honesty

So this past Tuesday was my mom's birthday.

Since she has everything she could possibly want (and my dad always manages to take the cake in terms of presents - this year, he surprised her with a new BMW), us kids usually opt to send her a bottle of good champagne (her fav) to wherever she is dining that night or a nice bunch of flowers (who doesn't love fresh blooms?) to brighten up her desk.

from here

 

from here

This year, however, she happened to be down at their place in Florida, and unfortunately 
1. their go-to restaurant for dinner out (the Pink!) was closed (so they'd be dining at home), and
2. our go-to Gasparilla Island florist wasn't open until the end of the month.

Not wanting to stray from our original idea, we decided to just try out another florist.  The woman assured me they had a beautiful arrangement of Gerber Daisies (my mom's fav) in a lovely basket that would do the trick.  How bad could it be?

The answer to that question is:
very, very bad.

As soon as the flowers were delivered, she sent us kids a text:
"Thanks so much for the flowers! xxoo"

Curious as to whether our trial florist fit the bill, I responded:
"You're so welcome!  Are they cute?"

To which she replied:
"No not cute sorry!! I will send you a picture.  They are awful!!!!"

Gotta love her honesty.
Live and learn: don't use a florist you don't know.

Perhaps, we'll get our act together to pull this off for next year:

from here

Happy weekend!

xoxo

KK

oops.

So another reason for my silence of late has been due to the fact that my new job happens to be down in Palo Alto,
and I live up in San Francisco,
which means I've got a 1-hour commute on each end.
(Which doesn't leave me with oodles of time to be posting musings on my ho-hum life.)

But yesterday something happened that I felt I had no choice but to come out of my no-posting cocoon and share.

I joined a gym down in PA so that I could beat traffic and drive down in the wee morning hours (read: 5am), work out, and then be into the office by 7:15am.  This plan has been flawless to date and I've loved sipping my coffee (while chatting with my mom), buzzing down an empty freeway as the sun begins to peak its way out behind the hills.

I'm all about easy-to-wear work clothes so most of the time I can just stick my wardrobe in my gym bag the night before and be good to go.  Yesterday, however, I was planning on wearing my favorite new suit dress:

Peplum Dress in Stretch Wool

from jcrew

But because it's best when perfectly pressed, I needed to bring it down on a hanger as opposed to stuffed into a bag.  The night before, I packed my gym bag with all the goods except the dress and left a note on the mirror that read: 

Yesterday morning when I got up, I tip-toed out of the bedroom, hit go on our Nespresso machine, popped on my gym clothes, grabbed my bags and coffee, and headed out of the apartment, all within 5 minutes flat.  I love efficiency.

I drove down to PA, happily chatting with my mom the whole 1-hour way (hands-free of course) and pulled into my parking spot.  As I got out of the car and grabbed my things, I realized I had forgotten something at home:

So what do I do?

Driving back to get it is a solid 2.5+ hour ordeal taking into account the traffic that is rapidly building up by the minute.
It's 6am and therefore no stores are open (and clothing stores won't open shop until at least 10am).
The only clothes I have on my person are my raggedy work-out clothes, a trench coat, and a bra + underwear.
AND I have a 9am meeting.

Unwilling to show up to my meeting naked underneath a trench coat, I resign myself to driving the torturous route back home to secure some proper over-garments.

Five minutes into my journey and it hits me - the answer to ALL prayers:

TARGET opens at 8am!

And they sell clothes!

And those clothes are reasonably priced!

I camped out at a nearby Starbucks to do some work until they opened shop and then stormed in to try anything and everything vaguely work appropriate:

pencil skirt + maroon blouse =

TOO STUFFY.

stretchy grey sweater dress =

TOO CAJ.

black dress with cap sleeves =

JJJJJJUST RIGHT.

I opted for choice #3 (for the bargain price of $27.99), paired it with my Tory Burch wedges (waiting underneath my desk at the office), Kate Spade studs (waiting in my purse), and Anne Fontaine black sweater (waiting in my gym bag), and my office-mates were none the wiser. 

