So much for my promises...

I know I said I wanted to be much more consistent in my postings on this bloggy blog; and I succeeded for about three days. I count this as a small success...and I think I have a slightly good excuse for my lack of commitment. Maybe.

On September 18th, my Timmy and I got married!!!!! More to come on this later. There are so many details I want to include; the wedding post is going to be a doozy. In the meantime, some celebration and recognition are in order for the best of all seasons, that has snuck up on me!!

FALL!!

Colorado has beautiful fall colors. However, we Coloradan's are still waiting for them to pop out this season. (At least in the City) The weather has been so sneaksy lately, and we've been topping out in the high 70's, low 80's, with nothing cooler to speak of in the upcoming 10 day weather forecast. (Curses to the weather.com for not allowing me to see further than 10 days! I thought meteorologists were supposed to be magicians who could tell the future... It seems like their skills fail after ten days. Lame.) I am, however, exceedingly excited for an upcoming trip to Vail, CO this Sunday with Abbey, Josh, Tim and myself. By golly, we WILL see some fall colors!!

Day trips...that's one of the great things about Colorado. I can wake up in the morning in my little apartment in Denver, and in only a couple of hours, be surrounded by incredible mountains, fall colors, and local mountain folk (always fun!). And how fun is it that I get to take this little trip with my sister, her husband, and MY HUSBAND!?!? :) :)

Speaking of my husband, I've been pretty excited to spend my favorite season with him by my side, faithfully conceding to my ever present desires to explore. One of these explorations MUST INVOLVE a pumpkin patch! It's just such a wonderful fall experience to head out to the patch, and spend hours overanalyzing the different pumpkins before finally deciding on one that most likely looks like all the others. (Except for mine. They always look different. It's all about the stems!) The last time I got to go to a pumpkin patch I was in Massachusetts with my good friend Nikki. Talk about quintessential aweseomeness! We got to go for a hayride, pick out pumpkins, visit a petting zoo, and end it all in apple cider and apple cider doughnuts (which are AMAZING!)

And shall we just devote a little praise to the pumpkin itself? Seriously, I can't think of any other flavor that reminds me so much of fall. They're fun shapes, pretty colors, you can carve them into scary faces, smash them, play catch with the little ones, put candles in them, cook them, bake them, make them into soups, bread, and other foodstuffs. And besides all that, pumpkins are JUST DELICIOUS!!

One of my favorite pumpkin variations would have to be pumpkin muffin. I could probably die from eating too many of these little babies, because I just have no self control when it comes these. I cannot combat their deliciousness. One of my all time favorite pumpkin muffins came from Great Harvest. Again, my fall season partner in crime Nikki and I discovered these in the fall of 2006. We used to go early in the morning before classes started, to start off our day right with a muffin and some ridiculously strong, yet equally delicious Peets Coffee. Thankfully, there are two Great Harvest's I know of in a relatively close proximity to where I live. However, I am saddened for Nikki, and the fact that our favorite Massachusetts bakery closed soon after I left. (Probably because Nikki and I most likely covered all their operating expenses with the amount of time and money we spent there.)

Lastly, homage must be paid to the....

Abbey and I patiently wait for the day, every year, that Starbucks once again brings back the PSL to the everyday menu. This year we had an insider in the company, and consequently, insider information. All that to say, we were ecstatic for August 28th to come. Regrettably, the weather was in the high 80s, but NO MATTER!! Nothing can undermine the liquid taste of fall, or our excitement to consume said beverage.

Cell Hell

Cell phones. A mixed blessing in my eyes. I never really want to feel like I'm tied down to one, but I will be the first to admit that I always feel like something's missing if I forget my phone at home for the day. I just feel safer with one, IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY.

However, my track record with cell phones is somewhat checkered. While I've never actually LOST my phone (for longer than 48 hours at a time), I have had issues maintaining them. I have a slight problem of dropping my cell phones. No matter where I am I average about two drops a day. Often one occurs first thing in the morning when I reach over to turn off the alarm. And can I get some empathy here? I think we've all had the moment where we get out of our cars and send our cell phones FLYING because we've forgotten we put them in our laps. This exact scenario happens 2-3 times a week for me...

Some of my phones, like the most recent blackberry (affectionately called blackbaby) was SUPER RESILIENT to my every drop. That is, until, it reverted back to the date of December 29, 2009, and refused to live in the present. It would delete all my voicemails, texts, and numbers that were entered after said date. I'm sure there's some underlying significance to why my little red phone decided to permanently make residence in the week after Christmas, but I've resolved to be happy with the fact that December 29 is my parents' wedding anniversary, and that's reason enough.

