Broken Dependency

It hurts me when I tell people that I want to hang out with them and that my schedule is completely open and then they never contact me. Maybe I am trying to hang out with the wrong type of people. Maybe people just assume that I am busy or that by the time they have free time that I will have made other plans. Or maybe people just forget about me altogether.

At any rate, something has to change. I am depressed and lonely. I am so tired of being limited by this accident in my day to day life. There is so much I want to do and can't. I try to focus on the things that I can do, but I find myself completely unmotivated. Mired in a dark hole, despairing I lay in bed and read sometimes good books, but more often than not trashy romance novels. Which just seem to increase my feeling of loneliness.

This hasn't gotten better even though Mr Mine is now finally back on normal working hours. I was spending most of my free time with Mrs Bokeh for the past few weeks and the loneliness was subsiding, but now her niece has moved in with her and most contact with her has ceased. I know that it is family and that she is helping her get settled in, but I can't help feeling abandoned. I feel weak saying that. Admitting that I needed someone that much. I don't think of myself as a co-dependent person, but things like this just throw my dependency in my face. The reality that I am not ok being by myself, that I need help. I don't want to be miserable when I am alone. And sometimes I do enjoy it, crave it, need it even, but more often than not I am happier with a companion.

I know that in part this is why me getting a full time job would be good for me. Because I would be around people all day. I think I am just scared. Scared of failing. Scared that my design skills aren't good enough, that I don't know enough, that I am too much out of the loop, that I was never really in the loop to begin with, that my back won't be strong enough for a full day, that this is what my life is going to be like for the rest of my life, that I will always and forever be broken and incapable of doing the things that I have grown to love. Just yesterday after I had lunch with Mrs Verve I threw myself into an Anthropologie shopping frenzy trying on half the store. My back started to ache and I'm sure that all the bending over to put things on and take things off wasn't very good for it. It pained me the rest of the day and once I got home I knew that I needed to lie down and just not do anything for the rest of the night. All over a few hours of shopping. Even just sitting here and writing this my back has started to ache. How am I supposed to sit working for hours at a computer if my back starts aching after only half an hour? This is partially why I am still so far behind. Blogging even has become physically taxing and editing photos, well it seems that I can only manage a few images ( if that) a day. And that's only if I am laying in bed.

I don't want to be beaten by this, but it is so hard not to feel defeated. I know that "you only fail when you quit" but this seems to be something that I can't even "try" at. It's all about having patience and just trying NOT to do certain things. I waver constantly between determination and resignation. I have gained back 16 lbs since the accident and that weighs heavily on my heart. I was doing ok walking with Mrs Bokeh, but we just stopped doing it and I can't seem to motivate myself to do it alone. I know that it's really as easy as just walking out my front door. But I find most days even that seems like an extremely daunting task.

On top of this Mr Mine and I had been trying to start a family when this accident occurred. We had been putting it off for one reason or another for the past 6-8 months. Waiting for me to lose the weight and to get my cholesterol under control. Since I had lost almost 30 lbs we decided that we had waited long enough. We even went to the store and bought ovulation strips. Only a few weeks later this accident occurred and once again our endeavors have been put on hold. I don't talk about this with people because I have so many mixed feelings about it. But I think I am mainly on a low simmering anger. Angry that we finally had made the committment only to have it put off again. Angry that time will not stop and that I just keep getting older. Angry that I am unsure as to whether or not we can even have a kid. I seem to be afraid that I just won't be able to at all and now I feel like I will have to wait till next year to even try again. Another 6 months of worrying about something I cannot control. On top of everything else that I cannot control.

Being a bit of a control freak, it's no wonder I feel like I am going a bit mad. I know that things will get better it's just hard to stay positive all the time.  

Curvily Yours : Spine Update

My compression fracture is of the T-8 and the disc
herniation is the one between T-7/T-8 

Today I went in to see Dr Perri for my 8 week check-up. After waiting about 45 minutes in my room they came and took me for x-rays and then about 5 minutes after I got back in the room the doctor arrived. I'm assuming that Cedar Sinai in a teaching hospital because every time I go to see Dr Perri someone new is with him. After tapping along my spine and asking me a bunch of questions he looked at the x-rays and mainly spoke to his assistant explaining to his assistant of the day what he was seeing.

