Alrighty peeps, no guarantees of blogging from China, but we will do our best! See you on July 3rd after 16 hours of flying, three layovers and one jaunt over the international date divide!

Lanzhou, China. Here we come!

Twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go. I'm going to need to be sedated....

Rob and Reese brought us these flowers and they smell soooooooooo good. I've been practicing taking pictures in anticipation of our China trip. Rachel advised me to keep taking pictures from different angles until one looks good. I think this one is the money shot!

Relief is spelled C-H-I-N-A

Today was a great day for some many reasons. We had a totally full house for So You Think You Can Dance Mania. We fit 12 people,spaghetti, deviled eggs, poundcake brownies and 1 dog in Casa Perez! And the dancing was off-the-chain! (Note new slang that I'm trying out...never say that you can't learn new things from TV)
Also, my cousins Rob and (future cousin-in-law) Reese came by to visit! Woo-hoo! I always love hanging out with Rob because he is really funny, plus just seeing him reminds me of all the whacky family history we share. Reese is perfect for the family because she's friendly and her name starts with an R, which is a Maghanoy family rule. I mean, seriously, just to list some people in my family, Roderick, RonRon, Romel, Rodney, Robert and now... Reese! It just makes make sense people. Look at how cute they area! They even match....
Also I was very flattered that Reese complimented the house because she has very good taste. Her Mom owns a clothing store so Reese has closets merchandized as if it were a store display. This is the kind of a thing aspire to have going on in my house, closets and doors that are shockingly asthetically pleasing. Next time you come over Reese, remind me to ask you for tips!

Despite all the dogs and dancing and family, the real blog story of the day is my Mother-In-Law. We've been avoiding telling her about our China trip for awhile because we thought she might get overly anxious about us going to far. You have to keep in mind that all she knows about anywhere is what she sees in TV movies... so we considered not telling her but decided that it wasn't a good idea to leave for three weeks and not mention where we were going... so today Arnold broached the subject.

Arnold - Mom, I'm going to be going on a trip pretty far away for the next three weeks.
MIL - M'ijo, where are you going? OH MY GOD, ARE YOU GOING TO THE PHILIPPINES?
Arnold - Huh?
MIL - You CAN'T go there! I saw it on the map, those islands are way too small, you'll got lost in the middle of the ocean!
Arnold -We're going to China to visit a friend.
MIL - Oh.... (pause)... bring me back something okay?

I am so pleased about this for several reasons. 1) My Mother-in-Law remembered that my Dad is from the Philippines, most people in Latin America refer to all Asians as "chinos" or Chinese so that fact that she retained info about my Dad's roots and bothered to find out where the Philippines are really impressed me 2) I don't have to worry about her crying in fear everyday for the whole three weeks we are gone. I mean honestly, it's a win-win for everybody involved. And that my friends is why relief is spelled C-H-I-N-A.

Pretty sketchy...

You'll have to excuse the pun, it's just that I've been watching Sex in the City and it sticks with you. I'm doing my best to refrain from swearing and making double entendres... like "Oohhhhh, I love to color with every crayon in my box...." but I digress. The sketch above is my elevation drawing of the booth I'm conceptualizing for the trade show! It seems like maybe I need to work on my drawing "skills" but I actually feel like it came out better than I expected. I mean, really I haven't drawn since I was in grade school. Hopefully I will be able to attend the trade show and take a picture of the finished product.

And speaking of things that I haven't done since grade school Today I ran a mile in 8:34 seconds, almost achieving my career high of the 8:12 mile I ran in Junior high.... I know, I can't believe it either. 8:34! That's CRAAAAAAAAZY! I think I'm going to try for an eight minute mile later this week and see what happens.

One week till we go to China!

Maghanoylandia Photo round up

Last month Gma and Aunt Carole came to visit. Look how shiny Gma's hair is! She's a spring chicken! Thank goodness for my good genes!



After a hiatus in which we only ate crap for awhile, we are back to our 5 a Day. This is mostly thanks to me cooking again/caring about our diet. This is watermelon salad with cherry tomatoes, balsamic vingar, and mint. So simple and delicioso!



