3 Things I Love About Today

1. It’s Friday – TGIF, seriously! It has been a long week folks. Between spending hours peeling wallpaper off in our new place and watching the Stanley Cup slip through our fingertips I need a some R & R. But, that doesn’t mean I will get it, it is my mom’s birthday, Father’s Day and I have a fun-filled family night planned in Whistler. But, I will take that over work and wallpaper removal any day.

2. My dog calendar – laugh all you want but it brightens my day, everyday! I come into work every morning and I can not wait to flip the page and see what awaits. And lo and behold, today it was a wiener, pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

3. Blake Shelton’s latest song, “Honey bee”. It’s adorable and cheesy but it brings a big smile to my face, it may or may not be playing on repeat on my iPod. Classic  cliché country music, and I love it 🙂

Weekly Obsessions – June 13

Canucks – Despite their terrible performances in Boston, they have had an amazing season and playoff run I know they are going to bring home the cup. It may not have been tonight but it will happen. Stanley has never belonged to Vancouver but I am pretty sure he would like it here. We are good people.

Homemade Granola Bars – I am no chef but I like to think I have some pretty stellar baking abilities. And I don’t mean I open a package of cupcake mix add water and pop it in the oven, I enjoy the real thing, measuring, mixing and licking spoons and spatulas. This past week I made a batch of homemade granola bars and they were awesome. You may think  that I am biased to my own work, but a few other people tried them and agreed, so take that! Even better, they are so easy to make and you can avoid all the preservatives that are in the prepackaged ones. Use the recipe below and try them out at home.

Homemade Granola Bars

Ingredients:

1 large very ripe banana

1/3 cup canola oil

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup flour

2/3 cup chocolate chips

1/3 cup coconut

1/3 cup pecans

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 cups quick cooking oats

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mash the banana with a fork and then add the canola oil and brown sugar. Mix well until there are no sugar lumps left.

In another smaller bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and oats. Mix into the wet ingredients and add in chocolate chips, pecans and coconut.

Pour and pat batter into a greased square 8 inch pan. Bake for 25 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!

On My Nightstand

It was a sad, sad day when I finish the hunger games series. It is all over for me, well until the movie comes out but that is a ways off. After grieving for about a week, I decided it was time to get back on the horse and pick up another book. Something much different, to distract me from my loss and I am happy to say that I am moving on.

I am not sure how many of you read the Sweet Valley High novels when you were a teenager but I was totally in to them. The Wakefield sisters provided me with plenty of entertainment back in the day so needless to say I was pretty excited when I found out there was a new book to add to the series. Even better, it is set ten years later and there is plenty more “adult” drama for all you ladies out there. Sweet Valley Confidential, Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal continues to chronicle the lives of Jessica and Elizabeth  except they are now 27, estranged and the drama is much more intense this time around. If you are looking for an easy read to take you back to your teenage days then this is the book for you. And, if you have never read any of the Sweet Valley novels before, that’s okay there is plenty of background in this book to catch you up. People.com also reported that a movie is in the works, fingers crossed for all of the Sweet Valley Fans out there!

Photo Credit – People.com

Happy Reading!

What was I thinking…

For some time now I have been contemplating the idea of getting invisaline, I had braces as a teenager and once they came off the results were fantastic. My buck teeth were no longer buck and as a 16 year old girl I was way hotter right?! That’s why people get braces isn’t it? Once your braces come off it is critical that you wear your retainer as much as possible until you can transition into just wearing it at night. Of course, I was far to concerned with looking “hot” and not concerned with the my teeth moving or, the fact that I was throwing the money the Lilinator spent on my teeth,  down the drain.  None the less, I definitely did not wear my retainer like I should have, and eventually it just didn’t fit anymore. Over time I started to notice the difference in my smile and started kicking my 16 year old self in the butt for not wearing those damn retainers.

Obviously, I was  young naive and far to concerned with the opposite sex at that time and now that I am much older and wiser all I want is a nice smile… right? So after about a year of thinking, multiple x-rays, molds of my teeth and a whole bunch of money, the big day finally arrived. This morning, I marched myself into the dentist ready for my new smile!

