Not meant to be

Goooood Morning Bloggers,

 

The past two posts I have written have magically disappeared in the black hole that is cyberspace, I guess it was a sign it was not meant to be posted.  Today, I am killing time as my friend takes a calculus exam. Yesterday, we spent the day roaming around Golden Gate Park and exploring the California Museum of Sciences. The science museum caters to all ages and is not your typical museum that is exciting for kids, but adults are bored. The museum is full of interactive elements, the most exciting exhibit for ourselves was the four story indoor rainforest. The rainforest is contained with in a spherical dome with a temperature of 82-85 degrees and 75% humidity. Believe me when you walk into the dome you feel the change in climate. Shorts and a lightweight shirt are the way to go when visiting. Over 1,600 live animals live in this dome, the most obvious of these creatures are the free flying birds and butterflies. We wandered through Costa Rica, Madagascar, Boreno, and the Amazon. The frogs were my favorite and would have taken pictures of the little guys for hours.

We also wandered over to the Japanese Tea Garden and enjoyed authentic  afternoon tea and cakes.

Tea and Cake at the Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park

Before we headed to dinner we spent time taking pictures by the fountain outside the museum. The same fountain featured in The Wedding Planner (of course we streamed the film from Netflix that night) and sat  by a statue watching families and tourists walk/run and cycle through the park. Dinner was at a Ramen house that can be easily missed if you blink. The only thing that distinguishes the establishment from other store fronts is a lit lantern by the door; the restaurant has a sign the size of 5×7 index card, but the lantern is the real distinguishing element.

Greeted by the amicable staff  as we entered, took seats at the bar and ordered the one of two options. Pork or Vegetarian Ramen. Famished, we awaited  our bowls of veggie ramen and were not disappointed when it arrived.

Large and in charge. We dove into the bowls.

Ken-Ken Ramen. Bursting with flavor vegetarian ramen; Soft egg and Squash to garnish.

A slightly sweet not too salty bowl of noodles. Seaweed, sprouts and bok choy are also hiding within the broth; a perfect way to cap the day.

Today holds more exciting adventures in the city.

Blogger Love and Mine!

Thunder Storm

Happy Saturday Friends!

I’m off to sell some decadent (healthy) Museli at the Saturday Market!

Yesterday, in T-town we had a thunderstorm that started in Bellingham many hours earlier and finally arriving here late evening. The flashes from lightning lit up the sky every few moments and the thunder rumbled across town sending the T-locals to hibernate in their homes (not much different than when the winter rain arrives). It was an enjoyable diversion from the books and movies at home. My housemates and walked to the store while this storm threatened to worsen and enjoyed the show from mother nature.

Image Source: Komo News

 

Today the plan after work  is an at home “Happy Hour” with friends, a quick WOD, and possibly a three mile walk or yoga!

-Blogger Love

WIAW: Sno-Cones Vs. Homemade Ice Cream

 

It’s WIAW somewhere in the blogosphere!(Thanks Jen!) I have not been taking consistent pictures of my lovely eats because I have not planned on any WIAW posts; but, today I am procrastinating my finance studying and adding a post seemed the perfect “productive” procrastination tool. It has been hot outside finally and because I worked this Wednesday (rare), a smoothie was the fastest breakfast to go that I could eat drink at ease.

Breakfast: My smoothie consisted of blueberries, raspberries, vanilla protein powder, the remnants of my greek yogurt container and ice cubes! Throughout the morning I also snacked on a Peanut buddy bar and a handful of Apple Jacks (the best cereal ever with vanilla coconut milk…try it, you’ll have no regrets.)

A different, yet, equally delicious smoothie.

Fitness: I headed straight to the gym and got my #eatcleansweatdirty on with a 3.2mi hill run and then headed home to refuel with a snack plate.

Lunch: Cucumbers, tortilla chips, Sabra Garden Hummus (the greatest mix to date), carrots, and TJ’s teriyaki tofu filled my plate tupperware container lid. [And camera shy almonds/dried cherries/chocolate chips]

Enjoyed on the lawn in the sunshine.

Dinner: Currently, it’s undecided but yams, tilapia and mango salsa, cauliflower are waiting to be used…or an omelet..similar to this. Anything with avocado is heaven!

Creamy guac spread, yumm

No, this isn’t dinner, but how can anyone dislike Washington with a sunset like this?

