sorry for the crickets!

hi guyssss

sorry for the crickets, chay. i was trying to figure out if there's a consistent time that i'm home after work, but really it changes every week (mainly based on if i have to stay late at work and/or when i'm going to the gym) - want to try scheduling skype dates week to week? or, like you said, we could be pre-millenial and just call each other haha. also, glad that your phone battery is on its way back to you! does that mean that you're not going to a month-to-month plan?

and maya - again, sorry that i didn't tell you not to watch the whole third season of downton abbey this weekend. i know, it's terrible. ...even worse is that i just looked up when season 4 is supposed to air in the US... not till jan 2014. :-/ release date in the UK is this fall. UGH.

anyhoodles... updates from my life: this here is a vegetarian meal, complete with vegan general tso's chicken! it was delicious and totally tasted like chicken. i guess this was my dinner from last wed, because i had the leftovers for lunch on thurs during skyping with maya, and she and i were trying to ascertain what vegan chicken is made of. i still don't know, but WHO CARES IT'S DELICIOUS.

on friday, i actually had dinner with uma aunty and anjali! they were in philly, because anjali was accepted to upenn for law school (she hasn't decided where she's going yet - still waiting to hear back from northwestern, but she said she really liked penn) and they were having an open house weekend for accepted students. we went to a mediterranean restaurant called aya's cafe, which was really good (my dinner was lobster ravioli in a creamy mushroom sauce... mmmm so good)... and it was actually really fun to see them. i think they are mostly worried about anjali having to find an apartment on her own, but i told her that if she decides to go to penn, i'll help her find a place this summer. 

other than that, i was super, super productive this weekend! at least, i was on saturday... cleaned basically the whole house, did like four loads of laundry, did my taxes (but not filed - i don't owe anything, but i'm not getting a refund back either... boo), did my nails, went for a 3.5 mile walk, and then had dinner with kevin and his dad (his dad was in town because they had tickets for some of the NCAA tournament, since part of the tournament is being played in philly). we went to hickory lane bistro for dinner, where i had a burger (ugh no pictures of this either) -- and it was awesome, as i was expecting since that burger is listed on a top 25 list of burgers in the country! (see here) 

this weekend, i also finished my infinity scarf that i started while i was in denver... i wore it out on sunday, and i'm pretty sure i made it way too big haha. but it's comfy-cozy?? haha.

i also made it to 50% of my walking goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

on sunday, i spent a lot of time with nat - we did some girly stuff, like attended a pop-up showroom for rent the runway (renttherunway.com - you can rent designer dresses for a fraction of the cost for events - sophie does this for all the weddings she goes to, and it's actually not a bad deal). we were able to try on dresses at the showroom, and i found this dress, which i'm going to rent for nat's sister's wedding in september -- and would you believe it, this dress (which i can rent for $65 for a weekend) retails at $400! insane.

after that, i went with nat to a trunk show for a bridal designer so that she and her sister's other bridesmaids could try on and order their bridesmaid dresses, and then we went back to my house to do our nails and hang out... and i started watching the walking dead. i watched 5 hours of it on sunday (right up until i went to bed, which was a terrible idea) - and then i watched another 5 hours of it yesterday while i was working from home haha.

and here is a picture of boo, opening one of the drawers under my bed all by herself and digging around in my sweaters:

Boring Shmoring

I have no idea what I've been eating lately for dinner; nothing worth taking pictures of anyway. I have been working like a crazy person so it's been hard to find the energy to cook for myself. This is not good because it means that I rely on things like frozen pizza, cheese and crackers, and breakfast sandwiches for sustenance. Whaaaa?