First, I had the “buttons” fastened to my teeth and then I received my first 3 sets of trays. So exciting right?! Well it was until about ten minutes into wearing them… it hurts damn it. I guess I had the notion that I was going to have invisible braces and my teeth would magically move, and all would be fine and dandy. Guess again, I am 16 all over again. My teeth hurt, I can’t chew gum, drink coffee and I am whining. Actually, I whine all the time but that is beside the point.

I have to wear the trays for 22 hours a day and I can only have water with them in. Which means, if I want to have a snack or a cup of coffee they have to come out. No big deal right…wrong! These things are in there, I mean seriously secure. Imagine crinkled face and both hands in my mouth yanking on these damn trays, it is not pretty, trust me. And since I had this great idea to fix my smile, this is what my life will consist of for the next 8 months. Seriously… what was I thinking?

Weekly Obsessions – June 6

Ahhh life’s simple pleasures, this week it was all about the little things.

Sunshine – I just wanted to thank the powers that be for finally providing us with some vitamin D and making it feel like Summer just might be on its way to Vancouver. After weeks over rain, I wasn’t even upset when I burnt my scalp on Sunday afternoon. In fact I was pretty stoked, because now I can prove I actually got some sun despite my ghostly white skin. Oh and in case you are wondering, I am not bald my hair was braided, my part took a beating and will soon peel leaving dandruff like flakes all over my head and I can’t wait… bring it on sun!

Rasoee  – This indian kitchen is a new franchise in Vancouver. And let me tell you, it is delicious. I had the chicken curry wrap with Rasoee sauce and their seasoned fries. I am not sure what I was expecting when I decided to try it but I will say that all of my expectations were exceeded. It was fresh, authentic and sooo tasty. I went to the Robson location and I was blown away with the decor and the service. It is a quick service restaurant, but the atmosphere is warm and inviting, so much so, that we chose to stay rather than get takeout. I would definitely recommend this if you love indian food and you are in the area, there is also a Rasoee at UBC in the village and one is soon to open on West 8th and Cambie.

Root Root Root for the Yankees

So I spent last weekend in Seattle and it was a blast. I spilled an entire beer at a pub, had blisters all over my poor feet and dumped my entire wallet on the ground at the Mariner’s game. A typical day for me really, I wouldn’t exactly say I am the most graceful individual. Actually, in the words of my mom, I can dress you up but I can’t take you anywhere… Thanks Mom! Some might be offended, but not me, I have completely accepted my clumsy and most of the time inappropriate behavior! But I really did have a great time in Seattle I swear! The highlight was definitely the Mariners and Yankees game on Saturday night.

My boyfriend is obsessed with the Yankees and when I say obsessed I mean it. Imagine; Yankees notepads, toothbrush, lanyard, framed pictures, pens, shot glasses, golf balls, t-shirts and towels. The worst part is the list goes on, so when I found out when they were playing Seattle naturally I had to buy ridiculously priced tickets to sit at field level, on the third base line so he could ogle A-rod and Jeter in their unusually tight pants. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE baseball so I was more than happy to go, we have been to several games and stadiums across North America but this was our first Yankee experience and let me tell you it was glorious. Well except, that after sitting from 12 innings and four and half hours and the Yankees lost… devastating I know! There was however a pleasant surprise for fans in the 6th inning, a streaker, yes, full on junk bouncing everywhere dude, running buck naked across the field and thanks to our “great seats” we had quite the view. It is definitely a sight to see when the game stops and 15 security guards start chasing after an obviously drunk, naked guy and then try to tackle him and miss. Amazing really, there are no words, hopefully you will all get to experience it once for yourselves.

Regardless of the loss, we had a great time decked out in our Yankees gear obnoxiously cheering for the visiting team, experiencing our first streaker, getting heckled by Mariners fans, heckling them back, paying $8.75 a beer and throwing peanut shells all over the ground. And we can’t wait to head down for another game.