Operation Home Improvement (dammit)

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So, the time has come, now that I've been in my house for almost four years (I know, right??) to actually unpack some stuff that I shoved into one of my closets approximately 3.5 years ago when I hosted Easter not long after I moved in. 

Last year I accidentally set a precedent to host Christmas Eve, and as the daughter of the family matriarch (sorry Mom… it's true!), I guess I have to Suck It Up™ and continue on with new family traditions. At my house. In my stuff. *sob*

Anyway, so last year it took me all of December to shovel out my house, and this year I'm determined not to spend all month cleaning out my collected detritus. I truly, deeply, abhor housekeeping (except for laundry, I kind of love doing laundry), so for me to undertake the following projects is a sign of how much I don't want to spend time doing things in December.

Here's the deal. In the master suite (haha… but it kind of is one) there is a section of the room that has two closets – a regular sized one and a big one that meet, more or less, at a right angle. The regular sized closet is full of plastic storage bins, my dresses and paint cans. This closet is opposite the vanity, aka Clothes Receptacle Dumping Ground. I would actually like to use the vanity as a vanity since I have real designer makeup now and a huge nail polish collection that needs a real home aside from the den coffee table. 

PROJECTS TO COMPLETE BEFORE CHRISTMAS OMG:

  1. Clear out second closet completely, bins, dresses, paint, foam bed thing, everything. Actually unpack bins and put things away and/or get rid of stuff.
  2. Move filing cabinet from big closet to second closet
  3. Install shelving into second closet so it can be a linen closet (which I don't have – my linens live piled in a cardboard box, as they have since 2009. Oops. For someone who has a generous amount of sheet sets and towels, this is vaguely embarrassing.
  4. Get massive Star Wars collection out of the den and into the big closet, where the filing cabinet was. My Star Wars crap is stored in two very large bins under the bar section of my kitchen counter (on the den side). I want to get at least one bar stool to place there instead. 
  5. Clean out old clothes/shoes, stored clothes at bottom of the big closet, and donate to the Richmond Rescue Mission.
  6. Move shoe bin of shoes I actually wear to big closet instead of under vanity.
  7. See if I can get purple luggage set into either big or second closet OR store outside in the shed.
  8. Move paint to shed.
  9. Clear off vanity of clothes thrown on it and chair, move makeup train case to vanity from bathroom and maybe get a Melmer from Michael's to hold the nail polishes. Also get a 5x magnifying mirror for the space and move some of the other makeup crap from the bathroom to the vanity.
  10. Clear out vanity drawers (I don't think there's too much stuff in them)
  11. Cull books and donate to WC Library foundation for fundraisers
  12. Straighten up living room and get cow horns up on the wall (not sure how to attach, need to check 3M products if they have a narrow hook to hang it – can't really use a nail because the area where I want to hang it is right behind the stove vent and power outlets above the microwave in the kitchen)
  13. Move old computers and Harry Potter Legos from the living room into now-organized closets. Harry Potter Legos might go into the craft room closet, but that is another disaster for another day. 
  14. Unpack new dishes and pots and get them into rotation – clean out old dishes and pots and donate to the foster kid program (for kids who age out of the foster care system and don't really have anything to start out with – a program I hugely support! I think these kids are often forgotten about in the grand scheme of society.)
  15. Move sconces from foyer to flank college diploma over bookshelf. I ordered a large print to hang in the foyer that I've been wanting. (We're coming up on the end of 2012: Year of Doing/Buying Whatever I Want… gotta get some final stuff in! heh)
  16. Replace pinch pleat curtain hooks – the hooks have disintegrated and I need to reinstall new hooks along the rod and rehang the curtains. I'm pretty peeved about this because I feel like I JUST replaced the one set, but what are you going to do? The hooks are plastic and don't cost very much. 

Generally speaking I would just do one room at a time but all of the above kind of interelate – except for maybe the book cull and sconce moving. Everything that needs to be done all starts at the second closet! Boo! The time has come. 

Since I do hate, oh so very much, pretty much everything about housekeeping, I'm hoping that the above projects will keep me organized for the foreseeable future, so I can keep the house straightened up on a regular basis. Having a dedicated place for linens will be delightful! I haven't had a linen closet in years. 

You'd never know it, but this year the house has been much more organized and less covered in papers than it was last year (somewhere my dad is shaking his head in disdain) – I can tell, and since I'm the one who lives there, mine is the only opinion that matters. Seriously though, I have been a lot better about keeping the junk mail off of every flat surface. (I throw it in a pile by the back door, which then gets thrown in the recycle bin.)

I'm not really a minimalist when it comes to home decoration – I love STUFF (boy do I) but at the same time, I'm also not really attached to any of my STUFF. In fact, as the years go by and I acquire more STUFF, the less STUFF I feel like I have a real connection to. (Probably because my affection is spread around). 

I do love those terrible cow horns though; they add a certain je ne sai quois to the whole thing. And by je ne sai quois I mean awesome. Heh.

(I am the person who has a hot pink flocked deer statue in her living room. Taste is not exactly an issue around here.)

I ordered the above linked art print, and I want to get my Ed Emberley (!) print "Monster Parade" framed. I want to do a floating frame (can't have the print touch the glass) and the print has rounded corners so I don't really know how that would work. I guess I could, you know, actually take it down to the frame shop and get a bid. *rolls eyes at self*

I got started on the bins the other night and have been finding interesting things in them (sketchbooks from years past with crying Batmans, zombies, etc., my handgun safety booklet, a CD I thought was long vanished, decorative papers…). I am definitely making progress on my project – and I found the size shelving I want to install in the closet on the Lowe's website. I may get organized sooner than I was expecting!

