Pretty Coasters

SwissMiss posted these great coasters for the typophiliac from seller acd on Ponoko. A set of 4 is only $25 and the .eps file can be downloaded for free (if you want to try this design in acrylic, or want to put your own finish on your coasters). I might get a set as a gift for someone!

Number 8 - It's Really Great!

It has been eight years together, and this last year has been exceptionally special! Ben is currently in Oregon on business (we definitely have a trend going), so my sister is going to accompany me to the Matchbox 20 concert tonight. The above picture was taken last week at the awesome John Mayer concert and notice I am wearing last year's gift (totally didn't plan that one).

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!

Andrea's Faves in Concert

It's Fair time! WooHoo!

Ben and I walked down the hill for opening day of the Fair last Wednesday night. Of course I was eagerly awaiting the crappy, deep-fried food (yummy goodness) and immediately went straight for it after entering the fairgrounds. I started with a hot dog that Ben thought looked disgusting (he should talk, he had a Polish dog on a stick!) but was very good. We moved on to sharing a large Diet Pepsi and french fries. I wanted dessert for the concert, so we got a deep-fried Snickers and cotton candy. Yeah it was a awesome dinner that I enjoy once a year!

The concert was great! Colbie Caillat was good and I knew most of her songs since the radio plays them all. the. time. John Mayer was great! I actually leaned over to Ben and said "I am giddy" when the lights dimmed and he came on stage. Ben also admitted that he had a good time too and enjoyed John Mayer (he was impressed with his guitar skills). He was also pleasantly surprised that we were not surround by screaming teenage girls (they were all in the high dollar tickets near the stage). Official details and photos can be found here.
Since I was lovin' the show, I also got a cute shirt to add to my rock t-shirt collection!

The Corporate World

I am lucky and have a good manager, but I do know through friends/family that this is very true.

ANTS!

I got home from the Bay Area at midnight last night (completely exhausted) and I found a lovely little trail of ants originating in the bathroom, going down the hall, through the laundry room (all over Princess' food/water/mat), and into the kitchen. I think we have a big issue as this is becoming a constant problem and I am getting tired of the late night/early morning mopings (and I'm sure Princess is so over her food being invaded). I think it might be time to consult a professional.

Not a fan of the ant key chain from Kate Spade (too shiny, but I do admit it is very unique), but I do really like the purple ostrich. At $65, I think I will stick with my pink pig given to me by my 4H swine group 9 years ago. If it goes on big sale, I might reconsider.

Pretty Desk Lamp

Earlier in the week {Frolic} posted this adorable desk lamp. I wish I had a spot for it, but since I am trying to be responsible with the $$$, I can't justify trading out the current IKEA desk lamp. Maybe if I move to a new desk at work, I'll make it cute starting with this lamp!

I was surprised to find it from Urban Outfitters.

Pilot Inspektor Looks Good...

Ouch...who names their kid "Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii" or "Number 16 Bus Shelter". Seriously.

I Heart Summertime Fridays

Earlier in the week, Cupcakes Take The Cake blogged this adorable picture of beach cupcakes from Fancy Flours.

I don't have the cute wrapper or sugar flip flops, but I think I am going to attempt to make the simple yellow cupcake with piped chocolate frosting this weekend (even if it is a million degrees) because it looks that good!




A quick side note ~ It is a quiet afternoon after a crazy three weeks and most people are gone (including all those I am responsible for), so I am off to start my weekend a little early!

Weekend Preview

The brick order from Air Vol Block was delivered this morning. It is going to be a busy weekend in the backyard!

I Heart Honda

Yesterday I took my beloved car into Sunset Honda to fix the A/C leak on the floor of the passenger side (apparently a common problem). Since it is my car, I figured I could attempt to fix it (eh) or take it to the dealership (I didn't want to make Ben work on it). Sunset is awesome and has great customer service! They cleaned my A/C drain hose, cleaned the wet floor/mat, and washed my car. The best part, it was under $30!

