snaps are the new pink

snaps > clapping, am I right? Maybe it's the sorority girl in me, but I LOVE giving snaps.

That being said, total snaps for having my lap top back. I went home on Wednesday for a hair cut (trim, really) and eye lash tint (love not having to use mascara in the morning!) and left my power cord at home. AHHHHHHHHHH! Seriously though, it was horrible, and I'm very happy to finally have it back so my computer can charge and run properly and not turn off when I'm almost done with a blog (like Wednesday night, tear).

A few awesome things happened while I was comp-less:

1. I got my sleep back!! I don't know how it happened, but suddenly on Tuesday night I could sleep at a normal time for a full 8 hours. And it was wonderful.

2. Anthony Bourdain mentioned Scorsese on his show, further proof that we are meant to be together (so what if he's married and I have a boyfriend. Love conquers all, right?). I'm slightly obsessed with Scorsese, as evidenced by this paper I wrote for an Undergrad Research Conference in April.

3. There Will Be Blood FINALLY was released nation-wide after what felt like for-ever and I got to see it today with the BF. I know you've seen and read all the hype. Believe it. I didn't think anything could match the magnificence that was No Country For Old Men, but Blood was pretty damn good. And who doesn't like Daniel Day-Lewis? I mean, really.



4. My insomnia-driven blue dress purchase finally arrived and it's SOHOT...but I don't really have anything to wear it to, so I might return it.

5. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON IS COMING TO MY SCHOOL ON MONDAY TO GIVE A SPEECH!!! Snaps to Taryn, who is awesome and is going with me.

no power

Went home for a hair cut (barely a trim, really) and eye lash tint and left the power cord to my laptop at my house. HOW WILL I SURVIVE??? I officially have 15 minutes to live...aka until my laptop shuts off FOREVER/until I get my power cord back.

I'll be taking a one to two day blogger/facebook/e-mail hiatus until I can make a trip back home. I'll miss you all.

Oh, and I finally slept. 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., it was absolutely glorious.

three sentences

All my blog searching has led me to some pretty cool blogs that I've enjoyed reading the past few days. One in particular I really enjoy. It's written by a senior in college somewhere in Pennsylvania. She experiments a lot with the format for her entries, and made a really cool post describing a series of different relationships in three sentences. I really enjoyed reading it, and it was also fun writing my own version:

When we hung out at your house and you fell asleep I was always afraid to wake you when I wanted to leave. One night it was so late that I decided it would be a bad idea to walk out the front door, so I climbed out your window and over your fence to get to my car. I ruined my favorite track pants doing that.

Even though you told me once you hated Dave Matthews, you jumped at my offer of a free concert ticket. After the concert we drove to San Francisco and walked along the beach at midnight. Maybe with someone else it would have been romantic.

I about died when you asked to borrow my pen. I called my mom immediately after class to tell her about it. I’m glad you gave it back, a memento of sorts.

Nothing was ever your fault. But I guess that is kind of true. A lot of it was mine.

It was very strange seeing you again after all those years. I was relieved it was at a party and not somewhere random. If it had been random, I probably wouldn’t have looked so good.

You gave me the first real Valentine’s Day gift I ever received. The flowers and chocolates made me more timid, but by the time I got over it you liked someone else. I cried when I heard that your brother passed away.

You were more impressive to yourself than you were to anyone else. I don’t know what I was thinking. Didn’t you wonder why you never met any of my friends?

I was sure we would never be more than friends. I’m glad I asked you to that movie. It’s one of the reasons I wrote a paper on it.

I bought concert tickets to a band I didn’t even like just to impress you. I ended up not going, but it was the most cleansing way to waste fifty bucks. I just wish I could remember the band’s name that made me realize you weren’t the one.

You loved calling me late at night and I loved answering and being rude. Strangely, this made you like me more. When I actually was nice to you, you weren’t interested.

not so sleeping beauty

Second night of full on insomnia. I'm no stranger to late nights, but 1AM is about my max unless I'm doing something super amazing. Sitting in my room alone doing nothing is no reason to be awake at 6AM (last night) or 4:45AM (tonight). I know there are a lot of crazy professions out there that require people to sleep during the day and be awake at night, but I actually need to be awake during the day so this sleeping schedule isn't working out for me so much.

