Happy Halloween!

Free with purchase

Ok, all ya Tim Burton/Nightmare Before Christmas fans...

Get yourselves to the theatre to watch it in 3D!

It was awesome!! Plus you get to keep these nifty and oh so very stylish 3D glasses.

mmm...tasty

All About Bob

Ya gotta love this guy, dontcha?

On our way home from Vegas on Monday evening, we stopped in beautiful Baker, California for dinner. Usually, we stop at Del Taco (it's history is in Barstow afterall), but we noticed a billboard on the freeway advertising Bob's Big Boy. We haven't been there in years. 5? 10? Something like that. So we had to stop. Our lives depended on it. We were about to wither away because hadn't eaten enough food at the Vegas buffet the day before.

Bob's Big Boy restaurants have just about disappeared in California, or at least it seems like it. Maybe they're having a resurgence. That'd be a good thing as long as they stay in Southern California. I don't need them up here to tempt me. And I'm in S. California enough that I won't be deprived. Like how I'm deprived from Cracker Barrel because they're a Southern/Eastern/Midwestern thing.

In the high desert where I grew up, there was one Bob's Big Boy restaurant. My family only went out to eat once a week, on Sunday after church. Most of the time we'd go to McDonalds or Burger King. On special occasions, we'd go to the sit-down restaurants in town - Bob's Big Boy or Sambos. Admittedly, Sambos was our family's first choice until they went out of business in 1982 but Bob's was a very close 2nd.

When Jimmy grew up, his family went to Bob's often. He remembers going with his family at the crack of dawn, usually before a motorcycle event or space shuttle landing at nearby Edwards Air Force Base. After long work days or long car trips, Bob's was his family's restaurant of choice.

Then when Jimmy and I started dating, it was the restaurant we ate at after senior prom in the wee-early morning. Yes, Bob's Big Boy is a part of our history. It's a little bit pathetic, but it's ours.

I do not exist

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Beaten Like A Rented Mule

Jimmy and his team, the Surf City Rats enjoyed their games at the Vegas Tournament this year, but unfortunately, they lost all 3 of the playoff games and didn't move on to the semi-finals. Despite their losses, (and lots of time spent in the penalty box, even the goalie -eh hem- got a penalty) they had a lot of fun.

Leaving Las Vegas

I'm Leaving Las Vegas
Lights so bright
Palm sweat, blackjack
...Leaving Las Vegas
-Sheryl Crow

We're homeward bound this afternoon. Have an 8.5 hour drive ahead of us. Enjoy the adventures but can't wait to be home. There's no place like it.

Love in Las Vegas

I'm not a gambler, but I love our yearly trip to Las Vegas. Especially since we go in the fall and the weather is mild. In fact, on Friday night, we were treated to a spectacular thunder and lightning show. Then on his way home from Jimmy's last hockey game on Saturday morning, he saw snow on the nearby Mt. Charleston mountain range. There's very little that I miss about living in the desert, but the desert storms are so spectacular, they're nearly worth paying for.

One show that certainly was worth paying for was Cirque du Soliel's newest Vegas production, "Love". The entire production is set to Beatles songs and it was a feast for the eyes and ears.

All you need is love.

Not completely a slug

After reviewing my post about all the tv I've been watching, I have the compulsion to let you all know that I truly haven't been sitting in front of the evil box for the past 8 days. It was a pretty relaxing week and we're off to Las Vegas tomorrow, but I did get a few things done aside from brain pickling.

I made my first homemade pie (mixed berry) last Tuesday. Needs work, the crust was a little dry but at least it was flaky. Also made chicken and dumplings that night for dinner. It was cold and cloudy all day and fall certainly was in the air. Chicken and dumplings was nice, warm comfort food. I used lite Bisquick for the dumplings, so dinner was healthy...no added fat. We more than made up for it with the pie.

Had a complete physical. I'm the type of person who sticks her head in the sand when it comes to healthcare. Although I'm not looking forward to the results of the blood work (nervous about my cholesterol), hopefully it'll help kick me in the pants to make better food choices. I'm already trying to eat breakfast...yes, I know it's the most important meal of the day...but I've never been one to eat it regularly. Even just a slice of toast or OJ is torture to eat. Unless you're talking brunch with eggs and bacon and sausage and potatoes, then I can easily consume a whole plate full of cholesterol. I realize though, now that I'm in my mid to late 30's (!), health really is something you need to pay attention to. So I need to get my head out of the sand and just pay more attention.

Did some bookkeeping for the bizness. I've never talked about work on my blog. I've spilled open a lot except in area. Let's just say that Jimmy does the technical stuff, I do the grunt work but oh.so.very.important to keep the technical stuff running smoothly.

