Sectional!

Ah, laziness. I am currently sitting in my pjs, watching Hell's Kitchen, and eating peanut butter spread on french bread. How is it Tuesday and I am already ready for the weekend? Not a good sign.

The weekend was pretty good. We spent Friday night and Saturday at my dad's house, hanging out with Bug and my dad, swimming, and firing up the bbq. It should have been relaxing, but instead I had all this nervous energy. I couldn't sit still and spent the day pacing and acting like a bored teenager. I am not used to just "hanging around." Tragic, huh? According to the fam, I apparently need more practice in the beautiful art of doing nothing. I will have to try and squeeze it in the schedule. (Or, does that defeat the purpose? Hmmm).

The highlight of the weekend is probably the addition of a new member of our little family. No, not a baby . . . a couch!! Well, a sectional to be exact. Our house has been empty since we moved in last October, and we are finally starting to furnish it! The first room we're tackling is the family room. Check it out . . .


Ella likes the new couch.

Ah, but there is such a big wall, you might say. What will we look at while lounging on such a comfy couch? Let's just say, we have a few ideas. :)

Sunday, Jackie, PJ, and Bug came over for a salmon bbq by the pool. The salmon was perfect (good job, Peej) and the sides Jackie picked up from Wood Ranch were fab. (Mmmm . . . sweet smashed potatoes . . .)

Hmm. In other news, I have started working out again. Wow, it's been awhile. I started Week 1 of the Couch-to-5k plan last night. I have done this program before and always thought Week 1 was a breeze. Ha! That was then. Last night, I thought I was going to pass out! Very sad, but hey, I have to start somewhere I suppose.

That's about it for now. Time to watch Chef Ramsey yell at someone . . .

Daring to bake?

Okay, I have to be honest here and confess something to you: I am not domestic. Not at all. When other girls my age cook, I order in. When they bake, I swing by a bakery. I burn popcorn, toast, etc. No matter how easy it is, I can mess it up. Really.

Another thing: I don't like being bad at anything. Now, I had almost resigned myself to being a failure in the kitchen, a Martha-Stewart-dropout. But, out of pure stubbornness, I decided to sign up for the monthly Daring Bakers challenges. (Also, I have noticed that the baker friends I have tend to have better treats to munch on, which was further motivation.)

Making little balls out of squishy cheesecake made some of my Type-A craziness come out. I could not get those darn little blobs blobs to look like balls. Josh says the blobbiness as opposed to perfect spheres gives them character. I didn't know my cheesecake needed character, but hey, I'll go with it.

Next came the chocolate sauce. I had to test it a lot. You know, just to be sure it was good.

Dipping the blobs into the choclatey goodness...

And, ta-da! The finished product! Even though they may not be pretty or perfectly symmetrical, I must admit, they are delicious!

Overall, I think the recipe was good. It was a challenge (because, hey, everything in the workld of baking/cooking is challenging to me). The taste is outstanding. The only problem? Those little sticks make them less portable than your average baked goods, making sending them to school with Josh to share with his students more challenging. Ah well, more for me!

Reemergence.

After falling off the face of the earth for two weeks, I am finally reemerging into the so-called blogosphere. Those of you with blogs may probably received a ton of comments from me tonight. My Google Reader was not a pretty sight. But, finally, I am caught up.

So much to say since the last post. First. Work. I was placed on a new case, headed for trial mid-June. Fabulous for me professionally, but not-so-hot for my plans to go to China. I am still (perhaps naively) hoping it will all work out. Since I am a wee junior associate (and there is another junior associate on the case) and since the trial will finish three days before we are supposed to leave, I am choosing to remain blindly optimistic. We shall see.

That case plus the rest of my caseload has kept me pretty busy. I've worked through the weekends and am sleepy and boring when I am not working. I have managed to do a few fun things since my last post.

We celebrated Jackie's birthday last weekend! We had dinner at Baja Cantina, which was so delish! My Cadillac margarita was perfect, and the steak nachos were completely out of this world!

Jackie's sis and the ahh-maa-zeeen nachos!

After dinner, there were a few more margaritas at Cabo Cantina, lots of chatting, and overall good times. Jackie seemed to have a really good time.

PJ and Jackie

Hmm....what else? Oh! Monday, I had dinner with some fabulous friends of mine, and went home with a big smile on my face.

On Tuesday, Josh and I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I went in with low expectations and actually really liked it! I would even recommend it.

Hmm. That's about it! I promise not to disappear again (at least for awhile)!

Good stuff.

It's all about the little things that make my day. Despite a couple little bumps today, two things are making me smile.

First, our visas for China came in!!! Eeeeeee!!! I'm getting so excited! The picture of the Great Wall on the visa got me all giddy!


Second, I was able to have dinner with my sis, dad, and Josh tonight at a little Indian food restaurant. Bug, as always, managed to crack me up. And, my dad is so mellow and fun. It was definitely my mid-week highlight!

Don't mess with me, whippersnappers.

How many five-year-olds could you take on in a fight?

26

So, yeah. Don't mess with me.

P.S. Best question: "During the fight, would you feel morally comfortable picking up a child and using him/her as a weapon to throw at other children?"

Mother-Daughter Bonding + Wine

Thank God it's the weekend again. Time for a little R&R and blogging after what seemed like an interminable week.

Although, one highlight of last week was trying Takami Sushi on Thursday night. I went there with a few other attorneys from my firm for a client dinner, and it was absolutely fabulous! First off, the view! It's located in a high-rise downtown, and it's open air (don't worry, though, there are plexi-glass panels to protect you from falling/pushing/jumping). The almost floor-to-ceiling "windows" present a breathtaking, panoramic view of my city. And, the food! Everything I ate was delicious: crispy rice and tuna, sushi (21st Century roll was outstanding), and the robata (the filet and shitake mushroom are like butta). I highly recommend.

Friday, Josh and I had dinner at Cosmos Grill. No recap necessary as I was underwhelmed. However, the saving grace? They had desserts from Sweet Lady Jane! After savoring a delicious slice of carrot cake, I adopted the bedtime of an eighth-grader and passed out in my little bed around 8:45 p.m.

My mom is back in town this weekend, so this morning she and my sister arrived bright and early at my house for a "girl's day." We headed up to Santa Barbara for the day to poke around. We ate at a little Indian food place on State Street (didn't catch the name, but it was pretty good), window shopped for awhile, and then did a little wine tasting. (We came home with a case of wine.) After, we strolled the Santa Barbara pier and then decided to head back south.

Again, I am lame and forgot my camera, so this post is sans pictures. One of these days, I will get better about toting along a camera so I have pics for my posts (like the lovely WeeMo).

This evening, no exciting plans. I think mom, Josh, Bug, and I might rent a movie and pop popcorn (one of my mom's favorite ways to spend a weekend night -- hey, there's not much else to do in Alaska). It's so nice to have her around. I hope my step-dad doesn't mind when we kidnap her.