I have, however, been very productive these past two nights since there are very few distractions at 4AM unless you're into infomercials, which I'm not (thank gawd). I've done a lot of reading (Conrad's Heart of Darkness amazingly has failed to produce ZZZZs), researched all kinds of bloggy stuff, did some unnecessary on-line shopping, downloaded songs and made some sweet new playlists, organized the files on my computer, organized my e-mail (!!!), and gave myself a pedicure...all in only 48 hours. Insomnia has turned me into Super Woman.


If only I had the capacity to sleep whenever, wherever like my dear Tater Tot.

memories from fight club

A tiger can smile
A snake will say it loves you
Lies make us evil

good morning, i wish i could sleep

Insomnia has a negative impact on my credit card.

Exhibit A:


It's cute though, right?

I also bought Noelle a Valentine's Day gift...but that's a surprise.

what a coincidence

After altering my "About Me" section and giving LJ a shoutout, I decided to look at a few of the old accounts I had (I was fickle in high school). So I'm sitting there perusing through old posts and laughing out loud at things I had long since forgotten when my Treo starts buzzing in my bag across the room. I figured it was my mom since she's only called me 4 times today in comparison to her usual 25, but it was a total blast from the past...Henry!! Not only was it Henry, BUT he is now living with none other than Mike V, so I got to talk to both of them. It was so funny, especially talking to Vizzo since I haven't talked to that fool in yearsss. Henry cracks me up because he is pretty much the only guy I know that actually wants to have a CONVERSATION when he calls someone, and I feel like I'm always the one that stops the call short because I have something to do. He makes me laugh; I wish seester was around so we could go visit them together and listen to all of Henry's crazy stories.

Listening intently to Henry's intriguing tales.

lazy saturday

Not having class Monday, Wednesday or Friday is so glorious. It makes all my weekends wonderfully long. Of course, that means I have class ALL DAY Tuesday and Thursday, but eh, who cares, it's totally worth it for four-day weekends.

My old HP laptop died, and I hope it does not RIP because it made my life miserable for the last few months. Of course, I didn't have any of my files backed up (ring a bell from the Sad Mac Sex and the City episode?) SOOO since it totally died and would not turn on I thought my thousands of picture files and hundreds of school documents were gone forever. However, I have a fab friend who knows everything there is to know about computers (everyone should have at least one computer genius friend) who fixed it for me out of the goodness of his heart. Because my computer was password protected before it died, the process was made a lot more difficult and I don't even want to think how much I would have had to PAY for someone to do 8 hours of work to retrieve all of my stuff.

Happily, I now have everything back and have enjoyed browsing through all my old files from when I lived in France, first got Tater Tot, and had short hair. Here's a great one I found of the Tot:

making some changes, hopefully

I don't know how much content I'll be adding in the next few days as I'm trying to figure out my layout and want to make some changes. I KNOW I can dominate blogger.com, I just need to do a little research. I wish the layout system was the same as livejournal.com, because I friggin' rocked my LJ layout in high school. Anyway, changes will hopefully (fingers crossed) be made over the next few days.

Oh, and an update on my fashioncellshop.com fiasco...their inattentive customer service department FINALLY e-mailed me back, so I was able to ship my ugly cell phone case back to them today. I still hate them, though.

rain, rain, go away

...come again some other day. Wait, I mean NEVER. I hate the rain. I think that people that say they love the rain are lying because who could love the rain? Sure, it's pretty sweet when you're gazing at it through a window from the warmth of your cozy couch, but when you have to actually GO OUTSIDE it totally sucks. Especially when you're sick, which I sadly am.

