What would you do for a croissant?

As you have probably gathered from my past posts and their involvement of food, I'm a person who is quite fond of select cuisine:) My current craving is for a croissant! Last weekend I randomly got a hankering for one of those delicate, flaky, buttery pastries and have been on a mission for one ever since. Sadly the types of recommendations I was getting in Spokane were for Starbucks and Safeway.... seriously! I was appalled at the thought of disgracing a croissant in such a way! Alas I decided the only solution was a trip to Seattle as they have the finest bakeries in Washington:)

My road trip to Seattle was different then usual... I was lucky enough to be able to leave work a bit early, quickly packed and was ready to go. But my fellow road trippers werent ready to hit the road for another hour. The trip started off with them making fun of my car, it's lack of cruise control(keep in mind the farthest I've ever taken my car is to the Tri Cities...), and then of course my music selection. The cd I made in my hour of free time was appreciated, until the first chords of country were heard through the speakers. And then quickly that cd was replaced... by the Spice Girls. It was deemed to be 'not the good one' so only lasted about half a song. Unfortunately I had a pounding headache for the whole trip so we listened to a little bit of Goo Goo Dolls, and then had silence to let my throbbing head rest.

McDonalds was our only stop of the trek, and oddly enough I saw the gentleman in charge of our host families. Though due to my headache I didn't say hello. Pretty sure he wouldn't have any clue as to who I was anyways. But yep after a bumpy ride to Issaquah my fellow car mates exited and I took over the steering wheel, cranked out the country music and attempted to make my way into Seattle. Though I've been here countless times, I've never actually been the one driving. Needless to say my knuckles were tightly gripped around the wheel! Thankfully I made it and so now am ready for a good night sleep so that when I wake up I can fully enjoy my delicious freshly baked croissant! I sure hope it's worth the journey!

One Word To Describe Montana...

A good friend recently moved to Montana... I was bummed about his departure from Spokane as well Polson Montana isn't quite on my top 5 places to visit... or really top 1000... it's Montana... there's not much to do there. Or so I thought... Everyone that I have told about Brandon's excursion to Montana has responded "it's pretty there". "Pretty" everyone has used that exact same word! To me "pretty" is code for, well there's nothing to do there, so we'll focus on the landscape... awesome... sure sounds like a place I want to check out! Nooot!

I have heard the word "pretty" from everyone but my dad, who had the same response I did when Brandon said he was moving to Montana... "WHY"?! Gotta love my dad and his dislike of nature:) I think it's where I get it from. But finally yesterday when my boyfriend said that Montana was, you guessed it, "pretty" I flipped out. We then had a huge discussion about natures wonders... and how I think Fenway Park has a lot more history and appeal than Yellowstone. He was appalled by my priorities, and I was in disbelief as to how he'd pick trees and rock over turf, the Green Monster, hot dogs and beer! Oh well. Looks like we'll find other vacation buddies the next time he wants to go camping and I want to check out a baseball game.

Bottom line, if you surveyed 100 people (Family Feud style) 98 of them would use "pretty" as their one word to describe Montana. 2 would say "boring".

CBS... Simply the Best

I've spent the past day and a half watching non stop basketball. I've seen games on CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, and FSN. I've got to say CBS basketball announcers are the best. I associate the excitement and joy of March Madness with the voices of Clark Kellogg, Verne Lundquist, Ian Eagle, Jim Spanarkel, Gus Johnson, Len Elmore and of course Greg Gumble. I associate Dick Vitale with an obnoxious old guy that thinks he's Gods gift to college basketball, and the FSN announcers just seem so small town in comparison. CBS has it right. They've got it all, from the best theme song that gives me goosebumps and tears every time I hear it, to the on air talent, to the in studio hosts, it's just all spectacular! Props to CBS! Last night Dickie V quoted Tina Turner's song "Simply the Best". It was in reference to Duke.... I rolled my eyes. However, I feel it is appropriate for CBS! Dickie V and all the local guys can go away for months as from here on out all I need for ultimate bliss is the CBS crew:)

March Madness! My favorite time of the year.

