30
August
2009
Emily is the first out of all of my high school friends (well, at least my close high school friends) to finally bite the bullet and tie the knot (sorry for two cliches in a row! I’m tired!).
The occasion was celebrated in the woods at Sly Park Lake. It was actually quite nice. I was nervous about attending, as I knew it was going to be like a mini high school reunion, but I ended up having loads of fun (some might say “too” much fun). The food and drinks were great, and it was nice catching up with some old friends.
The removal of the garter:
Awww, how sweet. (Notice the groomsmen in the background? Classy t-shirts, right?)
That’s cake on their faces, in case you were wondering… or concerned…
The bride and me:
Double Trouble Tara(h)
Friends since we were in the womb:
We had all thrown a few back by this point… why am I the only that looks like it?
I have lots of other pictures, but I clearly shouldn’t have been trusted with the camera! I also can’t believe that I didn’t get a picture of Kyle and me!
Posted: Summer Stuff
27
August
2009
What a lovely day. I got to check off most of my D of T “to-dos”:
- Sleeping in
- Watching meaningless movies, preferably of the comedic sort I ended up watching disc 1 and 2 of “The History of Britain.” While the series is neither meaningless, nor very comedic (although the narrator does have a slightly comedic ironic tone), it was loads of fun to watch! And there are still three more discs!!!
- Possibly taking a trip to Target and/or IKEA (not sure about IKEA, as that would require me to venture outside of Davis). I ended up going to Target and World Market. As I expected, I didn’t want to drive to West Sac. Maybe I’ll go there on my way to dinner tomorrow night.
- Napping I actually did get a quick 30 minute nap in. It was short but it did the trick!
- Possibly seeing (500) Days of Summer – I didn’t end up going to this because I was having too much fun watching “The History of Britain.”
- Not cleaning I ended up cleaning the house last night so I wouldn’t feel tempted to do it today.
- Not working on my thesis I won’t lie and say that I didn’t feel guilty about this one.
I also got to look through the catalogues that have been piling up on the kitchen table. It was glorious.
Poor Kyle had to fast today in preparation for a test tomorrow. I was starting to worry that he was going to try to start munching on my arm. Luckily his test is early in the morning, so we can go out to breakfast afterward.
Posted: Summer Stuff
26
August
2009
I’m officially declaring tomorrow the Day of Tara (D of T). My boss has graciously allowed me to take the day off – I think I would have burst into tears if she hadn’t. I’m not going to use this space to complain, so let’s just put it this way: I need a “me” day in order to maintain my sanity. My plans so far for the D of T include:
- Sleeping in
- Watching meaningless movies, preferably of the comedic sort
- Possibly taking a trip to Target and/or IKEA (not sure about IKEA, as that would require me to venture outside of Davis)
- Napping
- Possibly seeing (500) Days of Summer
- Not cleaning
- Not working on my thesis
Sounds heavenly, no?
I’m hoping the D of T will make me feel refreshed enough to take on my last semester of grad school and finish strong!
Here’s what the rest of my week looks like:
Friday – Finish up prospectus and go out to dinner with some lovely ladies.
Saturday – Go to my friend’s wedding.
Sunday- Relax as much as possible!
Monday marks the first day of my last semester of grad school (hopefully)!
Posted: Summer Stuff
25
August
2009
I had every intention of seeing District 9 with Kyle over the weekend, but something came our way that was impossible to pass up. Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds came out! We had been wanting to see it, but we sort of forgot that it was coming out so soon. Needless to say (it’s funny how some people hate that expression – I kinda like it), when I was looking up times for District 9 and saw that Inglourious Basterds was out, Kyle and I decided right away that we’d rather see it. So hahaha! Another weekend goes by without me having to see the alien movie!
