2015 is the Year of La Tache

A couple of weeks ago my office had a holiday happy hour (to hold us all over until we have our holiday party in January) and as we were chatting, eating and drinking we decided to play this sort of 'drinking game' where we would go around the circle one-by-one, say what this coming year was going to be about, we would cheers, drink and then the next person would go.
For example, one friend said: this is the year of the body, we all cheers'd, drank and then someone said that this is going to be the year of not drinking as much, we all cheers'd and drank and so on. When it was my turn I had a hard time coming up with something because, first of all, not many people at my new office know what I am going through (so I didn't want to give too much away), and also I thought to myself: 'man..what will this year be about for me?' After a quick second of thinking my answer was: this will be the year of freedom.
Since that happy hour, I have been thinking a lot about what 2015 is going to bring for me and I have been doing a lot of reminiscing on what 2014 hit me with. It sure has been a challenging year, but it all happened for a reason and it all made me a stronger, more independent woman who I am more than proud to be.
So what I have decided for 2015 is that it is going to be the year is La Tache. This is the year where I learn how to say 'no' and don't feel bad about it. This is the year that I celebrate the wonderful relationships that I have and cultivate them into even stronger bonds. This is the year that I will meet new, awesome people and say 'see you later' to the ones who aren't encouraging me to be my best self. This is the year that I remind myself to say what I mean and mean what I say. This is the year that I am going to be selfish, in a good way, and do 'me.' This is the year I plan to spend lots of quality time with myself, figuring out what I want, what I need, who I am, what I have and what I can offer to the world. This is the year I travel to far away places and experiences new places and cultures. This is the year that is going to be the best one ever.
So let's all cheers, say a little prayer, do a little dance, send good thoughts into the universe that 2015 will be an amazing year full of love, friendship, joy and happiness - oh and good job ($$$) juju too :-)
Happy New Years Eve, everyone! Be safe and have a blast!

Bridal shower for my beautiful friend

Christmas was relaxing and the long weekend was much needed. I was able to see lots of friends and families who mean the most to me, and this included a loved bridal shower for one of my dearest friends Melissa who is getting married in May. My mom joined me in celebrating along with Melissa's close family and some of her friends. We played fun bridal shower games, drank champagne and ate yummy snacks throughout the day. And after the party, I was able to spend some quality time with the bride and groom to be. It was a beautiful day celebrating the beautiful bride!

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday and are looking ahead to an amazing 2015! 

Crabbing on the bay

Good day to you all! I hope everyone has the best Wednesday ever! 
This past weekend we celebrated a very special lady: my mom. Before I share about our weekend, I would like to take a minute to say a few words about my mom, because she deserves to be put in the spotlight every once in a while. She is fun, outgoing, spontaneous, adventurous, spunky. She is loving, kind, generous, warm, caring. She will always listen and always be available; she will always support.  If you find yourself out with her, somehow you will end up in a limo, wearing a wig, rocking a fake name all while sipping champagne and giggling. She know show to be silly and have a good time and she knows how to give the best hugs all while being the best momma a girl could ask for. I am more than blessed to call her my mom.
To celebrate her, we decided to head out on the bay with some friends and go crabbing. Leading up to her birthday weekend, we were experiencing some crazy storms in the Bay, so we were a bit concerned that the weather was not going to hold up while we were out on the boat. Fortunately, we could not have asked for a more beautiful day. We woke up early and headed to the Oakland Yacht Club, hopped on the boat and got ourselves on track to crab just outside of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The boat ride was spectacular, accompanied by mimosas, lox and bagels and catching up on life. Once we got on the other side of the Golden Gate we dropped our crab pod, fished and played Heads Up (you know, Ellen's game!) It was hilariously, fun and a great way to keep our minds off of our oncoming sea sickness. We let the pod collect crabs for about two hours and then when we pulled up the pod we had somewhere around 15 crabs! We had to let most of them go, but we still ended up with about 7 dungeness crabs, or dungies as we were calling them, and one red crab.
We cruised back over to Pier 39, docked the boat, ran up to the Buena Vista for an Irish Coffee (plus a round to-go), clam chowder, a loaf of boudin sourdough bread and to sit on Santa's Lap (of course!). We got back on the boat and headed back to the Oakland Yacht Club to feast and watch the annual lighted boat parade. After the parade, we headed back to my mom's house for cake, singing and Hot Spiced Butter Rum! 
It was an awesome day and, most importantly, my mom had the best time celebrating! 
(My favorite part of the entire day is that she finally acknowledged that I look like her! She always says that I look just like my dad - which is true - but the older I get, the more and more I look just like my mom! haha)

Isn't she lovely?!

Homemade holiday cocktails 2014 ed.

Happy Holidays, happy Monday and happy soon-to-be bellies! Let me start off by letting you know that I am not a lush, I simply enjoy adult beverages on occasion especially when they taste like heaven in your mouth and during the holidays! If there is a better time to make yummy cocktails than the now, please let me know, because I sure can't think of a single better time of year. ---
To start off, on Thanksgiving we made Spiced Cider Margaritas which were inspired by the Whole Foods Market instagram. Oh boy, these were fantastic and just what the doctor ordered. I definitely recommend making these before the holidays are over, or, well, anytime of year for that matter! (p.s. check out my super professional looking photo! wow!)