March is by far my favorite month of the year! It's a month filled with non stop important college basketball games! Small schools that previously were unknown get put on the map, Cinderella stories abound everywhere, and you can go from a random bench player to a superstar in the matter of seconds. I get goosebumps just thinking about it and tears of joy well up in my eyes at the sound of the CBS college hoops theme song.

Today was bubble saturday and it had some great moments! The highlight of the day was Louisville's upset of top ranked Syracuse. It was the last game the Cardinals were playing at Freedom Hall so they were hoping to go out with a bang, and did they ever! Kyle Kuric, a sophomore from Evansville had the game of his life! Typically he averages 3 points a game... but today he had 22! They all came in the second half, and all came with emphasis. I'm sure there are going to now be Kuric fans popping up everywhere, but I would like to state that I jumped on the bandwagon quite early! My friend was an intern for a baseball team in Evansville so now I rep for the city and was rooting for the guy all the way:) But yes, March is the month for bandwagon fans, so get ready to jump onboard!

How corny can you get?!

Wow... ABC is more than slightly ridiculous! They just had Jeffrey Osborne perform the 'theme song' from this season of The Bachelor... youtube "On the Wings of Love"... it's corny. Then youtube Luther Vandross "One Shining Moment". To me they have definite similarity. Granted "One Shining Moment" is in a whoooole nother league as well that song is attached the greatest thing in the world, the NCAA tournament! As opposed to "On the Wings of Love" which is attached to a crappy reality show... seriously though ABC... seriously?

or

?

The Bachelor...how shallow can you be

So The Bachelor finale just aired... and I think the guy picked the wrong girl. Tenley was super sweet, they had the same values, his family adored her, and she was gorgeous. Vienna on the other side was rude, classless, disliked by everyone but Jake, and not even that pretty. Jake claimed something was missing with Tenley and that there was more passion with Vienna. Passion is obviously very important in a relationship, but when it comes to sharing a life with someone it seems like the characteristics Tenley had were much more fitting. Vienna is the type of person you have a fling with, not a lifelong relationship! I judged Jake as a shallow guy when he sent Corrie home right after she told him she was a virgin, and maintain that he picked Vienna for sex. Bets on how long their relationship will last as it's merely physical?

And another thing, this After the Final Rose show is hilarious. The audience is allllll women! It's almost comical! Jake just said 'you'll have a lifelong friend'. Hmmmm I wonder what the Vegas odds are on what'll last longer, the friendship with Tenley or the romantic relationship with Vienna. I give each one a max of 6 months.

Where in the World is... BK?

The world's most overpriced sun shade, the toyota center, and Dusty are pretty much the only things I think of when I think of the Tri Cities... but it is still a fun enough weekend getaway destination. The Chiefs were playing the Americans so a large contingent of Chiefs fans invaded Tri for Saturday's big game. My blog can't do the trip anywhere cose to justice, definitely a 'should have been there weekend'. But here goes a recap!

The Tri trip pretty much centers around drinking. As such the mentaility held by most is drink often and excessively. People started with adult beverages at 4pm dinner at Red Robin, which stemmed into shots at the hotel bar, beers at the game, and then back to the hotel bar for some more fun. The game was awesome as not only did the Chiefs win, but most people were a few beers deep by then so were having a blast hitting people in the gropu with cheer sticks:) Back at the hotel bar our group had the whole upper tier of the seating area so had a great time jamming out to karokee, having heart to hearts, and making the occasional pit stop to the restroom for mini bottle shots.

By the time we called it a night from drinking 5 of us headed back to the room where debates over who was sleeping where, who broke a glass and who was going to feel like crap made for a late night. And sure enough by the time someone started chirping at 8am about how uncomfortable the floor had been, everyone else was too exhausted to care. Some could barely make it out of bed, while others were all about letting the tree frogs into the room. By the time everyone ate some grub at Shari's and our carvan left Pasco 3 of the 6 people in the group slept on the way home. Epic weekend as usual.

Zumba does not prepare a person for Salsa dancing

= ?

