Finger-lickin' good

So there's this place. It's in San Diego, it's BBQ and it's worth it. Anyone from San Diego knows that if you want BBQ, you go to Phil's. So for my brother's birthday in September, we went to Phil's.

It's actually kind of ridiculous because the line to GET IN was an hour long. And you just stood there in line, creeping towards the entrance. We got to see a family just sit there and rub it in us poor souls who just wanted to eat that they were there and they were not moving. Then, to add insult to injury, they pull these tiny dogs out of their bags and let the dogs EAT THEIR SCRAPS. In the restaurant. You should have heard us. Not only were they totally done with dinner and not budging but they brought their DOGS to the restaurant and then they let said dogs climb up on the table and eat their food. Luckily a staff member came by and told them to knock it off.

Anyway, the food. That's what you're all here to see right? Vegetarians, you may want to turn away.

Hubs got some random order of ribs that was really innocent in it's description but ended up being the biggest pile of ribs any of us had ever seen.


I got the pulled pork sandwich which was so good but honestly, I could only eat half of this. It was that much food.


The birthday boy, lovin' it.


The boys were all watching numerous football games.


We were so full!


So yes, 3 thumbs up for Phil's. If you're in San Diego, you gotta go!

Pull Yourself Together!

Something feels off today. Just this feeling in my gut, like I'm unsettled. I don't have anything to be unsettled about though.
1. Marriage is good? Check
2. Job is good? Check.
3. Groceries in the kitchen? Check
4. Friends? Check
5. Awesome family? Check.

So what the hell? What's up with me? I think this is just one of those funks that people go through. Where you can't find a single thing that's wrong but something doesn't feel right. I feel as if I need to cry it out but what is "it"? Is it the fact that date night didn't go as planned or that it was hot as heck today at the Air Show? (ooo more on the air show later) Is it because I couldn't find my sunglasses?

I could have just woken up on the wrong side of the bed today. MAYBE it's because the weather teased us last week with chilly temps and yummy rain. Then it was 92 degrees today. ::Sigh:: Maybe it's because I want nothing more than to sit on the couch and veg tonight but we've got plans.

Guys, do you ever get in weird funks like this? Hopefully, I can wake up tomorrow and bound out of bed, drawn forward by some big gust of energy and happiness. I've been doing great for awhile but this could have been my "off" day. And that's ok. Everyone has off days once in awhile.

Have you had an off day lately? What did you do to snap out of it?

Where I Throw it All Out There

So I've been seriously slacking on this here blog but it's good! It means I'm busy and happy and just plugging along. So this post is going to be one of those "stream of consciousness" (totally had to spellcheck that, btw) posts.

1. Work is going great! I'm really liking my job, I'm picking it up sort of quickly and feel like I'm making a difference already. I appreciate my boss and her guidance and that's good because I'm going to be spending a lot of time with her the next week.

2. I'm going to be working a lot of nights pretty soon but that's ok because it means my weekends are always open. What a luxury that is!

3. Well, except for Sundays when we have the church choir gig going on. We had our first rehearsal last Sunday and I was a little disappointed in myself because I don't feel like we had a grasp on the situation. But it just means we get to try again this Sunday. We've never done this before and it sort of showed but we worked on stuff tonight and I know next week will be better. No one said we would know it all in a week!

4. The house is all decorated for fall and I love it. The weather dropped 50 degrees in a week. Nope, not a typo. Last Monday it was 117 here and it was about 65 degrees here today. What the hoo-ha hell is going on around here? I'm totally not complaining because I love this weather and wish it to stay (sorry weather! Don't be mad and run away!). I can't tell you how awesome it was to turn on our oven tonight and then actually stand next to it for more than a minute before running away.

5. We have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming months. I got into "Scrooge" at the local theater and can't wait to work with my friends again. The children's church choir. Work. Halloween parties. Christmas parties. Oh! My mother-in-law is coming for Thanksgiving which is going to be really fun. So yeah, lots of stuff to get excited about.

6. Pumpkins pumpkins pumpkins. I love them. In all forms.

7. I got to second shoot an absolutely gorgeous wedding with my friend Lyndsay this weekend. How much fun was that? SO much. And because I don't like posts where there aren't any pictures, here's one of my favorite shots of the night, straight out of the camera:



Gorgeous couple, gorgeous night.

8. Something I have refrained from telling a lot of people is that I started training for a half marathon! My dad and I are going to run the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon next June. I'm so excited and I'm really excited we're going to do it together. I'm starting out so slow, a 5k next month, a 10k in April and the half in June. I'm trying to look for other races in the area that line up with my schedule which is a little tricky since we have to be at church every Sunday.