I thought it might be nice to provide a small pictorial representation of my various cellular devices. We'll start with my humble beginnings, and move to the phone I JUST purchased yesterday because I can't stand to live in the past anymore!

Ok. I never really had "the brick" phone. But my dad did!! So that counts for something. And still, it's amazing that people actually carried these things around.

My beloved first Nokia. Best. Phone. Ever. In fact, if only I still had this baby I'd put my SIM card in and i'd be off to the races!

This little flipper signifies round 1 of many cell phones purchase in a matching set with my mom and sister's. Yes. We all three had the same cell in the same color. It was awesome.

The Pantech. First of many of my "go-phones." This one had the most AMAZING ring tones. Unfortunately, it had horrible service and connection, and the buttons were nearly impossible to push. But don't worry, I still battled using it for a good year and a half.

If I had one word of wisdom to impart in this post, it would be to NEVER BUY THIS NOKIA PHONE!! Worst phone in the world. I'm serious. It's almost like the creators sat down, discussed how they could make this the LEAST user friendly, and then went for it. Not to toot my own horn here, but I'm pretty technologically savvy, and this phone was a loser.

The red phone. This little guy has been with me through thick and thin. And it's been a good in-betweener from all the times I've needed to order new phones and had to have one to use in the meantime. In fact, it the phone in current use as I type this post. Round 2 of matching family phones. Mine - Red. Mom's - Gold. Abbey's - Black. This one has some great features which have allowed friends to record some truly amazing ringtones. I have blackmail whenever I need it for the following people.

- Madeline Jacks

- Anna Lewis

- Abigail Davis

- Spencer Sheets

The 9.99 in-btetweener phone.

The blackbaby who loves to live in the past...

And FINALLY, the NEW phone, which I will receive TOMORROW!! Don't be fooled. I still want an iphone.

Don't be fooled. I still want an iphone.

*Hair Update*

Thoughtsies? Whimsical perhaps? Romantic? Good or bad?

NOW IS THE TIME FOR INPUT PEOPLE!!

Thank you Aunt Beeuh for wisely pointing out that I have not labeled that fact that these latest pictures are actually MY head. :)

how to wear my hair...

T minus 38 days until my wedding. Things are starting to get serious around here. I knew the procrastination period would eventually have to end. We're getting close to the home-stretch, the final lap, I can almost hear the fans cheering as approach the proverbial destination!! What am I saying...we still have 38 days. Soooooooo much time.

BUT...there is a pressing issue that has come to pass. My hair, and how it should present itself on the wedding day. The DIY hairstyle was not even an option. If you know me at all you would know that any creativity and skill that I might possess in any area of my life, does most certainly NOT translate to being stylish and nifty with my hair. I basically go for three looks.

1) The "straight blow-dry look."

2) The "pony-tail."

and

3) The "I went to bed with my hair wet and it looks like this" look.

Hence, I will be going to an actual stylist to have my hairs done for the wedding. Someone who has actually gone to school for this sort of thing. Someone who has skillzzz.

I have my trial run TODAY in 3 hours, and I'm not sure what I want. I DO know that I want something relatively simple and loose. Because of my affinity for a complete lack of hair-style, I wouldn't want to have some lavish up-do on my wedding that doesn't even look like me. No-sir. I have concerns, however, based off of two, less than ideal prom up-do's. Whatever. I have a sense that Nicole [the lucky stylist who gets to style my locks] will have just the sort of eye and creativity that I need to make my hair AWESOME for my wedding.

P.S. I need to think of something GREAT to do tonight because I'm going to have super pretty hair to show off (assuming all goes well!)

Viva la!!!

Right now, Santa Barbara is in recovery mode. The beginning of this week marked the end of what is always an EPIC celebration in the city of SB. The celebration is called Fiesta. It's a big deal. This is my first summer away from Fiesta in a few years, and to be perfectly honest, I've had a bit of a withdrawal.

While it's pretty clear that almost NO-ONE in Santa Barbara knows why the heck we celebrate Fiesta, with some quick internet research, I myself have just discovered the origins [which I will of course share]. Taking the liberty to summarize, Fiesta is meant to be a celebration of the city's heritage from Spanish founders from the Spanish, Mexican, and North American pioneers who first settled in SB and built the city. Basically, this translates into a week-long party throughout the whole city.

