Lazy days

The last week I had off from work was nice. Made me want to never have to go back to work. Here's a quick run down of what we did:

Went to the gym every day - EVERY DAY! The Boy is a monster! He pushes me so hard at the gym. It's funny sometimes. I'll be doing weights and he'll want me to do heavier weights and I won't want to. One time there was this older lady working oujt next to us. She had a personal trainer and they were doing the same exercise we were doing, but the old lady ywas doing about 15 more pounds than I was doing. The Boy kept saying to me, "See that old lady? You want here to beat you. She's doing more than you. Don't be a wuss. She's beating you."

Did some shopping. Checked out the Nordstrom half yearly sale and bought a dress.

Ate at 3 Square Cafe in Venice and Jinky's Cafe in Sherman Oaks, two places I've been wanting to try

Ate at a bunch of restaurants in LA that I miss, such as California Roll Factory, Zankou, and Toast

Picked up some red velvet cupcakes from Crumbs AND Buttercake Bakery (I LOVE LOVE LOVE red velvet cake. I liked the Crumbs version better.)

Watched a whole lot of basketball. The Boy loves him some Lakers.

Went to a Midnight showing of the Sex and the City movie with Lana, who had won tickets that were only good for the Friday Midnight showing. Good thing I didn't have work the next day! Loved the movie!

Overall, it was a relaxing, very chill week. I'm just sad it's over.

Updates

I haven't posted in awhile. Sorry about that. I have a bunch of half finished posts that I've written and never got around to finishing. Until then, here's a few things I've been up to lately:

• Went to the Alicia Keys at the Sports Arena in San Diego with The Boy, Lana and her boyfriend. The show was SOOOO good. Jordin Sparks and Ne-yo were the opening acts. I'm not too familiar with Jordin Sparks and I don't really follow American Idol so her stuff was all new to me. She has some pretty decent songs. I've been a big fan of Ne-yo since he came out. I love all his songs. Alicia Keys put on a great performance. She has an amazing voice and she looks so good right now! I know some people give her a hard time about her weight and say that she looks big, but whatever. She looked good. She put on an amazing show. Before the concert, we ate at Phil's BBQ. When we first got there the line was way out the door. Not to worry though, the line moves super fast. We were seated and got our food within 20 minutes. Even if it had taken longer, it would SO be worth it. The food is that good. And the onion rings! Ah-mazing! Here's a pic I snapped. Please excuse the craptacularness of it. It's from my camera phone.





• Had the most wonderful dinner at Nobu inside of the Hard Rock Hotel in downtown. My friend's brother works there so we were given special treatment. We didn't even have to order. We just sat down and course after course was brought out to us. We seriously ate for 3 hours. 3 hours! A lot of the stuff we had wasn't even on the menu. All of it was super yummy. I don't even know what it was. The food just came out to us. Probably one of the best meals I've ever had. I do remember one dish we had was lobster salad. I'm not a real big fan of lobster. I like it just fine, but I don't love it as much as others do, but this lobster salad was definitely a winner. And the bill, oh $60 each. There was 5 of us at dinner so that's only a $300 dinner bill. Pretty good for Nobu if you ask me. I know most of our bill was comped and the rest of the meal's price was discounted. Nobu is a great restaurant, though a little pricey. The atmosphere is nice, very young and trendy. I wouldn't mind going back.

Other than that, it's just been work and school, work and school. I'm sure there are other exciting things to share, but at the moment I just can't remember.

The most important meal of the day

I love me some breakfast. It's probably my favorite meal to go out for. Yesterday I had breakfast and Cafe on Park with my friend, Lana. It was my first time eating there and it was SO good. Whenever we go out for breakfast, we order a sweet dish and a savory dish then we just share them. This time we ordered the Captain Crunch Pancake and a meatloaf, sundreid tomato, spinach, onion, and mozarella cheese egg scramble. When they brought out the pancake I was surprised. It was the biggest pancake EVER. It's kinda hard to see its humungousness from this picture (which I got off of yelp), but trust me - it's HUGE! And super yummy too.

The egg scramble was also very very tasty. Cafe on Park is a definite winner. I've heard good things about their waffle. I'll have to go back soon and try it.

1500 Ocean Review

Restaurant week was a few weeks ago. We went to 1500, which is located inside of Hotel del. I failed to recap about it for two reasons: laziness and a lack of pictures. The boy forgot his camera! Instead, I've gathered a bunch of pictures that I found on other websites or blogs.






