Merlot Pollo

When I got home from work tonight, I thought it would be a great idea to see what Betty Crocker suggested for dinner, based on what I had in the house.


I tried to make this Chicken Nice dish, but I didn't have most what Betty recommended. So instead of white wine, I used leftover Merlot, and instead of rice, I used a tortilla, and came up with some delightful Merlot Pollo fantastico.



Directions:

• Throw in whatever red wine you have


• Sautee some chicky in that


• Take out the chicky


• Add, red, yellow, and green onions; Red, yellow, and green bell peppers, and some squash from New Year's Eve for good measure


• Throw in some Italian seasoning, and half a jalapeno pepper for good measure


• Toss the chicky back in


• Wrap it in a tortilla and serve!


• and....Voila! Merlot Pollo Fantastico.

It actually tasted quite fantastic, don't hate til you try it darlings.

Vail

On Saturday, Kate, Maggie, Justin and I ventured west on I-70 to ski at Vail. Vail is beautiful, and quickly becoming my favorite place to ski.

We had a beautiful, snow-filled day, and it didn't get unbearably cold until around 2:30 when I thought the left side of my face might fall off. But the right side of my face stilll had an unmistakable glow.

The Holiday

Last night I treated myself to popcorn, Cherry Coke and a movie. The biggest treat was the movie itself--"The Holiday" which I had been hoping to catch since I first saw the previews.

It did not disappoint me.

I'm sure you cynics out there are thinking, it's a cheesy, romantic comedy, chick-flick.

And you'd be right.

But it's also one of those movies that is long (2 hrs 15 min) but doesn't seem long. It makes you smile at the end. And for anyone who's ever fallen hard for someone who really wasn't worth it, it emphasizes you aren't alone, and you are so, sO, SO much better than them, anyway.

Plus, it has Jack Black, who can make you laugh. And Jude Law, who can make you swoon. I now understand what the Jude Law hype's been all about. He looks quite fetching in this film. Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet aren't so bad, either.

The movie made me laugh, made me cry, and was full of pretty people with problems that all meet some level of resolution. After all, that's why we go to the movies, like this, right? For some hope in this crazy, mixed-up world?

In a word, fantastic!

Happy New Year!

It's a new year, thus a revamped blog. Thought I would change it up just a bit.

Here's me in the New Year, celebrating with Senor and a martini.

More to come!

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas

This might be the BEST Christmas song I have EVER heard!

So fabulous. Check it out here, and turn up the volume!

Bacon Tini

My friend Peeps sent me this lil ditty which I find FABULOUS. Please read below

"SOME PIG (from http://www.gochgazette.com/)

I think New York City should change its nickname to the city that never sleeps (cause they are too busy coming up with new trends).

Leave it to the Big Apple to come up with the hottest drink ingredient around, Bacon. The Bacon Martini and the Bacon Bloody Mary are popping up all over the place in NYC.

From Williamsburg to (no surprise) the trendy Meatpacking District, hipsters are going Hog Wild for bacon infused drinks, which have obviously replaced the pomegranate and lychee martinis as the drink du jour.

Just like anything else, what happens in New York, shows up in Vegas.

So next time you are in New York City or on the Vegas (bacon) Strip give this shock-tail a try.

Or if you want to “bring home the bacon” you can infuse a bottle of vodka yourself."

Now I have not tried the Bacon Martini, but of course, I certainly will sometime. So I can't weigh in on it yet, but I hope to soon.

Here is a flickr set from some dude with some comments from people:

And here is a fun NY Post article about the bacon martini and martinis in general (NYC focused, I must admit).

celebrity crush

I have a bit of a celebrity crush on Evan Dando. That may seem very 1995, but I don't care

Check out an interview here complete with acoustic versions of my two favorite lemonheads songs, Outdoor Type and Being Around.

I also like, Confetti. Old, but great.

He kinda shoulda sorta woulda loved her if he could've.

The story's getting closer to the end.

He kinda shoulda sorta woulda loved her if he could've.

He'd rather be alone than pretend.

She just wanted him to love her but he didn't.

He took to the woods and wandered in it.

Walked along and on until they couldn't.

Stole himself to tell her that he wouldn't.

He kinda shoulda sorta woulda loved her if he could've.

The story's getting closer to the end.

He kinda shoulda sorta woulda loved her if he could've.

