Happy Sunday!

Hello!

Today the weather was just gorgeous. So gorgeous, in fact, that I sat for a good 25 minutes staring out the sliding glass door drinking tea this morning. I sat there long enough to take a picture:

Fantastic!

After tea and picture, I rode my bike (shown in the picture) to the market nearby with Becka for some produce and other various and sundry. It was awesome! Cars aren't scaring me nearly as much as they did a week ago, and crossing busy streets is becoming easier too - plus there are bike lanes everywhere. Hooray! Biking errands are the best!

Returning home, it was still beautiful outside and I still wanted to be out in the good weather. So, I decided to ride the MAX (Metropolitan Area Express) downtown. There is a stop right at my complex and it's only about a 20 minute ride.

GUESS WHAT THAT MEANS?

Yes. Another slideshow. You guessed it.

COME EXPERIENCE THE JOURNEY WITH ME from my apartment to the mall (Pioneer Place Mall, to be exact) downtown through a PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNAL.

You're stoked now, aren't you? You know you are. Stuff written in caps always makes it more enticing.

WITNESS THE MAJESTY!

HAPPY BACON DAY!

Bacon Day Spread.
Originally uploaded by reseda76

What? You've never heard of Bacon Day? Well, let me tell you all about it.

In 1999, my sister found a pig-shaped cookie cutter at the thrift store. We thought it was hilarious, because when would you want to give someone a cookie shaped like a pig? Really? The only way we figured you could give someone that and not have it come across as positively insulting ("Here...I made you a cookie...it's shaped LIKE A PIG.") is if you had a holiday to justify it's odd existence. The lone cookie cutter definitely needed one of those.

Soon after, my sister and I were watching The Simpsons, and Marge surprised Homer for their anniversary - which he had forgotten about. He started running through possible reasons for her unexpected gift in his mind and came up with "Bacon Day". Luckily for him, he realized that was "crazy talk" and she couldn't possibly be surprising him for Bacon Day.

At that moment, watching The Simpsons, right after Homer said those two magical words, we looked at each other and knew what we had to do. Bacon Day was created. The cookie cutter was named "Porky Pigfat" and became the mascot of our new holiday. His likeness has graced many a Bacon Day banner, and there is even a board game created to honor him.

(Really. We drew up a board and everything.)

Every May 15th (or closest Saturday), we have celebrated the World of Pork. Even though my sister and I live in different states, we have made sure to keep the holiday alive.

Each dish must feature some sort of pork or pork-like product in it, and there are a few traditional favorites - much like a Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas ham (but far, far less widespread or significant). Velveeta shells and cheese with hot dogs, for example, should grace one's table at Bacon Day lunch. Another holiday favorite is pizza topped with Canadian Bacon, and even just a plate of the namesake meat itself. Buying different kinds of bacon and trying them all is another way to enjoy the day. In the early years, we would make sugar cookies WITH THE VERY COOKIE CUTTER ITSELF and have decorating contests. If you can actually find a pig-shaped cookie cutter, I would do that too!

There is a Wikipedia entry stating that a group of Colorado grad students came up with a holiday of the same name in 2004 BUT I ASSURE YOU THAT IS NOT THE BACON DAY I CHOOSE TO OBSERVE and our Bacon Day was conceived five years prior to that one. Plus we have Porky.

So there.

Anyhow, Happy Bacon Day to you and yours, and I hope you had a great day of porcine indulgence!

Hooray!

P.S. If you click on the photo, you can see notes identifying each item on the table.

P.P.S. I am having a bacon coma now.

Hello Spring!

New bike times!
Originally uploaded by reseda76

I am going to celebrate you with a new bicycle!

When I moved here, Becka and I started talking about how fabulous it would be to have bicycles, as we are in Biking Capital, U.S.A. Many times we would chat about how lovely it would be to get bikes, ride around, and frolic. Who wouldn't want to do that? Who wouldn't want to frolic?

Well, two days ago, we started looking at them in stores. She could sense my discomfort with purchasing something relatively large, but was persistent with statements like "Bikes are good! You will have so much fun!" and so forth. I'm glad she was. For those of you who don't know, spending more than $20 on anything at all...ANYTHING...holds the risk of breaking me down into a sobby pile of weeping mush. I once bought a $45 DVD set, went home, panicked, started to cry, then rushed back to return it without even opening the package (true story - unfortunately). Perhaps this comes from my days as a "starving student", perhaps it's a reaction to being out here on my own without parental support, or perhaps I am a little crazy. Who knows? Maybe all of the above.

Probably all of the above.

In any case, she gently persuaded me to TAKE the LEAP and BUY A BICYCLE today. She even bought one too! We brought them home today and just got done riding around the neighborhood a little bit and it was SO AWESOME! We were GIDDY! GIDDY and EXCITED like LITTLE CHILDREN!!

Wow. So glad I didn't listen to the voices in my head telling me not to buy it. Do you know why? Because tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny. Riding a bicycle is in order.

WAHOO!

Window candle times (with laptop).

Window candle times (with laptop).
Originally uploaded by reseda76

Happiness is placing some tealights on your windowsill and turning off all the lights...but leaving the laptop on by accident.

Aaahhhhh. Relaxing. :)