30 Random Facts (Shaun edition)

{A round at Torrey Pines in sunny San Diego}

Nikki did her random facts so I figured I would share some of mine. Here goes nothing...

1. I was born in Pennsylvania, but only lived there for a year before moving to Michigan.

2. I began kindergarten in Massachusetts after moving from Michigan to Cape Cod, and never managed to pick up the Massachusetts accent!

3. Growing up, my favorite sport was baseball.

4. I do not like eggs... onions... peppers...and most fish. (Most likely to the dismay of my parents since they ran many restaurants when I was growing up).

5. I played soccer, basketball and baseball, but concentrated solely on basketball after my sophomore year in high school.

6. I was the only player in the starting five of my AAU team to not receive a Division 1 scholarship offer out of High School. (I'm sure being 6'3" and 160 lbs soaking wet didn't have anything to do with it).

7. I first attended Stonehill College (Division 2) before transferring to Georgia Tech.

8. I don't like coffee, but love coffee ice cream.

9. I am left footed and hit lefty in baseball, but throw and shoot right handed.  I played golf left handed until I was around 13 years old when my Dad switched me over to golfing right handed. Smart guy..this was way before Mickelson's success gave lefties the options available today.

10. My favorite food is Italian, with Mexican coming in a close second.

11. I never liked tomatoes until I moved to France. Now I absolutely love them.

12. When I was a kid my parents had to set an egg timer for me at dinner because I always ate so sloooow. My brother would have to wait until I was finished until he could leave the table. I now understand why he used to beat the crap out of me. And I used to say that I was full, but somehow always found room for dessert.

13. I wanted to play hockey when I was a kid, but my parents quickly introduced me to a basketball.  Not only were they worried about me getting hurt, but I am sure they did not like the sound of 5:30am practice time. Worked out ok.

14. I first learned to drive on a stick. Good thing because there are not many automatic cars here in Europe. Unfortunately for Nikki, she did not know how to drive a stick when she moved to France and therefore, had me as her "teacher".

15. My parents had a restaurant "Whatchamacallits" (like the candy bar) growing up and it was always stocked with boxes and boxes of the candy bar. I secretly knew where they stored them and that may or may not have lead to all the cavities I had.

16. I love playing golf over the summer but hate that I have to wake up so early to beat the heat and humidity of Atlanta.

17. The first time I ever left the US (not including Canada) was when I began my professional career in France. 3 weeks before I left, my agent called me to make sure that I had my passport... and I said " Do I need one?" I had to have it expedited so I could take my flight.

18. I love dogs. I had a golden retriever when I was younger, but we had to get rid of him because he was not getting the attention he needed since we were all too busy. My parents sent him to their friend's house in New Hampshire because they had a "FARM" with a lot of room for him to run around. As I got older I realized what sending a dog to a friend's "FARM" really meant. My parents swear its true still to this day.

19. I am terrified of snakes. Just the thought of them slithering around makes my skin crawl.

20. I sometimes have anxiety when I fly. It gets worse as I get older. Ask Nikki how her hand feels when we hit turbulence!

21. I think I want to do a mini sprint triathlon after I retire from basketball.  I say 'think' because it sounds good in my head right now, but am not sure if I will enjoy the training for it.

22. I am not the leading scorer in the history of my high school. That honor goes to my brother, who may or may not have threatened to beat the shit out of me if I didn't give him the ball those two years we played together.

23. I like to watch a lot of sports on television, even golf. Cut to Nikki sleeping on the couch.

24. My favorite movie is Shawshank Redemption.

25. My favorite actor in comedies in Vince Vaughn. The way he ad-libs and goes off on tangents in Wedding Crashers amazes me. Would love to have a few beers with him. However, I say that, but I once had the opportunity to meet him at a party during the Final Four in St. Louis but was too chicken shit to walk over and talk to him.

26. Early on when Nikki and I were dating, she asked me if I was good at tennis and I may have replied "I'm an athlete, I am good at everything I do" to try to impress her.

27. Contrary to the announcers here in France my last name is not pronounced 'FEIGN' or 'FEN', it is pronounced 'FINE'. And contrary to my coach's multiple inquiries, I am not Jewish, I am Irish Catholic.

28. I am not a good cook, but I do make a mean raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

29. I would like to be a coach or stay involved in basketball in some capacity after my playing days are over.

30. The best decision I ever made was asking Nikki to marry me!

Insta-goodness (2/11-3/4)

Not much action on the Instagram front for us, but here are the ones that made the cut over the last 2 weeks. The weather has begun to turn a little Spring-like so you may notice a beach theme going on here.

