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.

(Click photo to enlarge)

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.

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.

Summer Time Tradition

This past weekend we attended our 4th/5th(?) Atascapalooza. Our friend Molly (AKA Miss Wild Child) came down for the second year from Sacramento for the festivities. I don’t think this year was quite as eventful as last year, and I think that is due to the fact that there was less misgiff for Miss Wild Child to get into. I wouldn’t necessarily say she was more well-behaved I think there were just less items for her explore.

They had a piñata again which I think Hans gets the most enjoyment out of. They also had the egg toss again, and I really wanted to decline because I did not want to loose. We won last year…why not go out on top? Yeah it wasn’t that easy. I swear I had never been that nervous for an egg toss before…granted it was only the second one I’d ever been in, but still! There was a lot more riding on this because EVERYONE wants to beat the best right? Lucky for us Miss Wild Child was not in the race this year so I thought we had a chance. It got down to 3 couples and what do you know? We won again! I still can’t believe it. Now I really hope John will let me retire. He also decided to smash our egg (again) before our victory photo. Oh well…I guess a new tradition has started.

Other than that it was a lot of lounging around in the nice North County heat. I guess I should call it warmth because it really wasn’t that hot. Here we are relaxing:

I think Molly is throwing up a 'M' for Molly?

Us with the hostess and her latest addition.

Fair Time!

Two weekends ago I headed up north for the Mid State Fair in Paso. The first venture was to see Kelly Clarkson in concert. When I bought the tickets in March I signed up for her fan club which allowed me access to the pre-sale. After I purchased the tickets they did not give me the location of the seats, but said they would be fairly close to the stage, which was fine with me!

As the concert grew closer I was getting more and more anxious to find out where my seats were. FINALLY the day arrived and I got my tickets. Guess where they were?? FRONT ROW! NO joke. I thought we might be within the first 20 rows or something, but the first row?? Was I even a big enough fan to deserve front row? I didn't think so. I’m sure there were some bigger fans out there than me that deserved them more. Oh well. Tonight was my lucky night.

When we made it to our seats I was still in shock at how close we were.

Right when my friend Sam and I sat down we looked behind us to see one of our old co-workers in the row behind us! Then a few people down to our right was another old co-worker! I couldn’t believe that we were all sitting in the same area. I'm normally shocked to see one person I know, much less two sitting right near me!

Sam and I patiently waiting. (extreme close up I know).
So the show starts and Kelly is RIGHT THERE. I mean RIGHT THERE and not the size of an ant. I probably had perma grin for the first half hour because I could not believe we were in the front row and she was RIGHT in front of us. The whole show felt like it was a private concert. At one point she even looked down at Sam and I and smiled. We both looked at each other like ‘did she just do that?’ It was also really weird to know that the band members could actually see us...like our faces. You definitely didn’t want to get caught zoning out or texting while they are standing there in front of you.

Kelly and her band put on a great show. She sang all of her hits and a lot of my favorite songs from her new album. She even sang songs written by Rod Stewart, Patsy Cline, and Janet Jackson which was a total plus. I think more musicians should do that. Why not? Pay homage to the ones that have helped them.

At one point the super cool guitarist went all rock star on us and threw his pick in the audience…only to have it hit me in the head! However he threw it at the end of the song and when the song ended the arena went completely black and I couldn’t see anything. I told the dude next to me what happened and so we both were looking at the ground when the lights came on and he spotted the pick first and grabbed it! He said I could have it, but in the end I let him have it. Now of course I wish I would have kept it. Oh well. I really did deserve it having to listen to his wife think she was singing duets with Kelly all night. I should have told her that I didn’t pay $75 to hear her sing butcher Kelly's hits..

The next afternoon I headed back up to the fair with John for our annual visit. After we had our first round of fair junk food we decided to let it settle a bit before round two so we checked out the exhibits.
I once again entered a photo this year, but was very hesitant after losing last year, and I was feeling lazy. I probably wouldn’t have entered but I was also entering a photo from Sydney so I thought I might as well print one of my own if I was going to have to drive up to Paso anyway.