Dessert: (It’s necessary) Dreyer’s Mud Pie is lurking in my freezer…Working at the farmer’s market and smelling fresh made waffle cones at the homemade ice cream stand all I’ve thought about is ice cream the past couple of days. I make sno-cones and the competition is tough, I know I would buy the ice cream before sno-cones if I was a visitor.

At my “Polar Ice” booth.

Next week I’m off to San Francisco and am incredibly excited to see friends and my brother! I have never been to the Bay Area and this will be the perfect trip. Already on the itinerary is Golden Gate Bride Walk, Alcatraz, the Japanese Gardens, and Fisherman’s Wharf.

I’ll be back later with my answers to a few July Question Challenge!

Do you have any dining suggestions for eating out in SF?

Back to the Grind

Discombobulated…

If a term were chosen to convey how I felt all day, that word would sum up my feelings quite accurately. Arriving back to T-town on a Thursday night set me up for a Monday feeling, yet it was Friday and I work tomorrow…I thought I’d use today’s post to recap the status of my July Goals.

• Go to yoga? x3–Almost, one video session and one in class session. But an A for effort because of the amount of travel that occurred this week.
• Finance homework?–Set-up the tutoring schedule and will be on track for my goals, but not quite 3 hours a day…it was a vacation week. C-
• Spend less money?–I bought sugar-free vanilla flavoring..totally unnecessary, but will last! The only splurge as of late…a solid B
• In bed by midnight?– Very close to this goal! I have 15 minutes tonight…B+

• 

  I rediscovered this recipe..it’s on the menu for this weekend!

Today’s challenge topic: If you could spend 15 minutes with any celebrity who would it be and why?

I would have to pick Julie Andrews or Judy Garland. Both  women I have admired since I was young, but if I can only choose one I’d love to meet Julie Andrews.  Julie Andrews is eloquent, intelligent, and appears to be a genuine person. I would love to pick her brain about her years in the industry, her childhood, her singing and writing career, and thoughts on balancing entertainment with her other life goals.

–I sound like a stereotypical soon-to-be graduate…tell me everything about your life and how you got there..I need a plan. It’d be funny if it weren’t true…

As for Eat Clean and Sweat Dirty, the balance has been pretty good! Today began with pre cycling class snack of 1/2 apple and PB and refueled with a delicious egg/Turkey bacon/cheese sandwich. The rest of the day included a trip to Trader Joes to restock the kitchen, finance, cleaning, decorating, and a Cosmo with a friend.

Today I’m selling Mountain Museli at the Farmer’s Market, hitting the gym with a friend, and meeting up with a friend back from abroad.

What are your weekend plans?

Sunshine?! In Oregon?

Happy 5th of July! *cough* 6th
Yesterday was the celebration of my Dad’s birthday (and also the nation’s independence). You’ll notice which occasion is deeed more important in our household. The day was filled with wonderful things including, yoga, sunning, “hiking”, “swimming”, and great friends and food. We presented my dad with cards and gifts in the morning and then my friends and I began our pilgrimage to Starbucks. This was the “hiking” portion of the day, the hike is somewhere between 3 and 4 miles to the soul Starbucks in town. Our original intent was to graba free tall coffee, but when we finally arrived 90 minutes later hot coffee as out of the question. We all went the route of an iced mocha. It was the first sunny day all summer, sorry, but, the Northwest has been deprived of all the heat that everyone else in the states seems to be getting. Anyone care to share? We can do a week to week exchange, similar to a timeshare? Perfect. We’ll stay in contact.

After the “hike” we drove out of town to a friend’s and got our Patriotic celebration on, burgers, sun, and swimming okay, a dip in the pool and then more sunning (we need our Vitamin D)!
Fun fact! Did you know that as of 2005 40% of Americans were vitamin D deficient? And, even using an SPF as low as SPF8 blocks 95% of a person’s ability to create vitamin D. It’s impossible to get the minimum level of D that we need in our diet and in order to reach even the minimum level it would take 10 glasses of fortified milk. Personally, I doubt I drink that much milk in a week…that much in a day is incredible!
I hope you aren’t taking your sun for granted anymore…share the love. Share the D!

View from the pool

The evening was full of family friends and catching up over dinner. A delicious pork tenderloin over a bed of caramelized sweet onions, with snow peas, and a stuffed potato held the spotlight as our main course. Dessert consisted of a light angel food cake, vanilla bean ice cream, and fresh local berries on top. Simple and delicious.

I’ll do a quick combination of the day three and four of the challenge. The topics are *drum roll* What was the last movie you saw in theaters and If you could rid the world of one thing what would it be, and post a picture of someone or something that made your day special.

