“Hi everyone, I’m Greg, and if you don’t know me it may be because you started working here in January and I’ve ... [ more ]]]> On Friday, January 29th I was standing beside a big projection screen in front of the entire company of The Motley Fool. I took a deep breath and began:

“Hi everyone, I’m Greg, and if you don’t know me it may be because you started working here in January and I’ve been out most of the month on my Fool’s Errand.”

“I think the Fool’s Errand is a fantastic initiative. I had the most remarkable and rewarding time. But wait, this is The Motley Fool, we don’t evaluate success based just on word of mouth. No, we look at the numbers. So I submit to you, Fool’s Errand – The Report.”

“All right, let’s dive right in.”

“I spent the first half of the trip moving into my new home. You can see in the upper left a chart of which level of my home I spent time unpacking. It turned out most of the work needed was in the attic and basement. Notice here too the number of boxes left to unpack: one. I’m very proud of that.”

“Enough about moving in, lets go on to the road trip. I drove down to Florida with my wife and my puppy, 2969 miles in total. I am presuming that’s expendable, I’ll be submitting an reimbursement report later today.”

“You can see here a breakdown of where I slept each night of the Fool’s Errand, about half in my home, and then a little less with relatives and less still in hotels and B&Bs including SoBe You in South Beach which I highly recommend and La Quinta in Savannah which… well, not so much.”

“While in Florida we travelled down to the Florida Keys and then back to Orlando to spend some time with family. We did hit all four Disney parks in one day. You can see in the lower right here a breakdown of time spent in each park, pretty balanced Disney experience. Also, I want to call attention to this score right here, 39 or -14. Yes, I played a sick game of mini golf  and held the low score of the day at Fantasia Gardens.”

“The weather was surprisingly cold, you see here 19 degrees in Orlando. The locals found that novelty fun and interesting. Me… not so much, I knew cold, I left cold back in DC, I wanted some warmth, which did come towards the end of the trip, 78 degrees on the last days in Orlando.”

“Let’s talk about what I ate while I was away. I totally recommend Puerto Sagua in South Beach for excellent Cuban food, and hey, did you know that there is still a Bennigans in operation in Orlando?! I was so excited to get to have a Monte Cristo sandwich again.”

“You can see her a breakdown of what I drank. We all know it’s important that we have a nice variety of beverages, and I think I achieved that here.”

“Now, exercise… let’s not talk about exercise, wasn’t much to speak of.”

“Ah, entertainment, yes. I highly recommend the Finding Nemo Stage Show in Animal Kingdom, it is Broadway caliber, by far the best thing I watched while I was away. And the worst… that would be my Eagles losing to the Cowboys twice while I was away. Ugh, Cowboys.”

“Oh, there’s my dog. I am very happy about this number, zero accidents in the house or car, she finally became housebroken during this trip. I will also point out this number here, six attacks by poodles. I don’t know what the deal with ShihTzus and Poodles but there is some bad blood there.”

“Finally, if I may tell a quick story, two years ago my wife and I got married on a very warm day in the Florida Keys, and a staff member at the resort, trying to be helpful, put our cake, well actually cake topper, in the freezer to keep when it should have been out thawing. When it came time to cut the cake it was frozen solid, there was no penetrating it. So, my wife and I never got to eat our wedding cake.”

“Knowing I had this opportunity  of the Fool’s Errand, I convinced my wife to join me on the trip to Florida, and we contacted that same bakery and ordered that same cake, and we went to that same spot on the resort where we married. It was two years late, but we finally got to enjoy our wedding cake. And it was damn good too.”

“That alone made this whole Fool’s Errand worthwhile, so thank you The Motley Fool for providing me this opportunity, and thank you all for letting me share my experiences with you today.”

And with that I returned to my seat, smiling, knowing that I had made the most of my Fool’s Errand and the most of presenting it back to the people at The Motley Fool.

The most notable thing about Egyptian cuisine is how fresh everything is. ... [ more ]]]> Like with Europe, Hedgehog/Mangia/Foodie (somehow, Mangia hasn’t quite stuck) made an appearance every time we ate something. I didn’t know much about Egyptian cuisine, but boy did I have a great time eating, and I already miss the food.