He said I am on the road to recovery but concluded the following things:

1. I am still not out of the "surgery woods" yet. He wants to see me back in another 4 weeks.

2. He wants me to start not wearing my brace for 2 hour intervals daily.

3. I am still not allowed to lift anything over 10lbs, nor am I allowed to do any sort of chore that involves bending over.

4. No Yoga, but I may continue walking and I may ride an actual bike. I don't see the latter of those actually occurring.

5. Mainly I should just be paying attention and if any pain arises then I should stop.

All those seem like reasonable conclusions. Assistant aside, today was the first visit where I didn't feel like Dr Perri was rushing to see another patient. He stayed and patiently answered my list of questions. Which was mainly about defining what I can and cannot do. When I asked him about physical therapy he said that it was a possibility that I might start after my next check-up. Which will be 4 weeks from today on October 19. All in all not a horrible visit, still no end in sight, but at least I know that things are moving in the right direction :) 

The Pentagons are in Town

Saturday July 28, and Tuesday July 31, 2012
YAY! I know it's only been a few weeks since I last got to see them but I treasure any time I get to spend with my out of town peeps. The Pentagons have been in town since Saturday and Mr Mine and I got to have dinner with them that night. I know that it was a great time, especially for him since he hasn't been getting out much due to his work schedule. The video game industry is a beast at best. The 12+ hour days that he is working are only going to get worse as they get closer to his deadline so we are trying to enjoy what little free time he can muster now.

So Saturday we met Mr & Mrs Pentagon at True Food Daily. I know, I know I went there for lunch as well, but the place seems to have become a staple in my diet the last month or so. You've probably guessed that I ordered the Edamame Dumplings for the table. I can't help it, they're delicious. Sadly none of the pictures I took of our meal together came out. But we enjoyed catching up and hearing about the latest pregnancy shenanigans.

I made plans as we were departing to have dinner with them again Monday or Tuesday night. Plans which we would solidify once I had spoken to Mrs Bokeh about her schedule as well. I called Mrs Bokeh the next day and we ended up scheduling dinner for Tuesday night. Monday I had a flurry of text msgs from Mrs Bokeh about possible places we could go to eat and it fell to me to do the coordination for the evening. Fortunately Mrs Pentagon was also sending me txt msgs about the evening and both of them suggested the same restaurant. Tar and Roses in downtown Santa Monica was their destination of choice. Figuring that since it was a brand new restaurant that we should probably make reservations I turned to Opentable.com. I love this website, it's generally a stress free way of making reservations at a good percentage of the restaurants in LA. Unfortunately I was only seeing reservations open for 9pm or later and that was a bit late for Mrs Pentagon to be eating. So I opted to call the restaurant to see if there were other possibilities. They managed to squeeze us in between when their doors opened for the evening and one of the first reservations. This was earlier than we hoped but was much better than eating at 10pm.

We met at Tar and Roses and it definitely did not disappoint.

Our Appetizers - Bruschetta, Ricotta Gnocchi, Balsamic Glazed Ribs, Braised Lamb's Belly

Mr Pentagon's Shellfish Pot

Top: Our Whole Fried Snapper for Two   |   Bottom : Our delicious desserts which I unfortunately didn't write down the name of!

The Gnocchi, Bruschetta and the Braised Lamb were by far my favorites. I don't think that Mrs Bokeh and I would do the Fried Snapper again. I think it actually frightened her a bit. For me it was just a bit on the dry side. For the desserts I have to say that the Strawberry pastry was much better than my chocolate cake thing. Both Mrs Pentagon and Mrs Bokeh got the Strawberry and after one bite of theirs  I was drooling. It came with a side of salted caramel ice cream. Which if that had actually been written in the description I would of course have been all over in a second!

Having had such an early dinner we decided to stroll around Santa Monica for a while getting in a bit more fun and some added exercise.

Me, Mrs Bokeh, Mrs Pentagon, Mr Pentagon

We were enjoying the sites, watching a listening to the random artists who are always performing on the third street promenade. When I got called upon to participate.

"Hey you! Ms White, Come on over here!"