State street shuts down for a HUGE parade that is filled with bizarre and random floats (although the Summer Solstice celebration takes the cake for the craziest parade). The Fiesta parade usually has bunches of people in traditional Mexican costumes, and lots of men riding horses. It's safe to say that one of the horses usually freaks out, and there are often incidents involving spectator injury. No big deal. It's all very entertaining to watch while you're eating street taco's from one of the many vendors.

Did I mention that the entire city of SB is also covered in a layer of confetti during this week as well? There are TONS of people selling confetti filled eggs on the streets. The purpose of these eggs is simply to purchase them, and ultimately smash them onto the heads of your friends and/or complete strangers--henceforth showering them in a blanket of multicolored tiny pieces of paper. From about August-February you'll continue to find confetti in the strangest of places throughout your house and the city. We're talking THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of these eggs. I'm sure the production of these little gems starts the week after Fiesta and goes through the whole year to prepare aggressive and over-zealous egg smashers. To note: any future Fiesta attendee's must be willing to eat some confetti with their traditional Mexican food.

For Fiesta entertainment you can enjoy several carnival-like rides, watch the cutest little Mexican Hat dancers you've ever seen in your life (little girls who are 3 and 4 years old), go to various performances at the Court House, listen to the mariachi bands that are meandering on State Street, and if you're lucky...search and take a picture with the SPIRIT of FIESTA!

It's truly a great week in Santa Barbara. However, it comes with the drawbacks of epically high cover prices to all restaurants and bars, NO available parking, clothing staining confetti, and crazy out-of-towners. I'm sure there's a sigh of relief in SB to have completed another successful Fiesta. I'll make it back one of these years. Maybe I'll apply to be the Spirit of Fiesta 2011. I'm pretty sure that one of the pre-requisites is to be fully Mexican, but maybe I can somehow get around that rule....

TAKE NOTE

If you are thinking about going to visit espressolé coffee shop at 4:00 on a Thursday, be forewarned that there will be a live talk radio blog streaming from the MIDDLE OF THE CAFE. If your plan was to get some good work done in a coffee environment, consider this place a failure at the aforementioned times.

However, the benefits of said talk radio blog are included but not limited to:

- Watching "lookie loo's" take pictures of the Deejay's.

- Getting a wink from a deejay when I kindly pointed out that he had the wrong input channeled on his lav (Thank you Verité Studios. Yah, I learned things)

- Free internet access!! :)

Adventures in Baking

Eventually, at one point in my life, I WILL make a 4-layer cake. QUOTE ME! Countless times for people's birthday's, I've had good intentions about making a beautiful, four layered cake. Naturally, when my mother's birthday rolled around the corner (MAY 01...HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAPSIE!) I was obviously going to go for the big kahuna. I had the random, epiphanic moment of deciding that the cake was going to be coconut cream! Why? No idea. I don't even like coconut very much. Whatever. I thought my mom would like it.

SOOOOO....I looked at a few recipes online and sort of got a gist for the type of ingredients they needed. I obviously failed to write these down, and headed to the grocery without so much as a written, or mental list. (insert a subliminal plea for an iphone). I came home with some random food shenanigans, complete with three limes (they were a great price). I set off to make the cake; mentally combining a few recipes I remember looking at. I have a psuedo problem of making recipes up. This can, at times, be disastrous.

Mistake number 1: Did not take the high altitude into consideration. I mean, even if I had thought to, I would have had no idea what changes to make. Maybe add more flower? Whatever.

Mistake number 2: I used 8 inch cake rounds, rather than 9. Doesn't sound like a big problem, but let me paint you a mental picture of what the cakes looked like. I would say we had about a 2.5 inch vertical from the top of the pan, to the apex of the cake. There was also some additional horizontal cake action that kind of lipped over the pan edges.

Mistake number 3: I apparently, did NOT grease and flour the pans in such a way that would ensure a clean exit from the pan. This was frustrating to me, as I took a painstakingly long time to try and insure the aforementioned. I think the fault lies in the 8 inch rounds, rather than my greasing abilities.

Mistake number 4: After I had finally gotten the cakes out of the pans (I will spare you the details of how cake number 2 literally fell apart in my hands), I didn't want to wait until they were completely cool to start frosting. Result: structure failure.

Mistake number 5: I did NOT make enough frosting. But what can you really expect when you make up a recipe from your mind grapes? I mean, at least it tasted good.

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I will say, however, the toasted coconut on top really did an excellent camouflage job to cover the frosting, or lack thereof. All in all I would say it was a roaring success! My favorite was the reaction of Kapsie. "Oh Sarah! My goodness, I love it! It's really quite unique!"

BAHAHAH

Don't question the candle.

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