| |
|
Not the Usual Grind
• Wednesday, March 21, 2007 • 11:15 AM
|
 |
I've found that this pepper grinder, that I originally discovered on Crate and Barrel, is now also available at Target. I still haven't bought a pepper grinder, as I was holding out for the perfect design. I dislike that traditional grinders are stored with the grinding parts down, and pepper sprinkles out all over the counter, etc. I have been looking for one that sits with the grinding parts up, and this one even has a lid for the top. It's also quite sleek looking. I may not be grinderless for much longer.
{Picture from the Crate and Barrel site. The price is the same at both stores, though we don't actually have a CB here. Hence the Target love.}
|
|
Fast
• Tuesday, March 20, 2007 • 11:12 PM
|
|
|
|
Knockin' socks off!
• Wednesday, March 14, 2007 • 5:03 PM
|
|
Tonight there is a special three hour derby practice. We are going to be bouting with each other for the first time. I'm really excited! The St. Louis coach is coming to help us.
I'm also excited because I found some footless tights on clearance at Hot Topic. I now have a whole collection of skull themed tights, plus one pair of solid black. I think these skull and star ones are my favorite. I also ordered a few pairs from Sock Dreams. I hope that I will find that they have been delivered when I get home from work, but I sort of doubt that they will, since I ordered them late Sunday night.
{Here's me wearing the skull tights. Oh. Yeah.}
{One of the pairs of socks I ordered. The picture is from the Sock Dreams website, the most fabulous sock shop perhaps ever.}
|
|
The Mythical Slobber of Spring
• Tuesday, March 13, 2007 • 10:30 PM
|
|
We have had some nice weather this week. I think that spring is finally on its way. The crocuses have started coming up. I was worried that some of the bulbs lining the sidewalk had been uprooted when we had a portion of our yard was landscaped last summer. But, they seem to have survived just fine. In fact, they seem to have gotten bigger.
I also discovered some wolf's bane (Eranthis hyemalis, a.k.a. winter aconite) blooming in our yard. It is in the buttercup family. It's pretty, though non-native to Missouri. And apparently quite poisonous (not that I was planning to snack on it). I was reading that in Greek mythology, it is supposedly derived from the saliva of Cerberus. Mmm.
I'm glad that we are finally having some nice weather for a change. I think that I would feel worse if it was as cold as it had been. I think I'm getting a bit of a cold. Plus my back has really been hurting since Saturday (carrying too much beer around I guess, har). Which is ironic, since I've been pummeling and getting pummeled at derby practice. I went to yoga as usual last night, which usually makes my back feel great. But that was not the case this time. I hurt all night and couldn't hardly stand this morning. Luckily I am feeling better tonight.
|
|
Sippin' on ... juice
• Monday, March 12, 2007 • 9:00 PM
|
|
I got to see my first live roller derby bout on Saturday! Yay! I won a drawing to be a worker for the bout (there were only so many helper spots for our team), so I got in for free. Even better! I took tickets and worked the door. It was a fun job. But, then they needed someone to walk around in the crowd and sell beer. No one wanted to do it. So, I did it. It really was not super, but luckily some of the other girls did take over. Carrying 8 beers on a tray and making change is not really that fun. But I did get a good bit of tips, which went into the team fund.
The bout was an exhibition between two of the St. Louis teams. I got to meet a few more of the players and watch a fair amount of the match. I'd met some of them previously because their coach visits us occasionally and helps us with our practices. There are a lot of really awesome girls on their team. I'm inspired to work hard! I reallly want to be a jammer!
The bout ended around midnight. By that time, my back was killing me. Most likely from standing for so long in not very supportive shoes. But the heavy beer tray probably didn't help either. I was starving as well, so Keith and I made a trip to El Rancho. It was really good. I got a Mexican orange soda in a bottle that really tasted good with my spicy torta sandwich. Yum!
Sunday, I slept a lot, having stayed up pretty late. In the afternoon, we went to Target to get some things and had ate at the Target "food avenue". I like to get the kid's macaroni and cheese. It's good, and about $3. As if to further embarrass myself, I always choose apple sauce over chips and a juice box over a soda. Har. At least this time they just brought it out in a cup container, instead of in the cardboard kiddie box that looks like a giant book.
{Here I am sipping from my juice box in Target. Keith said I looked very suspicious. I'm sure he was just jealous of my bendy straw.}
We also stopped by the bubble tea place in the mall. It is so good! I'm so glad we have an excellent tea shop at last. The two Taiwanese gals that own it are really nice, too. They know my "regular": honey soy milk green tea with boba.
|
|
End of the Road
• Tuesday, March 06, 2007 • 6:23 PM
|
|
I'm so tired today, a good sort of tired. Yesterday was a long day, but a fun end to our St. Louis road trip. We started out at the St. Louis zoo. We almost didn't go, because we had seen it so many times, but I'm glad that we went. They have a new penguin exhibit that allows you to get very close to the penguins. It was really cool, though I do see that without any supervision how that could be bad for the penguins. I think that there might be too much temptation to try to touch them or feed them. I overheard "can we feed them?" more than once, as if that is even a question! Yikes. At least I did not observe anyone actually feeding them. You can get very good view of the penguins, which is aided by their own curiosity and outgoing personalities. They would routinely come right up to the low glass railing and look out at and interact with the crowd. They even stick their beaks out, through the spaces between the glass panels. I found this out accidentally, trying to take a picture... I got a crazy right-up-the-penguin-beak shot as it bit my lens. So, yeah, don't try that please. It was a cute/scary ultimate for sure.