{Dusk on the beach at Juan les Pins}

{The crystal clear waters are back..looking forward to being able to go into the water here soon. The only people crazy enough to go in now are the Brits}

{This past weekend was bright blue skies and warm weather, makes me want to bring out the BBQ}

{Dog-sitting for a teammate. Bear is the perfect subject, down to the sandy nose}

{Attempted to turn back time and re-enact my early 20's on Saturday night. Failed miserably, but not before getting this beauty of us doing our best Usher impersonation, 'Peace Up A-town Down". Unlike Jamie Foxx though, I will not 'Blame it on the alcohol' but will definitely blame it on the glasses. Need I mention I spent all Sunday in bed recovering. NEVER. FELT. SO. BAD. I tried to figure out where it went all wrong and came to the conclusion that it was when I sent my Cranberry-vodka drink back because it needed more vodka and less cranberry...}

30 random facts (Nikki edition)

{This is as daring as I will get}

There has been this topic going around in the blog world for a bit and I have enjoyed reading others so much that I decided to take the plunge and do one myself. But unlike 50 random facts, I'll stick with 30 or so. So here goes...

1. Social media is weird to me. I think twitter is hilarious and don't understand why people feel the need to broadcast to strangers what they are doing every moment of the day...even this blog is pushing it for me. Instagram is growing on me but I still have a long way to go. But to each his own.

2. I owned a horse growing up...and a goat. And many dogs and cats. And some fish. All the while living in the city.

3. I am an only child, and some say I live up to it.

4. I played every sport under the sun available to me until I was 13 (baseball, volleyball, soccer, softball, karate and tennis). Then soccer took over.

5. I played on boys soccer teams until I was 13. That is when the size difference really became apparent..especially since I was a peanut.

6. I have always had more guy friend than girls friends.

7. I love spicy foods, the hotter the better.

8. Learned how to drive stick in France, most likely ruined the transmission on that car too. Sorry.

9. I am right-handed but can only throw a Frisbee with my left.

10. I have never skied, ever. Only snow boarded...and I'm goofy footed.

11. I would prefer to spend $ on travel/vacation over items any day.

12. I drink between 3-4 liters of water a day.

13. Wanted to be a skate-boarder when I was little but parents didn't want me hurting myself so I had to hide in our garage and practice my jumps in there.

14. My first music memory was stealing a Run DMC cassette from my uncle when he was visiting.

15. Large crowds in stadiums used to give me the heebie-jeebies, especially when they all turned at one time. All good now.

16. I love the idea of snow but hate being cold.

17. I re-enact the basketball scene in Along Came Polly as often as possible to Shaun's dismay...and I have no shame in front of who ..."raindrops, white chocolate" and last but not least, "let it rain".

18. I don't like soda. Ok, maybe Root Beer but that is it.


19. I am a PG rated daredevil. Will not go skydiving or swimming with the sharks but will occasionally cross the line at the bowling alley and enter the greased area and see where it takes me.

20. I was, and still am, a tomboy. I used to bamboozle my grandparents into every new Jordan that came out.

21. During summer school while my parents were away and their friend's brand new Infiniti was parked at our house, I did make a copy of the key and drove it to school. The tires were slashed, as were many others that day, forcing me to get new ones and promptly returned the car to the garage with out anyone knowing. I did tell my parents...10 years later.

22. Ferris wheels terrify me.

23. I have tried yoga class, once. My mother and I were scolded a few times since we were laughing at the 70 year old man in front of us with dolphin shorts on and no drawers. And WE were the ones scolded..

24. I love cheese, all cheese except Blue cheese, smells likes Shaun's dirty socks. And while I love him to death, I would in no way, ever eat his socks.

25. I may be a tomboy but I have way too many shoes, not according to me, but definitely to Shaun.

26. Black is my favorite color.

27. I am 5'4" but my Santa Clara and US soccer bios said I was 5'7" or 5'8" (and I didn't correct them).

28. I can not in any way have coffee after 3pm and expect to get any sleep that night.

29.  Dude, is a major player in my vocabulary.

30. I love to cook, and some say I'm good at it, but on the other hand, that some needs me to cook on a daily basis so what else is he going to say.

Valentine's Challenge revisited

{Valentine's flowers}

     After a little break in our Valentine's challenge with the trip to Milan, we are finally finished. Yes, we are a few days late but sprinkle in a trip to Milan and I dare anyone to complain. I decided to go first for what I thought was to set the bar high, but little did I know Shaun was pulling his inner 'Bobby Flay' out of his arse. I went with one of our favorite meals back in Atlanta, a goat cheese ravioli with apples and walnuts in a brown butter/sage sauce. For an appetizer, I did the trusty cheese platter with assorted meats and bread then finished the meal off with chocolate covered strawberries (where half of the chocolate went straight into my mouth, on my finger, my shirt, the counter etc...). I was feeling good about my chances and Shaun seemed to be a happy customer. Fast forward a few days and it was his turn. Now, our only requirements were that we could not make something that is already in heavy rotation. I hadn't noticed him doing much research so I assumed he had searched through our recipe box and found an oldie but goody that we hadn't used in a while but boy was I wrong. For the appetizer, Shaun served greens topped with fried goat cheese (we love our goat cheese around here) and for the main....this is where it gets interesting. Shaun chose honey roasted duck, potato slices and buttered green beans. And he made it all. from. scratch. Well, he didn't raise the duck himself but he sure as hell roasted it nicely. He sliced up the potatoes, seasoned them and baked them along with par boiling the green beans then sautéed them in butter. Get this though, he apologized because he was going to roast the potatoes in the duck fat but decided against it because there wasn't that much fat rendered from the duck. Many a times during the dinner I touched him just to make sure this wasn't a mirage I was seeing. Then I thought, who am I married to??? And why has he been sand bagging it these last 12 years? Now this girl can accept defeat when needed (not very well I might add) and I admit, this was a big L in the loss column but I can't help but think that I might have had a little bit of a victory in that I now know Shaun is a capable cook. And for that, I will take this defeat gracefully.

