Our Weekend

We went down to Carlsbad for the 4th of July. Wanted to steer clear of 'amateur hour' at HB.

This photo's for E in China.


Note to E: Technically I was looking toward you when I took this picture since the sun was setting over the ocean and you're on the other side of said ocean.

By the Way...

...we got married.

But since I'm pretty sure the only people who read this blog are family and friends, you all know the story. But for those who don't, here goes: it was sunny. it was cloudy. it rained on us. it stopped. it rained on us again. we wised up and stood under a tent. and we got married. the end.

Sean's Bday

Sean's birthday was this past Sunday. His day consisted of: Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. Amoeba. Thievery Corporation at the Hollywood Bowl.

Our favorite thing about the Bowl is that you can bring in your own picnic dinner (including wine). Since a cake would be too big to fit into our backpack, I made cupcakes instead.
You would think fried chicken wouldn't taste delicious with waffles and syrup. You'd be wrong.
Hollywood Bowl. Garden box seats. And a red silo cup. Yeah... we're classy people.
Heading to the car from the Bowl.

Coachella

It feels like Coachella was so long ago, yet it was just a month ago. Here are a few pics and thoughts from the fest.


Goldfrapp. Awesome show. Got so close to the stage. Had to miss The Ranconteurs, but totally worth it.
Another great act - Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. You'll know the Dap Kings because they backed Amy Winehouse on her last album. Sharon Jones kicks Amy Winehouse's ass to the moon. (And I say this after praising Amy Winehouse after seeing her at Coachella last year). Imagine if James Brown and Tina Turner were the same person. That's Sharon Jones.
The Black Lips. I wasn't their biggest fan going into this. After seeing them live - I'm a fan. I'm convinced they're one of those bands you can only appreciate live. They're too insane otherwise. Also, I'm convinced the lead singer is Eugene Hutz's doppelganger.
Rilo Kiley. Great show. That's all. Plus, she's one tiny, itty bitty girl.
Kraftwerk. I hadn't really listened to them before Coachella. I'm now a fan.

The man himself - Prince. Fantastic. Highlight of the fest for me. I'm sure it's because we were so FREAKING close to the stage. It was awesome. Loved it. He also, is a teeny, itty bitty person.


Awesome.

Bridal Shower #1

This Saturday was my bridal shower; actually, it was the first of two bridal showers. The second one being in Chicago in two weeks. Here are a few highlights from the shower - I'll send you a link to all of the photos. (Thank you A & C for taking over 160 photos!)

The weather was very nice - low 70s once the sun finally came out.
This is gift number 1. It is also the first of three skillets that I received. We only registered for one. This also starts the trend of me realizing that while this is my bridal shower, most of these gifts are for Sean. You see - he's the one who cooks. He'll get up early on weekends and cook us fantastic fat-laden breakfasts; while I'd just as well throw some milk in a bowl of cereal. I do bake however - and I did receive wonderful baking items.
Continuing the trend of receiving gifts for Sean. When he saw this electric griddle in Macy's - I thought his eyes were going to bug out of his head he was so excited. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I think I'm taking an oath to never get between my fiance and his griddle.
And the tradition of gifts for Sean continues...
Since I'm new to this whole bridal shower thing, I'm glad my friend J had the wherewithal to gather all of my ribbons and create this bouquet for me.
After a long afternoon of opening gifts, we were exhausted.
These are the favors I made for my guests; the boxes include lavendar soaps and flower seeds that come in a container decorated with a silk flower (the silk flower represents the type of flower the seeds are for).
Can't wait for Chicago!

Other People's Wedding

Tis the season for weddings. Last weekend we went to our 2nd wedding in a month. It was very nice: big, beautiful, lavish. Everything our wedding will not be.

Theirs: Catholic ceremony (with mass) in CA's oldest mission
Ours: Civil ceremony in parents' backyard

Theirs: Mariachi band (!!!)
Ours: iPod playlist
Not much else to report except to say that it was a beautiful ceremony (although I did think God was going to smite me for not being in a church for over 5 years). But, the Catholics sure know how drill a routine into you: I still knew every single word the priest (and the parishioners) uttered during the entire mass.

And here's a picture of us looking pretty.

Baking

This weekend, I wound up baking. We had friends over Friday night for a marathon "Lost" view-fest - which was a perfect opportunity for me to try out a new cookie recipe. (Well, the recipe is new to me - I'm pretty sure it's at least 40 years old given that the cook book I got it from was first printed in the 60s). I made Chocolate Mint Sandwich Cookies. Like home-made Oreos that tasted like Christmas.

Rather than glob the filling on the cookie with a knife, I decided to add some excitement to my cookie-baking and try my hand at icing out of a bag. It turned out pretty well, I think...


And here are the final results... like I mentioned earlier - they tasted like Christmas. And they were super, super easy to make. Just a chocolate refrigerator cookie with icing.

