Eat Chronic Tacos

I feel strange giving a plug for a food chain, but I have to give a shout out to our Newport Beach vacation and the favorite (by far) food on the trip.

Living in California, I eat a lot of Mexican food.  The first fish taco I ate on day one of our Newport trip was nast-asaurus-rex.  My friend was nice enough to pick it up for me right on the boardwalk, but the location didn't make up for the soggy, thick batter and the garbage smelling fish.  Disappointing showing for California beach food.  But then we found....(drum roll).....Chronic Tacos.

I hear they have one of these in Boise, but I like to pretend it's a little whole in the wall dive we were lucky enough to find - a little jewel of Newport Beach.  If I ever visit the one in Boise, I'll be imagining sandy beaches, and a great sunburn. :)

My favorite item: the grilled Mahi Mahi taco with guac, cheese, cabbage, cilantro and onions.  I think I had one almost every day.  I also tried the Carnitas, which was eh.  But the fish was dynamite.

Go to Newport Beach and pretend this is not a chain.  It's a fun and delicious activity.

Amazon Mom - Cheaper than Costco!

The best discovery I've made in years.  Amazon Mom allows you to buy diapers for cheaper than you can get them at Costco - what?  Plus when you subscribe, you get free 2 day shipping on ALL orders.   Win, win, win, win, win.

Zachary's Pizza

Finally, a delicious post about food.  I can't believe it's taken me this long to share, but let's be honest, Zachary's Pizza (in Oakland and Berkeley) is the snizz.  Some people sneer at pizza reviews thinking "how can pizza really be THAT different than any other pizza".  But seriously folks, just look at this picture.

It's almost 2 inches high!  The crust is a buttery and flaky, but definitely subtle enough that the flavors of the delicious, chunky tomato sauce on top really sings.  My favorite is pepporoni, mushrooms, and green peppers.  This pizza is so good, I even got my husband to eat it with a feta cheese topping - a GIANT accomplishment.  I've driven out of my way about an hour just to pick up this pizza.  It's worth every extra minute and dollar spent on gas.

If the East Bay is just too far, there are a couple of close seconds, Paxti's in Palo Alto, and Little Star in San Francisco.  But, if you do have the means to get there, don't miss the number one.  Go Zachary's!

In the War Zone - a Celebration of Wife and Motherhood

Speaking of deliciousness, I got a job.  And then the bitterness, I quit after three weeks. :)  I took a job as a freelance writer for a local news company, but for a variety of reasons it didn't really work out.  Anyway, below was to be my inaugural column.  Enjoy.  (P.S. the above is the proposed title for my column).

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Like most of the people around me, minus a few “scrooges”, the holiday season and Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year.  While I hear that the rush of the holidays stresses some people out, I gotta say, I kind of thrive on that energy. 

And I really do thrive, until my husband says something like “hey hun, are we going to do Christmas cards this year?”  A simple, harmless question until I analyze it and say, “exactly what do you mean by WE?”  If your house is at all like mine, the real question he was meaning to ask was, “hey hun, could you arrange to get our pictures done (including purchasing all the new clothing), design and order a Christmas card, put our mailing list together, go buy stamps, address all the envelopes, and take them to the post office.”  A slightly different question. 

In reality, my husband is very helpful, but at Christmastime, with the list of desired to-do’s being as long as the lawn I haven’t cut in months, I have to be careful or the Mr.’s sly cunning can slip a few tasks right by me.  I did call him on the carpet on this card issue, but alas, ended up doing most of the above list anyway.

Among other Christmas quirks is the budget; my husband never sticks to one.  Given that we are usually the type of people who just go buy things as we need them, we decided we would have a $50 dollar limit for each other.  I was excited about the idea of going to a random store and seeing how creative I could be with such limited moola.  Then, the Mr. says “we should TOTALLY stick to the budget, but I have liberty to go over.”  Blah!  How lame do I feel on Christmas morning when he’s opening generic cotton balls and jalapeno flavored toothpicks, and I’m opening a trip to London (keep your fingers crossed for me).  How does the Mr.'s effort to make me happy sort of dig at me at the same time? 

Another Christmas must for us is visiting family.  My mother’s house has a strange, slug-inducing effect on me.  Maybe it’s the fact that between me, my three sisters, one brother, and 14 grandchildren, getting everyone organized to do virtually anything (besides eating snacks) takes 4 times longer than it should.  Today, for example, I asked my one sister as I was literally walking out the door, if she would like to come to Target with me.  Another sister, a couple of baby nursings, and an hour and a half later, I was on my way to Target.  Take a deep breath (I remind myself), it’s Christmas and I love these people.

Inevitably comes the time to trek up to Idaho and visit the in-laws.  I’ve heard some horror stories about this breed of human, but mine aren’t the crazy type -- just the beading jewelry, reality-TV star, cooking everything with heavy cream, clogging and banjo-playing type.  Always an adventure.  Again, my time of year to thrive.  These people and adventures make me smile and fill me up with yumminess to last the rest of the year.

Magic Eraser Sponge

If you're at all like me, you tend to watch commercials for cleaning products thinking "yeah right.  I don't believe it really cleans that much better."  But let me tell you the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Cleaning Sponge really is THAT awesome. 

We used to live in this 100-year OLD apartment in San Francisco, and I think the porcelain tub might have been original.  Needless to say, it was super porous and when we moved in, we scrubbed it with every cleaning supply we could think of, including bleach.  But it just seem to have a permanent light brown stain on the inside.

One day a friend recommended these sponges, so we gave them a whirl.  No kidding, you could literally see it wiping the stain off, without any cleaner.  FOR RIZZLE.  I'm not quite sure what the sponge is made of, but boy does it work. 

FaveRed Starbursts

I'm eating a package of original starbusts.  "Mmm, pink.  Yummy".  Next up, "Red. Delicious". Next, "Yellow! Oh Bummer.  I guess I'll hurry and eat it to get to another red. Next, orange. BAH."

Who else thinks this...be honest. Everyone? 

But good news, Starbusts now come in all reds and pinks.  Wow, the candy gods are smiling on me today (and my friend Katie who told me about them). :) 

Here's to road trips that are even more awesome now!

Say Goodbye to Racoon Eyes

Alright, sometimes I don't wash my makeup off before I go to bed at night.  I know - just add it to my list.  But let's be honest, I'm sure plenty of you miss occasionally too.  Or even if you are a faithful face-washer, sometimes you're mascara smudges, or flakes off toward the end of the day.  Good night!!  What would I do without mascara, but really, it makes me look nastified about 25% of the time as well.

To the point, my sister found the coolest mascara that, I swear on top old smokey, does NOT EVER give you raccoon eyes.  No smudging, flaking, sliding off your eyelashes etc.  It's BLINC masacara.

As demonstrated in the diagram above, the mascara forms these tubes around your eyelashes.  Then, when you wash your face, the whole tube comes off in one piece.  It's the craziest, coolest thing I've ever put on my face.  And, because it creates just one piece, it doesn't smear or smudge like regular tar-ish mascara.  The only draw back - it doesn't give you as much fullness as, say, Diorshow (which wins 2nd best).  But in order to avoid a 5-o'clock shadow under my eyes, I say this stuff is worth it.