Crazy Little Thing Called Life...

There is a song I love... it's called Taking Time.  It goes like this:

Where does the time go,
in the middle of life's flow
Why don't it go slow anymore...

This describes me.  SERIOUSLY.

I feel like I am on a carousel that just goes faster and faster, with time spinning by me with every blink of an eye.  I like being busy at work, but this is crazy.  I don't even have enough hours in the day to get it all done and then I'm on the road home, then in bed, then doing it over again.

Luckily, this weekend, I get a little short getaway, but at least I can have a mini-escape and hopefully discover this elusive thing I've been searching for called sleep. Whatever happens, it will be recreational (well, except for the driving back and forth to the location).    UGH... duty calls... I already have to run and I thought I could steal five minutes to jot some thoughts...

SIGH

Tomorrow?

Happy New Year - Welcome 2014

Lets see if I can be a more successful blogger in 2014.  I want to say things that are meaningful.  I want to post my art and not miss an inchie.  I want to get started on that Nascar blog.  I want to be engaging and engage with others.

I don't want to rant... or whine... or blither... or apologize for not posting.

I'm excited about a new year and my life.  I have so much planned for this year and I'm just eager for each day... well, except that work part.  Man, retirement is so far away.  Work, seriously gets in the way of all of the fun and adventures I feel destined for.  But, I guess I can make that a challenge:  don't let work get in the way of joy and adventure.  Here's to experiencing life!  Here's to new things!  Here's to family and friends.

Here's to 2014!

Vacation All I Ever Wanted...

Yea!  So excited that I'm getting a mini-vacay this weekend.  Four glorious nights in fancy Vegas hotels... FOR FREE.  LOVE!  Don't know where the offers came from, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth... I'll just grab the reigns and ride 'em cowboy!

Segue...   their having the rodeo in Vegas this week, too.  SHould be some fun parties going on.

The thing about Las Vegas is when I go there, I feel like I'm home.  It's crazy.  I know if I LIVED there it would be so different, but when I get there, I just have a sense of peace and well-being.  I don't gamble much but we use every moment, even if we're using that moment to rest and relax.  We see shows and exhibits.  We visit gardens and museums.  AND WE EAT.  Oh, the food.  Las Vegas offers so much more than gambling and until I've seen and done it all, I think it will continue to be my home away from home... my "happy place".

Yea!  Let's all be happy now.

Inchies & Wisdom

Have you heard of this?  Inchies are tiny micro-art pieces, only one inch square.  I made my first one yesterday and started a new blog to post them.  I'm planning to do one weekly.  I wonder how many blogging projects I can start and have going at once and how many I can manage to keep going!  haha  Anyway, the inchie project is fun.  My first one was simple, but I hope to get better and better  =)

In other news... I have a tree on my head.  Yes, I said that.  It's a fuzzy Christmas tree with Disney characters.  It's big and alittle heavy.  However, words of wisdom from me today:

Once you don a hat...   you're kind of stuck wearing the hat for the rest of the day unless you want to do your hair.

:::SIGH:::

I Wanna Do Nascar...

You see, I have this idea that I can be a great blogger.  I want to have a Nascar blog.  In part because the idea of writing makes me happy.  I love to write.  The other part is that I love talking Nascar with other people who love Nascar.  Naw, I don't want to talk Nascar with someone who only loves their driver because they are usually biased, but the opportunity to be able to say what I want and then have (meaningful?) discourse about it... maybe a little debate, but most of all just enjoying the banter.  That's what I want.

So, lets go back to the "I love to write" statement.  If I love this so much why the hell does it take me a month to come back and post HERE?!?!?!  ARGH!  I THINK about writing here all the time.  Usually while I'm driving, of course.  Maybe I should just video blog from the seat of my car?  HILARIOUS.    I wonder if that is legal if it's all hands free?  heh

Anyway, how many posts can one person make about NOT blogging on her blog?  WHO CARES!?!

So, since I don't have a Nascar blog yet, I guess I can talk about the season ending right here.  Because the 2013 season has culminated with the big awards banquet and now we have a couple months off before it gets going again.  At this time of year, I sigh a little sigh of relief to have a little escape from the weekly TV plan of making sure we get the race recorded and then find time to watch it.  Don't get me wrong, I love it and when Daytona rolls around again, I will be VERY excited to play the TV juggling game all over again.  But right now, it's nice to get a couple months off.  I'm hoping I'm not going to be truly taking it off, though because I'm hoping that I will spawn my Nascar blog in the off season so it is up and running by February.

WISH ME LUCK!

Another Holiday

I don't really get Thanksgiving.  I mean, no, I GET it, but I just don't care that much.  Don't get me wrong, I love me a day off and I enjoy getting together with family, but the hell that is traffic just ruins that for me.  So, because I refuse to drive on Thanksgiving, I don't actually get to enjoy that part.  I usually just grab something at Jack in the Box or make something simple for my husband and I.

I wish we had more opportunities to spend time with family.  I just don't think having this one day per year is the way to go.  Shouldn't we appreciate the things in our life all year long?  Shouldn't we make time for family and friends regularly and not just figure, "oh, we'll see each other on Thanksgiving" when everyone is stressing out from the traffic and the cooking and all like that?  There should be a better way.  But, I guess we'd have to shift our paradigm.

Ah well... this year I'm eating dinner in a restaurant.  I know.  I'm a horrible person because I'm supporting people having to work on Thanksgiving, but that special dinner sounds great, it's  a quarter mile from my house (no freeway) and I have a gift card.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ME!