The last movie I saw in theaters was…Snow White and the Huntsmen! For free…the only way to go to the theatre, I’m in love with coupons. We were two of 6 in the theater, but it was a Monday night at 10:30pm, I suppose that size crowd is expected. Nevertheless, it was a quick paced film and captivated our attention for the length of the film. Please, rent the movie when it hits redbox/netflix/local video store.

If I could ride the world of one thing…I would choose hate.
Hate is something that exists because of uncertainty or a lack of understanding for another individual’s choice or action. I believe having a difference of opinion is necessary and makes life interesting, but people don’t listen to others. Listening can be for understanding and not necessarily agreement. Hate is strong word and I feel applies to very  few situations. The term should not be thrown about as freely as it is currently, the world would be better off we extended our vocabulary and found better adjectives.

Getting our tan on!

The final topic…will have to wait until another day because I didn’t take a single picture today!

Challenge Day 2

If you could give any piece of advice to a newborn child, what would it be?

I would advise this child to always take risks. Taking a risk can be small or large. Are you a student? Raise you hand first and answer a question that you aren’t sure is the correct answer. A first time investor? Buy that stock. It might be the next Google Inc. or Apple. Yes, there will be times that you may lose a lot, but the regret of not knowing what could have been is worse than taking a risk and failing.  Taking a chance and being bold enough to consistently take a chance is a behavior that should be acted on frequently, especially while young, we have less to lose.

IF you know the phrase YOLO, this almost seems an appropriate phrase to use that slang. If you don’t know what YOLO is…let these fratty guys explain to you Drake’s motto “you only live once”

As for the Eat Clean Sweaty Dirty challenge, I’ve been doing great. Today started off with a superb yogurt/oat mess with plump bloobs and a juicy peach, homemade iced mocha on the side to sip while studying. The afternoon consisted of simple snacks in between various appointments and the day ended with a great homemade meal while catching up with a friend. Grilled chicken. sliced potatoes dressed with olive oil, truffle salt and garlic, with salad and broccoli on the side. We ended our evening baking banana/bloob/coconut muffins. A clean day of eats all around!

So, every day…everyday…everyday. Take a risk.

July Challenge

Hello Blogger Friends,

Why yes, it has been months since I have surfaced in the blogosphere, but it was a much needed break! This month however I am no longer in school and wanted to take part in the 30 day challenge hosted by peanutbutterjenny. This challenge has a different theme for each day’s post and looks like a fun way to get back into writing and serve as a diversion during the month of July.

Aside from learning some finance this month, okay, ALOT of finance, I’ll continue working my three part time jobs and hanging out with the friends I love both from home and at school. My jobs are wonderful and I am lucky enough to spend two days a week at the local Farmer’s Market promoting and selling goods. This job would be even more fabulous if the sun would show its face on our side of the states, but it seems preoccupied with the rest of the country…all in good time I suppose. I sell some delicious gluten/soy/dairy free Museli created by a local Tacoman, work with a wedding venue, and work at a physical therapist’s office. A couple days of the week are quite busy! I’ve made time to find my zen a few days a week practicing my crouching tiger and downward dog while my friend gets her sweat on with the elliptical at a local gym.

We go in the evenings after class/work/homework and if it weren’t for a buddy I know neither of us would be getting our sweat on, gym buddies FTW! Speaking of sweating up a storm, I’m also loosely taking part in Chef Katelyn’s July challenge: Eat Clean and Sweat Dirty. This is a great reminder to keep it clean every day, move around, and also to enjoy daily treats!  As for day one of eating cleaning my treat today was wine tasting with the padre at Winderlee Vineyard. (Excuse the photo quality, everything is from the wonderfully convenient iphone!)

 

I love developing my palette! Chardonnays are my current go to wine, but I think I’ll like Pinot Noirs eventually. After tasting a couple whites and three or four reds my absolute favorite was an ’09 Chardonnay. It was crisp, light, and had low acidity, if the weather ever warms up here it would be perfect for a hot afternoon on the porch!

Summer in Oregon…minimal sun per usual

Challenge Day 1: July Goals

Go to yoga 3x a week

Get in a 3 mile walk or run every day if no other cardio is planned

Complete 2-3 hours of finance work each day..minimum

Spend money wisely…i.e. less eating out/coffees/gadgets…

Get to bed by midnight…this will allow HW to be done in the early(ish) morning and leave the rest of the day for friends and making money

 

Happy Tuesday!