In boring school news, I dropped my Asian Religions class because I really wanted to take a film class that happened to be at the same time as the religion course. If I ever drop a class I always make sure to contact the professor (even if I know I'll never take them for a class again) as a courtesy. So of course I e-mailed the professor a really thoughtful e-mail, explaining the scheduling conflict situation and telling her how disappointed I was to not be able to continue learning about such interesting material. Well, it just so happens I have a friend still in that class and the professor announced to everyone today that I dropped the class BECAUSE IT WAS TOO HARD. Like, wtf? Does a class like Asian Religions sound difficult to you?! FYI, it was the easiest class ever, so the answer is "no". My biggest question is why did she even say ANYTHING? People have already dropped the course and she didn't make a formal announcement about it, she just read their name on the roll sheet and then crossed it off nonchalantly when there was no answer. Besides the fact that my e-mail conveyed the exact opposite of thinking the course was hard since I told her how sad I was to have to drop the class. How annoying. That's what I get for being polite, I should have just web dropped it and left it at that. Damn me and my good manners!

Oh, and I have an edit to make to an older post where I completely RAVED about fashioncellshop.com and how amazing their products were. I lied. My order came in on Tuesday and it was SOOO disappointing. Rhinestones were already falling all over the place as soon as I took it out of the box and the case felt sticky and gooey from their lame-o rhinestone application sticker stuff. Also, their customer service is horrid. They don't have an answering service so you're required to e-mail them instead, but they don't answer their e-mails. So far, I have sent them three e-mails over the past three days with no reply. Normally, I wouldn't be so irritated by such a lack of speediness but you're apparently REQUIRED to get some kind of "return authorization number" from their customer service before you can return anything...oh and you have to return it within seven days. Tomorrow is day 4 and if I don't hear back from them I'm going to do a charge back on my credit card because I hate them.

my world is falling apart!!!

Brad Renfro and now THIS??? I can't believe Heath Ledger is DEAD at only 28! So much talent and so much going for him! I am seriously so affected by this. I just submitted a big paper for a conference on 10 Things I Hate About You, it's going to be chilling to watch it again. Sources say it was a prescription drug overdose. There's no evidence of suicide to suggest suicide at this point. Rest in peace, Heath.


Photo courtesy of People.com.

sipping and judging in nor cal wine country

I'm not a big wine drinker, but my visit to Napa this afternoon made me wish I was. I've visited wineries all over the world (notably in wine rivals Italy and France) so I wasn't expecting to be WOWed by the Northern Cali version of what Europe does best. I was, however, pleasantly surprised. First, it was an absolutely gorgeous sunny winter day, so everything looked amazing. The vineyards were lush and green, the air was crisp and slightly cold, and everyone seemed in a cheerful mood---a perfect combination for a great day of wine tasting.

DO NOT skip the visitor's center on 101 Antonina Avenue in American Canyon for all kinds of brochures and suggestions on how to best spend you day. If you're lucky, they'll probably even have some coupons to use at a number of popular wineries which comes in handy when you're visiting several. Two thumbs up for V. Sattui Winery which was the busiest (and tastiest) winery we visited, and only $5 for 6 different wine samples! Their dessert wines are very sweet and a must-try in my opinion. If you choose to have a picnic rather than eat at a restaurant for lunch, V. Sattui is the place to do it. They have a full deli on the grounds of the winery and everything is competitively priced (read: bringing your own from Safeway won't be any cheaper).

Driving along Highway 29, tummy rumbling, eyes scanning for a place to eat, I spotted Rutherford Grill which I was immediately attracted to since Noelle works for their company. It was 2 in the afternoon but there was still a 45 minute wait, a clear indicator of how good the restaurant is. Luckily we were in WINE COUNTRY and the nearest winery was just a short walk from the restaurant, so the 45 minutes went by rather quickly as we sipped on Beaulieu Vineyard's reserve selection.