Anyway, so that's what's going on with the house. My dream someday is to have a weekly housekeeper. Yes, it's one of those things that I would gladly pay someone else to do (much like yardwork, which I do pay someone to do occasionally [my cousin]). 

***

When I bought my place in December 2008 (I moved in over New Years of 2009), I always figured I'd just be there for three or four years before moving on to someplace else. Well, I've worked with homeowners associations for six years now just about, and I know that I do NOT want to live in a condo. I don't know what I want to do or where I want to live. But I CAN tell you that I'm perfectly happy where I am for now, and I have no intention of moving any time soon. So that three or four years may turn into six or seven or eight years. 

I may not live in the richest, best neighborhood, or own the richest, best house, but when I see what's happening around the country, and I look at what are, essentially, the riches surrounding me (dudes! I have a laundry room and satellite cable and I can park right next to my house. I'm not attached to any neighbors. I have central air and heating), I have no complaints. So what I am doing right now, is making my house my home, because I live there, and I will for awhile. 

And I'm grateful for that. 

Vacaciones! The Ronald Reagan Experience (Days 7-8)

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The conclusion to my vacation posts…

Awhile ago I had looked up to see where exactly the Reagan Library was located because I thought it might be something to do the next time I went down to visit Sarah, and it turns out it's pretty much in their hood, only 40 miles away from them in Simi Valley. As it turned out, they are also currently running an exhibit on Disney Archives – costumes, props, memorabilia from Disney's past. That sounded like the perfect excuse to head down to Simi Valley, so all of us headed down there on Saturday to check it out. 

We got there just a hair after 10 a.m. (when it opened) and the parking lot was already almost full. We had already purchased our tickets online and since the kids were with us, we headed to the Disney Archives exhibit first. One of the things that I thought was really well done was incorporating how Reagan actually had involvement to some degree with Disney – he was there as an announcer on the day the park opened, and continued on to have a friendship with Walt Disney himself, which was documented through letters and photos. 

The part of the exhibit I liked the most were the costumes!

Giselle's wedding dress from Enchanted. It really is that poofy!

Big Maleficent dragon head from the Disneyland Fantasmic show!

Model pirate ship from Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

I've been to only one other presidential library – George H. W. Bush at the Texas A&M campus back in 1999, and at that time, it was pretty boring and more like a library than a museum, though I looked at that link and it looks like it's now pretty impressive in its own right (a new building and exhibits were built a couple years ago). 

Anyway, I was really impressed with everything. The building was set up so each exhibit flowed into each other organically. I've been to plenty of museums and usually they're like, here's the Meso-American room, here's the Ming Dynasty room, right next to each other with no flow. The Reagan Library was set up really well in a timeline so as you toured the building, the narrative really flowed well. 

I was most impressed with the section that had the actual video of the 1981 assassination attempt – I'd never seen the video before and actually only knew the bare minimum about it – that it happened, that the shooter was nuts and trying to impress Jodie Foster, that Agent Brady was severely injured and went on to lobby for stricter gun control laws. The way the library had the section set up was really powerful – first you watch the video in surround sound, and then there were all the displays and artifacts, and more video about the recovery and what have you. I thought it was really well done. 

One of the really awesome parts of the Library is that they have, in its own glass pavilion, the verysame Air Force One that Reagan (and other presidents) flew around in. It was decommissioned in 2004 or thereabouts and transported to the Reagan Library for display. 

It's kind of amazing. 

The pavilion from outside

The view from the pavilion into the valley

You could go inside the plane, but you weren't allowed to take pictures, which was kind of a bummer but on the other hand, I understand that for security reasons it's probably not the BEST idea to take pictures of the airplane that squired around various presidents and their technology. There were also these pictures put up on how they got the plane from wherever it had been, all the way to California and up the hill and into the pavilion, which was essentially built up around it. Really an engineering feat that was just as interesting as the plane itself!

Anyway, it was a GREAT trip! I'm so glad I went, and I'd love to go back to the Library by myself someday – I would probably spend all day there, have a Guinness in the pub underneath the plane (yes, really!) and read every single display in the place. As it was, it took us three hours to get through everything, even with a passle of kids. 

After the library we had lunch at an incompetent Chili's, then headed back to Santa Clarita. 

That evening we headed out to New Moon, which is my favorite restaurant down there. I know what you're thinking: New Moon? Isn't that part of the Twilight franchise?

NOOOOOOOOO

It's a really delicious Chinese restaurant. We ordered Chloe Shrimp (my faaaavorite!), spicy green beans, chicken fried rice, honey walnut chicken, dragon beef (my NEW favorite! omg it was amazing)… and maybe something else but now I can't remember. I did manage to beat Bill to to the bill (hah) and treated them for the meal since they'd been so generous to me the rest of the trip. DRAGON BEEF 

*** 

In conclusion, while I bought a ton of noodles and a cutting board shaped like the United States on my vacation, I did not buy any nail polish. Don't worry, I made up for it during the rest of the month. (My nail polish guy even called today with the new OPI holiday collection. It's like he knew it was payday!)