I have recently been doing Zumba as an exercise class at the YMCA. I had hoped that it would better prepare me for Salsa dancing as I've known for about two months that my cousin and I were going to go. However, when we got to the Salsa club my few zumba moves proved utterly useless! Clubbing in Vegas is a very different scene than Salsa dancing in Minneapolis. Normal clubbing moves are easy enough to figure out and if you aren't a good dancer you just wear a cute little dress and kind of shimmy and you're fine. However, Salsa moves are much more complicated, so if you dont know what you are doing you are pretty much screwed!

Initially I was quite excited for a night out on the town and checking out Minneapolis night life. However upon arrival and seeing the skill everyone in the club seemed to possess I was intimidated. I got a beer, hoping that would help calm my nerves/give me slight dancing ability. Unfortunately before I could drink more than a sip of it my cousin's friend came up and asked me to dance. He was a married, 30 year old Mexican guy who knew how to dance. I clearly did not. After an awkward few minutes the song thankfully ended and I could resume drinking my beer. Shortly thereafter my cousin and her Mexican husband hit the dance floor themselves to show off their moves. I was left standing alone with my beer at the bar.

Enter in guy number 2. Again I explained that I had no Salsa skills, again he didn't care and we attempted to dance. Clearly I failed miserably. Finally that song ended, I picked my beer back up, and another guy came up to talk to me. (As I type I realize there probably weren't any other unmarried females in the bar, as really had any guy actually watched me dance they would not have asked me to be their partner!) However, as the guys before, this one didnt mind my supposed lack of talent. We gave it a shot and actually had fun! He was much better at slowly explaining the dance moves and was patient so I didn't feel judged, as I had by the other 2. We ended up dancing the rest of the time I was there and I was disappointed when my cousin wanted to call it a night and head home. Not sure the next time I'm going to Salsa dance, but when I do I hope I end up with a patient partner as that made all the difference in the world!

Where in the World is... BK?

Charles Schultz, 10,000 lakes, and the Mall of America are a few things commonly associated with this past weekend's vacation destination.... that's right, You betcha, I was in Minnesota! I went to visit relatives and had a good time catching up with them as well as experiencing a Minnesota winter! I walked around part of one of their many lakes and remembered that I'm a California girl at the core! I think I have a picture all bundled up, but I dont think that's going to be posted as well I look warm, but like an idiot;) I didnt end up wearing my big puffy coat that took up half my duffle bag, so looks like I fail again at packing. Whoops!

Food update!

In case you somehow didn't get that memo... I like food:) Though this is a true statement for most people, the type of food I enjoy is slightly different. I'll admit it, I'm a picky eater. However, I like simple foods. Imagine what a 10 year old eats... that's pretty much encompasses the types of foods I consume:) The main difference between said middle schooler and me is not that I'm a foot taller, barely, but rather that I have had more opportunity to try foods from more places. The perfect example revolves around the burrito world. Yes my order consists of a regular bean, cheese, and rice burrito, which in the past year has had occasional additions of tomato, guacamole and sour cream, but I like things basic. People dont understand the greatness that is his type of burrito, but to me the best way to judge a restaurant is to see how they prepare basic things. If their standard cheese pizza is fantastic than odds are the rest of their more extravagant menu items are tasty as well. That all being said, the motivation for this post is that tomorrow I'm going to Minnesota. Obviously I am super excited to see my relatives, but the highlight of my day today was ordering my poppy seed bread!!! Tschida's bakery is a small place in St. Paul and they make the best poppy seed bread ever!!! Trust me! I've tried a variety of places in attempts to find a local option, yet sadly without success. Tomorrow stopping by Tschida's is the first thing I'm going to do upon landing in the Twin Cities:) Be jealous:)

Toaster Ovens, the under appreciated appliance

I ended up coming home for lunch today. It was glorious! Instead of staying at work and just microwaving a frozen lean cuisine I made a delicious lunch! I sliced up some havarti cheese, threw it on a pita and then after a quick toasting in my toaster oven added tomato and avocado to it. It was fantastic! As I was thoroughly enjoying the melted cheese, toasted flat bread creation I realized that many people under appreciate toaster ovens. True I typically only use mine to make pita sandwiches and pizza bagels, but really the toaster oven makes those tasty treats possible. I don't have the patience to wait for my oven to preheat and then bake my pizza bagel so realistically without the toaster oven pizza bagels would be stricken from my diet. Tragic I know! It is for this reason that I feel today we should all take a moment and appreciate our many useful kitchen items! :)

