Childhood Reminiscing and Current Events

In recent years, I've become hyperaware of my patterns and cycles, and going back through these old posts...damn, they're so highlighted, it's almost embarrassing. Almost.

In the past few weeks, there have been signs and synchronicities that ask the question:

 "What were you into as a child?"

And just today, listening to a podcast, they were discussing being kids and tape recording silly skits and doing kid shows or writing interview scripts and recording them with their siblings and buddies.

As I was editing a couple of videos for Pulp City Magazine, I started thinking about my first Kodak camera, and commandeering my dad's tape recorder and writing silly plays and radio shows with my brother or just recording us while we played with matchbox cars and his racetracks, or with my bestie, April, while we played with my Grandpa Dollhouse or Barbies. Some of those dumb pics I still have. I wish I still had those tapes.

As soon as my mom's church, where she worked, updated her office computer, that old DOS machine became mine and came with a dot matrix printer. It looked like this one but had yellow/gold type.

I journaled on that thing for years and printed it all out before we updated our home computer. The printer wasn't calibrated and printed over the page perforations, so I have the 100+ pages all still mostly intact. Maybe we'll go down that memory lane for like, Throwback Thursdays or something. 

It's been fun working at 903 Mills Market* and talking with the kids about how great a time it was to be alive during BetaMax vs VHS and dial-up internet and watching music flow from vinyl records, to 8-track tapes, to cassette tapes, to CDs, minidisk players, .WAV players to mp3 players (and listing all the streaming download sites), and then so many of us came back to vinyl. 

Point is, I've always been into media.

In the past 10+ years, I've come through for a lot of you, but I've also failed on some projects because I let myself get distracted by life instead of focusing on the work.

I apologize to those of you I've failed or disappointed. I apologize to me too.

I admit to the self-sabotage and have been doing the work to make changes and put an end to certain cycles and patterns, and in turn, finding a peaceful balance and a renewed sense of ambition, motivation, and inspiration.

And so now, I'm on this incredible startup team for Pulp City and we did our first food feature yesterday and it feels so good to be back in it. I went in thinking it was just going to be me & Dom with a couple of cameras, and then, all of a sudden, we had a 4 person crew with so much being covered. It was an absolute dream come true. Seeing the footage they were getting and being able to put together a really good idea about how to cut it, and how great we all worked together....  It was just really inspiring and we're so excited to show you the things we've been working on.  We're slated to launch next month for Orlando's 150th birthday!

If you're a local business owner or know someone with a local business, get in touch with us and we'll do something fun together!!!

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*I'll tell you stories and introduce you to my 903 Mills Market family very soon. They're the best.

That One Time I Forgot To Share The NOLA Video

Pannacakes and I went to NOLA for our birthdays earlier this year.
Matthew met us there after a work trip in Austin.
Here's what that mess looked like:

My Whole30 Experience

I write this on my 30th day of this program.
You see that?  NO ALCOHOL!!
For those of you that know us, that's the biggest challenge on this thing.
Matthew & I do enjoy our beer & shots & gettin' loud and rowdy.
It took going through the first week before I stopped listening for the sound of the shot glasses clinging together from the cabinet to the counter followed by the freezer door opening whenever Matthew got home.
That was our routine....from Thursday (the new Friday) night and we'd finish the bottle on Sunday.
Along with the beer or whatever we'd be drinkin' when we go out on weekends.  And Weds nights were usually spent at the Enzian with beer & a couple shots (y'know, to help with digestion).
At the very least, 5 days of professional drinking.

On behalf of my liver, I needed a break.
So, when Martha posted this link for Whole30 on facebook, I was saw it as a sign & perfect timing.
In this, I also needed Matt's help & knew both of us would benefit from it.
We'd both set and completely failed to meet a goal for March 2nd, so, like I said, the timing was perfect.

Matthew was not a fan of this Whole30 thing.  We actually got into a disagreement about it when I first pitched it - his knee-jerk reaction was to call it a Nazi Diet and he'd said how "not fun" it looked.
Mainly because of the No Alcohol thing.
Matthew's also a huge fan of chips and breads & peanut m&m's.
But since I gave going paleo a whirl almost a year ago, we'd already been cooking/eating well at home and really only needed to make & stick to a few adjustments.
1. No alcohol.
2. Going out to eat less.
3. Less snackin' on sugar & starchy carbs
Matthew finally warmed up to the idea of going through this and then...about a week into it, had to leave on a work trip to South by Southwest.
I knew that was going to be tough for him.  His favorite travel snack is, of course, peanut m&ms and there are such great bars and he'd be with colleagues, etc.
But we packed him up with a buncha cashews & pistachios and he loaded up on some Whole Foods once he got there and stayed strong when going out with the fellas.
Incredibly proud of him since he didn't really wanna do it to begin with.