{Watch out! There is some serious ouch potential here.}
{So stately.}
{Looking out at his audience.}
We also rode the tiny zoo train, which was really pretty lame. We got a great view of fences, leafless trees, dead plants, and the parking lot. It really reminds one of what a wasteland Missouri is in the winter. Aren't you supposed to see animals while on the zoo train? I did snap this photo, though.
{While we were waiting for the train, we saw this sleepy bear getting up from a nap.}
After the zoo, it was off to visit the giant Crate and Barrel that we spotted while driving back to the hotel from Whole Foods. Oh, lordy, it was awesome. My favorite is probably the kitchen gadgets wall, but I also like looking at all of the varieties of serving plates (especially the little mini plates, like sauce dishes, etc.). I did buy a very reasonably priced soy sauce decanter. It is a very pretty green that matches the red and green Ikea tray I keep on my kitchen table. It's like a tiny souvenir of the giant Crate and Barrel.
Since we were so close to Whole Foods, we went there again. Keith went straight for the Bison chili. I got some grilled tofu, potatoes, tomato bisque soup, and greens. I also treated us to some mini fruit tartlets for dessert. We then departed for the highway, but had one last stop on the way out. At Keith's request, we stopped at Dave and Buster's to play some games. Man, that place is HUGE. We'd been to the one in San Diego, but this one was much bigger. Still, oddly enough, they didn't have Skee Ball. ??
We got home in the early evening, to some very happy kitties. When we went to Target on Sunday, we also stopped by the Pet Smart and got some kitty toys and a new scratcher for Mao Mao. Luca went crazy over the new toy mice. We did some unpacking (for example, I had to put my new drawer organizers to use, couldn't stand to wait) before heading off to bed. The cats were sooo happy to snuggle up to us.
|
|
Road Trip!
• Sunday, March 04, 2007 • 10:17 PM
|
|
Keith and I are in St. Louis for a vacation/anniversary celebration. Yay! I've been having a really good time! Yesterday we drove the two hours to St. Louis. After we arrived, we checked into our hotel, the Renaissance by the airport. We got a great deal because of our AAA membership. It's great, our room is super clean and the decor is pretty tasteful - rather than typical garish hotel. I'm sure it will become our new St. Louis hotel staple. It ended up costing about $15 more per night than Red Roof Inn - and there's really no comparison in quality.
After checking into the hotel, we went to my favorite Thai place on Delmar, where I had yellow curry and tofu. It was so, so good. We also ordered some scallion dumplings that were delicious.
Then, we went to the nearby comic shop for Keith. They had a lot of indie comics, stationery, figures, etc. It's a great little shop, called Star Clipper. Then we drove downtown to see the St. Louis arch. And oh criminy, it was so cold. We had to walk a bit to get to the Museum of Westward Expansion, which is underground, beneath the arch. It was snowing and miserably cold. But, we made it!
The museum was interesting, but I think that it could have been better designed. There were a lot of fascinating historical photographs, for example, but only a few of them had any kind of caption or explanation. This didn't bother Keith much, but it drove me crazy. There were also these super creepy animated historybots, made to look like historical figures. This is the William Clark-O-Bot:
I wouldn't want to be there alone at night, jeez. After escaping the freakomatrons, we were all tired out. So, we bought some taffy at the cheesy gift shop (1800's costumes were mandatory for the gift shop workers... it must be great if they have to stop by Best Buy or Target on their way home from work) and headed back to the hotel for a break. And then, of course, we were hungry again. We made our way to a nice little Japanese restaurant. It was a good place, but not my favorite ever.
Today, we headed out to see the butterfly house. It was really fun! There were tons of butterflies inside of a large greenhouse. The greenhouse had a small waterfall and pool, as well as quite a few trees, and beautiful flowers, including orchids. There were a lot of different butterfly varieties. There were so many butterflies zooming around, several nearly collided with me. I also had a few land on my head. I spent so much time in there stalking butterflies. They were fascinating. It was very hot and humid in there though, and so Keith had to leave a little before me.
After the butterfly adventure, we went to Keith's favorite Thai place for lunch. This place is also on Delmar, just across the street. I had another curry dish.
Keith had a very delicious looking noodle bowl with thinly sliced toppings. Since the comic store is right there, we went back to get book Keith wanted and an Ice Bat ugly doll for me. I've wanted one for nearly three years I think. Then, we drove over to the Container Store grand opening! Yay! There were so many cool organizing things, and of course containers, har. Keith was like, "calm down", as I scoped out each isle. I got a few organizers for my relatively new dresser. I'm so excited! We also discovered that there is a Whole Foods next to the container store. Oh, yes! I got a tiny blueberry tart. Yum! There have been rumors that a Whole Foods might open in Columbia. I realllllly hope that turns out to be true! We were so happy about the Whole Foods that we went back there later for dinner. We had sushi and gelato. Columbia used to have a really good gelato place, but it closed. I've been wanting some ever since. I had a really tasty pistachio gelato and then we also got some snacks for later and Keith got some bison chili for himself.
So, now were are back at the hotel, and so tired! Tomorrow we'll be going home. Vacation goes so fast.
|
|
|
|
|
