Happy Birthday 2009

Dearest Marita,

Happy Happy Birthday!

My annual challenge of finding a gift for you is here again. I hope you like my set of gifts this year. There’s been less stress for you these days, and I’m really happy about that. But I can still sense some stress – and I guess that will always be the case. So I thought it would be good to give you something to help you manage stress more effectively.

April 30
We will have breakfast at the UN. We’ll splurge a little on some nice hot cappuccino, scrambled egges, ham and pancakes. Not exactly gourmet fare but nice and comfortable. A good way to start the day, especially since it’s expected to be just a little chilly.

Then we will have lunch at the Australian Restaurant at 20 West 38th Street. I don’t think we’ve ever had real Australian food. At least I can’t recall. So here’s our chance to have barramundi fish, kangaroo, lamb roast, sticky prawns and some Australian wine or beer. There’s even a tasting menu that we can share so we don’t get too stuffed for dinner with the family which is going to be at the Panda Restaurant.

May 2
Your next gift for your extended birthday celebration is an introductory session to Zen meditation at a Zen center. I know you’ve always been attracted to Buddhist philosophy, and I think you enjoyed our Dan Yoga classes. And I know you don’t particularly like to read about meditation and prefer to get live, practical instruction. So I think you’ll like this one. At this introductory session, you’ll learn about “zazen” or seated meditation, how to breathe, and a host of other basic things on Zen. It will be on Sunday at the Zen Center of New York City in Brooklyn.

The meditation session will go from about 9:30AM to 12:30PM. I think we’re going to be quite hungry after that, don’t you think? So after this session of relaxation and enlightenment, we have some options for lunch. We could go to Bacchus Bistrot which is not too far from the Zen Center. It is billed as one of the best authentic French bistros in the city. Alternatively, we could go to the Clinton St Baking Company. It won’t exactly be a Zen moment for us, and we will give in to some earthly pleasures. But it will definitely keep us in a relaxed mode.

In keeping with our relaxation theme, after lunch we will go for a massage at the Spring Thyme, a Chinese traditional medicine and massage place that has gotten many good reviews. Maybe you want to consider some accupuncture? The doctor in the staff is supposedly one of the best. At the very least, you should get a nice massage. It’s not like Bliss but they say it’s pretty good. BTW – Sunday services are 30% off. We can go to their Park Slope location which shouldn’t be too far from the Zen Center. Or we can go to the Nassau Street location if we eat at Clinton St Bakery.

Then we go for some real relaxation – shopping! We can go to Century 21 in downtown Manhattan. We could even drive all the way to Woodbury if you want.

I’ll give you another option – a visit to Divine Mercy on Saturday followed by the introductory session on Zen on Sunday. We could add a couple of shopping trips in between at your choice of shopping center, even Garden State Plaza!

Whatever we decide, as long as we are together, that’s all that matters. We should end the day with a nice relaxing movie. I’ll pick a couple of DVDs. Maybe another travel video? How about a video on Zen?

Happy Birthday!
I love you very, very much!
Leo

Happy Valentine’s Day

Dearest Marita,

Happy 2009 Valentine’s Day!

I’m glad Valentine’s day is on a Saturday this year. Now we can have the whole day to enjoy, without having to think about work.

For this year’s Valentine’s Day celebration, here’s what I have in store for you:

• Breakfast (or brunch, depending on what time we wake up) – we’ll go to Bar Jamon, which is
  Mario Battali’s Spanish restaurant. We can pick from a range of tapas, such as pan con tomate, tortilla catalana, soft egg with ramesco and a host of other pintxos. You can even have jamon iberico again. But I’m sure you will be most excited with their churros y chocolate, which is one of the best rated in the city, and which supposedly is close to what you can get in Madrid or Barcelona.

• After Bar Jamon, I’ll treat you to a nice massage in Chinatown. Not the best for ambience, but effective. I think it’s about time you got a reflexology massage too. But if our schedule gets too tight, we can always postpone the massage for another day.
• Hair relaxing – you might as well relax everything, including your hair! I’ve set an appointment with Lisa for 4:30PM.
• For dinner, we can go to the Terrace Club, right by Rockefeller Center. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and we can eat in the terrace. If not, we can have some ramen or soba noodles at Mitsuwa. We’ll pick a table near the big glass windows and enjoy a great view of the river.
• Finally, we’ll watch some videos at home before we sleep. Maybe we can travel to Eastern Europe, or New Zealand, or one of the many Caribbean islands we have yet to see? Maybe we can watch a movie about Toulouse-Lautrec? Or about Mozart or Prokofiev? I figured that if we don’t have time for the Chinatown massage, I can give you the amateur version at home. As long as we’re together, that’s all that really matters.

So Happy Valentine’s Day!