I'm heading back to LA over New Year's to see the new bebe, so that's something to look forward to, and in the meantime I'm trying to sort the house out (more on that later) and finish my Christmas shopping before December. I ordered a ton of stuff from Lima Beads and there's at least two more bead shows I'm attending before the end of the year, PLUS I discovered there's a new Hobby Lobby in Stockton (45 miles from me – as opposed to only getting to visit Hobby Lobby when I'm in Texas every two years!).

I can't believe it's almost October!

Vacaciones! Days 1-7

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Last week I took the week off from work and recharged from the day-to-day. Sort of. Could have used another week, methinks.

My parents recently celebrated their 40th anniversary, so my sister and I took them out for a meal at the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco. Basque cuisine has long been a part of our immediate family lives – at least, when we're on vacation; we have tried it out at several different places (mostly in Nevada) and have always enjoyed it. My sister discovered they had a restaurant in South SF so a couple years ago we tried it out, it was good, and so we took the parents there for a celebration meal. We got the family dinner which had several different courses including soup, salad, lamb cheek (not gonna lie, it was both delicious and gross at the same time), and prime rib. Aside from the lamb cheek (I love lamb, but the cheek was a gross cut, chewy and weird) it was all very nice! 

We also went to the Wreaths Across America fundraiser for the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery. This also included delicious meat and potatoes and a (very loud) live auction that blew my hearing out for the evening. We went to this fundraiser last year, and this year were able to bring my grandmother – my grandpa is buried at the cemetary, and the fundraiser is to place wreaths at each soldier's grave during the Christmas season. This year they will need 12,000.

Then I sort of ran around and was stuck in major traffic on Hwy 4 to Brentwood on Labor Day (a big fat accident in the construction zone just past the Loveridge exit – there had to have been three Highway Patrol cars, glass in the road, a fire truck, ambulance, tow trucks… and by the time I got there it was pretty much cleared so I didn't even get to see the carnage. BOO.) I was heading over the the Shops at Brentwood, where they have an Ulta and a DSW – I'm a little bummed I don't have a closer Ulta, but what are you gonna do? There's also a Sephora in the JC Penney's in Brentwood – but luckily there is a real one in Walnut Creek. I actually managed to not increase the nail polish/makeup/etc supply, instead stopping in at the Kohl's and Michael's – picked up some new dangles for earrings or something from Michael's, and I finally found a black tee/tunic at Kohl's! I've been looking for one for a long time, it's beaded down the front. The last picture in this post has me wearing it. 

Tuesday I stayed home and did laundry like a champ, packed up my stuff and on Wednesday headed down south to Santa Clarita to visit Sarah and her family. The trip down took 5.5 hours which is generally about right, with two stops – one for gas at Harris Ranch and another pit stop at Laval, just before the Grapevine. I got to Sarah's right around 3:30.

Didn't do too much that day: long drive = tired Melissa. I got myself a new air bed, a massive 19" full size Beautyrest from Walmart, and that along with a foam mattress cover equaled a really nice portable bed! I was pleased. I just can't sleep close to the ground anymore; my old air bed is the regular kind that's like six or eight inches off the floor – when you have to get up in the middle of the night in a strange place… let's just say I am too old for that, now. I've never been a champ at camping and sleeping on couches, and I'm not about to do an about-face and change my stance on that. 

Thursday we took the boys to soccer and then headed to SUPERWALMART, which is always a treat. We don't have SUPERWALMART by me at all (there's one in American Canyon which is 25 minutes and a $5 toll away… or an hour if you get stuck in Six Flags traffic, in which case you suck it up and keep going because you paid that damn $5 toll!) so I'm always up for a trip. I didn't need anything but I did find medium egg noodles which are increasingly difficult to find up yonder, and a butter pecan box cake mix. MEDIUM EGG NOODLES!!! I also checked out a new-to-me yarn store not far from Sarah's house and got two skeins of Madelinetosh Chunky to make into hats. 

Friday we hopped on the Metrolink train to downtown LA, where I experienced Union Station – what a trip! I've been in big airports and ridden BART all over the Bay Area but that was just weird/overwhelming to me, how all the trains, buses, Amtrak, etc., all converged in one place. Glad I don't have to do that every day! The inside of the station was very art deco and I got a shot of a section that isn't being used: 

Across the street from Union Station is Olvera Street, which is an old part of LA, and there is even an old adobe inside. Before we headed over there, we went to lunch at Phillipe's, the originator of the French Dip Sandwich! I… was actually not too enthused by this idea originally but I'm game for anything. Even giving wet bread sandwiches a chance again. Wet bread is up there in like the top three things I generally refuse eat (cooked fish, lima beans, wet bread [I say cooked fish because I recently developed a love of RAW SUSHI wtf]) so I was like, okay I will try this famous wet bread french sandwich but I don't promise to like it. 

I liked it.

They just barely dipped the bread in the au jus, like maybe a quarter inch? The meat was good – I had beef. They also had pork, chicken, lamb, etc. I meant to order the sandwich with bleu cheese which would have been even better! Next time, for sure, whenever that may be. I also want to try the lamb, because yum, lamb (just not lamb cheek!).

 After lunch, we headed over to Olvera Street, and it definitely reminded me of an outdoor version of my beloved Mercado in San Antonio. 

