Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Ticktickticktickticktickticktick

Safeway has Buy 7 get 1 Free Starbucks drinks when you use your Safeway card. Stuff like that suckers me in Every Time. I earned my free one last week and have been trying to hold back. That ended today. I craved my new favorite. It even has shards of chocolate throughout - some are so delightfully big they get wedged in your straw. Apparently you can get any size you want for the free one so I upsized it to a grande. Not smart. My eyeballs are quivering.

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Vancouver exploits

A while back Tommy and I went to Vancouver - Tommy's second time (though he's not NEAR as researchy as I am so he & his friend were only able to find the "peelers" - but now that I think about it, that was all they were probably looking for in the first place) and my first.

I pricelined a 4-star hotel (the Hyatt near Robson St.) and got it for $75 a night. Our nice, comfy room had a balcony overlooking The Fairmount (something tells me priceline doesn't sell their rooms).

We started out at Granville Public Market. We bought some great bread at Terra Breads and some salami at one of the many meat stalls. Lee's Donuts had just pulled out fresh donut holes so we couldn't exactly pass that up either. I looked for Duso's Spices but couldn't find it. South China Seas Trading Co. did me just right, though. I bought some red Thai rice and some spices including those cute little star anise pods that look so great in the magnetic spice rack that my dear, a little too skinny friend Dave gave me.

The rest of the day was spent walking around window shopping and such.

Later that night we went to dinner at Memphis Blues BBQ House. It was WONDERFUL. Granted, it was kind of weird traveling all the way to Vancouver for BBQ but, like I've said before, it just doesn't exist in my neck o' the woods and we haven't tasted much in Seattle, either. Tommy and I split the Memphis platter which basically took up the whole table (it was a 2-top). The sides (cole slaw, potato salad, and beans) were just adequate which was fine because it left more room for the ridiculously good fries, brisket, 2 kinds of ribs, pulled pork, sausage, and chicken. It was a silly amount of food and we ended up making a homeless guy VERY happy with the leftovers.

I made Tommy go for a walk with me once we got back to the hotel (you could tell he wanted to just slink into his blissful meat coma) so we walked up and down way-too-congested Robson St.
Just in case our arteries weren't fully clogged, we stopped and got some decent fudge.

The next morning we met Uncle Jim (no relation) at Zin Restaurant. UJ and I each had the rockin' Huevos Rancheros. It came in a fried red flour tortilla bowl and had layers of hashbrowns, eggs, chorizo, ranchero sauce, and sour cream and had two cheddar crisps* garnishing it. Spectacular, spectacular! Tommy had the waffles (waffles are to Tommy as cheese is to me) but regretably they tasted frozen (gasp!).

Then we walked around some more - I dragged Tommy and Uncle Jim into the MAC store so I could buy a couple of lipsticks (NY Apple and Rocker). It came out to about the same price as in the states with my MAC card. I was hoping to get a refill for the Lightful Protective Foundation Powder compact I bought at the Sydney airport but apparently it's only sold in a couple of international airports and Japan (something about it having too much SPF to be approved by the FDA or something - the bastards!). I will try not to get too much sun (the shade I bought is a bit light) til the next time my Aussie friends come to visit and hopefully they can pick me up a refill or two.

Eventually we walked enough to make room for Mondo Gelato. So, so good.

Then we headed for Lynn Canyon Park to cross the suspension bridge. The Capilano Bridge is a bit more famous but why spend $22CAD when you can go to Lynn Canyon for free? The park and views were stunning and the bridge was Goldilocks scary. I HIGHLY (get it? suspension bridge humor!) recommend you visit if you get the opportunity.

On the way back we stopped at the Roots factory store - I can't normally fit into their clothes much less stuffed with all that we ate while in Vancouver - but I definitely want to go back if and when we have a baby (I was thisclose to buying a little onesie covered in monkeys - not sure why I'm so obsessed with monkeys and babies but if we have a boy, there's a deadstock crib set from Land of Nod covered in blue monkeys that I would have to buy off ebay or some place).

Then we headed out of town stopping at the last duty free shop to spend the rest of our Canadian money on booze, a box of big Kit-Kats with a bonus Kit-Kat radio for my sister, among other things. Note to self: if you get in the bus lane to get to the shop, you skip a big chunk of the line and save a ton of time because you get to "cut" to the front of the line by showing your shop receipt.

As you can see, it was a lovely, lovely trip.

*I'm a cheese freak and have been known, on many an occasion, to add grated cheese to a really hot nonstick pan to fry til golden - a.k.a. cheddar crisps! Horrible, I know.....horribly delicious that is!

Monday, June 27, 2005

Fake McRib

I have the luxury of being able to go home for lunch. Today I had one of my favorites: a Gardenburger riblet (I even love the WORD "riblet"), coleslaw using that broccoli slaw stuff (broc, carrots, and cabbage) instead of just cabbage, and fresh spinach wrapped in a tortilla. That may sound odd but the textures rock and it's healthy and it eases my BBQ fix (there is No Good BBQ in the Bremerton area).

The BEST B&G

Had a lovely weekend.

Saturday my sis-in-law and I met Stef & Mike at Hi-Life for brunch then went to Swanson's Nursery to take the copper trellis class.

