Summer Things

Nature.

It really gets taken it for granted when it is all around you. Once I moved to Los Angeles, I yearned for green hills and trees. Every time I went back home, I would breathe deeply and savor the crisp air that wasn't laden with smog. Don't get me wrong, I love southern California. I just realized how much I missed all the beautiful landscapes of Sonoma County.

In fact, once I moved back home, the whole first week I kept freaking out about how green everything was. Also, there seems to be an influx of GIANT bugs. I'm not kidding; twice now I have seen monster-sized moths.

It was as big as my hand!

On the fourth, we drove up to Calistoga for scenery and good food. For those who don't know of this little place, it is tucked up in the hills towards Mt. Saint Helena. We followed the winding roads past the Pepperwood Preserve and the Worlds Largest Petrified Forest; all the while listening to Mom's stories of her more adventurous days. 

I love little towns. They are always filled with local shops and restaurants. In Calistoga, there is a little strip of shops housed in railroad cars. We wandered past the office for hot air balloon rides, peeked through the windows of novelty shops and discovered the Sugar Train at the end. 

I don't think I need to remind you how much I love candy shops. 

The best thing about this particular shop were the homemade frozen juice bars of every flavor imaginable. After a quite a bit of deliberation, I decided to go with the Jamaican Hibiscus. Oh man, it was delicious. Next time I want to try the kiwi flavor.

Speaking of delicious, I made my brother-in-law thirty-one cupcakes for his thirty-first birthday. Well, I made forty-eight and then just only set out about thirty-one. I didn't make them from scratch, but I marbled chocolate and yellow cake together, which was a lot of fun. 

                        

They turned out well and I think I'm getting better at decorating. Now I just need to remember not to decorate when the frosting has started to melt...

                                     

Oh Internet, How I Miss Thee

First, I need to express my intense love for a new comic series: Locke & Key.

I heard about this series a while ago, but never got around to finding it. My brother-in-law is an avid comic book collector, so I sent him on the mission to locate it. Thankfully, he accepted and completed this mission with haste. We both have found a new obsession (the first being Chew).

Boiled down, it is about a mysterious house that has various supernatural keys and the family that is tied to them. It's bloody, it's exciting and the artwork is amazing. I just finished volume four and am anxiously waiting to get my hands on the fifth. 

Okay, now that is out of the way...

I've been staying with my grandmother while she recovers from her (second) knee replacement surgery for the past week and had to leave the video games at home. This, I'm sure, delights my little brother since my gaming consoles have become the main source of entertainment. So I decided to pick up reading again since the xbox and computer seem to suck up all my time.

My family is really into the HBO series, Game of Thrones. I have not jumped on the bandwagon and have only seen a couple episodes. However, my mom has the books that the series is based off, so I figured I'd give them a try. 

Oh man, I forgot how much I enjoy reading. I am about halfway through the book; which is the most intricate and heartbreaking story I've read in a while. From what I hear, it only gets more so. I can't wait to find out. 

So, I've exchanged Diablo III for Game of Thrones, and the infinite scroll of Tumblr for stories of when my grandmother was young. All in all, it has been a good week.

Sometimes I get trapped in technology and forget how much fun a good story can be; whether it be written or told at the dinning table. As an aspiring writer, I need to remember to absorb the stories around me and step away from the screen more often. I also need to do more writing...

Whimsy

I've been sick for three days now. Tonsillitis. It sounds so dramatic, doesn't it? I feel like a kid again; having Mom make me noodle soup and staying indoors all day, wistful of the beautiful weather outside. Let me tell you, this is not a summer-friendly illness. All home remedies say to drink tea and gargle warm salt water, which is pretty miserable when it's eighty degrees outside.

It makes me long for all the adventures I've had in the past few weeks. Some days my roommate will have an unexpected day off and whisk me off to the beach. We ran up and down sand dunes, almost got trapped on the wrong side of the beach by the incoming tide and had our very first adventure with just the two of us.

Sand surfing: better in theory than in practice. 

Other days I go on bike rides to Sebastopol for sandwiches or ice cream. The local ice cream shop, Screamin' Mimi's, has a ginger flavor. It is heavenly. The horrible tummy-ache I got after (I'm lactose intolerant) was not. I've also been trying to walk my mom's dog at least once a week. She really enjoys going for walks and doesn't get much exercise in the day. Plus, I could use the exercise as well.

Jade is the best.

June is birthday month. I've already made two birthday cakes (one was for combined birthday), which really allows me to show off my baking skills. The first one was a Guinness chocolate cake (pictures and recipe will come in future posts) and the second was lemon with strawberries and whipped cream cheese frosting.

I used the same recipe as my Lemon Cupcakes and added heavy whipping cream to the frosting. I also layered the center with fresh strawberries. This time, however, I used actual buttermilk and lemon extract. The cake was moist and super light, almost like an Angelfood cake. This may have been the best cake I've ever made. I know my sister loved it.

I even decorated it! 

It has been a good first month back in my home town. I am loving the weather and  being around my loved ones.

I do miss my brother though.

                                                

Life

Three days ago I was finally able to break through my creative block and write for the first time in a month. It was like living in some sort of dream sequence, not being able to express my self through words. As if I was living in some other life. 

Moving back to my hometown has really messed up my daily routines. For the first time in a while, I actually have people to hang out with during the daytime. I definitely blame my new-found social life for not being unpacked. It has almost been a month and I am still living out of boxes. I'm sure no one is really surprised. 

I know I'm not. 

Who would stay home and sort through boxes when you can watch friends get epic Adventure Time tattoos or go to the $3 cinema? 