What about you? What great exciting things have been happening for you?

Greedy

I'm a greedy greedy girl. There was a time in my life where my mom would ask me what I wanted for Christmas or for my birthday and I couldn't think of a thing. SERIOUSLY? I can list of tons of things I want now. They are definitely not needs but man, I want want want all the time.

1. Unlimited shopping sprees at Target. Holy smokes, every time I go there I find about 15 things I want. Do I need more clothes? No but they are very clever at getting me to think I do.

2. New camera equipment. I'm doing all my stuff on a Nikon D40, which is a great starter SLR. But I covet. Ohhhh how I covet the Nikon D700, with a 50mm 1.4. Ooo and a 24-70mm but now I'm just getting greedy. I also want a nice flash but I don't want to start buying flashes and lenses that aren't compatible with what I have now.

3. Photoshop and Kubota actions. Yummy. I would buy an expensive package for the Magic Sharpener alone.

4. This necklace. You see the name of it?? It's like it was meant to be!

5. An external hard drive and a DVD burner for CDs. You know, so my computer can run at a normal speed.

6. A pair of TOMS shoes. I really like the grey ones. yum.

7. A Garmin 305 since I'm trying to really stick with the running thing. And a couple more running capris.

hmmmm, is anyone seeing a trend with my gimmie-gimmies this week?

Anyone else a greedy cakes this week? Because, oh man, I would feel awful if I was alone in this!!

He knows me so well.

I saw this list of questions on someone’s blog and I thought it would be fun to ask the hubs (newlywed style).

If you have never seen The Newlywed Game, the host asks the husband questions about the wife while she is not in the room, then she has to come back and answer the same questions. We will see if we have the same answers!

Now, I think the husband is hilarious and tonight was so exception. He's a good sport but sometimes he just can't answer a simple questions without having to ask 14 follow up questions.

1. She’s sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?

Hubs: Teen Pregnant Women. (After we ran through the particulars of what night is it? Are you watching on your computer or on TV? Do we magically have Tivo?)

Me: um yes. He's talking about 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. Just because I've seen every episode multiple times (I like having the sound on when I make dinner).

2. You’re out to eat, what kind of dressing does she get on her salad?

Hubs: What kind of salad? (ughhhhhh, particulars again.)

Me: Side salad.

Hubs: Just a regular side salad?

Me: YES.

Hubs: Oil and vinegar

Me:Yup. Ranch is for french fries and pizza.

3. What’s one food she doesn’t like?

Hubs: Tofu

Me: YOU don't like tofu.

Hubs: Heh, yeah.

Me: So yeah, he didn't really answer that one. I love tofu.

4. You go out to eat and have a drink, what does she order?

Hubs: Diet Dr. Pepper, which they never have. So you get a Diet Coke.

Me: Right again! Anything diet, really.

5. What shirt size does she have?

Hubs: Small? Medium? Depends on where you shop.

Me: right again!

6. What shoe size does she have?

Hubs: Seven. Wait that's small. Sure. 7 or 8 or something like that.

Me: He eventually got it! I wear an 8.

7. What’s her favorite type of sandwich?

Hubs: Turkey with avocado.

Me: most definitely!

8. What would she eat everyday if she could?

Hubs: uhhhhhh Bacon.

Me: I would totally eat bacon everyday if I could. Notice he didn't say candy, because I DO eat that everyday.

9. What is her favorite cereal?

Hubs: What's the one you always buy? Hunny Nutty Cheerios?

Me: Multigrain?

Hubs: Yeah, that one. Sure.

Me: Yup, I love that cereal.

10. What would she never wear?

Hubs: Whatever that piece of clothing is that's pants and a shirt combined.

Me: A romper?

Hubs: Yeah.

Me: I get stabby when I see people wear rompers. So.... yes.

11. What is her favorite sports team?

Hubs: Besides the fact that you don't have one?

Me: Yeah.

Hubs: Uh. Probably the Mariners because it makes me happy when they win.

Me: Definitely true. He's so cranky when they lose. Which is often. After about July, he just gives up hope and we're all happy again.

14. What is something she does that you wish she wouldn’t do?

Hubs: Leave your floss around the house.

Me: ugh, yes. I know this is a bad habit. I KNOW. So gross.

15. What is her heritage?

Hubs: Part Austrian, *yawn* hmmmmm yeah I don't know what else.

Me: Yup Austrian and French

16. You bake her a cake, what kind of cake?

Hubs: a cupcake?

Me: What kind?

Hubs: uhhhhh, it would be a chocolate cupcake, with chocolate frosting.

Me: I think that's what you like.

Hubs: Yup, because I made them! Why not make something we both like?

