Arts Festival/Fête des Artes

Today my mom and I went to the Arts Festival downtown. It was AWESOME! Booth after booth filled to the brim with gorgeous beads, paintings, sculptures, whathaveyou and everything else lined the street and various bands played the morning away with their own version of laid-back "Mountain" music. Simply walking around soaking up the atmosphere was enough.



After strolling around, we went to lunch at a local cafe where my outfit somewhat matched the floor. Heh.



My mom bought a necklace at the seashell store next door (say that three times fast). Isn't it lovely?



At the end of the street there is a plaza with an old train station that is now a museum. Here's the outside.



Here's the inside. There was an art judging thingamabobo going on.



After that we were on our way out when a lady stopped us and gave us a flyer. She said she was part of the "Harmonica Army" and they were rounding up enough people to play the harmonicas at once to beat the current Guinness record of 1800 or something. We went over to the baseball stadium and there was INCREDIBLE LIVE blues music and FREE FREAKING HARMONICAS!!





What a nice surprise! We learned how to play "When The Saints Go Marching In." I can kinda sorta play it now. Plus I got a harmonica! Score!!

Aaahh. Such a nice day.

Mangez-moi.

Tonight my friend Jackie came over as she does quite often (which is just delightful) and we had dinner again.

It was vegetarian chili...





...with honey cornbread...



...and sorbet with chocolate covered cashews for dessert. It looked goofy. What is it lately with me and the goofy desserts?



Wine was also served of course. We're not barbarians. I highly recommend Barefoot. It is to DIE for.



We had the candle going...



...and good times were had by all.



There's leftover chili in the fridge. I'm going to have it for breakfast because I can.



Ooooooh!!

Wow!

I am writing this on my cellphone! Woohoo!

J'(coeur) jus de V8

Ooooooh. Mmm.

I am having a glass of V8 right now and it is delicious. I can smell the celery. DID YOU HEAR THAT?? I can SMELL the CELERY!! YUMMMMM.



So...today at work Rebecca-have you noticed this is slowly becoming a foodie blog? Huh. That's weird.

Anyhoo...today my friend Rebecca (who still had that latte) suggested we go to lunch at this other Middle Eastern place called "B.C. Chicken." They had another location in the next town but it closed so I thought it was gone forever. Well it didn't close. They just moved and it's really, really close now! So that's where we went. She had chicken souvlaki with salad and I had falafel with salad and rice. As expected, it was as mind-numbingly delicious as it had been at the previous locale. The falafel was very crisp on the outside yet moist and rich on the inside with garlic and spices. The rice was chewy and to DIE for. Plus there was tzatziki! You KNOW how much I love tzatziki!

Rebecca brought up an interesting point. The new location is in a motel complex. It must have been cheap rent and I'm sure people hesitate when driving by, but the restaurant is very clean and everything is new inside. Everyone is very kind and greets you as you walk in and out. She said she liked supporting the place because it was within a motel and not so expensive that people staying there couldn't get a nice fresh cooked meal.

She's right. I like that too.

For those of you who are locals, the restaurant is on Washington just after 12th. You can't miss it. :)

OOOH. When we left I noticed a DRIVE THROUGH WINDOW on the SIDE.

I AM SO GOING BACK!!

Hahaha.

Last night was FUNNY!

I went to the gym, had dinner, watched Mystery Science Theater 3000, then fell asleep around 8. When I woke up at 11 I listened to music but was wide awake until about 2 a.m. Around that time I was sitting in bed eating a bowl of popcorn and it dawned on me that my computer had stayed OFF all night long! I didn't even check email!!

Isn't that hilarious??!! HAHAHAHAHA!!

Have a nice day.

Je pense...je mange...je dorme.

You know what's cool about living close to your parents? You can go over there and act all goofy making dinner with your mom in the kitchen and the end product looks like this:



Vegetable stir fry with whole wheat pasta and Asian Apples drizzled with homemade raspberry preserves.

With gewürztraminer to drink of course. MMMMM!!

Yes I had already eaten half the plate before I realized it needed to be photographed. Oops.

Cell Phone Phun Pics! Clandestine!

HEY!!

Did you have a nice Saturday? I did. My friend Rebecca and I went gallivanting around the town and it was fabulous. Here's what we did as seen from my new phone! Yippee!

We met up for lunch (which SHE paid for!! THANK YOU REBECCA!!) at our favorite Middle Eastern 'straunt called "Mazza." I had the spinach (YES. SPINACH.) and lentil soup with sauteed lentils and veggies with pita bread. Mmm.