I love you very much!
Love
Leo

Happy 29th Anniversary!

Dearest Marita,

Happy Happy 29th Wedding Anniversary! Can you imagine we’re just one year shy of 30 years of married life?

I always look forward to doing something with you on anniversaries. I guess we can’t travel to someplace exotic this time. I’m glad we went to Dublin – that was like a nice rest for us as well as a pre-anniversary celebration. So I wasn’t quite sure what to do this time. It seems like we’ve done a lot already in spite of the fact that there is still so much to see, eat, hear, smell, touch in this world.

I loved the jazz show and dinner last night at Blue Smoke and the Jazz Standard. It our our first dinner with five Legaspis! Best chocolate malted ever and great ribs (I actually preferred them over Cubby’s)

Now I’m looking forward to our visit to the North Fork. It would be nice to pick lavender (mostly English as the French varieties have been harvested), visit some of the wineries, or just stroll by the beach. The breakfast at the motel that was recommended by Lavender by the Bay – the Greenporter – sounds really interesting. One of the breakfast items is “Breakfast La Madame- Hot sandwich with grilled ham, bubbling Gruyere cheese and Béchamel sauce, topped with a poached egg.” We might even try biking!

Whatever we choose – I’m just looking forward to doing it together with you.

I love you very much.
Love,
Leo

Happy 29th Anniversary!

Dearest Marita,

HAPPY HAPPY 29TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!

We’re just one year shy of 30 years together today, at least as man and wife. I wasn’t sure what we could do today especially since we already had a pre-celebration at Gnocco last night (not to mention the ghetto but great massage.

So here’s my suggestion: why don’t I leave early from class and then we drive to Queens to have a cholado – the Colombian version of halo-halo? It would be the perfect treat on a humid day like today.

We can go to El Palacio de los Cholados – now how good does that sound?

If we can’t do it, then there’s CIA this weekend or some other place.

As long as we’re together, I’m sure we’ll enjoy it.

I love you very much.

Love,
Leo

Happy Happy Birthday!

Dearest Marita,

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I know you’ve said you’ve been looking forward to this particular birthday. I was hoping we could celebrate on another Caribbean island. Or the Philippines. Or Switzerland. Or anywhere really. As long as we’re together.

So for this birthday, I’ve arranged for a week-long celebration.

• We will start with a scent party at Parfumeur Artisanal. For two hours, we will sip champagne and eat chocolates, then start sniffing all the different scents in their store – jasmime, lilly of the valley, lavender, rose, vetiver, bergamot, and all those other wonderful olfactory sensations. We will learn about base, middle and top notes and the language of perfume.
• Then we go for a light dinner at David Burke & Donatella. In keeping with the scent theme, how about sharing a lobster lemongrass bisque or even their Titanic french toast?
• On your actual birthday, we will have dinner at Phoenix Garden for the extended family.

OK, it looks like we won’t be able to go to the Caribbean or someplace exotic during your birthday week. So I’ve arranged for the next best thing – dancing in a Caribbean setting! How about a dance party? You can pick the dance that you want to learn and master and we’ll go and break in your new dancing shoes! Perhaps the tango and the salsa? How about west coast swing and hustle? Click here to review your choices.

In the meantime, I got you a couple of things to remind you of the sun and fun we’ve had in the past, and the new things we are doing together for fun these days.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I love you very much.
Love
Leo

Merry Christmas!

Dearest Marita,

Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008!

I’ve concluded that I should continue with the relaxation theme for most if not all the occasions in our lives. So for this Christmas season, here are your gifts:

• A full head-to-toe body massage using special essential oils (I got the real stuff this time, not the synthetic)
• A whole day of post-Christmas season shopping in the mall of your choice (click here to see your choices of outlets)
• A trip to a beach (we’ll bundle up and just walk by the shoreline)
• A one-night getaway

I even have the videos to guide me through the massage session. I guess the sequence should be shopping – beach – then massage – then getaway. How about that? I will be your Christmas eve masseur! Of course, if this combination does not succeed in relaxing you, then you can pick one of the best day spas in New York.

I love you very much! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Leo

Happy 2nd 28th Wedding Anniversary!

Dearest Marita,

Happy 28th Anniversary! And Happy 33rd Anniversary too!

Hard to believe that these many years have passed since we met at EDF. So what to do this time to celebrate? Well, these are the options I’ve lined up:

• A visit to the North Fork Long Island wineries (click here to see a great list of wineries)
• A day at a quiet New Jersey beach (click here to see our options)
• A day at Hyde Park

We could go to Avalon, Long Beach Island or Asbury Park for the beach. They’re supposedly very quiet and secluded. We just have to decide which to go to first – beach on Saturday and bed and breakfast near the beach, or wine tour first?

