Wow, what a fail. I make it all the way through and then forget to post this... ah well.
Tonight Boyfriend and I meet up with an ex co-worker and her boyfriend to make gluten-free homemade Pop Tarts. We experimented with different fillings, but the fan favourite seemed to be the maple and brown sugar one (which we only made one of for some reason). Others included peanut butter & jelly, Nutella, salted caramel, raspberry, and lemon curd. I don't like jams, as previously noted, so I didn't try any of those ones, though I hear they were good...
the salted caramel kind of exploded...
Well, August has been fun, guys. It's been an interesting challenge to do this every day and I'm not sure I can keep it up. But I do want to keep doing regular posts – at least 2 or 3 times a week. But September is looking crazy so far: friends visiting, travel, a billion birthdays (including Boyfriends), and I'm taking a class on Thursday nights now. Of course, looking my calendar for September, I realize that I won't be lacking in things to write about.
My best friend T lives in Orange County, so since high school we really haven't gotten a change to spend as much time with each other as we would both want. But when we do spend time together we are awesome at eating frozen yogurt and shopping. And it's T that I blame for my newish Kate Spade addiction. T's always been a fan and either the Kate Spade line has changed or my tastes have changed, but I LOVE it all now. And T knows this.
Which is why this morning, I got an IM from her with nothing but a link to a Kate Spade sample sale. And then she asked why I hadn't bought the giraffe dress yet – good question! So, I may or may not have bought two Kate Spade dresses this morning... But I will say that with the 75% off, both dresses combined were less that either of them full price!
The one on the left is the Two By Two Dress – it's so ME isn't it?! And the second one is an Ikat Caroline Dress that I hope to transition from summer to fall. I swear, I should just not buy anything at all and just wait for these sales to come around. I'm smitten with both (and more to be honest)!
Have you ever known one of those couples that is just so cute they are annoying? My co-worker's birthday was today and as usual, I came prepared with some baked goods (m&m's cookies), but then his girlfriend had to steal my thunder by sending him a cake AND balloons AND chocolate covered strawberries. How annoying! But his manager brought some of the awesomeness back to the co-worker team by bringing in big bowl of wild animal and ninja figurines. So, this is how we spend part of our day at work...
But it's all OK. Tonight I got to be part of my own annoyingly cute couple. After spending part of Saturday night watching the boys play Pai Gow Poker in Vegas and my quick mastery of that game once we got home, Boyfriend has decided that he needs to teach me how to play Texas Hold 'em. So, we played with another couple – also one who knows how to play and one who doesn't really. I kept arbitrarily changing the denomination of the poker chips, claiming they were anywhere between $1 to $1 million. (I may have also stolen from the bank when no one was looking...)
Boyfriend is ridiculously patient, tho. I stayed in for stupid cards and bet for no real reason mostly. However, I think I eventually got the hang of it and I actually won a hand or two. And through all of that, Boyfriend didn't get annoyed (until we started pushing all of our chips in for no real reason).
I think it's safe to say that I'll never be a poker player. For one, I'm scared to play for real money. For another, I am never sure what I'm supposed to do on each turn. But if I do ever play, my strategy will be to seem distracted all the time – oh maybe I shouldn't have told you that... Oops.
One thing I learned over this weekend, is that I didn't want to let my devotion to this Awesome August project prevent me from doing the things that I would actually want to write about here... So, I am 2 days behind because Boyfriend and I were in Vegas this weekend!
Sort of unintentionally, we've gone to Vegas once a year since we've been dating (before that, I had never been). The first time was to see my favourite band, The Hold Steady, play in a bar the size of my living room at home. The second time we went and saw The Beatles' LOVE. This time, we went clubbing question mark. But then we ended up seeing a show and running into friends on The Strip.
After seeing Phanom on Saturday, we ran into our friends Thom and Andy. This was an unintentional reunion from when we all used to work at the same store.
And then I learned another lesson today... Don't bake cookies when you haven't had enough sleep. They don't always turn out right.
I only have a few more days of this project, so I'm going to try to end it with a bang! So, look forward to a proper post tomorrow :)
I stayed up way too late watching Project Runway considering Boyfriend and I have to leave the house at 5am tomorrow to get our 7am flight to Vegas, baby!
So, since I need to sleep now, here is a picture of my dog, Jade.