I should have tried something new, but the veggie burger sounded SO good that I just had to get it again (I had it at Houston's when I visited Noelle in KC). It was, of course, SO good and I'm glad I got it. I was looking forward to having squash as a side dish, but the only veggie available was carrots which I didn't want...but they ended up being rather tasty. SCANDAL OF ALL SCANDALS: Rutherford Grill does not, I repeat DOES NOT, have French fries of any shape, size, or flavor. This is great if you're Noelle (she's sworn off fries for 2008, read about it on http://littlemiss-strawberrycupcake.blogspot.com/), but for me, I love anything French or fried, especially if it's both. So yes, that was disappointing. BF got enchiladas which were super good, and his broccoli was purple which was fun. I had a whiskey sour to drink with my meal and I swear to G it was the best whiskey sour I have ever consumed in my life. The bartender used fresh squeezed juice that was so naturally sweet it was hard to even taste the alcohol (which there was plenty of, I watched her pour it). Finally, we got total VIP treatment because of our family connection to the restaurant, and our super nice waiter Lance comped us a side of kettle chips, a drink, and a banana cream pie which, and I'll deny ever saying this, was better than my grandmother's famous version of the dessert. THANK YOU RUTHERFORD FOR A DELISH LUNCH!


Veggie Burger


Enchiladas


Sex on a plate, aka Rutherford's Banana Cream Pie

there's nothing wrong with being obsessive, right?

Okay so I am totally obsessed with fredflare.com. I don't know WHY I've only recently found this website, but it has so many awesome things I don't need...I could spend all day every day buying useless products from their site! Many, many things have caught my eye on FF, but one of the most intriguing things for me is their heart-shaped egg mold (http://www.fredflare.com/customer/product.php?productid=2656&cat=343#). Call me a romantic, but I find anything that molds food into a heart to be completely irresistible. And with Valentine's Day less than a month away, this is the perfect February on-line purchase! Don't eat eggs? Who cares! I'm sure there's a million other things you can use the mold for, like, um, pancakes...and, well, there's plenty more, I'm sure.

You could probably use a heart-shaped cookie cutter that you already own to do the exact same thing, but why miss an opportunity to spend $7 on a kitchen utensil you'll use once and then forget you own? I'm being serious about that, the item just reeks of being one of those "must-have" things you buy on a whim then put into a drawer never to be seen again until you move to a new place five years down the line. But I'm still buying it.

and i said softly, slowly

Well, I've changed my layout a little. I've been trying to find the right balance of information/personal stuff for my "about me" as well as for the headline under my blog title...right now I'm pretty satisfied with it but it will probably be something that continually evolves. Also, I've created an animated version of me in lieu of having an actual photo of myself on the main page (I'll still keep putting them in entries every once in a while). I like the cartoon because it's a perfect representation of me: French beret, passport out and ready to be stamped, and Tater Tot in hand, ready to be cute and fabulous at a moment's notice.

Also taking some "re-shaping," if you will, is my bod. As most people for their New Year's Resolution, I vowed to lose weight and get in shape. Thankfully, I'm already at the thinnest that I've been in years, so if I don't meet my goal it won't be an utter travesty. However, I do think it's important to work out regularly, and that is something I have mos def been slacking on. My overall goal is to lose 15 pounds by graduation (I've already lost 4, oh dang) and to work out at least four days a week. Purely by coincidence, our gym on campus has totally re-vamped their cardio section with all new machines...some even have their own personal TV screen, NICE!

I am a firm believer in food journaling and even though I haven't been on a strict diet since I lost a lot of weight last year, I still try to write down what I eat as a means of staying on track. You could always just buy a blank Mead notebook and write everything down in there but that's so disorganized. For my food journaling needs I adore Diet Minder brand notebooks found on Amazon.com. Simply search "Diet Minder" and the journals will pop up in the many varieties available--fitness, personal food and diet, etc. I love so many things about these journals but a few of my faves are 1. it's spiral bound which makes it super easy to flip through the pages 2. it has a section to take a before pic and then compare to an after pic (love tracking progress!) 3. the pages are completely itemized by calorie, fat content, and so on and separate days into meals/snacks and 4. there is an area to record your vitmain intake which is SO helpful because I always forget...unless I write it down!

scribble away in style

I am a firm believer in sending hand written notes to people. In this techno-savvy world, you're far more likely to get a dozen e-mails a day than you are to get one hand written letter a week. Personally, I completely freak out when I get snail mail. Knowing that the person spent the time to write me an actual tangible letter makes me feel so special. By turn, I try to write people as often as possible, and I ALWAYS send thank you notes.