We visited the Avila Adobe – the oldest house in LA! Nicely set up and definitely cooler in the shade than the rest of LA, that's for sure. Sarah's little boy David actually sat with me for a picture…

And may I just say as someone who was suffering from a crazy stomachache AND the dredges of a migraine… I look pretty excellent in this picture. Especially since I wanted to lie down and WHINE. (Thanks Sarah for taking an excellent picture of me! lol)

Later that day, we went back to Sarah's house and rested up for our dinner out in Santa Monica – we were meeting our high school friend Rhoda for dinner at Il Fornaio, which is exactly where we had dinner with Rhoda last year! Last year I had a pasta dish with lobster, and it turns out I don't really like lobster (I'm not really kidding about the "If it comes from the sea it does not go in me" stance I generally take with sea food, but given that the sea food I do like is on the weird spectrum – calamari and shrimps, and I like crab cakes, I really thought I would go for lobster, but alas! I do not. I am sad about this) so this year I decided to stay away from anything too weird, especially since I'd had a pretty sassy stomacheache all day (YOU'RE WELCOME) and the food at Il Fornaio is quite rich. 

I decided to go for chicken tortellinis with a tomato cream sauce (See Abs, I totes will eat a cream sauce… as long as it's a tomato one!) and it was quite good, particularly after I followed Rhoda's lead and put a bunch of hot pepper flakes all over it for a little extra kick! I also had a very nice glass of sauvignon blanc and a caramel custard for dessert. The custard was very much like flan so of course I had to go for it. 

After dinner we took our now-yearly picture!

I look slightly ridiculous but I think I'd just kicked my leg up and made a face! Yay for me. I was having a pretty good hair day, though, and my glass of wine didn't reignite my migraine, so I call this whole evening a win! lol

The next day, my last in Southern California, was spent at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library… a post for another day because I have many feelings (almost all of them patriotic) about our trip there. It was really quite an experience, so stay tuned!

Monday Manicure

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Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, my very favorite (from a couple weeks ago):

Currently wearing Deborah Lippmann's Swagga Like Us, gold/green duochrome similar to OPI Just Spotted the Lizard and Chanel Peridot. 

I have not yet purchased any nail polishes for the month of September. (Say what?!?! lol) Buuuut, I am waiting for the L'Oreal Project Runway collection to appear, as well as the China Glaze Halloween collection. Then we'll talk. 

High Tea Etc.

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(I could swear I posted this but APPARENTLY NOT… this draft was written and has been sitting in the draft folder since August 13. Oh well.)

LIFE UPDATE:

So this weekend, the Nice ladies headed to Lovejoy’s in SF for an afternoon high tea! Lovejoy’s is where I went for Malvina’s bachelorette tea back in April. This time, my cousin Amanda arranged for the ladies of the family to meet up and spend an afternoon catching up – some of us hadn’t seen each other since Christmas so that was nice. Since my grandpa died we haven’t had our monthly birthday dinners so we don’t see each other as often.

We mostly ordered the Queen’s Tea (the biggest, fanciest tea with two sandwiches, a scone, fruit, salad, crumpet, a butter cookie, and petit four plus lemon curd, raspberry preserves and DEVON CREAM my favorite), but my aunt January and mother ordered the high tea and ploughman’s lunch respectively. The high tea is basically a smaller Queen’s Tea (sans crumpet and petit four) and I’m not too sure what exactly was the ploughman’s lunch except it had chutney (ew) and stilton cheese. I know about the stilton cheese because my mom gave me some to try – it’s kind of like bleu cheese. With my Queen’s Tea my two sandwich choices were Asparagus Hummus (super delish) and Cream Cheese & Mandarin Orange.

Anyway, we were a noisy bunch and it was fun to catch up with everyone. It was a nice day in the city – we even opened up the front window of the restaurant to let in the breeze.

Some pics, stolen shamelessly from Janelle’s Facebook:

Anyway, we had a lot of fun and then went over to Abby’s house afterwards, as nobody had seen her house yet. While the aunties were touring I sat in the living room with Amanda and Lauren and we professed our disdain over Fifty Shades of Grey, the erotic novel that has taken the nation by storm.

I personally have not read it because I picked it up at Target and flipped through it and it’s written in first-person-present, a literary tense I find 98% unreadable. I loathe it so much you don’t even know. It has prevented me from reading many popular books, such as The Hunger Games, some of Meg Cabot’s work, etc. I LOATHE FIRST-PERSON-PRESENT IT IS THE WORST.

Also notable: Fifty Shades of Grey started out its life as Twilight fanfic. So, just know that you are reading the (former) erotic adventures of BELLA SWAN and EDWARD CULLEN!

Say it with me now: ew.

Lauren was pretty adamant how terrible it was. Amanda was disappointed they were terrible, as she had just bought all three. Knowing what I know about it (that’s it’s basically beefed up fanfic and first-person-present) I shall not be reading it. I just can’t with fanfic, guys. I know a lot of people write it, read it, and defend it, but I am just not one of them. It’s like stealing and I just can’t get behind it. If it’s your thing, that’s great – but it’s not mine. I’m not going to argue with anyone about it, and I’m not going to judge you if you like it and you write it or whatever, but I don’t want to know about it or read it. And I sure as f*ck am not going to pay money for something that lived a previous life as (bad) BDSM Bella/Edward drivel.

(Yeah I said it) (Yes, I am judging something based on not reading it and making assumptions. Whatevs! :P)

Anyhoodle.

So, then we went home and got stuck on the San Mateo Bridge for an hour just getting over the incline, and by the time we got to the accident site, it was not worthy of that sort of backup! Pulled off to the side, some flares, some damaged cars… When you’re stuck in that bad of traffic I want to see ambulances and flipped cars and maybe a fire or helicopter. Sadly, it was two sad damaged cars and a highway patrol car. NOT WORTH THE DELAY, FOLKS.