I love getting my hair done, don't you? Someone to wash your hair and style it... And if you're lucky you have someone who gives you a bit of a head massage while making you pretty.
I'm that lucky, plus Jen is totally awesome and she thinks I'm funny. I trust her way more than anyone else who has ever done my hair. And she does Bear's hair, too, so she has the coveted sister stamp of approval.
Tonight I got my hair cut and coloured. I had highlighted it blonde at the beginning of summer, but now we've added red highlights, too. And I got a much needed bang trim - they were so long it was ridiculous. (Also, who would have thought that the bangs I cut on an angry whim and dubbed "Breakup Bangs," would now be my regular hairstyle 3 years on...)
I'll have to get a picture of the colour in sunlight. But I'm in love with the touchups she did to my cut!
I am run off my feet, guys. I was so exhausted this morning I slept though my training alarm, so I had to go to the gym after work. What I didn't know was that it was going to be 90 degrees at 5pm.
I should also mention that I somehow got it into my head that I was going to make gluten free lasagna for dinner. So, a dish that take a long time to prepare then bake in the heat, after a workout. I'm a genius.
But I guess it worked out OK. I made a spicy lasagna with ground beef and hot sausage. And since Boyfriend doesn't like parmesan cheese, I used pepper jack instead. It turned out great, but we didn't eat until 9:30.
I met my friend Gordana when I was a computer trainer. She started off as one of my students, but our lessons soon digressed into drinking tea, gossiping, and one time, driving her BMW Z3. Gordana is one of those amazing souls that draws people to her.
Tonight we got to hang out for the first time in a long time. We decided to make dinner and dessert at her place and since Gordana is a designer, she has this fabulously amazing home and kitchen. As we got things ready, she poured us glasses of Kir Royale while we munched on peanuts and started work on a flourless chocolate cake that we dubbed a Megana Cake.
We had a beautiful dinner on her patio: salad with fresh herbs from her garden, chicken (for me), salmon (for her and Chaz), and corn on the cob. There were laughs and stories and a debate over the best condiments for corn on the cob.
When dinner was finished we brought out the Megana Cake. This cake is deadly – it's literally just chocolate, butter, sugar, and eggs. It was actually a Paula Deen recipe that I found on Bakerella. I figured the combo of Paula Deen plus flourless could do no wrong. Boy, was I right! I will be making this one again!
Because the cake was so strong, we also tested it with 3 different kind of preserves. For the record I a) don't typically like preserves (or jams and jellies for that matter), and b) I believe in a separation of fruit and cake. However, all 3 that we sampled were from places like France and Belgium, so I figured if I was going to try any these would be the ones. The Plum preserves were too dark to do anything to the flavor; the rose hip preserves were mild but not really impressive; and the pomegranate-raspberry were sophisticated yet understated with just a hint of naughtiness...
Gordana will be out of the country for a month, but once she's back I'm sure I'll have another amazing evening to write about.
Have you ever had one of those dreams that is so realistic and awful that even then you wake up, you feel weird for the rest of the morning? Especially if that dream involves someone you love and someone you have to interact with. That was me today... So, to counteract the yucky feeling, I ended up doing things that I love.
The Queen and I went to a morning showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 since she hadn't seen it yet. The theater was surprisingly packed for a Sunday morning nearly over 2 months after the release. And since I hadn't seen it since the midnight premier (which was fun but very loud), I was able to pick up lines of dialogue that I missed the first time (since we were all laughing or cheering or crying), like this one:
I've always loved the way the films have portrayed Seamus. I thought that he was kinda shafted after about book 5 and he was always a fun character. This scene just proves it. But I digress...
Then I ended the night by seeing Cowboys & Aliens with Boyfriend and his dad. I feel like that whole movie is the set up for a joke like, "James Bond and Han Solo walk into a saloon..." But I actually enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I should probably mention that leading up to the film's release, every time I saw the trailer in a theater I looked around to make sure I wasn't hallucinating and that the film really existed.
All in all the movies and the company cured me of my bad dreams. :)
This is my friend Peter, aka The Mayor of Tasty Town. Today he had a waffle and mimosa brunch to celebrate some good news, but mostly to have a party where we eat waffles and drink mimosas.
Peter has a tradition of wearing vests when we are at parties together... I can think of at least 6 parties that he's worn a vest to. It's very Mayoral of him. He also used to work at Starbuck and can still rock the apron when needed, such a when manning a waffle iron or drinking mimosas.
