Vacation, part 1

After the beer bus, Mechen and I started vacation! We were hung-overish on Sunday morning, then headed up to San Luis Obispo and stayed in a Rock Room (Swiss Belle). That evening, we went to the steakhouse on site which had pretty ridiculous portions (we split a main) and was pretty good.

The next day, we went to the SLO mission, had breakfast at the Big Sky Café, field trip to Morro Bay and ate creekside at Novo. Morro Bay was awesome and I also bought my first piece of art there- yipes! It’s awesome, but man, I don’t know if I’ll make it a habit. Maybe I’ll try my hand at painting?

The next day, we went on a hike to see the 7 Sisters, walked around Solvang and ate at Root 246.
Finally, we had a great breakfast at our B&B, Mirabella Inn. We ate lunch at Twin Oaks (steak #1) and went to several wine tasting rooms (Consilience, Carharrt, Epiphany and our hotel lobby (beer). We also went to Foxen Winery, which was pretty awesome. We went to the original wine tasting room and their newer, sleeker one. Any winery that has two tasting rooms has to be good, right?

Then, we had the meal of the vacation at the Brothers Restaurant at Mattei's Tavern. I had a delicious grilled prime filet. The preceding bread basket was so awesome and we completely gorged. Then we rolled ourselves back to the hotel.

The next day, we ate brekkie and headed home in order to pack and make preparations to leave for Coachella the next day

Birthday, part 2

On April 3^rd, I went out to brunch at the Pearl with some of my friends and one little baby who was definitely star of the show. She is the cutest. It was great brunch with delicious mimosas and Bloody Marys.

The big celebration though, was the San Diego Brew Tour we went on the 9^th. Cat and I both have April birthdays so we decided to host a pre-party and then go on the tour. I had been on one before about 2 years ago and had a blast, so I really wanted to do it with all of my San Diego friends.

The pre-party was at Cat’s house and I was in charge of the quarter keg, which was filled with Airdale Amber- delish! Our bus driver was great, the tunes were awesome and we went to Lost Abbey, Ballast Point and Pizza Port. I was pretty hammered- in part because I made the rookie mistake of not eating enough but mostly because I just drank like a fish.

Note to self: remember to get Ballast’s Bloody Mary mix. Awesome!

It was a great evening and I actually just relived it looking at pictures on Brooke’s phone yesterday at the post-Bridge Run brunch. They were so funny. Only casualty- my point-and-shoot, which I totally squished.

Turning 30, for "real" this time!

My birthday was, in a word, amazing. I had been sort of smarting all year long at what a dud my 30^th birthday had been. Not to dwell, but it wasn’t exactly the celebration that I think “aught” birthdays should have. Certainly there were extenuating circumstances (like Mechen’s deployment) but either way, I told Mechen that this year, I was turning 30 again. And oh man, did he ever come through!

The morning was pretty relaxed. He headed out and when he came back, he gave me a card. I opened it and voila! A spa gift certificate. He said I had an appointment in about 40 minutes that I could either keep or cancel. I decided I was in the mood and also, he said he needed the time to work on things.

I went and had a great massage at Sante in Solana Beach. I sat in the steam room until I physically had to leave. Then, I sat in the waterfall room until my massage, which was really, really good. Then I had a quick sauna, shower and went home.

The house smelled amazing. At first, I thought it was a puff pastry baked Brie, but then I figured out that maybe it was a cake (more later)? Mechen said we were going out to dinner so I got ready and off we went to San Diego for a dinner at Starlite, my favorite restaurant.

When we walked in, the host asked if we had a reservation and I said, “I think he does,” and Mechen gave his name. The host said, “Oh, MECHEN,” and led us to a corner table where there was the most amazing, gorgeous, huge bouquet of flowers I’ve ever seen. It was perfect and awesome and I was totally blown away. I couldn’t stop smiling and the guys near us on their own dates probably couldn’t stop thinking, “You SOB” to Mechen.

After dinner, which was delicious (at this point, it’s slightly hazy but I had a really delicious fish prepared in a Moroccan fashion, Mechen had a great steak and we split a lamb bruschetta), we went back home where Mechen had made my favorite cake- yellow with chocolate frosting. Yum-o!
I felt so amazing and special on my birthday. It was perfect. Most of all, I felt so, so lucky to have Mechen in my life. It was incredible.