Here’s an interesting option – we could even go visit a lavender farm on the North Fork and pick lavender ourselves! So we don’t even have to go to Provence to see a lavender field. I just hope they haven’t harvested everything yet.

Then there’s Hyde Park. Actually, I added this option after you got the reservation at Village Square) I’m really looking forward to seeing the historical sites, mansions and the CIA. There are a couple of wineries near CIA that we could visit. Even if we can’t get a table at the CIA, we can enjoy the fare at the Cascade Mountain Winery & Restaurant.

Anyway – whatever we decide, I’m really looking forward to traveling with you again! I will bring some books so that I can read aloud at night before we sleep.

BTW – we can go to the other places on Long Island and NJ next time . You’ll still have a chance to hear the surf and walk on the beach. I look forward to those trips too . . .

I love you very much.
Love,
Leo

Happy 28th Anniversary!

Dearest Marita,

Happy 28th Wedding Anniversary! We’re just 2 years shy of 30 years of marriage. I was just looking through the previous posts. It will be hard to top them, esp. the last one about Punta Cana. But how about this for the day’s schedule:

• Morning – wake up as late as we wish
• Lunch or brunch – tacos at our favorite ghetto Mexican restaurant in Bergenfield
• Afternoon – escape to NYC!

We have a couple of options for the afternoon. Since we are having the massage at 6:30PM, and since we’ll be there an hour before . . . I suggest we do some shopping from noon to about 4:00 PM in Jersey. Then we can head over to our massage at Great Jones. Here’s a preview of what you can expect.

Afterwards, we can go to La Esquina for more tacos or ceviche, or Mercer Kitchen for some “American-Provencal” fare by Jean Georges.

Whatever we decide, I’ll be happy as long as we are together.

I love you very much.

Love

Leo

Happy Birthday!

Dearest Marita,

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Continuing on the theme of daily relaxation, I decided to give you a real day of relaxation. So for today, here is the schedule:

• Breakfast with pancakes and coffee, depending on wake up time
• Lunch at Chinese restaurant in Woodbury (maybe some shopping as well? )
• Dinner at Nyonya Restaurant

Of course, and or all of this is subject to change anytime. We can just stay home, perhaps borrow a few nice books at the library, or shop at one of the local malls. We’ll play it by ear.

Right now, it sounds like a lot of eating, doesn’t it? So to work off all the pounds we might gain, here is the follow up schedule for Punta Cana:

• May 1: Spa
• May 2: Snorkeling
• May 3: Dancing lessons
• May 4: Scuba diving lessons
• May 5: Shopping

Don’t forget – we can have nightcaps every night. And of course – all of this can change, depending on our mood at the moment. We can do our usual barebones plan and see where things go. So for now, enjoy the videos below. It will give you a great visual idea of what our time in the Dominican Republic will be like . . .

I love you very much
Love,

Leo

Of course we will go the beach everyday . . .

We’ve driven in practically all our trips abroad . . . so why stop now? Seems like there are many sights to see!

Dancing at Punta Cana . . . shall we try a few lessons?

You’re already good at snorkeling . . . so let’s try it there as well . . .

And of course we will end every night with a Mojito

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Dearest Marita,

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I know you’ve always said that you want to see my old online greeting cards and presentations.   Well . . . I have the best solution – a blog!  Now I can send you notes for every occasion, post pictures, videos, list links to interesting sites on the Internet – all throughout the year.  Now, you can always go back to any card, or any post during the year.  I’ve always enjoyed our travels together most of all, just the two of us or with the kids.  And I always feel good when I see pictures or remember our trips together around the world.  So I hope you like these pictures.  I’ll keep updating them as I go along.  So if you’re feeling a little low or harassed at the office, just go to this blog for a quick pick-me-up!  Just go to www.maritaleo.wordpress.com and you’ll get to this blog. 

Now this is your relaxation blog, even if I’m doing the blogging. I’ve included links to lots of things that will hopefully make you relax throughout the day. You can click on any of the links to the right.  Go to Jay’s Myspace or his website.  Watch one of his videos on Youtube.  Check out the Youtube videos in the Music Video links section. Hint: click on Barry White first! Check out the latest news from the New York Times travel section.  Go to Continental.com to plan out our next trip together.  Get advice from Tripadvisor.  Check the weather.  Or you can just look at some nice pictures. Keep in mind – I will update this on a regular basis . . . so keep coming back!

So what have I planned for tonight?  Well – if you check the weather on the right of the screen, it looks like we’re in for some snow.  So, why don’t we have a nice quiet dinner at Goodburger?  We can also watch that Chinese movie Or you can watch Jay’s movies at home and we can have some tea and stroopwafels . . .

I love you very much!

Leo