The most notable thing about Egyptian cuisine is how fresh everything is. By far, we ate the freshest vegetables, meats and fruit juices I’ve ever had. Supposedly the soil where it is all grown around off the Nile is incredibly fertile. On top of that, everything was incredibly flavorful. Not a fan of chicken livers by nature, Greg still proceeded to have seconds, then thirds of chicken liver dishes cooked in the spices. Even something as commonplace as Pepsi tasted fresh. (Not Coke, we learned.)

I could have eaten just the sides of rice and veggies all day.

Yogurt covered rice and fresh meat.

Egyptian Pepsi.

As far as desserts go, even the sweets were flavorful. I caught hints of cardamom, rosewater, cinnamon and other flavors I couldn’t decipher.

A sweet called Basbusa.

Phyllo-doughy goodness

Fresher, creamier, thicker ice cream

But probably the best part of the food portion of the trip was how patient everyone was in letting me indulge in my documentation, holding out, even when half-starving, until the hedgehog had the perfect pictures.

For a full album of pictures, click here.

Before we went away to Egypt, I agreed to be on the hook to bring in cupcakes this Friday for the Motley Fool cupcake competition. I knew Selena would be excited for an excuse ... [ more ]]]> Look out Hello and Georgetown, even on an off day, Selena can still make prize-winning cupcakes.

Before we went away to Egypt, I agreed to be on the hook to bring in cupcakes this Friday for the Motley Fool cupcake competition. I knew Selena would be excited for an excuse to make cupcakes, so I had signed us up… and then completely forgot.

Selena had come up with a very appropriate idea (for my office) of coffee flavored cupcakes with cappuccino icing, served in Starbucks sample-size cups, but as of 9pm on Thursday, we hadn’t done any test run and the only ingredient we had was the sample cups.

After a quick Giant run, we were in the kitchen making the cake and the icing. Well, Selena was in the kitchen, Greg was floating in and out of the kitchen still fighting off jetlag. Selena was not exhausted, but not at the top of her game. She forgot key ingredients at key times and had to double-back.

Eventually, things started coming together, but not perfectly. Selena found the cake a little dry, and the icing too gooey, unable to swirl. The sprinkled cocoa topping was a no-go.

She was unhappy.

But like in so many of Selena’s endeavors, she is her own harshest critic. While the cake and icing were problematic separately, they really came together deliciously. The presentation was not as delectable as intended, but still came off clever and creative due to the use of Starbucks sample cups instead of wrappers.

By midday the Fool offices were abuzz with cupcake talk, and to my delight there was much praise being given to our Afternoon Coffee cupcakes for creativity and for taste. I called Selena and let her know that our cupcakes had sold out, even faster than the odds-on favorite red velvet cupcakes.

In the end, we came in 3rd place losing to some stiff competition (but beating out the red velvets). We won a gift card, which is great, but more rewarding is the confidence that this brings for Selena that even when so much goes wrong, things can still come out smelling like a rose, or in this case like a cappuccino.

Selena and Gregs Afternoon Coffee Cupcakes

Actually neither of us has lived in our parent’s homes for years, but a lot ... [ more ]]]> As we say goodbye to 2008, we want to take a moment to look back at the year that was, as described through the Greg and Selena blog:

Top Six things about 2008

6. We finally moved out

Actually neither of us has lived in our parent’s homes for years, but a lot of our stuff continued to reside there until this spring. In April, Selena’s Dad finally convinced Selena to move 20 boxes of Happy Meal toys, Cabbage Patch Kids and Brandan Walsh pillows out of his house and into ours. Selena spent two weeks going through it all and finally getting it all put away. Greg mocked her all the while, only to get his when, as part of a Mother’s Day visit, he brought home from Delaware a full car load of Nintendo Power magazines, baseball cards and Jessica Rabbit cardboard cutouts. As of now, it’s all in storage and both parents houses are cleared out.

The top comment came from Stef:

So, Greg, what was the occasion when you got yourself a cut-out Jessica Rabbit? Did she adorn the room of teenage Greg for all those years???

5. We watched too much TV

Again. So much so, that we scooped the preview poster for Season Five of LOST. (Hahaha. That became our only Digg’d/Mixx’d blog post). If there was one reoccurring theme on the blog this year, it was that Selena loves Gossip Girl, there were at least four posts about her addiction to the teen drama. Speaking of teen drama, Greg explained Twilight, but that’s a movie, and we didn’t go to many of them. Instead, we taxed our Tivo, watching so much TV that we held a private draft of who would get which TV channels if we were forced to choose. We also started a bracketology (that we didn’t see through to fruition) of who best character on TV is – of course Selena suggest Gossip Girl’s Chuck Bass.

