Halloween Feast: Open WIDE

We live in an apartment complex where kids wouldn’t exactly walk up to. There’s plenty of college kids living here and some other sketchy folk, so we decided to not give out here. We decided that we (Chris, cousins, & co.) would go to my aunt’s house in a very much-more family-friendly area. It’s also big, spacious and lovely. The perfect spot for some Halloween fun.

As soon as I was out of work, I raced home with a huge list of things to bring on my mind. First, I made some of my guacamole (which I ended up having to make a second batch because people [CHRIS] ate all of it before the main dish was out). Then, I put the pumpkins in the car, the Halloween cookies, the laundry (yes we brought our laundry over), CANDY, red wine, and apple cider. Was that it? Oh yes, and the kittens! It was the first time they’ve been over to my aunt’s house since they’ve finally gotten their Rabies shots (yay!). So I shoved both of them in the cat carrier and headed over to my aunt’s house.

Once there, I found Megan (my cousin) already preparing her wild-caught fish tacos. It was a big project, but she used top-notch ingredients, even made her own aioli chipotle sauce. She battered them in panko breadcrumbs, turned out absolutely fabulous. Fred, her boyfriend, and his brother made a top notch cole-slaw that would go on top. And then my guacamole on top of that. It was amazing. Seriously. Better than any taco place can give out. Just LOOK at it.

Main show of the feast, everyone put a little something in and it turned out to be excellent

We had a lovely appetizer of bread and baked brie with a chipotle cranberry sauce (might have been pomegranate, never get it right). Again, delicious.

We put on Monsters Inc. (the most Halloween-y movie we could find) and enjoyed our dinner immensely. As soon as we were done, Chris immediately wanted to put the cookies in the oven. They’re his favorite kind of cookies. Basic sugar cookies with Halloween deco on them.

And they didn’t last too long….

By the time these were done with, we really couldn’t move. All on the couch, kitties laying peacefully across us (why didn’t I get pics of that?!), blissfully enjoying our full bellies.

And of course, the mess in the kitchen was as usual (and as should be!) after any well-prepared feast. And Ben (my other cousin) cleaned everything up, thanks Ben!

Overall, it was a great Halloween, full of food, friends, and family (what else matters, really?). The only bummer was that we only got three batches of trick or treaters. We would get so excited when the doorbell rings I think we kind of scared them off. Anyways, it was a great time.

Nymeria didn’t like her outfit as much as we did.

Happy Halloween!

Oct082012

Back to The Movies: Double Review of Taken 2 and Pitch Perfect

So, despite being very busy and having more important chores to do… we decided to start going back to the movies on Sunday mornings. AMC has a great deal where any pre-matinee show is only 6 dollars a ticket, unless its 3D or something else fancy. So we decided on these two:

Taken 2: We loved the first one and Liam Neeson is just awesome. While this movie was more or less the same as the first, and any fan would enjoy it for sure, it did have a lot more love and fluff. For a 90 minute movie, at least half felt like fluff so the action was shortened but it was still very entertaining. Not as clever, but still worth seeing if you enjoyed the first. It was somewhat entertaining. 3/10

Our boy, Liam

Pitch Perfect: Alana convinced me to see this, which wasn’t hard because I actually love acapella. She wanted to see it because of the Australian roommate of the main character from Bridesmaids. Seeing her hilarious acting was well worth our money and while the movie was predictable, it had some great musical arrangements and some decent acting. It was very entertaining. 7/10

Next weekend we plan on doing another double to get into the Halloween spirit, by seeing Frankenweenie and Hotel Transylvania.

I never wanted to see Looper but I do like Bruce Willis and the reviews are top notch so I’ll consider it. As for other future movies, my three most anticipated of the year are obviously, in no particular order because it’d be too hard:

The Hobbit (!!!)

Les Miserables

Skyfall

Otherwise, I plan on seeing Alex Cross with Tyler Perry and Matthew Fox, Silent Hill Revelations 3D, Cloud Atlas, Chasing Mavericks, Wreck it Ralph (Looks great), Man with the Iron Fists, and Rise of the Guardians.

Let me know if anything else coming out this year looks worth seeing! We love movies of all kinds, just no zombies for Alana.

🙂

Oct022012

Happiness Starts in the Home

With our latest ‘painting’ bought (I use quotes because we got it from Ross, but it really is quite nice), our home is truly starting to feel like…well, home. I love each and every room. It may be small, but I like small, because I grew up in a beach bungalow. It fits the four of us very nicely, and we’ve even been able to squeeze in four guests (at once)!

Our new entertainment center which you read about last post. Movies are so much more epic now. We watched Part 2 of the Deathly Hallows today after work instead of being productive!