Some items of note:
- My tenants are not renewing their lease; I need to find new tenants for June 1. Wish me luck!! I think my building is going to go (officially) smoke-free though, which is really cool. But, Chay, this means that I will have to do an inspection of my place in May (in between tenants) so I can't make it to CA when everyone else is there. When does your lease end again? I want to get out there before you guys move.
- I had my performance review yesterday and it went really well! I even got a small bonus and a small (2.3%) raise! woo.
- I signed up for a 30 day FitWit boot camp class. This class is 4 days/week of craziness! I am scared but looking forward to it. They also promote the Paleo plan which I am reading about now. If I die, the meow-meows stay together. If they don't, I will know and will haunt you both for the rest of your days.
- I haven't been very good about updating my blog but Jaya, since you asked about it, here's the link to it: myjourneyto35.blogspot.com.
- Allergies here in the south are insane. I am so congested the neti-pot doesn't even work (think drip...drip....drip). The water can't get through my sinuses! Grrr....

Okay, bye-bye.

eats and eats!

had a good weekend and start to the week so far... friday night sushi on friday (no pictures), and then saturday, kevin and i went to brunch at london grill (where we went for lunch with mille and john before my bday party, maya) and i had fried chicken and a biscuit (omg so so so good). kevin and i basically holed up that whole day because the weather was so crappy here (snowing/raining and in the 30s :() -- played mario kart and napped and did some work (including working on the infinity scarf i'm crocheting). it was really nice! sunday, had a productive day of cleaning and working out a little and doing my nails, and for dinner we had baked potato soup, corned beef, and brussel sprouts in honor of st patty's day (no pictures of that either! boo).

on sunday night, i was woken up in the middle of the night by a huge crash-bang and thought that boo had maybe run into my room and into the window and then run out again?? (i felt her leap up from the bed and run away.) i fell right back asleep, but when i woke up, i found out that the source of the crash-bang had been that my world map fell off the wall! still no idea how that happened.

yesterday, i wore a new dress that i got in denver - i tried texting it to you both before realizing that chay you prob still don't have a functioning phone haha. anyway, i thought you (chaya) specifically might like it, so i'm posting it here! got lots of compliments on it, too, so it's a keeper (i was going back and forth on it all morning yesterday).

after a day of meetings (like 6 total - ugh) and then going to the gym, i came home and decided to make a salad out of stuff i could find in the fridge... so that ended up being: spinach, carrots, red peppers, hard boiled eggs, bacon crumbles, and cheddar cheese with a lite parmesan and peppercorn dressing. MAN it was delicious. (i really love bacon, egg, and cheese haha.)

going to my second spin class tonight. hope it doesn't kill me.

Noshes from last week

Clockwise:
Top left: Panna cotta with a balsamic vinegar drizzle from Fritti - AMAZING!!!
Top right: Tiramisu, also from Fritti. I only had a bite of this since I ordered the Panna cotta. A delicious bite. (My actual dinner was an amazing pizza with San Marzano tomatoes and italian snausage but I forgot to take a picture of it!)
Bottom right: Last night's dinner of salmon atop a sticky rice cake with a delicious sweet and sour sauce (from Murphy's).
Bottom left: my breakfast on Sat morning: omlette with mushrooms, tomato, Swiss cheese with a side of turkey bacon and English muffin with jalapeño jelly (AMAZING!!!!!)