Ok, I'll participate so I go over and the gentleman playing the bucket drum hands me a overturned pot and asks me to hold it for him. So I walk over, and then he continues to motion that he needs me to get down on my knees. And I told him "honey, not only am I in a back-brace, but I am in pure white linen pants, that is so not going to happen." Fortunately Mrs Bokeh who was all in black came to my rescue. Although when he told her she had to use two hands she decided she didn't want to play either. Oh well. She ended up buying a cd from one of the performers further down.

It was a nice night for a walk and the evening ended too soon. I wish we lived closer together Mrs Pentagon! I miss you!

I love Santa Monica at Night

Women's Soccer Mania

USA vs Australia

Let’s just start with the words Free Tickets. That’s right, my girl over at Fox Soccer is awesome. I was so delighted when she contacted me and said she had two tickets with my name on them if I wanted them I didn’t even bother asking any additional details!

My sister and I met our girl Ms Foxx at the Chili’s around the corner from the Home Depot Center so we could all carpool to the game. Since not only did she get free tickets, but she managed to snag two free VIP parking passes as well! I know right! She was on fire, then once we are heading to the cars she nonchalantly mentions that we don’t really need to worry about getting sunburned because our tickets are for Box seats! WHAT?????????

This day just keeps getting better and better. Well, once we finally got through the parking lot traffic! We made it to the game with just minutes to spare. As they started playing the Australia anthem we were being escorted to our seats. Which had us sitting directly in front of the USA team bench! OMG I could see them, I could see their faces, Solo, Wambach, Rapinoe, Morgan, Heath, Lloyd, O' Hara, LePeilbet, Rampone, O'Reilly, Boxx…and so many more, all legends in my book. I really wished that I had asked Mrs Bokeh if I could borrow her camera for the day! But I made due with my cell phone and my little point and shoot.

women's national team right after anthem - CLICK HERE FOR LARGER VERSION

Left: The Starting Line-up   |   Right: Mr Hopeful

The Gang

Mrs Primerib and I

Ms Foxx and friend

Ms Bliss and I

The girls started off the game a bit rough and it took me a while to discern what the issue was. This team is used to fact-paced controlled passing and the Home Depot field frankly looked like it hadn’t been watered in a month. I’m guessing this was partially due to the crazy heat waves we have been having here in LA over the past few weeks. Including it getting up to 106° just the day before.  I think that the dry grass was creating additional friction on the ball causing it to drag. So passes that would normally easily have reached their teammates were continually falling short. Or….maybe the team starters were just having an off day. But Australia came out strong and the turf conditions didn’t seem to be bothering them at all.

Wambach Pressuring

O'Hara Trapping

Rampone Shutting It Down

At the half we were down 0-1 due to a beautiful goal by Lisa de Vanna but Alex Morgan brought us back into the game second half with a pistol of a shot off a pass by Heather O’Reilly. Neck and Neck it was time for some nail biting. Fortunately that didn't last long, less than ten minutes later Shannon Boxx found herself squaring off on a penalty kick with Australia keeper Brianna Davey. Beautifully done, the ball fired into the back of the net on a near post shot and we found ourselves up for the first time in the game 2-1. 30 minutes after that the winning score was final and there were smiles and thunderous cheers of U-S-A all around.

women's national team making their victory round - CLICK HERE FOR LARGER IMAGE

Victory Lap

Rapinoe and Morgan

Rapinoe and Morgan

After the game was over the Team called everyone together and presented their now retired coach Pia with a guitar signed by all of them. She even gave us a vocal demonstration in the style of Elvis doing a bit of Jailhouse Rock.

Women's National Team and Pia

I don’t know who suggested it but someone mentioned going down to the field as the players did their victory lap so we hopped out of our box and maneuvered our way into some empty second row seats hoping for a better view of our legends. These women, and this team has stolen a little piece of my heart ever since I watched them play their own hearts out during the Women’s World Cup last year. I cried as they were denied their hearts desire by Japan in the final. And I whole heartedly cheered them on to their hard fought victory of taking home the Gold medal in the Olympics just weeks ago. 

Words cannot describe being in such a close proximity to this team. I know that probably sounds a bit weird, but, I guess I was feeling a bit starstruck. I was wielding my little camera like digital was about to go out of style. Much to my sis’s amusement and chagrin. Although I know she’ll appreciate the pictures later.

