Do you ever eat too much butter?

Do you ever think to yourself: "HEY! I'm on vacation and I've already walked all over town and sat by the pool and done yoga in my hotel room via a really awesome online yoga site and decide that it would just be too much effort to put on real clothes, brush your hair and go outside in search of dinner? So you decide to order room service. Only everything looks kind of expensive and kind of unhealthy except for the "Fit" options which just look boring. Then you find Salmon! (which is good if you like salmon.) And you look at the options for sides and see carrots! So you order Salmon, a baked potato and carrots! And you're all proud because you ordered healthy AND yummy! And it comes in 30 minutes or less, as promised, and it looks amazing. And it actually tastes amazing. And then about 17 bites in (because it was the hugest portion ever) you realize it tastes amazing because it was cooked in AT LEAST a stick and a half of butter. But you keep eating it. But you don't finish it because not even you are that hungry. But you do have to go wash your face because you feel like you just bathed in butter.

me too.


So - vacation update day 2 - I slept in late, went for a tasty breakfast of eggs, hash browns and a biscuit and then walked around the marina, for like EVER. I was hoping to take the ferry to Coronado, but I literally walked up as it was pulling away and didn't feel like waiting an hour for the next one. So I just kept walking. And walking. It was good. So good that I took a nap. After being awake for like 3 hours. I got up, searched for food and ended up with some pretty yummy fish tacos. Came back to the hotel and read by the pool before coming back to the hotel room, Facebook, Twitter, Photoshop research for new-ish Mac, decided I didn't need a new iPhone for $500 and did Yoga online. Before the great-butter-dish of 2009 occured.

The best thing happened by the pool though... there was a family there on vacation, a mom was sitting poolside with her baby in the stroller while her husband (I assume) was in the pool with his 3 daughters (I assume). He was towing the 3 girls and hollering out: "I AM ON VACATION! ON VACATION! WE ARE ON VACATION! No lawns to mow! On Vacation! No work! Vacation! SEVEN MORE DAYS OF THIS POOL!" - Man, his excitement was awesome. I hope they had a nice buttery dinner!

Now I am finishing up a decent glass of Pinot, watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix (man, that pilot was REALLY GOOD! Watch it.) and waiting for Guy to get back from dinner.

Our San Francisco/Sonoma Trip!

So - if you've ever been in my car you know that I love me the TV on the Radio. When they announced their spring tour I was bummed to see that their only LA date was Coachella, so that meant no other play-y in LA-y (and Pomona is just too far.) So when I saw that they were playing in Oakland over Memorial Day weekend I had one of those lightbulb moments and decided we needed a good road trip!

We arrived in San Francisco around lunchtime and took the bus up to Amoeba - I LOVE taking public transportation. I'm not sure if I would love it so much if I had to do it everyday, I'm sure the novelty of it would wear off, but when we are traveling I really enjoy it. We have sort of made a tradition out of buying CDs at local indie record stores while on vacation and I was happy we fit it into this trip. (purchases included Jason Lytle, Au Revoir Simone, Reatards, and two Nick Cave Re-issues)

I found a good deal at the Hotel Palomar, it is a Kimpton hotel, and they are quickly becoming my hotel chain of choice. Comfy beds, and really loud flushing toilet and a shower that didn't drain very well, BUT I would totally stay there again, centrally located and did I mention the comfy bed?

We had some TASTY crab-deviled eggs and a couple of beers before dinner by the water at MarketBar in the Ferry Building, (side note: I don't think I have ever, in my almost 15 years knowing my husband seen him SO excited over a group of shops). Beers and deviled eggs. yum.

Then..

Guy booked us a really yummy dinner at Ozumo Sushi. The Hanabi and Futago were amazing. Everything was great. Including the Sapporos.

After dinner we headed on the BART to Oakland to the recently renovated Fox Theater - it's one of those historic, crazy buildings with really amazing architecture. We had 5 or 10 more beers and were treated to an amazing show by one of my favorite bands.

Saturday morning was a little rough (see mention of beers above) so we got a slow start out of town and eventually made it to Santa Rosa where we checked into our hotel and had a really great lunch at Omelette Express-- soo yummy



Our home base for the wine tasting trip was Hotel La Rose - small, quaint, in the heart of their little historical area and the bed was really comfy... (comfy beds are crucial to my traveling happiness in case you couldn't tell - it has to be firm, not too firm and big enough so that 6'4" husband does not cut into my side of the bed by sleeping diagonally on small beds)

After fueling up on sandwiches and iced tea and when I finally began to feel human again it was time for some wine tasting! We hit a good amount of wineries in the Forestville, Sebastopol and Windsor areas (favorites are marked with a handy asterisk - man I love those things)

Hartford Family Winery
*Harvest Moon
Hook & Ladder
*Woodenhead
DeLoach
Dutton-Goldfield/Balletto Vineyards

Harvest Moon was probably my favorite of the day, and not just because they had a really awesome chocolate lab named Charlotte. Woodenhead had an amazing deck with views of the valley and a woman who worked there was from LA and her parents lived in the same house in the heart of Hollywood for the last FIFTY YEARS. I loved that.

