Everlasting Love

Most say that young love doesn't last. I beg to differ.

I am still just as much in love today as I was those many years ago.

Share the love

There are a lot of recipes out there. Especially here; one of my two favorite places to search online. (The other is here, in case you were curious.)

But I want to hear about your favorite recipes that are made using a food processor. You see, I have a new toy, and it's yet to be christened. I'm hoping this weekend.

So all can share in your infinite culinary wisdom, please post any recipe/s you have in the comments section.

Mucho thanks.

Lunch

Summers
are made for
Slurpee's.




I couldn't resist one for lunch today.

Wild Cherry (that hinted of Pina Colada because they'd recently switched the flavors' locations). It was tasty.

What is posted on a blog, is claimed forever so noone had better steal this, pretty please

I claim these now. Woe to those who would dare to steal them for their own use...
XOXO,
K~

The Year of the Opal

Happy Anniversary to my parents.

34 years in this day & age is quite a feat~ Well done!

CANNOT WAIT!

Sorry, folks.
Don't know why the video didn't load for you.

You can watch the trailer here.

Have I mentioned lately...

I hate Statistics?!?!

Our first test tonight kicked my butt. Chewed me up and spit me out. Trampled me like a herd of cows. Punched me in the gut. Wowza.

Let's hope I'm being dramatic and my test grade doesn't reflect how hard it was.

***UPDATE: Statistics doesn't hate me as much as I feared (though I wouldn't say it wants to marry me...yet). I like you again Statistics! Just let me keep my A-average, please, pretty please!

Well said, Frank, well said.

"Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.
~Frank Lloyd Wright

Wedding, Wine & Road Trip Fun

I love weddings. They are a feast of fashion, food, decor and, of course, romance. Friends Katie & Josh, now Mr. & Mrs. Higgins, certainly provided a feast for their friends and family.

The bride, beautiful, and gorgeously gowned. The groom, so sweet & in love (and of course, handsome)!

The location, an intimate vineyard in Camarillo, cozy and quaint.

And the road trip with friends, entertaining, to say the least.

Summer Psychosis

(Please note the alliteration. It was intentional. Thank you.)
.....................................
psychosis. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Science Dictionary. Retrieved July 19, 2007, from Dictionary.com website:

"A mental state caused by psychiatric or organic illness, characterized by a loss of contact with reality and an inability to think rationally. "
........................................
When the summer school term started a mere 9 weeks ago, some thought I must surely be insane to take the number of summer intensive courses that I was signed up for: Abnormal Psychology, Personality Theory, Statistics, Business Ethics, and Data Analysis & Presentation. Rather than 16 weeks as is common in a semester, each class would last only 4-6 weeks...but with the same amount of material to cover.

Allow me to toot my own horn.

4 of 5 classes are hereby completed!

Most impressive of all, however, is that it was actually manageable and I did it all without losing my sanity. Sure, I spent many a sunny Saturday and Sunday reading pages and pages about Schizophrenia and Psychoanalytic theory and writing papers about ethical conundrums, but it was, for the most part, very interesting. And dare I say... enjoyable?

Ok, I must surely be psychotic.

Chi-town, in the HOUSE!

Just booked my flight to Chicago!

Going to check out The Chicago School (of Professional Psychology). My friend Lauren is going with so we can explore the city and visit our friend Liz.
And perhaps.... do a little shopping?
Have a Ferris Bueller Moment?

I want to see what the city has to offer. I've never been and I can't claim to know much about it (except that it's my aunt's top pick and Liz seems to like it!). I have no doubt, however, that there is plenty to keep us occupied.

Just arrived!

A belated birthday gift...Thanks, Mom & Dad!

Oh, the pestos & pie crusts I will make!

TGIF!

Let's greet the weekend with another little Statistics/probability problem, shall we?

In Hungary and there are two women who sit at the same obscure, sign-less crossroad to advise passers-by whether they should turn left or right. Direction-giver-A is known to be right 60% of the time. Direction-giver-B is known to be right 30% of the time.

Which direction-giver would you choose to ask directions from--A or B? And why?

Fun stuff!

(I promise I'll stop soon.)

Not too bad...

68%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Speaking of Statistics...

A.) I'm in love with my sweet, little (literally, he's on the short-side) Statistics professor. He's so adorable and nice and he tells funny stories in his sometimes-hard-to-understand (but he tries so hard!) accent.

B.) 3 days in... I love Stats! It's so logical and practical. Just yesterday a friend told me about a family that has 14 children--1 girl, 13 boys. We jokingly wondered what the chances of that happening are. Last night in class we learned about calculating probability: P(E)= n(E)/n(S). In this case, just 7% (or 1/14) chance. See? So logical! So practical!

C.) Here's a riddle for you: There is a family with 5 children. Half of them are boys. How can this be? CLARIFICATION: Half of the children (5 total) are boys.

