Sushi Extravaganza at digital-telepathy!

This past Monday, our lunch chefs, Gage and Julia, crafted us a tsunami of a meaningful experience with an amazing DT Sushi Lunch Experience.  They brought in Guest Chef Matsu Yuichiro, of Azuki Sushi for a truly memorable and unbelievable experience.

The main course of our meal was a delectable Chirashi, which was a dish of fresh albacore, shrimp, salmon, tuna, and avocado atop rice and daikon radish.  They prepared a variety of fresh sushi rolls with tofu and veggies that were absolutely to die for, and we also were able to enjoy a delightful piece of miso black cod.  The salads truly exceeded our expectations, as well, and we were able to try Sunomono, which is a traditional Japanese cucumber salad, and a wasabi cabbage and hijiki slaw comprised of organic cabbage, arugula, carrots, ume plum vinegar and cream wasabi dressing topped with sesame seeds.

During lunch we had a saki toast, and we took turns toasting to what we were thankful for.  With thanksgiving coming from all around the table, it was an incredible experience for everyone to be a part of.  Hearing statements like "I'm thankful for all the friends I work with", "I'm thankful for our team caring so much about what they do and for each other", "I'm thankful for a kickass place to work", "I'm thankful for these lunches and that our CEO sees the value in them", and so many more, we were all very moved.  Our Manager of Company Culture even chimed in with a second thanksgiving of "I'm thankful I haven't started crying yet".  :-)

Our team is very much a family, and at certain points, like during Monday's lunch, that really shines through.  It's truly an amazing environment to be a part of.  We all enjoyed our beautifully crafted lunch, were so enthused to meet and enjoy Matsu Yuichiro's amazing talent, and were enlightened by the touching toast we all shared together.

It was a truly meaningful Monday lunch! :)

Restaurant Adventures in San Diego with Rachael

This past weekend, John and I enjoyed a fabulous visit with our good friend Rachael.  Rachael used to live with John and I back in Buffalo, and when we sold the house on Spruce, she took it as a timing cue to move to NYC!  We hadn't seen her since leaving Buffalo, so as you can imagine, we were elated that she was visiting.  It was so great to see her and amazing to catch up on what's going on in her life!

Since Rachael's job has been pretty demanding lately, she was ready for us to show her a relaxing version of our usual tourist list of things to do, and John and I wanted to try out some new sites.  We were able to enjoy a bunch of new restaurants and were even able to enjoy a relaxing afternoon at the beach on Saturday, complete with a picnic lunch!  

Aside from taking Rachael to some of our true favorite spots, like Ocean Beach, Rubicon Deli, Blue Water Seafood Market and Grill, and Balboa Park - we were able to enjoy some new San Diego sights and meals together!

On Saturday, after eating delicious sandwiches from Blue Water and spending the early afternoon soaking up the San Diego sun on Ocean Beach (I know, all you east coasters hate us right now), we enjoyed a night out in the Gaslamp with a delicious meal at Rama and drinks at Analog.  Rama was the amazing Thai restaurant that we enjoyed for the first time with John's family when they visited two weeks ago, and Analog was a really sweet bar that we all tried for the first time together.  One of the main reasons I really enjoyed Analog Bar was for its decor - complete with a wall of cassette tapes!  

Sunday morning we tried Cafe 21 for brunch and were pleasantly surprised by how delicious it was!  I had an omelet, while John and Rach had the Cafe 21 version of Eggs Benedict.  We all really enjoyed what we ordered and left the restaurant stuffed!  A second awesome place that we tried on Sunday was Tender Greens, another restaurant located right downtown.  After being stuffed all day from brunch, we felt like eating something light for dinner and chose Tender Greens for its great salad selection.  We all ordered yummy salads and enjoyed some of their delicious gluten free desserts, as well.  

It was back to work on Monday for all of us, but we did meet up for a delightful dinner together at Project Pie.  John and I had never tried it and we both thought it was a really cool place.  A bit different from your traditional pizza joint, Project Pie offers gluten free crust options and unlimited pizza toppings all for a very reasonable, low cost!  It was a fun place to try out and I loved that even though I loaded up my pizza with pretty much every topping, it still cost me less than $10 including tax!  What a deal!

On our last night together, after another day of working, John and I met up with Rachael for one last delicious meal on Tuesday.  Rachael did some research during the day and chose a restaurant in Hillcrest named Kous Kous.  John and I had never been and were down for our first pass at trying Moroccan Food.  What a treat!  We enjoyed several tapas, tagines, lamb kabobs, mint tea, and drinks.  It was fab.  After trying it, I'd have to say that I'm definitely a fan of Moroccan food!  (And the dish Rachael ordered reminded me of something that my Yiayia makes, so I'm ordering that dish the next time :)

We sadly said goodbye to Rachael on Tuesday night after dinner and are already looking forward to when she makes her next visit out west.  It was great to be able to try out some new restaurants and see some new sites that John and I hadn't seen before.  It was fun to all be experiencing things for the first time instead of showing Rach what we've already seen or had a dozen times.  All in all, it was a wonderful, relaxing visit with one of our great friends!  Miss you already Rachael! :)

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How John and I got to the Front Page of Yahoo!