Inglourious Basterds was classic Tarantino. I loved every single second of it. I could go back and watch it again right now. In fact, I wish I could. What is it about Tarantino’s films that makes you want to watch them over and over again? His films always make me wish that I was a bigger badass than I am too. Brad Pitt was just awesome – everything he said was memorable. Kyle and I walked out of the theater quoting everything he said while laughing our asses off. I’m giggling just thinking about it. But it definitely wasn’t just Pitt that made the movie good – like I said, I loved everything about it. Although, I was a little bit worried when we left the theater and I overheard someone say, “That can’t be true though, because Hitler didn’t die that way.” OH MAN! You’re totally missing the point!!!
Posted: Uncategorized
24
August
2009
My grandmother used to eat two fried eggs for breakfast every day. However, about 15 or 20 years ago, when her doctor told her to ease up on the cholesterol, she made the switch to oatmeal and never looked back. While she adored her oatmeal, every now and then she would get tired of eating the same thing every day. She started getting really creative with the toppings she put it in it. She would throw in whatever she could find to mix things up a bit. “Everything but the kitchen sink oatmeal” is what I called it. Well, her fondness for oatmeal rubbed off on me, and I eat it nearly every day as well (I even eat it for dinner sometimes). And like her, I like to try different combinations of toppings to keep things interesting.
Today I made one of my favorite combinations. It had half of a chopped up granny smith apple, almond milk, some dried cherries and cranberries, some chopped pecans, cinnamon, nutmeg, a pinch of brown sugar, and a splash of vanilla.
It’s like autumn in a bowl. Mmmm…
Posted: Recipes
23
August
2009
I desperately wanted to get out of the house (and Davis), but I didn’t feel like spending a lot of money or doing a lot of planning. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out what we should do, if anything at all. There’s been talk of going to Dillon Beach, the Academy of Sciences, the Street Food Festival in San Francisco, but no decisions were actually made. You see, I’m pretty burned out from doing research all summer, and school starts next Monday, so I’ve been feeling pretty bummed. I didn’t know if I should just stay home and relax, or get out and do something. Well, yesterday morning I decided that all I really wanted to do was go to the beach. So, to the beach we went! We got a pretty late start, so the first thing we did was fuel up on coffee.
I thought it would be fun to stop to eat lunch in Berkeley, so I googled “sandwich Berkeley” and found a place called Cafe Fanny. It had really good reviews, so we went there. I got a delicious salad with baked goat cheese, and Kyle got an open faced egg salad sandwich with sun-dried tomatoes. It was a great little place!
The traffic the whole was there was horrific. We didn’t understand why it was so bad on a Saturday afternoon. That is, until I saw a car with “Raiders Suck” and “Niners Rule” scrawled over its window. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I googled “49ers schedule” and found out that there was a game that night. It was pretty bad, but once we got over the bridge, it was much better. We finally made it to Ocean Beach, and I ran like crazy to the water. I had been DYING to do this:
Ahhhh, dipping my feet in the ocean felt so nice. I definitely needed that connection. Kyle’s serial killer-like tendency to not get dirty prevented him from playing in the water with me. I was bummed, but I didn’t care. The water felt so nice. It was a pretty cool day, but for some reason the water felt warm (Kyle said “that’s hypothermia talking”).
I splashed around for awhile, and walked along the coast. It felt like I was in heaven.
I even ran into one of these guys:
After I had my fill, we realized that we could still make it to the Street Food Festival before it closed. We got in a line and patiently waited for our turn – isn’t that what most people do? Well, not the cracked out couple that cut in front of us. They were so loud and obnoxious, but we didn’t want to start anything, so we just said “whatever” and kept waiting. Well, once the couple in front of us got to the front of the line, the cashier said that they were closing! So the couple that cut in front of us got to eat, and we didn’t. HA! Can you believe it? Oh well. We knew we were late, so it wasn’t the end of the world, but I couldn’t believe it. We ended up going to Herbivore, an all vegan restaurant that we’ve been to several times. We had a great meal and then headed back home.
