The Bike, The Bus, and The Bike Again

This is Tang. Tang is my awesome Electra 7D Townie that I have owned now for about 3 ish years. I first bought tang when I lived in LA with the full intention of riding everywhere on the Westside since everything was "soooo close" to me. My whole dream of biking to a friend's place in West Hollywood didn't exactly pan out, but I did have some really enjoyable rides down the PCH trails along the beach. I even convinced some friends that this was the thing to do on a Sunday brunch/sangria run. But Brentwood was kinda hilly and my ass was kinda lazy so Tang got a work out twice to three times a month. 

Moving to AZ, Tang found a purpose once again. For those of you who don't know since AZ is not exactly the premier vacation destination spot, this place is freaking flat like your sister's chest. no hills. there may be a slight man-made hill that was created to accommodate an overpass walkway, but really don't expect to find any sort of incline here unless you go mountain biking. Flat is PERFECT for my 'sure i wanna get in shape but not actually ride up a hill so effing steep I give up half way through' sort of leisurely workout. Tang has been taken out tons of times on Thai food runs, library book returns, and the occasional beer tour. What better way to get home after a metric ass ton of beer than on a bike through a safe greenbelt between houses. I can really only hurt myself and possibly a raccoon. But even though AZ is fantastical for lazy bikers, the heat pretty much kills any good bike riding during the summer.

Ok, so now that you know my history of bike usage (mostly for fun, screw off activities), I now bring you to today. Today..... which also happens to be the first day it's rained in MONTHS. 

I have a Civic that's going to be turned in soon and I wanted to get a few scratches repaired before inspection so that 1. the Dealership cant take me to the cleaners and 2. I can get it done on the cheap and fairly quickly. So, I took the car to MAACO. Not a bad shop. Pretty fast and friendly. Dropped the car off there on Saturday not realizing that my laptop was still in the trunk. The laptop I use FOR WORK. The laptop where I do that whole thing where I make money. Dumbass. Because of this, I had to formulate a fairly brilliant plan Sunday night to get my laptop and somehow make it to work all without a car. Now, keep in mind that when I say I had to formulate a fairly brilliant plan, I mean that my boyfriend had to formulate a fairly brilliant plan since I was too busy calling myself a dumbass. The plan devised was simply this: get to MAACO by 715, help Aly put her bike together (front wheel), knock on the door and hope these suckers get in before their designated time of 730a, grab laptop, bike it over to the bus stop half a mile away in time to catch the 739ish bus, take it all the way to Elliot and then bike to work. Simple, right?

Everything went according to plan in the beginning: MAACO guy was actually there early and let me in to get the laptop. I managed to make it to the bus stop about 4 min ahead of the 81. Everything is looking SMOOTH. Well, that was until the bus actually came and for the first time in my life, I had to put my bike on the bus rack. The bus rack. Having never done this before, I simply didn't know where to start. Is my front wheel facing the right way? Can I move this jagwagon's pedals so I can slide my bike in? Why isn't the hook for the front wheel pulling out far enough? OH MY GOD I MUST LOOK LIKE A TOTAL ASSHOLE. 

Yeah, I looked like a total asshole. Luckily, the fabulous bus driver realized that I completely screwed and he hopped out of the bus to help me. Actually, first he prefaced it with "Hey, I'm never supposed to leave my seat and get out of the bus but you look so miserable." and then a "You know I'm not supposed to touch personal property" as he was helping me secure my bike. I don't think I thanked this guy nearly enough for what he did for me this morning. He was amazing. He saved me from my very confused, very frustrated self and redeemed me so that I only looked like half an asshole. 

I managed to get off at the right stop and actually unhook the bike in record speed all the while smiling as the bus driver gave me a big thumbs up. Of course it started to rain fatty drops on my mile ride to work but that didn't really matter... some really nice bus driver made it not suck so much.

To Go or Not To Go

there I was, blissfully wandering about the internets in search of the latest and greatest weirdest/disgusting/somewhat interesting maybe educational new bit of information when my Gmail notifier went off: You Have a Facebook Message. do i really now? I rarely get FB messages. usually they are from random people that think they know me or @troymccluresf/@savagecats/@valleyadjacent telling me about something awesomely beer related.

I open Facebook and what do I see? apparently it's been 10 years since I graduated high school and now someone is organizing a reunion this year. what... the... hell. first of all it's been 10 years? i'm that old? holy jeebus. just yesterday I remember partying all night, throwing up on sidewalks, and walking up by 11 for good old Sunday brunch just like those youngins do. now I stay in Friday/Saturday nights, watch movies with the boyfriend and the dogs, wake up by 8 because I actually want to be productive the next day. ok, I'll give them that. I'm old.

