In Living Color

Hey guys, and Happy Saturday!

This weekend is going even faster than last week went, somehow. I’m right in the whirlwind of a flurry of fun and relaxing weekend activities, but I thought it would be fun to inject some color into the blogworld with some of my favorite recent pins.

Enjoy!

Source: justtryagain.tumblr.com via Meredith on Pinterest

What are you up to this weekend? What is the most beautiful thing you’ve seen today?

Meri

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

A Tale of Two Bridges

For today’s Travelin’ Thursday post, I want to take you on a journey with me. A journey through my memory, through my mind, through San Francisco. A journey from one incredible bridge to another.

Let me give you a frame of reference: The city is San Francisco, California. The month is November, and the year is 2009. Follow along as I recount our path across the city!

1) Waking up in our posh (borrowed) high rise digs near the ferry building, we gaze at the sun rising over one very famous San Francisco bridge. We head out, covered in layers of clothing and backpacks full of gear, and man-go-round and I grab some quick eats from the 2) Thursday Ferry Building Farmer’s Market to fuel our journey. For we have BIG PLANS for the day…

After some snacks from the market and some 3) Blue Bottle Coffee, we strolled off along the 4) embarcadero, headed west (more or less) towards another very famous bridge. Okay, you guessed it, we’re walking to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Along the way we stop by 5) TCHO chocolate (for some divine samples and to purchase gifts for friends and family), and by 6) Fisherman’s Wharf to smell the stinky seals and to get some caffeine. I picked up a trolley car Christmas ornament for my parents who used to live in the city in the ’70s.

Soon we ended up in the 7) Presidio. We’re so close we can barely taste it, and we’ve been gazing at the bridge’s majesty for a few miles now. We scan the homes nearby in the Marina district for a landmark that my parents described to us, but never find it. We stop along the beach and watch people enjoying the sunny and warm fall day.

After taking some “Christmas Card” style photos and some video of the journey, we pack our stuff back up and continue on our journey. Though we still have miles to travel, we are determined! We wander around the base of the bridge, trying to figure out how to get up to the top as pedestrians. When we’re nearly to the bridge, we look for the military base that my dad was stationed on across the bridge and down below.

We made it! As we walked across 8 ) the bridge together, admiring it’s majesty from up close, the sun slowly began to set and a chill came into the air. We slowly wandered back across the bridge to the park and made our way back into the city. As we emerged back into the streets of the 9) Marina, darkness set upon the city and we treated ourselves to a cab ride back towards “home.” Our next pit stop was some much needed whiskey at a 10) divey bar in North Beach. We danced to some blues music and reminisced about the day’s journey as we made some plans for dinner. At this point we were so tired from walking all day that we decided to grab some groceries from the 11) Safeway across from our borrowed condo and relax on 12) the balcony overlooking the bay with a bottle of wine.

The next day held another adventure across town- to the Mission Dolores, or Golden Gate Park, or to Coit Tower. Wherever we went, we’ll never forget the journey of the Two Bridges.

 

Posted in California, travel, Travelin' Thursday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Everybody else is doing it…

Source: visualnews.com via Meredith on Pinterest

I found this infographic on Pinterest a couple of days ago. As it says in the fine print, the top 10 were chosen by amount of books printed and sold. It’s not perfect obviously, but I also am pretty sure its fairly accurate just from common sense. I can check off The Bible (more or less), Harry Potter 1-7, The Da Vinci Code, The Diary of Anne Frank, and 1/4 of Gone with the Wind (yes, I gave up; I admit I found it boring). I own the Alchemist but have never gotten around to it, and I don’t think I’ll be reading Twilight any time soon. Furthermore, I have no idea what Think and Grow Rich is- is that a self help book or something? Thus, my list is really just The Alchemist, Lord of the Rings, and the Quotations from Chairman Mao.

It also got me thinking, though, about whether we read/ watch/ experience media “just” because it is very famous and everyone else has read it. A friend of mine always says that when things start to get really overly present in the world she starts to resist wanting to jump on the bandwagon. I am the opposite, I admit- the minute people start talking about something I want IN on the water cooler gossip!

Here are a few of the “trends” I’ve glommed onto in the past couple of months: Pinterest (yessss!!!), The Hunger Games (book), Girls, The Bachelor, maxi dresses, the “long bob” (which is now actually a short bob… its addicting…), Mad Men (again, at last!) Breaking Bad, Portlandia, Water for Elephants (book and movie), The Help (book), New Girl, etc…

Do you jump on the bandwagon when everybody is talking about something or do you resist it in the search for something more one-of-a-kind? What are some popular things you are glad you got into?

Meri

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Girls Will Be Girls (Until they are Women)

After tiring of hearing all of the buzz and promos surrounding HBO’s new show Girls, (“it’s the new Sex and the City for 20-somethings” as an example), I harrassed man-go-round until he downloaded the first three episodes for me. After a shaky start, I quickly got hooked to the series. Whether I’ve been hooked by the show itself or the hoopla surrounding it (i.e. knowing what the Jezebel posts are talking about…) is hard to say. But  in all fairness to our first “Female Manhattan” sitcom, I thought I’d do a little Venn Diagram with the bamboo to compare the two shows.

Returning Champion: Thirty-something Carrie and Company on SATC:

 

Tonight’s Challenger: Hannah and the Gang on Girls:

Source: esquire.com via Meredith on Pinterest

 

So what’s the verdict?

So far, I continue to have a special place in my heart for SATC despite my new infatuation with Girls. I think I can keep both in my TV arsenal for now. In fact, of all of the crappy copycat shows I’ve tried to stomach via netflix (Cashmere Mafia, Lipstick Jungle), this is by far the most palatable. I’m also looking forward to the CW’s “Carrie Diaries” at this point, though. For me, I can never get enough girly TV!

