Summa Time and the Livings Easy

This weekend was pretty mellow which was much needed. I FINALLY had time to test out my new cruiser! We rode downtown and got to our destination in just a few minutes. Let me tell you it was not long enough! I wanted to keep riding because it was so fun. I can't wait to be crusin' all summer.

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John and I are planning/hoping to make one dish a week out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. (John got me the recipe book after seeing the movie last fall). We decided to start with something simple, so the first thing we made was a roasted chicken. (Ok, John made most of it, I was assisting by taking photos). The bird is ready. (We sold our roaster when we moved, so we got a cheapy rack at Bed Bath, and it worked great!)

Buttering up the bird.

John trying out his belated birthday gift from our friend Molly. Onion goggles even work for shallots! Who knew?Turning the bird.

Ta-da! Golden brown! John also made a butter/fat sauce that we put on top and it was really good! So far so good. I'm not sure what we will make next week as I personally don't like real labor intensive recipes, so we will see.

Tips Galore!

A few weeks ago I saw this post on Chris' blog. I had NO idea they had a cake decorating tool box! I HAD to get it. All of my cake decorating supplies were currently in zip lock bags. (They were in a box before the move, but I got rid of the box to conserve space, but still...how tacky is a brown box?)

Like the thrifty shopper that I am, I waited until I got a 40% off coupon from Michael's until I made the purchase.Needless to say this has been one of the best purchases I have made in a long time.

Since we are on the decorating subject, last week was our last French class so I made French inspired cupcakes for everyone. (I also made some small French flags that I stuck in them but I didn't get a photo.)
The French class was a great introduction to the language but we didn't really learn how to converse with each other. John and I will be starting the Rosetta Stone this summer, so hopefully that will give us the extra practice. 3.5 months until our trip...time to book some tickets!

Goin' to the Chapel

One of my good friends, Molly, was planning a big wedding next month and asked me to be one of the bridesmaids! I was really excited to be a part of her special day, as we all know how much fun weddings are. Unfortunately some complications arose, which caused her to call off the wedding a month before the date and elope instead. However a week later she announce that the wedding is still on! She is unfortunately not going to have any bridesmaids or groomsmen, so I won't get to get all dolled up and wear my guava dress...but I am REALLY thankful that I even get to be there on one of the biggest days of her life. I would have been really sad if I had to miss it.

At the time of the party planning she was still eloping, so we weren't even sure if brides who elope have the pre-wedding parties, but we decided to have them anyway since they were already planned. Two weeks ago was the bridal shower in Sacramento. It was a lot of fun and surprisingly went off without a hitch (with only 2 weeks of planning).

The one thing Molly told us she wanted was cupcakes. So we took that and ran with it making it a cupcake cake themed party.

Our friend Amy was in charge of the food, and let me say she made the BEST finger sandwiches I’ve EVER had! They were really tasty.
Molly’s boss offered to make the cupcakes and I’m so glad she did. Everything was from scratch and they were really good. She made red velvet, chocolate orange, and raspberry lemon.

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Molly also got some really nice gifts. Is it bad that I’m posting a photo of the gift I got her? I can’t help if its if super cute. Molly is the BIGGEST fan of bacon that I know, so when I saw these cards on cakespy I HAD to get them for her.
Her boss came through (again) by making this frame out of Molly’s grandma’s china. (Molly was getting rid of it at a garage sale, and her boss bought it). It was such a sentimental gift and even more special as molly never thought she would see the china again.
This past weekend was the bachelorette party here in SLO, and let me say I am still recovering from it! (Post coming soon)

DDD #22

How did we go from #27 to #22? Well I’m obviously WAY behind in my blog posts since I only posted once in May. I’m also worried as time goes by the critical DDD information that is stored in my head will slowly disintegrate before I can document it. THE HORROR! So…to avoid this I am writing about the most recent DDDs while that info is the freshest.

So back to #22. Last month after my second PRP injection John and I met up with Maggie at Baby Blues BBQ for our 22^nd Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Like always we took Guy’s suggestions and ordered the dishes he featured on the show, but this time we were a little disappointed.

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John got the pulled pork, which was pretty good, but a little dry without adding more BBQ sauce. We also got the corn since it was features on the show and it was just ok…not real sweet. I got the baby back ribs and they were AWESOME. By far the best thing we ordered all night…along with the GIGANTIC glass of Kool-aid.

Maggie was pumped to have the option to just order sides, since they are her fave, however they were dry as well, (without adding BBQ sauce).

Baby Blues and BBQ was featured in season one and I’m starting to think that the most recent restaurants featured on DDD are at a higher quality then some of the ones featured in the earlier seasons. Sad but true.

I also think this DDD was before Guy started using his stencil to mark the places he visited. However he did leave this behind.