Here is our lovely fireplace, complete with ready-to-go pumpkins and a fireplace set Chris picked up from a garage sale. Cannot wait until the weather gets cold and we constantly have a fire to cozy up the apartment!

I always like to show our bookshelf of the gods (of sorts) and there happens to be a bowl of Halloween candy atop it. Which is the death of me.

Now Chris calls this my “Office.” You can see my computer set up, with both of our work schedules, payrolls, calendars, and so forth pinned up in front of it. You can also see our new painting–of New York!

Here’s our simple line of appliances. All of our cooking spices and goodies are in the lazy susan underneath. And Chris’ “office” is on the breakfast bar. In fact, you can see his computer there!

And I just had to put up a picture of our awesome changing-color bathroom nightlight with a ocean-scene on it. It’s great!

In the bedroom, we got a huge tapestry (my personal favorite color), a beautiful Japanese wall scroll straight from Japan, and a family mirror. If you look closely enough, you can see a new Olympic Barbell we bought from Salvation Army ($12.50–what a deal!) over the weekend.

Great new mugs!!

Beyond me posting random pictures of our beloved apartment, there is a little more to what I’m conveying. Before trying to settle being happy with your life as a whole, start with your home. Make it so when you walk in the door, you feel relaxed and comfortable–away from the dangers of the outside world and a place where you can feel at peace. Like the title says, happiness starts in the home. Make your space how you want it to be. Make it a place of love and harmony. Otherwise, you’re never going to want to be there. And nobody wants to feel unwelcome in their own home.

Cheers!

Oct012012

Family Addition: Television!

So, I start all my posts with so. What a bad habit, but not as bad a habit as buying ridiculous things, which ended up with us having a 39″ television in our little apartment. When I was in college, I can’t remember what year, I decided to buy a nice television for my bedroom at home. (I think it was when I graduated actually.) Why? Because I love playing video games and watching movies/anime. Plain and simple.

Now, my room at home wasn’t the biggest, and my vision wasn’t the best, but bigger doesn’t always mean better. As a result, I bought the most environmentally friendly television at the time (or one of them). It was a cute little 22″ Philips LED 720p TV and it got the job done. When we decided to move, I couldn’t let this little guy, which I spent a whole $159.99 on just stay behind. So we took him/her, despite the sea of other things we got rid of over the months. Somehow, it made it all the way across the country despite the ridiculous heat and bumpy roads. But here in Boulder, in our apartment, the Philips just wasn’t working out and I decided to make a move.

An exciting bundle of packages that may or may not have our TV inside

After debating for weeks, with a little financial aid and TV input from my brother, I finally ordered a 39″ TCL 1080p 60HZ LED TV. It was nearly $350 on Amazon, but had free shipping. It made it in two days with Prime, and seemed to be in perfect shape, as we watched “The Avengers” the first night we got it. We haven’t used it since but I can’t wait for tomorrow. Why? Because I ordered this television for one reason. Resident Evil 6. And I might as well use it for Dishonored. And every other good game coming out soon but really I can’t wait to put it to good use. It doesn’t have an off-axis glare like the Philips had because of its size. It fits almost perfectly and I think that movie nights and video games will be so much better with it. Now Alana can use the Philips as a PC screen so she can play Skyrim in super mode. And now I can play Skyrim in super-mode too. Can’t wait for Resident Evil 6. PSN username KINGTUCCI for anyone that wants to play online multiplayer.

There it is, in all its glory

Thanks for reading the short post, I’ll let you know how the TV performs in my soon to come review of Resident Evil 6.

Bonus Pic: Misty being pissy

Sep132012

Happy Birthday, Chris!

You’re an old man now (24 to be exact). So, I’ll direct you to this post for what we did over the past weekend (kind of our birthday weekend/week). That was all a bunch of fun, definitely some good times. His exact birthday was yesterday, September 12th.

Anyhow, two nights ago we decide to have a joint birthday dinner. I ask Chris what he wants for dinner and he says (can you guess?)…SUSHI! So sushi it is! We invite Marga, Ben, and Megan to meet us for a 7:30pm dinner at Sushi Tora. It was nice on the interior and very busy. We arrived in the rain, and were lucky enough to find a spot right in front! A very rare occurrence anywhere near Pearl St. Once everyone arrived, we started off with some Magic Mushrooms–a very popular appetizer there. I believe it contained salmon, mushroom, and some sort of other flavor. Looked good.

We stayed there for a few hours and ordered a lot off the menu (well, Chris did at least). I got some delicious tuna and smoked white tuna sushi (nigiri). I didn’t really like the smoked flavor of the white tuna, just because I’m so in love with white tuna (it’s my favorite, just so you know)

Chris ordered two entrees: cod and mackerel (not raw). He ate them up pretty quickly.

Mackerel: GREAT protein-wise and omega-3s!

