Home Sweet Sarah

Things I don’t have time for

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Sarah

My hair
I can’t be bothered to do my hair most days. On wash days, I let it air-dry and embrace the wavy or put it in a bun or a braid or a braid-bun. On non-wash days I bust out my hot rollers from ye olde days of yore. On special occasions (job interviews, etc.) I might be compelled to use the flat iron, but usually? NOTHANKS. I do think, though, that most people are either hair people or makeup people. I am a makeup person. It’s not like I won’t go out without makeup on, but I much prefer makeup to hair. If my face is made-up, is anyone really noticing the hair? No.

Anything on Bravo that’s not Real Housewives
Now, I have been known to watch some Million Dollar Listing LA or some Princesses: Long Island (really just Housewives-In-Training, when you think about it), but by and large, ain’t nobody got time for the Singles Project or Jersey Belle or any of that shit. (I have heard that Game of Crowns was amazing, but alas, I didn’t watch it.)

Tweezing my eyebrows
Are we sensing a theme here with the hair avoidance? But you know, I went through a long period of obsessively over-tweezing my eyebrows and now that that’s broken, it’s like, I don’t have time to go get them waxed on the regular and no one is that close to my face to ever notice an errant eyebrow hair, so FUCK IT. (I still keep up with the unibrow situation because PLEASE.)

Washing my yoga mat
I have had my yoga mat for over 10 years and I’ve washed it once. Have you ever washed a yoga mat? It’s a pain in the ass. Plus, I feel like if I am just getting it gross each time I use it and then going home and taking a shower, what’s the point? It’s all my own filth. Meh. (I guess I could also add to the Things I Don’t Have Time For list: Buy a new yoga mat. Ten years is a long time, but at this point I’m kind of attached to it.)

What do you not have time for?

Posted in All About Moi, Beauty & Fashion, Book, Movies, TV, & Music, Workin on my fitness | 3 Comments

Please, have a seat and look at slides of my summer vacation(s), Part III

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Sarah

My aunt and grandma coordinated some professional pictures to be taken of the entire family when we were in Hawaii in May/Jun. Here are a few favorites (I would like every picture of me ever to be Photoshopped, please and thank you.)

More here.

(P.S. TAKE ME BAAAAACK.)

Posted in Chris, Family, LG, Travel | Comments Off

If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Sarah

All summer I’ve struggled with finding the time to workout. This happens to me once a year and always for a different reason–odd work schedules, the weather, what have you–and I’ve just come to accept it at this point. I remember this happening when I went back to work after LG; daylight savings time had ended, so it was getting dark earlier and I just couldn’t make working out work with my schedule. I know I wrote a blog post about it and maybe I mentioned in that post, but around that time, I was talking Holly, all, “Will I ever workout again?”, etc. and Holly was like, this is just the season your life is in right now, so don’t stress about it, things will change and you’ll be in a new season. Ebb, flow, etc. And guess what? She was right. The season did change and I actually ran a half marathon a year later, so I’d say I found the time to workout.

This summer, though. July was a particularly pitiful month for me, workout-wise. I think I worked out maybe 10 times, total. I logged about 20 miles, which is, again, pitiful. The good news is that I mostly didn’t workout because I was off doing fun things, like going to Vegas and stuff, so it’s not like it was all business. Still, being one of those obnoxious people who needs to workout to be happy, that did not make me super happy. Also, I sit for a good portion of my day and if I sit too long, I get a literal pain in my ass and walking around helps with that. So, I decided that August would be better. I would workout “more.” Ultimately, I worked out 20 days and logged 45 miles. I didn’t break any records, but it felt nice to decide to do something and then make it happen. Hot weather and busy schedules be dammed.

The point is, if you decide to do something, you can do it. But the point is also to enjoy your life where it is right now because shit changes all the time. Babies are only babies for a second and your friend only turns 30 once, so have fun and try harder next month. Enjoy the season you’re in right now.

Speaking of which, September is notoriously the hottest month of the year in California and our A/C is broken, so while the rest of the nation is off enjoying their seasons, I’ll be over here sweating ballz.

Posted in Workin on my fitness | 2 Comments

Please, have a seat and look at slides of my summer vacation(s), Part II

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Sarah

In July, we went to Vegas to celebrate my friend Kim’s 30th birthday. It was a great time, but just about one day too short. I needed an extra day to lounge by the pool/drink cocktails/people watch/all the other stuff Vegas is ripe for.

Here are a few pictures from the trip. Thanks for turning 30, Kim!

I now use this 20oz. cup at work to keep ~~six-packs of bee–~~— water in. (Mojitos were more fun.)

It was perfect Vegas weather. Hot and cloudy.