He'd rather be alone than pretend.

She just wanted him to love her but he didn't.

He took to the woods and wandered in it.

Walked along and on until they couldn't.

Stole himself to tell her that he wouldn't.

He kinda shoulda sorta woulda loved her if he could've.

The storys getting closer to the end.

He kinda shoulda sorta woulda loved her if he could've.

He'd rather be alone than pretend.

Happy musings

I haven't posted anything in awhile, so here are some happy musings as of late:

• GBHR (garbanzo bean, hot raisin, burritos. DELICIOUS)
  
• $1 tacos
  
• Whiskey Fridays, Saturdays and most importantly, Tuesdays
  
• Winning 56 popsicles (half fudgsicles, half grape, thank you very much)
  
• The Keystoner (see above)


• Wendy's Giant Diet Coke I love you so hard (but only, like, once a year)


• Dancing snowmen light blossoms


• The Lemonheads Outdoor Type and Being Around


• Pirates 2, Arrrrrrrrrr


• Spiky tall new heel boots
  
• Frozen peas as ice packs
  
• Shopping Online


• The Flask
  
• Drunk dials and snakes on a

  plane

Whiskey Saturday, I do believe, below

Look-A-Likes

haha I think these things are pretty bogus but I did it anyway. Here is my celebrity look a like collage based on this photo:




and based on a photo of me eating a pot pie:



hahaha AWESOME
which do you like more?

South Park

This is my South Park self. If you want to make your own South Park persona, just go to http://www.sp-studio.de/

It is pretty much totally, fantastic.

Thanks to Kate for sending me the link!

Totally changed my life dudes. hahaha.

Friends

I really like my friends. They are great in fact. The past few days have been friend packed, as I wish they all were.

My friend Jeffy "Peeps" Peoples made the trip all the way from Houston, TX Thursday and after we went to Hipotle for lunch, he got to meet a rowdy crowd of my friends that evening who gathered at Bender's for some fantastic karaoke. I never knew "Total Eclipse of the Heart" could be so well-received by a crew of punk-rock kids.

Friday meant driving Peeps around D-Town so he could get lots of photos for a project he was working on for his job. As you can see from the photos, I could be in some kind of D-Town tourism brochure.

Later Friday night, we headed to the mountains to hang at the condo before skiing at Breck on Saturday. The ski day was beautiful, though very very busy, with long lift lines. But I had pink pants on, so I made the most of it.
Saturday night it was back to D-Town for Liz's 30th B-day party, dancing at Lilla's European Cafe to Adam's band, and then late night food at the Satire. However there was one unfortuante incident during the night, Senor's head falling off. Luckily, Laura was able to superglue him back together on Sunday.
All in all, it was a great weekend, with other fun events Sunday, but I have no pix from them, so use your imaginations, please.

Damien Rice

The new Damien Rice album, 9, comes out today, but I had a preview thanks to Bridget.

The track I like best is a B sides not on the album

"The Rat within the Grain"

Lyrics link above. The first few verses:

"This would not have happened if I hadn't missed my plane
I would've been there when they told you I'm the rat within the grain
Within this big misunderstanding out and being misunderstood
I'm thinkin' someone's trying to fuck with me and set fire to my wood

Well I wouldn't want you to want to be wanted by me
I wouldn't want you to worry you'd be drowned within my sea
I only wanted to be wonderful, and wonderful is true
In truth, I only really wanted to be wanted by you"

Check it out if you can. Sorry I don't have a link to the song here. I'll see if I can remedy that.

Ski Season

Ski season is officially open for business!

I took off work on Friday to go ski it up with my friends Annie and Randy--Friday marked my second ski day of the season, (Saturday Nov. 4th was the first day with Kate, but the lines were soooo long we only did 2 runs) and then this past Saturday marked my third day.

Most of you know I am not that great of a skiier, but I am trying to have a better PMA about it this season, and am determined to do better. So far, so good.

Here are a few pix from the ski adventure and having drinks later Friday night with Stacy and Johnnnnnn. And yes I have a white furry hat AND a white furry/plastic ski vest. hahahah.

AWESOME

Some things are just awesome.

For example, this photo of me getting ready to hit it out, circa 1987.

hahahhahahahhahhaha.

AWESOME!