The virtousness doesn't end there, we've also been trying to get Casa Perez up to snuff. Check out studly Arnold, looking for studs in the ceiling!

Bad Asian! Bad Asian!


I committed an Asian sin the other day. I was merrily getting ready to marinate my skirt steak when I went to the fridge and found out that we had NO SOY SAUCE. Alarmed by the audacity of my oversight I closed the door quickly and scanned the room to make sure that the Asian Police didn't come and take away my Wilipino card. I mean seriously! A Wilipina without soy sauce? That's like a gringo without sour cream. I sort of remedied my faux pas by getting some sauce stat, but I got the wussy kind. Instead of a respectable brand like Kikkoman, I got low sodium kind from TJ's. I know that GAD's around the world are shaking their heads in disgust.

My life on the E-List is not so exciting

I think that Arnold and I are suffering some kind of PTSD from the school year because now that we are out of school, we don't do ANYTHING! It feels so taxing to do normal stuff, like cook food, leave the house, socialize etc. Seriously. I bought 5 paint samples 10 days ago and they are still not up on the wall. Honestly the only reason I even exercise right now is so that I can eat my way through China.

Although we bought our tickets a loooooooooooong time ago, I've never felt that this whole "Trip to China" thing was very real... until we got our visas. When I opened up my passport and saw my name next to Chinese characters(which I of course can't read) I realized. Whoa. We are going very, very far from home. I heard that blogger is not available in China, so I might not be able to blog, but if I can, I promise to record every lunatic mishap.

Top Design

Not very many people know that I am somewhat of a design freak. Despite having very few creative-visual-artsy skills (that I know of anyways) I am really, really into interior design. I do dumb things like sit around reading about chairs for fun. I'm so much of a freak that I snub HGTV for it's pedestrian makeover ideas. I know, it's so elitist of me.

Trouble is design requires one of three things 1) Time, 2) Money 3) Talent. Up till now I haven't had much of either of those, but now that school is over, I've got more time and I am about to go crazy! Plus, I just got an awesome opportunity to design the merchandising booth for a Paper Company! I know, I just read that last sentence and thought it was weird too.... but it's true. Ironically prior to this opportunity I had spent the last couple months reading about people who designed merchandising booths for a big New York stationary trade show. Yes, people, these are things I do for fun. It is strange, but true. When I was asked if I would be interested in designing the booth I said "ARE YOU KIDDING, I DREAM ABOUT DESIGNING MERCHANDISING BOOTHS FOR STATIONARY TRADE SHOWS". And, no, I am not exaggerating, that's exactly what I said.... and now I know that I've officially gone off the deep end.


Also... 19 days till we leave for China! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And speaking of running...

My friend Dona is currently living in Tanzania with a group of girls who are training to be runners. These girls come from very disadvantaged backgrounds and running is chance for them to have hope in their futures. Right now Dona is raising money so that they can go to the National competitions and have a chance to visit with their families whom they rarely see. Dona only needs $200 more! If you are interested in helping out, visit her blog and click on the button in the upper left hand corner.

http://donastravels.blogspot.com/2008/06/lets-send-them-to-nationals.html

The little engine that could! (And did!)

Today I continued my slow chugging job towards physical fitness by running in a 5K. I finished under 30 minutes with a 9:35 pace per mile. In the big scheme of things, this is not very fast. For comparison my friend Renee ran a 10K last week at a 7:35 mile pace... but then again she also finished second in the WHOLE RACE. Renee is insanely competitive but despite the fact that she has amazing accomplishments like a 7 minute mile, Masters Degree etc. she spends most of her time boasting about stupid things, like the fact that she can burp the alphabet, fart on command etc.

I can't burp the alphabet or run fast, but the Maghanoy in me still wants to brag whenever I do anything even remotely challenging, like run a 9:35 mile 5K. When I run, it's pretty much like watching a pug run. They are short compared to everybody else, and even though their legs are moving kind of fast they kind of stub along at a frantic pace, lots of energy expended but not much ground covered. It's nice if you can sprint long and quick like a gazelle but hey if your a pug, you have to accept it and just keep on keeping on until you cross that finish line exhilarated and nauseous. :)

Mission Accomplished!

Lisa and Dan got married! And then we celebrated.... a lot.