Last weekend in March, 2011

The last weekend in March, we hiked/camped in Red Rock Canyon, which is a beautiful slash of rock that is absolutely gorgeous with all the reds and veins of different composition alternately layered in and slashing through.

We also went to the Antelope Valley Flower fields and we were way too early. Fortunately, we found a patch on the side of the road that helped us imagine what it was supposed to look like.  I can't wait until I can see fields and fields of flowers!

Present update!

Oh, so my Valentine’s Day surprise?  A poem, a handmade flower, fortune cookies and some really amazing tea- totally low-key and really sweet.  But wait until you read what I got for my birthday!!!!

Goathead Thorns!

Do you ever find it weird that there can be something in the world that you have never, ever heard anything about and yet, in very short order, events transpire that make you well acquainted with that very entity?

Wow, that sounds like a very deep rhetorical question and what prompted it was my adventure this weekend with two flat bike tires and a sore right heel. Mechen and I went for a bike ride this past weekend with the goal of making it to Carlsbad for a scenic local sight-seeing trip. My main goal was to find a lovely scenic bar at the end, which I probably could have easily talked Mechen into joining me. Instead, our tires went flat at the worst part of the 101. In between Leucadia and Carlsbad, there is nothing apart from little housing colonies. No ATMs, no bike shops, no cabs, no Coaster station. When Mechen examined his tires, there were all of these little thorns stuck in them. WTF? Shouldn't thorns yield before tires? Intuitively, I would have a tire beat a thorn in a revised version of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" but then I would be wrong. Because those little suckers were way tougher than our tires. I looked on my tires and said, "I have one too!" I promptly pulled it out which was a mistake, indicated by the audible hiss and rapid deflation of my back tire. Boo.

Fortunately! We were almost directly across the street from a 101 bus stop. This was lucky because, again, there was nothing on this stretch of highway for about 2.5 miles in either direction. We put Mechen's bike on the bus, locked mine up since someone had grabbed the other bike holder and merrily proceeded back to Cardiff. We then picked up my bike and walked to Blue Ribbon Pizzeria which was delicious, as always! We also rented Inception. We didn't watch it until yesterday afternoon. It was slightly hard to follow but excellent. Lest you think we were wasting a beautiful CA afternoon, it was raining. We had already done our outdoor activity of hiking Iron Mountain earlier that day.

The weekend highlights also included Ricotta pancakes from the Edible San Diego magazine. They were delectable!

Other March highlights included a trip out to Anzo-Borrego, a bike/hike to Torrey Pines and the Inservice. The latter was not really a highlight, but at least it's done. I'm a little worried for a surely got several questions wrong but it's out of my hands and as much as I can let the stress go (it's difficult), I'm trying for I won't get word until May.

Hasta!

Control Freak

It is really bothering me that my post below has two different font sizes. For the love of god, if I can't control the font size on my own blog, what can I control?!?!

Ok, so this is a brief blog break before I finish my last-minute studying for the inservice. The test is tomorrow. I am definitely a little nervous but I have studied a.lot. I'm hoping that I know the answers (duh) and that the questions asked happen to be the ones that I am brilliant at! Like spelling my name- I'm excellent at that!

But really, I feel like I'm in an ok spot and that I won't embarrass myself horribly tomorrow. Although the stakes are high after my abysmal score last year. But I need to stay positive and most of all, read the fucking question because they can be so tricky with their excepts/onlys/NOT/true/false. Bastards.

This week was fun. Lots of studying, an easy call night, two Bar Method classes and one spin class were involved. One of the highlights was cooking my lunch last night with Mechen. I made orange-glazed tempeh from 101cookbooks combined with quinoa and lightly steamed green veggies. Holy cow. The orange tempeh was delicious. I HIGHLY recommend it. The whole site is filled with delicious, veggie-filled dishes of goodness. Most of all, Mechen LOVED it which meant so much to me because I love eating healthily and low-meat and to share that with him is awesome! Oh, BTW, I made enough for two with an additional small serving for dinner tonight.

Ok, back to the books!