02.12.08[my space heater keeps me warm...] and other mini-updates.
[1.] s treated me to highlights over the weekend at the bliss salon. i requested dark blue-purple highlights. the stylist confidently assured me that this could be done, when i asked whether she foresaw any challenges with my hair being black. (i've been growing out virgin hair since august.) well... as my ninety minute appointment progressed into a four hour ordeal involving peroxide, a gloss, dying, and then re-dying, i became convinced that reddish-purple would be the closest that i'd come to my original request. parting words from the stylist were, "next time you come in we'll panel back in some black." i haven't decided whether i'll go back. she was definitely patient and super sweet, but maybe inexperienced when it comes to asian hair? my hair didn't turn out how i wanted, but i can live with it. (it'll look better once some roots sprout and provide contrast.) we've been told that the pink papaya is worth checking out... so perhaps i can get true-blue highlights then.
[2.] i have the most wonderful husband in the world. i proclaim this because despite being together for over four years, s still continues to surprise me with little tricks and gifts! apparently while i was training in louisville, s clocked some major hours sifting through my hard drive for our many travel photos, because an amazing photo book arrived on our doorstep today. each page is laid out with a deliberate selection of photos to document our travels throughout asia, europe, central america, and america with photojournalistic flair. s is so creative and artistic.... and smart...and beautiful... and most importantly, a truly kind person! he works 12 hours days and somehow always has time to shower me with affection. i'm ca-razy-loco and so lucky to have found someone who is 100% compatible. (he thinks i'm pretty neat too.) i'll post some photos of this amazing book soon. for those interested in copying s's genius and surprising their so, check out blurb.com to make your very own masterpiece.
[3.] roller derby is my drug! it's like a week-long, sustained-released endorphin. overall, i'm just super happy all day. and it's motivated me to get in better shape to build up my endurance. i'm actually going to the gym on my own, when before s would have to drag me kicking and whining. because some of the other "fresh meat" girls dropped out, they might move my minimum skills test date to march instead of april. i really hope i make the league!
[4.] s is traveling these next few weeks... meaning he'll be eating basta pasta in boston, philly cheese steaks in philadelphia and dim sum, zachary's, and korea house in san francisco. my stomach's rumbling with envy.
[5.] my car is drinking ethanol these days. the wal-mart gas station provides a fuel blend with 10% ethanol. my car feels the same and doesn't smell like corn chips or burnt popcorn.
[6.] "woo pig soooiee"... no, wait! it says, "woo pig chewy." "brownie flavored ice cream with chunks of chewy brownies and swirls of brownie batter"... such profuse use of the word "brownie."
[7.] a 'woo hoo' is due for r and s(y) who found out that they're having a boy... and s and s(b) who still plan to be surprised. an 'annnw' goes out to l and j who have adopted a new doggie. and a continued, anticipated hush goes out to blogger extraordinaire, d, whose in vitro is progressing right on track.
02.01.08[snowday] the schools are closed and the roads are slippery, but that's no bother to me. i'm officially a telecommuter.
having just returned from two weeks of training and orientation in kentuckiana (a real term by the way), it feels great to be home... even if, my home is in arrrrrgh-kan-saw. i'm very excited about my new job as it allows me to stay in the same vein of specialization without regard to my geographic handicap. and the perks of working for a for-profit, publicly traded, insurance company have already showed an evident contrast to the penny pinching hmo setting of my prior years. the best part of my job is that i'll be able to work from anywhere with an internet connection. the downside, of course, is losing my lazy-dog days of the past six months.
the mothership.