Have you watched Girls yet? Are you a fan of Sex and the City? Do you watch more than one show with a similar theme/ style (i.e. lots of reality TV or lots of medical dramas)?

Meri

 

Posted in television | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Do you C what I C?

I’ve been absent for a few days, attending a funeral out of town and trying to beat off this hideous virus I’m carrying (which also seems to be plaguing man-go-round and my Dad at this point).

Yesterday I made it out of the house long enough to buy some fresh produce, in hopes that the vitamins and nutrients would help me in the battle of the cold. As I was chomping down some delicious strawberries this morning, a thought bubble started slowly growing in my congested head:

“hmmm… I’m pretty sure strawberries are high in vitamin C, but I wonder what else has the highest vitamin levels?”

And presto, an afternoon activity was born that would keep me in the house and on the couch for rest without going stir crazy with cabin fever- I thought I’d use this website to make a spreadsheet of fruits and veggies and their respective vitamin and mineral levels. And if I’m going to do this work, I might as well share it with you all, right? So here are the rules:

  • Each serving size based on 1 cup of chopped/ diced fruit or vegetable (unless *, in which case it was 100 grams)
  • Any numbers in the charts are % of Daily Value needed. I only included levels above 9/10 %
  • For each category (fruit/ veg) I picked a gold, silver, bronze award for Vitamin C as well as highlighted some overall superstars across categories.

So there you have it! Are any of these news to you? How did your favorite fruits or veggies score?

I’m off to check more of these off my list (so far today I’ve had strawberries, red pepper, and cabbage… I see broccoli in my future…)

Meri

Posted in food, produce, vegetables | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

Tulip Tour

Today was sunny, warm, and beautiful. On the way home from work I felt completely inundated by springtime, and despite my sore throat and sort of woozy feeling (I’m now sucking down Vit C, Echinacea, and Zinc…), man-go-round and I decided to take an evening stroll.

Our missions:

  1. Pay attention to every distinct smell that we came across, good or bad.
  2. Collect liquor from the corner store.
  3. Photograph tulips in every color we could find.

As far as smells go, we came across: Lilac, Pine, ambiguous floral, sawdust, juniper, laundry, BBQ, and new car.

I don’t have a photo of the liquor we collected, because it was just Icehouse.

Here is the result of the tulip mission, however- which we now dub, for alliterations’ sake;

Tulip Tour Twenty Twelve:

Did you have a mission for today? What are your best cold/ flu remedies? Let me hear them!

Meri

Posted in flowers, photography, Wordy Wednesday | Tagged , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

PB and PJ

The other day I entered the kitchen to see a few of man-go-round’s plums dangerously nearing mush. I didn’t particularly feel like eating three plums in order to save them, but I did venture a jam making experiment for the afternoon… and since its me, of course it had to be easy easy and hands off so I could dart off to the other room to do some writing in the mean time…

Chop the plums roughly (which is easy when they are super ripe)
Scoop plums into (nonstick) saucepan on very very low heat
cook for 30-40 minutes (depending on how much fruit), stirring occasionally
cook until desired consistency. Sweeten if you like (I didn't, because plums are very sweet just as they are!)
Toast some bread, and spread on peanut butter (or nut butter... or no butter)
Finally, spread on your plum jam!

Et voila! PB&PJ- Peanut Butter and Plum Jam toast!

Do you ever experiment to use up foods that are about to go bad? Do you ever make your own jams or jellies?

Meri

 

Posted in food, produce, recipes, Tasty Tuesday | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

Mother, May I?

Today I really wanted to take a stroll through the neighborhood after work, photographing all of the tulips and spring blooms.

But alas, I decided to save my poor allergy-ridden eyeballs and spend this May Day Eve (yes, I take it seriously) playing with my bamboo tablet instead. The sacrifices I make… So here’s a May Day treat for you all!

Do you celebrate May Day in one of these traditional ways, non-traditionally like me (and my bamboo), or not at all?

Cheers!

Meri

Posted in flowers, holidays | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

Purls and Pearls

I discovered this finger knitting tutorial on Pinterest, and it reminded of my childhood pastime (children of the 80s and 90s will probably recall the neon stretchy bands used for finger knitting back in the day)

Source: dharmaflyer.blogspot.co.uk via Meredith on Pinterest

So I took out some of my yarn and got to work on these fabric necklaces (very kid friendly!):

 

 

So now I’m off to make some more necklaces and also to try to make some pretty spring yarn garlands to decorate our home with these colorful yarns I bought today.

Have you ever made fabric or crocheted or ribbon jewelry? Do you remember finger knitting? What are you up to this weekend?

Meri

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Something Old, Something New…

Tonight I met up with some lovely pals for Happy Hour. As it so happened, it was Dining Out for Life tonight, and so some of the profits from the restaurant we went to, Roat Osha, will go to The Aliveness Project. Yay!

As we caught up, we perused the menus, and I sipped on this:

I had chosen it (after googling it to make sure it wasn’t some hoity toity fruity bedazzled beer. it’s not. it’s a lager, and its the national beer of Laos, apparently) because I love to try new things. I used to have almost an anxiety about not trying something new when I went to a restaurant. Times have changed a bit since my stomach makes me not want to be as adventurous as I used to be, but I’ll still try new things most of the time.

And in this case- something new tasted great!

When you go out to eat do you get the same thing every time or do you like to try something new?

Meri

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Posted in beer, drinks, food | Tagged , , , , , , | 26 Comments