Me: What a stinker. My favorite is yellow cake with chocolate frosting, if it's homemade. I love lemon cake too.

17. Did she play sports in high school?

Hubs: I don't think you girls had sports.

Me: We were an all-girls school. There were still sports!!

Me: but it's not like I played any!

18. What could she spend hours doing?

Hubs: watching teen pregnant women.

Me: Oh my gosh, let it go!! I can shop or be online for hours. I love reading blogs.

19. What is the unique talent that she has?

Hubs: watching teen pregnant women without punch yourself in the face. (At this point I have to stop typing because I'm laughing so hard)

Hubs sidenote while I'm laughing: Stargate Universe is back!!!

Me: Pay attention! You still haven't answered the question!

Hubs: Oh, you can cross your eyes.

Me: Yup. True. And I can wiggle my ears.

20. What is her type of coffee?

Hubs: apparently it's iced pumpkin coffee with caramel.

Me: I liked the iced pumpkin but it's so good on it's own, I don't need the caramel.

Well there you have it. He answered almost all of them correctly too! I have no clue how well I would do if he asked me the same ones. Maybe we can get him to chime in on the blog... what do you say?

Won't you please, please help me?

Oh man, I'm cinching up my crankypants for a spectacular rant. Ohhhh yes.

I was at Michael's today picking up some more fall garland (go now! great sale!) and I got in the return line. At Michael's, you don't have to go through the regular check out, you can also ring up at the exchange counter. The woman in front of me was returning some silk roses. But what I quickly figured out was that she was returning seven of them, and had seven different receipts. The employee had to ring up a different refund every.single.time. Then the woman had to fill out her address on a slip every.single.time. This goes on and on for a few minutes. By now, the other lines are really long so I don't want to switch and I'm hoping they get finished soon.

This whole process takes about 10 minutes. THEN, she pulls another item out of her bag and wants to return that too. By now, I'm seething. I only get a short break for lunch, I'm hot and I'm holding this massive amount of fake garland that's making me even hotter. I get up to the counter and the employee thanks me for waiting. I tell her "There has GOT to be an easier way to do that." She then launches into this huge lecture about why she can't, etc. etc. Yeah, ok... thoroughly chastised.

Then, on the way back to drop off my stuff at home (had to go home, I had meltables in the car) I hit every. red. light. Every single one! And the 10 was backed up so I couldn't take that route.

I was leaving the house with my makeshift lunch, my phone charger, and a mug I was taking to work when I got all mixed up and dropped the mug. It didn't break, but wouldn't that have been the icing on the cake?

I was only a few minutes late getting back from lunch, so why can't I get over it? I'm still really annoyed from my experience while shopping. I guess what I need help with is, how do you all cope with impatience? My husband is a pro at it, hardly anything gets to him... unless he's hungry. He doesn't understand how I can get so worked up over these things.

So, that's my question to all of you. If you're one of those patient-types, how do you do it? And if you're an impatient freak like me, how are you trying to fix it? Are you even trying to fix it? Discuss.

P.S. Fall is officially here! (As a date on the calendar... certainly not weather-wise here in So Cal.)

Blobbity blob blob blob

You guys, I've been eating like crap lately. Every time I went to the store, I would buy chips... just this once. Then it turned into baking like I used to (but now there's only two of us instead of a household full of people to get rid of my stress-baking delights), coffee cake every weekend, makeshift dinners full of fat instead of yummy veggies.

Yesteryda, I was putting around the kitchen when I had a piece of candy and it just didn't taste good anymore. For everyone who knows me, I KNOW RIGHT?! That's totally crazy. I can down candy like a crazy kid on Halloween. oooooo Halloween. That's coming up, huh?

So today I made a special trip to Stater Bros. which has the most decently priced produce.

And holy cow, we're in the money. I made a pepper salad complete with all three color peppers, red onion and cucumber. I made Mexican veggie lasagna for last night's dinner. We have a bowl full of apples, peaches and nectarines on the dining room table. I have canned pumpkin with grand plans to bump up my Green Monsters in the morning. I also had oatmeal and man was that good. I'm going to try overnight oats and then check back in with a review.

Oh yeah, I also worked out with Jillian Michaels yesterday. People, I am SO out of shape. It's absolutely insane how 2 months with nothing and I can't make it through a 20 minute routine. But today is another day and I'm excited to get back into a routine. And now that I work from 9-6, I can get up at the same time but can now fit in a work out. So yeah, I'm pumped.

This was my kitchen before dinner. Yum. I've missed eating food and still feeling great afterwards.




Have you ever just through in the towel and started eating right? I just missed how fruits and veggies taste and it was like a light switch going on!