A weekend in pictures

This weekend was random and fun and pretty uneventful...but fun! So instead of making you sit through a verbal explanation of what I did, I will shhoooowww you. Because pictures are always more fun than words.

We hit up the park for a walk....

....in a park, of Escondido's finest wildlife


We then explored the the colorful sculptures





End Scene.

Ooohhh, don't you worry, there are more of these puppies coming!

We also ventured over to Oceanside, which p.s. is doing pretty well in the rehabbing the community department. I mean, it still has it's issues sure, but the pier (where we went) and surrounding area they have done a really good job with!

I had a gay old time stalking some poor surfer...






And I was feeling friendly, so like any good friend I stalked the fishermen and fisherladies as well




They stunk up the place and I was thoroughly offended by the fish stench and thus, they are not lucky enough to have their faces pictured. Okay, okay, that OR I am such a nerd that I don't have the huevos to take pictures of random people or ask them if I can take a picture of them....and the surfer just so happen to come into view of my telephoto lens. His fault....

*ahem* MOVING ON...we are almost done, so don't get antsy, just a few more fun to me, mundane to you things to get through.

We drank

Not that uncommon of a thing for a 23 yr old to do but we found this really cool place here in Escondido called the wine cellar, it isn't a secret, just new to us. They had rows and rows and rows of various types of brew. They are so kind to even break bottles out of their six packs, mark the price up slightly (but not too bad) and make it so you can buy just one beer, which makes it great for trying new things. The funky beer pictured above was chosen a) because I love stouts b) the espresso seemed like it would make a good addition to a stout and c) I say this with great shame, I liked the label. What can I say, I am a sucker for cute marketing. In addition to the stout we got a porter and a triple fermented ale. Tasty!

Last and most importantly, we have some exciting news.

We are proud to announce the addition of a new family member to our little budding family!!





















Mother in law, you may now excuse yourself to the bathroom to clean yourself up as I know you just peed your pants thinking I was going to announce that I was with child. Alas, at this juncutre, I am not (your first hint should have been the beer talk). But very proud to show you our little fighter!

Meet gatesy!


He is our bed buddy.

Chili Cook Off - A shortie

It was brought to my attention that I never mentioned how I did in the family chili cook off (which was a huge success by the way!). Sooooo.....let me tell you!



I did just fine!
Those number are not rankings, rather, each chili (there were 9 there) was given a number so the cooks and their chili were anonymous . Voting was done by placing a first, second and third sticker on each number they liked best. My numbers were 2 & 3, so, by the sticker count you can tell I didn't do too bad. There was a tie for first place so my uncle in law, cousin in law and I all placed in the top three. Go us! Although, all the party goers were right, it was a hard decision, everyone brought some darn tasty chili and I can't wait to do it again!

And because I was raised well and know how to share here is the recipe I used for my winning chili.

Arrogant bastard chili

1/2 pound bacon
1 pound ground round
1 pound ground pork
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
6 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
6 habanero peppers, seeded and chopped
8 Anaheim peppers, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons beef bouillon granules
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (16 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes, drained
2 (16 ounce) cans chili beans, drained
1 (12 fluid ounce) bottle stone arrogant bastard beer
3 ounces tomato paste
1 ounce chile paste
2 cups water


1)Place bacon in a large soup pot. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain excess grease, leaving enough to coat bottom of pot Remove bacon, drain on paper towels and chop.

2)Brown beef and pork in pot over medium high heat. When meat is browned, stir in the bell pepper, onion, jalapeno peppers, habanero peppers, Anaheim peppers, garlic, cumin, red pepper flakes, chili powder, bouillon, crushed tomatoes, whole tomatoes, beer, tomato paste, chile paste and water.

3)Reduce heat to low and simmer for 45 to 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add beans and bacon and continue simmering for another 30 minutes.

Does anyone think their chili is better? Feel like sharing your recipe? Please do! I am open to making all sorts of new chili!

Everything I thought it would be and more!

A few months back I had downloaded the photoshop 30 day trial and was toying around with it, well my trial ran out the day before the husband and I got back from Costa Rica and I cried, gnashed my teeth and even thought about coming home from our trip a day early just so I could edit photos (okay, not really...but really, photoshop is just that fun!)

So here we are a little less than a month later. I am happy to announce I am a proud owner of not only photoshop, but I also got the Totally Rad Action set as recommended by the pioneer woman.

So, here is a quick example. Nothing too drastic, just a little oomph!

Before:


After:

On Google Searches

It is on my page, loggin' your stats.....

If you take a gander at the bottom of my page there is a little square that says "blogpatrol". On my page I have a widget that tracks how many people look at this site and a little about them. Nothing too creepy, don't worry. But, I do feel like I have an apology to make after looking at one certian stat that blog patrol alerted me to.

My apology:
To the person who typed the word "Naked girl hiking" into Google search and was directed to my blog, I am sorry (Do the naked girls hiking at least wear a pair of socks under their boots?). I am sorry for the lack of naked girls hiking. I don't know how Google got my site and and naked girls hiking confused. And, to the person who was trying to search for "Naked girls hiding" I just have three questions.

