where did summer go?

It's September. How did that happen? The summer flew by and I feel like I missed it ... I guess that's what happens when you are re-aclimating to working and getting used to a new job.

I do remember talking about my new job over a lot of breakfasts/lunches/dinners/drinks with friends. I also remember a 4th of July BBQ and hosting some grilling nights complete with super messy s'mores. I hosted my first afternoon tea complete with scones and finger sandwiches. Oh, and I went to a lovely wedding in the garden of the British Consul-General's residence and a fun, internationally-themed baby shower, both with really good food.

I went to some concerts -- Opening Night at the Bowl, Heart, John Williams. I bought a lot of concert tickets for this fall. I did not buy tickets for Bon Jovi at Staples Center in October because Richie Sambora and Jon Bon Giant Ego are still fighting and not on tour together as they should be. That will be the first Los Angeles-area Bon Jovi concert since 1989 I am not at. Sad.

I went to the Arclight Sherman Oaks for a bunch of movies, only a few of which were memorable. Although right now I can't remember which those were.

I went to Pop Physique a LOT and have super-strong calf muscles to prove it.

I did not read past page 22 of Pride and Prejudice... yet. I will do this. I must.

I also did not write a lot. Going back to work has tired me out. This makes also makes me sad. I feel like I've been sucked back into the evil corporate void, where creativity does not exist. I need to start writing more and finding small joys in normal things like I was able to do on my "sabbatical."

I saw this article on twitter a few weeks ago. I have a journal I haven't touched in years. I usually just go to it to vent about things I dare not say to another human being. I think I am going to dig it out and turn it into something positive using that list as a guide.

I am also going to start re-reading some of my creative writing books from college -- Wild Mind, The Artist's Way -- that assign things to write about and get the juices flowing.

The Artist's Way makes you write morning pages... I remember that. I am so not a morning person.

Maybe I'll go read Pride and Prejudice instead.

an awesome four-day, food-filled weekend

Sadly, the awesome 4th of July four-day weekend is coming to an end. It started out cray-cray as I prepared for my annual BBQ (under my new "pergola"), but by Friday, was super-relaxing and fun. Here's a recap of a great weekend packed with good friends, food and fun!

The BBQ

While I will never be Martha Stewart, when it comes to gardening and party throwing, I am getting better. I have a bunch of 4th of July decorations I've been using outside for years. But this year, I decided to make the indoor buffet table look more fun. 

Inspired by a recent Hawaiian birthday party I attended, I created fun buffet table decorations out of red rock candy sticks, blue and white gumballs, and stars and stripes pinwheels I got at Michaels.  

I also used those pinwheels, plus a block of foam and blue painters tape, to create little food labels. (And for those of you making fun of me/my OCD, some people can't eat certain things, so a caring hostess labels things on the buffet table :-p)

Speaking of food, this year, rather than hot dogs and hamburgers, I decided to actually make food that required some thought and prep work. I kept the hot dogs for the kids, but then was debating between shrimp and carne asada. I couldn't make up my mind, so I made both!




Upon hearing I was making grilled shrimp and veggie skewers, a co-worker suggested that -- rather than soak the sticks in water -- I should soak them in white wine. This, he said, would prevent the food from having a popsicle stick aftertaste. So I broke out a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck and poured it into a casserole dish and soaked the skewers overnight.







I didn't get around to eating any of my chili-lime shrimp (marinated with a variation on this Bobby Flay recipe) but the veggies I ate, including these gorgeous red onions, tasted great and included no wooden aftertaste. ;)

Last Sunday, after driving by for four and a half years and thinking, "I need to go in there for carne asada one day," I finally went into the Vallarta Market and got carne asada, fresh tortillas, salsa, guac and churros (!!! five minutes from my house!!!). Then I did a test grilling run for family dinner at the 'rents. 

It came out pretty good and, emboldened by my first attempt at making a marinade from scratch (guided by master chef Mom), I searched the interwebs for a similar but slightly different marinade recipe.

I found this one, prepped it Wednesday night with some slight variations so the meat could marinate overnight (that's it marinating at left :) and then on Thursday grilled it up to yummy deliciousness!

I think carne asada is now going to become a staple of summer grill nights! Did I mention is was delicious?