But then we finally got home and on Sunday I went to the reservoir with my dad where it was hot and gross but I managed to not get a headache. Yay!

 

CRAFTING

Next up (if I get around to it) I have resurrected the Willow Afghan from UFO purgatory. I’ve made six new squares and finished the first batch of 24 squares – with my color combo, there are 24 individual squares with their own unique color sequence. I’m thinking I need three batches of 24 squares for a total of 72. I laid the 24 squares out on my queen sized bed and it definitely looks like 72 squares will be a good size – it’ll be bigger than my regular sized woven afghans that I like. However, I’m thinking that I might want it to be even bigger (more of a bedspread size?). Sooooo I’m either 1/4 of the way or 1/3 of the way done. [Since I wrote this on 8/13 I've finished a few more squares and have 30 squares finished and am working on the next batch of 6. Once I finish these six I will be half done with the squares. I'm still not sure about if I want extra squares, but having laid it out on the bed again, I do think 72 is a good number, however I might add one more row  for a blanket that is 9x9 squares for a total of 81 squares. Boo.]

 

Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad 3 Minutes

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I got home from work yesterday around six – I had some errands to run right after work (return the ONE book to the library that wouldn't renew online and stop at Walmart for toilet paper and a packet of dry mashed potatoes I'm going to add to this potato soup mix I found in the cupboard tonight) so when I got home, the house was pretty hot. It was probably in the nineties outside, so it usually gets to the mid-eighties in the house, which is much more than I can stand without – literally – starting to feel sick. Sometimes I wonder how I survived the disgusting summers in Texas… but then I remember: central air set at 74 degrees.

I don't like to run the A/C all day when I'm not there – it's a central air system that can get pretty pricey if I did that (which I have done in the past and while worth it, you do have to watch the bottom line). So usually I turn it on when I get home and it takes about two hours to cool down the house and all is well. 

Except. Today I dumped off my purse and purchases and went into the hall, turning on the light so I could see how hot it was inside on the thermostat. 

And the thermostat was blank. Off. Dead. 

"Noooooooo!" I told the thermostat, wiggling it. Maybe if I jiggled the buttons it would turn on. Nope. Maybe if I hit the switch to "cool" anyway it would turn on. Nope.

Was the fuse blown? It couldn't be – I'd just turned on the hall light; the switch is like six inches away.

Damn. Now I'd have to call an HVAC person. I don't want to pay an HVAC person. This is terrible. Maybe my electrician can look at it. Nooooooo! I don't want to spend money on this! Noooooooo! But I want to be cool and comfortable! Noooooooo! There goes my extra $$$ I was saving for various things throughout the rest of the year! Noooooooo! Ugh, forget this!

Then -

It dawns on me that rather than be hooked up to the electrical system, the thermostat itself may run on batteries. I pried off the front panel and LO! There are two AA batteries parked at the top of the thermostat.  I have lived in this house almost four years and have never changed the batteries (obviously) so – could it be that simple??

I ran into the kitchen and grabbed two batteries from my battery drawer. Taking the old batteries out, I stuffed the new ones in and – WOO HOO – the screen lit green and turned on! "Sweet Baby Jesus," I may or may not have muttered. 

And then – the moment of truth – I turned the air on. 

Behind the house, the air kicked on.

Sweet, sweet cold air flowed through the vents. 

"Hallelujah," I wept.

So Many Things! And Texas!

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Argh, I have been so busy this summer, I have neglected all sorts of things (housework… blog…) but on the other hand, I have been really busy and not home much, and a lot of the things I've been doing have been fun things! 

This post is super long so the TL;DR version is: I have been busy and went to Texas and did fun stuff instead of blogging.

***

Let's see… Malvina and Sam got married June 1 and fun times were had. There is no (good) photographic evidence popping up on Facebook so I have no pics of this situation, including me in my bridesmaid dress and hot pink shoes. Alas. 

Movies: I saw Snow White and the Huntsman (it was okay), Prometheus (it was hilarious), Magic Mike (delightful… in so many ways! There was an actual plot!), The Amazing Spiderman (100% better than I was expecting! I had low expectations – not ready for another Spidey movie, but they were exceeded quite a bit. Recommended!) I also recently watched In Time, which came out last year I think, and stars the surprisingly talented Justin Timberlake, and that also was pretty good.

I got together with my friend Amy for a taco lunch – we used to work together at our old company and meet up every now and then to catch up. Amy has moved to a nicer, smaller house closer to work and it looks like they really like it there. Their little dude Colten is getting big and climbing into everything. He's a cutie. 

Went to Felicia's baby shower – she's due in September. Felicia is my oldest friend; we've known each other since we were six. For those keeping track… that's 26 years now! yikes. She and her husband have chosen not to find out what the gender of the baby is – to my annoyance! I like getting clothes for babies/kids and baby clothes are really gendered! It's hard to find stuff that is not specific to boy vs. girl, so I gave up and got a blanket and a Pat the Bunny. Anyway.