My excitement over getting to see the girls up close during their victory lap was eclipsed by some crazy mania when I saw the girls split up and head toward the stands each with a black sharpie in her hand. OMG, I think I went a little crazy I lunged forward holding out the only thing I had in hand, my game ticket as Hope Solo stood within 3 feet of me and started signing autographs. I’m still not sure how I managed it since initially we were probably a good 8 or so feet from her but I ended up landing an autograph for myself and two of the other girls who were with us at the game. I even managed to keep my wits and snap a few up-close pics of both her and Heather O’Reilly when she later graced us with her presence. Although I wasn’t slick enough to grab her autograph as well. But hey, I was deliriously happy with just the one!

O'Reilly and Fan

Heather O'Reilly

Hope Solo

Solo and Fan

Solo and Mr Hopeful - Who yelled "she said yes" to his friend as she was taking the pic. 

My Autograph and I :)

I Love Dress Fittings

Saturday, July 28, 2012

My dear friends Mr and Ms Verve are getting married. And I am so unbeliebably excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr and Ms Verve and I having breakfast on their back patio.

I love their story. You see, I inadvertently introduced them both at my Engagement Bonfire three years ago. They got engaged on August 20, 2011 which you can read more about here. I can't wait for them to start their Happily Ever After together!

Several months ago, Ms Verve asked me to be one of her bridesmaids and I was ecstatic to accept. I'm so proud to get to play an intimate part in such a special occassion for two of my fav people on the planet. As one of her maids it is my duty to help make sure that this wedding goes off without a hitch and the best way to start with that is, The Dress!

So today Ms Verve, Ms Zest (another one of the bridesmaids and my new partner in crime), Mrs Charm ( Ms Verve's darling of a mother) and I all headed to Bloomingdale's for Ms Verve's first dress fitting. It was the first time I was getting to see her dress and she looked lovely. It's a beautiful, elegant, totally made for her dress. I can't wait to see her on her wedding day when all the carefully, lovingly chosen pieces will come together. She is going to be exquisite.

Why such a small picture?
 It's all about the Tease :)

After the fitting we were all famished so we headed over to True Food Kitchen. I have been frequenting this place more and more often. You can't really go wrong with their menu. I ordered a set of the Edamame Dumplings for the table to share. The Roasted Corn pizza for my main meal and The Natural to wash it all down smooth.

The pizza was delicious and I don't think I will ever tire of the dumplings although I have learned the hard way that you should not keep them for a long time in a small enclosed space. (They may be delicious but they give off quite an overwhelming aroma!)

I Heart Connections

I've been going a bit crazy trying to decide what tickets to buy for the USA vs Australia game this coming Sunday. I'm a huge women's national soccer team fan and this is my first opportunity to actually see them LIVE, in ACTION. The decision was finally taken out of my hands today when one of my girls who works for Fox Soccer contacted me saying she just got her hands on a bunch of free tickets. Perfect! I'm so excited!!!!

Careful What You Wish For

Friday, July 27, 2012

So I can remember lamenting 9 months ago about how bad my posture is and how it makes a lot of technical maneuvers difficult. Especially when it comes to yoga, pilates, and pole dancing. I can remember thinking that being forced to wear a brace to straighten my back would help fix many of the issues that were occuring. Fast forward to now, yes in the end I may get great posture out of this, but in the meantime wearing a brace, not so much fun.

I went in to see Dr Perri for my MRI results and he sent me directly over to Lerman & Son to get fitted for a back brace.

It's not all that pretty but I hope that it works. The alternative is getting back surgery and I am definitely not ready for that. I have to wonder if just by putting the thought out there, the cosmos made it happen.

Brilliant Ideas

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

I was walking through the airport to my gate looking for a drinking fountain and saw this gem. What a brilliant idea! I love the water bottle filling option! May I introduce you to the EZH20 Filling Station by ELKAY. If I had a company I would definitely be considering this option, especially out here in LA where people drink water by the gallon.