So we spent a lovely morning eating waffles (mine were gluten free, of course) and bacon, drinking mimosas, and playing Apples to Apples. Then I may or may not have fallen asleep on the couch while the boys played video games. Great morning and a happy Saturday.
Yesterday was insane and I did not have a second of downtime to actually update this thing.
First off, I woke up at 5:30 for Warrior Dash training, then to my desk at 8:00am. After work there was a quick run to the store, then I whipped up a batch of chocolate chip rice krispie treats for Kate, whose birthday part I was running out the door to get to. Don't get me wrong, it was a great day filled with fun and friends and board games, but it was loooong.
Plus, I got to wear this amazing outfit to work. It was my take on Casual Friday and a nod to my training and my favourite super hero.
All the superheroes live in the city. Spiderman, Daredevil, and Captain America. But Thor’s the best. He fights the forces of darkness. Forces of darkness beware!
I'm coming to the end of my second week of training for the Warrior Dash – a mud-crawling, fire-leaping, extreme fun run from Hell! It's 3.15 hellish miles, where I will conquer extreme obstacles, push my limits, then celebrate with kick-ass music, beer, and warrior helmets (according to their website anyway).
The website also provides a training plan for the participants with 3 different Warrior Levels: Virgin, Casual, and Ultimate. I picked Casual based on this description: You don’t want to win the Warrior Dash - you just want to beat the guy wearing a dress. So true. And the training is going well. I already feel stronger and more warrior-like, which is the point, I think. Although, I'm not sure it's warrior-like to be so wrecked from training that I want to fall asleep at 10pm...
I'm running with two girlfriends because we are crazy people and this seems like something that needs to be done by crazy people. You should come cheer us on. Take pictures. Laugh at us covered in mud and jumping over fire. Drink beer and be jealous of our helmets.
The race itself is on Oct 29th, so besides the training, I think we now need focus on costumes! Warrior! Huzza!
Boyfriend gave me The Silmarillion for my birthday. My love of The Lord of the Rings is well documented, but aside from The Hobbit, I haven't read anything else from Tolkien's universe. Honestly, upon the first look, I was a bit intimidated. It has small type, lots of long paragraphs, very biblical looking...
According to this NPR article listing the Top 100 Science-Fiction and Fantasy books, The Silmarillion contains "creation myths of Tolkien's Middle-earth, for those who found The Lord of the Rings too breezy and slight." While I might not have used the phrase breezy and slight, I was ready for more...
And then I read the prologue and the first story...
I made it half way through the month before I got behind... damn! But at least I have good reason!
Every Monday, I join Boyfriend and some of his high school friends (and their significant others) for dinner. They've been doing this since high school and they used to go to the same hotwing place each week. More recently, we've been exploring different places each week for variety.
Tonight, one couple hosted us at their house and we had a homemade pizza feast! There were at least 4 different kinds of pizza plus two gluten free ones for me. I was only able to try the pepperoni and the BBQ chicken ones, but everyone was raving about how good they all were.
We then spent hours playing Scattergories and Catchphrase, and since it was our friend's birthday – and keeping with the pizza theme – we had a giant pizzookie (and a tiny gluten free baby pizzookie for me).
I love games and when you have such a great group of people it's so easy to lose track of time playing. Luckily for me we were close to home, I don't have to go to the gym tomorrow morning, and I was having so much fun that I didn't realize how tired I was.
Food that I can eat without getting sick? It's a wonderful thing.
So, I've been 100% gluten free for over 6 months. It is so wonderful to have "normal" stomach aches again – as opposed to the nasty food-poisoning type stomach aches I used to get before I knew what was causing them. Anyway, as baking has always been one of my passions, I've spent as much time as I can experimenting with gluten free baking.
I love, love, love baking and I like to think that I'm pretty good at it. However, gluten free baking has presented a new set of challenges to me. For one, not all recipes are easily adapted. And finding the right blend of non-wheat flour to match the taste of the rest of the ingredients is tricky. On top of that, when I do find the right taste, the batter/dough seems to bake differently...
So, today I tried out a Brownie mix that was kindly given to me by my friend Karina (at her own birthday nonetheless!). I tossed in some extra chocolate, white chocolate, and butterscotch chips for fun. And now I'll test it out on Boyfriend before I subject it my co-workers tomorrow.