Megan and Marga then split a DELICIOUS tempura-battered brie with sliced apples (or were they pears?) with honey. Very very good.

Then, Marga, Ben, and Megan split a bunch of different rolls, all of which mostly contained salmon and eel, I believe. They looked very tasty.

We then ended the night with banana tempura, which was extra delicious. Very sweet and under a base of caramel, mmm! Overall, this place was good, not great, but still an excellent time with family and just enjoying the night. The price didn’t quite match the value, but it’s a big step up from Japango. Our next Sushi adventure will be at Sushi Zanmai, which is supposed to be superb. Can’t wait to try it out!

We went to bed full and happy, having had a really fun night. The next morning, we woke up to wet grounds outside and a steady trickle of rain. I looked at the forecast: 57 degrees alllll day. I knew Chris would be happy. He likes the cold. I don’t quite like the cold (sorry, I’m from SoCal), but I do enjoy my rain and it gives a great reason to stay inside and be happy. Which we did when we could. With the looming chore of the DMV before us, I wanted to take Chris out to a place that had good croissants for breakfast. So I put on my jeans and my NZ gumboots (rare recently, due to it being a usual 90 degrees and all) and we drove to Spruce Confections.

It was delicious (see above). We got two croissants, one mixed berry with chocolate scone, hot chocolate, and Bhakti Chai. We really enjoyed the croissants–they were fresh, buttery, and had a perfect taste. The scone was good, but didn’t compare to the croissant. The hot chocolate was soul-warming, but needed to be a tad bit sweeter, but we will definitely again. Now, the Bhakti Chai was intense. It had the strongest ginger flavor I had ever tasted in a chai before! If anyone is sick, pick up a cup of this stuff! Well, anyhow, it was an adorable little cafe/bakery with quirky girls working the shop, rain dripping down outside, and a couple of cute dogs hiding under tables waiting for their owners to hurry up with their drink. They will definitely see us here again. We can’t wait to go here during the winter, I have a feeling the scene will be perfect.

I then spent the next 3 hours in the DMV, getting a Colorado license while Chris happily sat in the car, playing a new game I got him for his birthday on his 3DS. We then both had work, but by the time 8pm rolled around, we were hungry. Chris picked me up and we discussed dinner. We had recently walked to Marshall’s and on the way, our noses were hijacked by the most wonderful smell…wafting from a big Indian restaurant (Jai Ho). So, last night, we decided to go. It was very good, very quiet, and very atmospheric. We had samosas, garlic naan, a mushroom dish, and a curry dish (which was spicy even though the waiter insisted it was the non-spicy one Chris could get). I guess we’ll need to say “non-Indian non-spicy” next time.

He also got a lot of great birthday loot, including some video games, music, checks, and cards, so thank you everyone!! Cheers 🙂

P.S.- Sorry for skipping a day, beloved readers, as you can see we were very busy yesterday and the night before. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Aug302012

Do NOT Touch that Button!

Dread

Let’s admit it: in this day and age, most people have smartphones. Even if you don’t have one, this still applies to you. Most of our work is often connected to our email, which is often connected to our phone, which is often on our bodies at ALL TIMES. It can get incredibly stressful even when you’re not at work, to check your email and boop! a few work emails slide in, reminding about all the tasks you need to get done. It sucks. But it’s also addicting, wanting to know everything that’s being sent to you at all times, wanting to be on top of it all.

For example, I wake up in the morning and the very first thing I do is lean over (groggily) and press my email. A few seconds later, I hear the familiar short buzz, notifying me that there’s something (or multiple somethings) in my inbox. I see 18 New Emails, and my stomach does a turn, half out of excitement and half out of dread. I know there are some things that could be great potential offers, but also some that task more things on my to-do list. Is that the feeling I want to get right in the start of the morning? I’m starting to think not.

So, as my attempts to observe myself and my reactions towards things, I tried to listen to my stress patterns more. There are sometimes where I don’t mind checking over everything I have to do, getting bombarded with emails from “Stop Animal Cruelty!” to the latest work I need to complete that day, and such. But sometimes, I want to be happy in the moment and do whatever I’m doing whether it be cuddling with the kitties, doing some writing, or spending time with my loved ones.

Thus, in order to demonstrate my learned lesson of understanding myself, I tried to follow not always checking it. For example, we were in the gym yesterday, doing a cardio and leg workout. One of our better workouts since we actually had a facility. Not to say we aren’t out of shape, but hey we’re getting there again. Anyhow, I was enjoying the workout, getting into it, having fun and I felt this itch every time I was resting from a leg press or calf raise. What the heck is that? Oh yeah, it’s an itch to check my email, see if I need to get anything done, who’s contacting me, etc etc etc. But I didn’t press it once! I was pretty proud and I was also happy to be in the moment enjoying myself.