You're most likely not going to go out to eat and ask for some Tuber Magnitum on your pasta, right? So quickly (I'll do the best I can), truffles grow mainly around hazelnut and chestnut trees. They grow off of the roots and they are different from mushrooms in that the trees can actually benefit from the truffles. They don't need them to survive, like the truffles/mushrooms need the trees, but they can get nutrients from the truffles. When buying truffles, you want to make sure there is a good amount of density to it, size and shape aren't all that important. We sliced into a few of them and I got to see the color inside as well as the veining. Again, I won't bore you with those details. Truffles used to be dug up by pigs, which they still use sometimes, but dogs are primarily used these days. I guess it's easier to stop a 150lb. dog than it is an 800lb. pig??

Ok, I could go on and on about these, and there's still more to learn, but that's it for now. I've got a lot on my plate the rest of the week and the following two weeks. My holiday cards are in too, and this year's batch shouldn't disappoint from last year's! (wink, wink) I'm going to try to put up the video of my roommate's from Sunday night. Just copy and paste this link into your browser. At first Greg gives Kristen paper that says they are on the waiting list for season tickets to the Pats. That's what she always said she wanted instead of a ring. After the first bit of excitement, he pulls out the ring (that I didn't talk about for a week) and proposes. And then, because she was confused, she made him ask her again! Unfortunately you can't hear the sound...but after he asks which hand the ring goes on, replies, it's awesome! Congrats to the both of you!!!!! Yay! :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hcBi6PXLLE


Chow,
KK :-)