God bless my big bag o' Peets!

I felt like the luckiest girl in the world when I picked up my mail today... waiting for me, delivered all the way from Alameda, was a 2-pound(!!!) bag of (what I consider) the most delicious coffee in the world: Arabian Mocha-Java from Peet's Coffee!

Suzie, in all of her sweetness, sent me a care package that couldn't have been more comforting! Peet's is not here in the Phoenix area yet - but I hope and wish each day that the company will think about opening up a shop. Maybe after the light rail is built? Hmm...

I seriously had a little panic/anxiety spat before moving to AZ about the coffee situation. Do I order it online? Is that ridiculous? Supposedly it's sold at Safeway, but I never see it on the shelves. And even if I did, it's either whole bean or ground for a cone filter (#5 for all you former baristas). I have a press pot (grind #12) and so even if I bought whole bean, my grinder at home would never come close to the perfection you get from a professional grinder. WHAT TO DO?! I was seriously panicky.

I was pretty much resigned to buying Starbucks, or maybe making the trip to Scottsdale to hit up the one and only Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in my proximity - before Ms. Suzie Q offered to send me some of the sweet nectar by mail!

THANKS SO MUCH SUZIE! It's awesome to have something I love, that reminds me of home, here in AZ. xoxoxoxo!

Yummy Summery Salad

So, it's been 112 or thereabouts this entire week - holy hell. The heat, combined with the likes of reading 150-year-old cases about jurisdiction, left me pretty tired by the time Friday rolled around.

My friend Angela came over the other night for dinner, which was great! We talked about school for maybe 5 minutes, before chatting about more important stuff: our cats, men trouble, local politics (I'm needing to learn who runs my new home state, after all). It was great and gave me a much-needed break.

Soooo, in planning dinner I wanted to fix something yummy that had a lot of vitamin C (apparently there's some weird flu going around the law school), and I came up with this salad that turned out really good! I think you might like it too:

This makes enough for two people, having seconds:

You need:
A head (?) of romaine lettuce (or is it called a "bunch"?)
1 cup of walnuts
1/4 of a red onion, diced very small
one grapefruit, that you cut into wedges (slice off the rind instead of peeling, then slice between the sections so that you get the soft, seedless sections of the grapefruit - hope I'm making sense...)
Raspberry vinegar
About 1/4 cup of crumbled feta cheese
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper.

First, in the large bowl you will serve your salad in, pour about 2-3 tablespoons of both the vinegar and olive oil, add some salt and pepper, whisk them together and then add more salt and pepper if needed.

Add diced red onion to this.
Add the romaine lettuce, which you've chopped into bite-size pieces (personally, I hate big pieces of lettuce in a salad!)
Add the grapefruit wedges.
Add the feta cheese.
Toast the walnuts in a dry saute pan, long enough for them to get toasty. Be sure to watch over them because they can burn quickly. Once done, add the walnuts to the salad.

Toss everything together and serve. I really liked this - I hope you do too!

Remember Get Your War On?

I almost forgot about the fine folks over at Get Your War On until Mark reminded me of them today.

They have some opinions about the latest news... especially our dear, ex-Attorney General:


And, a nice send-off for "Bush's Brain":


And, because I have to: a sample of GYWO genius:

More on Halo 3

Just came across this article in Wired about Halo 3, and how Bungie has been been using psychology to help improve the game. Lengthy, but interesting.

Good riddance.

Alberto Gonzales is resigning today.

Current temp: 84!!

It rained this morning and cooled everything down!!! It's 1:30 and only 84 degrees! With the sun hidden behind the clouds, this afternoon shouldn't be bad. Woo hoo!

Only bummer is: I have to stay inside and study! ha ha...

Holy S

Check out the latest (and final) installment of The Daily Show in Iraq... the title says it all. Enjoy!

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Welcome our dear friend Amber to the blogging world!!! Already, hilarity ensues. I can't wait for more missives from you, missy!

Operation Silent Thunder/Fluffy Bunny

Not sure if you've been watching The Daily Show this week, but one of their correspondents is in Iraq reporting for the show. Funny bits here and here.

Ren's new tattoo!

My sweet friend Ren got a new, gorgeous tattoo over the weekend! She shared some pics with me, so that I could share them with you!


Cedre draws the design on a very excited Ren.


Cedre working on Ren.


Ren smiling, mid-procedure!