Also, about a week in, he started thanking me for getting us to change things up.

The first thing I noticed right off the bat was that sleeping was AWESOME!!
I sleep so freakin' good now, it's insane.
The only time I do wake up is to pee because of the water I drink during the day.
Before, I'd wake up at least once and not be able to go back to sleep for 30mins to an hour.
After only a few days, I was sleeping through the whole night and so deeply, I wouldn't hear Matt get up for the gym at all.  And getting out of bed was way easier because I was actually well rested.

My head started to clear, too....which was one of the reasons for how poorly I'd been sleeping before.
I'd start thinkin' about shit and my head just wouldn't shut up.
Or I'd get overwhelmed by my thoughts throughout the day, have too much going on at once, totally disheveled and disorganized.
It was kinda funny to notice that the more my head started to clear, the more I also started to unclutter my surroundings.
My Lair is cleaned up and more organized.
The kitchen, too.
Next to tackle...the closets.
I attribute some of these feelings to Spring as well, since it is spring cleaning season.

I must confess I broke the last rule and weighed myself periodically.  Matt, too.
He said he's lost about 25lbs since we started.
I've lost about 16lbs.
Matt's still hitting the gym.
I haven't at all.  Maybe a walk in the neighborhood here and there, but no new routine at all.
I wanted to focus solely on the food changes before tackling the physical exertion that can mess with what you consume (duh, working out makes you eat more, let me find my base again first).

With that, we both also noticed that our stinky b.o. had changed.  It was far less funky when Matthew came home from the gym.  He doesn't smell like the varsity football locker room anymore & doesn't bitch about how all of his gym clothes stink as soon as he puts'em on after they've been through the laundry.
And my pits don't smell like onions anymore if I miss a day of deodorant (don't judge me, I work from home).

OH!! One thing I feel the need to mention, for you ladies (good for you guys to pay attention to, too, if you know what's good for ya)....I had no cramps at all this month.  Mood swings were minimal (Matt wasn't around either, so that might've had somethin' to do with it - HA!!) and I didn't break out as much or feel like I needed to wear sweat pants for a week.  It came and went with no fanfare or smashing of things.  Was great!!

I didn't have any cravings at all, until this past weekend.  The weather was nice and we were at an old Mt. Dora joint where eating a sammich and drinkin' a beer woulda been heavenly.  And then afterwards, we walked through a Fresh Market and the smells in there were driving me batty.
I even went by the bakery just to fuck with myself.  But I stayed strong and the feelings subsided as soon as we got home.  We'd even put down some shredded coconut & skipped the coffee because there were artificial things in each.
I see it as an accomplishment - to not be tempted or have cravings until day 26?  That's pretty good.

And speakin' of coconut...I have seen heaven and it is made of coconut oil.
Anyone who doesn't like coconuts....I feel kinda bad for you because you really are missing out.
Maybe we can talk about coconut oil later.  It deserves its own blog.

We'll still continue to eat Whole30 at home and will make better choices when we're out, but we do have plans to go to Enzian tomorrow night and I would like a large Left Hand Milk Stout, please & thank you.
I'll give you a review on how I feel the following day because I'm sure I'll feel like shit & that'll be an interesting experiment in and of itself.
But I'd really like a stout.

My Effin' Chicken Recipe

A few of you have been asking for this recipe.  You should know, I don't cook with recipes really.  I "loosely base" my own shit on recipes I watch or read about.  Mostly from memory after I read it once or twice.  And I don't measure things and my cast iron skillet is King.  Love that thing. (heh, that rhymed)

Watch this video to see where I learned the basics.
Thanks to Willie for sharing that bit.

So, on this one, I seared it on 3 sides (back, side, and side - each for a few minutes) and put it back on it's back and then I threw in a half an onion, a carrot, and some celery all cut up into bits.  Oh, and a couple cloves of garlic.  Throw your veggies into the pan around the sides and salt and pepper it all before you throw it all in the oven.  And when you throw it in the oven...it'll be at 350ish, for about an hour.
Afterwards, I like to take a spoon and lean the pan onto one side and spoon the drippings & seasonings back up on the bird before serving.