(Or at least they didn't say anything.)

What would you have done?

xoxo

KK

happy birthday mom!

Apologies for the radio silence of late - I just started a very exciting new job (which I am absolutely LOVING) and it's been a busy month getting into the swing of things and learning the ropes.

BUT today was worthy of reappearance because TODAY marks the grand old day of birth for my fabulous mother:

There aren't too many moms you want to be twins with.
It just so happens that MY mom is extremely twin-worthy.
(And often her, Gretch, and I pull the whole triplet thing, and we LOVE it.  Pretty awesome.)

To celebrate her special day, I figured I'd share some of my fav mom posts to date:

favs from mom - 
this post has been THE MOST popular post on this site since the day I started posting a list of the most popular posts (see right-hand side) - guess everybody knows Mom's got good taste

more thanksgiving goodness -
did you know this power woman is so beloved, she has a field hockey field named after her?  pretty awesome.  the Krieg-Gallun clan had some serious competition on that baby last Thanksgiving...

a belated birthday -
her lovely birthday celebration in Maine with Nana and Pops last year

the morning of -
the unbelievably sweet women-only brunch she planned for me the morning of Stefan and my wedding

getting ready -
and all the work she did for the wedding in the few days prior

words and writers -
this super sweet game + book she put together when Stefan and I got engaged

an extra special engagement -
the story of how SHE got engaged just two Christmases ago :)

She's not only my fabulous, knock-em-dead mother, 
she's my fashion consultant, crisis-solver, cheerer-upper, and - most of all - friend.  

Mom - thanks for being the best.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

xoxo
KK

a win in wetzikon

While I spent most of the month of August going to German classes and doing German homework and taking German exams, the real test came when I spent an afternoon, evening and night with Stefan's dad and his wife.

Talking only German.

We started with a light summer lunch of gazpacho, prosciutto with melon, and mountain cheese with fresh apricots.
(Demonstration of kitchen cutlery and foodstuffs vocabulary - check!)

We then went for a long walk along a nearby lake, stopping by the oldest tree in the village.

Did you know that the church is the highest building in every Swiss village

(Demonstration of basic chit-chat phrases and past tense to tell all about what I've been up to month-to-date - check!)
We then made our way up to an adorable little family farm that is open to visitors to explore.

a hand-painted sign gives you the lay of the land

like any good farm, this one included an adorable little shop 

with all-organic, homegrown or homemade products 

that I obviously had to check out

the Swiss love to buy local and will pay double the price 

for a product grown in their home country

the shop's labels were simple, clean, efficient perfection

just with the family's name (Jucker) and Hof for farm

even the toilets in this place were gorgeous

After a quick tour of the animals,
(Demonstration of farm animal and equipment vocabulary - check!)

and then a leisurely coffee overlooking the lake, 
we headed to our evening activity: the Chilpi! 

(Wetzikon's equivalent to a state fair.)

Switzerland's XXL Pommes (French Fries) - see upper left corner

equates to an American size small and costs five times the price

Since Urs is mayor of the town, it seemed as though the crowds parted for us - everyone knew him and Edith and wanted to say hello.  Wherever we walked, someone wanted to hear how they were doing or treat us to a beer.
(Demonstration of get-to-know-you questions and phrases - check!)

After quite a bit of socializing, Edith and I headed up in the Ferris wheel to get a look at the idyllic surroundings.

(Demonstration of city vocabulary as I asked where the Krankenhaus/Hospital, Schule/School und Kirche/Church were - check!)

We enjoyed some bratwursts and cervelats (traditional Swiss sausages) before retiring home early. (I did have class the next morning.)

And at the end of evening, after we had all finished a pot of tea, Stefan's father said the sweetest three words I could have imagined:

"Ich habe verloren."
"I have lost."

As you might guess, I slept quite well that night. :)

xoxo

KK

a swiss bet

The first time I was ever in Switzerland was three years ago this past August.  