Recent Highlights, ala Breakfast at Tiffany's and harp players

Some great highlights of the last few days (sorry, no pix...I wasn't on top of that):

Thursday night: The Mountain Girl Hottie Squad (Stacy, Me, and Kate + 1.5 dudes, one random, one almost random) were the trivia champions at the Squire lounge! Oh yes, we won, we did not cheat, we had 2 bionic beavers, and we were rewarded with a $50 bar tab for next time! And we ate at the Satire at 1 a.m. Oh and also we broke our past record in Erotic Photo Hunt. BRING IT.

Friday: Went up to the mountains and broke in the new condo for the season with some serious Diablo spaghetti sauce.

Saturday: Skiied it up for 2 runs @ Keystone. First skiing of the season. Entirely too long lift lines though. Then later that night watched Breakfast at Tiffany's--how I have never seen this is beyond me--but it is a FABULOUS movie. My favorite quote from Audrey Hepburn (Holly Golightly): "I'll pay for my own whiskey! Don't you forget it!"

hahahhaha. Damn Straight.

Sunday: I watched a great indie movie, The Puffy Chair. Check it out, it is very entertaining.

I also went to see Joanna Newsom play last nite at the Bluebird. It was beautiful and fantastic, as she plays the harp, and her band included an accordion player and a tambura player. She has a new album coming out next week, and I highly recommend picking it up. Plus it has a song called the Monkey and the Bear.

OK all for now!

Biggest Zucchini EVER

Last night after work, I decided to make zucchini bread because we had this HUGE zucchini in our fridge. As I was making it, I was talking to my good friend Tiffanie on the phone, (she's in Iowa). I was trying to describe how big the zucchini was, but I wasn't doing it justice, so I took a few pictures.


As you can see, I could play that Zucchini like the trumpet it was. Turns out I needed about 2 cups of shredded zucchini for the zucchini bread, and that shaved off about 1/5 of the monster. So there is still a large zucchini in my fridge, waiting to figure out how it should be consumed.

As I was multitasking while making the tasty bread, I mistakenly added twice the necessary amount of salt and baking powder, so I decided to add in a secret ingredient, which my counterpart in Iowa very much supported.

Turns out the secret ingredient, as well as lots and lots and lots and lots of chocolate chips, almost totally balanced out the salt. This was tasted-tested by Stacy and Kate, who had some at the Squire Lounge later last evening.

Remember, don't doubt until you try it!!!!

And Whiskey is the secret ingredient to everything good.

Cuddles

This is pretty much the best picture I've seen in a very long time. Cuddles the Hippo is 43 years old, lives at the San Francisco Zoo, and eats pumpkins for breakfast.
Check it here:

Zam-Zam-Zamboni

Laura and I went to a Colorado Avalanche hockey game on Monday night. I have discovered the best thing about hockey is the Zamboni. I took a picture of the Zamboni with my camera phone, but I don't know how to get it all up on the Internet, so here is a picture of a different Zamboni:

The only other thing better than the Zamboni at the hockey game is if the hockey players get in a fight, and since they didn't fight Monday night, Zamboni wins HANDS DOWN. Hands down, that's right. I would really like to ride/drive a Zamboni someday. That could be a great goal.

Regina and Rocky

I saw a couple good shows this weekend. I'm going to write about the second first, because it was last night, and it was lovely. Regina Spektor played the Bluebird, the venue that is literally a 30 second walk from my front door. If you haven't seen her, make sure you try to catch her when she is in your proximity. Beautiful voice, beautiful personality, and she wore a sparkly tutu AND could play the piano like nobody's business.

In addition, between the end of the show and the encore, she let a couple come on stage (fairly young, early 20's for sure) and the dude proposed to the chick right there on stage, he said after only knowing her 4 months. I'm generally not a fan of such public displays of proposal, but they were little punk rocker kiddies and it was actually quite cute as she (the chica) was genuinely surprised about her man's plans. Oh and she said yes.

Highlights were "Fidelity," "Summer in the City," "Baby Jesus", "On the Radio" "Us," Samson," "Sailor Song," "Your Honor," "Hotel Song" and "Better" (Yes, I really like her latest CD). It was delightful, and I even met someone who recognized my nataliedee t-shirt.