That night we had dinner at El Dorado Kitchen in the Sonoma Square. Note: when traveling check to see if the town where you booked dinner is having any events, like a jazz fest, that could make finding parking near-impossible

ANYWAY - it was really good - I had the truffle risotto, Guy had short ribs. And for desert we had a S'Mores tart. mmmm...

Sunday morning we woke bright and early and without a hangover (yay) and went to breakfast at Parkside Cafe - oh. shit. yum. Chicken Fried Steak and the Country Benedict were both great and not too heavy. Really tiny place with really amazing food.

We walked around the Windsor Farmer's Market and some antique fair thing in Healdsburg before starting day two wine tasting at:

*Stryker
Seghesio
Papapietro
*Dutcher Crossing
**Preston
Mazzocco

Stryker had a remarkable tasting room, beautiful grounds, some horny snakes, and two guys working - one was lively, engaging and outgoing and the other was his total opposite. Guess which one we got?

Preston is an organic winery, with pigs and chickens and cats and bread and olives and really yummy wines. It was totally my favorite of the trip.




OK. Dinner. I booked us a nice dinner based on online reviews and a Michelin rating. So we walk into this old Victorian House/Restaurant and there is classical music playing, unchipped China on all of the tables, salmon colored walls, DRAPES, and a snooty hostess and I have a mini-panic attack. Where did I book us?? Guy calms me and the Goose and tonic calms me and we sit to eat. OH.MY.GOD. It was BY FAR one of the most amazing meals of my life. Go there. As soon as possible. Life is short people.
Madrona Manor
We had five courses of amazing food paired with fantastic Sonoma wines and Champagne, along with things like parm-reggiano churros, pea Vichyssoise amuse-bouche (actually I don't really know if vichyssoise is usually a SPECIFIC kind of soup - this is how much I didn't deserve to be eating there, anyway - it was cold and I only know what amuse-bouche is because I watch Top Chef - see you CAN learn things from Reality TV). We also were given raspberry/hibiscus crushed ice to cleanse the palettes (the texture of the ICE was amazing) - a mini creme brulee AFTER we finished the desert that we ordered, and a handful of chocolates and carmels AND 2 bags of caramel corn to take on the road. soooooo yum.

The whole weekend was awesome. Yay for vacations. I am working on the next weekend getaway now: Ojai. Have never been there and have always wanted to go. I plan on lots of relaxing.

Birthday. I win!

Many days ago I posted a list of chocolate things that I like and would like to receive!

So far I've gotten four! That is so awesome!!

Chocolate cupcake paired with Tina's box cake with homemade buttercream frosting made without egg. - Thanks Tina! two-for-one!! (although in all honesty I knew I was getting them when I made that post)

See's Bordeaux bars (mmmmmm) - a whole freaking box of them! Thanks Liz!! that was very special!

Reese's Peanut Butter cups - an entire tree of Reese's Peanut Butter cups!! Thanks Bryan - that was a huge and appreciated surprise!!

Here is the rest of the list and I will probably have one or two of the top two this weekend in Palm Springs -- all is right in the world
Flourless chocolate
Chocolate lava cake
Brownie
Chocolate silk pie
Chocolate mousse
Chocolate souffle
New York Super Fudge Chunk Ice Cream
Junior's chocolate fantasy
Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Caramels
Chocolate Ice Cream with hot fudge
Costco carrot cake.

We like wine

We went wine tasting over New Year's Eve. It was big fun. We hit a few new wineries and found a couple new favs - Four Vines and Le Cuvier and of course visited old favorites - Halter Ranch, Turley.

