Tea
- ever since I was taken on a tour of the Boh
Tea estates in Malaysia's Cameron Highlands, tea has held a special
place in my heart. Iced tea with wedges of lime and a decanter of
sugar water on the side highlighted our vacations at the beach in HuaHin,
Thailand. I didn't discover until much later that my illustrious
junior high years in Ivyland, PA were spent just around the corner from
John Wagner & Sons, importers of fine tea and other gourmet foods.
Of course at the time my beverage of choice was Lipton's with lots of
sugar and lemon. Only when I graduated from college and got a job
just minutes from downtown Lexington, MA, did I discover a quaint little
store called the Cambridge Coffee & Tea Connection and later in Westwood,
LA another store called The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf that opened my
eyes to all the wonders of loose leaf tea. Cambridge Coffee eventually
turned over their tea business to a wonderful new company called Upton
Tea Imports and I have been a faithful customer ever since, with brief
forays to Adagio Teas, SpecialTeas,
Imperial Tea Court, and Tea
Trader.
Cooking - turns out to be a stress relief of sorts, which I guess is better than eating, except that you eventually have to eat your creations. One alternative is to invite people over to eat it, but with children our house is always such a mess... Anyway, we love almost all types of food - Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Latin American, Caribbean, and particularly Asian (Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese - despite both our connections to the Philippines we haven't really gotten into the food much although we like a few traditional Filipino dishes when we eat out). I must admit that northern European food (besides stews, pot roasts, and various ways of preparing sausage) hasn't really grabbed our fancy since we don't make a lot of desserts and pastries. Unfortunately the kids, particularly the older one, have not yet acquired our delight in food adventures. One place that has proven invaluable for our search for new and interesting recipes is Epicurious.com.
Volleyball
- ah yes, traumatized at an early age by my inability to do anything
right when it came to hitting a volleyball, I was convinced I would
never like it. It didn't help that half my gym class in high school
at Faith Academy in the Philippines
were the Far East Champions in volleyball. But eventually I got
over my phobia by playing on a recreational team at Raytheon
and during my brief stint at UCLA
I was enthusiastic enough to instigate a weekly pickup game on the cement
court out back of the graduate dorm. We have since participated
in church leagues, county leagues, doubles and reverse quad tournaments,
and spent the last 15 years off and on as members of the Richmond
Volleyball Club. We started off playing together on coed teams,
but with the advent of children we are lucky if we can arrange to play
regularly on separate teams. My fairer half tends to end up well into
the A levels whereas I usually swing upper B's. She also competes regularly
in a summer coed softball league for work and most recently a fall league
with some friends.
Fitness - never thought I would consider this a hobby. While my wife has long considered it a goal to get back to her "pre-pregnancy" condition, our hectic schedule and enjoyment of good food has made this difficult. Aerobics, and the occasional jog or bike ride weren't accomplishing much. A few years back, however, I got a rather serious weight/cholesterol/blood pressure scare and we made a serious effort to cut back on the diet. This helped quite a bit but then she discovered SEAL Team PT. This is an intense outdoor program with a constantly varying regimen of physical challenges and an emphasis on teamwork. While I'm secure enough to handle having a wife who earns more than me, I just couldn't bear the prospect of being outrun and outarmwrestled as well, so I joined up too. After more than a year the benefits have been tremendous. Although it is difficult to juggle the two to three sessions a week for each of us, the variety and comraderie (and results) keep us motivated. We have even taken on the occasional (once every month or two) road or trail race (5K, 8K, and 10K) and managed to get our oldest daughter involved as well.
