it's the freaken weeken

Plans: massage. chiro adjustment. lunch at fenix. meet baby burge. trim the trees in the back patio. pool time with gracie. mix margaritas. grill some corns and stuff. lunch with dad for his bday.

Check this out though (Mary, look away), my orange tree is blossoming! It smells like heaven:


Have a great weekend critters.

- mobile blog post. spelling irrelevant.

azucar

At the fourth of July thing in La Mirada Regional Park (snooze) there was a sweet side of it where I ordered Watermelon juice from a vendor and got a 10% off coupon and a menu to a new Mexican bakery/juice bar in the Stater Bros shopping center called Azucar. Since my local juice joint Oasis in Whittier went out of business it's nice to find a place to fill the void. 

With its distance to Biola walkable, I imagined lots of couples having conversations here and friends "studying" on the couch. Did anyone ever learn anything when studying with a group? I sure as hell never did. All I remember was "skinner operator", all else is a blur.

I am dying to go back to try their breakfasts. French toast and oatmeal and such.

I think what sold me on trying the place was the fact that they sell elote in a cup. Mexican style elotes with the mayo, parmesan, and butter. MMMMM mmmmm.

I was gonna order a smoothie but was won over by the sample of fresh strawberry juice.

I asked if I could have a torta without any meat. She said sure and asked if I wanted to add beans and I said yes. It was delish and the bread was pretty phenomenal. Oh and it comes with a fruit cup.

The menu:

Have you guys heard of bionicos? It's a new thing to me too, well a few years old anyway, it was served at our wedding. They're giant trays of fresh fruit with some condensed milk and coconut shavings on top. Pretty dang tasty. I wish I was throwing a party so I could buy a tray of this stuff.

Anyway as you can see above that's the address, phone, and hours of operation (Sundays are 8am-4pm) so now you have no excuse not to visit them whenever you're in La Mirada and not to be selfish but we need to keep them in business so I can continue to eat here. I also hear their iced coffees are pretty tasty.

Oh and on weekends, they have tamales. TAMALES! Andale, andale.

de

While watching a documentary about the taking of Patty Hearst:

"You think DeFreeze is related to DeForest?" -me

"De-No." -matt

what do you know

I was googling around for a print with a piñata on it on etsy. Something to frame and add to the wall in the office to kinda give a nod to my Mexicanity. Anyway, I found that there is a print by some dude named Robert Allen called Kiki Piñata which funnily enough I have a few pillows of in the office.

You can buy one for yourself for $35.

Mine was like $10 at Burlington Coat Factory and is probably a knock off but I don't mind. It's always great knowing you didn't pay much for something worth more.

you can tell a lot by a box

Yes, I bought the PepperMate Pepper Grinder I wanted. I'm a judge about packaging obviously and this one surprised me in the opposite way. The box says so much about the philosophy of this company. They didn't hire a graphic designer, they know nothing about fonts (eww, that one's awful), it's the plainest thing you can imagine. 

You can tell this company is serious about it's item and there's nothing more or nothing less to it. This is what it does, this is what it is. And no, it's not pretty to look at but boy is it functional and has a lifetime warranty. Hey, if its good enough for hermajesty, it's good enough for me.

happiness is nieces

After my whole blue feeling, things sure did pick up. Maybe because my job was over and I could stay at home and babysit this monkey.

I love pictures of my kids with my sisters' kids.

We did some cleaning around the house together.

My mom and Angie came by as did our friend Toni: all 9+ months of pregnancy of hers and picked up her belated baby shower gift. She was thankful for the gift and the preview of her life since she's having a girl as well. She said Matt and I would be the most prepared parents on the planet, I gotta agree with her. After watching my sisters do it, shoot, I can do it... if I were drunk/crazy/on drugs.

The girls wanted to help her open the bag and kept handing her the items. It was a game.

Then we went for a walk and Angie just LOVED Lyla's buggy. She didn't want to get out.

My mom borrowed a hat.

Matt and the boys came too obviously. My men are so handsome, be jealous.

The girls traded spots and Angie tried to help push Lyla.

Then she walked Woz. What a good dog, he walked slowly to keep up with her, wouldn't tug, wouldn't shake things up, he was just being a perfect pooch.

Of course I was right behind making sure she didn't drop the leash. Never did once.

After the big day the girls got baths. My how time has flown.

Lyla finally knocked out and Angie had her cutest moment so far. We told her she had to be quiet 'cause Lyla was sleeping and we were whispering so she started whispering. When Liz came home she and I pretended to talk and Angie turned toward where we were and SHUUSHED us! MELT.

Moral of the story: Lyla + Angie = Happy EvY.

no more posts this week or weekend

Previous ones were scheduled ahead of time. I'm just feeling too blue. Things will resume next week. Hopefully.

Prospect

After dinner I asked Uncle Rog to take me on a little driving tour of Longmont and after we saw their church and downtown Longmont they drove me through the amazing little town of Prospect. 

It's got every sort of architectural style known in America and so colorful and perfect. It's like a backlot, something out of a dream. Just so adorable. The family knew I would enjoy it and they were right, I would totally live there if I lived in Colorado.

oskar blues

On the 1st day in Longmont, I got to hang out with these wonderful people I love. 

Uncle Roger, Jay, Anna, and I had dinner at Oskar Blues. After a week of road food, nasty cafes, and drive-thru, I just wanted a vegetable. So I had an arugula, beet, and local goat cheese salad and a side of asparagus. Best meal of the week. The local goat cheese, can't beat it.

Jay and Anna were brave or crazy and went for a macaroni and cheese pizza.

This kid STRETCHED since the last time I saw him.

And she was just as beautiful as ever.

Uncle Rog came into LA on Sunday so it was funny to see him so quickly after a long stretch.

Since we were eating at a place where there was a giant list of local brews I was debating whether or not I was allowed to order a beer. I really wanted one but I didn't know if it was okay or not what with the kids there and Uncle Rog. Matt's family aren't boozers, not that mine are, in fact my mom gets all outraged about it which we would respect if we believed her but we know she's putting on a show. Why would he bring me to a brewery and not expect me to order one I asked myself. Thankfully, he started up with describing which beers was the best so I knew it was cool when he ordered one so I did too. 

The outside looked adorable. Next time I'll go out there.

If you're ever in Longmont, CO, do yourself a favor and drop by Oskar Blues. It's got great local grown food and beer. What else could you want?

the best way to explain my trip

iPhones have a great feature that whenever you take a photo, it geotags where that photo was taken so at the end of a trip, you get this neat little google map that pins where you where and as you can see, I very literally made a circle around the state of Colorado. My path started in Denver Airport then went south, west, north, and east and ended up back in Denver International Airport.

Oddly enough I never made it to the city of Denver proper so that will be left for next year where we hope to have a week long stay in Longmont with the family and hit a Rockies game.