01.27.08[i am human and i need to be loved just like everybody else does] this weekend i visited ohio girl. we had fun running around in the snow, ordering way too much food at lolita, and depotting eye shadows. manipulating box cutter blades over blue moons reveals that we obviously missed the safety lecture. you'd never guess that we are professionals by our vacuous project choice.
the pinnacle of my trip was the rock and roll hall of fame. it was an utterly ethereal and even therapeutic experience. i think music speaks to us all. songs are a creative expression of feeling like an outsider. and who hasn't ever been down or felt like an outcast? during those adolescent years when nobody understood, i found solace in maxi single form. dinero was saved and spent at sam goody (sheet music and posters), tower (imports and elusive b-sides), and music trader (used cds). my greatest score ever is still halo, which was hard-as-bleep to find. (before limewire and napster existed, this song was only available as a b-side on the 'friday i'm in love' single.)
don't recognize my lyrical title?... here's a hint.
the museum has a very strict no-photography policy... but i just HAD to sneak this picture. just like the david at the accademia, rem is was worth the scolding.
01.19.08[wii] have too much fun.
01.19.08[for c] who recently lost his mom.
01.19.08[don't leave home without it] every housekey needs a glow in the dark skull cap.
01.19.08[fresh meat] hey all... hope that everyone's enjoying 'oh eight' so far. it seems like this will be the year for babies! (of course i mean s(y) and s(b). hooray for you guys!) since our new orleans trip, s and i have been keeping busy with various activities and projects. s's parents came out to visit this past week, so i dragged them around our stomping grounds while s had an unusually stressful week at work. in our care, they left us with a brand spankin' new 47 inch lcd tv! it's humongous and complements our gargantuan home very well. (ps: i'd say that we're 85% done with furnishing/decorating our home... so i'll be creating a youtube tour soon.)
most notably, i'm officially training and plan to try out for the next roller derby draft. i realize that my new job deserves priority over unorthodox extra-curriculars... but i'm sad that i'll have to miss the next two practices while away for orientation. missing practices disqualifies me for the immediate upcoming minimum skills test, so now i'll have to wait until april, instead of february to take it. i'd like to be drafted by summer, but we'll see how it goes. the on-league girls that i've met as part of the training have been super nice, but i guess they wouldn't be volunteering to help with fresh meat if they were mean. anyway... wish me luck! (and wish h luck too, as i harass her to try out with me.)
here are some belated photos from nu' awlins. (the slideshows might take a while to load, depending on your connection.) i tried to take a floor view photo at café du monde, but the very reason why i wanted to take such a picture was also the culprit for my shots not working. (for reference, a café floor heavily blanketed in powder sugar comes out as a white blur with the flash on... and a grey blur without the flash off.)
12.29.07[pollock-esque] before heading off to n'awlins for new years and the sugar bowl, we created the base for our next piece. s and i are working on a pair of pollock inspired paintings with contrasting backgrounds to be exhibited next to each other in our formal dining. i've found the double dutch method of applying color to work the best for creating great arches. splattering and propelling paint with air is fun for filling fields and gaps. the key is to apply only one color at a time and allow it to dry completely before the next color. this creates distinct layers of color, instead of just a big ol' mess. we also chose different paint textures, like satins, mattes, and metallics for even more dimension. demonstration coming soon! (i promise that i'll use a better resolution and try to end more eloquently in the next video.) happy new year y'all!!!
12.25.07[do not open until xmas] because, "christmas is the day that mary gave birth to santa." -- anonymous. (hope your sense of humor forgives sacrilege. if not then please only remember reading the following: ho, ho, ho. merry christmas!)
penguins weren't associated with christmas when we were young. now they're everywhere. it's cool. i heart penguins. but, i'm convinced that santa's had to outsource to the south pole. maybe due to threats of elf-unionization? or cheaper wages in antarctica, south america, and africa? globalization is everywhere my friends.
it's been very busy around here with the taking care of random odds and ends. we're finally finishing the interior our home in anticipation of our first visitors next month, a and p. we've always had the basic furniture pieces but had a long ways to go in terms of decor and accents. as part of the process we're creating original s+p artwork, inspired by pollock. we also found the greatest hit in our treasure hunting thus far, an aged milk keg which precisely rounds out the corner of our front entry. once everything is complete, i plan to post a youtube tour. i've also been occupied with the nuts and bolts of pre-employment. asides from copious paperwork and phone tag, a drug screen requisition was overnighted to arrive on christmas eve with explicit directions to complete within 48 hours. it may shock you to learn that labcorp isn't open for urine and hair sampling on christmas day. hmm. thank you to all those brave and selfless mcfly's who work in hr everyday to make our lives better. (seriously speaking, onboarding with h* has been quite organized.)