Next up on the to-do list, fixing the crack in the windshield (:( - I don't think it is going to be under $30).

Mouseys!

So I was cleaning the floors this weekend and discover......Princess' toy mouse stash (and dust bunnies)!

I have been wondering where she hid/lost them.

Key Lime Cupcakes

For our treat at the Drive-In last weekend, I made Key Lime cupcakes out of a new cookbook (500 Cupcakes) I was given recently. Everything came out great except for the meringue. I didn't realize you had to beat it for 10 minutes to create the white, whipped look. Luckily Ben came to the rescue and the cupcakes were perfect!

Basic Recipe:
-Make and bake typical vanilla cupcakes.
-For the filling, combine 1/3 cup key lime juice and 14 oz. condensed milk. Hollow out a small hole in each cupcake and spoon the filling into the hole.
-Make meringue and spoon/pipe on top of the cupcake. Bake for 5 minutes at 450F until golden. Cupcakes last for 1 day.

Next up...Devil's Food Cupcakes

The Rumors Are True

Starbucks is replacing Julian's on the Cal Poly campus this fall.

Other favorites like Jamba Juice, Peet's Coffee, Einstein Bagels, and The Village Market will be located in the Poly Canyon Village housing area.

In a way I am a little sad that the big retail chains are moving in. The campus doesn't feel so small and unique anymore.

City Spotlight: Indianapolis

Back at work today, but still a little slow and tired from last week. I stayed in the heart of downtown Indianapolis, just a block from Monument Circle (pictured). I didn't see any sites (there wasn't much to see) but did eat at some good places:

Palomino - For lunch, I highly recommend the King Crab and Artichoke sandwich as it was light and delicious. My dinner of Lobster Ravioli was also quite good. Side Note - I went to the one in SF before my Senior Ball 9 years ago!
India Garden - I came here at the recommendation of two Indian co-workers and their friends and found the buffet very good and very inexpensive for lunch.
St. Elmo's Steak House - Excellent steak (and only steak) but very expensive!
Buca di Beppo - The portion sizes are HUGE and a great value, but the pasta was not very good (very rubbery).
Barcelona Tapas - The food was good and the atmosphere was fun (yeah we stayed eating and drinking for 4 hours!).

FYI: STP Tickets 4 Sale

I have friends who are interested in selling their tickets for the Stone Temple Pilots concert at the Mid-State Fair on Saturday, July 26th. Seats are in section 704 and tickets were originally $46. Email me if you are interested and I will put you in contact with them.

Photo via STP's Official Website

Movie Review: Get Smart

As I mentioned previously, last weekend Ben and I went to the Drive-In for the double feature of Wall-E and Get Smart. I know nothing about the TV show, so I came to the movie with no expectations. The movie was light and funny, but extremely cheezy and I wasn't that impressed with the writing/jokes. Since it is a comedy, and not an action movie, the action scenes are not that impressive or exciting. Overall I say wait and rent it.

FYI: Crane & Co. Sale

Speaking of good gift ideas, Crane & Co. is currently having their semi-annual clearance sale. There is a lot of cute stuff (including the flamingo note cards I gave my sister last year), but I shouldn't spend any more money on stationary. I will break this rule on a cute set I saw in the non-sale section if they go on sale!

Good Gift Ideas

Whew, finished all the posts in my Google Reader! Some good discoveries for gifts from the lovely swissmiss:

for a certain new baby to join my life (from Target)

for a certain artistic person (or couple) (from House Industries)

EmilyStyle also blogged about Met correspondence cards, including sets on clearance for $5 and $10. Correspondence cards make great simple gifts, and usually I use Crane & Co., but these clearance prices are really good.

Gifts I recently sent:

for my sister obsessed with all things flamingo (from Target)I found fun, inexpensive tote bags make great gifts.


for a friend's new desk (from Office Playground)I like sending fun games for the office desk.