First off, I'm a BIG brunch fan and Hi-Life was like the place Goldilocks would pick. I had The Best biscuits and gravy I think I have ever had - and I'm from The South. Normally I'd order a side of sausage because the sausage gravy falls short. Not here. They have the "would you like a little gravy with your sausage?" mentality that I truly appreciate. They're so confident they've cornered the biscuits and gravy market, they post the recipe! I'd make the gravy but I'm plenty happy with Pillsburys' frozen biscuits.

There's nothing like dining company that's willing to share so Stef and I split the B&G and the custard dipped Fancy French toast (ooh-la-la!) the espresso-mascarpone was INSANELY wonderful. Who woulda thunk it? Mike ventured into the lunch menu and chose the grilled serrano ham sandwich which was quite tasty but not as good as those damn biscuits and gravy!

AND Hi-Life has really good coffee. Two thumbs Way Up!

Then it was off to Swanson's. The class was really interesting - I learned to spot-weld! There's all manner of things you can do with a copper trellis. The one our lovely teacher Stacey made was similar to this one. Very Asian-y, bamboo-looking.

Afterwards, we explored the nursery. Ever since we bought our house, I am so into gardening (you should SEE the strawberries I just plucked from it!). Swanson had two plants I've been looking for that I will probably end up planting together: Persian Shield which has these AMAZING metallic purple tinged leaves and a purple angel's trumpet that's going to smell amazing. To add to what may be a HUGE pot, I bought some purple sage and the dark opal basil.

The nursery is gorgeous - I'm almost glad it's so far away.

Then sis-in-law and I headed back to Bremerton - stopping at Trader Joe's of course.

Sunday was a friend's 5th birthday (if you don't have at least one 5 year old friend, you're missing out). It was at this really cool indoor soccer field so I actually even got some exercise.

Then we came home, ate nachos and went to bed very early.

So how was your weekend?

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Tommy is adequate?

I remember a scene in Indochine where Catherine Deneuve sees a friend's or daughter's or someone's baby for the first time and says how ugly it is. She said this because she was outside and if she said the baby was beautiful, the Evil Spirits would want him or her (I haven't seen the movie in 13 years - the details are hazy but the point is there).

I bring this up because I swear if I gush about Tommy outside....and now apparently online....we have a fight shortly thereafter. It's like these friggin' Evil Spirits toy with me. "Oh, you think he's dreamy? What will you think he is when we throw this into the mix."

Granted "this" is petty nothingness, "just a tiff," but I don't tiff well and tend to get this "impending doom" feeling after so it takes a while to shake it off and move on.

But the point of this rambling is that I'll try harder to gush less about my husband online....and outside.

Silly, I know. Especially 'coz I've got plenty to gush about.

Media Blitz Bliss

I have noticed quite the passion in recent media....okay, only two examples but they're GOOD examples.

First off, and this is a bit dated but I did just get a blog and all, the MTV Movie Awards Best Kiss went to Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. Their tension-building
reenactment onstage made my mouth water and got me to feeling all squishy inside. I saw The Notebook and it was fine but I do not remember seeing such chemistry. Said mojo had Lindsay Lohan squealing, "Ohmigod!" but this time it was justifiable. I really did feel like I was watching something VERY intimate. And now I'm (obviously) obsessed - during repeats I hover with the DVR remote and rewind and pause and rewind and pause. Mr. Gosling was obviously into it and that just made it worse....in a good way if you know what I'm sayin'.

Granted, I haven't watched the repeat in a week or so but it was still fresh in my mind (and is still saved all warm and cozy in my DVR - gosh, technology can sometimes be so Good) when we saw Mr. & Mrs. Smith on Sunday. Now, I am SO not a fan of Jennifer Aniston but I do hope if Brad and Angelina have become Brangelina (or Bradgina as I prefer), I hope it happened after and not because of the breakup because, that said, they are so very HOT together. Like if a bootleg sex tape comes out of them, I would so buy it (I felt guilty for buying the Pam and Tommy tape but at the same time I was so pleased to find they were so in love....at least for that moment) even though the whole paparrazzi thing has gotten way, way, way out of hand. Anyhoo, Brad and Angelina are stunning specimens on their own but together, they look so good their name should be Damn! Hmmmm, that is what I shall call them from now on: "I enjoyed the performances of Damn! in Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

Anyhoo, the movie is decent, worth seeing at the theatre, and there's a brief moment in the picture that shows that Angelina can act. Just a tiny growly thing similar to the spit bubble Patricia Arquette caterwauls into in
the best movie ever. Needless to say, I was moved by the frustrated growl. And for some reason I felt kinda sexy afterwards - kinda lovey-dovey sexy. To the point that I think Tommy (husband not Lee - duh!) may have felt used, like I was pretending he was Brad or something, which I wasn't (I don't get that whole pretending you're someone else thing - kinda creeps me out), I just felt "in tune" or something maybe because of their hotness and all the guns and such.

I like me a good movie with love and gratuitous violence.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Tommy is dreamy.

It has begun: I finally have a blog. I've wanted one for quite some time but worried I didn't have anything worthy to say....not that I have anything worthy to say right now, just thought I'd make my first posting. As for the title, THAT'S worthy because my husband IS dreamy.