The best comment was from Kitty agreeing with Selena:

I agree with Selena’s points on Chuck Bass wholeheartedly. I don’t even think we’ve seen the half of his character yet, he hasn’t realized his full potential as a character yet – it’s all the more intriguing!!

4. We did some good eatin’

We are not exactly on the same page when it comes to blogging about food. Greg’s (loosely) qualifying posts include leaving Chinese food on the Metro and spilling coffee into the ice machine. Meanwhile, Selena, who takes food a lot more seriously, picked up where she left off last year, converting more foods into cupcake form, by writing in great length about all the meals we ate on our European tour, in fact, she photographed every meal. She broadcast her entire Thanksgiving menu, which was extensive, and even gave away the secret to Thanksgiving leftovers. Selena also gave a complete detail of the food and wine we tasted on the surprise birthday weekend in Virginia Wine Country.

The best comment was from Kitty again:

One of your Sponsored Links is showing up: Wine Coolers on Sale! How LAME is it, that I got very excited thinking this meant those totally 90’s girly beverages… when, in fact, it meant bags for storing and keeping wine cool??

3. We lost some weight, (well sorta)

Probably because of all those good eatin’, we had to focus on weight loss, which happened when Selena invoked a Biggest Loser challenge in the house. Each week we would take to the scale and determine who lost the most weight and the other person would be saddled with a new chore of the winner’s choosing. The competition became fierce as we both fought to avoid having to do the punishment chores. In the end Greg came away with more victories, but mostly due to a flaw in the scoring system.

The best comment was double-edged from Dancer in DC:

Congratulations, Greg! You have proven the master at losing.
Wait – that doesn’t sound right…

2. We tried new things

2008 was a year for trying new things.

Selena returned to camping for the first time in a long time, once she got Greg to agree on getting an absurdly large tent. The camping was the lodging for a weekend trip to West Virginia to try water water rafting for the first time. We went up to Class 4, pretty exciting times on the river.

Selena also tried sharing Greg’s favorite exercise, running, by joining him in the Rockville five mile race. At the end of the race they gave you two beers, and Selena ran as though someone was chasing her.

Selena also got wind for a new packing system from her friend Alex, the basic concept is everything is individually wrapped in Ziploc bags. We tried it and loved it. It proved a very effective system and indispensable in preparing for the European vacation.

Finally, Selena got back to crafting when she got involved in an Ornament swap, where she made Felt Christmas Cupcake ornaments.

The best comment was from Bill in regard to the oversize tent:

Sounds like a tent from the Harry Potter books…

1. We traveled all over

At this time last year as we were saying goodbye to 2007, Selena and I decided ’08 would be the year of travel.

• We started out well in the first month with visits to the mountains and to Florida
• In March we sipped our way around Virginia wine country
• In the mid-summer we took a camping weekend in Western PA that included White Water rafting in West Virginia.
• Shortly thereafter we took a long weekend road trip up to Boston, Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard with our new mascot, because Greg had never been to New England.
• In August, we took a low key relaxing week at the beach with the Robleto family
• A few weeks later we went on the crown jewel of our year of travel. Our two week European tour took us to England, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France.
• And to round out the year, we are making a trip to Egypt to visit the pyramids and practice a little karate.

The best comment was from Dancer in DC:

What a wonderful trip you had! Sounds like a blast. I’m jealous.

And that, in a blog post, was 2008. Thank you for reading our blog this past year, and we hope you will be back for more insights, stories, and discoveries of what’s in store for Selena and Greg in 2009.

Happy New Year!

“Is that your bag?”  That may be heard a lot today on the red ... [ more ]]]> As I walked into work, passing the deli, I wondered what I would have for lunch. Then I remembered I brought lunch. THEN I remembered I brought lunch as far as onto the Metro… but not back off.

“Is that your bag?”  That may be heard a lot today on the red line, because under a seat in the first car of a train is a bag with a Styrofoam container of Chinese food (Mago Tofu and Sweet and Sour Chicken).

I’ve never forgotten anything on the Metro before. I am glad that if I am going to lose something it will be as disposable as leftover Chinese.

What have you ever lost on the public transit?