This was the view from Kim’s room at the Cosmopolitan. Our view was…Not so pretty. I mean, I dig a parking lot as much as the next person, but, ya know.

I really channeled LG here with the HIGH PONY! Give me a HIGH PONY!

(Sigh. Can we go back to Vegas? Quick, someone have a birthday and invite me.)

Posted in Chris, Travel | 2 Comments

Summer food

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Sarah

I mentioned a few posts back what I’ve been cooking recently and I thought I would post the pictures and add a little commentary. Without further ado, here’s what we’ve been making and eating this summer.

This is some kind of quiche situation that Chris makes with a potato crust. If you’re interested, I can get more information about it and report back. Let me know. I just really hate grating and then dealing with grated potatoes, so I wait until that part is done before I handle the egg/filling part. Anyway, this is great for breakfasts for the week.

Enchiladas! I sometimes roll the tortillas, I sometimes stack the tortillas. You really can’t go wrong. (These broccoli never got cooked, no matter how we tried to cook them…Roast, steam, boil, the remained practically raw each time. It was the strangest thing.)

I haven’t made zucchini boats as much as I’d like this summer, but it’s always a favorite.

This garbanzo chicken is one of my most favorite and easy recipes ever. I think I’ve linked to it before, but it’s worth repeating.

And on Tuesday, we taco.

Big Salad.

There’s a German bakery in walking distance from my office, which has become a weekly problem.

Asian lettuce wraps. They key is doubling the lettuce, which reduces the mess. (Key word: Reduces. They’re still a goddamn mess.)

That’s what we’ve been cooking as of late. What have you got going on in your kitchen? (I was looking at archives from my blog and found a shepherd’s pie with butternut squash topping. That sounds so delightfully autumn. Too bad September is the hottest month in N. California.

Posted in Food & Wine | 1 Comment

Please, have a seat and look at slides of my summer vacation(s), Part I

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Sarah

My webmaster (Chris’s cousin) (happy belated birthday, Brant!) updated my Flickr plugin so now I can post pictures to this here blog again. I thought I’d go ahead and post the pictures from our summer vacations here, in case you couldn’t be arsed (as my friend Hillary would say) to click the links in my other post. I often cannot be arsed to click the links in posts, so, you know.

First up, Oregon! We traveled on Oregon on the 4th of July for a family reunion/anniversary/birthday celebration with Chris’s extended family. When I say “birthday,” Chris was included in there too, as his birthday is on the 5th. Guess how his birthday went down. Here, I’ll tell you. We woke up, LG said she’d pooped, so Chris got up with her and I sat around in bed on my phone and then when I got on Facebook, it informed me that it was Chris’s birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! YOU GET TO CLEAN POOP! (I am such an asshole. Sorry, Chris.)

Happy birthday! Let’s go on a 4-wheeling ride! Please don’t accidentally on purpose throw me off.

LG’s first 4-wheeling ride.

Swinging.

Napping.

After I apologized for being an asshole, I went on a run by myself! The selflessness just continues!

The brothers!

Cousins (middle left in the picture above is this one’s dad.)

Oregon sunset. C’est fini.

Posted in Chris, Embarrassing Myself Daily, Family, Holidays, LG, Travel | Comments Off

The tomatoes are here!

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Sarah

A month ago I was texting Elizabeth, so confounded as to why my tomato plants hadn’t produced.

I planted late, but not that late.

It’s been cooler, but not that much cooler.

I haven’t been watering as much, but I’ve still been watering.

Well. It’s safe to say the tomatoes are here.

But that’s not all…

This weekend I picked three giant bowls full of tomatoes and then I washed and cooked/prepared almost all of them. I could. Not. Stop. The second I sat back down on the couch, I got another idea for something tomato-ish and so I just kept on cooking. Cooked until I had all but four tomatoes left. One of which I saved (three went to work to pawn off on others.)

Here are just a few things I made…

Oven-dried tomatoes (h/t EBJ for the recipe rec.) (This was maybe 1/12 of the final amount. These were chef’s snacks.)

Bruschetta and salsa (no recipes; just winged it)

And then I made three bags of peeled, diced tomatoes (froze), one gallon bag of marinara sauce (not an entire gallon, just enough for a gallon-sized bag), and enchilada sauce.

Until next weekend, tomatoes.

Posted in Food & Wine | 1 Comment

Documentaries I’ve watched recently* plus the Emmy’s

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Sarah

*Do I know to live or what?

Even though we’ve got a ton of tv shows we already can’t keep up with (this weekend we finally finished season two of The Kevin Bacon Show that ended in…April) we have been on quite a documentary kick lately. All three of these are available on Netflix Instant (and also probably available on Amazon or whatever newfangled things you kids are watching tv on these days) if you want to watch them too.

