Yum

I get to eat here tonight, which I always enjoy. My favorite: the terriyaki bowl with brown rice and chicken. Although I am tempted to try the tofu. I've wanted to try it and I heard that they prepare it really well. We'll see...

Enter the Crazy

So, our weather has been totally out of control lately. Just to give you an idea, here are the expected highs for the next few days:

Today: 99
Monday: 88
Tuesday: 74
Wednesday: 67

Is anybody else confused?

Target Surprise

So, I was at Target today with my mom and while looking the through the stationary, I came across this really cool collection of letterpressed wedding invitations and thank you cards that are sold in a box of 50. They were beautiful! I am totally in love with the letterpress style for wedding invites, but they can be extremely expensive. Not only that, though, but the thank you cards come in a box of 50 and are generic enough (though beautiful) that they don't have to be just for weddings! I was very tempted, maybe if they are still there after the first paycheck comes, I'll snatch 'em up. The problem is that I can't find pictures online. So, really, you must go to the wedding section of your local Target and get those babies! I mean, 50 thank you cards for like $13 - not bad!

And although I couldn't find those online, I came across these:


Say what? Am I the last person to know that Target has a line of wedding dresses designed by Isaac Mizrahi? For $129 each? I mean, not to say that I would buy my wedding dress at Target, but those prices are pretty stinkin' amazing!!! You can see all of the dresses here.

I Want You, I Need You

Have you ever wanted something so much, but felt so guilty about wanting it because of it's price that you never tell anyone so they don't think you are so shallow? I really want one of these. Maybe after a year of paychecks? (sigh)

Best Sign Ever

We went to Arizona last weekend to visit family. On the drive back to California, I was finally able to get a picture of my favorite roadsign ever. I look for it every time we drive back toward Riverside (as opposed to the San Diego route).

Mission Accomplished

Yay - I finally got a job! I was just recently hired for the position of Event Coordinator for the Heart Walk with the Orange County Division of the American Heart Association. I start on Monday...wish me luck!

Free Free Free

So, in reading Erin's blog, I was inspired to look around and see what was going for free on Craigslist for Orange County. Here are a few of the more humorous/interesting finds.

FREE TALL FAN PALMS!!! - apparently you can go to this person's house in Westminster and remove (somehow - maybe with your handy dandy crane?) the three 30 foot palm trees in front and take them to your location of choice. I think my favorite part is that the picture is sideways.

FREE DIRT!!! - (what's with all the exclamation marks?) these people apparently want to give you their dirt - for free! Where can you find a better deal? Except, maybe, your own backyard, or front yard, the park down the street...need I go on?

FREE place to dump your CLEAN FILL DIRT - maybe these last two guys should get together!

Or my favorite...

TOTO TOILET - and you thought people weren't giving away good stuff! We are unaccountably generous here in Orange County!

Olympic Mania

Have you been reading about all of the Olympic torch mayhem? I have to tell you that I am really loving it. I get incredible satisfaction when I see people go to great lengths to display their opinion. I think it is totally outrageous (in a good way) that protestors in France actually tried to grab the torch and it had to be re-lit 3 times before finally being put on a bus for the last leg. I also think it is awesome that college students shimmied up the Golden Gate Bridge to display huge banners (as San Francisco is the only US stop on the tour). Three of them stayed up there for hours because they knew they would be arrested when they came back down. I just think that it is a good reminder that even though we appear to be accepting China more and more on a global level (not that that is a bad thing as long as we can use that as leverage for good), China has in no way stopped its horrible history of human rights abuses. Anyway, I better stop before I go on a tirade, but I just wanted to make you aware in case you aren't already following the story. I love things like this because they make people think! What's your opinion about China being accepted on the world stage? Do you have one? Do you care?

For Sale

You really need to check out this link:

THINGS FOR SALE THAT I WILL MAIL YOU

Take the time to check out the whole list. What an amazing idea - I wish I had thought of it first!

{via Oh Happy Day}

Previously On...

Check out this hilarious article from The Onion News about a man with high aspirations...