Dessert was a pistachio cookie. Nutlicious!!



After lunch we wandered on downtown to Granato's, an Italian market.



I found Torani cinnamon syrup which my coworker has been wanting for some time. Look at all these freakin' syrups!! It's amazing I found it.



After that we went to Talbot's where Rebecca found some delightful outfits for work and I stared out the window.



Shoes!

(Her feet, not mine)



After a phantom in Nordstrom tried to swoop in and steal the latte in my right hand,



Rebecca (who mysteriously now had a latte) and I mused over why not only would a bikini be available in this season, but at full price as well. Craziness!



Then we went home and had dinner.

I haven't had this much fun doing nothing in FOREVER. Woohoo!

Oh yeah...here's the bat on my desk at work.



He says "Skreeeeeh!!"

Okay not really but it would be cool if he did.

Bye!

Dinner!!

My good friend Natalie came over tonight and we made a scrumptious dinner. It was vegetarian meatloaf with mashed potatoes, green beans and chocolate dipped bananas for dessert.

Well...that's what it was supposed to be.

Natalie brought ground turkey because they didn't have soy meat. That was too bad but we soldiered on with ground turkey. I kept asking her what to add and when, completely ignoring the directions she painstakingly wrote on an adorable little recipe card. When I brought up that fact she agreed and took over meatloaf operations while I worked on dipping the bananas.

Well...she got everything nice and ready for the oven when I mentioned the brown sugar hadn't been added to the sauce.

At least I read something.

She was a very good sport about it.



MMM!



Then I sorta...well...the crock pot...trying to balance it...

Okay I just dumped the chocolate on the bananas. It looked horrible.



Then I realized as we were "plating" it up that the green beans were in the freezer.

Frozen.

So we had a side of mashed potatoes and, um, potatoes.



That's Cajun Slap Ya Mama seasoning on the cut potatoes. Thank GOD that was handy!

But you know what? IT WAS AWESOME!! The food turned out delicious too! I haven't laughed that hard in months!! Natalie! Let's screw up some recipes again because that was a BLAST!!

Seriously. It was the best. :-)

Pictures of Suburbia

I took these while running errands today. I don't know if it's because I grew up in the Western U.S. "Mallburbs" or what, but it makes me comfortable knowing these places are nearby and I like to go to them. It must be a feeble subconscious attempt at etching out an identity for myself or something. Weird.

Oh yeah and there are some mountains too.

Take On Me.

I just got back from dinner at T.G.I. Friday's with some friends. I ordered sangria and didn't feel a thing from drinking it. This might be due to the fact I ate and had lots of water, but I really think they don't put much alcohol in their drinks. None of this really matters though. Who cares?

Anyway, I don't really have much to say. Not anything interesting. I'm just really mellow and relaxed listening to music and thought I'd share my relaxitudeness with you. Be relaxed. It's awesome. Aaaaaah.

So...umm...here's a picture of pie. Mmm. Pie.

Who?

You know what song is stuck in my head today? No, it's not Rod Stewart's "Love Touch" again. It's "I Love Your Smile" by Shanice. It brings back memories.

I WAS A VERY SHALLOW PERSON IN THE 90'S OKAY??!!

It doesn't help that it's playing on iTunes right now. You know how people say you should play a song if you can'tDO DO DO DO DOOO DOOO DA DOO...I LOVE YOUR SMIIIILEget it out of your head? Well to be honest I don't thinkGONNA PUT THAT NEW BLACK MINI...ON MY CHARGE ANYWAYit works as well as it's supposed to. Because I love your smile.

You dig?

Wait. What?? GAH!! I have to turn this off!!

Okay. Now it's L.A. Song by Beth Hart. God this song is so sad. I love it but it's sad. Hmm...I'll switch to Adina Howard "Freak Like Me."

Ahh. That's better.

We can BOOM BOOM all through the night 'til early moooorn...

So anyway everything is lovely. How are you?? Is everything good?

LET ME KNOW IF EVERYTHING IS GOOD.

Adina says hey. I'm going to sleep now.



One to the two to the two to the three...Adina do ya wanna get freaky with me?

Regardez mon baggage.

My friend wanted to see the carry-on bag I wax rhapsodic about ad nauseum. I hope these pictures help illustrate to her how very smooshy yet load-bearing and cavernous it is.

Here you go! Let me know if you need anything else Honeypie and kick some ass in Italy! Woo!

(Psst!! Guess where she's going??)

