Summer 2014

This summer has been pretty fun as we explore our new city. We ventured downtown to see the Dallas Arboretum. It was 100+ the day we went and we were dying of heat and thirst but there were some really interesting displays. They have two giant peacocks that were created out of bushes and flower beads, hibiscus flowers, and a wide variety of pepper plants. There were also some cool water features and a wide variety of Japanese maples.

After the arboretum we headed down to Jimmy's Food Store which is a small Italian market. It has great reviews online and we're always looking for good Italian food. We got a 9 inch muffaletta which was huge. We only ended up eating half and then took the rest home. The main reason I wanted to go was for the cannolis. They have amazing cannolis with real filling (candied fruit and mini chocolate chips) and they are filled right before you eat them so they don't become soggy. They even have chocolate cannolis where they dip the shell in chocolate and they were surprisingly good.

Arielle and I have also picked up a new hobby. As some of you may know I am very good at almost everything except skating of any type. I hate ice skating, roller blading, and roller skating. Arielle has been wanting to skate so I gave in and we got some roller skates. It's been really fun and I have only fell a few times. Once when I tried to jump a speed bump. A lot of people laugh and stare as I struggle to stand but we're both getting better.

We also went to a baseball game with Arielle's brother Nick. He had a friend that got us half price tickets so we were able to go to a game and get some nice seats behind third base. Baseball was slower than I expected but overall a good experience.

That's it for now, we'll update later this fall!

Welcome to the South

Once we were in Dallas for about a week we headed down to New Orleans to see Natalya, Damien, and Audrina at Natalya's in-laws. Arielle had never been to New Orleans and neither of us had driven through Louisiana. It took us eight hours to get there and the state of Louisiana looks nothing like New Orleans. Most of Louisiana is green but there were hardly any cities or people anywhere.

Mississippi River

New Orleans was a blast. I haven't seen my sister in over two years and we got to visit all the tourist spots in New Orleans. My favorite thing about New Orleans is going to Café du Monde. We had a big fourth of July party with lots of food and did some swimming in the new pool Trisha and Rita (Natalya's in-laws) bought.

Jackson Square

Once we got back to Dallas we continued to unpack and explore our neighborhood and other parts of Dallas. We live in Far North Dallas which is a suburb of Dallas. Almost any store or restaurant you can think of is within ten to twenty minutes from us. I have heard that there are more restaurants per person in Dallas than any other city in the US which is easy to believe.

 

Costco's great gelato

As many of you know we love Costco and the Costco here serves three scoops of gelato for $1.50 which is amazing. There are also sports and luxury cars everywhere. I usually see at least one Bentley, one Tesla, and either a Ferrari or a Maserati on the way to work. Dallas is always hot and doesn't really cool down at night. Everyone here keeps telling me that this is a mild summer but either way it's hot. Many locals will tell you that it is too hot to swim because the pool water warms up with the outside temperature.  I like my new job and the building that I am in is really nice. Overall our first impression of Dallas is good.

 

The view from my desk.

 

Graduation and Move to Dallas

Since the beginning of 2014 the Bianco's have been very busy. Arielle graduated in December with a Masters of Science in Kinesiology with emphasis in Motor Control and Development and I graduated in May with a Masters of Applied Economics in Financial Engineering. Arielle waited to walker until I graduated in May so that we could both walk together and family would just need to travel to Michigan once. Even looking back today it is hard to believe that we both have masters degrees as the time went so fast. Ann Arbor was a great place and we will miss it and our friends from Michigan.

 

After graduation I didn't have a job and we had no idea what we were going to do. Our lease on our school apartment ended at the end of June so we had to find somewhere else to move to. We looked at a few apartments and were prepared to move if we had to. I got an interview at Comerica in Dallas June 9th and had a good time interviewing. Once I got back I knew the chance of getting the job was still slim so I continued to apply for jobs and targeted Comerica's competitors. Huntington Bank called me that same week and had me come down at the beginning of the next week to interview. Arielle had never been to Columbus, Ohio so I took her with me. I was running late to my interview and about 10 minutes from Huntington I got a call from Dallas with a job offer. I told Comerica I would think about their offer and continued on with my interview at Huntington. I had another good interview at Huntington but told them I already had another offer. They responded that they didn't want to get into a pricing war so I told them I'd call them later that day with my decision to whether I wanted to be considered for their position. It was a tough decision to choose between the two. Comerica had a larger staff that would be helpful in career development and support while Huntington lacked the support but they would offer great responsibility since I would be one of the few calling the shots on the model development. I decided to go with Comerica since I liked the team and they made me an offer that I don't think Huntington would have matched. That night a recruiter at Huntington called to see if they could make me an offer before I made any decisions but I had already made up my mind.