I went to Texas over my birthday and visited my college roommates. My friend Julie flew in from Florida where she lives now and we stayed in a hotel (if it was just me I probably would have just stayed with Margie). We had a lot of fun eating our way across San Antonio, and I think I was 3/4 of the days we were there for eating Tex/Mex! We hit all the old favorites: Mi Tierra (not as good as previous, alas), Jacala (SO DELICIOUS), Taco Cabana, Bill Miller's BBQ (breakfast tacos!) and County Line (BBQ)! We also managed to have Sonic a couple of days and kept ice cream bars in the hotel freezer, which we kept forgetting about and had to eat our last one at 4 am on the way to the airport, heh.

The day we got in, we checked into the hotel and then bombarded the girls with our presence. We met up at Tara's and then headed downtown to the MERCADO where I looked longingly at all the baby-sized Mexican peasant dresses (Sarah was about to find out if she was going to have a girl… but she is three for three for boys! lol) and didn't buy anything. The girls had never been to the mercado  before which I thought was funny because Julie and I always go there whenever we're in town (and we haven't lived in SA for years) but – I haven't been to half of San Francisco's stuff and I've lived in the Bay Area for the great majority of my life. After the Mercado we had dinner at Mi Tierra and it was fine but the service was slow and it wasn't as good as I remember. Boo. It *was* the 4th of July so maybe it being a holiday was a little bit of a problem, but still. 

Anyway, after that we went to see Spiderman, which turned out good, to my surprise. Then we said our goodbyes till the next day and Julie and I headed to (Super) Walmart where we had to sneak into the books section and find me a book (the section was technically closed for floor buffering but we found an opening and stealthily headed inside). 

The next day (my birthday), we drove up to Fredericksburg. This is a small town up in hill country (aka pretty countryside) and has a cute downtown and lots of fun shops. We went inside one shop that had a lot of new agey home decor and stuff (kind of like a Cost Plus/World Market, I guess) and they had GREAT jewelry… and it was buy 2 get 1 free… and it was my birthday… so I got myself 3 new pairs of excellent earrings. When I made some crack about it being my birthday, the girls at the counter even gave me a 10% discount! So, win all around. :)

We shopped around for awhile and then wound up in Rustlin' Robs: Texas Gourmet Foods, which has a lot of samples, so we sampled our way through lunch and also bought a couple things – I got two jars of this amazing praline pecan honey butter and some fudge. Julie got some honey butter too (but in a different flavor) and then we headed out of town to a winery… that turned out to be closed. On our way out of town, we stopped at Walgreens to get some bottled water (it was hot, and we needed to stay hydrated) and while we were there I looked for the new line of Walgreens-exclusive (I think) Wet N Wild nail polishes from Fergie (Black Eyed Peas). AND there in this Walgreens in pretty much the middle of nowhere, I found the two nail polishes I had wanted (Hollywood Walk of Fame, multi-colored stars in a clear base, and Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night, which is matte black and shiny gold glitter. I also picked up New Year's kiss – silver glitter with holo bar glitter and a red micro glitter with small holo glitter. Later when I was back home I also picked up Miami Spirit, the bright matte turquoise). 

Anyway, so after that pit stop, we headed down to Comfort, TX, which had another winery (closed) but we also found a yarn store called The Tinsmith's Wife which was run by an adorable little old guy and his three cats. I got a skein of Lorna's Laces sock yarn in a bright light tuquoise and the new Knitscene. 

Then we headed back to Boerne, where we had to find a bathroom, and then we went to Sisters Creek Winery… which was open! There we participated in a wine tasting and seriously had some of the BEST wine I've ever had – a Moscato reserve white wine. SO GOOD. I bought a bottle to enjoy later. 

Anyway, then we were tired so we went back to the hotel and rested, and then headed to Jacala, aka best Mexican restaurant evarrr!

I was the first of our group to ever go to Jacala. When I first moved to Texas, my parents came to visit me I THINK that first semester?? I sort of remember them coming in October of that year?? Anyway, whenever they came (maybe it was the year after that because I only remember them being in our upstairs apartment – we lived downstairs the first year) my mom wanted to go to Jacala, which she had seen on the Food Network making puffy tacos. So, we went, and thus started the Glorious Tradition of eating at Jacala. I introduced the girls to it and I think it's great that years down the line they still go there. For my birthday I ordered a 4b (cheese enchilada and puffy taco with a chile con queso – a chalupa chip with queso spread on it) and we also got an appetizer of queso that came in a big bowl and was delicious and the wait staff got wind that it was my birthday and then this happened:

SOMBRERO'D!! And freeeeee birthday flan!!!! 

I love flan. 

I particularly love Jacala's flan. Super delicious! 

(Not the most flattering picture ever, but a funny one!)

The next day we headed out to school to see what changes had been wrought upon the campus of our alma mater, UTSA. I hadn't been on campus for awhile and there were a lot of changes! There's a new engineering building and tons of new housing. The bioscience building is up and running and there is a new campus activities building with a huge ballroom. There's a road that cuts through campus and one that's now closed. And three new parking garages that weren't there when I left. The bioscience and Level 3 containment labs had just been built when I left but weren't open yet. Six years later, I'm even prouder that I'm an alumni of this school! Definitely have a sense of school spirit for UTSA that I never had in high school. 

Inside the beautiful new(ish – it's 6 years old now!) Bioscience Building.

Inside the Student Center, not the new one, the one from our years at UTSA.

