A Cheesy Goodbye. by violet

I am sad. One of my closest coworkers has taken a new job. For the past two years Cathy and I have worked together, sometimes even sharing a cube. She has been that person I turn to when I want to roll my eyes about a crazy request. The person who can talk me off the ledge. The person who will read an e-mail before I send to make sure I put commas in the right place.

While I am confident that our friendship will last outside of work and even a little excited to take it beyond the confines of the office walls, I will miss seeing her almost every day.

To ease both of our pain, we have decided to schedule monthly happy hours/dinners. Since Cathy loves queso almost as much as me, we met for our first at the Mecca of queso in Bellevue, Z Tejas.

I have mentioned before, the queso at Z Tejas is my favorite in town. And it didn’t disappoint this time around. It was warm, cheesy and generally wonderful.

This time, I skipped the frosty margarita because I’m still recovering from a cold.

While chatting about Cathy’s new job we polished off the queso and an order of tostada bites (which I didn’t manage to snap a photo of) as well as a few slices of the ‘Jas’s cornbread which is also excellent.

The good food and even better company got me thinking that even though Cathy won’t be in the cube across from me, if we can still share war stories, compare notes and occasionally get together for some awesome cheese like substances and that’s just fine with me.

Miss you already Cathy!

Lola. by orange

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl

With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
She would merengue and do the cha-cha
And while she tried to be a star, Tony always tended bar
Across a crowded floor, they worked from 8 till 4
They were young and they had each other
Who could ask for more?

At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....they fell in love



Do I have the song stuck in your head yet?

For the past six months or so I've been on a hunt for the right perfume.  In the past I've used Clinique "Happy", Juicy Couture and Tiffany's "Pure Tiffany."  I always find it a bit challenging to look for perfume as it's kind of a drawn out process.  Go to the store, try it on, wait the day to see how it adapts to your skin, how long it lasts, etc then repeat until you find the right one.  Well ladies and gents...and I now own "Lola" by Marc Jacobs. 

Lola is being touted as Daisy’s “confident and slightly vampy older sister."  To me, I think she just has a bit more sass, which I love.  The bottle, as you can see below, is very pretty and I definitely enjoy getting to look her every morning as I start my day. 

Now with Marc Jacobs being the uber fashionista that he is, it is no suprise that in addition to the beautiful bottles, there is a limited edition ring with solid perfume in it. 

When I was at Sephora checking out the varieties of Lola, one of the ladies there said that having the combo of the spray and solid was the way to go.  I thought "well of course you do, as then I would purchase both."  She followed that up by saying, you should re-apply purfume everytime you re-apply your lipstick.  So spritz the purfume in the morning on the pulse points, and then follow up with dabs of the solid throughout the day.  I thought "holy perfume, my cube-mates would kill me with all this scent going on." 

Needless to say, I now own the perfume, lotion and ring.  Yes kids, I did go a bit overboard.  However, I will share with you my reasoning:

At Sephora they are selling a 1.7oz. bottle for $65.  At Macy's they are selling the combo of 1.7oz. bottle plus the lotion for $75.  What's a smart girl to do?  Umm, buy the combo deal at Macy's.  Sorry Sephora. Now the ring, well, that was just an indulgent splurge to my love of all things Marc Jacobs. 


***Update: Sephora.com has the same gift set as Macy's.  And...even better...if you buy the larger Lola (3.4oz.) online and enter LOLA at checkout receive a free Lola Fashion Cosmetic Case with mini Lola rollerball and lotion.  Wowza!!

Halloween 2009. by violet

As Orange mentioned earlier this week, we were down in Eugene for Halloween. We’ve been in Eugene a lot lately, more in the last three months than we have in the last three years – Labor Day, Cal v. Oregon and now for Halloween.

Our friends down there, Stacy and Ray are known for hosting EPIC Halloween parties. And after a long hiatus, they brought it back in full force.

J. and I headed down to Portland on Wednesday night so I could work from the Portland office on Thursday and Friday. We hit up Bridgeport Brewery with Tess on Wednesday for some tasty beer. And while J., headed all the way down to Eugene on Thursday with Orange and her husband, I had to stay and work.

But that meant some quality time with Tess. This included a visit to Henry’s with an order of gorgonzola fries and a bottle (yes, a bottle) of Erath Pinot Noir - one of our favorites. Between the cheese fries and the wine we definitely had some much needed girl time.

Friday afternoon, I busted out of work and made my way down to Eugene to find the party had already started. So I got down to business getting my Jackie on. It took some serious work to get my hair that big.