Here's what we ordered:
Appetizers: Celery Root Soup: Grilled mushroom, chive oil and Cured Yellowtail: Jicama, chili, avocado mousse

Main Course: Seared Diver Scallops: Squash puree, shaved brussel sprouts, almond brown butter and Grilled Angus Beef Culotte: Olive oil crushed potatoes, smoked bacon, persimmon salad

Dessert: Warm Chocolate Chipotle Cake: Caramel ice cream, banana and Mango Crème Brulee: Fennel compote

Everything was very very good. They also start you out with bread for the table. There are 2 kinds of bread, cheese biscuits and something else. I don't remember what the other bread is because I didn't like it and I LOVED the cheese biscuits. I probably had about 4 of them. I really wanted to have more, but I was being self-conscious about how many I had. Nobody else was eating as much as I was. Everything we had was perfectly cooked and tasted so good. My only complaint is that there wasn't enough of it! Not that the portions were small, I just wanted more :) My meat was perfectly cooked and the crushed potatoes were the perfect compliment to them. The bacon added a nice touch to the potatoes. The scallops, were again, perfectly cooked - brown on the outside and nice and buttery on the inside. The cake was sooooo good. I'd never had chocolate that was spicy, so I was really excited to try this out. I enjoyed the little kick the spice gave to the desert, the boy not so much. The mango creme brulee was just as good, smooth and creamy. Perfect for anyone who doesn't really enjoy chocolate.

Bread basket (Following pictures stolen borrowed from Alice Q Foodie)


Chipotle cake


A few notes, not food related. It was difficult to get a reservation. When we got there it wasn't very busy and I saw lots of empty tables the whole night. Weird. Maybe people didn't show up or they underbook so that hotel guests won't have trouble eating there if they want? The service was great. The waiter was very attentive. There was also a guitar player at the restaurant. We were seated a few tables away from him. At first I thought it might get annoying, but he wasn't overly loud or anything. It ended up being nice background music. The decor was elegant and nice. It wasn't as stuffy or old as I had expected since the del is an old hotel. It would be nice to go back when the weather is warmer so that we could eat outside and enjoy the nice oceanside view.

Overall, it was a great meal. And at $40, a definite steal!

Happy early birthday to me

I scored a pair of Lanvin ballet flats at the Barney's sale this weekend. The boy actually bought them for me as part of my birthday gift. They were quite the splurge. I also got a Top Shop top. The boy picked up a pair of shoes. I was hoping to find some boots. No such luck. I only saw two pairs of boots in my size. Both pairs were just eh. I didn't spend much time browsing the racks of clothes at the sale. By the time we got there, I had a horrible headache and just wasn't in the mood. There are many things that can cause me to not be in the mood. Headaches. Uncomfortable clothing and/or shoes. Crowds. All three non-shopping mood causing factors were present on Saturday.

Before heading home, we ate at Bossa Nova over on Pico and swung by Beard Papa's for some yummy cream puffs.

Here is a rundown of my Sunday

• Slept in. Missed church - oops!
• Walked the dog. Had breakfast then gave the dog a much needed bath.
  
• After everyone was clean, the boy, the dog and I all fell asleep on the bed. Can we say lazy?
• Woke up from aforementioned nap and did homework while the boy watched basketball and played xbox.
• Had dinner with the boy and his parents before driving back home to San Diego.

Currently

• Wishing it wasn't Sunday night and that I didn't have to work tomorrow
  

Burger Lounge

Last night I ate at Burger Lounge in Kensington with the boy. I was looking forward to it, as I've heard so many good things about the place. We both had the Grilled Lounge Burger with cheddar cheese. We also had french fries, onions rings and a chocolate malt. The food was good, just not amazingly good. Nothing that I'll find myself craving. I'd go back if someone else wants to go, but I probably won't go back on my own. It's basically fast food, only higher quality ingredients such as tall grass fed beef. Maybe I just had high expectations going into it. I was expecting a mind-blowingly good burger. The fries and onions rings were really good, probably my favorite part. The breading on the onion rings is nice and light. Both the fries and the rings were seasoned with parsley and kosher salt, making them deeeelish.

I hear the turkey burger is better than the beef burger. If I go back, I'll try that instead.

I wanna rock and roll all niiiiiight and party every day

I played Rock Band for the first time this weekend. SO. MUCH. FUN. I have Guitar Hero 1, 2, and 3. I could probably just get rid of all those games now that I'm the proud owner of Rock Band. (I'll keep them though, just because they have some good songs.) Rock Band is better than Guitar hero, I think. There's drums, guitars, and singing so more people can get involved. It's a blend of karaoke and guitar hero - it's 2 games in one. Is karaoke a game? Not really, but for arguements sake, we'll say it is. I guess you could say Magic Mic is a game. You get scored on it. Tangent, I know. The drums were really hard for me at first, but now I think I'm better at the drums than I am with the guitar. The game is a tad bit expensive, but it's worth every penny (especially since I didn't technically buy the game - my roommate did).