DDD #27

Last week John and I headed back down to LA for my last(?) PRP injection. After my second injection I did notice that the pain had decreased. It still swells up a lot, but at least I’m seeing any difference in my foot. After the first month’s injections I only noticed a change one day, and was thinking that the injections weren’t doing anything. I’m not sure if they will heal my Achilles 100% but if I can run or jump by the end of the year, the mission accomplished!!

The third injections hurt just as bad as the first two, but I didn’t start to feel any pain until we got home around 11pm. With the first two injections I felt pain immediately after the numbing shots wore off. I’m not sure if that was a good sign or not, as my foot hurt pretty bad the next morning.

After the injection we had made plans to meet Maggie at Gloria’s Café for our 27^th Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. At the last minute I got a text from my sister-in-law that she and her husband were going to be able to meet us as well!

Gloria’s started out as a Mexican restaurant but over time she started introducing more and more San Salvadorian dishes. Every dish I tasted was REALLY good. The flavor was outstanding.

Maggie got the beef tacos, I got the 7 seas soup, and Molly and Michael split the popusas combo plate.

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John got the carne adbodaba and popusas.

The flavor of John’s carne and my soup, was SO good. I’ve never had anything like it before. I could have used some crab extraction utensils though, but I managed…as some of you know, I have a bit of crab cracking experience.

The décor was authentic and it had the neatest light fixtures…very 70ish. (Sorry no photo). If you didn't notice in the first photo, Gloria's has their DDD poster hanging in the window of their door. That is what I like to see! Be so proud that you risk the poster fading away to nothing. I'm sure Guy would replace it if they needed. Overall I LOVED Gloria's and can't wait to eat there again. Thanks Guy!

Thyroid Update

A few weeks ago I got some blood work done to check my thyroglobulin levels. (Thyroglobulin is a protein that is produced by your thyroid. Since I do not have a thyroid, my level should be at 0.) A year after my thyroid was removed my thyroglobulin levels were high at a 3.8, (I think). My doctor then found the cells in my neck, which lead me to my second surgery.

Six months after my surgery I got my levels check again and they were at 1.7. My doctor wasn’t that worried because she said she has some patients that never reach 0. As long as the number continued to go down, then we had nothing to worry about.

Six months later my levels were tested again and they were 1.4. I also had had my yearly ultrasound and my dr. didn’t see anything suspicious. Yeah!

Fast forward to my most recent blood work and my levels came back as 2.8. What the heck? I contacted my dr. and she isn’t worried, and doesn’t see it necessary for me to see her any sooner than my next appointment. She does think it’s a good idea to get more blood work done before my appointment to see if the levels test that high again.

So as of now the saga continues, but I’m not going to worry about it until after we get back from Paris. I will continue to say that I am one of the lucky ones. A friend of mine, (Stephanie on the far left), recently got diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer. If you’d like to follow her fight please visit her Care Page.

I Found a Wistle

This past holiday weekend we had quite a few guests in town. First my parents and my uncle were in town and around the time they left my in-laws showed up for a day. One of the highlights of the weekend was that MGMT performed in Avila Beach on Friday night.

Thanks to Spin magazine John had downloaded some of MGMT’s songs last year and we included those on a mixed CD we made for my dad for Christmas. When I found out that they were going to be playing 15 minutes from where we lived I HAD to get us tickets! The only time we ever get big named artists playing in our County is during the Paso Robles fair in July. This concert was very unusual!

After I bought the tickets I then realized that I didn’t have either one of their albums! Oops! John download them for me ASAP and I started listening to them everyday at work. At first I was like ‘what kind of music is this?’ but by the end of the few weeks I was a total fan.

The concert was on a golf course, so I made reservations for us to have dinner at the restaurant on the course. It couldn’t have worked out more perfect as we got to park super close to the venue!

My dad sent Eric to get some beers…he came back with this! As you an see he is very proud.
The crowd was mostly college kids, but there were even some families with their little kids. I always have fun people watching and seeing everyone’s stylish concert attire. I assume white pants the latest fashion trend?

The first two songs MGMT played sounded SO good. However by the third their sound got all whacky and the base was REALLY loud…then they keyboards got REALLY loud, and then there was massive feedback from the guitar. It did improve, thank goodness, but we weren’t sure what was going on.

They had a really long encore (5 to 6 songs), but ended it with their song Kids, which was awesome. What was odd, is that they sang the song over prerecorded music. I’m not sure if they planned it that way or what, but it was odd.

I still haven’t figured out how they wound up picking Avila as a venue. My only thought was that the Santa Barbara bowl was booked, or that they knew someone in the area. I’m hoping it is a sign that more big named bands will play in this area but I doubt it.