Sending thank you notes can be fun, not only because you get to let a person know how much their generosity affected you, but also because you get to use cute stationery (my fave part!). I have a plethora of stationery to choose from (I'm slightly obsessed), but my all time favorite is the stationery I designed myself at designhergals.com. Here, you get to design an "e-doll" version of yourself and put it on whatever kind of paper product your littler heart desires. There is a designhergal for EVERYONE. I can't stress enough how many different options there are for hair, skin types, clothing, and accessories. If you can't manage to make a designhergal that resembles what you look like, I'm pretty sure you are a figment of your own imagination, because it's literally impossible not to find a girl that looks like you.

Not only do you get to create your own little version of yourself, but the stationery design is 100% customizable. The site provides dozens of pre-made layouts, but they can all be altered to fit whatever design you have in mind. Note pads run 4 for $45..and the more you buy, the less it is per note pad! Flat note cards are available 25 for $45. True, this stationery is a little pricier than a box set you could find in a store some where, but it is SO worth the extra bucks. I have one set of personalized note pad paper and I LOVELOVELOVE it! I get so many "OMG! CUTE!"s every time I hand someone a note on it. Mugs and bags (if you're into that sort of thing) are $17.50 and $29.95, respectively. Personally, I wouldn't want to walk around with a mini-version of myself on a coffee cup, but to each their own.

Here's a few I made today, the first is me and my boyfriend, the second is me and Tater Tot, and the third is my twin sister Noelle with her psycho cats. These pics don't really do justice to the cuteness of designhergals...they don't want you to just print them out yourself, so the quality of just saving a jpeg of your gal is low.


These all took me less than half an hour to create combined...but BE WARNED, it is easy to become addicted to designhergals.

dear diary, mood: apathetic

There are many things that suck about being an RA. There are a lot of things that make the job worth it...but those are all boring and no one wants to hear about them. One of the biggest drawbacks to being an RA is that residents start thinking of you as ONLY "the RA" and forget completely that you are indeed a "person," too.

Also, I hate being called "the RA." I have a name, douches, and it's written a million times on my door. Keep in mind that you only have to remember ONE name, whereas I have to remember 32 of ya'lls.

But I digress. EARLY this morning I received a call on the duty phone (4:40 AM), waking me from an amazing dream featuring hunkie Anthony Bourdain. On the other end of the line was a guy saying he was locked out downstairs. Great. SO I reluctantly get out of bed, go downstairs, grab the master key, and walk to the person's room. There was a girl standing outside in a robe waiting for me. This is what happened:
Me: "Didn't a guy call?"
Her: "Yeah I had him call because my cell phone is inside."
I don't really get why she couldn't have used his phone herself, but whatever.
Me: "Oh, okay." *unlocks apartment door*
Her: *walks in* "Okay, thanks."
Me: "Wait, don't you need into your room?"
Her: "No."
Me: "UHHHH, aren't your roommates here?"
Her: "Yeah..."
Me: "Well, did you knock on the door before you called me?"
Her: "No, they're sleeping and I didn't want to wake them up."
Me: "WELL what do you think I was doing when you called me?"
Her: *looks at me sheepishly*
Me: "Right. Next time you get locked out at 4:45 in the morning you need to knock on your door before you call and wake up the RA at 5AM to let you in, because we like to sleep, too."

Besides the fact that I think it's EXTREMELY inconsiderate to wake a stranger up to let you into your room because you're too irresponsible to remember your keys (and then not even say "I'm sorry" or "thank you"), what are these people going to do when they live in a REAL apartment? You can't call up your landlord at 3AM because you went outside and forgot your key to get back into the building. And would you call your property manager to ask them what you should do if your smoke detector won't stop beeping every 10 seconds? No. You'd figure it out on your own, not call me to figure it out so you don't have to use your brain.