But let's move on to my second thought, shall we? high school. why the hell would I want to be trapped in a room, eating crappy food with people I generally didn't care for? no, my high school years weren't the hell you see depicted on Lifetime after school specials, but it sure as hell wasn't so peachy either. I maybe liked..... 4 people in high school enough to converse with them on a regular basis. even then I ended up mostly sticking with myself towards to the end of my senior year. just know this: COLLEGE > HIGH SCHOOL. by far.

and now for my last thought.... isn't this what Facebook is for? hasn't Facebook made high school reunions obsolete? Facebook has allowed me to stay in regular touch with the handful of people I care to talk to. it has also let me silently stalk those that I wish will get fat/ugly/unemployed. it's basically provided me instant access to all the same things I would learn at a high school reunion.

so, do I go? probably not. I have no desire to trek back to the Los Angeles area and be forced to smile at/make small talk with/fake being pleasant with a bunch of people that really didn't know or care about me and that I was perfectly happy not interacting with back then. who would go to their 10 yr reunion? I might hit up the 25 though. I mean, c'mon, A LOT OF POUNDS can be put on by then and male pattern baldness really shines through.

Yeah, I know. I haven't really been around....

....but I have a good excuse? well, I really don't. you see, the thing is I'm lazy. look at my typing. I'm capitalizing "I" but really not giving a shit about the beginning of the sentence. but I'm back. I know you're excited. you don't have to comment all at once. take your time.

I've been busy with a couple of things: trip to India (see, I capitalized that), buying a house, and working my ass off. that's enough to keep a girl too wrapped up to post on her dumb blog that no one reads anyway. yet, here I am on a Monday night spending way too much time on CSS and widgets and posting. I don't know what possessed me. maybe I just needed a distraction from work or maybe I just needed a place where I could vent about whatever the hell I wanted to. little from column A and a little from column B.

I guess this is the part where I tell you that I'll be picking this up again. if you'll be kind enough to bear with me, I'll attempt to entertain you with stories of my botched home improvement jobs and exercise/diet.

well, it's nice to be back.

Oh Hai! I Haz Chicago?

 

Hey there! I'm kinda back. Sorry for the big lag in posting (not like anyone reads this damn thing anyway) but I've been kind of busy with... well.. a metric ass ton of things. I can't wait for everything to settle down but before it actually did, I got to visit Chicago this past weekend. I've been before but really never had the time to interact with the people or actually explore the city itself. This time was a little more flexible AND I had my badass camera with me.

Chicago is kinda odd. I never really thought of it as a destination city, so I didn't get all excited about it like I would New York City/Seattle/Miami. Every time I've talked to someone who has been to Chicago they always mention the food so I knew I was totally scoring there, but people never mentioned the city itself or its people. After visiting, I have no idea why anyone would leave out elaborate descriptions of the city's architecture but I can totally see why no one says anything about the natives. They pretty much suck.

The architecture is pretty impressive. Lots of random art sculptures strategically placed throughout the city that are perfectly lovely to look at. The buildings themselves remind you of a sort of Dick Tracy like era where women wore elegant dresses and men smoked cigars and donned perfectly pressed suits. The skyline is beautiful from anywhere in the city. It's very awe inspiring.

The people on the other hand BLOW. I don't know if they think they are New Yorkers, but they are inappropriately smug and rude. Cabbies, fast food employees, and the general walking populous apparently all got together and decided to impress upon any visitor their own self importance. Look, I'm not the friendliest person in the world, but my parents raised me to be damn polite so that's what I generally am in public.

Would I visit again? Probably not. While the food was pretty decent and the city itself breathtaking at points, I don't feel like putting up with fatholes (thanks, VK) every 5 seconds. It really ruins the experience.

If you want to see some more pics that I took of Chicago, head on over to my Picasa album and have a look see. More posts to come this week, I promise.

Coconut Mango Stick Rice Pudding Pops!!!! No, Really. I'm Not Screwing With You

Did you know that you can take one of the most awesome desserts of all time and make it in PUDDING POP FORM???? Oh, you didn't? Well, you can and all thanks to our good friends over at The Kitchn. They had posted the recipe for these awesomely tasty treats and I had to make them otherwise I'm fairly sure the boyfriend never talk to me again (it's his favorite dessert hands down). So I set about attempting the impossibly tasty.

Here's what you'll need: 
One 15-ounce can coconut milk, shaken
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise - Didn't use one. Just added more extract.
1 cup short-grain or arborio rice - I picked up some authentic Thai sticky rice. Worth it.
One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large ripe mangos 

Tip: Did you know that its easier to peel a mango with a veggie peeler? I didn't until I got supremely frustrated with having to figure out how to take the skin off the mango without losing that precious fruit. At first it was a little frustrating since the skin of the mango is slicker than your average veggie. You have to dig in a little with the blade, but once you get going it's awesome. You come out with the nicest peeled mango ever. You can see that beautiful mango above. So naked. So meaty. Get your mind out of the gutter.

In a decent sized pan (preferably a bit deep), mix the coconut milk and the whole milk together. If you're a purist, here is where you would put your halved vanilla bean in, but if you're mean and too lazy to find a vanilla bean, here is where you add a cap full of extract. Stir in the rice and bring the concoction to a simmer. Turn the burner down low and let this cook for about 25 - 35 minutes. I kept the lid on my pan and it seemed to work well.