As many of you know, last week John and I were featured in an article written by the Associated Press about NY’s population struggles.  We didn’t realize how large the story would be at the time, but here’s the background to how and why it all happened!

Soon after arriving in California, I was contacted by an AP Reporter asking if I was available to be interviewed.  He had found my blog (YAY!) and read my bio, seeing firsthand that we had traveled the country from Buffalo to San Diego – the perfect subjects for his article about people moving out of WNY. 

I was so excited that a reporter had found my blog and taken the time to read a bit about our story that I of course said yes to an interview!  We had several phone interviews and finally even a photo shoot as the article came closer to publishing date.

Several months had passed between the interviews and photo shoot, and just when John and I were wondering if they had forgotten about our article, I was contacted by the AP reporter – he emailed me to let me know that the story was waiting on a bunch of complementary pieces, but would be launching shortly.  “That’s exciting,” I thought, but was still eager to see the article as even more time passed.

A day before the release, our AP reporter friend gave us the heads up to keep an eye out for our article!  We were so excited!  On January 3, before I even got out of the gym and had seen the article myself, I had several missed text messages and phone calls – the story was out and many of my coworkers in Buffalo at Citi Bank had seen it! 

Elated, I opened my computer and excitedly sent out the first article I found to my mom.  Soon after, John said, “That’s weird, you just sent an article from the Dallas newspaper.”  I thought, “That is weird, I would have thought this would be a WNY thing…”

Turns out it wasn’t!  Our picture and the tagline of “Melissa Grothues and John Steele bailed from Buffalo last year” was on nearly every major news website – including ABC news, Yahoo!, and many others.  Christina looked up statistics and by 9:00AM PST it was on over 75 websites and was being clicked once every two seconds!!!  Truly our five minutes of fame!

Early afternoon on that same day, John and I started getting texts that we were on the front page of Yahoo!  And lo and behold, we were!  I quickly emailed a screen shot to my coworkers and posted one on my Facebook, because I couldn’t get over the fact that ON YAHOO, was mine and John’s smiling faces with a gorgeous San Diego backdrop, and the article’s lovely tagline – MY NAME WAS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF YAHOO!

A few days passed and the glory began to fade, but not for long!  On Sunday, January 12, John and I were featured on the cover of NY State Newspaper!  Although we obviously weren’t there to see it ourselves, the texts and calls began coming through early morning as our family and friends collected their newspapers from out front!   I’m pretty sure our whole family now thinks we’re super famous =P

So that’s the story of how John and I got featured in a nation-wide news article.  It was quite exciting and I can’t wait until the next time we’re front-page news, and especially front page Yahoo! News!

Beauty & The Beast on Broadway, San Diego Style

When I found out that Beauty and the Beast on Broadway was coming to San Diego, and within walking distance of our apartment, no less, I knew that John and I just HAD to go.  And I am so glad that we did!

This past Friday, John and I had an extravagant date night - dinner at Spike Africa's downtown followed up by a spectacular viewing of Beauty and the Beast on Broadway!  Our dinner was delicious - it was the first time we had tried Spike Africa's but after eating there, it's a place that we'll definitely be eating at again!  We didn't order any appetizers since we were going directly to the show (usually when we order apps, I'm full before my meal comes and I end up taking home a wonderfully hefty doggy bag), but our entrees were amazing.  John ordered a traditional dish of Beer Battered Fish and Chips - the Mahi-mahi was really outstanding and it was complemented with a side of homemade tartar.  I enjoyed another fabulous dish, a Mustard Glazed Salmon entree paired with roasted peppers, crispy green beans, and potatoes.  

Once we had fully indulged and finished our meal, we walked the few blocks over to the San Diego Civic Theater to watch the show!  John and I hadn't been to the Civic Theater prior, so we were impressed by the building itself before we even got to our seats!  Unfortunately, since John and I are on a budget, our seats were a bit nosebleedy, but it was still an AMAZING show.  As Beauty and the Beast was my second broadway performance ever (my first was Book of Mormon back in March), I was elated to be there to enjoy the show.  Just watching the skilled dancing, enjoying the amazing singing, and seeing the stage transform beautifully for each new scene, made my week, and possibly even month!  It was such an incredible time.

Now I'm thinking about what Broadway show I'd like to see next.  What are some of the ones you've seen?  Have any been particularly amazing that I should put on my must-see list?  Let us know in the comments below!

(display image from: http://www.beautyandthebeastontour.com/photo-galleries)