Back from Indy

It was a very early (4am ET) and long day of travel, and I wish I was home taking a little nap, but I am currently at work counting a few bacteria plates and preparing an urgent report for a client. It looks to be a great, quiet weekend catching up on life (I kept up on email while I was away but my Google Reader has 300+ posts - yikes!) and sleep!

Movie Review: Wall-E

I loved this movie so much I am blogging about it during my busy week in Indy!

See this movie! Ben and I saw Wall-E at the Drive-In on Sunday night along with Get Smart (I'll review that later). I laughed, I cried, I left happy. The futuristic story line was great, the animation excellent, and the connection the movie gives you is amazing. One of the highlights is the lack of dialog and the ability for the visual movie to stand alone.

Honestly, the movie stuck in my mind while I watched Get Smart and I am still thinking about Wall-E today.

Hello from Indy!

Just a quick update as I have been busy, busy, busy with the conference. The presentation this morning went well and I have no talks to attend tomorrow morning (woohoo - I get to sleep in!). The days have been long with lunches, drinks, dinners, and socials but all so fun due to the great people! I was surprised to have swollen feet from two days on my feet in heels (how do women do this on a daily basis? where are my flip flops?), and the humidity has been with us strong since our arrival. [Humidity is] "a nice, warm blanket" quoted by a former undergrad student of mine has been our little groups' joke all week (we are all dry Californians at heart). Looks like we have something great to look forward to when we return on Friday...

Happy Fourth

It was a long, busy week at work finishing a poster for the conference next week, so I am definitely enjoying the day off today. I slept in this morning, enjoyed a big hot breakfast, and the only thing Ben and I have scheduled for today is to work around the house and some loose plans with friends. The relaxed holidays are the best - Happy 4th of July!

SLO FYI: Fruit Sale Again

Again, for those in the area...

Cal Poly Fruit Science is having a sale on peaches ($1.50/pound), lemons, and avocados. Visit the Crops Unit off Highland Drive on Wednesday, July 2nd from 3-6pm.


I am planning on checking out the avocados, Ben interested in peaches...?

Belated Update #3

Quick Update #1
Quick Update #2

So Emily and I woke up in the very early morning to find it snowing in Bern. Since it was so early, no bus was running and so we had to walk to catch our train to Geneva. We did get pretty wet, but luckily the train was completely empty so we could lay out our coats/hats/gloves to dry. This was completely useless as when we arrived in Geneva we found it pouring rain. All of this was made worse as Emily had her umbrella stolen earlier in the week from the hostel in Zurich. So we kept ourselves entertained with indoor activities (UN, Cathedrals, etc.) as much as possible, but still got completely soaked.

The train ride was long from Geneva to Paris but we met Barack and taught him how to play Skip-Bo while we chatted about life in the US, Morocco, Paris, and Geneva. He won, but Emily and I put up a good fight. It was great to get to Paris and hop on the familiar Metro to our hotel for the evening. We felt like locals returning home!

We spent a beautiful day in Paris taking two New Europe tours - Free Walking and Montmartre. Emily and Scott found this company in Edinburgh and loved it, so we used it in Munich and now Paris. It was a great day but unfortunately the storm that was in Geneva found its way to Paris by the evening, and we found ourselves getting soaked again as we raced to the train station to catch the Eurostar to London.

We made it successfully to London and again felt like locals when we whipped out our Oyster cards to catch the Tube to our hotel near Heathrow. What screwed up our plan was the holiday (Easter) weekend, so we missed the last bus and found ourselves temporarily stranded at the empty airport. Luckily Emily stumbled upon someone who had called a cab, so we were able to share a very expensive ride to our hotel. The next morning we awoke to snow! (Yeah the weather appeared to be crazy all over Western Europe.) Even with the poor weather, Emily's flight to the US left and Ben's flight from the US arrived successfully within 1 hour of each other.

I survived backpacking through Europe and had a great time! And with that conclusion, the final pictures are finally up. Enjoy!