For a side to go with, I made a badass mashed cauliflower.  Here's how you do that nonsense:
1 head of cauliflower, 1 thing of crumbled goat cheese (I get publix), 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, some salt, 2 or 3 tblsp (or maybe a 1/4c) of chicken broth, some butter.
Boil or steam your head of cauliflower, when its soft, drain it and throw it in the food processor with the garlic, butter, goat cheese, salt, and chicken broth.  Turn that shit on and/or pulse when needed to get the cauliflower lumps out.
Ta-muthafuckin'-da.  Mashed cauliflower.  An awesome alternative to mashed potatoes.

I LOVE cooking this.  And the leftovers are great, too.
So there.

Ireland - Dublin, to be specific

The 2012 Turkey

This here is some mustard seeds, black peppercorns, and bay leaves.  Set over a low heat until they get 'fragrant'.  They didn't really do that before they started toasting unless you got your face right up in it.  I figured toasted was fragrant enough.

This here is when you add some water, brown sugar, kosher salt to those toasted little earth nuggets.  Stir it until the sugar and salt are dissolved and then remove from heat and let it cool.

This here is what it looks like when you throw a bacon blanket over it and add the brine (shown above) and some onions and a few bottles of Guinness to it.  The actual bird is breast side down cuz you want that part submerged in the brine.  You'd probably actually want the entire bird submerged but I didn't have a pot big enough for that nonsense.  So we gave it a bacon security blanket.  Don't worry, there's bacon on the underside, too.  This will sit in the fridge for 24hrs.

This here's what that precious bird looked like when we pulled it out of the oven after it'd been roasting for about 3 hrs.  I cooked it for about 1.5hrs with a bacon blanket on top of it, removed that for the last hour of cooking to make sure it got that lovely golden brown.  The drippings and debris left in the pot made a delectable gravy.
I see you, Turkey.  You did a good job & I apprecicate the tough life you had so we could eat you.

This here's what Matt looked like when he carved up that delicious bird.

Anyone Hungry? Cask & Larder Review!

I've been hearing about all the yummy wonderfulness going on in this place from some foodie friends for quite a while now - same with Ravenous Pig.
We tried to get a res for the Pig while Matt's folks were in town over Thanksgiving.  They were full.  The restaurant, not his folks.
I thought we might get a spot at Cask.  They were full, too, but we ended up finding a spot at the oven bar and watched them make stuff while we were waiting to figure out what we were going to order.
Right away, I saw 'Holiday Cookie' on the microbrew list and had to try that.
It was lovely and gingerbreadspicy.  It also had the highest alcohol content.  Well played, me.
Everything looked amazing on the menu, but I decided on the chicken & biscuits.  Matt had the ham board which has 3 different shaved country hams.  I think his folks had the same thing and my mom had the mac & cheese.
The biscuits are....(see below)
If they had an entree that was just biscuits, Matt & I woulda been completely happy.
I took a picture of my chicken and biscuits when it arrived & immediately dropped my phone into the gravy.  For a couple days the volume button was effed up.

Since the menu was a damn fine one and my girls were getting together, I threw it out there as an option, and we went earlier this week.
I love going to places twice in one week when I hadn't been there at all previously.  Its like a Karen spamming.
This visit I had a WP Mule while Jess and I waited for a couple other lovely ladies.
I loooooove ginger drinks and this one was de-lish.
When everyone was there, Jess & Martha slurped on oysters while Sarah and I watched.
Then the waffle fries came in.  This one's a must when you go.  We damn near cleaned the plate and it was a good sized portion.
I ordered the duck since I'd been eyeballing when we were there the first time.
Jess had shrimp and grits.  Martha had the cobia.  Sarah had boudin....cuz she's a sweet sweet Louisiana girl.
Everything was holy hell good and I'd gotten maybe two bites into my duck when our server came out to tell me, "Chef thinks that duck breast is too small and has another one roasting for you.  Do you want it brought out or boxed up?"
I fainted in my head and when I came to, I chose boxed.
DUCK FOR BREAKFAST!!
That chantilly you'll see on the menu if you're following along, is like a cheesey, buttery, grits/polenta sorta thing.
We wrapped up with a cute little chocolate silk pie, apple cobbler, and a sweet treats tray.
And I had a most excellent porter to go with it.
The pie was really good (candied orange zest is my new fave), and the cookies on the sweet treats plate were freakin' delightful.  Jess rightfully hogged all the cobbler for herself. ;)
Highly recommended....I'd give it 5 out of 5 food babies.
Everything was AMAZING!