Mr Aside's Roasted Pork Tenderloin

The first time Mr Mine and I had this recipe our dear friend Mr Aside prepared it for us himself. It was so delectable that we ate it all in one sitting. Even though at the time we didn't have a oven proof skillet and he had to substitute using one of our crappy cookie baking sheets! The second time we had this we were in a new apartment with an even tinier kitchen. Two people really cannot work comfortably without running into each other constantly and our counter space is practically non-existent. Having bought some tenderloin when we were at the store we decided to give the recipe a whirl. It came out just as delicious, but we did have a few casualties. I've actually typed out his recipe the exact same way he had written it down because those cap letter warnings are vital. It only takes a split second to forget that a pan handle is a billion degrees. I stupidly grabbed hold to move the pan to a different place out of the way on the stove. And you guessed it, I did NOT have a pot holder in my hand.

Enter semi-comical moment where I immediately drop the handle with a shriek and stick my hand under cool running water. While I am doing this Mr Mine reaches up onto a top shelf to grab something to help me out and his shirt rides up just enough to show some bare skin. As he leans forward he collides with the end of the pot handle which is still sticking out from the stove. At which point he yelps and rushes over and we are both standing there swearing up a storm over our stupidity and awe inspiring luck. The moral of the story. Never lean over your stove while cooking unless you're wearing a really long shirt! And ALWAYS USE POT HOLDERS when making this recipe. You will be glad you did. Hopefully I will get up the nerve to attempt this one again someday soon so that I can add some step by step pictures for you!

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with a Red Wine Reduction Sauce

1 pound pork tenderloin
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup heavy cream
Pam

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400°.

2. Cut the thin membrane off of the tenderloin and remove any large pieces of fat. You can also remove the white-ish ligament-like thing near the thick end, but it's a pain to do so and not really necessary.

3. Mix the thyme, pepper, and salt in a small dish and rub on the tenderloin.

4. Spray an oven-proof skillet with Pam. ( Calphalon is oven-proof.) heat the olive oil over the high heat until hot. Put the tenderloin in and sear for about 4 minutes. Turn the tenderloin over and put in oven for about 15 minutes. Add an extra five if still a little pink.

5. Remove the skillet from the oven WITH POT HOLDERS. Put the tenderloin on a cutting board.

6. Add the wine to the pan and boil over high heat until reduced by about half, scraping all of the nice browned bits off the bottom of the pan. This should only take about three minutes. Hold the pan WITH THE POT HOLDERS.

7. Add the cream and reduce for two to three minutes. Hold the pan WITH POT HOLDERS.

8. Slice the tenderloin into 1/2 inch thick slices and serve with the sauce spooned over the top. 

Farewell My Sweet Charlotte

Wednesday, July 25, 2012 cont...

Full and feeling fantastic, Ms Ianthine and I finally made our way back to her house. Where I snapped some last minute photos of her furr-babies in between my bouts of packing.

MAUS: Mr Innocence, himself

MUSTAFA: The House Gigilo

ALI: The Eager Standoffish One, I want you to pet me, but, just not yet.

And last but definitely not least,

XOCHI: the ever lovable, Queen of the Realm

So much adorableness!!! I wish I had taken more photos, but I think my subjects were getting a bit miffed with the ones that I did take.

I finished packing my bag including all of my new books. I swear I didn't think that they were all going to fit and that I was going to end up having to mail some of them home. Ms Ianthine and I settled down for a few minutes of relaxation before we had to head to the airport and I noticed the Butterflies outside.  There were two beautiful Western Tiger Swallowtails greedily drinking their fill from her Butterfly Bush.

Alas, finally it was time to go, my journey at an end, we piled all my stuff into her car and took off for the airport. Parting is such sweet sorrow. I look forward to my next visit, which I am thinking will be sooner than later. In the meantime, I shall miss my dear friend Ms Ianthine. Facebook and txts just do not do you justice! I shall be dreaming of Pretzels, Books, and Pupusas in our time apart. I can't wait for our next adventures!

Last Day Loves

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

We started my last day in Charlotte with sustenance at IHOP. Both of us needed a jump start after staying up too late reading our funky novels the night before. A little dazed from all the food we had just consumed we staggered out of IHOP and hit the jackpot. Welcome to The Last Word, the absolute best second hand bookstore I have ever had the fortune of walking into. Organized by Genre and Author this book store makes me so unbelievably happy.

