Birthdays

I have never been a huge fan of my birthday. 

People who say that their birthday isn’t a big deal to them are lying.  

It’s a holiday that was made for you and only you.  You don’t have to share is with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, President Lincoln or the United States of America.  When you claim that you are, in fact, a really big fan of your birthday, though, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.  

You expect the day to resemble a dream.  The day is expected to be magical and full of glitter and wishes.  Even though your birthday was a great freaking day, you didn’t run into Justin Bieber, you didn’t find $1,000,000 in a suitcase.  You actually didn’t even win $500 on that lottery scratcher you bought on a coffee run.  

During the day, you spend it reflecting over the last year of your life.  It’s likely that you’ll make a New Year’s style resolution, because “26 will be the year I…”

I did all of that.  

It was my birthday yesterday and I even though the Biebs was nowhere to be found and I’m still not a part of the 1%, I had a great day.

–

I spent Birthday-eve (Birthday is capitalized because you capitalize all holidays, don’t you?) like most 12 year olds do.  

Cosmic bowling.  

For anyone paying attention, like my mother, you’ll notice that I have spent 6 out of the 8 last birthdays bowling.

We had dinner at Bottles and Burgers at Tivoli Village beforehand.  No pictures and not much to review since it wasn’t overly memorable and the hostesses were rude.

I slept, like average people do at night, and then…

The Birthday.

I spent the early afternoon eating brunch with a bunch of tourists.

I’m fortunately my most charming around tourists and as the boo and I were waiting for our table to be ready, we chatted it up with four dudes from [I don't remember/can't recall/didn't care].  After 5 minutes of charismatic small talk, they sent a couple of mojitos our way.  Happy Birthday to me!

I started with the tiger shrimp and roasted garlic corn tamale.  I had this a few years back and remember saying that it was the best cooked shrimp I had ever had.  No difference now.  The shrimp was tender, juicy and melted like butter in my mouth.  I only wish the tamale had some heat. It was pretty tame and I guess I expected the chili-king Bobby Flay to sneak bits of chili into everything on his menu.

 

Even though we were here during brunch hours, I went for the Ancho-Chili Honey Glazed Salmon.  Doesn’t it make your mouth water just looking at it?  The fish was cooked medium (with permission) and now I’m not likely to have it prepared any other way.   It was accompanied with a black bean sauce and jalapeno cream and sauteed spinach hiding underneath the fish.

Bobby Flay has a Mesa Grill cookbook.  I wonder if the recipe for this is in it.  If so, someone get me a late birthday present, please.

 

Besides the food, I spent the rest of the afternoon getting spoiled…

(If you’re wondering why I’m carrying the purse and the shopping bag it came from at the same time, it’s because 3 seconds after the lady wrapped up my new purse in the super large gift box, I stepped outside of the store [because asking if you can "wear it out" seemed so tacky], threw the Guc in the oversized gift box and rocked my new wallet carrier for the rest of the day.)

 

…and with the best greeting card picker in the world.

 

I had a great Birthday.  Reflecting over the day right before bed, we equally couldn’t believe how much laughter we expelled.  We didn’t reflect long, as we were asleep by 9.  

I am grateful for the [best] friends that didn’t need a Facebook notification to remind them that it was my day and the son that (practically) didn’t need a reminder that January 14th was mommy’s birthday.  

 

Would I change anything about yesterday? 

I would have eaten birthday cake.

 

Wanna know what’s up?

Oh nothin’.  Just hanging out with the Biebs at work.

I know I’m going to have to take my decorations down once Christmas is over, but I wonder if anyone will mind if I keep the Justin Bieber poster up all year long.  Because I didn’t win any prizes for having such awesome decorations, I did exclaim very loudly that as punishment, he’s here to stay.

I’ve been looking forward to this time of year… that is, break from school and life to mellow out a little bit.  I had this “Things I Learned in 2011″ post planned and it might still be coming, in the meantime, I will just continue on life as normal.  I’m not playing catch up either (maybe).  We’re just going to start with what’s going on right now.

It’s the boo’s birthday this weekend.  It’s not just one day.  It’s a weekend.

He hasn’t told me how old he’s turning, but I swear he doesn’t look a day over 22.

We went to Texas de Brazil with a couple of the pals and then hung out at Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar for the remainder of the night.

We had never been to this piano bar before and we had a blast.  I love light hearted sing-a-longs and this place was just wonderful.  The birthday boy was appropriately serenaded, too.

Today, we hung out at home and watched football all day long.  I caught up on the 12 magazines that I had sent here that I hadn’t been able to read and cleaned my beautiful kitchen.

