butter is to potatoes and love is to pink rockstars

Since it was my roomie's birthday yesterday, Lover and I cooked her dinner. Pretty much awesome. So awesome, in fact, I forgot to take pictures. I only remembered after I ate my cupcake, so I had to grab a second to take a picture.

Dinner was awesome. Lover cooked 4.5 pounds of tri-tip and I made mashed potatoes with a pound of butter. Yup. So good. There were eight of us, and we ate, laughed and tweeted. 

On a more somber note. I found two more holes in my favorite jeans.

I inherited these from a roommate a year ago. I patched them once when she gave them to me, then again six months ago. I'd replace them, but they're True Religions and I don't want to spend $200 on jeans right now. Maybe if I get the job I just applied for then I'll treat myself. Until then. . . totally not above patching these until there's nothing original left. Haha.

In other news: 

If you can't wait until Shark Week, get your fix with Shark Men.

I'm obsessed with Pink Rockstars. Especially when I saw the 2011 Fuschia Dodge Challenger at a car show earlier this year.  It's a match made in heaven.

Lots of love.

spring rain and summer sun

We had a glimpse of summer this weekend and it was fantastic, so I'm giving you a glimpse of my weekend.

I always love an excuse to eat mexican food, so I welcomed in Cinco de Mayo whole-heartedly.

Here's Lover being silly in the hammock chair in front of my house.

The weather hit 80 on Saturday, so we rented a sea kayak and took it out on the river/lake. It was perfect! Lover brought his fishing stuff (didn't catch anything) and I brought a book (didn't read it). We paddled up the river, then floated back to the lake. It was a solid shoulder work out, definitely a fun way to spend a lazy day.

I didn't take any pictures on the lake, but I took this one while Lover was buying worms in the gas station.

With Sunday being Mother's Day, I always appreciate the opportunity to recognize my mother. I try to do it year-round, but it is fun to have the excuse to be sappy and tell her how much I love her.

This is my mom. I love her, not only because she's my mom, but because we understand each other. My mom and I are a lot a like. We have similar interests, skills, weaknesses, ways of thinking and we love life. Being similar helps us get each other and gives me a lot of respect for the ways she has overcome weaknesses we share. She's the only person who can match my bone-headedness, but she knows how to let that go when necessary. I could go on, but I'll end with this: She's amazing.

Down and back up again

I'm usually pretty healthy, but for some reason this past week I've been down for the count. I think it's going away.

In other news:
Lover and I bought a bocce ball set. We're currently even when it comes to number of games we've each won.
I want to go to the little antique shop downtown to get some crystals from an old chandelier I've been eyeing.
The weather is impeccable. I'm typing this while lying on the lawn.
I'm looking for jobs in South Carolina.
I got my hair cut today. I love getting my hair played with and Twix, the guy who cuts my hair, says my hair is his favorite long hair to cut. Whether it's just flattery or not, I like hearing it.

Other than my stomach waging war against me, I'm fantastic.

Date Night: RWWWAAARRRRRRR!!!!

It's kind of a misnomer to say we had a date night because Lover and I spend every night doing some kind of date activity (making dinner, watching a movie. . . ) but today I officially "took him out."

We started out by going over to the thrift store. We were there last night and I saw a carousel horse that sparked the innerchild/futuremother in me and I wanted to buy it so badly! Sadly, there's not a lot of extra space or cash for something so frivolous, so we left it there. This morning he took me back to buy it (reasons he took me back: 1- He's amazing. 2-I don't think he's ever seen me so smitten over an object before) but it was gone. Oh well. So instead of spending money, we went and took a two hour nap.

After dragging ourselves into consciousness we headed north where we had lunch at Pho Hoa, the best little restaurant for getting Pho.

 You know the place is legit when the chain has restaurants throughout Asia. We loaded our bowls full of Sriarcha, chili and eel sauce. My nose was running from the heat, exactly how I love it!

Then we went and watched Disney Nature's African Cats.

Lover's favorite animal is the Lion so when we first saw the African Cat's trailer earlier this year we had it on our calendars as a must watch. I loved it. The shots they were able to capture are unbelievable. It's like you're a part of Kenya's safari! And then they tie human emotions to these animals, leaving me empowered as a woman and potential mother. Go see it.

Downtown there's this hole-in-the-wall Belgian restaurant called Bruges. They sell frites and a few meal items, which are amazing, but we went for the waffles and creme fraiche. 

Mine = Cinnamon waffle. Strawberries. Creme Fraiche.

Lover's = Cinnamon waffle. Speculoos. Creme Fraiche.

It's always nice to get away and spend some time together. Spring has been elusive, so today we had some of this:



and some snow.

Much love.

Bites: Chicken Salad Sangwiches

Yesterday for dinner I made a chicken salad that Lover and I then ate as sandwiches. I thought they were really good! I modeled them after the local grocery store's chicken croissant sandwiches and a chicken curry salad I made last summer.

There's no real recipe, but in case you're curious, here's how I made it.
Mix together:
Two cans of chunk chicken breast
Mayonnaise (enough to make it as wet as you want it, but not sopping)
To taste: Garlic powder, cumin, curry powder and salt
Grapes (I quartered mine)
Cashews
Black Olives (sliced)

We put it on toast and covered it with cheese and it was delicious! Lover said so. : )

threads: Welcome Spring

Sometimes I can put something together that resembles fashion. Here's what I did today:

Photos, thanks to Lover.

Glasses: Walmart
Shirt: Volcom and Madewell
Jacket: Gap
Necklaces: Loft, Nordstrom, thrifted
Bracelet: Gift
Belt: thrifted
Pants: Old Navy

Graduation Gift to me.

As a recent college graduate (minus an internship I'm doing this summer) I'm gifting myself a blog. I guess there's really no reason to give a long introduction about myself. If anyone ends up reading this, they'll figure me out from subsequent posts. If no one reads this, then there's no need to give myself an introduction.


Something I love: