July 4th I hosted my first BBQ. I invited some friends from work and I. came up from L.A. Being in California I decided I should barbeque tri-tip steak. Sounds simple enough right? I decided I would put a rub on it. I had a recipe from my friends M. & R. that I've used the past few years on flank steak. Being that this was a big piece of meat I was grilling - a little over 3lbs. I doubled the recipe; spices, lime zest, olive oil - perfect!
My guests started to arrived, I put some salmon on the grill, tossed my pasta salad, put out homemade quacamole, poured some wine, then put the steak on the grill.
UP IN FLAMES INSTANTLY! Close the lid, it will put the flames out right?? A few minutes later the grill is approaching 700 degrees, peek under lid, meat engulfed in flames. Look nervously at wood porch, ceiling, cottage that the grill is sitting on..... Turn grill down, smart, then in a moment of panic after closing the windows because the house is filled with smoke, I accidentally turn the grill back up. Meat still on fire, the dial on grill is now past 800 degrees and still spinning. Finally have the brains to turn grill OFF. The yard, house, porch is full of smoke, meat still on fire. Fortunately, I removed salmon quite early in the flaming meat incident and it came out perfectly (minus the layer of black soot, I had to scrape off the top of it). We are now approaching the 20 minute mark (remember 3 + lbs of meat) decide to take meat off grill and put flames out by hand if necessary. I. trusty sous chef, calm, supportive friend holds the platter as I remove charred meat and place (still on fire) on platter. Flames die down, we let meat rest and when I slice it it's almost completely cooked through.
So, if you like your meat with a 1/2" char around it, come on over I got the recipe to get that done, pronto!
At one point I thought " what am I going to do??, I'll call my Dad!" In hindsight probably calling my Dad 3,000 miles away as my house is on fire is not going to be the most efficient use of a phone call, but maybe the most comforting.
Hope everyone had as much fun as I did on the 4th!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
New Digs
My permanent home (at least for the next 2 years) is a Craftsman style cottage in downtown SB. It's a charming 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom cottage. I saw it the 1st or 2nd week I moved here and it was out of my price range. But, I kept an eye on the 'market' and noticed it was still available as my due date to find a place was approaching. I did some hard nose negotiating and landed it for a 2 year lease at $295 less/month than the asking price.
I moved in March 31st and 10 days later went to China for a week. Came back from China and was sick for a week. I brought a lot of stuff with me but not much furniture; I basically had a bed and end table and a folding chair for furniture. I was not a happy woman the week I was home sick.
So, I got to buying some furniture starting with a couch, chocolate brown w/ a subtle sea foam jacquard medallion pattern. I saw it in a store in downtown SB, went home to measure, called the store and 20 minutes later it was delivered. And it was marked down at least 70% from the original asking price. Then I bought a TV, didn't go as smoothly as the couch purchase but within 72 hours I had a new couch and tv. Life was infinitely better with those 2 purchases. And those of you that know my VCRvo days will be happy to hear I've advanced to DVR.
I have since added an entertainment console and a kitchen table and chairs along with some lamps and a new tea kettle. It' starting to feel like home. I'm using some boxes as make shift furniture until I finish my buying spree.
I am still unpacking all the stuff I had shipped out here from A-town. Why do I have so much stuff? Why, oh why do I have 15 pint glasses and more wine glasses? Why do I have at least 6 pairs of Hoy's 5 & 10 flip flops and I now work for a company that started as a flip flop company?
I love the location of my place. I live on the Victorian street in SB. 2 blocks from State St, which is the main drag through town with stores, restaurants and bars lining it. 3 blocks from the Saturday morning Farmer's Market. 10 minute walk to the beach. The owners of the cottage live in the main house on the front of the property facing the street. I'm behind their house and get the benefit from feeling secure (locked gates on both ends of property) and being on a beautifully landscaped property. My landlady is quite the gardener and my landlord is extremely particular about the 'buildings' on the property and keeps everything in wonderful condition. He also has a great eye and there are a lot of beautiful details in my place. He gutted my cottage some years ago and made vast improvements to it. The layout was improved, the wood wainscotting was stripped of paint and refitted to deck out both bedrooms and living room. Wood and tile floors throughout, just an awesome place to call home. Updated kitchen with all the modern conviences I desire: gas range, dishwasher, garbage disposal, built in microwave, granite countertops, custom built in pantry. I have a front porch which holds my grill, and I've been enjoying cooking out, and some yet to be bought table and chairs.
Photos below are of my kitchen, 2 views. I have a back door out the kitchen that goes to the alley which is the 'shortcut' to State St. 2 pictures of living room, one showing the new sofa.
China
I've been neglecting my blog for about a month. Where has the time gone? My week in China was a great experience. It was just the right amount of time to be away. By the last 2 days I was getting a little homesick for S.B, CA and a bit exhausted from being with a group of 11-14 people. It was a massive group of people to travel with. There are pluses and minuses to a group that size. The plus of not having to make any decisions or figure anything out logistically; helpful on a first trip to a foreign country. The minus of feeling like you aren't really having any decent conversations with anyone because there are so many people around. Being one of the few people on the trip without kids also is interesting. Having kids is an equalizer, it gives a common ground for co-workers to converse about.
China - Dong Guan, southern China - We spent the work week in southern China going to a factory each day reviewing 1st samples and getting a feeling of the factory we're working with and our company's China team. Then we would come back to the hotel and eat dinner at the hotel and do it all over the next day. Could have been anywhere, could have been in Iowa. The trip to the factory was mostly on highways so not much local culture to see. Except when we would get to intersections where highways converge instead of there being a circle, it's a free-for-all, a bit like a game of chicken. The factory visits were not mind blowing in any way. What I expected, lots of people working long days, in factory environment. Being that I 'worked' in a machine shop for a few years I think that prepared me for seeing a fairly basic set up in China. The workers also have housing accommodations on the same site as factory. The factory was clean, well lit, and a decent size of 3 buildings with 3 floors each I believe.
The hotel we stayed in was fabulous. The room was big, with a huge modern bathroom, veranda, and an enormous sunk in tub. The food in the main dining room was buffet style, but amazing food and everything you could really want. Chinese food, italian, sushi with a crazy dessert bar of just about any sweet you could want. The coffee at the hotel was really quite tasty, I was not expecting to have decent coffee in China.
So, we arrived on a Sunday night from CA into Hong Kong. I think my posting the night arrived had my times all messed up so let me clear it up if possible. We left SFO at 12:30pm (PST) Saturday. We arrived into HK at 6pm Sunday night. We were in the air for about 14 1/2 hours. When we landed at 6pm it was 3am in California. Coming home is crazier because you leave China and arrive in CA at the same exact time and same day that you left China! That is insane! I was very concerned I would have terrible jet lag when I arrived in China. But, I never got jet lag on either end of the trip. My payback for no jet lag was coming home and having a fever for 5 days.
So, on Friday of my week in China we flew from Shenzen to Beijing and went to visit a company store we have in an outdoor mall in Beijing. Being in Beijing I felt like I was in another country. The smog there is unbelievable, you can't really see all the way down a full city block clearly. And the traffic was like LA traffic, slow and constant.
We spent some time walking around shopping and going through a open food market area, looking and tasting some of the crazy things available. I split a stick of fried Scorpions with a co-worker. They weren't as gross as I thought they could be. They were little scorpions, so that made it easier to work up the nerve. They were very crunchy and salty and the inside was a bit soft shell crablike. 
They tasted better than the fermented tofu that we also tried as a group. The other unusual food item I had was pig's ears - I didn't know what it was but it looked like strips of a mushroom and it was at the hotel buffet in the hotel we stayed at near the factories. It was pretty gross - no taste just grisly, yuck!
They tasted better than the fermented tofu that we also tried as a group. The other unusual food item I had was pig's ears - I didn't know what it was but it looked like strips of a mushroom and it was at the hotel buffet in the hotel we stayed at near the factories. It was pretty gross - no taste just grisly, yuck! We spent Saturday sightseeing, we had a bus and a tour guide from the hotel and we spent from 8-5 on the tour bus. First stop - Tiananmen Square - HUGE and the never ending line of Chinese people waiting to see Mao's remains was unbelievable. I tried to take photos of the line but only an aerial shot showing the immense size of the square and the packs of people would do it justice. The Forbidden City - fascinating, could have spent all day in there looking at the buildings and hearing about the history of it. I want to re-watch 'The Last Emperor' to get more of the story of the royal family and the life inside the walls. The Great Wall - Wow! I need to go back there and spend longer walking along the Wall. Unfortunately, it was very overcast when we were there so the view was not as vast as I've seen in photos. We took a cable car/gondola from the parking area up to the Wall and back.
On the way back the second you step out of the gondola atrium there are people hocking cheap stuff to buy, the 'I Climbed the Great Wall' tee-shirts, and all kinds of tchotchkes and the vendors are very agressive. One look at an item and they are telling you what the great price for it is and if you walk away they come after you, dropping the price and grabbing you and being relentless. It was a bit of a turn off to walk away from an ancient Wonder of the World to be harassed to buy cheap stuff for a few dollars.
To end this amazing day of sightseeing we went out for Peking Duck. Awesome! The restaurant was amazing, very New York-y, great space, fabulous food and I gorged myself (as I did at most every meal). One of my co-workers parents live in Beijing so they joined us for dinner and chose the restaurant. It was really nice to meet family of a co-worker and feel their generosity and be with locals which I love when traveling.
I was very fortunate to be able to travel for only a week, travel business class, and get a weekend of sightseeing tacked onto it. A wonderful opportunity and once in a lifetime experiences.
Pictures:
top - Me on The Great Wall
middle - seahorses on a stick to eat at Food Market in Beijing
bottom left - front of Forbidden City Palace entrance
bottom right - Great Wall
bottom movie - Live Scorpions skewered on stick at market in Beijing
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Arrived Hong Kong
I am in Hong Kong. Feeling a little jet lagged and getting ready to go to bed. Arrived around 6pm Sunday night, Hong Kong time, which would be 3am in Santa Barbara Sunday morning. Crazy the time difference.
Flying business class is entirely different than flying coach. Lying flat to sleep is so nice. Eating and drinking from plates and glasses and silverware, including an actually knife. Sitting 2 across with leg room, nice size personal movie screen with retractable remote, wider aisle and only about 20 people in the section is a completely different world than I'm used to.
I did not sleep much on the plane, maybe 3 hours. so, I'm ready to go to sleep, it's about 10pm now. I'll blog more, later this week hopefully.
Flying business class is entirely different than flying coach. Lying flat to sleep is so nice. Eating and drinking from plates and glasses and silverware, including an actually knife. Sitting 2 across with leg room, nice size personal movie screen with retractable remote, wider aisle and only about 20 people in the section is a completely different world than I'm used to.
I did not sleep much on the plane, maybe 3 hours. so, I'm ready to go to sleep, it's about 10pm now. I'll blog more, later this week hopefully.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Extra Curricular Activities
Besides spending most of my weekends up until last weekend looking at apartments I have had a chance to do some fun things since my move out here in February. I am so thrilled I have two very, very good girlfriends close by. I have had awesome times with both of them - T & I and that has been a big help in keeping me from having any major homesickness or being too lonely.
The first week I was here I mentioned in one of my early, if not my first posts that I went down to T's house and we went out for dinner and I stayed over and then on Sunday we met I, C & V for lunch at Neptune Ned's (did I get the name right yet??) in Malibu. As an aside T & C (her husband) have the most awesome-est bath towels. They are so luxurious, it's like staying at a hotel when you are a guest at their house, love it!
The weekend of February 28th I went up to T's Aunt's house in the Santa Ynez Valley( T was house sitting for a few days) and we had a lovely, leisurely lunch at Los Olivos Cafe, watched a bit of the Men's USA vs. Canada Olympic finals hockey game, wine tasted at a shop in town, visited a few shops, wine tasted at a winery. The Santa Barbara County Wine country is where the movie 'Sideways' was set. I love that movie and since that movie was released the area has really experienced quite an influx of visitors and growth. As everyone can guess this has it's good and bad fallout. Unfortunately, our first tasting at a very chic LOOKING wine shop in town with a pairing of a cupcake flight was dissapointing to put it mildly. T was really upset by the experience and commented about it on yelp.com (a website I had never heard of until then) and in all the years I've known her, and it's been just a couple, this would count as probably the most offended and ticked off I've seen her. But, the tasting we did at the Rusack winery was quite relaxing and enjoyable. It was a beautiful day, the drive from Santa Barbara to Santa Ynez Valley was pretty and about 40 minutes, not too shabby. I appreciated T showing me around and indulging me in my 'Sideways' moment.
The following weekend, March 7th was the Academy Awards, what I consider my Super Bowl. I. came up from L.A. and we watched the show together. In all honesty the anticipation, trying to cram in as many best picture, actor, actress nom. movies, preparing food and drinks and having I. over was way more fun then the actual show. And watching the 'red carpet' is not as fun as it used to be when stars dressed themselves and wore hilariously awful ensembles. Gone are the days of Cher, Kim Basinger with her one sleeved dress, Demi Moore in her biker shorts and cut away floor grazing skirt... I miss those days. It's hard to pick on someone wearing a $7,000 dress, $1.5 million in diamonds and $800 shoes, but that doesn't stop me. Nor does it stop me from calling NY-T to discuss winners, dresses, and movies. For the Oscar viewing we nibbled and imbibed the following:
Piper Sonoma Sparkling Brut - my fave CA champagne and it's WAY cheaper out here than on the East coast.
salame, prosciutto, asiago
mushroom bruschetta
artichoke hearts
roast chicken
roasted asparagus
crudite - celery, snap peas, carrots, grape tomatoes
1000 crackers (from Trader Joe's, these are sooooo tasty and $1.99 a box)
guacamole
dark chocolate
lemon wafers
sparkling water
red wine
I've attached a photo of our spread (before we attacked).
Needless to say we were stuffed and due to all the eating and drinking didn't sleep too well.
March 14th I decided to treat myself to brunch. I first went to a Pilates class at the gym. Never have taken a Pilates class before. I really enjoyed it and am going back tomorrow, and it was a workout, major spaghetti legs afterwards. Well, I decided a workout like that deserved crepes. I had read an article in a local magazine about crepes and I was just salivating from the article. It mentioned a place in SB so I went, took my Vogue magazine that my Mom spent more money than it costs for the magazine to mail to me and sat outside and ordered coffee and a ham and cheese crepe. The coffee was terrible, terrible. In a french restaurant coffee should not be an issue. The crepe was fine, but it was missing love, no love went into the making of it. Then to give them one more chance I ordered an espresso and a dessert crepe, lemon squeeze. A crepe with powdered sugar dusted on it and fresh lemon juice squeezed over it. Ugh! Seeds, seeds from the lemon on my crepe! And the espresso, came in a very cool little cup, but no demitasse spoon and it had some grinds in the bottom of it. No love. My silly crepes I attempted on Christmas morning had more going for them.... just ask my parents. I've attached a photo I took of the dessert crepe menu. I had to take a photo since they had a crepe named after my youngest sister, how crazy is that???
On St. Pat's Day I had an East Coast visitor. M. was in SoCal for business for a few days and made the drive up from Calabasas (outside of LA) to get together for dinner. It was great to catch up and go out to eat. I was a bit concerned it may be a little crazy on St. Pat's, but after spending many a St. Patrick's Day in NYC watching people throwing up at 10am on 5th Ave, it was as if the holiday did not get acknowledged here. I was proudly sporting my green and realized that for the first time I was wearing my green tee-shirt without a long sleeve shirt underneath it. Kinda cool!
On March 26th I took part in a volunteer event at work. It was about a 2 hour get down and dirty picking up trash, actually hauling out homeless shanty towns, along the Venture Creek bed. BTW - creek does not mean water, something I'm getting used to. Dusty, dusty, dusty and quite smelly at times. Deckers is very involved with the community and they partnered up with 2 other local companies in the area to help out in the clean up. I can't complain about how easy they make it to participate. It's during work hours, you get paid, they give you lunch, transportation, some 'swag', an after party with tasty beer - New Belgium Brewing, Ranger IPA, dinner, music, raffle for free shoes. I would be lying if I said I enjoyed cleaning up homeless people's shit, but it's good to step out of your comfort zone sometimes and I'm glad I took part and met some other people I work with and people from other companies.
Last weekend, March 20th I headed down to LA to go see 'Alice in Wonderland' in 3-D Imax with I, C, & V. I liked the movie and am glad I saw it in 3-D Imax, but I wouldn't rank it in the top 5 fave Tim Burton movies. I don't know, maybe it was the 3-D that detracted for me, or I'm just not into such high fantasy films right now, or that it costs $20 to see it... Did LOVE Alice's dresses though and would like to read the books. I stayed over at I.'s and the next day we had brunch at C & V's. It was AMAZING!!! I think the great company had a lot to do with it. In all honesty I prefer to eat at home than out, it's more relaxing and the details are usually way better (i.e silverware, glasses, linens, chairs, lighting...) We had an extremely tasty egg scrambled whipped up by C - mushrooms, bacon, onions, cheddar cheese - 4 of the greatest food items ever. And the croissants, I have never, ever (maybe in France) had a croissant like this one. I've been drooling about it since then and today to just rub salt in a wound had a disgusting croissant, that was microwaved (not by me)!!! And of course we had mimosas with our brunch.
Oh and as a perk for staying at I's I left with a huge bag of clothes, most of them still with tags on them and some (the best of them) designed by I. herself. It's like I got a whole new wardrobe just for driving to LA!
This past week M was in town again and we got take-out and chilled out. He also fixed my laptop which most of you know has been dragging me down for sometime. I was accussing Tom's spirit of making it act crazy and was sure once I moved to SB it would behave, no such luck. Now, it's working like a charm. Thanks M!
I've been to the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market every Saturday since I found out about it. Love it!! There is one vendor that seems to only be there every other week. He has insanely tasty tomatoes and cucumbers. How often do you get excited about eating a cucumber, well this vendor's cucumbers are exciting! Last week he was at the Market and it was like feeding time in a shark tank, it was dangerous trying to go in close to grab yourself some cuces and tomatoes. And SB is such a small town that I always see someone from work there, it's kind of funny. I bought a fruit I don't think I have ever seen before a few weeks ago, Cherimoya. It's sweet and pulpy, big dark seeds in it that were a bit off putting to me the first time I ate it. I've bought more of them and like them as an add in to my fresh sliced strawberries each morning. I've attached a photo (I think) of it sliced open. Pale flesh with big dark seeds. Someone at the market described it as a tropical pear, for taste reference. Not a bad description. My West Coast friends and family chime in with some more info on this fruit.
For those of you who buy strawberries and watch them melt and mildew in a blink of the eye I have seen a whole new world of strawberries and I like it. Buying extremely fresh produce is amazing. It doesn't go bad instantly. I can keep strawberries, organic berries, in the fridge in the pint container, in a bag for a week and not have problems. I have thrown out a total of 2 berries since I've been here and I've been buying between 1 - 3 pints a week. The 2 berries I threw out were about 1 1/2 weeks old, sitting in the fridge in a bag. It's a whole new world of produce.
So, that's a bit of what I've been up to. Just a few more days before I move into 'my' new cottage...
The first week I was here I mentioned in one of my early, if not my first posts that I went down to T's house and we went out for dinner and I stayed over and then on Sunday we met I, C & V for lunch at Neptune Ned's (did I get the name right yet??) in Malibu. As an aside T & C (her husband) have the most awesome-est bath towels. They are so luxurious, it's like staying at a hotel when you are a guest at their house, love it!
The weekend of February 28th I went up to T's Aunt's house in the Santa Ynez Valley( T was house sitting for a few days) and we had a lovely, leisurely lunch at Los Olivos Cafe, watched a bit of the Men's USA vs. Canada Olympic finals hockey game, wine tasted at a shop in town, visited a few shops, wine tasted at a winery. The Santa Barbara County Wine country is where the movie 'Sideways' was set. I love that movie and since that movie was released the area has really experienced quite an influx of visitors and growth. As everyone can guess this has it's good and bad fallout. Unfortunately, our first tasting at a very chic LOOKING wine shop in town with a pairing of a cupcake flight was dissapointing to put it mildly. T was really upset by the experience and commented about it on yelp.com (a website I had never heard of until then) and in all the years I've known her, and it's been just a couple, this would count as probably the most offended and ticked off I've seen her. But, the tasting we did at the Rusack winery was quite relaxing and enjoyable. It was a beautiful day, the drive from Santa Barbara to Santa Ynez Valley was pretty and about 40 minutes, not too shabby. I appreciated T showing me around and indulging me in my 'Sideways' moment.
The following weekend, March 7th was the Academy Awards, what I consider my Super Bowl. I. came up from L.A. and we watched the show together. In all honesty the anticipation, trying to cram in as many best picture, actor, actress nom. movies, preparing food and drinks and having I. over was way more fun then the actual show. And watching the 'red carpet' is not as fun as it used to be when stars dressed themselves and wore hilariously awful ensembles. Gone are the days of Cher, Kim Basinger with her one sleeved dress, Demi Moore in her biker shorts and cut away floor grazing skirt... I miss those days. It's hard to pick on someone wearing a $7,000 dress, $1.5 million in diamonds and $800 shoes, but that doesn't stop me. Nor does it stop me from calling NY-T to discuss winners, dresses, and movies. For the Oscar viewing we nibbled and imbibed the following:
Piper Sonoma Sparkling Brut - my fave CA champagne and it's WAY cheaper out here than on the East coast.
salame, prosciutto, asiago
mushroom bruschetta
artichoke hearts
roast chicken
roasted asparagus
crudite - celery, snap peas, carrots, grape tomatoes
1000 crackers (from Trader Joe's, these are sooooo tasty and $1.99 a box)
guacamole
dark chocolate
lemon wafers
sparkling water
red wine
I've attached a photo of our spread (before we attacked).
Needless to say we were stuffed and due to all the eating and drinking didn't sleep too well.
March 14th I decided to treat myself to brunch. I first went to a Pilates class at the gym. Never have taken a Pilates class before. I really enjoyed it and am going back tomorrow, and it was a workout, major spaghetti legs afterwards. Well, I decided a workout like that deserved crepes. I had read an article in a local magazine about crepes and I was just salivating from the article. It mentioned a place in SB so I went, took my Vogue magazine that my Mom spent more money than it costs for the magazine to mail to me and sat outside and ordered coffee and a ham and cheese crepe. The coffee was terrible, terrible. In a french restaurant coffee should not be an issue. The crepe was fine, but it was missing love, no love went into the making of it. Then to give them one more chance I ordered an espresso and a dessert crepe, lemon squeeze. A crepe with powdered sugar dusted on it and fresh lemon juice squeezed over it. Ugh! Seeds, seeds from the lemon on my crepe! And the espresso, came in a very cool little cup, but no demitasse spoon and it had some grinds in the bottom of it. No love. My silly crepes I attempted on Christmas morning had more going for them.... just ask my parents. I've attached a photo I took of the dessert crepe menu. I had to take a photo since they had a crepe named after my youngest sister, how crazy is that???
On St. Pat's Day I had an East Coast visitor. M. was in SoCal for business for a few days and made the drive up from Calabasas (outside of LA) to get together for dinner. It was great to catch up and go out to eat. I was a bit concerned it may be a little crazy on St. Pat's, but after spending many a St. Patrick's Day in NYC watching people throwing up at 10am on 5th Ave, it was as if the holiday did not get acknowledged here. I was proudly sporting my green and realized that for the first time I was wearing my green tee-shirt without a long sleeve shirt underneath it. Kinda cool!
On March 26th I took part in a volunteer event at work. It was about a 2 hour get down and dirty picking up trash, actually hauling out homeless shanty towns, along the Venture Creek bed. BTW - creek does not mean water, something I'm getting used to. Dusty, dusty, dusty and quite smelly at times. Deckers is very involved with the community and they partnered up with 2 other local companies in the area to help out in the clean up. I can't complain about how easy they make it to participate. It's during work hours, you get paid, they give you lunch, transportation, some 'swag', an after party with tasty beer - New Belgium Brewing, Ranger IPA, dinner, music, raffle for free shoes. I would be lying if I said I enjoyed cleaning up homeless people's shit, but it's good to step out of your comfort zone sometimes and I'm glad I took part and met some other people I work with and people from other companies.
Last weekend, March 20th I headed down to LA to go see 'Alice in Wonderland' in 3-D Imax with I, C, & V. I liked the movie and am glad I saw it in 3-D Imax, but I wouldn't rank it in the top 5 fave Tim Burton movies. I don't know, maybe it was the 3-D that detracted for me, or I'm just not into such high fantasy films right now, or that it costs $20 to see it... Did LOVE Alice's dresses though and would like to read the books. I stayed over at I.'s and the next day we had brunch at C & V's. It was AMAZING!!! I think the great company had a lot to do with it. In all honesty I prefer to eat at home than out, it's more relaxing and the details are usually way better (i.e silverware, glasses, linens, chairs, lighting...) We had an extremely tasty egg scrambled whipped up by C - mushrooms, bacon, onions, cheddar cheese - 4 of the greatest food items ever. And the croissants, I have never, ever (maybe in France) had a croissant like this one. I've been drooling about it since then and today to just rub salt in a wound had a disgusting croissant, that was microwaved (not by me)!!! And of course we had mimosas with our brunch.
Oh and as a perk for staying at I's I left with a huge bag of clothes, most of them still with tags on them and some (the best of them) designed by I. herself. It's like I got a whole new wardrobe just for driving to LA!
This past week M was in town again and we got take-out and chilled out. He also fixed my laptop which most of you know has been dragging me down for sometime. I was accussing Tom's spirit of making it act crazy and was sure once I moved to SB it would behave, no such luck. Now, it's working like a charm. Thanks M!
I've been to the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market every Saturday since I found out about it. Love it!! There is one vendor that seems to only be there every other week. He has insanely tasty tomatoes and cucumbers. How often do you get excited about eating a cucumber, well this vendor's cucumbers are exciting! Last week he was at the Market and it was like feeding time in a shark tank, it was dangerous trying to go in close to grab yourself some cuces and tomatoes. And SB is such a small town that I always see someone from work there, it's kind of funny. I bought a fruit I don't think I have ever seen before a few weeks ago, Cherimoya. It's sweet and pulpy, big dark seeds in it that were a bit off putting to me the first time I ate it. I've bought more of them and like them as an add in to my fresh sliced strawberries each morning. I've attached a photo (I think) of it sliced open. Pale flesh with big dark seeds. Someone at the market described it as a tropical pear, for taste reference. Not a bad description. My West Coast friends and family chime in with some more info on this fruit.
For those of you who buy strawberries and watch them melt and mildew in a blink of the eye I have seen a whole new world of strawberries and I like it. Buying extremely fresh produce is amazing. It doesn't go bad instantly. I can keep strawberries, organic berries, in the fridge in the pint container, in a bag for a week and not have problems. I have thrown out a total of 2 berries since I've been here and I've been buying between 1 - 3 pints a week. The 2 berries I threw out were about 1 1/2 weeks old, sitting in the fridge in a bag. It's a whole new world of produce.
So, that's a bit of what I've been up to. Just a few more days before I move into 'my' new cottage...
Friday, March 26, 2010
Well, that's annoying
Last weekend I spent about a 30 - 45 minutes writing a new post about my living situation and it didn't upload. Bummer!
So, the super abbreviated version of last week's floating in the atmosphere blog is.....
I signed a lease for the 'dream cottage' downtown. I had seen this 2 bedroom Craftsman cottage the 1st or 2nd week I was here and I kept an eye on it the entire time I was looking at what felt like millions of other places. I met with the owners again 2 weeks ago, then filled out the application and received an offer from them. When I re-met with the owners I told them I could not afford what they were asking. They advised me to fill out the application then we would negotiate. In the end I was able to negotiate a price $295 below their original asking price (yeah!), but agreed to a 2 year lease. I know 2 years is a long time, but I know I am not like others I know that like to move every year or so. I haven't moved much over the years.
I am moving in next Wednesday, taking the day off of work and I am so thrilled to have a space to call my 'own' and to have my belongings and set up a kick-ass kitchen and have access to all my clothes, dishes, stuff!
The most shocking part of signing the lease was the total number of what my rent payments add up to for 2 years. I could buy a very, very nice car, or put a very decent downpayment on a house (only if I had that money all at once). I am definitely not adjusted to the sticker shock of prices from A-town to here. I even noticed that hydrogen peroxide and witch hazel are way more expensive here than in PA. What's that about??
So, the super abbreviated version of last week's floating in the atmosphere blog is.....
I signed a lease for the 'dream cottage' downtown. I had seen this 2 bedroom Craftsman cottage the 1st or 2nd week I was here and I kept an eye on it the entire time I was looking at what felt like millions of other places. I met with the owners again 2 weeks ago, then filled out the application and received an offer from them. When I re-met with the owners I told them I could not afford what they were asking. They advised me to fill out the application then we would negotiate. In the end I was able to negotiate a price $295 below their original asking price (yeah!), but agreed to a 2 year lease. I know 2 years is a long time, but I know I am not like others I know that like to move every year or so. I haven't moved much over the years.
I am moving in next Wednesday, taking the day off of work and I am so thrilled to have a space to call my 'own' and to have my belongings and set up a kick-ass kitchen and have access to all my clothes, dishes, stuff!
The most shocking part of signing the lease was the total number of what my rent payments add up to for 2 years. I could buy a very, very nice car, or put a very decent downpayment on a house (only if I had that money all at once). I am definitely not adjusted to the sticker shock of prices from A-town to here. I even noticed that hydrogen peroxide and witch hazel are way more expensive here than in PA. What's that about??
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