My mom and I decided to make some homemade egg nog. This is the first time I have made it myself and I must say that it is lip licking good and I may not buy store bought again! It is super easy and so tasty! Thanks you Kelly for the inspiration! 

And on Friday night I had a fun girls night in and we decided, after much deliberation, to make Spiced Buttered Rum. This was definitely a new one for me, I have never had it before and when I saw the recipe I thought that it was straight out of a Harry Potter flick (weird, yes I know, and I have no idea where that came from! Maybe it's that I spent my days under the weather rewatching all of the Harry Potter movies...or maybe it was something else?) I digress.... On a serious note, this drink is fantastic. I don't know how I have never had it before but what I do know is that it will become a holiday staple, I even made it on Saturday night too! I added a dollop of homemade whipped cream on top. mmmhmmm good!

Please enjoy these cocktails! I promise they will not disappoint! Cheers!

Some changes

Given the changes in my life, I decided to change up the blog! I worked with the lovely Erin from Two Thirds Hazel and I think that she did an amazing job! She was super easy to work with and I am definitely excited about the final product! Woohoo!
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Anyway! I have been sick for the last week+ and it has been pretty miserable. I wish there was a way to speed up this entire process and start feeling better, say, yesterday. Sadly, I have no magic wand nor do I have a special elixir to make the sickies go away, so for now, it is lots of water, sleep and mucinex for this gal.
In the meantime, I took Wednesday and Friday off from work to celebrate a big birthday in my family! My dad turned 60 and we all went out to dinner and then to the movies. It was nice and relaxing. We ended up at the same restaurant we ate at for his birthday last year and we even sat at the same table! I guess we are suckers for routine and repetition? We even got my parents holiday card in the process! I mean, right?? How great is this picture!? We then headed to the movies. I suggested we see Interstellar, but the birthday boy wanted to see Horrible Bosses 2. I will admit that it was funny, it had me laughing the entire time! I don't know if that was the cold or the drinks but I sure did find the movie entertaining! (Maybe even better than the first - however, I would recommend waiting for it to come out on TV...maybe not worth the $12+ it costs for a movie ticket).
For the rest of the week I was glued to a couch, any couch, while snuggled up under lots of blankets enjoying lots of warm things. I got my mom hooked on Serial - if you haven't been listening, come out from under your rock and get caught up! - and I decorated my apartment for Christmas. 

I must say that decorating my tree while listening to Christmas music really made me happy. I took Tuesday off from work, to recover some more from this silly cold, and I sat at my computer with all of my lights lit, a cup of homemade egg nog and Christmas music playing. It was absolutely glorious and I couldn't help but smile for the entire day. I think that decorating is allowing me to be ready for the holidays and the new year to come my way.
Alright, December, let's get rolling so we can celebrate 2014 and get 2015 started! 

Murder Ball, Beer & Babies

I went to San Diego this past weekend for my college roommate's baby shower. Since I was down there I got to tack on some time with my cousins and a friend. It was a nice weekend, not relaxing at all and the weather was too warm for the beginning of November, but it was a great opportunity to catch up and visit with some of my favorite people.

Let me start out by asking: since when do we not have to take our toiletries/liquids out of our bags when going through security at the airport??? I clearly missed this memo; however, I am so glad that I have no figured it out (better late than never, right?) because to have my toiletries easily accessible is quite inconvenient while packing. I do also have to admit that when I went through security to come home on Sunday night....wait for it (you won't even believe this!) I didn't even have to take off my shoes!! It was the easiest thing ever; I felt like I was in the 90s again! How many people get to do that now-a-days??

I actually have another story to share about my flights and that is that I used my phone as my boarding pass for the very first time! Hello, La Tache, and welcome to 2014, what rock have you been hiding under?!

Anyway...on to my weekend.

I happened to be traveling to San Diego the same weekend as a friend of mine from my childhood. He is in a wheelchair rugby league and was playing in a tournament in Balboa Park the entire weekend. Since I was going to be in the area, my cousin and I headed over to the gymnasium and watched on of his games. I know absolutely nothing about rugby, neither did my cousin, and so as we watched we were able to deduce some of the rules and pick up the basics of the game. Part of the way through the match, someone offered us a rule book, so we got a little more in depth information and even a little history. If you are interested to learn more, check out Murder Ball on Netflix!

After the Wheelchair Rugby game, we headed to Hillcrest for brunch at Snooze where we met up with my other cousin. We decided to park at one of my cousin's house and take the trolley into downtown San Diego. We stopped in Little Italy at the Ballast Point Brewery for a flight of beers. We were in luck because it is the SD Beer Week, so Ballast Point, along with other breweries were offering special deals. We got a flight of 3 beers for $5. There were four of us, so we decided to each get a flight and share which allowed us all to try 12 beers! 