The finished product. Gorgeous!

I have to say, if I was still in the bay area I would probably be making an appointment with Cedre... oh man... you are inspiring me, Ren! xo!!

Two distractions

I just read on Ain't it Cool News that a full box set of all episodes (including the pilot) of Twin Peaks is releasing later this year. You can pre-order the set on Amazon. The set comes with lots of goodies so it may definitely be worth purchasing.

Also, here's a trailer for 3:10 to Yuma, a new film with Christian Bale, directed by James Mangold and written by Elmore Leonard. Enjoy!

Cary's Podcasts

Over the weekend, whilst studying and other things, I needed some good, chill, ambient music to create some "white noise" in my apartment. After chatting with my friend Cary (who is currently in Paris, lucky gal) she mentioned that she's posted several more podcasts at her site.

The music is trippy, ethereal, groovy, cool and I love love love these podcasts. This is stuff you will never hear on commercial radio (she scours the web to find independent, web-based musicians and labels who release their music under a Creative Commons license). Not only is this a nice example of 'copyright in the digital age' in action, but it's awesome to hear new music I don't have the time to find on my own. Thanks Cary!!

Free Culture

Just discovered that Lawrence Lessig's book, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity, is available for free download here. The book was published by Penguin and I'm impressed they went for the 'free download' thing - I'm sure they didn't have a choice if they wanted to sign him to a publishing deal (Penguin is a sister company to Peachpit).

I haven't started reading it, but I've read his other stuff via Wired. Copyright law is an area I am definitely interested in and he is at the forefront of the movement to transform copyright to meet the demands of the digital age. I'm looking forward to reading this book!

Crackers & Company Cafe

Another restaurant review!

Yesterday I popped across town to Crackers & Company Cafe for some breakfast. I first saw this place mentioned on the Feasting in Phoenix blog, and how there was too long of a wait to get a table. (If people are willing to stand and wait for a table, it must be good, yes?). It was also voted best breakfast place by the local paper! When I got there around 8 a.m., most of the restaurant was already full - but I was still able to get a table right away.

The server was very nice and asked for my drink order right away. My cup of coffee came with a small carafe full of more coffee. Glorious! I loved this idea - a little too much, maybe. I had three cups before realizing I should probably cut myself off.

I decided to get Huevos Rancheros, which was delicious! The flour tortilla was slightly grilled so that it was toasty. On top of the tortilla were some refried beans - which were not greasy and didn't take away from the dish. The scrambled eggs were fluffy, cheddar cheese perfectly melted, and the salsa (which was more like a fire roasted tomato salsa as opposed to pico de gallo) was really good. It was tangy and had a kick, but wasn't too spicy to ruin your taste buds.

Best of all the bill was only $11 before tip. This seems like a perfect place to take the parents when they are in town next!

Garbage Television-related confession

I watch Big Brother and I really like it!

I love how absolutely greedy and deceitful the players are, and then how they take turns being shocked at each other's greed and deceit, and then by the end of the show they will commend each other for how well they "played the game" which is another way of commending them for how greedy and deceitful they were the entire time. Ridiculous. And, it's on THREE NIGHTS A WEEK.

But rest assured, it's almost over and I have TiVo, so I'm not letting it get in the way of my studying, promise.

Virgin America (airline)

Here's a brief, but good review of Virgin America, the new-ish division of Virgin Atlantic. Sounds great! I flew Virgin Atlantic when I went to London so many moons ago, and I absolutely loved the experience. It doesn't fly to that many places, although there are LA to SF flights, LA and SF to NY, and even flights to Las Vegas. Maybe I'll check it out one of these days!

Some Franky pics

The curve of this stool is comfy on his belly.


Somehow he gets under the bed!


I love it when he sleeps with his paw over his face!

New season of Weeds: first episode online!

I know at least a few of you love the show Weeds. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it!

Anyhoo, Showtime has posted the first episode of the new (third) season online. If you register with the site you can watch the whole thing! I don't know if they'll post every episode online (wouldn't that be nice), but at least we can find out how Nancy makes it out of that pickle she found herself in at the end of the season (don't want to give away any spoilers!!).

Also, the first episode of Californication is online, too. I'm sorry, but David Duchovny can't be anyone except Mulder to me. Loves me some Mulder!

The Bourne Bootyliciousness

I saw The Bourne Ultimatum today, and it was great! If you liked the other films, you will definitely like the latest installment.