During the annual Steinbuck visit this past May Sydney had her new birthday camera in tow. A few weeks later when I went up to Ukiah we picked up her film from the trip. In the midst of photos of our garbage cans and many self-portraits, there was this one great shot of her flip flops on our deck. Right when Rebekkah and I saw it we both had the same thought…it was a total fair photo! I was more than happy to enter it in for Sydney and what do you know…she got first place!!
We actually ventured into a new hall this year that had a ton of baked goods including a cake decorating category! How crazy is that? It really felt like you could enter just about anything that was homemade.
We even saw some Christmas decorations, but I am tempted to enter in my award winning fudge next year. Who wouldn’t like the title ‘multi award wining fudge’?

After our exhibit perusing we were finally hungry enough for some more fair food. First stop….cinnamon rolls!
We normally don’t eat the whole thing, but for some reason we finished it all this year. Not good. I also wanted to get a license plate frame for the mini while we were there but we couldn’t think of a good saying. I should have planned ahead for that one.
After our traditional photo booth photo I then got to get my traditional shaved ice. I even checked and they did make it from a block of ice. It was pretty good, but the ones in Hawaii were still better.
They even had the slush puppy booth again so John scored another sweet slushy mixture. I even think it was the same dude who was working the booth last year.

Overall I think it was one of our best fair visits yet. I'm actually kind of sad we only get to go once a year. I guess it makes it that much special.

10 Things

I totally thought I was back in the blog of things, but apparently I’m not. I was so motivated for what…a week? Yeah I know that’s pathetic, but a thing called life kept bringing me down, and when that happens I have no desire to write.

Since this is my first post in over a week, (minus The Hangover post), I’ll entertain you by giving you 10 tid-bits of what’s been going on.

1. I will be starting (another) new job in a week! Crazy right? I feel really bad leaving my current work place because I was hired on to help out a friend, and I was only there for 2 months. Not the best employee I know, but this new job is with a local company who produces eye wear. What is exciting is that I will be designing for the product (packaging/displays), and it includes web work! I feel so blessed to have landed this job, as I really didn’t think I had a chance. (I had interviewed there twice before). Another plus is the company is pretty big and everyone I met seemed really nice. One downer is that I won’t start accruing PTO for 3 months. I know I don’t necessarily need time off since I just had 10 months, but I still like to know that if I need to I can take a day. It also means that I probably won’t be able to make it out to Georgia this year which stinks. Georgia you say? Why would I want to go to Georgia? That brings me to #2…

2. My best friend, Rebekkah, and her family are moving to Georgia in two weeks for two years! It shouldn’t affect our relationship that much since we currently live 5.5 hours away from each other. However it will definitely make it harder to have a weekend visit with her. I am so excited for her and her family to have this once in a lifetime experience. They found an AWESOME rental house in Atlanta and I really can’t wait to visit. A few weekends we headed up north for one last visit. Here are a few photos:

3. I recently went and saw an orthopedist about my Achilles (since it’s been injured for 9 months now). After looking at my MRI he basically didn’t have any new revelations for me. He was concerned that I didn’t know what has caused the injury since I’m so young. He told me to continue to stretch it and ice, and if it was still bad in 3 months to go back and see him. He also told me of this new treatment where they take some of your blood, put it in a centrifuge and then re-inject it in the injury. Hopefully there will be some place that local that could do that for me. I’m getting desperate! One good thing that came from the visit is that he had me go get a nighttime sling. This sling allows my Achilles to stay stretched while I sleep. So far I think it is helping. Both mornings when I woke up it wasn’t that sore. Hopefully this will be the trick. Isn’t it stylish?

4. John and I have also joined a semi-private training group at a local gym. Let me just say that I’ve never done anything like this before AND I cannot believe I’m paying for it. John and I were SO sore for the first two weeks it was horrible! It’s gotten a little better but I dread it every time we go. Seriously…the warm up is sometimes harder than the workout! I blame it on the planks…front, left side, right side, and reverse. How can there be so many different ways to torture oneself? On a positive note, our work outs are customized for our injures…(John’s back, and my Achilles and shoulder). For me it’s totally trial and error in seeing what exercises I can do. For example…last night I was to do 30 30’s for 30 minutes. (30 seconds really fast on the elliptical and then 30 seconds at a normal pace for 30 minutes.) Let me just say that I was SO tired after this, but my Achilles felt fine…until I got home. It started to get sore right before I went to bed and in the middle of the night I was in so much pain I could barely put any weight on it. Luckily by morning it was better but still not back to normal. This was the first time where I had no warning that the exercise I was doing was hurting my foot. It’s extremely frustrating to not be 100% healthy and being so limited in what I can do. I would love to do some aerobic activity. Oh well…hopefully it will get better.