20 Feet From Stardom
I heard about this before it won the Oscar, when some people from the documentary were on NPR Fresh Air, and I put it on my mental To Watch list immediately. It’s about backup singers and it’s really, really good. Great music, of course (think Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson), and it also gives some great background into those people who really have a hand in making certain songs what they are but who rarely get credit. Recommend.

Jiro Dreams Of Sushi
This came recommended by my childhood friend and it is SUCH a delight. It has subtitles, so you have to read (ugh, reading), but it’s worth it. Recommend if you like sushi, food, behind the scenes peeks into the restaurant business, cute old men, fish markets.

Somm
I know I’ve recommended my friend Ben’s podcast, Wine 4 Sophisticated Homies, and while I guess I understood what it meant to be a certified Sommelier (both from the podcast and from other Somm friends), I guess I didn’t realize what it meant to be a Master Sommelier (e.g.: there have only 219 Master Sommeliers. Ever. Granted, the MS certification has only been around for 45ish years, but still. 219 ain’t a lot of people.) Anyway, I heard about this documentary not from the wine homies podcast, but on NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour. I like wine and documentaries, so I thought I’d give it a whirl. It’s okay, not the greatest, but worth a watch, for sure, if only to hear the wacky things they come up with during blind tastings. “Rotten animal meat” was a scent descriptor. So. Yeah.

Other documentaries I want to watch: Unhung Hero (about that, yes) and 112 Weddings.

Any good docs you’ve seen recently? My tastes tend to lean toward fun/airy/uplifting/also informative, rather than scary/if you eat this way you’ll die/do you know where your beef comes from/the world is ending/etc.

Switching gears! The Emmy Awards are tonight! On a Monday! It’s “my SuperBowl,” as Chris says, and he is taking it very seriously, cooking steaks and baked potatoes and generally treating it as the holiday it is should be. (I am taking tomorrow off, not because of the Emmy’s, but that certainly is a happy accident.)

I don’t have specific nominees I’m rooting for necessary (except Allison Tolman from Fargo—Molly Solverson 4EVA) but it doesn’t matter, as it’s always fun to watch while simultaneously drinking champagne, texting my parents (who are also dining on steak and champagne, yes of course we compared Emmy menus yesterday), and crying over the In Memoriam. Maybe more so this year with the recent passing of Our Favorite Orkan.

Posted in Book, Movies, TV, & Music, Chris, Family, Food & Wine | 2 Comments

A bunch of unrelated stuff

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Sarah

1. I’m rewatching The L Word from the beginning. Showtime is replaying it two episodes at a time on Thursday nights and I’m finding it quite enjoyable even though I have seen it all before. Shane continues to be the hottest. Jenny continues to be awful. Kit continues to be my favorite.

I’ve also started watching Tyrant and Outlander, am on the second season of Masters of Sex, and made the executive decision to give up on Ray Donovan. I couldn’t even get through last season, so eeeeeh. I think it goes without saying I am watching all the Real Housewives right now. I am LOVING Jerz this season (Amber and Jim are AWFUL) and Orange County, with the addition of Crazy Shannon, has been great too.

2. I was in desperate need of new makeup and didn’t have time to head to the M.A.C. counter, so I hopped on over to Sephora’s website and ordered some stuff. I must say, I think my beloved M.A.C. PowerPoint eyeliner has a new replacement. I bought Benefit’s They’re Real! Push-Up Liner and I love it. I also bought NARS blush (in the famous color I refuse to type because I don’t want to get any more spam) and an Urban Decay eyeshadow in Foxy.

3. Mealtime in this house is pretty fluid. I feel like every time I get a handle on things, our schedules change again and we’re adapting to a new routine. For now: We are doing A LOT of prep/cooking on the weekends. But, it’s paid off. Since Chris started his job a year ago and I started mine four months ago, neither of us have purchased lunches out (with the exception of Chris’s occasional team-building burrito day, of course.) That feels pretty nice, I’m not gonna lie. I hate wasting money on food I could make better and I feel like most lunch places fall into that category. $20 salads that are mediocre, etc. Anyway, I was going to post pictures of some meals I’ve cooked recently, but my Flickr plug-in isn’t working, so go here if you’re interested. It’s pretty low-brow stuff, but when you get home at 5:30pm and the majority of your family goes to bed at 7:30pm, you make do with what you can. If I can work in a salad a day, then I consider that a win.