Deciphering dreams

Pretty sure there is some 'deeper meaning' associated with dreams. Perhaps they are the 'insight to your soul' or something. Though that could just be your eyes... Hmm... Anyways, I don't know what my dreams from last night say about me, but whatever it is I don't think it's a good thing!

My dreams consisted of Care Bears, which isn't cooompletely random as we talked about them at work earlier in the day. But then I had a nightmare about 2 dogs and 2 cats continually walking from my balcony into my living room. This second one really perplexes me seeing as I live on the second floor, don't have a balcony or screen door, and have never seen the dog or cat breeds around my apartment complex. It was scary though as if that actually happened I'd have no clue how to get the animals out! That dream perhaps stems from an incident a few months ago involving a hamster getting stuck in my heating vent... don't worry though the hamster and my heating vent both ended up being fine.

Packing...

Since I am out of town just about every weekend you'd think I'd get used to, and good at, packing. However this is tooootally not the case! No matter how many times I pack I continually make the same mistake of procrastinating and then overpacking. I always wait til the night before and then can't focus on the task at hand so end up taking about an hour and a half to pack. Even for a weekend trip. It happens. Granted last weekend it only took me about 10 minutes, but that was because my flight departed about an hour after I started packing so I didn't have time to waste. I'm going to Minnesota this weekend. I'm stoked to see relatives, but am dreading trying to fit snow boats and jackets into a duffle bag. Plus I'm going salsa dancing in Minneapolis my first day so then have to pack cute shoes, but snow appropriate shoes. I don't own any such shoes. And have plans tomorrow so can't go shoe shopping. I thought about it though:) I've tried mentally planning out outfits, but realistically all anyone is going to see is my jacket and scarf! Alas guaranteed tomorrow I'll be stressing over which of my gazillion tank tops to pack for layering purposes. It's a girl thing:) Perhaps I'll take an inventory of what I pack and post it. We'll see. Over/under for tank tops packed is 7. I'll be gone 4 days... any bets?

Finding eternal bliss... at a Trader Joe's near you... so if you're in Spokane the ultimate happiness is currently unattainable

Pretty sure that I'm the easiest person in the world to make happy. I went to Trader Joe's today and was in heavenly bliss for about a half hour as I perused the frozen food aisle. Everything just looked amazingly delicious! Back when I was applying to colleges I had a spreadsheet with a variety of categories to figure out which school was the best fit for me. At the time things like basketball rankings, proximity to ski resorts, and price of on campus laundry were important. Now that I'm an adult and trying to figure out where I'll end up living I'm realizing that having a local Trader Joe's would be quite instrumental in allowing me to lead a happy life:) As such, the next time I think about moving to a fresh city you can bet there is going to be a cell detailing how many Trader Joe's are in the general vicinity:)

Where in the World is... BK?

Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan, Jason Mesnick(the Bachelor), underachieving sports teams, and Starbucks are things associated with my current whereabouts:) That's right I am Sleepless in Seattle! I love flying in and seeing the bright city lights! Though it always makes me miss big city life. Spokane's view upon descent is nothing compared to the Emerald City. Granted the San Francisco Bay Area is still home to my favorite city skyline:) But I am quite happy to be in Seattle for the weekend seeing friends and family. Pretty much all that's on tap for the next few days is seeing the sights, eating some tasty Noah's Bagels, making a trip to Trader Joe's and watching the Super Bowl!

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego

So though I'm not nearly as cool as Carmen Sandiego, I do travel fairly frequently so am going to start a where in the world is BK segment. If you want your city to be featured let me know why I should come visit:) Food, fun people, and the ability to wear flip flops are all great motivators:)

Here I am! :)

World, get ready for the flavors! :)