Summer is in the air

Sexy summer salad from Jamie Oliver:

Mix together:
Big juicy, bursting out of their skin, figs (cut an X on the top and squish the bottoms)
Torn strips of proscuitto
Torn pieces of buffalo mozzerella
Diced basil

Cover with salad dressing made of lemon juice, honey, salt, pepper, and EVOO

Seriously, this is beautiful and delicious and it looks like you worked way harder than you actually did.

I'm late for a jean folding seminar. Let's locomote!

DH got a wicked case of food poisoning last night so I've been watching Encore for the past six hours, trying not to make any noise while he gets some sleep. If you recognize the above title, then you know I've been watching that early 90s classic, Reality Bites.

I first saw RB back when I was 13. At the time I thought Troy (Ethan Hawke) was the ultimate dirty rocker. (This was the early 90s, remember.) He made witty, pithy comments ("Hello, welcome to the winter of our discontent."), wore dirty clothing, sang in a dark cafe, smoked Camel Straights and rode his own melt.

Now I think: "Eh. Notsomuch."

If my best friend/lover/wannabe maybe boyfriend EVER said this to me:

You can't navigate me. I may do mean things, and I may hurt you, and I may run away without your permission, and you may hate me forever, and I know that scares the living shit outta you 'cause you know I'm the only real thing you got.

I would slap him. Hard.

Jackass.

Other thought:

1. This was the first movie Ben Stiller directed. He also had huge hair as evidenced by this:
2. Dear Winona, I know you were the prototypical 90s waif. But always wear a bra. Always. Thank you, Elliot's eyes.

3. EVERYONE in the movie smoked. I understand how it was "cool" back then but it really amazes me now.

4. Jeanine Garafolo - HILARIOUS. As usual.

5. I laughed out-loud when seeing the following pieces of technology: Lelaina's camcorder, all of the non-cordless telephones, the antique answering machine, and the use of a payphone.
6. The best part of the movie is still the soundtrack which I listened to NON STOP throughout 1994 and into 1995. I amazed myself by still knowing all the words including the rap by Me Phi Me. (Why is it I can remember songs from 15 years ago but not where I put my keys? It's a mystery...)

Come on Get Higher

Ok, so this is a funny albeit long story.

Background: I did a LOT of band promotion back in the mid 90s-early 2000s. I met a lot of great bands when they were the opener to the opener to the opener. Ex: I gave away autographed copies of John Mayer's first recording to all of my friends and their friends for TWO YEARS out of my own pocket because I thought he was awesome. I even bought show tickets for folks and told them to pay me back if they didn't agree he was awesome. Anywho...

I was flipping through my old photos and found one of me and my old band buddy with a young singer-songwriter circa 1999; Matt Nathanson. Dude was really entertaining and a very nice guy when we hung out.

Flip to this morning. I turned on KPRI this morning and an EXTREMELY catchy tune was on. I was listening and listening going "I know that voice. Where do I know that voice?" You guessed it - it's Matt! I feel warm fuzzies for all of the bands that I meet that break on national radio. Those guys (and girls) have a tough life; it's awesome when they get the fans and attention that they deserve.

Anywho...please enjoy the video and buy Matt's album!

PS - I just watched the video again and DAAAAMN if Mr. Nathanson hasn't grown right up. I mean, hell, he's a man now. And I think he's the only guy besides Lenny Kravitz who has looked better with a nose ring.

Moving right along...

...in search of good times and good news. (10 points of absolute coolness if you know who sings that song!)

As the chef de cuisine in our little household, I am in charge of using up as much of our pantry as possible so that we don't move canned goods to the new condo. Cans = heavy = expensive to move.

While I enjoy cookbooks a lot (Jamie Oliver is thoroughly entertaining), I don't tend to actually use them. For example, I used up a bunch of cans last night and it was delicious and wonderfully colored:

Elliot's Tortilla Soup

Mix together the following and simmer until warm, about 20 minutes:

1 can organic tomatoes (press out the juice)
1 can cream of chicken soup (when or why this was purchased is a mystery)
1 can corn (drained)
1 small jar organic salsa (hot! hot! hot!)
1 can organic black beans (well rinsed)
1 package of Trader Joes chicken fajita strips (cut into small bits)
1 box of organic chicken stock

Towards the end, finely chop one bunch of cilantro and add it in, along with a ton of pepper. Serve over tortilla chips (especially good if they're lime tostidos. Mmm.) with a squeeze of lime.

Mmm.

Wowie!

Thanks for the mention, Lisagh! What a great way to start the morning!

Speaking of mornings, I have a little letter for some people:

Dear East Coasters (coasters - ha!),

If you call at 5am because of the time difference, that's ok. We understand. BUT LEAVE A BLEEPING MESSAGE! I tend to worry and think that something's wrong when I'm woken up bright and early. So, please, be considerate enough to say "Oops, my bad, everything's fine and I'll call back later."

Much thanks,

DH and El

Oh heck yes!

My favorite 4th grade past-time is now online. You too can play MASH!

"106 books of pretension"

Found via What Would Jane Austen Do?

Books I’ve read are in bold; books I’ve starred but haven’t finished are in italics. Man, this list makes me wish I'd read more literature. Can I help it that Steven King is so entertaining?