Here’s what I have to look forward to in the next 7 days…

My sister comes home!!!  She’s been in Cape Town, South Africa for the past 4 weeks.  I know.  Her life sucks.

That picture is from the backyard of the house she’s been staying at.  It seems as if infinity pools are the norm there. … and being able to spit into the ocean from your pool chair.

I’ll get into why she was there in a later post, but everyone knows that my sister is my since-birth-best-friend so I’ve been a little lost without her.  Jaxson misses her too, but I think me more than he.

A four day weekend! (Do you want me to take a picture of a calendar so I have a picture to represent this part?)

A Christmas party with all of my family.

That picture was from Thanksgiving.  We kept it a small group.

Thankfully, the whole family is coming over to my parent’s house for Christmas…

Hehehe…. just kidding.  I don’t think everyone’s coming for Christmas.

… Filling up the Gucci with tickets and hanging out with this guy..

… and lastly, actually filling these up so all of the boys have a stocking full of goodies.

I’ll keep the updates coming about the holiday season as best as I can.  I’ve got a couple days of work to get through and then the most wonderful time of the year.  To all of my friends that work in retail… hang tough.  You can do it.

Take care, friends!

2-month recap

Hi everyone! I realized that I never finished my Hawaii blogs from a month ago. I have them saved on my computer, but they’re so outdated that half of the writing is irrelevant. I guess it’s good to still have them diary-style though…

I still have lots of pictures to share from that vacation, so here!

I call this one “Pineapple in Paradise.” Travis still had to work on Friday, which left me alone with the hotel room and Hawaii in general. Since I had flirted with the city (see: the journey to Leonard’s), I just wanted to relax, hang out on the balcony, and eat some pineapple.

Funny sidenote… have any of you ever had pineapple burns? I had never experienced them until this tub of fruit. When pineapple is under-ripe (I wouldn’t have known it; it was already so sweet!), it produces an acid on your tongue and if you have enough of it, it burns just like a hot substance would. I hated it and I had a miserable two hours afterwards. When I say miserable, I really mean that I’m sorry to any stranger or tourist I met afterwards and complained about my pineapple tongue to.

Lava Flow #1

Girly Drink #2

Lava Flow (probably) #9

Girly Drink #23

… so on and so forth. I’m usually no frills when it comes to beverages. I’m not into super sweet, processed, order-something-with-a-dumb-name beverages. In Hawaii, supposedly that’s just the way you’re supposed to do it.

You know the couple that just hangs out in swimwear at the pool/beach bar and just lounges around while drinking brightly colored cocktails? Guilty!

I overdid the Lava Flows though. By our first night, the boyfriend and I were known to have drinks down at the lobby, and then order our last round to share on our balcony (notice how much I loved this balcony?).

I think I had my last one about 6 hours prior to leaving Honolulu. At this point, I was in a sugar coma and vowed never to order a blended beverage ever again. So far, so good. It really is just way too much.

—

The MF-in’ FOOD!

Mahi-Mahi with rice and other stuff. Looks great, but forgettable. Very, very forgettable. So much that I already forgot about it.

Did I tell you that I ran a second trip down to Leonard’s on Saturday morning so that I could get malasadas for the boo to try?

Oh yeah, pictures or it didn’t happen.

Saturday morning, I didn’t plan on running, but since sleepyhead boyfriend isn’t down with 6 am like I am, I got bored and laced up.

I was just going to run a little, but then I felt bad for not having shared my Leonard’s experience with the boy. I headed up, waited in line, and grabbed a half dozen to bring back to the hotel.

Leonard’s is almost 3 miles from the hotel and remember, I just told you I bought a half dozen malasadas. I tied the bag of malasadas to my running belt, realized that I would probably have to hold them since they were too heavy and were bouncing around everywhere, and jogged on. My goal was to get them back as fresh as possible.

So are you picturing it? Girl running with a box of malasadas through the streets of Honolulu, sweating and sweating hard. Oh, it rained, too. Hard.

I made it back to the hotel, slammed the hotel room door open, and yelled, “TAKE A PICTURE OF ME!” (For blogging purposes only. It was a funny story and I had every intention of posting it here.)

T replied, “You don’t want anyone to see a picture of you right now…”

SUSHI MONSTAHHH! That’s a roll of something with something and a garlic chip on top. It was delicious but I shamefully can’t remember what was inside of it for the life of me.

Our (only) date night in Hawaii was a planned sushi date. Unlike Australia, we had the luxury of Yelp-ing and Urban Spoon-ing places to eat at. We stumbled upon a sushi restaurant in the Waikiki shopping area. We had dinner outside on their terrace, overlooking the city.

