So That Happened...

Trivia Still Life

Taken by me before our weekly trivia night:

Dinner on the left (I eat my vegetables last) and Dr. Horrible on my laptop.  Awesome.

Hawaii in a Picture

I'm back!  Hawaii was SO MUCH FUN, y'all.  Seriously.  I surfed!  I snorkeled!  I drank several Mai Tais!  I took the World's Most Unflattering Yet Hilarious Photo Ever!  I will write about it but I have a lot to catch up on, so in the meantime please enjoy this teaser photo of Mr. Bear getting some sun at Kailua Beach Park.

Happy Fourth!

(Photo taken by me at Dodger Stadium - July 1, 2004.)

Happy Independence Day, everyone!  I hope you and yours have a safe yet fun day.  And for those of you reading this who do not celebrate this holiday, Happy, er, Fourth!

Finally, just because I can, here is a photo of George Takei and me taken on the same day as the fireworks photo.  The flag in the background makes the photo that much more patriotic.

More Family Fun with Photo Booth

Oh, look how I am not dead but rather just being kept very busy!  I know I swore I'd get my blogging legs back again but I haven't kept up my end of the bargain.  D'oh!  Must work on this.

I got to spend some time last week with my nieces (AKA My Most Favorite People in the World), where we did a lot of this:

Hooray for Photo Booth, for it is the only way I can take a picture with both girls once I manage to corral them in my arms for five seconds.  The little one was a bit upset because the older one tried to take something from her, but those tears went away right quick once I broke out the computer.  

We also played with masks:

Here's the older niece in her awesome polar bear mask.  (I tried to put the third mask on the little one but she wasn't having any of it.)  I love how she kept her backpack on even though we weren't going anywhere just yet.  And because I couldn't let the kid have all the fun...

...here I am looking deranged yet sad in her panda bear mask.  Seriously - how crazy do I look?  I'm talking stalk-you-in-the-dead-of-night-and-stare-at-you-through-windows crazy.  Even more seriously, isn't this mask awesome, too?  I'm thinking this should be my next Facebook profile photo.  (Aside: I just realized that we would make the most non-threatening bank robbers in these masks.)

Finally, here are the little ones checking out their Fisher-Price digital camera for kids.  I'll admit it's a pretty neat camera.  It made me so very happy to see both girls wanting to play with it!

Oh. My. GOD.

Look who I met last night!

EEEEE!  It's only my ALL-TIME FAVORITE GROUP EVER!  I was so excited I could have died.

What's your favorite Hall & Oates song?  It's hard to pick just one but if I had to it would be "Say It Isn't So" or "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)."  I CAN'T PICK JUST ONE.

And I Didn't Even Bring Up Knots Landing

Look who I met yesterday!

Awesome, right? For the record, she was extremely nice.

Shut Up, Flickr

The message I received when I logged onto my account this morning:

O HAI my username!

Now you know how to greet people in Lolspeak!

BAH.

Deep-Fried Artichoke Hearts

I really love artichokes. I'll take artichoke hearts in a salad or added to a panini, or even just a plain artichoke steamed and served with melted butter. I also love me some good fried foods, AS YOU WELL KNOW. Yum. So you can imagine how happy I was when a few weeks ago I had the great fortune of stopping by Pezzini Farms in Castroville, CA. Okay, it wasn't so much a stopping-by as a "make a fast and hard right off the freeway after seeing the billboards." How can one resist the siren song that is deep-fried artichoke hearts?

Artichokes in their natural state. Now you know.

The lunch truck that makes the deep-fried goodness.

Here you go: fresh deep-fried artichoke hearts with lemon-dill dipping sauce. I. KNOW. They were just as good as they looked.

This post is dedicated to Carol, who I am sure would agree with me that everything tastes better when deep-fried. Even artichokes.

Everything About This Photo Is Just Wrong

EW.

I am SO OFFENDED by this. The breakfast side order that is hash browns is one of the best things EVER. Prepared properly, it is a dish of wonderfully crunchy, starchy perfection (and with a dash of salt and pepper, of course - sigh), so to see it prepackaged like this makes my stomach turn. Is it that hard to shred potatoes? Does one really have to resort to buying whatever this is and adding WATER to make something that dares to call itself hash browns? Can you imagine what this must taste like? Why bother?! My heart, it aches.

Or maybe that is just the oil from the browns talking.

Worst. Fortune Cookie. EVER.

This came with my Thai food yesterday. Shut up, "fortune" cookie.

Photo taken by me.