Thank you for existing, Cask & Larder.  You do excellent work.
One of these days soon, I'll make it into The Ravenous Pig since I believe we're the only Central Floridians who haven't been yet.

Thursday Thank-Yous

To Brian Stokes Mitchell for appearing out of, seemingly, nowhere on 9/23 just off Times Sq. while Willie and I were walking off our Shake Shack and after I'd been watching clips on youtube of and listening to the soundtrack for Ragtime all week leading up to that trip.  It was truly a magical moment.  And you didn't even know it happened.


To all you turds that 'liked' & commented on the Little Orphan Annie photo that Willie posted on facebook:  when I was a kid, my mother used to have my BFF's mom perm my hair.  It would end up looking like a little old lady's do (haha I made you yodel).  I'm naturally strawberry blonde.  A ginger.  People called me Annie.  I hated Annie...with her stupid hair and empty blank eyes and ugly dress and dumb song.
The sun will come out tomorrow, you can bet your bottom fuckin' dollar.

To the kid at the food place that giggled with me when I ordered a medium #2.

To the radio station for playing Dirty Deeds immediately after I'd heard it...twice, I think...in the living room.  The living room version was pretty damn good, I gotta say.  I don't even like that song.  But then, I don't like AC/DC either.

To Brian for making me retune my banjo.  That's a good thing to practice.

To John for giving me a flashback to 1995 when I heard the AOL "Goodbye".


To Sugar Ray for making me realize how difficult it is to get someone to go with you to Epcot on a rainy Weds night to try and catch 1 of 3 performances on the last night of your trip.
I knew they wouldn't play my favorite song anyway.


And to Pannacakes, who uttered a great sentence today, "He had two arms when I was growing up." when we were talking about Def Leppard.  I just looked it up and he lost his arm NYE 1984/85.  You're not that old, darlin'.

Zombie Cat Brainstream

One of our lovely neighbors (& massive Snoop fan) gave us a cat calendar earlier this year.  We've got it pinned up over the trash can in the kitchen.
The other day (Friday, I think), I was in the kitchen eating a messy plum over the trash can and started staring at the calendar for snack-time entertainment.
Here's what it sounded like in my head for that moment.

"These cats are kinda creepy.  Look at those eyes.  What is that around their mouths?  Is that blood?  I bet its blood."

"It is blood.  Look at the mess on the black cat's face.  Clearly they're evil and are eyeballing me because I'm salty and they're waiting for me to not notice them so they can pounce and Matt will come home to find a half eaten me all over the floor and fat satisfied creepy ass cats with scary yellow eyes."

 "Oh...no, wait.  Its just that big ass watermelon making their mouths messy.  Would watermelon do that to fur?  Why would cats be eating watermelon?  Its not like they could spit the seeds out.........

.....Awhell...its September."

Fat Saga Week 3 - State of Guts

I don't feel like weighing myself today.
I'm still eating well.  My jeans fit better.
I went to the gym 3, maybe 4 times.
Slacked off over the weekend because we were in Siesta Key and its been so rainy.
Rainy mornings command me to stay in bed a little while longer.
But I did manage to get up and after it this morning.
Hit the grocery store for more fancy water, meat, veg, & nuts.  They didn't have my favorite grass fed ribeyes, sadly.
Will check back tomorrow.
Raw organic cashews* are effing awesome.  I've also picked up raw organic sunflower seeds, walnuts, and almonds.

Matt & I had an interesting conversation this morning while I was eating my grass fed burger with cashews, post workout.
He (Matt, not the burger) was eyeballin' me and asked how the red meat was treating my guts.

I hadn't really thought about it up until this point, but in the past, after going to steakhouses and crap with friends, my guts were always pissed off with me from whatever I'd eaten.

Not so much anymore.  (knocking on wood)
I haven't had any uncomfortable issues and not much in the way of IBS pains/noises either.

The more I think about it, the more I realize, HOLY CRAP (literally)....I was effin' my body up big time to be in that much discomfort.  It wasn't like chronic pain or anything, but I seriously can't recall being in ANY over the past 3 weeks.

Nowadays, the only time I ever hear the belly monster is when I'm hungry.  It isn't due to borborygmus.