All in all it was a nice little getaway. Every time we go to the Bay Area, we think about how much we would love to live there. Kyle is trying to convince me that I would like Mountain View, but I’m not sold, mostly because of its proximity to Sunnyvale (yuck!). In an attempt to persuade me, Kyle is going to take me there on a Friday. He’ll work from the Mountain View office that day, while I work on my thesis. We’ll stay the night and hang out there on Saturday. I’m glad I’ll finally get to see it for myself, because Kyle’s rhetoric is a little ridiculous. He knows I like Berkeley, so when I asked what Mountain View was like, he said, “It’s like Berkeley only way cleaner like Davis.” HAHAHA! We shall see…
Posted: Summer Stuff, Vacation
22
August
2009
There’s a Farmers’ Market every Thursday during the summer by my office. If you show up a few minutes before it closes, you can get some great deals. I couldn’t pass up a huge bag of peaches for $3. I think I got about 15 peaches. A few nectarines snuck in there as well.
When I got home I had a bit of buyer’s remorse. I was thinking that there is no way Kyle and I can eat all of these before they go bad, and in my experience, peaches go bad pretty quickly. In an attempt to use up as many peaches as possible, I decided to make a gigantor peach crisp!
I cut up several peaches (probably 5 or 6) and placed them in a baking dish.
For the topping I mixed a 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, a 1/2 cup of oatmeal, a 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 5 tablespoons of earth balance, and about a tablespoon or so of cinnamon. I sprinkled on the topping and baked it for about a half an hour or forty minutes on 375.
It was so easy to make, and quite tasty!
I added a couple of scoops of vanilla frozen yogurt to mine.
Yum!
Posted: Recipes
20
August
2009
I wrote this post right after my birthday, but for some reason I never posted it. Better late than never!!!
Oh lord, I had way too much fun on my birthday. I think we all did! Grammy would be proud!
Kyle and I started off the morning by going to my favorite bagel place in Davis. I got a sesame bagel with jalapeño cream cheese and tomatoes. My favorite! Then we went home and got ready to go. Ashley and Devin met us at our place, and then we all drove together to the BART station in Concord. Once we arrived in San Francisco, we checked into our hotel and got situated. The hotel was very nice, especially considering the price (I forgot my camera, so no pics of the room). Apparently there was a mix up with Ashley and Devin’s room, because when they opened the door, the room was still occupied! There was no one in there, but I guess there were shopping bags everywhere! In an attempt to make amends, the receptionist upgraded Ashley and Devin’s room. Although, I feel more sorry for the people whose room was invaded! I would be so pissed if I knew that someone came in my room, especially if it was full of shopping bags!
We grabbed a snack on our way to the show (I had a piece of mushroom pizza – as Ashley noted, it tasted like cafeteria pizza – barf). Since the theater wasn’t far, and we had some time before the show was going to start, we decided to walk over there. On the walk we saw Union Square, an Iranian protest, and some homeless guy’s ass cheeks. I love San Francisco! The theater was a tiny hole in the wall that served cheap beer and wine. The wine was so bad that I had to drink it like a shot (now that I think of it, I didn’t have to drink it!). The show started out with The Golden Girls’ famous opening song. The whole audience started clapping and singing along – it was great. I instantly remembered how my Grandma and I used to always watch the show. I almost got a little teary-eyed. The show was great. I was laughing and smiling the whole time.
After the show, we took a cab and headed over to a tapas restaurant I found on Yelp. It was a great find – all of the food was delicious. Kyle and I got the polenta fries with dipping sauce, mac sticks (macaroni and cheese…DEEP FRIED and cut into little finger food-sized pieces) also with a dipping sauce, some sort of cheese/bread concoction, and another eggplant concoction (I was full by the time the eggplant came out, so I did not partake). The food was SO. GOOD. For dessert (I always save room for dessert) we shared a banana split with dolce de leche ice cream and DEEP FRIED bananas. It was heaven. I also had a mojito and Kyle had a sangria (or two?) that was sweetened with honey!
We took a cab back to the hotel after dinner and hung out in our room for the rest of the night. It was so much fun!
Here’s me modeling the eye mask Ash and Devin got me… after (quite) a few drinks…:
Isn’t it cute? Ash found it on Etsy.