Labokoff

I love these combination photography + painting prints from Labokoff's etsy shop. I really want the Paris one. I could put it on my wall and sit on my bed staring at it for hours (or at least a long time) remembering rainy days running through Cemetaire Pere LaChaise and climbing up to greet the gorgoyles at the top of Notre Dame. Ah...

{via Bluelines}

Increase Your Knowledge

So, being from California, I have come across people who have many false assumptions about the state. I decided to inform all those who didn't already know about a few things. Here goes.

Things you should know about California:

1. We have mountains. And snow. BIG mountains. Ever heard of the Sierra Nevadas? Donner Pass (where it was so cold and snowy and conditions were so bad that they had to eat the dead bodies)? Mammoth? Yosemite? You know how we have earthquakes? Yeah. Those usually happen on fault lines. Know what else happens on fault lines? Yup, mountains.

2. California is a BIG state. If you want to drive from the bottom of CA to the top, it would take you probably close to 20 hours. Seriously. So when somebody says they are from San Francisco area or Southern California, realize that they are talking about a 6 hour drive or so (for perspective, it takes probably 8-9 hours to get from Southern CA to Provo).

3. San Francisco is not really in Northern California. Okay, maybe it is slightly in Northern California, but mostly it is in Central California - remember that it's a big state?

4. People from California don't usually call it Cali (granted there are a very few exceptions - usually people who haven't lived here for a while). Oh, and while I'm on it, note that people never call Orange County the OC. That's the name of a TV show. Period.

5. We have farms. Lots of farms. Lots of cows. In fact, the central part of California is pretty much all agriculture. When people say they are from Fresno, that's more of what you should be picturing rather than palm trees and beaches. If someone says they are from California and they have never seen a cow they're either lying or totally in their own world.

6. Misconception: there are no open areas in California (especially Southern California). It depends what you are talking about. It is true that there are generally a lot of people along the coast (not always, but most of the time), but we actually have a lot of open area. We have a really big empty desert (the Mojave). We also have tons of national parks (think Yosemite, Lassen, Sequoia, etc.). Not only that, but we must have open spaces because how do you think all of the wildfires start? Not in someone's kitchen, that's for sure.

7. No, we do not have earthquakes every day. You can't even feel most earthquakes because they are too small. I can distinctly remember 2 destructive earthquakes in Southern California during my lifetime and the last one was the Northridge earthquake in 1994.

8. Contrary to popular opinion, though California usually has pretty good weather, it is NOT a tropical climate. Translation - the ocean is cold. In about August and sometimes July it warms up and you can definitely go swimming, but it is not warm. Sorry to burst your bubble, but palm trees are not native to Southern California either, they just grow well here. And it really only rains in the winter months. Rarely does it rain after April and before November (by the way, that's called a Mediterranean Climate - guess where else is the only place on earth with the same climate?).

9. June Gloom - Southern California is not always sunny and pretty during the summer (actually, my favorite months in California are not the summer months, but that's just me). We get this thing called June Gloom. It has to do with a cloud cover that comes in from the ocean. I'm just saying, if you are looking for sunny skies, they are hit and miss in June (although it is still warm).

10. Californians can't really be generalized. Because it is such a large state, you must be careful in thinking that you can make generalizations about the state. I'm not talking about little differences that you find in every state, but the culture is actually pretty distinctive. Think of the differences you can imagine between Los Angeles and San Francisco. They actually are extremely different cities. Thus, Northern and Southern California are pretty distinctive culturally. You should really visit each to find out - wouldn't that be so much fun?

Anyway, if you stuck with it and read the whole list, hopefully you are a more educated person regarding California. Just something that's been on my mind. I think the key is just to remember that California is really BIG, which means that it's really hard to make assumptions about the whole state...

More Musicness - She & Him

I'm pretty much in love with the new album Volume One by She & Him. It's a collaboration between M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel. Remember the movie Elf? Remember the girl who sings Baby It's Cold Outside in the shower and blew you away? Yup, that's Zooey Deschanel. You should definitely check it out.