My Crazy Cousin n' Me.

Funtimes!!

Test post

Just a test post of an old video I made you've probably already seen. Move along. Move along.

(Of course you are welcome to watch it if you haven't seen it and tell me how fabulous it is...you know...if you have nothing else to do. Heh. :-P)

Le petit dejeuner

Michael, Rebecca and I went to brunch in the canyon and then took a drive through the mountains. It was fabulous. Here are the pictures! Check out the EATS!! MMM!!

Bring me a Kleenex/Apportez-moi une Kleenex

I am stuffy headed sickish. I've been sleeping all day and refuse to leave my apartment because it's FREEZING (47F) outside and would just make me sicker. More sick. Further my illness. Whatever.

I overheard this conversation yesterday in the supermarket. It made me chuckle.

Guy: We could make a casserole.
Girl: Mmm. I like those.
Guy: (In exaggerated Frenchie accent) Vous-desirez une casserole?
Girl: Do I want a casserole? Yeah I do.
Guy: I don't know how to say "casserole" in French otherwise I would have.
Girl: There isn't a word for "casserole" I don't think. They eat real food.
Guy: Real food?
Girl: Yeah. Like...meat. With side dishes and stuff.
Guy: (In Cartman voice) Aaaaaand what side dishes will we be enjoying with our waffles tonight?
Girl: HAHAHAHAHA!!
Guy: (As Cartman) Am I to understand there will be no side dishes?
Girl: (In Kenny's mom's voice) WHUT THE HELL CAN YA DO WITH WAFFLES CLAMHEAD? YOU PUT 'EM IN A TOASTER AND YOU COOK 'EM!!
Guy: (As Kenny's father) You just don't know how to use spices and stuff...

and so on and so forth. Laughter ensued. Including mine. It was awesome.

HAHA.

Remember the last post with its random reference to Frank? Every time I'm referring to an anonymous person, for some reason, I pull "Frank" out of the hat. Some people use Joe, some use John Doe, I use Frank. For a short period of time I actually knew a Frank, but that time has long since passed and nobody has filled the Frank spot since then. Nobody even in my family is named Frank. It just seems so ambiguous and distant to me which makes it the perfect name to use.

Well Frank is real.

As I came down the hall to work this morning, a message was scrawled across the giant markerboard on the wall. It read (sic):

To whom it may consern,

I done the carpets as best I could, I will finish it Sat.

-Frank

The custodian, who I have seen and said hi to is named Frank. He has filled the Frank spot. A new anonymous name must be chosen! (Yes, I admit the fact not knowing his name reflects poorly on me. Lesson learned.) So what name could it be? I was thinking "Lembert." Nobody in my circle, nor any others I would imagine, sports that name.

By the way, the carpets looked awesome. Thank you Frank. I look forward to seeing them after Saturday too.

Whooo!

Hello!! Long time no see!! How've you been? Really? Yeah. Me too. Things are good. I've been so busy at work! Totally!! Well tell Frank I said hi and you take care, okay?

Who the hell is Frank? Whatever. Moving on...

I drink boxed milk. This freaks people out.

You see, there's a milk out there called "UHT", "Under High Temperature" or "Shelf Stable." It's boxed in a really thick, aseptic package and sealed from the elements so you CAN KEEP IT IN YOUR CABINET FOR UP TO 6 MONTHS OR UNTIL YOU WANT TO USE IT WHICHEVER COMES FIRST. When you need milk you can put one of these babies in your fridge and it's good! Real good! I use it all the time and I haven't suffered any ill effects and it tastes just like normal milk because it IS normal MILK.

See...if I could tell you how many jugs and cartons of milk I've thrown out because they turn to gooey gnasty shizz before they are used you would laugh. Maybe you wouldn't though because WE ALL DO THE SAME THING.

We waste things. It's the American Way.

BUT I REFUSE to do that. I am not wasting any more milk and I urge you to do the same! Buy boxed milk! Save the rainforest! Go green! Recycle! Use your bicycle!

Please see attached photo for reference. It's dairylicious!

CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!

Okay.

I was sitting here at work thinking how nice it would be to have some cake and RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT my boss walked in with a chocolate oreo cake made FROM SCRATCH by his grandma.

It was, by far, the FINEST cake I have been privy to. MMMMMMMMMMM. The frosting was actual CHOCOLATE. She melted CHOCOLATE and ICED the CAKE with MELTED CHOCOLATE.

Oop. Somebody's yelling in the hallway. Back to work!