Kelly B.com

The world is very small. My friend Jenny from college got engaged recently too! Gio and she got engaged on the 19 th . I have no flattering pictures of them together, so the one on the right will have to do (at least for now). Jenny went to school with me and was acquainted to me through Emily, my favorite roomie . Giovanni and she have been together for almost a year and are actually moving into their home together in July. With that said, Jenny is already miles ahead of me in wedding planning. She's actually already looked at a few wedding facilities already with her mom and has an idea of a place that she'd like. To be fair though, she's on the coastline so she's got quite a few choices available to her. All I know is that Trevor and I mutually agree that September is our preferred month for a wedding. And my friend Cathy has been engaged for quite some time now but since she lives in Montana I haven't heard a peep from her in years. She's asked Kim...

I'm flip flopping between being really excited that I'm engaged and being completely and totally overwhelmed by the very idea of planning a wedding. Trevor seems totally un-phased, but then again he's had months to get used to the idea. In the back of my head, while I always knew we'd end up together I did not anticipate it being anytime soon. Sure, he was acting really weird the past few months trying to get all the ring details done on the sly. He admits it took 3 months to find the ideal ring mount since I had shown him what I felt was my "dream ring" and apparently it does not exist where we live. I don't need for any other ring; it's very much the perfect ring for me, although it's impossible to take a photo of. It took 10 tries just to get that one and it doesn't quite do it justice; Trevor insists we try again later since his coworkers want a picture. My parents are on vacation so I can't bug my mom about wedding stuff right now....

We finally got into Japan, but due to our fantastically bad luck with Northwest Airlines my bag never left CT and had to be placed on the following flight to Osaka. Due to further plane delays it took three days before my bags were even in Japan and one more day for delivery to our apartment in Nado . To say the least if it I was a very frustrated camper because I had to buy new stuff and also because I realized that Japanese fashion is ridiculous and I didn't want to wear anything they sold. The trip itself was great. We ate a ton of really great food. We had rice bowls with salmon, shrimp, fish roe and egg that cost only about $4, ramen bowls, rotary sushi, restaurant sushi, yakatori , tempura, katsu , gyoza , and my top favorite Green Tea soft serve ice cream. The salmon was unbelievable in Japan. I could be very happy eating like that everyday, plus it was unbelievably affordable in comparison to American dining out prices. The touristy stuff we did included walking all...

I had a false start today. Our flight to Detroit was delayed for 4 hours and because of that we wouldn't make it on time to our connecting flight to Osaka. Because of that we tried to find an alternative flight, but...there weren't any. So after spending hours at the airport we finally gave up and went home with the promise from NorthWest that everything will be right tomorrow. Well, we also got a $250 voucher each for the hassle but I would have still rather just gotten to Osaka on time. Now we're at home after hailing a taxi and trying to get rested after all of the exhausting bother of today. It just felt like nothing was going our way today :( So now I'm going to take a shower and try to get some rest for another day of travel.

Watching the last episode of Gilmore Girls. Packing is all done thankfully so I'm just hanging out. I hope to try and stay up late tonight in order to better sleep on the plane. I'm prone to being so anxious I can't sleep so hopefully overall exhaustion will force my body into submission. After the show I'll have to dig into my fridge and dump anything that will go bad before I come back home. (sigh) Here's to hoping everything goes off seamlessly tomorrow.

I didn't do much cooking today. Mostly I cleaned up after Chowder, Trevor's old dog. I say old because Trevor's mom gave him back to the people who bred him since she's been a nomad in recent years and hasn't been able to take care of Chowder quite the way she wanted to. Trevor missed him so he had him stay over with us for a few days. In any case, Chowder is a red lab and he's the sweetest dog. It's absolutely not a bother to have him, even in our small apartment because he's quite content to just lay on the floor and be pet all day long. And like any dog he sheds like it's his job so I spent my morning vacuuming since Trevor gave him back this morning. And after my morning of cleaning I went to the mall to try and make use of a coupon I had. (Yes, I'm that person with the coupons and I'm okay with it.) And I bought some of my favorite face cream, Vichy . I swear by the stuff. When I got back my favorite old roomie Emily emailed me...

Trevor (my boyfriend) and I are going to Japan on Wednesday. So far I haven't packed a thing and am trying my best to tidy up the apartment before we go. I'm usually over-prepared and over packed by now but I'm trying to be laid back. After all, it's my vacation and I shouldn't have to be stressed out about it. Yesterday Kim came to visit. I made her some guacamole since she loves the way I make mine. I actually make it Trevor-style since he brought this particular combination of flavors to my attention. I put together a short cooking lesson for her so she could make it herself. Kim likes to cook too, but less on a day to day basis now that she's juggling her regular job and being a Mary Kay lady. Her cooking joy comes for hostessing and having a bunch of people over. I am definitely not a hostess; I just like cooking fun stuff. Asian Style Guacamole 2 Avocados peeled, seeded and diced 1/2 small onion diced 1 tbsp lime juice 4 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp wasab...