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Last night I attended the Norah Jones concert at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, and this is how she opened the show.

She is truly a great musician.

E

Two days ago I agonized on the location of our next big vacation, but I knew I wanted to focus on Europe. Knowing that we are not going to have a lot of time (10 days total, but you lose a day in travel), I wanted to pick a destination that neither of us had visited in the past. We also decided to visit in early November, which means most of Europe will be a bit chilly. I know this because it’s the only time of the year I’ve ever visited Europe. Plus, I had some limitations since we wanted to use Frequent Flyer Miles.

Over the years I gained 100,000 frequent flyer miles on United Airlines – woo hoo! That’s enough for both Tom and I to travel to Europe for free! However, only limited cities were available using miles – ugh. I soon found out that our best option was to fly direct to London (yes, I got a nonstop flight) and immediately hop on another plane to the destination of our choice.

Not only do we have frequent flyer miles, but we also have hotel points at any Starwood Hotel (Yes, I am a points whore). The only question – Where do we go?

I knew I wanted a location that offered the elegance of Europe, with an ease in mobility about town, and good food. I obsessed over Rome (because of my love for Italian Food), but many people I spoke to who had already visited Rome had this knee-jerk averse reaction. That drew the red flags. Tom said he didn’t care where we went and that it is “my vacation”. So with all that freedom, I got a little confused.

Honestly, Rome became difficult to book using hotel points. We would’ve had to stay far from the city center in smoking rooms – yuck! Apparently there is an Energy Summit going on during the time we earmarked our travels. So I started researching other cities.

Paris & Amsterdam – I’ve visited before and the weather bites at that time.

Stockholm – I eventually want to visit here, but again I think I should wait for better weather

Portugal – now I’m thinking, “Cool. A little further south, but still not sure”

Spain – hmm, what about Barcelona?

That’s where it hit me. Barcelona always gets an overwhelmingly positive response from those that I know who travelled there. I did a tiny bit of research, found a flight from Heathrow to Barcelona (cheap!), secured a nice hotel, and Wham! That’s all it took.

E

P.S. we’re also gonna spend the last two days of the vacation in London (before catching our flight home)

I just watched the pilot episode of “Jericho“, and (just like those who predicted) I like it. Apparently, if you like “Lost” (I do), then I will most certainly like Jericho (which, so far I do).

Since my TV watching is close to nill this summer, I will probably be catching up on the first season of “Jericho” through iTunes. And how about the fans saving the show from cancellation by sending nuts to the CBS brass. Nice one.

E

I’ll admit, I spend most of my time Twittering about my day and I hardly ever blog. I feel guilty when I don’t put words down on this site. So I pledge, starting today, to blog something at least once a week.

Also, I’m probably phasing out my chocolate reviews from this site. Instead, in the future you will find them at: www.eloveschocolate.com

I’m starting my design plans for that new blog which will hopefully launch at the end of the summer.

Otherwise, I was completely obsessed by many season finales: AI, Lost, Heroes, DWTS. I leave you with this awesome samba by my favorite dancing star:

E