All in all, I was very pleased with how the costume came together. What do you think? How'd I do?

And I think J.’s war photographer costume looked great too.

J. set up a little bit of a photo booth to capture all of the great costumes.

Healthcare Reform A chef with Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce

Ghostbuster with Wonder Woman

All the ladies.

We went to the haunted corn maze the next night but I really don't want to talk about the chainsaws that attacked us.

vedera, i like you. by orange

Last night the husband took me to see Mat Kearney at the Moore Theater.  I died and went to heaven, it was s-o good.  I'll post more on my love for Mat later.  For now I'd like to focus in on the opening band: Vedera. 

Usually when at concerts, I'm so excited about the headliner that I loose focus during the opening band and am thinking "get on with it."  Well, this time was a bit different.  The lead singer of Vedera has a beautiful voice and is so freaking cute.  With her striped tee, vintage looking boots, short pixie hair and cute giggle I practically had a girl crush.  She was rocking away on the guitar, then pounding on the piano - mixing some soulful slower songs with the classic girl pop.

I'm excited to purchase her CD "Stages."

kim can cook #2 - YUMM. by orange

I'm proud of myself for a few reasons:

1) prepared a meal without calling any of my friends for "how to" questions
2) first time cutting an avocado went very well!
3) remembered the recipe without haveing to look anything up online (ok it's pretty simple, but still!)
4) made a fantastic meal in about 15 min!

Welcome to Yumm Sauce:

The "Yumm bowl" consists of the following:
- rice
- avocado
- beans
- tomatos
- cheese
- sour cream
- cilantro (oops! forgot this in mine tonight!)
- olives
- and of course, Yumm Sauce

Granted you can really add what you want.  The husband and I opted in some corn instead of olives. 

Recipe:
- make rice
- while rice is cooking cut up the avocado & tomato
- heat up beans and corn
- grate cheese
- once rice is cooked, add Yumm Sauce
- then layer away!

Very Simple and Yummy!!

To find locations of where you can purchase the Yumm Sauce, see here

Election Day. by violet

Here in Seattle there’s a mayoral race and couple of initiatives and the ballot. Voting can sometimes seem like a pain. And I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve missed a few elections. But the state of Washington has made things a little bit easier by moving to all vote by mail. That doesn’t seem stop me from puting it off for the last minute, however. I have some reading on ballot measures and candidates to do before I check the boxes today. But this is a chance to watch democracy in action.

Go vote!

More coming soon and Halloween weekend, I promise.

a few tricks. by orange

This past weekend a few friends and the husband and I packed up our car and headed down to our good friends' house in Eugene, OR, aka home of The Oregon Ducks. 

Going to Stacy and Ray's house is like a trip back home, visiting mom and dad.  They are around our same age, just have always had that "big brother/big sister", more "mature" persona to them.  Going to their house is the perfect escape from the day to day blur of work, stress, etc.  There were 3 main reasons for our trip to The Eug:

1. Halloween Party

2. University of Oregon vs. University of Southern California football game

3. Haunted Corn Maze

As violet's J. photo-documented the weekend festivities I'll leave #1 and #3 to future violet posts.  I'm digging into #2 reason.

Now I've never been really into football.  Of course I made all the normal football appearances during college however, by half-time I was the one ready to head home for a post-pre-funking game nap.  With marrying the husband, who Loves football, and all the college football Saturday/Sunday get togethers it was time I figured out what was going on during the game.

Here are the few things I've picked up over the past few seasons to help me through the game:

1. The computer imposed First Down line is Extremely helpful when watching a game on TV.  Basically, the offensive football team has 4 tries to make a First Down.  Once they make a First Down, they get to start the four tries over.  If they don't make the First Down within four tries then the other team gets the football.

2. In order for the football team to get the First Down, they have to move the football 10 yards down the field towards their end zone.

3. Main Penalities: False Start, Holding, Pass Interference and Face Mask (see below for the referee signals and a few more)

4. Main Scoring Opportunities:

Touchdown = 6 points
Field Goal = 3 points
P.A.T. (Point After Touchdown) = 1 point
Going for Two (where the offensive team runs it in after a touchdown) = 2 points

Any other tips you know of in order to get into the game?

And, by the way, this game (UO vs. USC) was EPIC. Pete Carroll (USC head coach) has never been beat by an opposing team by more than 11 points before this game.  We just happen to beat them by 27 points - it was amazing.  And I was really glad I could keep up with all the scoring during the game :).