What's Going On

This two week lull may be the longest time I've gone without posting. I blame facebook because it allows me to keep in touch without having to come up with a post. Also, during the past two weeks I've been to Santa Barbara to see Deb and she's come to see me here in Las Vegas. We've tasted some great wine, eaten some great food and spent quality time together. We also got to spend time with my aunt who drove down from San Francisco to go wine tasting with us. It's been a fun two weeks.

Now I'm back to normal, waiting for my next visit from Deb in mid October. She's coming to be in a wedding so I won't get to see much of her but just having her in town is always great.

So, I'm back and will try to post more often.

Save Traditional Marriage

This guy has the right idea. If people are so intent on saving traditional marriage, they should back his proposition to ban divorce in California. John Marcotte is the author of the 2010 California Protection of Marriage Act. Here's an interview with him.

Love, Love, Me Do

If someone loved me very, very, very much, perhaps to the moon and back, then they would buy me this. That would be heaven in a box. Here's a review.

You know what? I think I love myself very, very, very much.

One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure

I found this article about Goodwill donations very interesting.
My favorite section is:

Oh, and grenades. When warehouse manager Kandy Miller interviewed for her first job at Goodwill seven years ago, she happened to come in on a day someone donated a live hand grenade. Her job interview took place in the parking lot while the bomb squad did its work. Seven years later — to the day — somebody turned up another grenade (a dud, as it turned out) while Miller was on the job.

“I said, ‘Oh, you remembered my anniversary.’ ”

Crispy Sir, AKA Las Vegas: The Sequel

According to the William Sonoma chef, a croque is the French version of a panini, or a crispy sandwich. For the demo, she made Croque-Monsieur or "Crispy Sir". This is a crustless bread sandwich, consisting of expensive French mustard (available at William Sonoma), Mornay sauce (white sauce with cheese added), ham and Gruyere, which is toasted in the panini/croques pan (available at William Sonoma). So, basically, a grilled ham and cheese with a fancy name.

The technique class did have it's interesting points and I might go back for a couple of the upcoming classes. Allie and I did not stay for the whole demo and we didn't get any tastes. As it turns out, the people attending were quite inexperienced in cooking - or maybe reading and paying attention. The chef was informative and had a good sense of humor and I did get a few helpful hints - such as learning we need to let crepe mixture rest at least a couple hours ( or use the already rested mix available at William Sonoma).

Our demo mates asked strange questions. One woman asked if leaving out the 1 tsp of sugar would reduce the carbs. This set the chef off on a funny rant that basically explained that if you want low carb, low fat, don't make crepes. Another woman asked why the basic recipe in our class materials (a 4 page brochure) didn't include sugar. The answer, because it is the BASIC recipe. Please note the recipe immediately following the BASIC recipe, has sugar. One woman wanted to know where to buy Gruyere cheese. Answer: the store. And everyone WANTED everything the chef demo'd. I understand why William Sonoma runs these classes. People were demanding more mix, more mustard, more equipment. Can I buy a special crepe pan? A special hunk of wood to nudge my crepe? I'm surprised WS doesn't start selling specially packaged flour and eggs because our classmates would have bought them.

Allie and I decided to leave shortly after one woman repeated a question asked by another woman only 1 minute before. Besides, the demo crispy sirs had been sitting on the counter while we were learning about crepes and were probably cold. We headed off to our real breakfast at The Cheesecake Factory. As usual, my breakfast was really two or maybe three breakfasts all on one plate. I got the California Omelet and Allie, in keeping with our French theme, got the French Toast Napoleon - French toast slathered with fresh strawberries.

After breakfast, we were just lazy and we got another movie, Sunshine Cleaning, and went home. We watched our movie, ate chocolates and took naps. Dinner was leftovers again and we watched TV. In the telling, it sounds boring, but Allie and I had a good time.

Yesterday we tried a new restaurant in my neighborhood, The Cracked Egg. This time I had the French Toast and Allie had the South Shore Scramble - eggs with Swiss cheese, bacon and avocado (hold the chicken). My French Toast was really Elvis' French Toast, stuffed with peanut butter and covered with bananas and honey. It was delicious. Again, enough for three. Leftovers for both of us. After breakfast we went to the Forum Shops, a traditional stop on a visit from Allie. News to me, the shops have expanded. OMG! We walked, and walked, and walked. And went upstairs. YES! The Forum Shops has levels now. We didn't buy anything. Not even chocolate.

We had a very, very late lunch of sushi at my neighborhood sushi bar. Our favorite was the roll with tempura shrimp, tuna, cucumbers and spicy garlic sauce. It was all good. We then stopped to get another movie and headed home. We rented My Cousin Vinny because I couldn't believe Allie hasn't seen it (she's too young I guess) and I love it. Unfortunately Allie will never know how funny it is because she fell asleep about 5 minutes in and didn't wake up until Marisa Tomei saved the day. I love that movie. Speaking of movies, Sunshine Cleaning was well done and entertaining but won't be one of my favorites like My Cousin Vinny.