OK, so now you’re caught up on Hawaii.

Time flew by and far too quickly, but we managed to take a couple of balcony (I <3 balconies) sunset pictures while we were there.

Again, I am really fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience Hawaii for the first time. It sucks that it was just a little teaser, but whatever. I’ll be back.

Love you all! Thanks for reading!

Welcome to Honolulu!

One of the most exciting parts of travelling to a new place is being able to take my morning run on a journey it’s never been.

Sorry Sydney, Honolulu wins this round.

This was, by far, the most pleasing run I had ever been on.

Travis and I were fortunate enough to stay at the Hilton Hawaiian Village here in Honolulu. As soon as our room was booked, I shot an email over to the hotel and asked them if there was a jogging trail near the hotel. They replied:

“There is a cement walkway that skirts the outer banks of our property and runs the majority of the length of the world famous Waikiki Beach that will provide you with stunning views during your jogs.”

Major f-ing understatement.

Hawaii is 3 hours behind Las Vegas time so I wasn’t surprised when I woke up at 3:19am time fairly alert. I forced myself back to sleep and made it until 5am. I sat in bed and behaved since the partner was still fast asleep. When I couldn’t take it anymore (at 5:10am), I got up and peeked out the window.

The sun was adorably peeking above the ocean. The more it rose, the more anxiousness grew. I suited up in my gear, fanny-pack and all. Travis had to go to work anyway so I knew I had some time to kill before he was back at the hotel.

I couldn’t have asked for a better morning. The weather was perfect (the weather here just IS perfect), the walkway was fairly empty, and the ocean served as my companion.

After a blissful hour and a half of exercise, I stepped away from the oceanfront and make my way into the city. I had a destination to make my way to.

I headed away from the ocean and headed toward a more residential area. This was definitely “head to work” time in Honolulu because the traffic was terrible. Lucky for me, the sidewalks were empty.

I had already logged 4 miles in, but my destination was another two miles away. Oh well, let’s go another two!

If you’re anybody that’s anybody, you know that you have to

have a Malasada when in Honolulu. It’s a very popular tourist spot and a frequent spot for tour buses to stop into.

The only, repeat: only, place to get them is from Leonard’s Bakery. A Malasada is a Portuguese-style donut without the hole, traditionally covered in sugar and sometimes filled with custard. The bakery was full of people and the line wrapped quite a way around. I stood in line and even though I already knew what I was going to order, I was still very tempted by the other sweets in the display.

When it was my turn to order, I grabbed two: one cinnamon and one haupia (coconut-custard).

I maneuvered my way through the tourists and found a place behind the bakery to dig into the goodies.

The cinnamon was good. It’s great to have them so fresh. It has a crispy shell and a soft and chewy interior. It’s melt-in-your-mouth warm and is superior to every donut I’d ever had. I finished about half because I had the idea down in my mind already.

But the haupia…

Oh the haupia…

I bit into this and instantly went to heaven. It had the same crispy outside as the cinnamon and would just as dough-y as the cinnamon, but the filling was incredible. I’m not a fan of custard or jelly filled donuts. I actually hate them, so I didn’t expect to like this. The custard was perfect. It wasn’t too sweet, had the perfect amount of coconut flavor, and complemented the dough so well.

I’m so glad that I made my way to have one of these.

Supposedly, it’s really important to fuel your body with carbs after a long workout. I’m sure this is exactly what they meant.

Wait, this was 2 miles away from my hotel? Does that mean that I have to run/jog/walk 2 miles to get back?

Oh, yeah.

I enjoyed it though. I walked through a better part of the city heading back and passed by cute little shops along the way.

I continued to enjoy Waikiki Beach, as everyone down here should.

See you in paradise!!

Hi again! For all of you that were worried, no, I have not forgotten about the blog.

Yes, I’ve been really busy. My normal life is regretfully too boring to blog about consistently. Do you want to know what I ate today? Yesterday? Want to see what I baked yesterday? Did you want to know how I felt about the start of the NFL season? I know you don’t so I’m saving you the trouble of filtering through posts to get to something good.

Guess what though? I’ll be spending the weekend in Honolulu. You know, no big deal. I’m holding back the 3 paragraph long tribute I had written in my mind about how great my boyfriend is to share an opportunity he had to go out of town with me. I get excited when I know I get to spend an entire work-free weekend with him, let alone in Hawaii.

To take you through my day thus far, I finished my work day (and it really felt like the longest ever) and now I’m hanging out in the airport. I was afraid of having to hang out with other traveling folk in the security line since the line at the D Gates were insanely flooded with people, but as I journeyed over to the C Gates, I was surprisingly the only person there. I even had the tram all to myself!