I spent a beautiful, clear, warm day in The City with Boyfriend and our friend Michael. The boys took pictures, I wandered around the Union Square shops, we ate fancy burgers, and we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time in ages. Once across, the boys took more pictures and I wandered around old Sausalito (where I feel I should brunch soon).
I live so close the San Fransisco that I really should spend more time exploring "my city," so to speak. There are a handful of places I could get to in my sleep and that I know like the back of my hand, but honestly, The City isn't huge and I should be more familiar with it.
Of course, today just got me more excited at the prospect of re-introducing SF to my "cousin" Kate when she comes to visit next month! I just hope we get a day that's half as nice as today and I'll be happy.
And I know I'm going to wish later on that I wrote more today, but I am so exhausted, this is the best that I can do. Sorry, folks...
Tonight we had our first band practice since, gosh, June maybe? There's been vacations, sickness, family obligations, and product launches keeping us apart for over a month. So, of course we had to chat (read: gossip) for a while about all of those things that were keeping us from practicing. Then we had to have in depth conversations about a) how the Beach Boys concert was and the everlasting awesomeness of the band, and b) comic books (yeah, we get sidetracked by things I don't even care about. How strange).
When we did get around to picking up instruments, we didn't do anything too serious – some old stuff, some playing with effects, a cover of "Sloop John B" since we're on a Beach Boys kick still.
But that's the best part of band "practice" for me. It's getting together and, yeah, if we play music it's awesome, but even if we don't it's always a good time. I just with the others were around, too.
Sometimes the best nights are the ones you least expect.
Tonight I met Boyfriend at a bar near his work for a going away party for one of his co-workers. I figured we'd make an appearance because I wouldn't know anyone – since I've been gone myself for nearly a year, almost none of the people I worked with are there anymore. But, I was wrong. A bunch of people who I wasn't expecting showed up and it was great to catch up.
And since we were all drinking in a bar, the night started with the usual "So, what do you do?" questions and wandered into hook-ups, embarrassing stories, and trying to get the "guest of honour" to ride the mechanical bull (yes – it's that kind of bar).
And then the night ended with Yogurtland, complete with a Keroppi spoon.
I had to leave work early today due to a massive migraine and major nausea. I went home, slept for about 5 hours and then watched a few episodes of Gilmore Girls once the headache went away. All and all it seemed like waste of day...
But then the package showed up. It was flat and square and it contained my copy of Harry and the Potters' Live at the New York Public Library LP – on vinyl! I already have 2 Harry and the Potters 7", but this one is a full length live album. Between the live recording and the fact that it's on vinyl (and the download code so I can listen to it everywhere!), it's such a fun album. And it includes one of my favourites, "Phoenix Tears!"
I've been "collecting" records for a long time now, and by collecting I mean I try to get all of my favourites on vinyl as well as lost classics that appear in the Amoeba Records 99¢ bin. I am one of those people who generally think that albums on vinyl sounds better than other forms. I don't care if you think I'm pretentious. Listen to Pet Sounds. Listen to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Then tell me that there's no difference.
Back in June I was doing a Cardio Challenge at work and during that month I managed run nearly all of the 150 miles that I challenged myself to run. Due to some sickness and a vacation at the very end, I officially logged about 140 miles. So close and yet so far.
Anyway, the challenge ended in July while I was in Hawaii. What with the jet-lag, my weird mouth problem, antibiotics, and then birthday stuff, I somehow forgot to go back to the gym at all for a month! Seeing as I was really getting in the groove of working out again, this was quite a blow to recover from.
And, honestly, I didn't recover very well this morning.
Here's the scene: it's 6am at the work gym. I don't have my regular water bottle with me because I'm a dumbass... I do, however, have a paper coffee cup filled with water. I'm taking it easy on the treadmill because it's been a while, and it's a good thing, too because I haven't run very long before I start getting tired.
And then I go to get a sip of the water.
And my foot falls right off the edge of the treadmill.
And the water goes flying all over me. And the machine. And the mirror in front of me. And the guy next to me.
The guy turns and says, "That's one way to wake up in the morning."
Oh yes. That's how graceful I am.
But I finished my run and did my weight work out. And check me out, I'm back in the workout groove!