In addition to shrimp, carne asada, veggie skewers, hot dogs and Aidell's yummy chicken apple sausages, we also grilled up corn (with yummy homemade lime butter provided by Diana). Here's the grill in action! Thanks to James and Dad for helping me grill in the heat :)

After grilling, it was time for dessert-a-palooza, with fruits and sweets provided by Diana, Maureen and Erin. Over the last three days, I've tried all of these and can attest, they were all amazeballs! (Note: the recipes I'm linking to are just similar recipes I found online, not necessarily the ones my friends used.)

Hamburger Cupcakes

Berries with cheesecake frosting

White chocolate-covered strawberries

Red, white and blue parfaits

"Brookies"  (aka a brownie with a cookie in the middle!)

Saturday Playday

On Saturday, the poker people (minus one) convened on Maureen's pool for a swim and lots of food, including BBQ leftovers, fruit, In-N-Out french fries, and a lot of new food Maureen felt the need to make us, cuz she's the hostess with the mostess. 

When not eating and swimming, we were entertained -- for a while -- by looking over the deck wall at the street below every 20 minutes to compare and contrast the different "Star Tours" tour buses driving by on their way to Justin Timberlake's gate and security guard booth, then turning around to go back down the hill. One of the tours blares "Sexy Back" as they drive up the hill. We don't like that one. 

Following pool time, I came home to do exciting things like laundry. I also lit the inaugural fire of the season in my chiminea. 

I have decided I might be a minor pyromaniac.... I was highly entertained by keeping the fire going for two hours. I also toasted the marshmallows I wanted to toast on the 4th of July but didn't (see photos of five desserts above) and made some smore's. More yummy deliciousness. Now I need to go figure out how many times I can make it to Pop Physique this week to work off all this food!

getting things done: day 4

Today I started off with indoor to-do's because I had a lunch with a friend and I actually got four things accomplished on my list (which is now up to 21 items):
-- Made a hair appointment for next week
-- Made a doctor's appointment for my annual checkup... at the end of friggin' May (I need a new doctor; the availability the last few years is insane and the service hasn't been all that awesome to make up for it.)
-- Officially signed up for my LA Kings playoff ticket activation... and renewed my full season seats for next year. This means I really need the "sabbatical" to end before July when they start charging me. (Although if the Kings blow it in the playoffs -- no whammies, no jinxes -- then my lockout credit will cover me for a while.) And before people start chastising me for spending that crazy cash, please note two things:
1) There's a waiting list for Kings season tickets. And as a long-suffering season ticket holder, I'm not giving up my seats to some bandwagon fan who just discovered that hockey existed 10 months ago! However, I will let them buy 75% of my tickets off the fan ticket exchange site once I choose the 10-15 games I actually want to go to ;)
2) I'm doing the 10-installments payment plan, so after my lockout credit is gone, I will have manageable payments.

Then once I got home from lunch, I accomplished one more full item -- uncovering, cleaning and setting up the patio furniture and grill. Yay!




Then I went back to the bane of my existence, the back of the house by the shed.

I finally got done raking up the leaves, sprayed the walls (and the cracks in them) with massive amounts of bug spray, dropped bug killer pellets all over the ground and behind the shed, and sprayed the entire area with Round Up to kill the grassy weeds' roots. Tomorrow, I will lay the weed blocker and start the fun part -- putting down the stepping stones, decorative rocks and rubber mulch ground cover.

These two photos may look like ugly, empty patches of dirt to you. But they are three days of hard labor to me. There were anywhere from 1-5 inches of leaves + grassy weeds covering these two sides of the shed, not to mention the massive brick pile, most of which is now far away from these areas in the leafy danger zone.

The evil leaves filled up the black can and black bag to the left, and the green bin and 2/3 of the black bin on the right. My gardener is gonna be SOL tomorrow when it comes to disposing of my mowed grass... oh well. Just as long as he doesn't dump them in my recycling bin.

And now, because I made you look at dirt and trash cans so I can feel a sense of accomplishment, here's a pretty picture of my first blooming red rose of the season that opened up overnight. This isn't even from the soon-to-be 6+-feet-tall plant that grows the ginormous red roses, but this one is pretty close to ginormous. Happy to see my pruning and feeding three months ago is paying off :)