4. With high hopes, I bought a Soda Stream and I am returning it tomorrow. The CO2 cartridge that came with it said it was enough for 60 liters. I made maybe 10 liters total and the thing crapped out this morning. I also could never get the machine to make fizzy enough water. And I never heard the LOUD NOISE! everyone said I would hear. So. back to the Targs it goes, where I shall then buy several cases of La Croix and call it a day. I of course would like a Soda Stream (sparky water anytime, less waste, etc.), but not if I am going to have to run out and buy a new CO2 cartridge every week. Also, the thing felt really plasticy and cheap from the get-go. I expected more.

5. A few LG updates:

She moved up to the big kid room at school. They are called Busy Bears, instead of Caterpillars. I think the main difference is they have more Legos in the Busy Bears room, although I really wouldn’t know because…

…Tonight at dinner we asked her what she did at school today and she told us she’d tell us, “Maybe later.” Maybe later is a very big thing right now. Like, “Are you ready for bed?” “Maybe later.” (Mom and Dad are less thrilled with “maybe later,” obvs.)

She can spell her entire name and is in the stage where she “reads” books (that she’s memorized.) One of her favorites is Wacky Wednesday (which happens to have been my favorite growing up yaaaaaaay) and upon the recommendation of Diane, we taped a shoe to her wall last Friday night. I was giddy when I woke up Saturday morning, so excited to see what she thought of the shoe on the wall. Chris went in there and…No shoe. “Was there a shoe on your wall?” he asked her. “Yeah, I put it away.” Ever practical, that one.

6. I’ve been trying to workout at lunch more—two mile walks with my work walking buddy—because I feel like a slug every night when I get home after sitting most of the day (what I wouldn’t give for a stand-up desk.) Ideally I’d go on runs, but when it’s 90 degrees at noon, yeah, no thanks. I have high hopes of getting in a yoga class once a week (in addition to yoga church on Sundays), but that hasn’t happened yet. Prioritizing my time, etc.

7. We’ve gone on a lot of fun trips this summer. Hawaii, of course, then Oregon for the 4th of July, Vegas for my friend Kim’s birthday, then Santa Cruz this past weekend. After many years of no trips, it’s been fun to go on many trips. Pictures: Oregon here. Vegas here. Santa Cruz here.

Well, that’s me! What’s new with you?

Posted in All About Moi, Beauty & Fashion, Book, Movies, TV, & Music, Chris, Family, Food & Wine, Holidays, LG, Travel, Workin on my fitness | 2 Comments

2Q14 books

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Sarah

Remember a couple months back when I was all smug, posting the list of books I’d read so far this year because I’d read so many (*cough* eight *cough*) books already there was no way I could possibly wait to recap them all in December?

Yes, well, I’ve read a whopping two books since then. TWO. BOOKS. How pitiful is that?

In my defense, I started a new job, so time has been scarcer (even though I have plenty of time to read at night, I’ve been choosing to spend my time rewatching The L Word from the beginning. It’s been enjoyable.)

Anyway, I did actually start, but not finish, three other books and I actually finished another one yesterday, but that’ll have to count towards Q3’s book list, as we’re already halfway through July.

Onto the books!

I Triggered Her Bully, by Cindy Caponera
This was a really odd read. I listen to a podcast, The Momo Show, and they were raving, raving, raving about this book by a former SNL staff writer/friend of theirs. I figured I’d take the plunge for $3.99 or whatever and…Yeah. Odd. I guess it’s supposed to be a series of essays about this woman’s life in Chicago and beyond, but it was in desperate need of serious editing. Not just with regard to grammar (ALTHOUGH THAT TOO), but the essays were just really disjointed and found myself through most of the book being like, “What’s happening here? When will this story come together?” I admittedly enjoy, but don’t read a ton of, personal essay-type of writing, but I feel like this isn’t how it should be. Anyway, the woman’s funny, I’ll give her that. Side note: After reading the book, I heard an episode of The Momo Show where this author was a guest and she explained that this book came about because she’d written all these different essays over the years and someone–an editor, I guess?–suggested she turn the essays into a book. So there you go. Disjointed.

Where’d You Go Bernadette?, by Maria Semple
Great book! So cute! Highly recommend! Fine holiday fun! This was a quick read, mostly consisting of letters/emails to and from various people in the book. Bernadette goes missing, as you might have guessed, and while Bernadette herself is just so quirky and fun, her daughter is especially a delight. Loved the mother-daughter loyalty thing going on here. It also takes place mainly in the Seattle area, so of course I dug that.

What have you read recently? I’m off to pay a fine at the library (on the one book I finished recently; couldn’t even read it in six weeks’ time, oof) and then I’ll be putting some new books in the queue.

Posted in Book, Movies, TV, & Music | 1 Comment