After we wandered around campus (we even stopped in the Sombrilla and ate our Bill Miller's breakfast, hah) we headed over to La Cantera and the Rim and did some shopping. I don't remember what Julie got but I bought something for Sam's birthday at Claire's (yes you read that right, Claire's) and also picked up a couple of Deborah Lippmann nail polishes at Nordstrom's and Neiman Marcus! For my birthday my mom had gotten me FIVE DL nail polishes and I wanted to round out my collection with a couple more, and a backup of Mermaid's Dream – that one I found at Neiman Marcus and felt all fancy as it was my very first every NM purchase! For $18, haha. 

The day was long and we also stopped at two Hobby Lobby's and I forget what we had for lunch. Oh, Pei Wei's, which is PF Chang's Panda Express (basically). It was okay but I don't think I'd go back unless somebody else really wanted to. Julie was meeting up with one of her friends for dinner so I dropped her off at the gun club and headed to the HEB Plus that had opened up on Loop 1604 near there. The HEB Plus turned out to be kind of like an HEB Walmart, and I found a couple of nail polishes (of course) that I hadn't seen before and also got some of the Big Red Zero that we'd noticed for sale around – diet Big Red. 

Then I basically beached myself at the hotel and watched TV by myself, it was nice. Julie came back later and she too had stopped at the HEB Plus and gotten Big Red Zero for us to try! We both laughed at that, and then determined that we had way too much Big Red Plus in the room and cracked one open. It was fine but tasted pretty diet-ish to me (I can taste aspertame from a mile away.)

The next morning we indulged ourselves at the really quite excellent continental breakfast at our hotel – we made pancakes, had eggs, etc.! And then we headed down to the Botanical Gardens. We'd been there before but it's always nice to visit. 

This is one of the greenhouse exhibits – in the background you can see downtown SA and the Tower of America (where I have actually never been).

The arbor that leads into the park – our progress was impeded by a bunch of yoga-ers yoga-ing in the shade; we went through it on our way out of the gardens. 

Some lilypads in the sculpture garden.

It was getting extremely hot by the time we had finished walking through the gardens so we went down the street to the Witte Museum where it was nice and cool. Neither of us had ever been there before. They were having a Darwin exhibit so we paid the three extra dollars to see that, and it was actually pretty interesting right up until the end where there was a big plaque on the wall that basically said: "And so Darwin's discoveries basically make Christians look super retarded for believing in Creationism!" (In several paragraphs but that was the gist of it.) Now, I believe in evolution, don't get me wrong (TBH I don't see how you couldn't), but to be so asshatty about something that so many people believe in is actually pretty narrowminded. 

Other than that, the exhibit was okay, but that left a sour taste in my mouth because it smacked of high and mighty liberalism squinting down on the unwashed masses from their ivory towers. (Yeah I said it)

After that we were hungry so we went to the County Line for a late lunch. The County Line is another favorite and I had sausage and garlic mashed potatoes and potato salad. Um, last day of the trip so whatever I will eat potatoes all the time if I want! lol

We went back to the hotel and rested for awhile and then went to a sassy lady party at one of Margie's friend's houses and then we crashed out and got up at 3:30 a.m. to head back to the airport. I pretty much dozed through the first flight and then when I landed in Phoenix was pretty horrified to realize that I had a three hour layover! And it was still six a.m. because of the time change. I wound up getting a Starbucks and a crossandwich and the new Sookie Stackhouse book and parked myself in the terminal until it was time for my flight to leave at 9:30 or whenever. 

Made it home around noon and the parents picked me up and took me out for a burger. Once I got home, I did my laundry and then thought I would nap for an hour…. Napped for FOUR WHOLE hours and still wound up going to bed early. 

It's two weeks later and I still haven't quite recovered from the jet lag, going to bed kind of early and sleeping a lot. Oh well!

Anyway, so that' pretty much what I've been up to and a recap of my Texas trip. Hopefully I'll be a little better about updating ye olde blog but let's get real: no promises! ;)

This That the Other

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(May already? Sheesh)

So the last several months have been very very busy and it looks like it will finally let up mid-June! Then, I’ve booked a trip to San Antonio for my birthday to see my Texas peeps.  Julie and I are both headed to the great SA in July… and I must say, aside from seeing my friends, I am REALLY looking forward to all the delicious Mexican food I plan on stuffing down my gullet. Oh Jacala! Not gonna lie, my birthday dinner is going to consist of a #4B, which I am pretty sure is the only thing I have ordered at Jacala the last several times I’ve been there over the years. Also, that is the restaurant where this happened.

A couple of weeks ago I went with Malvina and her friend Katie to high tea for Malv’s bachelorette weekend. We are not exactly the type of people who think strippers are a fun time so our wild and crazy weekend was definitely fun, but not really wild and crazy (thank goodness! hah). So we decided to have a bridesmaids bachelorette outing to Lovejoy’s in San Francisco.

I’d been to high tea once before. In 1995, my dad won a trip to Hawaii, and while we were there, my mom wanted to go for high tea that was offered at one of the fancy beach hotels. I think it was in Honolulu rather than Waikiki but anyway, it was on the outdoor veranda that opened up to the beach and was all very fancy pantsy. That was the first time I’d ever had Darjeeling, which still holds a central place in my coffee-loving heart. I drank Darjeeling for years after that (until I had my first Starbucks drink in 1999… and that was that, haha).

Lovejoy’s is in the Noe Valley neighborhood (I think?) and pretty easy to get to off the freeway. if there is one thing that I really dislike, it’s driving in San Francisco. I drive a stick shift (now and forever! love it) and since it’s pretty hilly in SF, that can be nervewracking. But really, I just dislike driving there in general, the stick shift is just kind of an excuse. BUT as I recall, there is only one hill between the freeway and Lovejoy’s, so sometime I might be able to make it work. Yikes.

