food, food, and more food

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On Saturday, I had a full day…literally. Kevin and Karrie were in town and we went down to San Marcos to taste 5 different noodle dishes at a place called Noodles and Co. at around 12:00 pm. The dishes were all mediocre so we went next door to Chick Fil’A for nuggets and waffle fries. After that, we drove to the fancy St. Regis in Dana Point for coffee and dessert at about 3:30 pm. We then drove back up and got home at 5:15 pm. At 5:30 pm, I got back into the car and drove up to Venice for a 6:30 dinner date with the girls. We ate at Primitivo on Abbott Kinney where they served tapas and wine. It was so fun to share a variety of small dishes from risotto to scallops to cheeses to bacon-wrapped dates. And of course, I tasted 3 different wines by the half-glass. Tasty tasty fun.

Be Safe, Huy!

Our dear friend Huy is leaving for Iraq today.  He’s been preparing for this day for many many months now and the day is finally here.  He sounds relieved, anxious, and excited all at the same time.  Go to his blog (also found in my blogroll on the right) and wish him luck! 

What is that wet stuff?

Today is the first day of Spring and it actually rained last night!  We’ve had so little rain this year that I almost forgot what it looked and smelled like.  It was wet outside when I came out of my painting class and was wet again this morning as I walked the dog.  It was so nice.  I think I need to do my rain dance.  We need more…

 Update 3/22/07:  It’s definitely Spring.  I walked the dog this morning and noticed how noisy the birds are in the neighborhood.  Then during our usual lap around the park, I saw two ducks wandering around.  I have no idea where they came from.  Then on the way home, I counted probably 6 bunnies just hanging out eating the grass.  I thought to myself, “any minute now I should see Bambi just around the corner.”  Since I work with kids, it’s normal to be coloring pictures of ducks and bunnies around this time of year but this is ridiculous. 

a work in progress…

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We worked on using an impressionistic style today.  It wasn’t supposed to look exactly like the sample but it’s pretty close.  After 2 1/2 hours, this is what I ended up with.  I’m feeling plus/minus about this one.  I’m debating whether to continue and finish it next week or if I want to try a new one. I want to use more blue…getting tired of using warm colors.  I may bring in one of my landscape photos to interpret next week.  That might be interesting.

a beer and a victory

dsc_4867a.jpgLast night we went down to San Clemente for St. Patrick’s Day. Patty and Johnny (not the Brother) invited us to OC Tavern, which is owned by their friend. It’s a Sports Bar/Restaurant/Club that serves semi-gourmet bar food and has lots of widescreen plasmas showing sports in HD throughout the entire place. It’s a pretty large space complete with several bars, dining room with plenty of seating, pool tables, and mini concert area for their regular live bands that play there. Overall, it was a pretty cool place to hangout. It’s just too bad that it’s 23 miles south of our house so that means it’s an extra 23 miles south for any of you living in LA. It was, however, a good mid-point meeting place for me and Patty.

In addition to enjoying a couple glasses of beer and bar food, we also watched the last half of the UCLA/Indiana game. It was a close one but we squeaked out a victory and advanced to the Sweet 16. Phew, that was close.