After you notice that the rice is tender, go ahead and mix in the condensed milk, water, vanilla extract, salt, and the cubed mango (you did cube it after you peeled it, right?). Put the mixture into your popsicle mold of choice. I unfortunately had missed the sale of nifty popsicle trays by about a week. Apparently the end of summer is the second week of August here. I don't think they go outside much because it's still 1 MILLION FREAKIN DEGREES! Oh well. I made due with some decorative paper cups, a cupcake pan, and some wood sticks from Michael's. Looks pretty spiffy eh?

I put the tray in the freezer for about an hour to let the mixture thicken up a bit before I went ahead and put in the wood sticks. If I had tried to put them in right away, it would have been a disaster. 

Leave the popsicles in for about 4 hours before you attempt to eat them. The great thing about the paper cups was that could easily peel off and throw away the container. No fussing with attempting to gently draw a popsicle out of a non disposal vessel. Easy peasy.

These were quite a tasty treat on such a hot day and also so easy to make. I've never made popsicles on my own (vague recollection of doing it with my Mom once when we were young) so I got a real kick out of this. I'm thinking maybe some blueberry cream next time. What do you think?

Home Ownership and Your (Lack of) Sanity

It's been pretty much beaten into me that home ownership is the pinnacle of your adult career. When you've purchased your first house, you've essentially "made it". I guess this all ties into the American dream: 2.5 kids (who has a half a kid?), a dog, white picket fence, and a little piece of land to call your own. But don't you think this has changed a little especially with the current state of the economy? Hasn't the American dream been modified to mean a roof over your head, a job that won't let you go, and a steady stream of Ramen?

I've been fortunate enough to move to a state where owning a home is actually economically feasible. If I still lived in CA there is no way I could have ever owned a home in a neighborhood that wasn't located in the 909 and wasn't a shoebox. I'd have opted for a nice apartment and reconciling with the fact that home ownership was for those who lived in states that had less than desirable ocean access. So, here I am in a state with less than desirable ocean access and affordable housing and I have gone ahead and decided to start the process of buying a home. Shoot me now.

This has to be one of the most insane things I have ever done. Not only do I have loan people (used car salesmen) combing through my financial history, I also have to prepare myself for the serious money gouging exercises you have to go through even before you plop down the down payment and acquire all the crap that goes along with owning a house. Did you know that you have to pay an inspector, loan insurance, home owners insurance, home owners warranty, title people, title insurance, and other various crapola? It's hard to keep everything straight when you're in the thick of things. I can't even imagine those people that buy houses to flip them. They do this all the time!

Oh, and the waiting. The waiting KILLS. It's like going on a date and waiting for the guy to call you. You submit an offer and you wait. You wait to see if the seller likes you and wants to do business with you. Even though we are in a super craptacular economy, the human directive to negotiate the best deal is still strong. 

It's hard to keep my sanity just as hard as it is to keep all these fees and requirements straight. Do any of you have any good tips for first time home buyers? Maybe some online tools to help one keep track of all this junk?

Arizona - Land of the DIYers

I'm a fairly self-sufficient person. No, seriously, I am. I can do my own laundry, cook, clean, take care of bills, hold a steady job, and even hang pictures. All these things taught to me by my loving and patient (for the most part) parents. They also taught me that if a pipe broke or the roof leaked that I was to call a handy dandy fix it guy and pay him to fix what was wrong and that was that. No attempting to read up on how to fix it myself. No getting up on the roof and attempting to replace shingles. No getting under a sink and taking apart the plumbing. Moving to Arizona I have since learned that uttering the phrase "handy man" is the equivalent of hurting someone's personal pride. Apparently here the handy man is only used in the event that the equipment to do to the job isn't cost effective to purchase or the job is just too big to finish by yourself. 

Here's a pretty good example. The dishwasher decided that it didn't want to handle the job of washing dishes anymore and that it wanted a life of luxury, a life of just sitting there and not freaking working. My first thought "great, now a new one will have to be bought :/". Never did it enter into my mind to take the damn thing apart and see what the problem was or that it could be fixable. Imagine my surprise when I came home to find my boyfriend on the kitchen floor with dishwasher parts splayed before him. He was taking apart stuff, checking it out, testing for leaks, swearing at it. 3 days later and two trips to the hardware store, the dishwasher was fixed and forced to clean my pots and pans. 

So what's the deal? All of my LA friends (I think) think along the same lines I do: Call The Handy Man! I don't believe I was ever in a situation where someone busted out their tool chest and fixed something right there on the spot. I don't even think most of my friends had tool chests (except you, Max) or owned a basic screwdriver set. How is that almost everyone in AZ that I meet is handy? Everyone has wrenches, screwdrivers, saws, and the general know how to fix and even remodel things like bathrooms and whole rooms. Did I just miss something growing up? Did my parents just decide that they would rather take the easy route and teach me that I need to make money in order to pay people to fix things vs actually teaching me how to fix things? 

I've now learned how to install, tape, and mud drywall and various other random house repair things. How about you? Were you raised in a do it yourself household?