So, that's cool.

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*which are NOT legumes.

ps.  THIS is the fuckin' business.  A small slice of that in a hot cast iron skillet with pink salt and throw one of those aforementioned ribeyes in, maybe some asparagus....that shit is perfection.

The Fat Saga Sabotage

"At the end of two weeks, you can have a day to eat whatever you want...", Trainer Brian said.
Something about spiking levels.
So, over the weekend, we went to Publix for subs.
Turkey on wheat.
It felt funny to watch while the dude was making it....even funnier just saying it...."wheat".
It tasted good & sanguichy...but it wasn't a grassfed ribeye with shrooms and onions from the cast iron with a side of asparagus.

I have seen The Devil and it's name is Bread.

On Friday, I was down the 2lbs I needed for the week.
After Saturday's sub fest followed by a few thin-crust meaty Papa John's slices, those 2lbs were back to party and they brought a friend.

All this garbage about having a "cheat day" and "don't deny yourself anything" is a load of horseshit.
Those are the things that got me in this fat mess to begin with.

So, fuck you, cheat day.

I was in the gym 5 days but 0lbs lost in week two because I was busy burnin' off that stupid ass cheat food. On a positive note, I'm glad to have gone through this and that my body reacted the way it did.  Further reinforces my determination.
Which is good, since we're looking at week 3 and that's usually where I fall off the wagon & lose focus.
Pretty sure that That Thing that clicks when you want something to happen that you have control over has finally clicked for me again this time.
I must say, it's nice to have it back on again after so many years.

You Know You're Fat When -or- A Declaration

1. Your 'fat' jeans are tight.
2. You break a sweat trying on different outfits.
3. XL shirts don't hide the rolls.
4. Your tits muffin top.*
5. The spot where your thighs touch threaten to start a fire when you walk.
6. The spot where your thighs touch are the only hole worn in your 'fat' jeans that are now tight.
7. You look like a stack of mower tires from behind.
8. Your elbows are but mere dimples.
9. Your underwear rolls down when you sit.
10. Your shirt rolls up when you take it off.
11. An Englishman calls you the "softest bird" he's ever danced with.
12. You wear your husband's swim trunks to a waterpark.
13. You sunburnt your stretchmarks.
14. You stand in the mirror and see a more fit you underneath the fatsuit you're currently wearing.
15. All pictures with you in them, suck.

Seriously, you guys....I've been a horrible disappointment to myself over the past year or two, or three, or six.

I even told me so a couple weeks ago when I tried (and failed, yet again) to keep a weight loss journal**.

This one lasted for not even 2 weeks.

ARGH!!!

Back in November, I started actin' like I was going to tackle this thing for real and wanted to do a 365 photo/vlog project and blah blah blah.

That one lasted about 2 weeks, too.

I HATE THE TWO WEEK CYCLE!!

Why do I do that?

Why am I letting me down?

Pannacakes just recently told me she hit a goal and is treating herself with some junk from Amazon.

I have no goals.

I've never had any real goals.

I usually just say what I want and then later on (days, weeks, months, years) it happens, but its not like I have a goal set list.

So, here it is.

I'm saying it, outloud, to you and the rest of the universe:

I WANT TO LOSE 30LBS BY THE END OF 2012.

We have 7 months left of the year.

That's 28 weeks.

And that's roughly 2lbs per week (with an added little challenge thrown in)

Here's how I plan to do it.  (holy crap...is this a goal??)

• Gym 5 days a week.  Bonuses if I have dance class or other high movement-type outings.
• Knock off the beer consumption drastically.  If I have any, it'll be dark and heavenly and 2 is my cutoff.
• Cut out the carb intake.  No breads, pastas, noodles, or other baked goods.  Even whole wheat type crap.  This has worked for me before, why don't I go back to what works?
• Lean meats and veg.  Fruits in the a.m.  Nothing crazy or new here.
• No friggin' CHEESE.  This one's a bitch.  I fuckin' love cheese...BUT like I said, I've done it before.

Its just time for me to do this again.

I don't like the way I feel.  I don't need anyone to make it a competition.  I don't need to keep talking about it.

What I do need is encouragement, constant reminders, and to fuckin' DO IT ALREADY.

If you don't like something, change it, right?

Its time to fucking change things.

----------------------------------------------------

*I'm so not mad at this one.  It took me getting fat to even have tits.