For the past few years, I've tried to do something crazy and fun for my birthday. Two years ago, we had Laser Prom – this involved dressing up in formal wear and playing laser tag. Last year, it was a Golftail Party – mini-golf in cocktail party clothes. This year, I wanted to have a karaoke party where everyone had to come dressed as a rock star or a musical character (or embodies a musical lifestyle, as you will see). This year was Meg's Rock'N'Roll Birthday Bash!
I have this weird obsession with making my friends dress up for my parties. And I have a special name for people who don't dress up for my themed parties: A Flounder. This, of course, is taken from Animal House: Flounder is the only one who shows up to the Delta Tau Chi not in a toga! Luckily for me, none of my friends were Flounders and everyone looked awesome.
I just got these pictures of the night from Boyfriend and I'll let them speak for themselves. Enjoy and be jealous!
The night started with everyone arriving and lots of oohing and awing over costumes and getting geared up with Flip Cup and Spoons!
Then the Karaoke began. The rule was you had to sing a song related to your character.
Cher did "If I Could Turn Back Time"
Sandy did "You're the One that I Want"
Wayne & Garth did "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Cassandra did "Ballroom Blitz"
Robin Sparkles did "Let's go to the Mall!"
And there were tons of other awesome songs plus an amazing rendition of "Come Sail Away" complete with interpretive dance.
Everyone seemed to be having a blast...
And then these these guys showed up and broke up the party! Thanks a lot, Yoko.
There are a lot of things I've picked up from my parents: calling elementary school grammar school; eating peanut butter straight out of the jar with a spoon; using phrases like "put them in the Bizbag;" my love for Mel Brooks; and, of course, my love for The Beach Boys.
One of my earliest memories of me and my Dad involves him cleaning this old hot tub we had while I was in some sort of floaty, and we were listening to the Beach Boys. I had to have been about 2. (Strangely, I have another similar memory, only we were listening to "Gimme Shelter," but since that I has nothing to do with this story, I digress.) And I swear, I knew the lyrics to all their greatest hits before I could speak in complete sentences. My first CD was their anthology Born in the U.S.A. and it wasn't until Junior High, that I started listening to "my own music," so to speak.
The questions is always The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. For me, the answer has always been The Beach Boys.
So, when Boyfriend got us tickets to see The Beach Boys as the Mountain Winery, I was beyond stoked. I don't care if there are only two original members left touring – they're one of my only favourite artists that I've never seen (or if I did when I was younger, which is a possibility, I don't remember them). And when we got there, we discovered how great our seats were.
Of course, I'll never really know what it was like to see them in the height of their musical careers, but damn, if they were anywhere as tight and impeccable as they were tonight, it's easy to see how they've stayed a touring band for so long. They played from 7:30 to 10:00, with a brief intermission, and in that time they played every thing I wanted to hear (with the exception of "Heroes & Villains," but I wasn't really expecting that) and stuff I wasn't expecting at all ("Sail On, Sailor," anyone?). Mike Love and Bruce Johnston are still amazing and their support band is fabulous.
It's strange watching a band that had it's rise and fall before I was even born. With the exception of "Kokomo" they haven't done much that's noteworthy since the 1970s. They even made jokes that they must be so popular due to Full House re-runs. But at the same time, everyone in the audience was singing along and dancing and enjoying it all. They transcend time and genre.
And that got me thinking, too. Are there any bands around today, that got their start in the past 10 - 20 years, that could someday be touring for their 50th anniversary? It seems to me that the longevity just isn't there anymore. Not with such a large catalog and such a universal love like The Beach Boys have...
What band from today would you see 20 or 30 years from now? What band that was a favourite of your parents' would you go see today?
Today I went to see Captain America with my Dad, my Stepmom, Bear, and Boyfriend. It's crazy, but I swear I haven't been to the cinema with my Dad since we saw Blues Brothers 2000! My Dad is always amusing when we are out and about: today, when getting the movie tickets, he told the guy he needed tickets for "four adults that act like children."
I really enjoyed Captain America. I loved the aesthetic of the film – it was visually beautiful and it wasn't too campy or overly patriotic. And I loved the references to all of the other films leading up to The Avengers (especially the quick glimpse of my new crush, Loki, after the credits).