5. I just finished my last book club selection which means the group will be getting together in a few weeks to pick our next round. Exciting!

6. My friend Steph had her second child last month, a girl named Sydney. I’ve been so busy with work that I haven’t even had time to meet her. I definitely wasn’t prepared at how much my life was going to change once I went back to work. I think I’ve only gone to the grocery store 2 times in the last 2 months and I think the only meal I cooked was over the 4th of July when my parents were visiting. It makes me sad that I don’t have time to cook anymore or do any of the other crafty things I used to do. I’m hoping that my mind will (sooner than later) forget what it was like to be a house wife.

7. In wedding news…my sister-in-law hired the photographer who took the anniversary photos of John and I last year. I am SO excited! I love being able to give referrals to people who I think do great work. I was worried that I would never find him a client(s) since most of my friends have gotten hitched, but I lucked out! I might have to strategically park the mini in the background so it can make it in a few shots. Speaking of the Mini…

8. Looks like our customized plate MINIBOO is taken! I know!! I can’t even believe I have to think of other options when we’ve been planning on that pate for years! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Please let me know if you have any good ideas. We would prefer to have the word ‘mini’ in it somewhere. I’ve seen two good ones around town. They were ‘MINUTE S’ and ‘SLO BRIT’. Both pretty clever. Mine needs to be better though!

9. We are heading up to the bay area this weekend for a baby shower and I can’t wait! I know it will be lots of fun. We are also going to get to meet up with some friends of ours who just moved to San Jose so I’m excited to see them as well.

10. Also in a few weeks we will be headed back up to the bay area to see my neck doctor for a post opp ultra sound. I got some blood work done a few months ago and there were still signs of thyroid cells in my blood. I guess before the surgery it was 3.8 and now it’s a 1.7. It is good that it is lower, but it should be undetectable. So hopefully the doctor will find out where they are hiding, although I’m not sure if that will mean I will have to go under the knife again. However if she can’t find them that probably means waiting for another ultra sound. Or maybe if she can’t find them I’ll have to have more blood work done and maybe they won’t be there anymore! Wishful thinking right? Here’s an updated photo of my scar. I was taking them every week, but I fizzed out after the first few months. I really wanted to show the progression of the healing. Oh well.

Who’s got the time?

How do my summer weekends get filled up instantly? Ok, so it wasn’t instantly, but I think it only took a month. In the beginning of May I thought, ‘Man! I only have 2 things planned all summer! This is great!’ Then a social calendar tornado from hell came out of no where and filled up my summer. It only took the month of May to fill up 3 months. How is that possible? Am I the only one this happens to?

Almost every weekend is full. Ok, not 100% full but close enough. I have something to do on every weekend in June, and July (minus one weekend…the 3 day weekend, which makes no sense).

My August is also rapidly filling up, however I’m trying to leave some open weekends because John’s friend (Jon) from NYC is supposed to be coming to CA that month. I emailed him a few weeks ago and have not received any word of his plans. This wouldn’t be an urgent matter, however I’m trying to coordinate a neighborhood garage sale in August, and I can’t set a date and then flake on it. How bad would that be?

I also just found out that my sister-in-law just got engaged (Yeah!) and she is hoping to be married in 3 months! Seriously. So now I’m wondering…am I going to have to fit in a bachelorette party and a bridal shower in the next three months? That should be no prob since I have so many available weekends right? Don’t worry, I’ve already emailed her asking about the plan. But does she know the answer…that is the question.

Even if she doesn’t it’s fine with me as she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot tell you how excited I am. I seriously thought my bridesmaid days were over. There is almost nothing better then being a bridesmaid, in my opinion. Granted I’ve only been in two weddings, but I had so much fun on those two days that I cannot wait to do it again.

Needless to say I feel honored that she asked me to be a part of her big day. Oh and guess who else is a part of the day? John…but not as a groomsmen…as the officiate! He says he won’t be nervous, but I don’t by his macho act. I am also praying that my Achilles will be healed. I really need to dance…I am seriously having withdrawals! Plus I don’t want to be limping down the aisle! How embarrassing!