The best part? Well, they have everything loaded into their computer system, so they can actually TELL you if they have specific books in stock. They have frequent buyer programs, and they even give credit to kids for good report cards. I love it! I ended up buying so many I wasn't even sure if they were all going to fit in my suitcase for the trip home. Now I want to go back to Charlotte just for this book store AND the soft pretzels!

But our day did not end there, our next destination was The Mint Museum Randolph to see their Fashionable Silhouettes: Selections From the Museum Collection exhibit. A wide range of the height of fashion arranged by year spanning from the 18th-20th century styles.

"The Fashion Collection is one of the primary artistic focus areas of The Mint Museum. This special collection was founded in 1972 by the Mint Museum Auxiliary as a concerted volunteer effort to save community heirlooms. It is a rich resource within the Museum’s holdings that totals over 10,000 items and spans over three centuries of fashion history."

We ooo'd and aah'd over many of the dresses, commented on others that we were glad we didn't live in that time period. Frankly I don't understand how a girl would ever be able to sit down in a full bustle? I was extremely sad that they don't allow any photography at all in this section. I suppose some day I will have to visit it again and bring my sketch paper! There were a couple dresses that I specifically coveted. I was glad to see that they had a pic of this one on the left on their website as it was one of my favorites.

One of the exhibits that made me etxtremely happy was not even inside the museum. This bamboo structure entitled Passage: Waterway 2011 is beautiful and a joy to walk through. It was designed by Tetsunori Kawana and was scheduled to reside outside of The Mint Museum Randolph for a full year so that people could observe it in all seasons. 

Created using straight and split Madake bamboo and annealed metal wire. The sign posted encourages you to "Explore the path through the center of the sculpture. Photograph your friends and family with the sculpture." But do not "remove any part of the sculpture or Eat the bamboo( like a Panda Bear)"

Eager to learn more about this structure, I googled it and was rewarded with some photos of what it looked like the first day it was constructed. What a difference a year makes!

Tuckered out from our excursion we headed back to Ms Ianthine's for a little rest and so I could pack for the flight home. Which would be leaving in just a few hours. It turned out that we were both starving though and decided to hit up one of her favorite restaurants on the way home, El Pulgarcito. It was my first time trying Salvadoran food and it was tasty! I got to try Pupusas for the first time, another new love! Mmm melty cheesy goodness. The rest of our food was great as well, but I just keep thinking back to those Pupusas.

It's Official...

My suicidal phone finally succeeded. It is no longer with us. My phone, the Incredible 2 by HTC has to be the worst formed phone I have ever owned. I have never in my life dropped a phone as much as this specific model. It has leapt out of my hands countless times onto a multitude of surfaces without a care for my feelings. This final fall was the last straw apparently. I've actually been pretty amazed by it's resilience.

Fortunately I had my phone insured and will be getting a replacement hopefully by tomorrow. I'll let you know if I have the same problem with the new one. I believe it's actually a flaw in the design of the phone versus me just being the biggest klutz on the planet. I cannot tell you how many times I have just looked on in amazement wondering if my hand was just a traitor. Imagine your phone is full of jumping beans and that will give you a small idea of the ingenuity of this phones capabilities.

What's Shakin' Bacon?

Apparently we are! We've had earthquakes on our fault line twice this week alone. The last one being just after midnight last night. I was laying in bed getting ready to go to sleep when I felt a slight quivering. Normally I would just ignore this since our apartment jiggles when large trucks come down our street, but since we had a quake just a few days ago I was more on guard. I was in the process of jumping off my bed to reach our doorway when their was a huge wrench. So hard that I slightly twisted my wrist mid leap. Hitting the floor and flinging open my door I found Mr Mine frozen just beyond the door in the hallway and yelled at him to move it. The quake itself probably only lasted 2 seconds total. But my heart was racing and we were both a bit frantic.

After about five minutes had passed with no more movement we took a walk around the apartment. Several of our knick-knacks had been flung off our shelves and a few things had been knocked over. I grabbed our laptop and immediately went to the earthquake site earthquake.usgs.gov to get more information. When I saw it on the google map it showed that the Epicenter was just 2.7 miles from our apartment and since it was only 1.5 km deep which is why we felt such a wrench.

