sandwich series (part 2)

I came across this job the other day for a personal assistant to the two partners at a high-tech consulting firm in Boston. I immediately got images of "The Devil Wears Prada," but maybe with less devil and Prada. Dunno, I think it would have been an awesome job.

Psh, who decided that there needs to be previous experience for a job? It should be enough for me to say that I would be great at it. I'd also like a money tree, and world peace.

But given the unlikelihood of attaining any of those things, I return to food, which will always be there to give me comfort. Wow, that was a pretty bad segue. I'll work on it. For now, suffice it to say that I'm now out of sandwich bread so my sandwich series is at an end. And it had the gall to end on a prime number. The nerve.

Oh well. It was still delicious.

five: fried egg, white bean and basil salad, avocado, raw almond hummus

reusing greeting cards

I'm a hoarder. Everything that has even a smidgen of possibility that I might potentially maybe need it sometime in the future I will keep. Until I find myself out of storage room and then I do this whole big purge and spend the next month crying over all the things I had to throw away. It's a horrendous cycle. I'm pretty sure it's genetic. I didn't realize it until recently, but my mom is pretty much the same. Except for maybe the crying. I think that's just me.

Most things just sit there and collect dust. But then there are projects like this that validate my need to save absolutely everything. Such as used cards.

the sandwich series (part 1)

There wasn't much food in the house last week, so I ended up back with my default of a sandwich for lunch. But to keep things from being boring, I experimented with different fillings, and thus the sandwich series was born. Here are some of the combos I've tried so far.

one: seared trumpet mushroom, broccoli, bean sprouts, celery, tomatillo and avocado salsa, mozzarella

care packages

I LOVE sending care packages. At least until I end up at the post office and am surprised at how expensive it is to ship things these days. But no matter, because the act of finding (or baking) a bunch of goodies and putting it all together in a box is a pretty awesome task.

a care package for a friend in the middle of med school exam week

lighthouses

Number 9 on my 101 in 1001 list is to visit another three lighthouses.  For some reason, I think of lighthouses as an east coast thing, but the west coast definitely has some beautiful lighthouses too! My best friend Hannah and I had plans to go on this lighthouse road trip sometime during college, but never got around to it (although that seems to be the story of our friendship; we've got a google doc full of things we want to do but haven't.  instead we order takeout and watch stupid movies.) So now, it's on my list of things to do.

Fisgard Lighthouse

However, I did get the chance to visit two lighthouses while I was vacationing in the Pacific Northwest last summer with my family.  We stopped at the Fisgard Lighthouse in Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC, and the West Point Lighthouse in Discovery Park, Seattle, WA.  The Fisgard Lighthouse was restored inside, so you could go in and explore.  The West Point Lighthouse was being repainted when we were there, and I'm not sure the current state.  But neither are particularly out of the way of their respective city, so I would definitely recommend visiting both!

West Point Lighthouse

san diego

This past weekend, my mom and I took a day trip down to San Diego. We didn't do too much - mostly just shopping and some eating. Most of these places were suggested by Design Sponge's city guide. Here are some of the places we went to.

Food:
Cafe 21: we went here for lunch based off yelp reviews, but weren't really impressed? there was a decent wait outside too, so we were surprised by the quality of food.  maybe people went for the drinks? they had six selections of sangria, and huge bloody marys etc etc etc. it also took forever to get our food, and all we ordered was spinach crepes and a spicy cristo sandwich.
Rim Talay Thai Cuisine: we ended up grabbing dinner in Oceanside on our drive back home.  Yelp didn't steer us wrong with this one. we ordered their fresh rolls (aka spring rolls), an island curry (red curry plus pineapple etc), and a tom yum noodle soup.  great food for a decent price, but service was a bit slow at times.  they also do a pretty popular takeout. we parked next to a barber shop full of marines getting their high and tight sharpened up; it was amusing.

Shopping:
Pigment: super awesome store in North Park, with a "plant lab" where you can create your own terrarium with their selection of glass globes, plants, sand, etc.  
Progress: also wonderfully curated, with an awesome selection of cards and home goods.  in South Park
Bubbles Boutique: a clothing and accessories store in the Gaslamp District.  apparently they only (mostly?) stock local artists/jewelers/etc? Depending on what you're going for, may not be worth the drive and parking, but if you're already in the area, definitely worth a look
Bixby & Ball: in the Cedros Design District in Solana Beach, a little bit north of San Diego. I'd visited this place before, and wanted to show it to my mom. the last time I was there, they had spread out onto the steps and driveway out front for a sale, which was great for me. this time, it was just the shop. pricey goods, but the ambience and quality is fantastic.
Solo: just down the street from bixby & ball.  lots of great stuff, plus it's in this warehouse-y looking cement brick building that they managed to make inviting and not like costco at all.  you could probably find a lot of their goods elsewhere for a couple dollars cheaper, but it's still a great place to browse and get inspiration.  the rest of the store in the Cedros Design District also warrant a visit.

and some places we didn't get to, but wish we did.
Food:
Maza Grill Kabob: apparently they offer good, cheap food.  unfortunately they were closed for the long weekend.
Alchemy: had a delicious-sounding menu, but we weren't hungry when we got to the South Park area, so decided to move on. also seems to have a community aspect to it, which is exciting
Craft & Commerce: their lunch menu looked fantastic, but they only offer food from their brunch menu on weekends, which wasn't as exciting.

Shopping:
Vocabulary: we ended up passing by this part of town completely. =[