of all the years to send a christmas letter, this should be it, with the graduation and the wedding and the relocation and the new jobs! but i've dropped the ball. we're planning to send new years cards instead... is that ok? i wish i could claim that the new years cards are a tribute to politically correct greetings, but it's really to compensate for my procrastination and failure as a housewife. (good thing i have a job now, as i'd rather bring home bacon than burn it. even though i'll still be working from home, it's really quite different.)
on this fourth christmas that we've spent together, we hope that all our family and friends have as much love as we do in the new year.
envy my tokidoki tote from w, my uncle-in-law, who has the gift of always selecting the perfect presents!
:: :: ::
a week ago, we began some home brewing with a and h. (well, a did most of the work.) it's a very scientific process. that night they surprised me with cute birthday cupcakes. how super sweet are they!?
12.15.07[snow day] the first snowfall of the season.
12.12.07[better than a box of chocolates] ... is a box of chips! one of my lucky friends is going to find a special treat on her doorstep this week!
to my fellow chip lover! enjoy these salty treats! yum.
12.11.07[proofs] our wedding album mock layouts have arrived! they are not to scale and only show the order that our photos will appear... but it's still exciting to see. i can't wait to see the next draft!
12.09.07[happy tree friends] s and i picked out our christmas tree today. it's a vast upgrade from my "charlie brown christmas tree" of the past two years. we found our tree at walmart, a company which is making amazing strides toward protecting our environment and setting the pace for corporate responsibility and sustainability initiatives.
personally, i'm not keen on the idea of chopping down a beautiful tree and then dragging it into your home to slowly die. i know this sounds 'bah humbug,' but i think it's a cruel thing to do. however, s doesn't like the idea of an artificial tree and explained that the process of manufacturing a fake tree is harmful to the environment whereas real trees are recyclable and usually reforested. so we found the perfect compromise by adopting a potted norfolk island pine instead. if you haven't gotten a tree yet, then consider a living holiday tree. you give it water and plant food, it returns the favor by photosynthesizing oxygen and looking pretty. plus, you get to keep it year round. we're very happy with our new addition.
each year we'll plan a different color scheme or theme. this year is blues, purples and a decapitated snow man tree topper. (wearing a blue beanie to coordinate, of course.)
here we are back in 2006, when the male facial hair growing contest of section g was alive and kickin!
12.08.07[lights of the ozarks] who would think that you'd bump into a camel or reindeer in fayetteville!? i didn't get a good photo of santa claus... so you'll have to take my word when i say that the ones i've seen out here are very convincing. lightsoftheozarks.org
12.07.07[all i wanted for xmas] just when i was about to give up... it happened! i've been offered a position with h*. hoo-frickin-ray! the elusive, telecommute, clinical position is miiiiine. i am beyond thrilled and will start in five weeks.
12.06.07[time traveling] this past week has been unusually hectic. the adventure began on the 29th, when s and i departed for honolulu for his grandma's funeral. s would head back to work the following sunday while i would plan to stay on the island for a few weeks. being relatively responsibility-free, i welcomed the idea of laying out on the beach every day between errands, calling up s(h)-whom i've gotten to know better since moving away, and clogging my arteries with the most delicious food on the planet.
our hotel room's view
popo was buried at the national memorial cemetery of the pacific, alongside s's paternal grandpa who is a war veteran. they met in hawaii as a result of ww2, a time that i consider to be glamorous... at least based on its portrayal by modern media. it just seemed like such a patriotic time when men came of age by going to war and women took on new roles in the workforce, while wearing victory rolls and bright red lipstick for fashion since cloth was under strict rations. i don't know. i could be way off... but i'm in awe of the idea of hawaii during ww2. or... maybe, i've seen pearl harbor (the movie) too many times. or... maybe i just like hawaii? in a lot of ways, hawaii to me is like a movie... by a freak coincidence most of my favorite movies take place in hawaii... and of course how destiny brought s and i together is like a movie.