1)Are you the same person who was looking for the naked girls hiking
2)Why are the naked girls hiding?
3)Which is better, a naked girl hiking or a naked girl hiding?Or is that like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I am now off to google naked girls hiding to see what comes up.....other than my blog of course.

Chili Cook Off!

It is the great family cook off today!

Be back with the results later tonight! Until then I will leave you with this picture of the spice that went into my arrogant bastard chili.

Costa Rica and It's beauty

Best. Trip. Ever

Alrighty, I have been avoiding posting about our trip to Costa Rica because I so badly wish I was back there there and start plotting ways I can get back there every time I talk about that lovely country. I have issues, this I know. I am working through them. So, Are you ready? No? Well, suck it up cause here we go!

We started the trip out by flying into San Jose Airport and taking a car to Arenal. We stayed at the Arenal Observatory Lodge and had a great time combing the grounds. We saw coti, toucans, lava, parrots and the scariest spiders I have ever seen in my life. EVER. The lodge used to be a Smithsonian research institute and now it is a hotel. How that works, I have no idea. I just assumed that the scientists were smart enough to get the hell out of the area and leave it to the tourists to stay so close to the volcano. No matter, it was a wonderful hotel. It was about 25-30 minutes via a rocky dirt road from town.

That is how close us dumbass tourists were from the volcano. This picture was taken from the pool.

And from our balcony at night .

We did all the touristy stuff like going horseback ridding to the La Fortuna waterfall, hiking, drinking beer and of course.....
We went ziplining. I fought the urge to run, harnessed up, got into position and.....shut my eyes the whole way across. It was either that or poop my pants. Which would you have chosen?

After having our fun in La Fortuna we took interbus over to Aviarios del Caribe in Cahuita, a sloth sanctuary, and let's just say that within hours we were secluded to our musty smelling room trying to find ways to escape the place. Going into this we knew that the sanctuary was a Bed & Breakfast and we expected to be a little bored seeing as how, oh, I don't know...we are not two 73 year old women! But this place was bad, must smelling rooms, filthy windows, rusty bathtubs not to mention the hosts didn't know what the hell was going on. The good thing though? The hosts might not know how to run a B&B but they do know how to lovingly care for these little guys

Before the trip I might have considered eating a sloth, now I have nothing but mad sloth love for them yo. Sorry, I don't know where that came from.

We eventually stopped stomping our feet and gnashing our teeth and decided to make the best of it and opened our eyes to the beauty around the area and we were able to find all sorts of good things like...




The wildlife around the area was amazing and slightly scary. We lived and got to see some sloths. This may come as a shock, but I do not recommend the B&B.

After Cahuita we went south about 45 min to Puerto Viejo for our most relaxing part of the trip. In PV we stayed at Banana Azul . Everything about this place was amazing, the location (right on the beach) the service (friendly, welcoming and willing to help you with anything) the rooms (big, airy, lots of french doors) and the food (delicious, great price, lots of it). We spent our days swimming in the perfectly clear, bath water temp. Caribbean waters

wandering along the miles of pristine beaches where you hardly ever saw anyone else


and napping in the hammocks strung up between coconut trees on the beach. Don't worry I don't have any pictures of that, you lucked out.

It was an amazing trip, I am very thankful that we were able to go on it and have the experience under our belt. I am glad that I didn't listen to the review sites online that try to scare the life out of you by detailing how dangerous Costa Rica is. This country seems far from dangerous as long as your are respectful, polite, be aware of your situation and don't act like an asshat. We were not raped, swept up in a drug deal, mugged, held at knife point or anything of the like. While I am sure this happens in the country, it happens in every country. Never once did I feel as though I was in any danger. The beauty of the country quickly washes away any worry you might have about the safety reports you read while planning your trip.

One word to sum up our trip?

GO!

Housekeeping

aye aye aye

So much to do and so little time after procrastination to do it in. My fantastically boring life has been filled with me doing so much of nothing that I need to get a handle on it.

Things I need to do to bore you:
-Write about our Costa Rica trip...yes I know it happened over a month ago.
-Try to describe my love for photoshop and the amount of time I can kill on it editing photos
-Ask you how to get caterpillars to stop eating my veggies I have been working so hard on
-What we ended up doing about THE car

The list goes on, but I will spare you the details and let you just imagine what trival dribble will come out of this blog in the future.

One exciting thing to come out of this though, is that I am here to sing the praises of moo cards. I have been uploading so many photos to flickr that I was 205% past my monthly limit and throughly enjoy the website so I coughed up the 24.99 for a pro account (which totally makes me a pro right?) . Flickr eased the pain on my bank account by offering me 10 free moo cards. I have been eying them for quite some time so I just about peed my pants at the offer.

Well, a long week and a half later I finally got them in the mail and they are just as exciting as I thought they would be!



The only two problems that have come up with the moo cards are that a)You have to crop a very thin section of your photo which can be hard and b) I don't know what to do with them now that I have them

Any Suggestions?
Oh, and if you are just going to tell me to shove them where the sun don't shine, like I could picture some Hawaii obsessed dentist saying. SAVE IT. Already thought of it. WIN.