After all of our beers, we headed to the Gaslamp district and went to La Puerta for some frozen mojitos, carnita fries and guacamole. OMG. So freaking good! Seriously, the mojitos were deliciously dangerous! I do have to say, though, that the security/bouncer was not very nice to us. I was kind of disappointed by that. We decided to then head to Old Town San Diego to meet up with my friend Chad (the Wheelchair Rugby player) at Harney Sushi. The sushi was really fresh and tasty! 

Sunday morning, we went the house my cousin grew up in for breakfast/brunch before my friend's shower. It was so fun to see my cousin's mom, even though they were both up in the bay only 2 weeks prior! We had a delicious homemade breakfast - I am pretty sure that I am still full - and then my cousin drove me over to Target to get some diapers for my friend's shower. Let me just mention that we had a really difficult time finding the diapers. I thought it was be nice to get cloth diapers, and while looking for them I felt like we were on a wild goose chase! On top of that, no one who worked at Target was helpful - I actually asked a woman (a shopper) for help because she had a young child in her cart, so I figured she would know..ha! And on top of that, once we found the diapers, there were no safety pins. What's up with that?!

Anyway, I went to the shower and was able to put my hands all over that momma's belly. The little slugger even moved around for me! It was so surreal and it is soo crazy that one of my dearest college friends is pregnant and expecting at the end of January. I simply cannot wait to meet the little cutie patootie! 

After the shower, my cousin picked me up (thanks, cousin, for being my weekend chauffeur) and before we headed to the airport we had to make a stop at Blue Water for some fish tacos - according to my cousin, this is a must stop when going to the airport and I have to admit that it was all that it was cracked up to be, and then some! Oh man was that fish fresh! We had to wait in line for about 40 minutes before we even were able to order and I am pretty sure that once we got the tacos we gobbled them up in less than 30 seconds - they were that good!

All in all, I would count this sunny San Diego weekend a success. I may be full for a week from all of the food and beers consumed, but it was definitely all worth it! Now to get my nose to the grindstone and back to the reality of being an adult with a job (it's all just just so overrated!) 

And if you are wondering, no I don't have today off :-( I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and I hope you all have Veteran's Day off! Celebrate for me....pleaseeeee

World Series Parade 2014

Back in 2010, when I lived in the bay area still, I was able to attend the World Series Parade and it was a blast! I went with a bunch of people from work, yelped and hollered, stood on a window sill to get a good view and cheered on our bay area team! 

Well, unless you live under a rock, the World Series just concluded and our SF Giants have done it yet again! Let me tell you, this series was a nail biter and that last inning of game 7 was even more of a nail biter. If you watched any of the games or saw any of the final scores, wasn't it crazy that there was always such a huge spread between the two teams? 

Anyway, I went to the parade this year. In the rain. And it was a lot of fun! My office is located near the parade route so a group of us went down all bundled up with our rain jackets and watched the entire parade. It is so amazing to see how alive this city gets, especially when there is something to celebrate; I just love all of the energy and seeing all of the hard work that is put into the floats!

Every even year, baby! Let's keep this going! Go Giants! 

Halloween weekend 2014

I have always loved getting to know the families of my friends. I enjoy hearing stories, watching them interact and experiencing the inner workings of the unit itself. I think that I enjoy this so much because I was the kid who invited friends over and then we would hang out in the kitchen with my mom. This is why it is so special for me when my friends invite me to spend time with their families and their loved ones.

My great friend Melissa is getting married next May. I actually have two weddings to attend within two weeks of each other, and I am in both of them! Yikes! I am going to be one tired gal come June from all of the bridal showers and bachelorette parties. All will be great fun and I am over the moon excited and honored to be part of these lovelys special days! 

So back to Melissa, she was in California with her fiance so they could check out a wedding venue - the one they actually decided on - and of course I jumped on the opportunity to make the drive out to her parents house to see them and I am sure glad that I did. I pick up Melissa and her fiance from the airport on Saturday morning and then we headed to Melissa’s hometown for lunch, some catching up and a trip out to the new Folsom Dam in hopes to see Mormon Island - an island that used to be submerged under water but because of this crazy drought California is experiencing it was exposed earlier this year. Fortunately for the Dam and unfortunately for us, there has been some mountain run off and the island is now submerged again. We then headed over to a lake that Melissa went to as a kid and, sadly, the lake is completely dry, so we walked down into it to view a now exposed bridge. 

After our excursion, we headed back to the house, played games, told jokes, ate dinner and laughed - a lot - and Melissa asked me to be a bridesmaid! I am soo honored! After dinner, Melissa, her fiance and I decided to head to old town Folsom to celebrate Halloween. We went to this fun bar that had a cover band playing awesome, singable tunes. We danced the night away. Oh, and we may have had one or two too many...ooops!

It was a super fun 24 hours spent with amazing people, laughing and loving each other! It was wonderful! And no trip to Melissa’s parents house can end without her moms famous Aebleskivers. Talk about a food coma! 

Thank you, Melissa and family, for sharing your weekend with me! I had a blast, as always! Love you all!