To maximize the time in paradise, I decided to fly from Las Vegas to LAX since Hawaiian Airlines had better flight times leaving LAX than they did at the McCarran. I promise, this had nothing to do with there being a Pinkberry at the terminal I was flying into.

I repeat, this had nothing to do with Pinkberry at the terminal I was flying into.

This decision had nothing to do with my body being Pinkberry-free against my will since October 2010.

It actually had a little to do with there being a Pinkberry at LAX. When I first started looking at flights, the ones coming from McCarran were stupid. Why would I want to depart at 1am and arrive there at 4am? I was a click away from booking that flight when I thought, “It would be so awesome if it connected in LAX. That way I could get Pinkberry.” I then came up with a genius idea to create my own connection. It just happened to work in my favor so that way I arrived in Hawaii at a reasonable hour.

That’s the story and I’m sticking to it.

What did I have in heaven?

(That’s what I’m calling it from now on)

Original tart with mango, blueberries and raspberries.

As if my life couldn’t already get any better, I learn that there’s a Pinkberry at Honolulu International Airport.

I swear, the decision go to Hawaii had nothing to do with me having contact with two different Pinkberry locations.

Europe 2012

I built this blog around my vacation to Australia and now that it’s over, I’m struggling to write about [anything, really].  I will share my next exciting adventure… EUROPE 2012!

I have a cousin that recently got engaged.  Now she’s getting married and lucky for the Salonga family, she lives in London and is holding her wedding there.  I’m very fortunate to have such an international family and have lots of cousins in the marrying age.  I feel less spoiled when I can say, “I’m going to Europe, but it’s for a wedding.”

I loved how thorough I was with the parts most memorable in my experiences in Sydney.  My mother recently showed my aunt our pictures from the vacation and I kept hearing her say, “I read that on Stephanie’s blog!”  I received positive feedback from many of you that motivated me to document my adventure and received complaints when I skipped a day of blogging.  I thrive off of having something to look forward to.

Even though we’re not going until late next year, a little bit of everything I do from here on our may possibly be Europe related and I will continue to use this as an avenue to share.

Although the decision will entirely come down to where me, Travis and my family will want to go and what we want to experience, I’m willing to hear suggestions.

Where have you been?  What have you seen?  Where would you go if you had the opportunity?

Oh, there I am!

Sorry for having been pretty absent recently after so many have come to expect daily blogs from me.  I’ve been really busy lately!

Between STILL unpacking/vacation laundry/catching up on work/hanging out with Jaxson/cleaning up the house that didn’t miraculously clean itself while I was on vacation, I was tired.  I saw what happens when I tired-blog (i.e. the last three Australia blogs, written during 100% jet lag) and I didn’t want any of my entries to suffer because I was forcing it.

I know you’re dying to know what I’ve been up to this week…

I’ve been saving money on gas.  $3.09 a gallon because of my $0.30 Smith’s gas reward?! It’s like we’re in 2010 (or 2009… I’ve been knee deep in 2011 prices that I can’t remember the last time I saw gas under $3) all over again!

I’ve been making hummus…

…. and having it every day since then.

 It was overly garlicky, so my plan to carry this in my car as a lunchtime meal was ruined.  I don’t need to be scaring anyone off with any I-can-smell-what-you-just-ate breath. Lucky for me, it lovingly waits for me to come home too.

I’ve been cheating on almond butter.

I’m still indifferent about the stuff.  I wanted to see how far into the nut butter world I could explore and it apparently wasn’t very far.  It doesn’t feel as wholesome (I think I really meant fiber-y) and is tamer in flavor than my precious almond butter.  I’m judging this all based on the finger I dipped into the jar though.  I’ll put this on some real food next week before I write it off.

I resurrected my George Foreman grill and turned it into a panini press.

I bought the gadget 5 years ago.  It was so terrible at cooking (really, drying) meats that I locked it up in a dark cabinet as punishment.

The thought of purchasing a panini press had crossed my mind recently until I remembered an article about not buying one-use gadgets and suggested to use a Foreman grill as a panini press instead of shelling out +$150 for one.  The verdict?

A perfectly crunchy panini.

I went to a beautiful wedding and witnessed two become one.

I regrettably have no pictures of the outside setup.  Regretted, because it was easily one of the most beautiful places in the city; especially beautiful since the wedding was set during sunset.  The wedding was filled with so many beautiful moments and I’m very fortunate to have been a part of it.

I’ve been hanging out with this guy..

 

and this guy…

 

 

 

 

Now, you’re caught up!