Thursday, July 31, 2008

Hawaii: Cures What Ails You

Would it be cheesy and over the top to start out this post by yelling "Aloha!" then pretend to wait for your response of the same greeting, then act like your first attempt just wasn't good enough, and yell it at you again? It would? Sweet.

Aloha!
no, no, no, I said...
Alo-ha!
I needed this vacation like you wouldn't believe...like McCain needs a prayer...like my oven needs a cleaning...like I needed a tan. Stresses manifested from all areas of my so-called-life had been tugging at me from even the most unsuspecting places. It was all I could do to pacify those nasty stress monsters with overdoses of Sour Patch Kids knowing that a blissful vacation was on the horizon.When I stepped off the plane in Honolulu, the most amazing thing happened. That one thing I freaked out about? Over it. That other thing I was stressing about? Poof. Gone. And those other little petty things keeping me up at night? Nada. And for that reason, Hawaii is a magical, mystical place with special healing powers that I will forever be grateful for. It is because of Hawaii that BD is still my PerfectDarlingAngelBearClaw and no one else has lost their life due to my unpredictable bouts with craziness. P.S. I might also feel this way about Hawaii because LOST is filmed there. But I'm still iffy on that part. So, thank you Hawaii.

My Hawaii Top Ten
10. Hot malasadas filled with cream. Fat free, calorie free, but only in Hawaii. And if you've heard otherwise, keep it to yourself.9. Contemplating whether to take the golf cart or walk to the beach was the most important decision I would make all day, and all week for that matter. It was incredible to really vacation and really relax. In my world there's a huge difference between a trip and a vacation. Hawaii was meant to be the latter.8. Hawaiian Shave Ice from Matsumoto's. Not to be confused with regular shaved ice, or even a snow cone for that matter. Shave Ice is in a sweet-sugary-sticky world all it's own with ice cream and beans to boot.7. Sand in your toes and in all the places in and around your body that sand shouldn't ever go, but still does. That naughty sand.6. Cliff jumping at Waimea. Or in my case, watching the cliff jumpers at Waimea. Don't judge me, I'm not a baby but someone had to stay back with the kid, who BTW is an actual baby, and I'd rather that someone be me, with my butt safely parked on the beach where it belongs. Crazythrillseekingadventurists...as if it wasn't enough that I allowed myself to swim in shark infested waters (AKA "the ocean"), I didn't see the need to go carelessly flailing my body off a mountain into that same death trap.5. Eating delicious shrimp from a broken down bus on the side of Kam highway, discovering you have a rather unpleasant intolerance for palm oil, paying heavily for eating that delicious shrimp for the next several days.4. Being reminded that I am officially back to "baby hungry." More like carnivorous actually. Sigh. Thanks a lot Nixon, you cute little monkey you. If you need me, I'll be working on my denial routine for the next 6 months. To speed up the process, be a dear and send me pictures of your little brats doing terrible, horrible, no good things to you and your house, preferably with snotty noses and germy hands. My posterity thanks you in advance.3. Living like a rock star better than a rock star for a week. Mahalo to the Murdocks for including us in their summer vacation. Someday, we'll return the favor (translation: we'll never be able to return the favor, but we'll die trying!).2. Sunsets on the beach, holding hands with my beau, and feeling more relaxed and rejuvenated than I ever thought possible.1. Spending 7 days in Hawaii together as the perfect excuse to connect, reconnect, and make incredible memories with dear friends. These two beauties are my old roommates from back in the day, like way back, when it was probalby still cool to say "back in the day." I've since given up on cool, but I still heart them. Possibly even more than I heart Hawaii.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Jungle Animal Cupcakes

My friend Jessica asked me to make animal cupcakes for her 3 year old daughter's birthday party. I'm glad I was up for the challenge because I really love how they turned out.

Baking is cathartic. I love measuring out the ingredients, flour, cocoa, sugar, and skimming off the top to be perfectly even. I love things to be perfect. So shoot me. The whole process is very exact, precise. It makes me happy and whole. Pouring the vanilla is my very favorite part. Sometimes I let the vanilla spill out over the teaspoon and pretend I didn't notice. I'm rebellious like that. Oh, and I love pouring the batter into the cups, that's also my favorite part.Baking smells really good too. Question: Is there anything that smells better than chocolate cake right out of the oven? I can't think of anything. Not one. Now that I think about it, eating chocolate cake is my favorite part. Yep, that's definitely my favorite. My sis agreed to come help me take on the Jungle Animal cupcake endeavor. I LOVE being in the kitchen with my sisters, it's one of those joys in life that I hope never grows old, even when we do. Three dozen custom cupcakes is a big job, and I could not have done it without her! As you can see, we take this baking stuff really seriously.Decorating is really fun too. The icing on the cake is the paint on the canvas and allows for any and all creativity to be explored. For example, trying to get that perfect "jungle-y" yellow. I'm happy to say, we got it right.
I hear a stampede coming...
[drum roll please]
What is your favorite one? My favorite are the elephants. And the monkeys. No, the zebras. Well, actually the loins. Yeah, definitely the loins-zebras-monkeys-elephants are my favorites.

Inspiration from fish outa water and sara bakes cakes.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Check It (The Roots)

The Roots
July 10, 2008

2008 Twilight Concert Series
Best FREE concert I've ever been to.
Most talented hip hop performers I've ever heard.
Greatest experience I've had with a thousand other hot sweaty bodies.




You know it's good hip hop when there's a tuba involved. Stay with me here people, because things are about to get real good.

The best-most-greatest part of the entire night was the spontaneous pre-show entertainment. There was about an hour to kill in between the opening band and The Roots, and (try to imagine this) we were surrounded by thousands of hot sweaty bodies and each of them seemed to make it a point to brush into me. Every. Single. One. I really thought I was going to lose it, you know, because of all the thousands of sweaty bodies brushing into me, but then we noticed this awesome kid rockin' out on the bridge. (You'll even notice that at exactly 1:00 he gives me some lovin').



Watching him dance non-stop, I almost forgot all about the thousands of hot sweaty bodies brushing into me. The little man just kept going and going and going. Just doing his thang. Eventually more people began to notice. And then this happened...



Props to the other guy for bowing out while he still had his dignity. This little man can bring it! Thanks little man for the best pre-show entertainment EVER. I'm pretty sure you are the coolest kid I don't even know.

And to all those thousands of hot sweaty bodies, we'll see you next week!

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Summatime...

...and the livin's easy.

Independence Day

Family, hiking, swimming, BBQ, fireworks. Perfect.I took my family hiking-they thought I was trying to kill them. I wasn't. We almost had to helicopter my mom off the hill (her wishes, not mine) because she literally thought she was going to die. She didn't.

They forgave me once they had cooled off in the pool. BD grilled us some delicious burgers (80/20 ground chuck) like only he can, and we ended the evening watching fireworks all over the valley from the deck. Almost forgot, Brook made her delicious white balsamic tart...isn't it beautiful?
God bless the USA!

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Seriously, Best Blog Ever

I'm disappointed this morning to learn that I don't have the best blog ever. I know! I'm just as shocked as you are. I really thought I had most of the bloggers out there beat when it comes to sheer awesomeness. After all, I make it a point to brag about myself at least once a week (see post below), but I realize that maybe since I don't have kids it's harder for me to find cuteness to freak out about. Even still, I thought I was doing a pretty descent job subtly maintaining a I'm cooler than you approach to this blog thing.

Apparently not. Seriously, So Blessed! takes the cake for best blog ever.

Happy 4th of July weekend! Seriously, I'm so blessed.

Thanks Brook!

P.S. I love blogging. Really, I do. That's why I do it.