Reflections on the past few weeks' eats

I haven't cooked in awhile! Well, let me back track. I did cross off one of my many new year's "resolutions", and I made a lasagna for the first time. It was a couple of Sundays ago and it turned out great! I used a recipe that I found on that Pioneer Woman site and I added some elements from Emeril. The meat was ground turkey and hot turkey sausage, and I was going to add spinach but I didn't have any fresh and I ditched the frozen stuff because it looked too weird. I, and Russ, haven't really cooked anything special in awhile outside the usual taco/veggies & meat, sort of fare. As far as eating out goes, a highlight was a night at John's, my favorite NYC pizzeria. Unfortunately I only had one piece before everything was gone except for the ricotta and black olives pie (weird combo, no?). But it was the most delightful, delectable, pepperoni-licious slice of pizza I have ever had! Also of note,  I enjoyed a falafel and a mocha from the Mud truck before that dinner. Last week Russ grilled up a t-bone steak which was very tasty. Also satisfying about that meal was that I bought the steak on sale for $6, where it was originally $18! (Saving money at the grocery store has become one of my favorite games lately.) Last night, we had some meat and cheese and wine at chez Alex and Anne-Sophie, the frenchies who describe themselves as brother and sister, though they are not actually related. They're the ones opening a wine bar in San Clemente. We drank a little too much wine, and Alex and Anne-Sophie drank more than a little too much I think, and we went to Ole's, the local dive bar. Horrible place, but they do have a foosball table.  Alex and Anne-Sophie may not be brother and sister by blood but they certainly play the older brother/younger sister roles to a T.  Think Jessica and Stephen from Sweet Valley High. (Boom! Like the reference?)

As for the news portion of this post, I am switching up my PT job. What happened was this: Thursday night Russ and I got into an argument and as a skewed result I became sensitive about how I'm not an independent woman, as Mommy would say. So I decided I would get a second job. I went on Craigslist in a demented huff and there was the perfect part time job for me. "Part time web developer for family owned jewelry business in San Clemente." So I applied, got interviewed the next day, and got offered the job, haha. I think web developer is a stretch for describing the job responsibilities. Eventually yes they need work on their site, but for now they're using third party shopping cart software that I just need to update on the admin side (meaning, no real coding), and I also need to help the owner with getting products onto other e-commerce websites like Overstock. She also wants me to direct their social media stuff - FB, pinterest, etc - get them started, be the one to update that stuff.. not my favorite thing to do, but maybe I'll outsource that part to Maya! Haha! Anyway, it's a far better commute than my other job, seems like less stress, and it pays a little more (like $1 an hour more - pay is still total crap though). So I'm going to quit the other job and start this new one. I could do both jobs but that would increase the number of days I would have to drive up to Orange and at the pay, the commute is not worth it.

And that's the news here.

Time for ketchup! I mean - catch up.

Lots going on recently - and most of my good meals have been due to travels (Denver) or birthdays (Dan) or frozen okra. And then there are pictures of flowers.

1. Denver was super fun, as I mentioned. Ate some vegan meals (though mostly I ordered whatever I wanted and watched Melissa eat vegan haha). Some notable meals: Dushanbe Tea Room, where they had the weirdest assortment of food - I had a sort of chicken korma and Melissa had some pad Thai typed dish (except it came out with blue cheese crumbles on it??). Also of note was our meal at Linger, which is a restaurant that specializes in street food - so I got masala dosa!

2. Dan's birthday was on March 7th, so a bunch of us went to an Italian restaurant in south Philly that has SUCH good food. It's a fixed price menu - when you sit down, they have house wine and a veggie antipasto plate on the table. They then bring out all these different courses: soup, salad, pasta trio (three pastas in three different sauces), entree which we could choose (I went with some type of stuffed pork), and then dessert and dessert liqueur - they just left bottles of limoncello and amaretto on the table and we poured as much as we wanted. Yikes.

3. Philly Flower Show was in town during the first two weeks in March, and my boss gave me two free tickets, so Kira, Will, and I went. The theme was Britain - and it was so amazing. They had some really beautiful exhibits - like one of a cricket player and house or another of the Hogwarts Herbology classroom [!]. They even did an exhibit called "Simply Fascinating" where they recreated hats worn by royal ladies completely out of flowers! It was a really nice way to spend a morning, walking through the flower show.

4. Last night, I made Indian food! (Barely.) on the menu: tandoori chicken, fried rice, okra, and raita. Everything turned out well, except the okra was way spicier than when mommy makes it... So maybe I'll get it right the next time. Haha.

The end.

A Guide to Organizing your Wardrobe: an infographic!

OOweeeee!  Check this out - i love this infographic!