1 in 5 students...

I started a 6-week intensive Statistics class yesterday.

Other than having a quiz already this evening, I don't think it's going to be as bad as I thought.

In fact, I think I may actually enjoy it.

My (former) glory

You know that one "thing" that you are known for, that you fairly regularly get compliments on? For some years now, my hair has been that thing, whether it be the cut and/or the color. I've even been told by a couple people that I'm described (at church at least) as "the girl with the cute hair."

That's always nice to hear.

Which is why my recent hair cut (scheduled deliberately the day before my big birthday so it'd be nice and fresh!), is such a disappointment. I know this obvious vanity is somewhat head-shaking-worthy, but I am sad. It's just not what I wanted. I just wanted what I had last time. Is that so hard? It was a little funky/edgy, a touch Euro, and still felt like me. But for some reason, my long-time hair stylist could not recreate the look he had done just 7 or so weeks before. We were having some communication issues. I even cried a little while sitting in the chair.

Lest I be over dramatic, I won't say that my hair is awful or anything; it's just not what I wanted. And that is disappointing. And, I suppose, a good lesson in vanity.

I'm Melting...

In this So Cal heatwave. But The Melting Pot restaurant was nice and cool. And TASTY too.

Since this was Mom, Dad & Mike's first time at a fondue restaurant, we decided to splurge and do the full 4-course "Big Night Out Big Feast" meal. For our cheese fondue, we chose Traditional Swiss & Wisconsin Trio to dip our apples, veggies & bread cubes in. We then nibbled at our salads (we didn't want to waste too many calories on frivolous food).

Our 2 entree preparation methods were Coq au Vin & Bourguignonne, with a selection of potstickers, seafood, chicken and steak.

And to round off the gluttony, 2 styles of dessert fondue, specifically the Flaming Turtle & Cookies-n-Cream Marshmallow Dream, complete with dippers of brownie bites, bananas, pineapple & strawberries, pound cake, graham cracker and Oreo coated marshmallows and cheesecake.

YUM. It was indeed a feast.

Thanks to Mom, Dad, Bran & Mike for continuing my birthday celebration!

These boots are made for walkin'

And that's just what they did yesterday.

Friends Andrea & Al hosted a festive Western-USA themed 4th of July party at their home in Hermosa Beach on the Strand. So before my own festivities (see below), I got all gussied up, Country-Western style, complete with my cowboy boots that I dug out of the back of my closet.

Only problem was, it seems that nearly everyone else had the same idea to head to the beach. Suffice to say I had to park a little ways away from their place. To be precise, I parked and then had to walk over 30 minutes down to their place. Both ways. In the heat. On the beach.

And yes, I looked decidedly out of place amongst the hundreds of red-white-blue bathing suits frolicking about. In the heat. Wearing cowboy boots. At the beach.

Did I mention I had to walk 30 minutes each way?

30

What can I say? I have some of the most amazing friends & sisters on the planet. Seriously. And they just happen to be awesome party planners too.

In alphabetical order...Abby! Brandi! Ginger! Kirsten! Lauren! Molly! Sarah! (did I miss anyone?)

Together, this group threw me a fabulous 30th birthday party, complete with several flavors of margaritas to taste, a pineapple pinata full of fun stuff, tasty Mexican food, and a cake (by Lauren!) that is just about the cutest, most perfect cake ever. But for a few much-missed exceptions, I had over 20 of my closest friends there!

And did I mention all the great presents?! Suffice to say I scored. :-)

I feel so loved. Truly.

Being 30...So far, so good!



PS. Thanks to Molly for the photos! As the guest of honor, I wasn't thinking about taking any. If other people have some, please send them to me. Thanks!

Excuses, excuses

Birthdays really are great excuses to get pampered.

Today: hair, mani & pedi
Tomorrow: fabulous party given by friends & family
Thursday: dinner at The Melting Pot with family
Saturday: massage at The Massage Company
(Just $39 for 60 min or $59 for 90 min! And word on the street is that every therapist there is great. I'll report back.)

I love turning 30.

Just for fun I Googled "thirty" for images and there was some CRAZY stuff! For some reason, there were a lot of exposed and/or mangled body parts and frail, anorexic-looking bodies, and one extremely large, nearly naked German woman with her tatas covered in whipped cream, each of them lying on a half of watermelon. People are strange.

Among the strangeness was this cartoon on toothpaste for dinner, which I thought was kind of funny, even though it's about wishing for death to avoid work.

The Great Highlighter Debate

Suffice to say that with taking 5 summer intensives, I've had to do a lot of reading. Just this weekend I've read over 150 pages. It goes without saying that I've highlighted quite a bit. Which brings me to this post.

I'm a highlighter snob.

Staples brand stinks. Accent is pretty good. Sharpie is the best.