**Written in the book Pannacakes got me that has a picture of a chihuahua dressed up like Michael Jackson on the cover.

The Never-Ending Birthday Week -or- Karenpalooza 2012 Part II

Wednesday Day 3 - This was productive day.  And unintentionally so.  After rifling through the house looking for our marriage certificate in the myriad of unorganized boxes of shit, I went to the DMV to renew my driver's license.  I think that because I'd lost my license (and then found it later) and ordered a new one, it flagged me and that was why I couldn't do the renewal online.  I'd much rather have been able to keep the ID photo from 8yrs ago.
After that mess, I came home to a cable company bill that was charging us for not returning their boxes after we dumped the cable service.  So, having lunch at Willow Tree seemed appropriate since the cable company office was over that way.  Followed by the cable company drop off and another forgotten check card incident and a quick other couple of errands and then a run back home to freshen up before meeting Chrystal's birthday party people at Flats.  Then it was rehearsal night which was followed by an Oblivion stop and the night ended up in stomach cramps and uncomfortableness until 4:30a.m.  I think my body was over-awesomed.

Thursday Day 4 - Because my body was so over-awesomed, Pannacakes and I decided to take it easy with a water filled lazy day over at New Smyrna.  Lunch at Off The Hook and a beach nap in my beach tent and sunburnt tops of legs were included.  Peeing in the ocean and lots of chatting were also thrown in there.  There were 2 accidents on I-4 on the way home.  That was pretty crazy...there were shoes in the road and a flipped truck.  Got home and got cleaned up and went to our rescheduled dance class and wore my new "angry tango" shoes.  That's what Instructor Brian called them cuz they're red and black.  We killed the hustle and did some tango.  Our next lesson, Instructor Brian said, we'd be split up and doing a focus lesson.  Matt will be with Lindsay and I'll be with Brian and then we're back together towards the end of the lesson to go over what we learned apart.

Friday Day 5 - I had a date with Mom for lunch.  We met up in downtown Mt. Dora and ate at the Palm and went over to the Aveda spa for a pre-birthday massage from Mom that left me all noodley & soft-skinned.  We ran through The Drawer to visit Bootie and pick up a few treasures.  Mom ran back to Aveda for a hair appt and I ran home to pack up for Mayhem.  Willie stopped by and Matt came home and gave me some crap for not having seen my first birthday present hanging in the upstairs hall (that I promptly moved to the red dining room wall):

After some squealing and celebrating, we all loaded up and caravanned down to the Wyndham to get situated for the evening's Pool Party with The Bloody Jug Band.  The night was insane...as anticipated with fire breathing clowns, the band, mermaids in the pool, conversations with Brazilians, and Kraken releasing.
It would end with a room party that included beatboxing and a shy amateur gangsta rapper with an awesome gold grill.  His name was Tunk.

We Went To Hawaii Pt. 2.

After our stargazing at LAX, we received umbrella drinks when we got to our seats on the plane.
Matthew took a nap.
I caught up on Justified season 2.

At the Honolulu airport, I was smacked in the face by a flowery smell that reminded me of when I was 10 on a family hawaii trip.  It was a flower that was in the leis that folks were being welcomed with.
I kept walking behind them with my nose in the air huffing their flowers.
If you can tell me what this is, I'll find one to plant at home so I can huff it all the time.  I think its a jasmine or something.

Want.

We got the Jeep rental with a peppering of bickering while trying to map our destination, but we met up with our Party at this place to pick up some grub to make us less cranky.

Once back at the accommodations, we poked around the house, made up our beds, vowed to not turn on the tv during our stay, cracked open some brews, and munched on our take out foods.

I believe shortly after that, we sat on the back porch listening to the breeze & finished our beers before we called it a night.

The next morning, we woke up to coffee and this view:

After bagels and some general milling about, the boys decided it was time to go to Sandy's for some skimming & sunning.

 Me & Steph (look how white I am.)

 Flags mark the 'dangerous shore breaks'

 Random hot guy.

Random hot guy's dog.

 Chad.

 Exploring the lava rocks & tidal pools.

 Difficult to see, but there's a sea urchin hiding in there.

 Bob.

 Chad.

 Lifeguard talking to a random film crew.

Random actors being filmed.

We all discussed our theories on what they were shooting.

I believe we settled on 'Brazilian Porn'.

After we hung out there for a bit, we headed back to the house to chill by the pool & hot tub.

There were some fishing poles in the Fun Shed and I tried my luck sittin' on the dock of the bay.