So Arielle and I planned to move in a week and a half from when I accepted my offer. It was crazy as we quickly packed everything, set up the moving truck, cleaned the apartment, and looked for a new place to live in Dallas. We found an apartment online and luckily had our friend Alex help us load all of our stuff. We made the trip to Dallas in two days and Arielle's brother Nick was able to come up from Austin to help us unload. Once we arrived at our new apartment we signed the paperwork and walked into the place to smell heavy cigarette smoke. We went back and told them we couldn't move in. They took us to look at a few other apartments that all smelled like smoke. They said they would refund us everything but the application process fee and we were fine with that. Now the panic set in as we had nowhere to go. We went to Starbucks and started looking for new places that were on our list we had made before we moved. Nick arrived and we were able to park our moving truck while he drove us all over Dallas looking at places to move to. Towards the end of the day we ended up at Gramercy on the Park and really liked the apartment. They were very nice and stayed late so that we could process all of our paperwork and move in that night.

The three of us almost died that night as we unloaded our entire truck, we finished at about 1:00 am. If you aren't from Texas you need to know that it only cools down to about 75 or 80. I knew we had to unload it all now or we would have to unload the next day when it was 100. Nick stayed for a few days and helped us setup the large furniture. Now we are all moved in and exploring Dallas and our new surroundings.

 

Holiday 2013 and the Start of 2014

After Halloween I had a job interview at Burger King which was pretty fun. They flew me out to Miami for a full day of interviewing. I got to give a short presentation to the CEO, had speed interviewing, a group interviewing game, and got to tour the Burger King headquarters.

Burger King Headquarters

Arielle finished her master’s in December but she is waiting to walk until I graduate in May. She is very excited to finally be done with school. To celebrate we went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Ann Arbor. We had our own small early Christmas in Ann Arbor which was nice. Arielle got my Ricky Carmichael autographed jersey framed which was exciting since I love motocross/supercross and I have been getting back into watching all the races online. I got Arielle a dress and some nail polish. Our early Christmas was a white Christmas with a few inches of snow which conveniently melted the day before we left. We flew to Spokane to visit friends and family and had a good time seeing everyone. Luckily this year we didn’t get sick so we could actually enjoy our trip. For our anniversary we decided to go snowshoeing for the second year in a row. Last year was really foggy and we ended up not making it to the cabin on Mt. Spokane. This year it was clear and we made it to the cabin. We realized that last time we turned around about 50 yards from the cabin lol.

 

Ricky Carmichael Jersey

 

The cabin at Mt. Spokane

 

Arielle in her new dress

When we flew back to Ann Arbor our flight was delayed for three hours which seemed bad at the time, but at least we made it and didn’t have our flight cancelled. It was 2am when our flight landed. Luckily our good friend Giovanni picked us up. We ended up getting home and then went to McDonald’s at around 3am. We were so glad McDonald’s is open 24/7 since we hadn’t eaten for 8 hours and we didn’t have any food in the house. The next day we saw online that flights everywhere were cancelled due to all of the snow. We were very lucky that we made it home. Since January it has been very cold in the mid-west with the average temperature under 20 degrees. The lowest temperature I think was around -30 and school was cancelled for the first time in 37 year at the University of Michigan. If you haven’t been to the mid-west it isn’t the temperatures that make this winters bad, it is the 25 mph winds that make frostbite more common. We have gotten used to the cold and continued to go on walks and our daily business as usual. Along with the “polar vortex” cold, we have over a foot of snow in Ann Arbor which has been here for over a month. Today it feels great since it is currently 29 degrees.

Men's Basketball Game
 

Last fall we went to a football game at the Big House and recently we have been going to men’s and women’s basketball games since they have been doing promotions.

 

A small buck that comes to our backyard

 

One last piece of news, Arielle got to teach an undergraduate class as a substitute teacher for her adviser. I was excited for her since it is quite an accomplishment to be able to teach an undergraduate class.

Arielle after teaching

 

Let the Holidays Begin!

With Halloween on Thursday it marks the beginning of the holiday season. As many people know I love the holidays! Some think I'm crazy as I started listening to Christmas music and my Christmas shopping in September but I just can't help getting excited for the holidays.

Today Arielle and I carved our pumpkins. We still have a few small details to touch up once we have candles in them but overall they are complete. For the last few years we have started carving more fun and challenging pumpkins and this year was no exception. We bought some nicer carving tools at my favorite food-ware store (Williams-Sonoma) this year and they actually made the process smoother and a little easier. We baked some pumpkin cookies and Arielle gave me a hard time for listening to Christmas music after all of my Halloween music stopped.

 

 

Dimitri (Owl, Moon, Leaves) and Arielle (Ariel and Flounder)

Halloween has a lot of fun memories for me as my dad "made" us walk block after block until people stopped answering their doors. When we were little we complained from time to time about walking but as we got older it was fun since we always had more candy than most kids.

Natalya as a clown and I was a cowboy.

As Halloween approaches I am pretty excited to be handing out candy to the neighborhood children. We weren't able to last year due to our class schedules. Happy Halloween and remember to hand out candy.