It makes me a little nervous being practically on top of these quakes and that they have started to come so frequently. So Mr Mine and I have decided to make sure we are well stocked with can goods, water, batteries, flashlights, etc. 

Love at First Bite

Tuesday, July 24, 2012                 

I had been dreaming of the soft pretzel's and queso at The Flying Saucer for weeks leading up to my trip to Charlotte. They are so unbelievably scrumptious. They come out of the kitchen piping hot, salty and sweet. Indulging my craving, Ms Ianthine made late lunch/early dinner plans for us to meet up at The Flying Saucer with her dear friend Mrs Grey. Mrs Grey and Ms Ianthine teach together at one of the local High Schools. She has been wanting to introduce us and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. The Flying Saucer Draught Emporium is a local bar and restaurant that has an entire wall of beers on tap. They also have a UFO Club so that people can not only keep track of how many different beers they try, but they also win free stuff along the way. Ms Ianthine and Mrs Grey are both part of the UFO club and in keeping chose two new beers they had not tried yet. I decided to go with the Young's Double Chocolate Stout. I love chocolate beers. 

I was in heaven the moment I bit into my piping hot pretzel. The queso dipping sauce is the perfect compliment with just enough spice. I highly recommend that you give it a whirl should you find yourself thirsty, hungry, and ready for adventure in East Charlotte.  

Sadly Mrs Grey had to leave us to get back to her herd and could not join us for dessert. The other food I have been craving since arriving in the midwest was frozen custard. Initially, I had really wanted to visit Erma's in Utica, MI. My mom and I used to stop there occasionally during the summers and it brings up fond memories. But unfortunately my path was just not destined to cross that way. 

Not to be completely thwarted, Ms Iantine did a search for places that served custard in the Charlotte area and came up with Rita's Italian Ice. I was just as delighted to finally get my fix. (I really do need to stop being lazy and find a place in LA that has custard. We seem to have a little bit of everything here so why not, right?) We opted to sit outside and watch the sun setting after our long day of driving. It was nice to just be still for a moment and enjoy the deliciously creamy cold custard.

Once the mosquitoes started coming out we headed home to all the furr-baby love and our funky romance novels. A perfect way to end our day!

Elizabeth, Dilworth, NODA, Oh My!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Today Ms Ianthine was introducing me to several of the neighborhoods that she felt would be a good place for Mr Mine and I to buy a home. First stop, Elizabeth! Ms Ianthine and I decided to start our day trying out a new breakfast spot in Elizabeth called the Sunflour Baking Company. I couldn't pass up on their Breakfast Sandwich with Egg and Cheese on their fresh made Cheddar Biscuits. Ms Ianthine chose to try out their Breakfast Sandwich on one of their Croissants.

My biscuit was delicious, although the cheese on both our sandwiches ended up being American versus the Cheddar Cheese that we had requested. Schmeh. I also was eyeing their delicious looking Key Lime cupcakes. I mean just look at them! How could I resist? I took one to go :)

As we were getting ready to leave I saw two things that made me laugh. I noticed that the "stir sticks" were actually pieces of spaghetti. Which I thought was genius and a great way to cut down on plastic waste. And the best sign ever "Unattended children will be give expresso and a free puppy!"

After we had filled up on breakfast we drove around for a bit exploring and checking out current homes that were for sale.  I have to admit it was a quiet, cute area that even boasted it's own comic book store. I was tempted to check out their selection but knew I would get sucked in and poor Ms Ianthine wouldn't be able to drag me out for hours. I have a bit of a thing for comic books.

Next on our list we drove in and around the Dilworth area. I really like this area a lot. There were a lot of businesses, parks, and the houses were cute. I was thankful that we were driving around in the car with the air conditioning on since according to "Red" it was 95° out!

Our final stop of the day was NODA and of course you can't visit NODA without a trip to Amelie's. The brutal heat was melting my poor cupcake so we decided to refresh ourselves with a little dessert treat. Since Mrs Bokeh had raved about their French Macarons I decided I had to try one as well. After driving around for another half an hour viewing houses we were beat and ready to head home for a nap.