The girls came down to join me and while we were chatting, a giant puffer fish swam up & was trollin' the nearby rocks.

For sunset, we drove out to this place with a bag full of beer and hung out.

 The Sunset Party.

Here's what my first-day-of-vacation sunburn looked like at the end of the day.

Wasn't even the worst burn I've ever had but it sure did get a lot of attention over the course of the following days.  Apparently people don't ever see sunburns anymore.  Certainly not in Hawaii.  Buncha friggin' weirdos.

Don't fret, pets - I'm completely white again.

We finished off the day with cocktails and 90s Trivial Pursuit.

Girls vs Guys...and the guys won.  Cuz they're older than us.

A Very Special Thanksgiving Special

We weren't feelin' up for more traveling (by plane, train, or automobile) this Thanksgiving, a bit under the weather with coughing and sneezings and ugh & whooped from being on the go non-stop for the past month.

So, today we stayed home and ate in waves.

First wave: Breffass Casserole (later deemed "breffass brownies" by Matthew)

Consisted of a rolled out pillsbury crescent roll in the bottom of a sprayed baking dish, cooked and crumbled jimmy dean reduced fat sausage on top of the crescent roll, cooked and crumbled thick cut low sodium bacon mixed into the sausage, 5 eggs scrambled with 1/3 cup of milk poured over the meat and bread, 2 slices of smoked provo & 2 slices of sharp cheddar broken into pieces and dropped into that shit in the baking dish.
Bake it forever on 350 until it looks like you wanna eat it (about 40mins).

Waves 2 & 2.5:  Cream Cheese with Cranberry Salsa and cinnamon/gingerbread pita chips, followed by ghetto baked brie on top of a slab of boar's head turkey, served with crackers & cranberry salsa.

Cranberry salsa is 1 bag of cranberries, 1 jalapeno, 1 bunch of green onions, 1 bunch of cilantro, 2 limes juiced, and 3/4 cup of sugar.  Throw all that shit into a culinary robot & viola, you got yerself some kickass cransalsa.
Ghetto baked brie is a wheel of brie sitting on top of a slab of turkey sitting on top of another pillsbury crescent roll with the edges of the bread all folded up and around the cheese and stuff.  Baked at 350 for a little while.

Wave 3: Sweet Potato Soup, Craisin/Walnut/Goat Cheese salad, boar's head turkey sammiches on home made italian herb bread (with baconnaise)

Sweet Potato soup recipe is here.
You're smart enough to figure out the salad and sammich yourself.

I'm thankful for my husband & my home.
And the cats.
And pork.
And cheese.
And rollercoasters.
And bouncehouses.


Matthew & Snoop are thankful for naps.

Effin' Friday - New Orleans

Went to New Orleans a couple weeks ago.
It was supposed to be for a work thing but they cancelled it once we got there so we were forced an impromptu 3 day weekend that the company partially paid for.  SCORE.

Here are a few highlights:

YouTubesday - brazosdazos

Sunday Confession - Juicer

I did not juice today but this is usually what our breakfast looks like in the mornings before it gets pulverized:

I think it looks like hippo food.

Suckit Saturday - Boston Highlights Pt. 2

Saturday marnin' we slept in cuz those damn Marriott beds are so friggin' comfy.
Then headed to the Pour House for breakfast beers.

I ate a cheesesteak omelette with sweet potato tots and dark rye toast.
Beer was Pumpkin UFO and pretty damn tasty.  Highlighted more of the spice part of pumpkin spice.
Was quite tasty.
We left a sticker here too.

Afterwards, we wandered over to Newbury Comics.
On the way over, we saw a guy on the street playing a hurdy gurdy.  His dog was chillin' with him.  We gave him a buck.
Sitting next to him was an older guy just sitting there with a paper bag on his head and his change cup out.
Look, if you want me to give you a dollar, you better be doin' some cool shit to earn it.  I'm not going to give it to you just for looking pitiful and needy.
If a dude is playin' some wicked badass instrument, or is telling funny jokes, or is busting some sweetass moves.....he'll get my dollar.
If you're just sitting in a chair (regardless of if it has wheels or not) & you just expect me to throw something in your cup because you have a paperbag hat.....
Sorry, man.

Once we got to Newbury Comics, I tried on stupid glasses:

Matthew bought some accessories (hat & glasses) to help him blend in with the locals.

I bought a bowler and nerd glasses.