Anyway, the tea shop is full of tea frippery and very British. Lots of tea sets set out and lace and mismatched tea pots, it’s all borderline twee, but FUN. We dressed up and that was fun – other people had jeans and stuff on, but that just didn’t seem right.

I ordered a black tea with lavender, Malvina ordered a chestnut tea, and Katie ordered a lemon meringue tea. Our tower of goodies consisted of fresh fruit, delicious scones (I think cranberry?), and tea sandwiches. We chose a bunch of delicious sandwiches: classic cucumber, pear & stilton, green apple & cream cheese, mandarin orange & cream cheese, egg & onion, roast beef & horseradish, and turkey & mustard. So delicious! My choices were the mandarin orange & cream cheese and egg & onion. So tasty! I really liked the mandarin orange in particular – who knew that would make a good sandwich??! Fancy British people, that’s who.

Malvina’s tea choice was actually the best one. I really liked mine, but there was a depth to hers that was unexpected! Actually all three teas were good.

There were also crumpets, which I was surprised to find out are pretty similar to English Muffins. Since I love English Muffins, crumpets were a nice surprise.

OH and the revelation of the whole afternoon was CLOTTED CREAM. You guys, where has clotted cream been all my life? I do not know but wowza, amazing.

We made a pact to have tea on hopefully a quarterly basis. There are several tea houses around the Bay Area that sound like they would be simply delightful to try! Next time, we are wearing hats. Fancy old lady hats.

Tomorrow is Malvina’s bridal shower which I have worked hard on planning so hopefully that goes smoothly. Once that is over, I just need to get my bridesmaid dress altered a little bit (straps, hem MAYBE, I kind of like the tea length, it’s this dress in black with a pink sash). I also need to finish the bridesmaid jewelry, no lie I’m kind of procrastinating on that.

My office is currently going through some crazy times right now, so I have been super busy with work and I’ve developed some sort of allergy to everything related to lettuce and cabbage – at least, it gives me one hell of a stomachache – the last one lasted two days and I’m not super stoked about this. My newfound reaction to these types of food also includes my beloved Brussell Sprouts. SAD FACE. :(

I really could use a day to just sleep in until 11 but I think that will have to wait until a week from now.

And finally:

May the 4th be with you.

_________

p.s. CLOTTED CREAM

On Pottermore and HP Love

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So Pottermore is finally out of beta or whatever, and I signed up. I love Harry Potter and so this is fun. I suspect I'm not THAT huge a Harry Potter fan like all those people who went to the midnight release parties and dress up in costumes (I have a job, guys) and I didn't sign up for the original Pottermore beta last year, but you know what? Harry Potter has been a part of my life for almost thirteen years. I will love HP forever. 

My user name is CentaurFeather13013 (they assign usernames). I will never remember this. Let's be Pottermore friends!

Anyway, the other Harry Potter thing that hit my desk this week is that there is an avatar creator at Deviantart where you can make yourself into a Hogwarts student. I wound up having to print screen, paste into Paint, and crop the image – not sure how to save it, if there is even a way. But regardless, here I am, Slytherined out:

(My current Harry Potter dream is that Malvina and Sam will bring me back an elder wand from Harry Potter land in Florida when they go there in June)(Geesh I'm a self serving nerd.)

2012 Knitting Update

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So in January/February, I knit a Daybreak shawl to wear for Stitches West. (I wound up wearing the Eiki shawl.) This shawl really kind of knit itself – so awesome! I think because of the striping. I may make another one sometime. It would look great with black and a blending stripe yarn (like Knitpicks Chroma or similar).

It was knit out of Sanguine Gryphon Skinny Bugga (love that stuff!). I forget what colors, alas. The brown is a rich, dark copper, and the blue is more of a turquoise, of course – turquoise being my most favorite color of all time. While the Sanguine Gryphon is no more, the two studios are still producing the various iterations of Bugga, and I picked up some from Cephalopod Yarns at Stitches in a rich royal purple blend. Not sure what I will make out of it, but I just purchased two fabulous shawl patterns from the new issue of Twist Collective. 

First up is Stellarina. This is a crescent shaped shawl with a beautiful lace edging by Susanna IC. I have knit her pattern Annis and really enjoyed it, so I'm looking forward to this one. It will probably be blue, but I had a hard time making a decision last night. I have yet to make a blue shawl (despite my rainbow of shawls!) so I have been considering some yarns in my blue cubby in the Expedit Of Yarn*.

I also got Elysium by Janel Laidman. This will be out of Fleece Artist 2/6 in their pale grey "Smoke" colorway. I have been wanting to make something with my two skeins of that yarn for a long time. I previously had started a Laminaria shawl with it, but didn't like knitting the pattern (which is a shame because it's a beautiful shawl). I want that yarn to be involved in an heirloom piece, and I think I've found it in Elysium.  I really like Janel Laidman's patterns – the Eiki shawl I knit last year is one of my most favorite pieces I've ever knit. 

I have also completed two hats from the Weekend Hats book. Pics at some point. 

2012 project completions: 3 (half of last year's! Doing okay.)

———-

*Lo, the Expedit of Yarn (uh, much more full since this picture was taken in January 2009… and the room itself is crammed full of other stuff too. Oh dear.):

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