s's popo and granpa
national memorial cemetery of the pacific
overlooking nuuanu side
s and i travel non-stop, "amazing race style," so we did a lot despite our short three-day stay. we watched the sun rise over diamond head from magic island in ala moana beach, had breakfast at sam choy's blc, visited the dcca to restore my professional licensure (which i had let expire thinking that i would never need it again) and the dhs to pick up our corrected marriage certificate (they had the wrong date!) we visited his maternal granpa in nuuanu, caught a bird's eye view of the koolau mountain range, chinaman's hat, the pali highway, kaneohe and kailua from the nuuanu state park/pali lookout, laid out on the tourist infested waikiki, met up with k for pupus and beer at mai tai, spied on the penguins and fed turtles (we stayed at the hilton hawaiian village in an ocean view room - courtesy of a & p who spoil us), shopped at ala moana and kahala, picked out a palladium setting for my engagement ring (i know, long overdue. and yes, we like unconventional metals), quasi-tailgated for the uh-uw football game, explored chinatown, got haircuts in makiki, had korean plate lunches from gina's bbq (drool), and of course attended popo's funeral and related celebrations.
sunrise over diamond head
swimming against the tourist swarm
pali lookout over kaneohe/kailua side.
inside granpa's garage
chinatown markets
but let's go back a week: before departing from the mainland i applied to a host of positions... several of them being very geographically unattractive. i had reached my peak in jobless-restlessness and decided out of frustration to whore out my cv. it seemed that all the hiring freezes were apparently melting with the new fiscal year just around the corner as new postings surfaced on my job searches. (yes people are still confused as to "why" i would want to work. i just want to. i'd hate to sacrifice all that i've learned and hope to accomplish.)
2005 & 2007 (look at how we've aged!)
on my second day in hawaii, i received a very last minute interview offer. turning on a dime, i truncated my vacation by rescheduling my return flight, adjusting my rental car reservation, and canceling my appointments with our jeweler and wedding photographer. i flew back to ar with s on a sunday night red-eye to then depart the following day for ky. none of these were direct flights... so over a span of 6 days, i went from ar to tx to hi, then hi to tx to ar, then ar to tx to ky, and finally ky to il to ar. i can only say that time traveling is exhausting and by the last leg you cannot wait to get home.
dallas fort worth international
i hope that the outcome of yesterday's interview is better than my last two interview experiences. i should know within a week, so i'll have to be patient. if i do get an offer, then my orientation will begin late january, and i will plan an excursion. i'd like to return to hi or possibly travel internationally... we'll see what the case may be.
my find at kahala! (my dad would call this a waste of money.)
brothers and s-i-l's
click on the photo above to see how cute penguins are when they sleep!! this guy pretty much just plopped down on his face in the middle of the berg. (sorry, it's dark... i didn't want to wake him up with a flash.)
11.26.07[how to ship a wii guitar hero] a step-by-step tutorial. start with two 19x12x3 boxes. the ones pictured were purchased from a ups store. (while their shipping is on the expensive side, their shipping supplies are very affordable.) i chose boxes designed for shipping laptops, so the cardboard is corrugated, meaning extra crush-proof. we'll frankenstein these puppies together into the perfectly sized guitar hero shipping box!
use a sturdy tape to seal the seams and it's ready for shipping! you can also wrap the final box with brown kraft paper for a more uniform appearance, a step that i forwent. if you're still in the market to purchase a wii guitar hero, then i have to say, "good luck finding one!" those clever nintendo-ians seem to be exploiting the law of supply vs demand.
