Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Having Fun in the Warm California Sun

I had an amazing quick weekend getaway to California this long weekend. First let me tell you the weather was unbelievable for January. Sure it may be global warming, but it was sunny, 70 and beautiful.. When I left NY the high was 10 degrees and the wind chill made it feel 10 below. It was awful. Awfully horribly cold!



So what brought me West? My long time fabulous friend Kelly is pregnant, 8 months pregnant with a baby girl and I just had to see her pregnant! I've known Kel since 6th grade, we met at space camp in Huntsville, AL. 20 yrs ago. Week long trips to space camp were common for Sacramento area sixth graders. That's clearly no longer the case. Now obviously neither of us went on to be astronauts but we did go on to be wonderful friends and I didn't want to miss seeing her at this milestone moment. The beautiful weather was just a perk!





I got to spend 2 full days in Sacramento which allowed me time to see a good amount of friends.
Met college sorority sisters for lunch, the one in green is Christina, my big sis from the sorority drove all the way down from Chico for the lunch, isn't she the sweetest? She is a new mommy too!! She went home with a pink "I love NY onesie!" :)

Afterwards I met up with Ryn and Dan before mtg Kelly for a girly manicure session.
Then we met high school friends Jill and Meghan plus Carolyn for dinner.
Jill's a new Mommy too... Won't lil Parker be adorable in this?
I also got to spend some quality time with my in-laws while I stayed under their Roseville roof... It was an amazing weekend even though my sister-in-law (not pictured) stole my bed that I left there for us to sleep in on visits back since we weren't able to take it to NY.. She was in town too because it was Mike's dad's bday weekend. Happy birthday Jack!

On Monday, I drove back into San Francisco. My wonderfully generous and thoughtful sister let me borrow her car for the weekend. I had flown into SFO on Saturday morning and drove straight from there to the shower in Lincoln. Becca had picked me up, took me to Peets coffee, wrapped Kelly's presents while I changed clothes and put on makeup and then sent me on my way with her car. Isn't she the BEST???
So back to Monday. On Monday I drove back into San Francisco. It was by far the sunniest day in SF ever! It was beautiful and clear and sunny!!
I met up w/ Becca and Mark, Katie, and Michelle for lunch in the Marina area. It was great! I hadn't seen Michelle in 2 years or so and it was so nice to catch up! We had worked together about 8 yrs ago back in my Fox 40 days.
Afterwards, Katie and I shopped around and enjoyed the sun and then later that evening Bec,



Katie and I went to Tea! Complete with petit fours and finger sandwiches. It was adorable!!
Anyhow, I had such an amazing weekend. It was so nice to have some much needed girl time. I miss my girls!!!




And good news, we've already booked our next trip back to Cali and this time both Mike and Cooper will be coming. AND we'll be in both the Sacramento area AND the L.A. Area!The 3 of us all have our tickets! We'll be in Sac 4/3-4/8 and LA 4/8-4/13.
On that note stay tuned for a rant coming on why I feel that dogs should be able to Collect Airline reward "miles.". Cooper's airfare is as high as ours and he doesn't even get a seat he has to fly in a bag at our feet! Ridiculous right? But I guess that's the price of a jet set pet!
XOXO
Jen

Monday, January 12, 2009

Eating Like THE KING!!!




So most people know that one of my favorite foods, if not THE favorite, is peanut butter. I love it. Its wonderful. Peanut butter cookies, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and OF COURSE, peanut butter and chocolate (Reeses peanut butter cups are EASILY my favorite candy). My Mom knows of all the times I came home to eat lunch with a loaf of French bread, cut it up, and covered it in butter and peanut butter...

Oh man, I think all the blood just rushed from my head writing that sentence...hang on...


Anyways, peanut butter, as Jason from the "Bachelor" would say, is "amazing." (fun digression: That should be the new drinking game...do a shot every time Jason says someone or something is "amazing" on that show. You'll be under the table within 45 minutes). And by the way, I'm somehow involved in a "Fantasy Bachelor" game with Jen and a bunch of other women from ABC and elsewhere...we had to pick who gets voted off each week, all the way down to the final, and I studied the "this season, on "The Bachelor" clips like it was the Zapruder film as I made my picks...but this is a whole other post altogether...where was I again? Ah yes...
So when Jen told me there was a whole restaurant that focused on different kinds of peanut butter sandwiches, I told her we had to go...


So we went a couple of weekends ago, and I immediately locked on to a sandwich called "The Elvis".....it was a peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich...grilled.


Now I know what you are thinking..."Holy #^&@$!! How could it possibly get better?" And Jen ordered one just like that....BUT I, on the other hand, knew something was missing. There was only one possible ingredient that could make a sandwich like that even more delightful and disgustingly bad for you....that's right people, for one dollar extra, you could add BACON to the sandwich...

so to recap...peanut butter, honey, bananas, and bacon...grilled...


your heart just stops writing that sentence...


I ordered the extra bacon for my sandwich, told the waitress to dial 9-1 and keep her finger on the 1 just in case, and chowed down....holy crap it was delicious....its no wonder Elvis died a fat man full of grease....I could eat those things every day...granted I'd be 700 pounds by the end of the year, but what a way to go...

Anyways, we'll be going back at some point (definitely when either Mike or Dave or both get back here) but it'll have to be awhile, because I'm fairly sure my arteries need a break...

Here's some pics from the trip....not pictured is the defibrillator I had on standby.... =)








Mike