When all else fails and school work or RA stuff has me down, I look on the internet for Tater Tot-esque products. Pomeranians aren't a very popular breed to put on merchandise (in contrast to, say, Scottie dogs or pugs) but luckily they look exactly like a fox, so anything fox-y is an easy Tater substitute. Check out this friggin ADORABLE bookmark (on sale for $8 for two) from redenvelope.com, sadly it comes with a stupid bear bookmark, but you could always regift that one:


I KNOW, RIGHT? I want, like, 12 of them. I can have a whole Tot family.

feliz año nuevo!

And I'm back from my Pink Review hiatus! I spent the holidays in Mexico (best decision of my life--who wants to deal with rain and fog when you can frolic on the beach in a skirt and tank top?) and then went immediately back to school for RA (Resident Assistant) training. YAWN. No matter how long you've been an RA, you still need to be trained every semester...mostly because people with careers in student life love to talk and having a captive audience of 60 RAs makes it that much easier for them.

Well, the new year is finally upon us and I'm having a difficult time remembering to write "2008" instead of "2007" on all my RA paperwork. New Year's Eve is such a weird quasi-holiday to me. I don't really understand why we celebrate it, I guess mostly so people can have a day off work to recover from their party hang-overs. This NYE was a lot of fun for me, but it was sad not having our annual Matthews Twin Drunktastic Celebration. While the twin was off making snowmen in Kansas City, I was sipping Mai Tais poolside in Cabo San Lucas, psshaw!

To celebrate the new year we went to dinner at Mi Casa, which is the coolest place in Cabo hands down. It's funky and eclectic and always busy which I LOVE when I'm in the mood to party hardy. The seating area is huge and extends back the length of several buildings. It also has a super cute little gift shop at the restaurant's entrance. We had reservations so we got in right away but if you have to wait, browsing the shop is a great way to pass the time. The images below are taken from micasarestaurant.com:



I had such an amazing time at Mi Casa and I can't wait to come here again (spring break, anyone?). The prices are way reasonable considering the attentive and kind service, the one of a kind atmosphere, and the delicious food. Me and the BF ordered several appetizers ($5-$9) instead of an entree ($13-$30) which is now my favorite thing to do when I go out. OH & to top things off, Mi Casa prepares their tortillas fresh (of course) and has a woman making them all night...like Chevy's only by hand and much yummier. Here's me and dad posing while she's hard at work:



At the end of the day (hahaha), NYE was a complete success all around. I got to eat Mexican food which is the best type of food ever, drank lots of bubbly, and looked totally fab doing it all! Not to mention that despite--or perhaps because of--my many glasses of champagne, I managed to learn how to say "Happy New Year" in farsi. I don't really know how to spell it, but it's something like: solah notoon mobarack boshe, or something.

tater, i've got a feeling we're not in kansas (city) anymore

Any 21st century princess will tell you that her number one accessory is her adorable, tiny dog. In second place is her rhinestoned cell phone.

I have the puppy down, now I just need some bling for my cellie! I have wanted to get rhinestones on my phone for SO long but have never really found a company that has what I want and doesn't cost a fortune...until I found fashioncellshop.com the other day. I love this site for three reasons: 1. they have cases available for a wide variety of cell phones, even old models 2. they have several designs for each model 3. they sell cases that you snap over your phone so you don't have to worry about your phone being permanently rock-n-roll (it might be inappropriate at some point in your life...maybe). At only $40 each (for Treos and other smart phones), these face plates are such a steal! I'm in love with the Burberry design, but at the super low price I might just have to treat myself to two and get the diamond faceplate as well.



In other news, I'm back in Cali from the Mo...but not for long because I'm leaving for Mexico tomorrow, arriba, arriba! I didn't get home last night until 2AM which was so horrid, but much better than not getting home at all which is what ALMOST happened. My flight from KC was late (flights are never on time anymore, ever) so I almost missed my connection from Dallas. I literally had to RUN to the terminal Home Alone-style and thankfully they were holding the plane for me and 3 other passengers. Spending a night in Dallas wouldn't have been #1 on my list of things I wanted to do last night. I'm not looking forward to the flight tomorrow (surprise), but some sun and sand will be a nice change to this central valley winter weather. Oh, and some delish burritos, chips, and salsa will be the bomb, too.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

I have to admit that I was a total KC naysayer when Noelle first told me she was moving here. When I heard "Missouri" I thought of dairy farms and horses which are fine and dandy but also BORING. KC may be a lot of things, but boring is not one of them. It's actually a tourist destination, which surprised me, and while shopping I met tons of people from all over Europe. Also, the Country Club Plaza has horse-drawn carriage rides a la Carrie and her Russian lover in Sex and the City. They take it one step further, though, with a special Cinderella carriage covered in pink lights!! I wanted to ride one SO bad, but that will have to wait for a future KC trip.