11.22.07[hairspray] i've been meaning to upload these for a while. while in new york, m and i stuck around for a few autographs and photos, after watching hairspray. (pictured below: tevin campbell, lance bass, and ashley parker angel.) lucky us.
11.22.07[gobble gobble] none of our family was able to make it out for thanksgiving, but we had a great one nonetheless. we had the o's over and they brought their kiddos, m who can pound hot cocoa and explain what a "nodder" is along with t his sweet baby brother. rather than an entire bird, we opted for just a seasoned turkey breast and a ham basted in hawaiian guava jelly. because one of s's thanksgiving traditions is sushi, we had a handroll bar for appetizers! and we had plenty of sides including a broccoli casserole, of which i'll have to get the recipe from k. it was tres delish and having our friends over made the holiday feel more special.
now while the world plans to wake up before dawn to seize black friday sales and hunt the elusive gaming console du jour, s will be on the corporate jet to chicago and i'm not sure what i'll be doing all day yet. i detest shopping among the frenzy of irrational crowds. i'll probably just work on my website. i've reached the storage limit and have to move my photos over to photobucket, a pretty good external photo host, if you need such a service too.
11.22.07[a place for letters to santa]
11.20.07[poultry country] there is something about the chicken here. at first, i thought i'd developed mad cooking skills, but now i realize that we must be in chicken country. tyson chicken is so delicious and impossible to overcook. every chicken meal we've had since moving here has been perfectly juicy and tasty! i've brought this up with h, who agrees. i don't know if it's just fresher or the fact that the chicken is never frozen here. but, mmm mmm, you just can't go wrong.
11.20.07[s's birthday!]
11.18.07[discoveries] s and i found an awesome rock climbing gym today! its name, la casa pollo, is as quirky as its manager who is definitely manic in a fun way. from outside it looks like a barn, but inside it's an all-day belay. we did the usual bouldering and climbing. they have an awesome chimney climb and we ended our outing by scaling a 75 foot outdoor wall! we signed up for membership and might tag along on a future trip.
this is the last weekend that s can honestly say he's a 20-something-year-old. he opened his present a bit early... and while he adopts the responsibilities that come with being an awesome guitar hero, i get to dance around our great room while he plays. (here's a clip from his very first song!)
during the week h and i went to a craft fair. it was smaller than we expected, but a unique diversion. i found a tortilla soup mix from maine which we cooked up last night. it was tasty and had quite a kick. asides from creative knick-knacks there was also a very convincing santa claus and several tables for enlisting your kids into ballet, sports, and scouts. (yes, i said "enlist." middle-america takes these activities really seriously.) all the while we were on the ninth floor of probably the tallest building in bentonville, overlooking the coroporate offices of walmart. there's nothing much happening on the roof of the world's largest most successful company, just a bunch of air conditioner vents. speaking of which, after the craft fair, we visited the original walton five and dime situated on main street in bentonville. it's a museum and visitor's center now, and it really highlights all the good and successes of this often misunderstood company and its founder. i wish liberal media would stop hating... and people could think for themselves.
sorry, i'm sounding defensive... let's change to a happier note: jimmy chips! yum. chips are my weakness and jimmy chips are no exception.
11.16.07["well are you going to buy a wig? or ain't cha?"] while watching travel channel... i learned that branson, mo (aka "vegas if it were run by ned flanders") is a mere two hour drive from here! spring break! maybe i can find a 1982 AAA guidebook for sale on ebay, because i heard that the "wo d f ir" is a must see.
11.11.07[weekend recap] on our way to missouri for s to restock his microbrews for the month, we stopped by bella vista where he lived over the summer. (you may have seen the infomercials on this area, where that retired 'chips' guy convinces you that you need to buy lakeside property.) there was a wedding on the day that we chose to visit the cooper memorial chapel, but the site curator was so kind as to offer to take a photo for us, instead of shooing us away.
the next day, we visited the pea ridge military national park. this was the site of an actual civil war battle. (check out the confederate flag below.)