Milano

{Duomo di Milano}

   
     So with half of our Valentine's Day challenge done (my half that is), we decided to up and take a last minute trip to Milan for the weekend. The team had the weekend off allowing us a little more freedom to explore further than usual. And after throwing around a few places, Milan was the one that stuck. Not knowing much about Milan, except that is was more industrial and a bit lackluster in the charm category, we figured at the least we could eat some good ol' Italian food and drink some good ol' wine, which we definitely did. We packed up the car, grabbed our friend/teammate Trevor and made the 3 hour drive to Milano for a weekend of fun and exploration. And while Milan was not picturesque like a Paris or a Florence, the food, conversation and company more than made up for it. We learned a few Italian words like panna means whipped cream and pene means penis. (Imagine my anticipation every time Trevor ordered an espresso with whipped cream in hopes he would mix it up a bit, sadly for me, this was the only time he got the word right, every. single. time.) There were cappuccinos, artichokes and 'thoodles' galore. What is a 'thoodle' you ask? Well, it is what Shaun coined the thick noodle pasta we ate the first night. (Somewhere Brangelina and Bennifer are smiling.) Mind you, this term was coined after 3 or 4 rum and cokes and a few bottles of wine. Seemed totally reasonable at the time and I'm not gonna lie, still does. We found Obika, a mozzarella bar, where we spent about 4 hours tasting different kinds of mozzarella, meats and wines all the while having an intellectual conversation about the NCAA...again, seemed totally reasonable at the time and I obviously use the word 'intellectual' loosely. After all is said and done, we scratched Milan off the list and to be honest, I don't know if we would ever go back, but at the least, it has given me the inspiration to try my hand at some homemade mozzarella, more specifically stracciatella di burrata, the creamy center of fresh mozzarella. If you don't know what that is, get familiar, because it is life changing. And hell, if that proves too tough, there are always homemade THOODLES (in order to get the full effect of the word, you must pronounce it with a lisp).

{Gothic detailing}

{Italy's answer to France's velo bleu}

{Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II..Italy's oldest shopping mall located next to the Duomo}

{Tasting platter of 3 types of mozzarella; Paestum, Pontina and Affumicata}

Insta-goodness

     Since we use Instagram fairly often to catch those 'on-the-go' moments, I decided to do a little post sharing some of the fun we have had for the past week. If you are already a follower on Instagram, sorry, but for those others that aren't, like some family members, here is a snapshot of our lives this past week. Enjoy...

{Some footprint fun at the end of my run}

{I have begun to add an extra half mile onto my run so that I can finish earlier and enjoy the beach on the way home}

{Finally found Grey Goose L'Orange...}

{Had to take a pic of these banana nut muffins with streusel topping before they were all gone. All 12 were gone in less than a day}

{Dusk in Juan les Pins}

{Drinks in Cannes..fireplace, lounge music and all}

{Shaun and Trevor drinking the "strongest beer in the world" called La Biere du Demon. FYI, I am giving Trevor the benefit of the doubt in that he must have been so hot from the fireplace that he had to strip down in that under-shirt}

{Some fun on the way back to the car. Trevor thinks Shaun resembles Hugh Jackman so he was thrilled to see a Les Miserables poster. Shaun makes the furrowed brow face all the time but when put on the spot, this is the best he came up with}

Valentine's Challenge

     The gauntlet has been thrown here at the Fein household. Well, thrown might not be the correct description since it is not starting out as a competition but as usual, in true Nikki/Shaun fashion, it will end up that way. We (I am sure if you ask the other half of the Fein duo he would raise an eyebrow to the 'we' reference) have decided to do a 3 day Valentine's Day celebration. Of course, we will celebrate on the 14th but we have added 2 more nights where we will cook a dinner from start to finish for each other. I'm talking decor, menu, appetizers, main course and dessert...the works. About 5 years ago, we did the same thing and for some reason, we never re-visited the idea. We both took it pretty seriously with me 'frenching' a rack of lamb and Shaun making me the most unbelievable steak and potatoes (turns out he had enlisted a personal chef to help him with the planning, that cheeky bugger). On that day, I found out that Shaun can cook and is not as helpless in the kitchen as he leads on and... lamb is not our favorite, too game-y. In order to keep the element of surprise, we have enlisted a friend to make sure we are not making any of the same things. So bring your 'A-game' Shaun. Wait, this isn't a supposed to be a competition. Oh, who am I kidding? You are going down...