If the film had a fault, however, it was not enough Stanley Tucci. Of course, I generally think that one cannot have too much Stanley Tucci... And this is probably just me, but I felt like half of Hugo Weaving's lines were just the same ones he said during The Counsel of Elrond in The Fellowship of the Ring, except with a German accent and a World War II twist. Oh, I totally thought that Dr. Arnim Zola looked like Lionel Twain from Murder By Death (is that too obscure of a reference?), then I found out that Toby Jones actually played Truman Capote...
All in all it was a good movie with good company. Happy Saturday!
So often I get annoyed when I have to drive out of my way to go to a store or because plans are changed. But road trips are different: you get snacks, you talk about crazy things, sometimes there's not even a destination. One time, before Boyfriend was Boyfriend, he and I took a mini-road trip from Santa Cruz up HWY 1 to The City and we sang the whole way and stopped to take pictures with the dinosaurs and eat at the Taco Bell on the beach in Pacifica.
But since my Dad and Stepmom moved out of the Bay Area a few years back, I've gotten to take more frequent mini-road trips out to visit them. They're about 2.5 hours away, which is the perfect length of a mini-road trip.
When I'm driving to and from work, I mostly listen to books on tape. No, seriously. It helps keep my road rage in check (along with my ironic thumbs up method). Normally if I'm stuck in traffic I get angry and frustrated. But when I'm listening to a book (and right now it's The Two Towers), it's like, oh good I get to hear another chapter.
I know a lot of people who save their books on tape for road trips, but that's just crazy! You need music on a road trip. Rocking, loud music. Music that makes your wheels turn and makes you want to press down on the gas. What you need is a good road trip mix.
Ramble On .. Led Zeppelin
Look What Happened .. Less Than Jake
Barracuda .. Heart
Crazy Train .. Ozzy Osbourne
Bright Spring Morning .. Suburban Legends
Romper Stomper .. The Transplants
Burn Baby Burn .. Ash
Ticket to Ride .. The Beatles
Suffragette City .. David Bowie
Bad Habit .. The Offspring
Run Like Hell .. Pink Floyd
Stuck Between Stations .. The Hold Steady
Paper Planes .. M.I.A.
Point/Counterpoint .. Streetlight Manifesto*
This is just a random selection of my ever changing "On the Road" mix that I update every time I take a road trip. Between me and Boyfriend we could drive for days with an awesome soundtrack. I also not so secretly hope that all of my road trips will be like this:
What are you favourite road trip songs? What do I need to add to my collection. Right now I have 199 songs in my playlist... What song should push it to 200?
*I tried to make another Grooveshark playlist, but it decided not to work for me...
When I was little there were three main shows that I watched religiously: Rainbow Brite, Care Bears, and My Little Pony.
Rainbow Brite was my absolute favourite of the three. I have pictures of me in a Rainbow Brite costume standing in front of the Christmas Tree – like three or four years in a row.And to this day, I refer to Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer on a regular basis.
Care Bears was the next best and just like Rainbow Brite the movies where the best especially the Movies I and II (and Care Bears in Wonderland which seems to have vanished off the face of the earth, but I still remember the songs). Care Bears was always Bear's favourite and partially her namesake.
I feel like I should have like My Little Pony more than I did, but I think that it was only interesting to be because the girl who was friends with the Ponies was called Megan (and spelled wrong!). And the movie – it had all the makings to be good: a oddly large cast, Flutter Ponies, and The Smooze.
My friend Kiwi gave me a copy of The My Little Pony Movie for Christmas a few years ago and let me tell you, it does NOT stand up to the test of time*. Oddly enough Care Bears does a pretty good job and Rainbow Brite is still top-notch.
Have you guys heard about Teen Nick's 90's Are All That? They're playing all those shows that I watched when I got a little older. Besides Clarissa Explains it All, the three shows I remember the most are The Adventures or Pete & Pete, Salute Your Shorts, and Hey Dude!
It's funny, but these three shows from the 90's pretty much play out like my favourite shows from the 80's.
A few years ago I found The Adventures of Pete & Pete on DVD and it's everything I remember it to be and more! If anything, the show actually got better with age – the story lines are smart and absurd, the acting is quality, and the guest star list is insane. And it has Artie: The Strongest Man in the World!
And let's be honest – can you find anyone who doesn't know the words to the Salute Your Shorts theme? I once tried to convince my friends to go as Anawanna campers for Bay To Breakers so we could push a keg in a canoe across San Fransisco. Everyone loves Salute Your Shorts, even to this day.
aparently due to some law suit, I can't find the video for this...