The next day we went out to breakfast, where I was promptly doused in coffee by our creepy waitress. She comped the fruit plate I got, but I thought it would have been more appropriate to comp my whole meal (I got steel-cut oatmeal in addition to the fruit). It was really weird, because she barely apologized, even though she spilled coffee all over my pants and my arm! I wasn’t so much mad that she spilled on me, but because she wasn’t very apologetic about it. Oh well.
Since it was Father’s Day, we decided that we had better head back home after breakfast. I had a fabulous time – it was definitely a birthday I will remember! I’m scared though, I’m well on my way to 30! EEP!
Posted: Summer Stuff
19
August
2009
Kyle and I typically enjoy the same movies. Wait, let me re-phrase that – He likes most of the movies that I like, but I don’t like many of the movies he likes. I’m actually surprised that I let him drag me to see Star Trek earlier this summer. Against my good judgment I allowed myself to be persuaded into thinking that I would indeed enjoy the movie. I like Star Wars, this couldn’t be too different right? Plus, Simon Pegg is in it- can’t go wrong! Well, it did go wrong – it went terribly, terribly wrong. So, in order to make amends for making me waste my precious summer hours sitting through that, Kyle agreed to take me to a movie of my choosing. Well, pay back is a bitch, so I decided to choose the chickiest of chick films out right now: Julie and Julia.
I want to say that I absolutely adored the movie, but I can’t. What I can say is this: I absolutely adored the half of the movie that dealt with Julia Child, and I loathed the other half that dealt with Julie. Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Julia Child was simply unforgettable (pardon me for sounding like a movie critic there, but it’s true! I can’t get Julia’s voice out of my mind. I keep thinking about her attempts at speaking French, and I laugh out loud!). Every word she uttered was absolutely heartwarming. My eyes welled up with tears of delight several times throughout the film (as did Kyle’s). The scenes involving Julia and her sister were hilarious. I told Kyle I wish I could watch those two chit-chat all day long (one of my favorite scenes is when the two of them are looking at themselves in the mirror and Julia says, “not too bad” (long pause) “but not too good either!”). Julia was truly inspiring – not only for carving her way through a male-dominated field, but also for maintaining an amazing attitude, even when faced with enormous obstacles. She is clearly someone I would like to model myself after.
Julie, on the other hand, was a complete mess from start to finish. I don’t know if it was the horrible actress that played her, or if it was simply the character that I did not like (or perhaps a nasty combination of both), but I could not stand that woman. I didn’t find the character likable in the least bit. She was selfish, narcissistic, and immature, and I wasn’t really sold on the idea that she grew or learned anything by the end of the film. I think they tried to make her likable by making her “cute,” but that cuteness made me sick to my stomach more than anything. Her character was such a contrast to Julia that I started to get confused about the intent of the film. It seems like they were trying to draw parallels between the two women’s lives, but all I could see was how different they were. Julia handled disappointments with grace, while Julie handled them by throwing big baby fits. And while Julie admits that Julia clearly had more grace than she did, I felt that it was too little too late (I just shuddered as I wrote those words – those are the same words that my advanced comp teacher wrote about one of my papers!). Oddly enough, I felt the same way about the husbands. I couldn’t stand Julie’s husband (him leaving for days on end without calling Julie is inexcusable – and then he’s made to be a hero when he returns – barf!), and I adored Julia’s husband (played by Stanley Tucci), who was so supportive of his quirky wife, and he truly looked at her with admiration and respect.
Honestly, I think this all has to do with the sub-par actress who played Julie. She narrated a lot of the film, and it was just terrible. I may be a nerd for noticing stuff like this, but it makes my skin crawl when films are narrated by poor actors. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to narrate a film, but truly good actors can do it (think Morgan Freeman, the grand-daddy of narrators). Streep’s narration was of course flawless. Luckily Streep was able to carry the film. Despite half of it being extremely irritating, Streep’s performance had me leaving the theater with a big smile on my face – which is really rare, so that has to say something. Kyle enjoyed the movie as well- he basically had the same reaction that I did. Once again, I chose a movie that we both like…
Next up: District 9. I agreed to go to this one next since I chose Julie and Julia. I hope I’m not making a huge mistake…
Posted: Movies