11.02.07[rakes and cakes] those few days when seasons transition are among us! our neighborhood is lined with tall, majestic, lush trees with leaves that are gradually turning various shades of autumn golds, vibrant oranges, deep yellows and rich purple-browns. i never imagined foliage to be so beautiful. now i understand why people travel long distances just to see such things. we're blessed to have it right in our own backyard! and we're even more blessed that these are our neighbor's trees and not literally in our own backyard... because autumn is also called "fall" for a very arduous reason.
asides from admiring foliage, i baked and decorated cupcakes for our poker game tonight. hand piped with love, a skill i acquired in about five minutes, thanks to this youtube video. i must proclaim, youtube is the greatest teacher of obscure skills like curling your hair with a flat-iron, how to choreoraph over 1000 filipino inmates into a thriller routine, how to 'leave britney alone' and of course... how to select the best piping tip for your cupcakes.
if you look intently, the little bushes in front of our house even have an ity-bit of foliage.
10.31.07[happy halloween!] each year the corporate offices throw a halloween bash for the kiddos. the marketing department transformed their cubicles into... a 70's disco, a drive through safari, a circus, an airplane, and a haunted prison with (slinky) barbed wire on it's walls! the decorations and costumes were really creative! one guy dressed up as a human-size pinata that spilled out candy when kids hit him with a giant floaty-noodle. other costumes i liked were the dancing circus bear with pink tutu, the spaghetti with meatballs dish, and all the muscle-bound junior super heroes!
10.16.07[living is easy with eyes closed] in sixth grade when everyone was crushing on jordan, joey, marky-mark's brother and whomever else was in nkotb, i was avidly compiling beatles songs onto blank cassettes and looking through books about the fab four at the library. (life before internet) so when i saw the across the universe trailer this past summer, i couldn't wait to see (and sing along) with the movie. but despite its wide-release in september, it didn't play in san diego or rogers... until now. hooray-hooray! i guess when you don't live in a film industry defined 'major city,' you're less apt to see non-mainstream, independent, or international movies, prior to their gaining momentum. that's just another reason for me to be jealous of you lucky folks who live in san francisco and new york! but in any case, it's better late than never! and it's a good thing that netflix exists to fill in the gaps.
strawberry fields memorial in central park on the day after john lennon's birthday.
10.15.07[photos to follow] i just returned from new york! i had a TON of fun with m and can't wait to plan another trip. there is so much to do and see that i definitely wouldn't mind setting up camp in new york in the near future. our week was non-stop with sightseeing, musical watching, lance bass hugging, shopping, giant keyboard playing, ethnic food eating, 'met' going, central park exploring, and cafe and bar lounging. c was nice enough to come in from connecticut to meet up with us for a day. and i got to catch up with friends, k, d, and finally meet d's gf m (and their cutie dog y)!
upon my return home, s drove us from the airport straight to the razorback game, which was a fun way to transition back into arkansas life. the game was really boring until the very end of the last quarter when all of a sudden the razorbacks picked things up! unfortunately it wasn't enough to prevent auburn from scoring three more points in the final ninty seconds to beat arkansas 9 to 7. what the...? am i blogging about sports!? this is totally out of character, let me shift gears by saying that i enjoyed the halftime and pregame field shows. i was in colorguard and dance in hs, so i eat that stuff up! the game was attended by over 72,000 people which produced a vast sea of red with modest spattering of orange.
as usual, i have travel pictures to share. i'll post them soon!