Of course, I was hooked since the first film, when we first saw Jason Bourne in that olive 'wife beater' (unfortunate name, but 'tank top' for a man doesn't sound right?)... He is hot.

Watson Family developments

Mark and Jess are having a second baby - they just found out it's a little girl! Yay!

Pita Jungle

Food review time!

While my parents were in town helping me get set up in my new place, we ended up going to a lot of chain restaurants ("the devil you know," right?). I have to admit, I had a yummy cheeseburger at Applebee's (although their food has made me sick in the past); some serious goodness (which included a margarita the size of my head) at Chevy's, and the best steak ever at Outback (seriously, their center cut fillet is to die for).

Now, I'm not one for the chains, but then again, they make things reaalllyyy easy when you have picky eaters on your hands. We did venture out a wee bit and went to a 5 & Diner - which is a 1950s-themed place that was really yummy. They are still a chain, but at least they are a local chain. Ha!

Sooo, I was very happy to be trying something different this week. My friend Angela suggested we go to Pita Jungle in Tempe. It has mediterranean-inspired light food. Lots of salads, pita and hummus (of course) and even pita pizza! We noshed on roasted red bell pepper hummus and pita first, then I had the falafal (wrapped in pita of course). This is a great place, the service is EXCELLENT, the food yummy, and best of all: it's cheap! Another review of the place is here.

The "real" X-Files?

Found this video article via Yahoo. John Greenwald keeps a site called The Black Vault, where he's posted a collection of UFO-related documents he's obtained from the government.

The video for the story features footage from the site, UFOs Over Phoenix. I'll let you know if I see anything weird in the sky out here!

Goodreads

Mark told me about Goodreads, a site where you can share your ratings and opinions on books you are reading, have read, or want to read. Very cool!

Bungie Podcast

Just discovered that Bungie has a podcast - led by Frank O'Connor (aka Frankie). I think Lars makes an appearance!

Last quiz for the day...

What Your Latte Says About You

You are very decadent in all aspects of your life. You never scale back, and you always live large. You are a very serious person. You don't have time for silly antics. You have a good deal of energy, but you pace yourself. You never burn out too fast. You're addicted to caffeine. There's no denying it. You are a child at heart, and you don't ever miss the opportunity to do something playful. You are complex and philosophical, but you are never arrogant.

What Does Your Latte Say About You?

City Quiz

The fine folks over at Ostranenie got me on a quiz kick.

American Cities That Best Fit You:

75% Los Angeles 70% San Francisco 60% Chicago 60% Honolulu 60% Philadelphia

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

I almost forgot!

Franky's favorite napping spot (as of this week):

Pics of "Club Med"

After several days and the much-needed help of my parents, I'm happy to report that I'm nearly all settled in to my new place! Woo hoo!


My comfy bedroom.


Also in my bedroom is my great-grandma's vanity table.


My living room.


Again, my living room. My new couch is dangerously comfy!

As you can see, there isn't a lot on the walls - they are so lovely and freshly-painted I kind of like leaving them as is. Less clutter=more zen? Maybe?

Franky is settling in.

I'm still working on setting everything up, and thank sweet baby jesus my parents are here to help! So, in the meantime, I only have this pic to share with you. Franky decided to lounge on my bookshelf right after I put the shelves in. I'm glad the bookshelf didn't tip over!

PS: He DESPISES that little yellow frog toy below him. I think he sometimes thinks it's an animal vying for my attention or something?

PPS: Mark named that frog "Froget" (pronounced 'fro-jay'). Mark decided one day, many moons ago, that the frog was french.

I'm here, and it's effing hot

I've been m.i.a. the last few days, finishing packing, driving to AZ, and getting settled into my new place! I finally had a chance to post something, however brief.

Let me just say that the move went really well, my little bubba was on a mild kitty drug that made him mellow during the entire drive!

It took a little over 8 hours to get to Mesa and that was because the moving truck couldn't go over 70. I've been spending all of today unpacking (I hired movers to unload the truck and haul my crap up to my third-story apartment. I could not have done this move without them. Holy crap.

It's 'monsoon' season in Arizona right now, which means rain in the early evening (which cools off the ground, but raises the humidity). We saw some cool lightning flashes last night - it was really beautiful. Pardon my rambling, it's the exhaustion talking!

I'll post pics asap! XO