Stefan and I had just started dating, and though things were still quite new, we knew it was a fantastic idea to take advantage of some time in between jobs to spend a month together in Venezuela (learning Spanish and how to kite surf) and then a month together in Switzerland.  
In Switzerland, we did all sorts of very Swiss things (like take long hikes in the Alps and eat Swiss sausages and visit cheese factories tucked away into the mountains).  But on one particular day on this trip (one we spent in Davos with Stefan's father), I made a bet that I would be able to speak Swiss German by the end of 2011.  

(It was summer of 2010 at the time, and a year and a half seemed like more than enough time to learn a language that requires you to learn an entire other language (High German) before you can even begin to learn it.)

here we are on that faithful day

Well, as I'm sure you already know, I lost that bet long ago.
But once I paid out for my loss (a nice dinner out for the four of us), I signed on for another: Hoch Deutsch by the end of 2014.

And so while I spent August in der Schweiz going to class and doing homework and taking tests every single day, the real test for me was when I spent an afternoon, evening, and night with Stefan's father and his wife.  
Talking only Deutsch.

The story on how it went comes tomorrow.
Stay tuned.

xoxo
KK

the path of gods

To offset some of that delicious, delicious Italian food, we decided to spend one day conquering the famous Path of Gods – a cliff-lined trail that leads you from Positano (where we were staying) to Priano (the next town over). 

Most people opt to take the bus (or a taxi) up to Nocelle – the town directly above Positano where the trail really gets gorgeous – to avoid the 2000+ steps required to get there by foot.  But since we are always game for a good challenge, we opted to do the full sha-bang.

When one reviewer said the path up to Nocelle was a series of "endless steps", I was sure this was just a figure of speech.

It was not.

See the beach of that little seaside town down there?

That’s where we started,

And this wasn’t even halfway up.

But the views from the top were well-worth the unbelievable effort required to get there.

that island over to the left there is the island of the Sirens 

(from the Odyssey)

But our journey was far from over.  Once up, we needed to hike along the cliffs to the next town – an exercise that was scary even for one without a fear of heights.

Stefan, however, is one of those crazy people who seems to be not afraid of anything.  While I’m always thinking of the worst case scenario where everyone ends up dying, he can only see the best.

this kid is insane

We stumbled upon an old (but still functioning) monastery where we enjoyed a bit of shade before finishing the hike down to Priano. 

Priano was small and nice, but lacked the charm of Positano – we opted to skip a lunch there and head back to our little town instead.  There, we enjoyed tomato-mozzarella paninis seaside and then spent the afternoon lounging and swimming in the warm sea.

We were exhausted, but satisfied, ready for more delicious Italian food.

xoxo

KK

antonio caggiano

Are you getting sick of hearing about our wine adventures yet?
We're getting close to the end - I promise.
(And hearing about this is a lot more exciting than hearing about what we were up to this past weekend: laundry, work-clothes-shopping, and dealing with our car being broken into - now we're real San Franciscans.)

Post Montevetrano, we headed to Antonio Caggiano for another private tasting with the winemaker himself.  Given Antonio didn't speak a word of English (and Stefan's Span-talian wasn't going to make the cut for more than the basics), his son did the honors of our private tour.

their library

their cellar

their old-school cork-put-er-in-er

While Antonio didn't speak English, he did have an odd obsession with taking photographs of me (which I obviously loved), particularly in front of a rather large poster of him - well - taking photos.  Random.

I didn't ask questions.  

Their affinity for us paid off when it came time for the tasting.

At one point Stefan mentioned how the 1999 vintage of a particular 2011 vintage wine we were tasting must be sensational for x, y and z reasons he is describing oh-so-clearly above.  
(I nodded in agreement but obviously didn't have a clue.)

The son quickly replied: "Let's find out," and scurried off to their cellar to open one of the $80+ retail bottles in question.

It was sensational.

Stefan - you're a wine genius.

(But then again, I was quite a few tastes in by this point.)

When we paid for our purchases (2 bottles of the sensational 1999), not only did they not charge us a penny for the tasting, they tossed in another bottle of wine (my favorite of the bunch) as a present from Antonio.

Now that's what I call customer service.

xoxo

KK