Went to Krung Thai for dinner with Phin then we went to a crop at our local scrapbook store from 7p-1a on Friday night. Completely lacking in creativity lately, I only did 1 scrapbook page in 6 hours. However, I did organize my totebag for about 2+ hours!!

Saturday, we went to our fav Mexican restaurant, La Morenita in Palo Alto, then to the Apple store to look at Macs. Just looking. Really. :-)

Woke up at 5:40am Sunday and met Phin in downtown San Jose before her race. She ran in the Inaugural San Jose Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon and I was there to cheer her on and take pictures. Even though I've only wogged a 5k once, I have so much more respect for runners. Those elite runners fly. The men's champion ran the 2nd fastest half on American soil. After her race, we had brunch at Stacks in Menlo Park. Feeling nostalgic for Hawaii, I tried their banana mac nut coconut pancakes, short stack. Definitely "broke da mouf", but not what my doctor had in mind when she recommended eating breakfast. But I ate less than half and brought the rest home to pick at later.

Went to dinner with Doris at Himawari in San Mateo. Delicious ramen house. (Phin, we need to find a ramen place near us). After dinner, we went to stamp club and learned how to make the awesome star book in my previous post. I've wanted to make one of these for years but never did so I was really looking forward to doing the project. We didn't have enough time to finish it during the meeting, so as soon as I came home, I had to finish it (while watching tv of course).

Got Jimmy's car smog checked and washed in prep for our trip to Vegas. We were suppose to leave today, but work and road closures delayed our journey by a day. Our original plans were to go to the cabin tonight then drive to Bishop tomorrow to visit Jimmy's cousin Andrew then drive to Vegas Thursday morning. But we've already had snow in the high country and the highway from the cabin to Bishop is already closed for the season. So instead, we'll drive though Bakersfield, Barstow and Baker en route to the Las Vegas Hockey Tournament, that starts Thursday night. (Melani: we'll be thinking of you and your man! It was so fun when you guys went with us!).

Hopefully, I'll be able to blog while we're there. In addition to the tournament and the artery clogging food we'll eat, we're going to Cirque du Soleil's newest show Love.

Waimea Canyon, dubbed by Mark Twain as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.
I tore/pulled a calf muscle about 1/2 a hour before I took this photo. Felt like a rubberband being stretched then snapping and I almost passed out from the pain. The next day we had a "condo" day. The ohana went to the beach, I RICE'd my injury: Rested, Iced, Compressed, Elevated. Still aches a bit, almost 2 weeks later, but I can almost walk without a noticable limp. I'm optimistic that within another week or 2, it'll feel totally normal.

Star Book

Made this star book at my stamp club meeting last night. Thanks JSH for an awesome project!!


I've been in a horrible creative slump since July. Probably because I've been concentrating on training for my 5k and the miscellaneous trips. We're on our way to Vegas this week for a hockey tournament. Hopefully when we get back I'll find some creative inspiration and make a few more of these books.

Broke da mouf

I'm trying out a new web album program, Picasa's competitor to Flickr, in my opinion. I still like Flickr, but haven't signed up for a pro account yet. Testing both...would love your input on it, too.

Click on the album below to see a few of the delicious (broke da mouf) foods we consumed in Hawaii.

Broke da mouf

Sep 30, 2006 - 17 Photos

update: Picasa's online web album isn't really all that similar to Flickr now that I think of it. Flickr is more of an online networked photo sharing community with tags and searchable features. Picasa's is more like "lemme pull out my Hawaii album and show it to you my friend".

Hiding from reality

I'm back! I've been back for 4 days but having a hard time adjusting back to reality. So I've been escaping to TiVo and the zillion season premiers I recorded while we were gone.

Men in Trees: A near copy of Northern Exposure including the bar. Could retain my interest for a while if it proves to be as quirky as NE.

Six Degrees: I'll give it 2 more episodes to grab me. Otherwise, it gets the ax. I can't watch this much tv.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: lovin' this one. Good, fresh change from Aaron Sorkin's West Wing, although I was very sad to see that one go. But boy, do they talk fast!

Ugly Betty: Oh, I had hopes for this one. But so far, really stupid. Should be a 1/2 hour sit, not an hour, if that could even save it.

The Class: kind of reminds me of Friends. I'm a Friends junkie, so we'll see if it actually holds up to the comparison.

Jerico, Heroes and The Nine: haven't made the time to watch these yet but TiVo's diligently recording.

Watched the season premiers of The Simpsons, Grey's Anatomy, Law and Order and South Park. Still need to watch Lost.

It's kind of (!) gross the amount of tv I've been watching.

I guess in my attempt to not get back to reality, I've been distracted by this evil source of mindless escapism.