Then, the first show of the weekend, on Saturday night, was Rocky Votolato at the Gothic. I've been listening to a lot of his stuff the past month and half since my lil bro burned me most of his music. Plus, his latest album is entitled "Makers" after my favorite whiskey, so I appreciate that. And towards the end of his set he took not one, but two shots of the tasty drink.

The crowd was a little big for his mainly solo guitar performance and songs, but most people were appreciating it, and he did rock out on some. I think most were there to see Lucero who I didn't stick around for, on account of being out a bit too late in my 'hood on Friday night.

Highlights were "Suicide Medicine", "Montana," "Makers" and "Mix Tapes / Cell Mates." I got there and I think he was two songs in, but I was able to slide up to the front with no issues and slide out after. Totally worth $13. And no one cared when I sang along, because most of them were, too. And you all now, I do like to sing.

You better BACON believe it

Sometimes, I have ideas that some people may think of as strange. I however, don't think they are that strange. I'm the type of person who gets really really excited about what some may think are little things, for example seeing friends I haven't seen in a long time, finding $5 in a pair of jeans I haven't worn in a year, leaving work early on a Friday, and hearing certain Madonna songs unexpectedly on the jukebox.
Some months back I was thinking about how much I like bacon. To me, everything tastes better with bacon on it. It's a truth similar to, say, Christmas is always better with snow. So, I was thinking about bacon these many months ago, and thought, what would I NEVER put bacon on. Why, vanilla ice cream of course. So, from here, the idea stuck in my mind to try this at some point. There were really no takers until Stacy moved back, and she was all about the experiment. Which got me really, really excited about it all over again.
A few weeks ago we set the date for our Bacon Ice Cream to be Thursday the 12th (last night). At the start of Grey's Anatomy we began sizzlin' up that fabulous meat, cooking to desired crispiness. Then, we crumbled it and sprinkled it over that delicious vanilla ice cream. Stacy brought whipped cream for added flair, and we oozed a bit of chocolate syrup on for good measure.
THE RESULT: AMAZINGLY FANTASTIC. To quote Stacy "Thank you for the best ice cream sundae of my life." Laura's reaction, "I was a doubter, but I was wrong." Now I hope to make believers out of all of you, but I trust that many of you will not believe till you try it. Also I suggest actual bacon, because bacon bits are just gross in general.

Punk Rock Bingo

Tonight, Stacy and I ventured down to the Lion's Lair (a fabulous, small, dive bar a few blocks down the road) to play Punk Rock Bingo and drink $1 PBRs. Yeah, it was pretty much the greatest thing ever.
Stacy bingoed not once, but twice. The first time she won a certain Tickler device and the second time she won another tickler she gave to me (I had no idea there was such a thing before). hahahhhaah. Far and away the best bingo prizes ever. Not to mention that we made friends with the bartender and some of the regular bingo players, one of which was an approximately 55 year old woman who liked to tell dirty jokes and give high fives. Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds.
I may have found my Tuesday night post-baseball season activity that will get me through the offseason.
Holla holla!

Playoffs!

My Twins are in the playoffs and I am SOOOOO super-pumped. Not to mention they are the AL Central Champs! First game today at 11 mountain time--I am so listening to it in my office today.
GO TWINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johan is pitching today. I'm hoping for a victory! He is a stud.

Half Marathon!!!

September has been a bit of a flurry of activities (I hope to post some of the other happenings soon) but I decided to get an update out to everyone on this event sooner than later. Yesterday Kate, Liz, Annie K. and I ran the Boulder Backroads Half Marathon! (in Boulder, CO)

It was a beautiful day, and the course started right at the Boulder Reservoir, with the Flatirons and mountains giving us a great view as we ran. Overall, I placed 1,692nd out of 2024 participants. Of the women, I was 995th out of 1272, and in my age group I was 186th out of 229 women (ages 25-29). But, I didn't finish last, and I didn't walk, and I did it! This has been a big goal for me since I went from not running at all, to starting to run in January and doing my first 5K and 10K in May and now my first 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) yesterday.

Here are some fun pix from yesterday. Stacy, Annie I. and Laura came from D-town to cheer us on. They are awesome. The above pic is me rushing for the finish line and trying to pass that dude in the orange. hahaha. Below, Kate, me and Liz celebrate our finish, Kate waves as she runs in, and Annie, baby Cozy and I all aglow in half marthon Domination!

El Natural

Me, sporting my natural hair color.