High Priced Travel and Low Cost Shopping

Last Friday, I had a girls night clothing exchange with some friends. It's always a good time and I was glad to be able to get rid of some more stuff. My goal at these things is to always go home with less than what I brought and I think that I achieved that! Even in Lei's way pregnant state, she's still able to organize and plan. It's always fun to meet new people too. Edwin, on the other hand, got some much needed alone time on the couch.

On Saturday, we had brunch with the Banerjees before they left for their vacation to Hawaii. It made me think that we need to plan a vacation. We've been talking about trying to go to Italy in August. We were invited to a wedding there. We love Italy. With all the craziness happening in the airline industry and the poor exchange rate, it is really making me think that it might not be a good idea. Not to mention that most of Europe, including many Italians, will also be on vacation in August. Edwin is going to Nicaragua in July for a bachelor party/surfing trip. I'll be going to NYC at the same time.

We're also planning on going to DC at the end of July for Ellen and Mustafa's wedding. That's a lot of travel. I've been looking for tickets online and I can't seem to find anything for under $400. Are the prices high because of gas prices, speculation that there will be increased demand due to competitive airlines going bankrupt, or just plain greed?

We also hung out with the Schneiders this weekend. We had a great dinner at a new Mongolian restaurant in San Mateo called Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot. It had this really tasty broth. Most hot pot places give you either chicken broth or just water. This one had a lot of spices like burdock root, lotus seeds, and some other stuff I don't know. We'll definitely be going back.

On Sunday, we took everything out of the garage to clean it and to bring in the rest of the boxes that have not been unpacked since we moved in. I was working almost continuously from 11AM-2AM and I'm still nowhere near done. Hopefully, we'll be able to hang the old kitchen cabinets in the garage this weekend. We're still trying to unpack, sort, and organize everything. We want to have a garage sale next month so that we can get rid of more stuff. It's really funny to me how everyone always wants to join a garage sale, but no one really wants to plan for it. Maybe we should invite more people over this weekend so that we'll motivate to clean.