But Hey Dude!? This show premiered 22 years ago, and I swear I remember liking it. Or at least I remember watching it. We found a DVD of the first season at Target the other night and watched the first few episodes. Oh man, is it painful. No one can act, it's got a single camera set up, and they apparently blew all their budget on the horses. And the second –second! – episode is a battle of the sexes! Ah, 1989 Nick... good for a laugh.
What did you love as a child that does not stand the test of time?
*Please note that I am NOT talking about the new My Little Pony youtube sensation.
For Lent this year, I gave up shopping. I actually managed to go 40 days without shopping for myself, with the exception of a pair of shoes I bought for my cousin's wedding. However, I feel like I totally missed out on this very cute yellow spring trend that seemed to only be a trend during the 40 days I was not shopping. Go figure.
Since then I've had a yellow cardigan and a pair of yellow shoes on my wish list. Every time I would come across a yellow sweater it wasn't the right yellow – I wanted baby duck yellow, not greenish-yellow or orangish-yellow. And every time I saw pair of yellow shoes, the price just wasn't right or they weren't in my size... in terms of shoe size I'm totally average – somewhere between a 7.5 to a 9 depending on brand – so by the time I get to a pair of shoes I like, my size is usually gone.
Then the other day when I was at Target, this pair of dark yellow wedges that I had been eying were suddenly on sale – $12 and in my size!
It's funny, but I used to have this weird irrational hate for wedges. I'm not sure why because I'm a nightmare in heels unless they have a ankle strap of some sort... Then I got a pair of TOMS wedges and I was converted. These ones aren't great for running, jumping, or climbing trees or anything, but damn do I look good walking from my desk to the water cooler.
Giraffes are one of my most favourite animals ever. If you ever are in a situation where your life or thousands of dollars depends on knowing how I feel about giraffes, for the record I find them majestic. And have you ever seen them fight? Damn!
I think my love of giraffes comes from these wooden giraffe statues my mom has and this painted giraffe art I've had in my room since I was a baby... But I had no idea so many people were on board with this giraffe love. For example, I recently acquired a Kate Spade iPhone case that has giraffes on it!
Boyfriend once got me a book called "Giraffes? Giraffes!" by Dr. Doris Haggis-on-Whey, which documents the history of Giraffes. This is the best book of all time and you should read it right now.
So, including the iPhone case that I carry with me all the time, I had 3 giraffe things in my outfit today.
The earrings were another birthday gift from Bear. They are made of wood ad so light I can't even tell that I'm wearing earrings.
This amazing giraffe shirt was passed on to me by my dear friend Indiana, who I was lucky enough to spend a few hours with last week. Indiana and I went to college together, but hadn't seen each other in 3 years! We walked around our old stomping ground catching up, talking about The Lord of the Rings, and marveling over the fact that she has a baby now! And then in our typical way, I left and drove an hour and a half home with her wallet in my purse, which she needed for her 5:00am flight the next morning. But in between all that craziness, she gave me this much admired shirt. It's adorable and probably would be even if it wasn't covered with giraffes!
So, I know Indiana loves animal clothes and accessories, and as you can see, I'm a sucker for giraffes (and I still have a new giraffe scarf to rock soon). Do you like animal print or animal inspired designs? What animal do you love enough to base an entire outfit on?
PS. Please excuse the amazingly grainy photo booth pictures...
Every year, the week leading up to my birthday, I celebrate the WOM – the Week of Meg. This basically gives me an excuse to be sorta selfish and demanding, but also do a bunch of fun things before my actual birthday. Usually this includes going to my favourite restaurants, seeing my favourite people, and getting pedicures.
Anyway, I'm usually in such a good mood during that whole week that I figured, why not try to keep it going. So, I'm going to try Awesome August : 31 days of awesome things.
As we know, my love of Harry Potter is no secret. But what might not have been well known is my love for the Malfoy family. I happen to think that Draco, Lucius, and especially Narcissa are some of the most interesting characters in the story. So, when my sister, Bear, went to get me a Harry Potter related birthday gift, Draco came to mind...
This is part of the first sentence of Chapter 10 Halloween from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and it's actually cut from the book itself. The first word is Malfoy and the M can also double for Meg... So nerdy and narcissistic – just like me!
What book would you wear an except from around your neck? I know Bear's holding out for The Lord of the Rings...