End of Summer - School Begins

Arielle and I flew back to Seattle at the beginning of August for her cousin, Jessica's wedding. The flights over were pretty uneventful and it was my first time really visiting Seattle for vacation and not work related. We rented a car and stayed with Arielle's aunt and uncle. The rental car was a Ford Fusion and was fun to drive compared to our old car. Seattle was a blast! We visited some of my WSU friends and had dinner with them at MOD pizza (my favorite), went to the first Starbucks and went through Pikes Place Market.

Arielle decorated cupcakes for the wedding and helped to make the s'mores party favors, I helped make some massive amounts of Asian coleslaw. The day of, we helped to set up all of the food and cupcakes. The wedding was really nice in an event center next to the beach. The weather was nice and sunny, which is a rarity for Seattle.

After Seattle we headed back with Arielle's family to Spokane. Arielle went and visited some old work friends, we spent time with both families and the Walkers threw us a party so that we could see the rest of the family and some other friends. I spent a good portion with Mo Money playing FIFA and visiting with his family. I stopped and started my bike before we headed back out to Ann Arbor. Overall it was a fun visit but it was only a few days.

The flight back was a mess with delayed airports, a crazy guy who kept turning off my air, and a huge thunderstorm in the mid-west. Once we landed a friend of Arielle's picked us up and drove us home. It was raining so hard during part of the drive that people were pulling off the freeway to wait for the rain to let up. I do love the mid-west storms!
As the summer came to an end we visited campus and figured out where our classes were going to be. I started my new program in Applied Economics and Arielle is just finishing her last semester. Arielle is still working in the lab finishing up the study. They have one baby still in the study.

Mid Summer

Like everywhere in the US it has been hot here lately but overall it is much cooler than last summer. The humidity can get to you from time to time but you get used to it especially with no AC. The thunderstorms here are really amazing and are larger than have ever seen anywhere else. When we get heat lightening sometimes it is so low that it makes the inside of our apartment flash which is really weird and unexpected.

We took a day trip to the Saugatuck Dunes which was a blast. The dunes aren’t really dunes like we are used to. It was mainly trees with sand and plants until we got near the beach where there was a lot of sand. To get to the lake we had to hike in. They had several different hikes to choose from, we chose the longest one because fewer people would choose to go that far to get to the beach. Total I think we hiked about 5-6 miles. We walked in Lake Michigan and watched some of the sailboats. We didn’t stay on the water very long since we ended up getting attacked by flying beetles. I killed a bunch of them and we ran away from some others but they just kept coming back at you.

Saugatuck and Lake Michigan

 

4^th of July is a lot bigger event in Ann Arbor than Spokane. Fireworks are allowed here but I think you have to purchase a license to do them. We ended up driving down to the same neighborhood that we went to last year. The locals firework display went on for 2 hours as all of the neighbors lit off the massive supply that everyone bought. Even if you are just driving around you will see fireworks going off all over the city. As many of you know mosquitos love Arielle and she got bit about 20 times. I also got bit quite a bit but only on the side where Arielle was sitting. After about twenty to thirty minutes we moved to the car to watch the rest of the fireworks.

As for an animal and plant update, we have a ton of deer and there are some fawns which are pretty cute. We have also discovered the wide variety of wasps, horse flies as long as your thumb, and crawdads. I remember I have googled if blue raspberry is a real thing and it says they aren’t. Well google lied, they have wild raspberries here which are blue and sweeter than a regular raspberry. Basically they taste like the blue raspberry flavor of candy. Arielle’s advisor Bev served them at a wedding shower for the PhD student (Do Kyeong) that Arielle works for. Bev as had a few parties for the kinesiology students and they always have really good food.

A mom deer and three fawns.

I have been working full time as usual and Arielle has been working quite a few hours in the Developmental Neuromotor Control lab. She has taken over visiting a lot of the babies for the smaller at home visits and is being trained to do the larger visits for when Do Kyeong leaves. A baby just recently graduated from the study so they are now down to 4 babies with the last one graduating in March. One of the other kinesiology PhD students is working fNIRS (functional near infrared spectroscopy) and I got to be a participant. They attached some head gear and then had me do basic movements such as grabbing toys and walking. Basically they are watching oxygen flow in the motor control portions of my brain. They are testing it on adults now and in the future will be using it on babies with disabilities.

Arielle’s cousin Jessica is getting married in August so we are going to Seattle for a few days and then we are heading over to Spokane for a few more days. It will be nice to get a small break from the usual day-to-day in Ann Arbor. I know Arielle will be glad to have some time off from work, I’ll get a few days but will be working most of the time.

Also we just bought some Donettes from the new Hostess. I am pretty excited since I love powdered Donettes. Natalya also mention that she saw "Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger" on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and it is in Ann Arbor. We stopped in and had a burger. The food was good and the restaurant was really small. It was an experience. Well, that’s all for now.

Arielle at Blimpy Burger