ibbunee.com

bon voyage

wow. i've been a really deliquent blogger these past couple months. my sincerest apologies to my readers (all 3 of you). not sure where the summer went. it passed by so quickly. but overall it was a good one: improved my golf game (a little), did some work on the house, made it out to nyc to hang out with the old crew (see pics here), and for the grand finale... we will be going on a sailing trip along the carian coast of turkey.

this is the most unprepared that i've ever been for a trip. we're pretty much just going to show up. neither chad nor i have ever done anything like this before so i'm depending on tim and lisa to take the lead. we had dinner at their house last night to discuss plans for the trip since we're leaving in less than a week. tim pulled out his "turkey folder" and in it was the flight confirmation and the hotel reservation - that I made earlier that week for our layover in istanbul - and that was it! okay... so there ARE NO PLANS as of yet! i think i may have had a small coronary at that point. understand that i had a day by day / hour by hour itinerary mapped out a month before we went to italy last year. that's just how i do vacations. but the guys are telling me that i need to relax. somehow they got it in their heads that vacation is supposed to be carefree and laidback!

honestly, i know this is going to be an amazing trip regardless of the fact that i don't know exactly where i will be or what i will be doing at 2:00 on sunday afternoon. i promise i will give detailed report of the trip, including pictures, when i return. but here is a glimpse:

maybe i'm not that nice afterall

my birthday was last friday, march 9th. surprisingly, 30 doesn't feel as OLD as i thought it would. not that i expected to wake up friday morning feeling instantly decrepit, but i imagined that bidding a final farewell to my blithe, carefree 20's (even if just a perception) would be somewhat depressing. but it was actually kinda nice. i'm in a very good place in my life right now. i've become a much happier and nicer person in my advanced age.

we went to tahoe to snowboard last week. can't really say it was for my birthday because had i been given the choice, we would've been somewhere like tahiti or malives. but it was chad's turn since last trip was "my" trip (italy), and he would've been devastated had the winter passed without a single snowboarding trip out west. lucky we didn't wait any longer. they had been dumped with 8 feet of snow right a few days before we arrived, but it was in the 50's the entire time we were there. snow was good, but we would've been carving the dirt had we waited even one more week.

here's a short clip that i shot of chad riding. you must have the sound turned on to get the full effect.

upon seeing this video our friend surmised that chad must have one helluva life insurance policy with me as the sole beneficiary. i guess he mistook my cry of concern for wicked glee.

vegas baby!

in the three years that i've known chad, my in-laws have lived in three different states. most recently they moved to vegas, providing us with a very nice excuse for an extended weekend of debauchery.

the long weekend started innocuously enough when we arrived on thursday evening. by the time we got to the house it was way past our eastern standard bedtime and we immediately succumbed to the beckoning of slumber. the next day we toured the hoover dam, really interesting but really tame in the context of the rest of the city. then later that night, armed with redbull and vodkas, we were able to stay awake enough to hit the craps tables. and that was it, no turning back... sin city had reeled us into its evil clutches.

we went into the casino with 2 ben franklins each. our intention was for that $400 to last us the entire weekend. and as i was putting down my very last $10 chip at the three card poker table, i remember thinking, "i really hope chad is having better luck than i am". unfortunately he wasn't. we left two hours later with our pockets considerably lighter. between the four of us we ended the night down $900.

i'm hoping the in-laws will move to hawaii next year.

camping without servants

we are going camping this weekend with two of chad's friends and their wives. yes. me. camping. outside in a tent. seriously.

i was instant messaging my friend earlier this week and when i mentioned my plans for the weekend, his reply was "are they setting you up with a deluxe tent with servants or something? how'd you get talked into that?"

apparently, someone forgot to give him the memo that i am now a seasoned camper. the hannah that he used to know - the one who wouldn't have been caught dead in birkenstocks because it was too granola - has been replaced by someone who knows how to: build a campfire, pitch a tent, make coffee in a percolator and raccoon-proof the food stash. nevermind that my version of camping includes running water (showers & toilets) and electricity. oh, and i still shave my legs.

but anyways, take a look at this snake i captured last time i went camping. i skinned it and had a pair of shoes made from it. okay, not really. but do think it's noteworthy that i didn't run screaming from it.

i'm back + five

it's official... i can no longer eat three gelatos everyday for 8 days straight and not expect to gain any weight. i did a weigh-in immediately upon returning home from italy last night. five pounds. of course gelato shouldn't bear all the blame. there were also many, many bottles of wine, numerous five course meals, a lot of pizza, and several loaves of bread.

as i creep towards thirty, i'm realizing that my metabolism is decelerating, while my appetite for fine foods is not. i've heard that columbus is one of the fattest cities in the u.s. i absolutely cannot allow myself to fortify that data. so i have two options to get myself back to my mid-twenties fighting weight: a/ take in less calories or b/ burn more calories.

this morning i attempted to start a diet for the first time in my life. it lasted until 10am. and then i had a kit kat for breakfast. um, prehaps i will have better luck with plan b. i admit i've become pretty lazy, physically, in the past couple years. i've tried to convince myself that ocassional golf and walking the dog are exercise, but carrying a basket of laundry up from the basement gets my heart rate going faster than either of those activities, so it's a hard sell.

other than laxatives, cocaine, fen-phen or barfing, is there an option c? if so, somebody please let me know.

btw, italy pictures are up on the photos page

arrivederci

we're leaving for italy today! will post full review upon return.