The picture, courtesy of www.prideofkc.com, doesn't do any justice to the magic that is the Cinderella carriage ride. When it's dark outside and snow is falling and the pink lights are twinkling...I can just HEAR the wedding bells of a romantic proposal! In the summer time, the plaza also does gondola rides on the currently frozen river nearby.

The plaza is dotted with a wide range of dining choices, from MacDonald's (ew) to The Cheesecake Factory (eh) to Houston's (yay!). I went to Houston's yesterday for a late lunch and it was totally fab! My twin sister is the manager there so my meal was on the house (oh hay!) and it was one of the yummiest free meals I've ever had.

I love Houston's because it's a chain that doesn't feel like a chain. This is nice because it has the consistency of a chain (you'll get the same meal in SF as you will in Kansas city), but the feel of an upper-end independent restaurant with their top-shelf ingredients and great service. The whole experience was perfect, delicious food, beautiful atmosphere, and my waitress was attentive but not overbearing. I ate solo and didn't feel uncomfortable at all during my meal. The greeter smartly sat me facing the kitchen, which was a lot of fun because it kept me entertained while I ate. I also loved that they bring you your own personal glass jug of water, so you never have to worry about running out because you can refill on your own.

I had the vegetarian burger with a side of acorn squash and they were both perfect. The veggie burger is a mixture of brown rice, black beans, and some kind of delicious red-hued sauce that actually made the "burger" taste (and look!) like lean, fresh meat. The acorn squash was so tender and sweet, and the crunch of the nuts played well off of the softness of the vegetable. I easily could have shared this meal with a friend, but since I was by myself I left off the top bun and only finished half of my veggies. Below is a picture from ahamburgertoday.com of a Houston's burger with fries, YUMMY!!



Oh, p.s., I found out yesterday that Sean Penn and his wife are getting a divorce which means I have a chance! I figure he'll be going through his mid-life crisis soon and will need some 20-something arm candy. Plus, it's totally in right now in Hollywood to date "normal" people.



We look so good together!!

missouri...the show-me state

I'm not sure exactly what Missouri wants to show me, but as far as Kansas City is concerned I think it has to do with seeing some awesome shopping deals. I know this is might sound blasphemous to my bay area friends...but KC's Country Club Plaza (countryclubplaza.com) is definite competition for SF's Union Square. It's not as over-sized as SF's main shopping block(s), but it has a wide variety of shops and restaurants in a smaller, less chaotic area, which is an absolute plus in my book. I love shopping in San Francisco, but - I hesitate to say this - I had a more enjoyable time yesterday shopping solo in 25 degree weather than I ever have in SF. Everyone is more friendly and the atmosphere is more relaxing and laid-back than the hustle and bustle of "the city." There's no Nordstrom or Neiman, BUT you can find the exact same type of merchandise in the KC version of Neiman Marcus known as "Halls," which is owned by Hallmark (weird, I know). Other notable stores include Burberry, Tiffany & Co, The North Face, Betsey Johnson, and Lucky Brand Jeans.

Country Club Plaza was a perfect place to spend an afternoon in Kansas City. I did a lot of shopping and even watched a flick at a cute theater on the strip (Sweeney Todd...a bit bloody, but I mean, who could resist a two-hour serenade by Johnny Depp?). I found the cutest Tater Tot-esque top at Urban Outfitters (pictures taken from urbn.com) along with a cool looking piggy bank. I love the piggy bank (http://greenergrassdesign.com/mintcoink.html) because it could also double as a vase with its funnel shaped slot design. Noelle collects piggy banks, so this was a perfect early birthday present for her.