PIECE BY PIECE

If it's not one thing, it's another. First, we spent hours each day looking for the perfect apartment, and once that was found, you'd think we'd take it easy. Well, we might have - if we had anything besides three suitcases full of clothes to our name. Instead, we now spend hours each day looking for the perfect furniture for our perfect apartment. And I thought apartment hunting was frustrating. Furniture hunting makes it seem like a walk in the park. The good thing is that Adrian and I have very similar taste in most things; the bad thing is that no one seems to make exactly what we have in mind. So far we've bought a dining room table without chairs, a bedframe and mattress for our bedroom, a bench/daybed for the foyer, and a sofa that we just found today when we were buying our TV stand. The essential pieces, like the sofa and bench/daybed, are being custom made and won't even be shipped for over six weeks! (Eye roll here.) Luckily, our bed comes this Friday, though we now need to get sheets, pillows and all that other stuff. Oh, and of course, Adrian bought a TV today and has our cable being set up as soon as we get back from California (you can imagine how disappointed he was when they couldn't come any earlier). Especially since his next purchase is an Xbox. (Big eye roll here.) It will be great to get the pieces in the apartment and then figure out if our color palettes really do work together and what other stuff we'll need. And then it will be back to shopping.

MISSIONS ACCOMPLISHED

I know you had to wait three long blogs to hear the news, but we did it! We found both an amazing apartment and the perfect family reunion dress. We were able to get into our apartment today to take measurements and photos (these can be seen on my Flickr site). It's as wonderful as we remember, and the super thinks he can get us in before our lease start date of September 1st. We're now busy furniture shopping both in store and online. We're hoping to get a bed in there before we leave for California on the 7th. As for my dress, we went to Soho earlier in the week and I found some great stores where my AmEx was on fire. This is going to sound unreal, but we walked into Max Mara and the sales associate saw me browsing through the dresses and said she had the perfect dress for me and that it wasn't even on the floor yet. I was like, okay, we'll see, since I hadn't even told her what I needed it for. But sure enough, she brings out this dress and as soon as Adrian and I saw it on the hanger, we both knew it was the one. Amazingly, it looked even better on. Photos from the reunion and moving announcements coming to you very soon!

RR

Our good friend Mark knows the publicist for Rachael Ray, and so today the three of us (Mark, Adrian, and myself) went to a taping of her new soon-to-premiere talk show. This was my first foray into television production and it didn't disappoint. We were there for almost four hours, and I swear we probably clapped for 90% of it. The MC even showed us exercises to do to keep our hands from falling off our wrists with all the clapping. First, we were ushered into the audience room where we were given free water and snacks. Then we were ushered into the actual studio - where we were taught to show as much real (or fake) enthusiasm as we could. The coolest thing about the studio is that the audience is sitting on a circular stage that actually rotates to the different areas of the studio, since Rachael has an interview area, a kitchen area, plus other areas too complicated to write about. (Just watch the show - it premieres on September 18 and our episode is set to air within the first week!) Rachael looks and acts exactly like she does on her shows - she's very cute and funny, and quick thinking. (She's also 38, which I couldn't believe!) The whole experience wouldn't have been half as great if I wasn't sandwiched between two guys who could probably care less about the show and yet managed to pull off tremendous enthusiasm anyways. Mark and Adrian high-fived over my head in the opening greeting segment and I pray that ends up on TV, and they shouted out props to whatever segment was taking place. For instance, if Rachael showed us the snapper she was going to cook and happened to name it Rodney, there were Mark and Adrian clapping as loud as could be, shouting "Rodney! Rodney!" I'm not kidding you. We even came to find out that we'd been sitting in front of the president of the Food Network and the gentleman that "discovered" Rachael. The publicist friend even gave us parting gifts - we got RR oval grill skillets, and he took us out a back way where we got to see RR in a bathrobe and bunny slippers in the hallway. The best part though was the snack given out halfway through - an assortment of huge cookies that come from a bakery in the Upper West Side. We will be hitting that place up again.

B TO THE F TO THE J OR M

Riding the New York subway is always an adventure. Every time Adrian and I take a wrong train or waste time on the wrong platform, I complain that we would never survive on "The Amazing Race," so it's a good thing we don't plan to apply. Today, I took the subway by myself for the first time ever. I know that people, kids even, do this every day, but for me it was momentous, especially since I was traveling all the way to Brooklyn. Yes, I did get on an express train that went four stops past where I wanted to get off. This would have been fine in and of itself except that I stood up in preparation of my stop and I was the only one standing for four long stops. How obvious can I be - yes, I'm new here. And yes, I did jump off the train coming home thinking it was going to pass my stop only to find out I should have stayed on. But I'm learning and I always give myself enough time for these learning sessions. Plus, today, a gentleman actually ran back to the train he had just exited to hold the door for me when he saw me running up the stairs - that never happens when Adrian's around.

GLAMOUROUS LIFE

I've been getting some flak lately for the lack of postings here, and I know most of you are thinking that it's because I've moved to glamourous Manhattan and I'm now too busy hitting the hot spots and hanging out with celebrities to stop and actually write about it, but it's not true. None of it. I mean, I did see Dog the Bounty Hunter on the street the other day, but does he count as a celebrity? The truth is that Adrian and I spend all of our time trying to find an apartment and then I'm in desperate need of an outfit for the Liang family reunion we're attending this weekend, so right after hunting we go shopping. Both are quite discouraging, so by the time I get home, I just don't feel like writing about any of it. And that's the life we're living at this point. I know it's all going to be over soon, and we're going to be in a fantastic place and I'll have wowed the extended family with my classy, but hip outfit. I just have such high hopes for both.

BICOASTAL

The apartment hunting continues in New York. We've looked at places on our own and also with a nice broker named Jennifer (from San Mateo - small world). We've traversed the entire Upper West Side and seen nasty, old places, as well as complete gut renovations. But nothing has screamed out at us that it was "home". I'm in California doing wedding stuff with Katie and getting excited about the Faith/Tim concert tonight in San Jose. I'll be here until Tuesday, then it's back to New York for more hunting. I've booked a haircut at a salon recommended by Jennifer out in Brooklyn and am looking on Citysearch for a facialist. We've applied for health insurance and picked our doctors; just waiting to hear if we've been accepted. Slowly, but surely, we're starting our new life in New York. I will say, though, that I haven't grinned as hard as I did when I landed at SFO and walked through that airport. You can take the girl out of San Francisco...ahhh, you know...it's all about being bicoastal.

COMING HOME

Tomorrow afternoon, Adrian and I will board a plane that will take us back to the States. It will signify both a glorious ending and an exciting beginning. We end our 2006 European tour here in Lisbon, and tomorrow night we begin the adventure of making New York our home. I am also lucky enough to have a quick side trip to the Bay Area scheduled for next weekend where I will get to spend some quality time with Katie (and Noah). We already have some apartment viewings lined up; I have cooking lessons to sign up for; we have new cell phone numbers to get...plus family to see and regale with stories. Life doesn't get much better.

WE ARE FAMILY

We're three days into the big Portugal trip and everything has been wonderful. We found my parents and brother in the Lisbon airport without any problems and traveled on time to the Azores island of Sao Miguel. We walked around on our own on the first day and saw the whole city of Ponta Delgada. The last two days we've taken part in planned tours with our guide Reinaldo, who was great and quite knowledgable for a 23-year-old who was only in his second summer of working for the tour company. He took us everywhere we wanted and more. Tomorrow we're off to Lisbon - a more urban environment where we don't have anything planned at the moment except for a side trip to Fatima one of the days.

Update: New hotel, better internet. Photos now on both Flickr sites.