For the past two weeks, I've been telling Sean that I'd make banana bread once the two lone spotty bananas were bad enough to be turned into banana bread. And Sunday afternoon I finally made Banana Bread with Flaxseed and Pecans. I like this recipe because it calls for whole-wheat flour and it doesn't call for sour cream (it seemed like every recipe out there for banana bread called for sour cream).

We also went on a 12 mile bike ride. One of these days I'll buy a little bag to attach to my bike so I can take pictures of all the places we ride our bikes to.

Our Quick Jaunt to Yosemite

A few weeks ago, Sean and I spent a short weekend at Yosemite (just outside it, actually) to attend the wedding of two friends of ours. We stayed at the Chateau d'Holy Crap this is Expensive. Here are some pictures of the Chateau and our venture into Yosemite.

Let me tell you, when you pay Chateau d'Holy Crap prices, they reward you with wonderful, fantastic service. We pulled up around 11:00pm - and they greeted us with a wonderful plate of snacks....


... and then kept topping off our wine.

Apparently, people who stay at the Chateau like to recreate episodes of "I Love Lucy"...
Need proof this was a classy joint? We had real flowers in the loo...
Since we were so close to Yosemite, we figured it would be a shame not to go into the park while we were up there. So we decided to walk to the Swinging Bridge, via the appropriately named Swinging Bridge Trail. But first, we had to fill up the car - bet you're glad you're not living in California..
Sean and I could never be on "The Amazing Race."
This is probably the closest we'll get to snow all year. Wait a minute... I just spent two weeks in IN and OH... Well, it's the closest Sean'll get to snow all year.
This is a river in Yosemite. I have no idea which river it is.
And that was our quick jaunt into Yosemite. It's a beautiful park. Next time, we'll try to spend an entire week up there.

Will It Never End?

For the past week and a half my life has consisted of these...

After 7 nights of interupted sleep due to body attempting to liberate all of my organs via my 80-year-old's smoker's hack, I am looking to this single bottle to do what an entire pharmacy's been unable to do. Give me a single night of uninterupted sleep; a night without coughing my throat raw.

*note to Gma

Although, on the bright side, due to last night's coughing jag, I was able to catch up on 3 episodes worth of "Cashmere Mafia" and 2 episodes of "So Graham Norton." (there's an ad sales pitch to Robitussin in there somewhere...)

*I would like to point out the blurring. Look how careful I'm being about stalkers and whatnot.

Best Show You're Not Watching

I knew Barack was my man for a reason.

His favorite TV show is The Wire.

(Read the article where this information came up here.)

Bear with here - I don't want you believing I base my vote on whether the candidate's pop culture tastes reflect my own.

I am in no way eloquent enough to explain the awesome-ness of this show. Nor do I have a good enough grasp on the English language to get you to understand how righteously indignant you'll get watching this show (and who doesn't like getting righteously indignant?). But, this columnist - along with producer David Simon (he's the same man who brought you Homicide: Life on the Street) does a pretty job explaining it all.

The Pants

This is why I created the animal pants from the last post...

... so Sean and some co-workers could partcipate in the Battle of the Bands (via Rock Band) held at his office Holiday Party a few weeks ago. Sean took inspiration from a Red Hot Chili Peppers' video ("Higher Power") where Flea wore red animal pants covered in stuffed animals. Since "Showmanship" counted for 70% of the band's final score - his band went all out on the costumes.

Here's his band, In Like Flinn, just before their first number. They did eventually win first place - I'm pretty sure it was all due to the pants. Which by the way, weighed a good 20 pounds. Luckily, they had a drawstring waist and I made Sean cinch them as tight as he possibly could.

While Sean and his co-workers got to play rock gods for a night, I got to play Vivienne Westwood for a night (and the week leading up to the party) and it was fun.

For Richer, For Poorer...

... in sickness, in health...

Nowhere in those vows is there any mention of gluing animals to red track pants.

Someone should have warned me.

More on the WHY and the HUH of the red animal pants later.

And So It Begins

As you all know, Thursday was Thanksgiving. Which meant that Friday was 'put the Christmas decorations out' day.

The two stockings in the background were made (by me!) two years ago. I meant to make something new this year but never got around to it. Every year I tell myself that the following Christmas I'll make a handmade ornament to add to the tree and then give as gifts - it just never happens. The closest I came this year was making 3-d snowflakes for the tree.

Here is village #1. Village #2 is on our CD/DVD rack. The village has officially grown out of its space. Starting next year, it'll go under the tree. The shelve/mantle has worked so far because my village is too tiny to justify being on the floor. But, this year I plan to do some serious damage at Department 57 so my village can take its next step to becoming (cue booming voice) the spectacular, dominating village it's destined to be.

Here's Santa's village and the Eskimo village. I really want to flesh out my Eskimo village and make it the focus of my overall village. Did you know that you can buy most of the Eskimo village figures, dating back to the very first ones, on eBay?

And here are the Santas From Around the World. Each time Sean goes on a trip, he'll bring me back either a Christmas ornament from that town or a figurine. During his last work-sponsored tour 'o Europe, he brought me back half of the Santas you see here.

I think this is the oldest ornament on my tree. Just thought I'd share.