Five Things About Halloween

1. I seriously LOVE halloween

2. This year we barely even got into costume and dragged ourselves to a party.  Granted, I'm not too happy with the host of the party, but still.  I feel like Halloween passed me by.  I have a giant box of costumes plus more scattered around the house.  I just bought some 70% off additions at Target.  Yet, I couldn't be bothered to wear one?  I'm hoping we have a better Halloween 2014.

3. We go all out on the yard decor, but since we were getting painting quotes, we kind of put it off and then Halloween came and went without only a single blow up out front, except for some quickie lights ON Halloween night.  WHAT HAPPENED?

4. I will give Candy to anyone who shows up in a costume.  I don't' even care if you're an adult, but make the effing effort and put on a damned costume, you lazy ass.

5. One time I worked in a Haunted House for one night while visiting a friend in Ohio for said night.  I was an inmate in an insane asylum and I learned a valuable lesson that night.  Teenagers are JERKS.  Nasty, Hateful, Buttheads.

/Halloween

Five Things About Dean Koontz & Me

1. Lightning is one of my FAVORITE books.  What is not to love about Time Traveling Nazis, adorable orphans, and trouble and triumph through Southern California?  
2. I own a great many signed first editions of Koontz books and a couple of his Sci Fi books from the dark ages of the 60s.  I say this because I want you to understand that I was a huge fan for a long time.
3. Dean Koontz likes to now use his novels to do several things:  a. Make sure the reader knows he has a vast vocabulary.  b. Make a point, usually political in nature, but sometimes spiritual or just whatever crazy shit he believes right now.  c.  Make money.
4. I saw him at the Comic Con in San Diego a couple of years ago.  That man is freaking bizarre.
5. WHY OH WHY do his books suck so bad now?  I can only say that today is the first time ever that I the book is so bad that I'm returning it to the library unfinished.  "\What book", you ask?  77 Shadow Street.  Seriously.  This book is HORRIBLE.  AWFUL.  I went on Amazon to see what others had to say and it's an overall 3 stars so some crazy ass people like it and apparently it goes in some weird science direction towards the end and guess what!  I DON'T CARE.  This pile of crap is going back.  I'm done.

Dream Dinners - Part 2

As an update to my last post, I thought I should mention that this weekend I ate at Trois Mec in Los Angeles.  This is the restaurant that is the result of the frienship between Ludo Lefebvre, Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook.  What is different about Trois Mec is that you don't actually make a reservation or show up, you buy a ticket in advance, after logging into the website before 8 am on the appointed date and having your credit card already entered so that you can get your ticket before they sell out in five minutes.

I mention this because tickets are $97 with tax and tip included.  So you could go and spend only $97 per person, but once you get there you might want a drink or an add on meal, so our final price was $262 for two.  Based on my last post, we now know that I am willing to spend at least that much on dinner for two, so is it a stretch to go higher?  I hope not, because I think I'm going to.  Here's a link to the Trois Mec review on Yelp, though...  in case your curious.

How Much is Too Much for a Dream Dinner?

I am obsessed with food. I am. I love dining. I love chefs. I love interesting and different food (lets not go crazy, I'll pass on most offal). I want to eat in ALL of the best restaurants and taste the delights that a skilled chef can create. But, lets face it, I'm on an Olive Garden budget. I like to THINK I can just eat whatever and whenever and wherever I want, but if I eat at all of the places I want to, I might just break my bank.

So, what's a girl to do?  Where is the limit?  I have no problem spending $125 for two for dinner.  It's a splurge, but we do it on occasion.  But what about when I get the chance to eat at some of my dream restaurants?  Lets say I was going to New York.  Now New York is a place where I just won't be going very often, so when I do get there, I want to experience as much as possible and no matter how many amazing restaurants are around the world and in my own backyard, the truth is that NYC is a gourmet dining capital.  How do I pass this up?

One of my dream restaurants is Daniel.  While Daniel is no longer at the top of the top in NYC, it is still a classic fine dining restaurant with amazing seasonal menus that are crafted with care. Daniel may have a lot more competitions, but it's somewhere I have long dreamed of enjoying the seasonal tasting menu.  The problem?  The "cheap seats" on that tasting menu is STILL $195 per person and that doesn't even include the wine pairings.  Yeah, I said $195 per person!!!  

That is only the tip of the iceberg.  What about my fantasy of eating omakase at the hands of Mr. Uezu at Kurumazushi.  Take a guess... go ahead.  Omakase STARTS at $300 per person.  But this man is known to be a master with seafood that he has flown in for his restaurant.  Can anything be worth that much?  I know you can get meals much more expensive, but these are just my simple little dreams.

Chefs Table at Brooklyn Fare is another fantasy.  This one isn't even in reach because besides the $225 per person price tag, it's dinner only and there is much raw taking place, which my husband would not be interested in.  I can't exactly ditch him for dinner!  So, even if i could get a reservation... this one truly is out of reach.

You can see the problem.  There are more...  There's Blanca, and Jean George, and there's Per Se and Le Cirque, there's Momofuko and another long time New York icon Le Bernardin.  I mean, New York City is an eater's paradise.  

So here is my question.  When do I pass from "but it's a special occasion" to "I seriously need to commit myself before I bankrupt my family"?  How far is too far for this middle class girl with a middle class credit card and a middle class husband.  Do I do Daniel and go cheap the rest of the week.  Do I pick a few of these splurges as "one of a kind nights"... and then where do I draw the line?  $200pp?  $300pp?  How do I pick a limit?  HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?