Exactly.

My new niece is a spectacular distraction as well. Every day she does something new and even more ridiculous. I can't even count how many pictures I've taken of her in the two months she has been alive.

Look at her! She could not be any more perfect. 

I think the best part about moving is getting to see her whenever I feel like. It is impossible to be sad around her; especially when she crosses her eyes and sticks her tongue out. 

So now that I've spent more than enough time with all my friends and family, I can finally start organizing my life. That means unpacking my stuff (at least my clothes and books) and finding a job. Not having any money got old a while ago. 

In the meantime, I will continue finding delicious recipes and trying them out. 

This week was Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies.

I don't even want to tell you how much butter I used. 

Farewell to the Land of Misfit Toys

As the days rapidly evaporate and my moving date looms closer, I have to bust out the whiskey to calm my nerves. Lately I've been reflecting on my adventures the past year and a half. I may not have found a niche here in Los Angeles, but I sure will miss it.

I fear that once moving back up north entertainment will elude me; having lived in such a magical city. Never have I not had something to do. Boredom doesn't really exist in Los Angeles. There is always some new place to explore, some event to go to. I'm not saying there is nothing to do up north, but it is on a smaller scale. One saving grace is the fact that I will have people to hang out with; something I didn't have here (other than Yano, of course).

What will I miss the most?

Sunsets on the beach.

Adventures around the city. 

The buildings downtown. 

No. What I will miss the most is spending time with my brother. 

We have the best conversations about...well everything. He has gotten me into the world of comics and in turn I have made him a fan of the Xbox360. We watched bad movies and drank a lot of beer. It was a wonderful year and a half. 

I'm not too sad though. I know I will be back to visit frequently. There is no way I am missing movies in the cemetery this summer. 

Last Days in Los Angeles

I am not very good at planning things. It's much more fun to throw out grand ideas and hope all the little details will work themselves out; which is precisely the reason why I am still in Los Angeles for another week. Since I haven't finished packing, it is probably a good thing. I mean, I could just throw all my stuff into boxes without discrimination and be done in a couple hours, but I would rather not do that.

Always true to my procrastinating ways, once I realized I had an extra week to pack, I switched to a more enjoyable task. Yes, I baked some more cupcakes. I have decided to only bake from scratch, which is great for portion control, but can be risky. The other week I made chocolate-carrot cupcakes that didn't turn out great.

Even though they looked delicious.

This time, I made sure the cupcakes weren't a failure. I found a promising recipe for lemon cupcakes here. The recipe called for buttermilk, which I didn't have on hand and really didn't want to go to the store for. After a quick search I found you can substitute it with a milk-lemon juice concoction. Who knew?

These lemon cupcakes turned out amazing. They are super moist and not overpowering. I couldn't decide on what kind of frosting so I made two kinds. Both were cream cheese based. The white one is lemon flavored and the other is four fruits (which was the flavor of the jam in my fridge). After putting the strawberries on top, they were almost too pretty to eat. Almost. 

About half of my room is packed up and it's really strange to see my life in boxes. For one thing, it makes me realize what a kid I am. Everything I own is either a comic book, video game, movie, or other random novelty item. Who wants to grow up anyway?

Not if it means I can't have glow-in-the-dark zombies. 

I know I should finish packing, but I can't bring myself to take everything off my walls. Leaving hasn't really hit me yet. Everything has happened so fast I haven't processed it all. I'm sure once my stuff is in the moving truck next week I will start to panic.

Hopefully it won't be too traumatic.

Dinosaurs!

I've been wanting to go to see the new dinosaur exhibit at the Natural History Museum since I moved down here. Unfortunately, it was under construction until last July. Then it was crazy crowded because, apparently, everyone loves dinosaurs as much as I do or something. Since this is probably my last weekend here, I HAD to go.

 For some reason we managed to walk in through the back of the museum and found our way to the dinosaur exhibit last. Which, in hindsight, was probably better because I wasn't nearly as excited about anything else. 

By the time we got to the dinosaurs, we only got about half way through the exhibit before we had to go to the Butterfly Pavilion for our time slot. Oh boy, I haven't seen people being so aggressive with nature like that since watching The Crocodile Hunter.

Either kids aren't used to being around butterflies in the city, or they don't quite understand the whole "look but don't touch" concept for observing nature. I felt bad for the frustrated staff and the accosted butterflies.

 We made our way back to the dinosaurs, Yano and I stopping to take pictures almost constantly (his are much better than mine). I couldn't decide which dinosaur I had a bigger crush on; the magnificent Parasarolophus or mighty Tyrannosaurus.

It was definitely a toss up.

Seriously, look how awesome they are. 

This was the best adventure to have before I move back up north. Yes, there are museums in San Francisco, but I am trying to do all the things I wanted to do before I leave. So after we had worked up quite the appetite walking around the complicated layout of the museum, I suggested we go somewhere new to eat. Yano racked his brain for ideas and finally came up with a microbrewery in Silverlake.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into by sitting down at Good Microbrew & Grill. It started with the giant beer menu. After finally deciding, our beers showed up in giant glass goblets. I had to hold mine with both hands.

Of course we find an awesome brewery to hang out at right before I move away. Isn't that how it always works? I definitely want to come back for Mystery Beer Night one day. $3 pints!

The problem with going out to eat after not eating all day is that everything on the menu looks delicious. I decided to throw caution to the wind and order the mac 'n cheese bacon bit burger. I mean, how could I not? It combines two of my favorite foods. Yes, I can be a food monster sometimes.

It is always fun being the smallest person at the table with the largest meal.