10.07.07[bikes and hogs] who would have guessed that s and i would spot our doppelgangers at a bike rally!
it's interesting that although hogs are stereotypically associated with outlaw biker gangs and the such, the typical owner has completed an advanced degree and boasts an average annual household income of $180,000. these bikes are seriously customized and that amounts to a very expensive hobby. so, the next time a pack of weekend warriors rumbles past you on the highway allow them the right of way... because if you cross true outlaws then they'll beat you down and if they're litigators by trade then you'll definitely be sorry.
in the morning, we volunteered at a rest stop on the century route of the tour de cure 2008, sponsored by the ada. manning a rest stop for over five hours is really boring. while in the booth, i developed a foolproof way to predict which color/flavor gatorade a rider would select. i only watched twenty or so people, but of the twelve that chose gatorade instead of water, each one consistently picked gatorade that was the same color as their jersey. red jersey = red gatorade. blue jersey = blue gatorade. yellow jersey = yellow gatorade. orange jersey = orange gatorade. my initial hypothesis that selecting a gatorade flavor is as primal as choosing ones preferred color was correct! (note: riders who were not wearing one predomniant color were excluded.)
10.05.07[photolicious] the last few weeks in reverse chronological order...
s and i are stripping and refinishing an awesome furniture find from the motherload antique shop. (before and after photos to be posted once the project's complete.) i think that y will recognize my goggles from undergrad chem lab. my recent california trip reminded me of how much i regret missing her wedding. it unfortunately conflicted with s's graduation. i'm sure that she'll have many more celebrations in the future and i'll definitely be there for those.
last sunday we spent a day at the beach on beaver lake. we have to find a way to rent a boat and some jetskis! after sunning ourselves we drove around and admired the amazing lake adjacent homes. many sit high on the mountain with expansive views and private paths leading down to individual boat docks.
a and i spent an evening exploring the docks, after feasting on fish n chips at the historic point loma seafoods. and straight from the horse's mouth, she's next!
coronado with m, the woman who taught me all i know about cyclone technology and who has inspired me to travel in the meantime.
sweet tomatoes at old poway's weekly farmer's market. (we just happened to go on a day when there was a civil war reenactment. so after buying heirlooms and selecting the perfect eggplant, we got a history lesson. it's so funny to find a group of confederate civil war historians just a stone's throw from an outdoor organic market.)
this suburban-dwelling bird waited patiently by my favorite fish taco place in hopes of a littered, unfinished burrito or spilled, tortilla chips. i suspect he's already eaten too much rubios.
since moving to middle america, i've improved my geography skills.
thanks to s, i now truly appreciate a good microbrew. i love and miss good ol' jupiter ipa and on a totally unrelated note, yummy soup noodles!
i wish i knew about the baker beach to golden gate bridge hike when i was living in the city. it's picturesque and would have been the perfect escape from studying... er, okay cramming and barely scraping by. for those with a serious sweet tooth... there's a new cupcake shop in ghirardelli square, that displays the cute little cakes in cases as if they were jewelry. and, bi-rite more than lived up to c's raves! we heeded i's warning and avoided the roasted banana. despite their many original flavors, i ordered my coveted mint chip. the other flavors simply didn't interest me. i love love love mint chip. and although i've had mint chip before, i haven't had their mint chip. (if we weren't meeting up with n and d for zachary's, then i would have tried a second scoop of more exotic nature.)
i can now rightfully declare that i'm just not into cold, raw, live, vegan fare. although, i'd still say that it's worth trying and cafe gratitude is supposed to be the best. their caprese is excellent. order that along with a smoothie and you're set. stay away from their cracker spreads and soup. i tried these on their "i am abundant" sampler plate and found the spreads to be super salty and the shot of soup to be uncomfortably spicy to compensate for lack of flavor otherwise.
my favorite ohio girl and her man are now husband and wife! they had a traditional cantonese reception and the funniest bouquet toss i've ever witnessed.
last and definitely not least... the main reason i booked a trip to california in the first place! my cv has become ca! it was a gorgeous wedding and s and i are super happy for our favorite malasada devouring couple. i look a smidge less shrimpy because c had us descend three flights of stone steps to then traverse an aisle of slippery rose petals in four inch heels. that's especially challenging for a girl who lives in flip-flops. oh the things we (are happy to) do for our bestest friends on their special day.
i'm thankful for everyone who made a special effort to visit while i was in ca and for having a welcoming and hospitable brother in law (whom f has full permission to pimp out.)