Total:
Books I've read: 41

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
2. Anna Karenina
3. Crime and Punishment
4. Catch-22
5. One Hundred Years of Solitude
6. Wuthering Heights
7. The Silmarillion
8. Life of Pi
9. The Name of the Rose
10. Don Quixote
11. Moby Dick
12. Ulysses
13. Madame Bovary
14. The Odyssey
15. Pride and Prejudice
16. Jane Eyre
17. The Tale of Two Cities
18. The Brothers Karamazov
19. Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
20. War and Peace
21. Vanity Fair
22. The Time Traveler’s Wife
23. The Iliad
24. Emma
25. The Blind Assassin
26. The Kite Runner
27. Mrs. Dalloway
28. Great Expectations
29. American Gods
30. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
31. Atlas Shrugged
32. Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
33. Memoirs of a Geisha
34. Middlesex
35. Quicksilver
36. Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
37. The Canterbury Tales
38. The Historian : a novel
39. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
40. Love in the Time of Cholera
41. Brave New World
42. The Fountainhead
43. Foucault’s Pendulum (HATED IT)
44. Middlemarch
45. Frankenstein
46. The Count of Monte Cristo
47. Dracula
48. A Clockwork Orange
49. Anansi Boys
50. The Once and Future King
51. The Grapes of Wrath (HATE)
52. The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
53. 1984
54. Angels & Demons
55. The Inferno
56. The Satanic Verses
57. Sense and Sensibility
58. The Picture of Dorian Gray
59. Mansfield Park
60. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
61. To the Lighthouse
62. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
63. Oliver Twist
64. Gulliver’s Travels
65. Les Misérables
66. The Corrections
67. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
68. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
69. Dune
70. The Prince
71. The Sound and the Fury †
72. Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
73. The God of Small Things
74. A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
75. Cryptonomicon
76. Neverwhere
77. A Confederacy of Dunces
78. A Short History of Nearly Everything
79. Dubliners
80. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
81. Beloved
82. Slaughterhouse-Five
83. The Scarlet Letter
84. Eats, Shoots & Leaves
85. The Mists of Avalon (I watched the mini series. Does that count?)
86. Oryx and Crake : a novel
87. Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
88. Cloud Atlas
89. The Confusion
90. Lolita
91. Persuasion
92. Northanger Abbey
93. The Catcher in the Rye
94. On the Road
95. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
96. Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
97. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values †
98. The Aeneid
99. Watership Down
100. Gravity's Rainbow
101. The Hobbit
102. In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
103. White Teeth
104. Treasure Island
105. David Copperfield
106. The Three Musketeers (in French, no less)

Home Sweet Home

We finally bought our condo in San Diego!! It's a "townhome" aka a two story condo in the heart of downtown. 1458 sq ft, two BR, two and a half BTH, two parking spots - perfect on all counts for the two of us. It's right next to the ballpark and we love love love the location. So welcome to our home:

Each floor is a different icon; ours is the GGB in San Fran.

View from the kitchen into the living room. (These shots are always so difficult, hence the weird angle.)

Finally, a dining area!

Rest of the living room. The ceilings are 17' and pour in the light.That's a better shot.

Small kitchen. We'll make do, I suppose.

I've never had a gas stove. I wonder what it'll be like.

Hello, DH! The shelving next to him is where we'll put the wine fridge and make into a pantry on top.

First things first - ripping out the carpet and the floors in the kitchen. While the cherry is pretty, it's not "us." We spent most of the day in a flooring store and decided on hand-scrapped walnut. It's GORGEOUS and I don't care if I don't get to buy any cashmere this winter as long as I get that beautiful flooring.

Half bath upstairs. All of the bathrooms have the same marble.

Down the stairs we go...

Down down down...

Guest bedroom a/o study for DH. We have two balconies. The two bedrooms share the bottom one.

Master bedroom. It's a decent size; I'll forgive them for not making a huge walk-in.

Master bath. Have I mentioned that I have an obsession with double sinks? Ahhh - I love them so.

Not the biggest fan of the huge tile. I'm more of a tiny tile gal, myself.

But I do appreciate the cubby for towels. Good move, Mr. Developer.

More of the double sinks. Oh I love them so.

Close up of the marble.

I can't believe there are so many closets; hello storage!

We're thinking of putting a huge bookcase where the mirror is located. I love to read and spend WAY too much money at Borders.

Guest bath. It's not ensuite; you have to walk out of the guest BR to get to it.

Ah, a better shot of the bedroom balcony.

It's hard to see today but on a clear day we have a mountain view.

Hello high windows. Those little suckers brighten up the room tremendously.

This is a good shot of the height. The kitchen looks tiny.

The majority of the living room, as seen from the door to the upstairs balcony.

More kitchen.

This is the view off the upstairs balcony. It's the bridge to Coronado. That industrial area is undergoing a HUGE development so who knows how long we'll have a "water" view.

And our neighbors - the Padres!

Thank you for coming to our little home. Y'all come back now, ya hear?!

Seersucker swimsuits...

...I must be stopped. I own these two:

This one in coral (it looks pink in the photo) from Isaac at Target.

And this brick red one from Gap Body. (The strap comes off for perfect tanning.)

And now I want this one from J.Crew:

It's a big cosmic joke

...that the J.Crew final sale and the big BR sale coincide with the week I have to sign my mortgage. However (hee!) I have a $50 gift certificate to BR. How shall I spend it? Here are my choices:

A cute pair of earrings?

Very cute knit polos. At $20 I could get both the navy and the kelly green!
I don't really need another black top but I like the weave detail.
Green snakeskin? Yes please!
I LOVE this cocktail ring. I love big rings because they make my fingers look smaller.
Simple and pink!
I have a great skirt that this cardigan would highlight perfectly.
I heart animal print in any form. Black and white would match a lot of pants.
I have a big thing for dresses. And to find a BR one under $50? Woo!
But I do really need pants for work. These are $128 marked down to $40.
It's hard to tell from the picture but this is made of eyelet lace. I really love eyelet but I'm not sure about the jacket because it's unlined. I think that seems a bit cheap.
So what do you think? What would you buy?