Here's a recap of the rest of my weekend:
Last night I had dinner with my friend, Lana. We ate at a Thai restaurant in Hillcrest called Celadon. The food is good and the atmophere is nice - classy and clean, yet chic and trendy. Then we hung out at her place, drinking wine, eating lemon blossoms that I baked, and chatting. Good times.

Today I didn't even bother watching the Superbowl. Lame, I know. I guess my heart's just not into it. I played Rock Band, did some grocery shopping, and did accounting homework instead. Can it get any more exciting than that? I don't think so.

What's on tap for the weekend?

I am so glad the weekend is here. This past week was a lot longer and harder than I had expected it to be. Don't you just hate when that happens? This week was supposed to be easy breezy, but things got busy at work and we put in extra long hours.

Today is one of my cousin's birthdays and there is a party for her at my aunt's house. The boy is driving down from LA and we'll be heading over to the party around 2. We'll probably hang out there all day and then come home and watch some tv or something else equally boring relaxing. I may try to sneak in a quick visit to the gym before the boy gets here, but my lazy self may win over my wanting to get back into shape self.

Sunday is church, bright and early at 10am. Afterwards, we'll probably head back home, have some lunch, and be lazy some more. Maybe we'll go to the gym. In fact, the boy will probably make me go. He's not as lazy as am I. I'd also like to go shopping - just one store so that I'm not too tempted to buy stuff. For dinner we're going to 1500 Ocean at hotel del! For the past few days I've been obsessively checking to see if they had any last minute openings and they did! Not only did they have an opening, but we able to get reservations for 6 people. It'll be a triple date. The boy and me, my sister and her husband, and another one of my cousins and his girlfriend. I wish it were Sunday night already. Well, not really because then the weekend would be over, but you know what I mean.

Gotta love Restaurant Week

Next week is Restuarant Week in San Diego. For those of you that don't know what that is, it's a week where a bunch of restaurants offer prix-frixe dinners for $30 or $40, depending on the resturant. This is great since dinner at many of these places would normally be well over $50 a person. I know I said in one of my previous posts that I've been trying to save money, but this is one thing I just HAVE to splurge on. I can't help it. I love eating. I really really do. I'm always looking forward to my next meal. The boy gives me a hard time about it a lot, in a joking and loving way of course. This year I'm trying two places, Market Restaurante and Bar and Azul. I really really really wanted to go to 1500 Ocean at Hotel del, but they are already completely booked on the nights I wanted to go. Oh well, there's always next time.

There are so many restaurants in San Diego that I've been dying to try. I enjoy cooking at home, so I rarely go out to eat. When I do go out, we always go to some nearby places(read chain restaurants). If we do venture outside of our comfort zone, we tend to hit up the same places, such as Rama or Casa Guadalajara. What can I say, I'm a creature of habit. Here's a partial list of places I want to try soon:

Jayne's Gastropub
Burger Lounge
Mama Testa's

Any suggestions on what I should add to my list?

Three day weekend . . .

but not for me.

Boo: I have work on Saturday :( My weekend will only be two days.
Yay: All is not lost. Saturday should only be a half day with me heading home by 3:30. The boy will be coming down to hang out with me this weekend. He has a big test to take Friday and Saturday will be his first worry free day in months. He's taking the first part of his medical board exams, which he's been studying for for months.

Yay: The Chargers have won TWO playoff games this year.
Boo: They play the undefeated Patriots next. LT, Rivers, and Gates are still hurt.

Yay: I'm having dinner with my friend H on Saturday night in downtown.
Boo: She's bringing her boyfriend, Fisher, with her. Not that I don't like the guy, he's just not very much fun to be around. He's hard to talk to and doesn't engage in conversation, so it makes me uncomfortable. She's been dating this guy for over a year and I still don't feel like I know him. Maybe it's just a little hard to get him out of his shell, but come on - talk already! I'll ask him a question and he'll reply with the shortest answer possible and then that's it. He doesn't ever talk unless you talk directly to him, otherwise he just sits there quietly. It's just weird to me that I hardly know one of my best friends boyfriends. Especially since we live in the same city. It'd be one thing if they lived out of state or even in another city, but they don't.

Yay: I have tomorrow off!
Boo: I have to pick my parents up at 8am! They are coming home from a 5 day cruise. AND I have 3 chapters to read for my advertising class I'm taking.

BOO: I have to get back to work now.
Yay: There is no yay response to having to do actual work now.