Today is Allie's last day here and I'm not sure what we're doing. We've just finished breakfast and now we can plan.

Fun In Las Vegas

My niece is visiting me for a few days which is always fun. It's been three years since she was last here and I've missed her. She arrived two nights ago and we've packed our days with shopping, movies and food.

She arrived in the evening so we stopped at Trader Joe's for supplies and then headed home. We ate pasta and salad and watched TV until the pièce de résistance of the evening: Project Runway. Yay.

The next day we had a leisurely morning and then headed out to The District for window shopping. Then we had Rubio's fish tacos and some Cold Stone ice cream before heading off to the movie. We saw Post Grad which was entertaining and fun. It got pretty bad reviews and I can see how it was a little sloppy in parts but overall I agreed with Roger Ebert's take. I liked the characters and was happy when things worked out for them.

After the movie, we stop at Ethel's (It will always be Ethel M's to me) to get some treats for dessert. Then on to Blockbuster for a couple rentals. Finally, back to Trader Joe's to get pizza fixings. We relaxed a bit before making our pizzas; garlic herb dough topped with pasta sauce (tomato basil for her, spicy Arrabatta for me), fresh basil and fresh mozzarella with grated Parmesan on top when they popped out of the oven. We munched our pizzas while we watched Duplicity. Meh. It was just okay. This time I didn't really agree with Roger. The plot was so convoluted I had a hard time catching up. And when I did catch up, I wasn't impressed. Both main characters were lackluster and there was zero chemistry between Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. A little snack of Ethel M's helped me get over the disappointment.

Yesterday, we headed over to our newest mall, Town Square. It is another outdoor mall which I find strange in Las Vegas. The shade from the buildings, along with the misters, helped but it was still pretty warm for shopping. It is bigger than the District and took us a few hours to see everything. We ate lunch at Cadillac Ranch which is new to LV and which was quite tasty. Allie had ribs and I had a portobello mushroom burger. We also had the onion rings. Not the best onion rings in the world but certainly tasty. We took a lot of food home with us. Oh, and we made a stop at Godiva, just to make sure they were still making chocolate. Then it was back home where we took naps and then watched our other movie, I Love You Man. This was much better than Duplicity and there were some laugh out loud moments in Paul Rudd's quest to find a best friend. Roger liked this one best. A tad too much sex humor for me and especially for me while sitting with my 19 year old niece. Aunts don't like to think their nieces know anything at all about sex and I'm sure nieces don't like to think their aunts know anything either. But it was fun. No fancy food, just leftovers. And chocolate.

Today we're heading over to William Sonoma for a technique class in crepes and croques. Neither of us know what croques are, we're just hoping they aren't crocs. I'll update you all later.

Movie Weekend

This weekend I saw two movies, one in the theater and one at home. In the theater I watched Julie and Julia which was exactly what I was hoping for. It was fun and entertaining; I enjoyed the intertwining of the two stories 50 years apart. Meryl Steep was a great Julia. My one complaint would be that there wasn't quite as much food as I would have liked.

The movie I watched at home was Milk. I know, I'm a little behind on that one. It's been sitting at the house for at least 3 weeks because I had to be in the right mood to watch it. I knew it was going to make me angry and sad. Angry at the bigotry and sad at a good man's life cut short. Knowing the ending didn't keep me from hoping maybe Milk wouldn't die. But he did. The movie did a great job of recreating those times in America - so well that I was just as angry as I thought I would be.

I think seeing the upbeat J&J helped me deal better with Milk. Yes, there are are bigots and haters but there are also joyful people and happy times. And there is hope. "Without hope, life's not worth living."

Cutest Puppy Ever

I stole this picture from my brother, who probably stole it from someone else. Isn't the Internet great? If this is your puppy and you don't want his picture on my blog, just let me know. Or, if this is your puppy and you don't want him, just let me know.

He is the cutest puppy ever born. And it reminds me that my ex (the nice one) had the biggest puppy dog eyes ever and could get me to agree to just about anything by looking at me just like this puppy is looking at you. How could you say no to those puppy eyes?

Charity Redux

This week I got notification that my very first Kiva loan has been repaid and so the money I lent is now available to lend again. I think it's great. At Kiva, you can browse through the list of people who would like a loan. You pick someone and loan them the amount you choose. Kiva distributes the money and takes in the repayments. I think it is a great way to help out. My first loan helped a woman in Brazil start her own juice business and my second load is going to a woman to help remodel her home in Nicaragua.