Then we wandered over to Fenway to see if the sticker we put there the night before had lasted 24hrs.

Which was quickly followed by a trip to Lansdowne to drown our sorrows with some brews and pub chips with this badass blue cheese sauce/dip stuff.  It was pretty fuckin' good.
Bova met us down there & we headed over to The Bodega.
The front room looks like a shitty bodega with interesting knick-knacks, drinks, & snacks available for late night drunken purchases.  But then you step on a tile in front of that drink machine and a door opens into this pretty ass showroom for designer sneakers, watches, and a selection of outerwear.
After poking around in there, we wandered into a nearby halloween store where we tried on masks, I fondled a giant glittery stuffed penis, & Bova was asked if he was a member of the aryan race because of the t-shirt he was wearing.

We left and headed towards Solas for clubs, cubans, beers, & people watching.

Wrapped up there and stopped into a cigar bar for some dranks and smokes.  Had some nice chats and our waitress showed us her shoes that she bought at Marshalls.
We hung out there for a bit and then wandered back down to McGreevy's for a beer before calling it a night, said our goodbyes, and going back to the hotel room.

When we got back to the hotel room, the Michigan/Notre Dame game was still on and was still close enough to be pretty damn exciting, so we decided to grab a night cap (shot of jager) down at the sports bar before really calling it a night.

The next marnin', we enjoyed a breakfast buffet where Matthew caught a ciabatta roll on fire, we spied on a guy who looked like a mightymightybosstone, and remembered that it was September 11th.
At the airport, we grabbed a spot at the skyclub for an hour or so, left the skyclub, grabbed a beer & a lobster roll at the Harpoon joint by the gate, boarded the plane......

Sat on the plane for an hour without it moving.

Got off the plane and went back to the Harpoon joint to grab another brew and got to chatting with some nice folks from Michigan who were also delayed.  We talked about beer and rugby.
Then it was finally time to get back on the plane and were able to leave without any more delays.

The End.

WTH Weds - Boston Highlights Pt. 1

Friday marnin', we hit the skyclub to see what the haps was.  They'd hooked Matt up with at least a day pass and we drank brunch & had snacks.  The rosemary seasalt crackers are pretty badass.

For crackers, I mean.  They were/are the shit.

Matthew's been eating them for days.  Pretty sure he'll come home smellin' like rosemary.

I ain't mad at that.

Anyway, our flight was delayed so we facebooked & crap.

Hopped the flight, grabbed a cab.  He overcharged us to the hotel and we got checked in.

Props to the Marriott Copley.  Great spot.  Nice "sports bar" & breakfast buffet.

Here's what our view looked like from the room:

It was the only photo I took with the canon.

I took the entire camera bag with me, but didn't take the camera out on adventures.  Couldn't be bothered to.  I did get some kickass footage of the Murphys show.

Which was fuckin' AWESOME.

Fenway was cool.  Boston in general is cool.

I told Matthew it was my 2nd favorite city.  He didn't ask me what the 1st was.....he'd assumed it was NYC.

NYC has been bumped to #3, sadly.

Amsterdam being the first.

Boston #2. (haha.....number 2.  that's poo)

Its the combination of smaller town with big city urban feel.

The top 2 feel like big small towns to me.

If that makes sense.

I rarely do.

Anyway, back to the show.

MightyMighty Bosstones were playing when we hopped out the cab from McGreevy's (pregame car bombs).

The stage was set up in centerfield.

It looked like this:

We found an empty row and counted scally caps.

When the Bosstones were done kickin' everyone's ass, we made a pee/beer run.

The bathroom had a long line & smelled like snax while "no smoking" signs were posted about.

My stall didn't have a latch.

Found the friends and grabbed some brews.

Found our empty row again.

There was a bloke who looked slightly like Warren Ellis with a very long ponytail & a hat.

He appeared to not be having a good time.

We included him in on our fun.

Although I don't think he was as amused as we were.

The Murphys came out along the green monster wall with bag pipes playing.

The moon was almost full and a breeze was blowin'.

I gotta admit, I got a little teary eyed.

Shut up, I'm a girl.  I'm allowed to do that.

The stage backdrop was the skeleton pipes player, same as the shoes that Matthew got me.

We jumped & sang along & swayed with beer & threw our fists in the air & yelled....

and it was heavenly.

Afterwards, we walked back to Whiskey's and had some killer $.99 pizza & put a sticker on an armadillo.

The End of Part 1.