Here are 200 pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Wine Tasting 08

Home made beer

Firsts - a doggy

I am constantly reminded of my first dog because his name is one of the random security passwords for a site that I frequent. Yapper. I probably shouldn't tell you that, now my security could be breached. Damn. His name was Yapper. You know why? He yapped. He was a little dog. Black. Brown maybe. I really don't remember very much about him. I remember that my mother gave him to me and that was the last time I ever saw her. I remember he wasn't housebroken. I remember being 4/5 years old and thinking it SUCKS to wake up in the middle of the night to get a snack and step in dog shit. I remember being thankful that it was just a little dogshit - because after all, he was just a little dog. What I don't remember is kind of disturbing. I don't remember ever walking him, or watching my father walk him. I don't think he EVER got housebroken. I don't remember him ever not yapping. Mostly though I don't remember what happened to him. I remember moving and he didn't come with us. But I really don't remember if I was upset about it. Weird. I wonder what happened to him. I would like to think Yapper was adopted by our neighbors, given a yard and a nice house with soundproof walls for his new family and a Kong that was half the size of his body and he wasn't intimidated AT ALL by it. Hopefully he bit someone if they were mean to him. Hopefully he got a better name, like Gus or Rocky. I wonder if he fathered little Gusorrockys? For sure we didn't get him fixed if we couldn't even walk the little fucker. Man, I hope he was a he. Yapper would be a terrible name for a girl.

If it's September we're going to Pomona!

Pretty much every year I try and make it out to the fair. Basically if you've been to one fair you've been to them all and nothing really changes except the prizes evolve into the most current licensed hit (Hannah Montana) and the shopping expos get the lastest As Seen on TV must-have (ShamWOW!). Knowing this does not stop me from wanting to go.... here are some pics of things that can be seen and done at the fair. See you there next year!

Hot Wheels Road Trip night 1!

It's actually almost 2 weeks into the Road Trip but I am just now joining, so it's day 1 for me.

today was a travel day, - we had a lot of luck with the flights being on time! Only on the one hour ride from Chicago to Detroit did I have to deal with OUT OF CONTROL children and hairy-arm guy... Got to the hotel and went out for dinner - a lot of places are closed on Sundays here so we ended up Chelio's - Chris Chelios' Chili place. Food was ok... nothing great. mmm fried chicken. it was sweet!?!










The girls talking about techonology









He's not amused with me.









I am totally amused with me.

me and a tired Hladek.

One of the collectors, Joe, came out for a beer.

good night now!

Never forget...

It was already two weeks ago that I devoured this in San Diego and I just can't bring myself to delete the picture.

mmmm matte

Don't be a prik

Home made prik khing! NOM!

Right Now!

1. i am STOKED over getting the news about a new TVOTR cd- FINALLY! even though honestly I am still not tired of the last one
2. can hear Guy making dinner and am flip flopping between feeling like the luckiest girl alive and guilty cause i'm in here fuckin around
3. thinks picasa rules, and really only needs it to be wireless to make me that much happier
4. i kinda sorta kinda want an iphone. don't tell Guy. i love gadgets. and their apps look awesome. gonna try and wait it out to see what BlackBerry comes up with. damnit.
5. i have 1 night till i have to geek out with the nerds and am sooooo overwhelmed with shit i need to do at work and home. bah.
6. loves the Dodgers right now. 12-2 in the 4th. hah! (err, not loving the error just now...might just want to delete number 6 before I even publish this---BAH, 12-3)
7. feels bad that Guy has to go to jury duty tomorrow but thinks the plan of wearing one of my t-shirts, reading Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, while carrying a disposable camera in one hand and an oversized rubber ducky with a rainhat in the other hand should be a good way to not get placed on a jury
8. realizes that she's writing these the same way she writes her Facebook status and that needs to stop

Cooper turns 1!

He had the BEST carne asada at his party! unfortunately for Guy he had to miss it.... I had enough for both of us, twice.



here's the link, in case the slideshow no worky worky for you http://picasaweb.google.com/cindymvaughn/CooperSFirstBirthdayParty

Homemade Shrimp Stock!

Guy is making another what is sure to be AWESOME dinner... he's even making shrimp stock!

And then there were none.

I went to my first Killer Shrimp in Redondo Beach probably 15 years ago… it was like spicy, buttery, shrimpy magical heaven…. I went into debt at that Killer Shrimp. Literally. I was living way beyond my means on my minimum wage salary yet we would go there at least once a week - it was my addiction. When I decided to move out of the South Bay I was actually glad the addiction wouldn't be so available…I never went back after I moved and it closed a few years ago.
Jodi and I went to the one in Studio City a couple of times. I thought it was too big and didn't have any character. it closed.

Last night on a fluke we ended up there for dinner and was saddened by the sad note that they were being forced out and were looking for a new place.

I was expecting to have my last great meal there and sadly our shrimp was overcooked and the bread was a little stale. The flavor was good as ever, but it just wasn’t the same. Also, they didn't have pecan pie. Chocolate cake instead of pecan pie at Killer Shrimp? bad. Part of me wishes they would just throw in the towel but if they don't and they actually do end up in a new better location I hope they remember how to cook their shrimp.

Oh hell yeh