Because #breakfast.

So last Sunday le boy and I went to VB3 for brunch and I wasn't really that hungry so I decided to go for their VB3 Pancake [on the left].  It's a $9 pancake - notice the noun is in singular and NOT plural.  Yes, it's ONE pancake... $9...  kinda pricey but totes delicious!  The picture doesn't do this pancake justice.

 Anyways... it was so yummy, now I want to make one, or two, or three... In my kitchen.  I wonder if the end product with be, edible.

Recipe

DIY: Hack it up.

This on the left is my 45 year old Ikea Lack coffee table.  It cost me a little over $20 back in 2010.  It's all beat up now.  Looks old, and beyond used, and it almost made its way to the garbage pile when I last moved.  But I figured I could bring this baby back to life if I just took the time to spruce her up a bit... make her pretty and attractive again.

Ain't this a sexy table?

After browsing for what felt like forever, I found this hack (picture on the right).  Doesn't it look like a totally different table and... pretty, and.... rustic, and... completely NOT like it came out of the Ikea store?

I shall attempt to do this some weekend this month.

For tutorials on how to do this, click on links below.

[Source, Source]

Hello South Carolina!

Hola Ms. Myrtle and Sir. Charleston!

This weekend le boy, the ladies and moi will be flying our human [and canine] butts to South Carolina, YAY!!!!

The trip was intended to be Myrtle Beach only, but after short consideration I realized that there is not much to do at Myrtle in early October, sooooo I decided to add a car rental to our reservations and now we are going on a Sunday day trip to Charleston and I cannot be more excited! WOOOHOOOO!!!!

So here's what our vacation looks like [and I will update accordingly, after the trip]:

Friday:  The Boardwalk

This one should be fun to walk around on an early Fall afternoon... into the night.

UPDATE:  Cancelled.  Fucked up by storm floodings. 

Saturday:  California Roots Concert

The reason for our trip!  We have become 311 concert goers, so when mah man found out that 311 was going to perform at the California Roots concert, well, things were booked and now we both can't wait!

UPDATE:  Cancelled.  Fucked up by storm floodings. 

Sunday:  Charleston, S.C.

I would be lying if I said I never cared to come to this city.  I've seen how beautiful it looks on TV and I have been wanting to visit for a while now.  I am so so so excited we will get the opportunity to walk the streets of Charleston.  I, of course, jumped on the opportunity of going as soon as I realized there was not much of interest for us in Myrtle Beach after California Roots all day concert was done and over with.  It is only 2 hours away from Myrtle so a day trip on a Sunday seemed feasible and stupid to not do.  I did my lil research and since we will only get a few hours in Charleston, I wanted to make the most of it, so I found this Free Tours By Foot guided tour (which I have already used their amazing tour guide services when we went to NOLA) and booked us a Historic Charleston tour.  The tour is two hours and I'm SURE it will be very informative and amazing and a great way to learn the most about this city.

UPDATE:  Cancelled.  Fucked up by storm floodings. 

Some of the areas visited during the tour are:

The French Quarter:  Four Corners of Law a/k/a the courthouse:  "Known as "the Four Corners of Law" because the intersection hosted buildings from each level of government: the Courthouse (state law), City Hall (municipal law), the Federal Building and U.S. Post Office (federal law), and Saint Michael's Episcopal Church (canon law)." Thanks wiki!

UPDATE:  Cancelled.  Fucked up by storm floodings. 

Rainbow Row:  "Rainbow Row is the name for a series of thirteen colorful historic houses in Charleston, South Carolina. It represents the longest cluster of Georgian row houses in the United States." Thanks again wiki!!!

UPDATE:  Cancelled.  Fucked up by storm floodings. 

Charleston City Market:  A Place where you can shop your little heart out...  plus music entertainment.  Day market opens at 9:30 a.m. and closes at 5:30 p.m.  Night market opens at 6:30 p.m. and closes at 10:30 p.m.

UPDATE:  Cancelled.  Fucked up by storm floodings. 

Pineapple Fountain:  This interesting looking fountain is located in the Charleston Waterfront Park.  I am assuming a place to go for a stroll and relax.  From what I've read so far,  pineapples are a thing in Charleston and represent hospitality. 

UPDATE:  Cancelled.  Fucked up by storm floodings. 

Skytop Adventure Center: TREETOP ZIPLINE & CHALLENGE COURSE

This is my third time doing this Zipline/Challenge at Skytop, but my first time doing the course with my boyfriend. This adventure is somewhat intense and at times, you really do have to go the distance and push yourself during the obstacles.  The zipline parts are easy breezy!  This is for the active, and the daring… and if you are afraid of heights, please stay home.   The course is full of elevated bridges, ladders, cargo nets that you have to walk (or crawl) on, hanging logs that one has to use to go across.  The whole adventure (minus a couple of ground touching pit stops) takes place above ground.

 

If you make it all the way to the end (nobody likes a quitter!) they offer an extra course, free of charge, not made for the weak or the lazy.  Boy what a workout that last course was!

 

The first and second times I did the Treetop Zip/Challenge, it was a three hour thing.  This third time, I guess it was the charm cause we got to go through obstacles and zips for FOUR AMAZING HOURS!

 

It’s stuff like this, I completely and truly enjoy!  I will definitely do this again next year.

Improvising after a failed birthday plan.

I had this great adventure in PA planned and scheduled, but life throws you curve-balls and then you have to improvise.

After receiving a very disturbing cancellation email, I had to get my planning wheels in motion and figure out last minute what to do with my dearest friend.  What could we do that we haven't done yet and doesn't need much planning.  I thought, rock-climbing!

Well, we got lucky!  Cause we headed over to New Jersey Rock Gym with no reservations made and when we got there, the counter people said we needed a reservation BUT that we got lucky cause they had an instructor ready to go for us.  PHEW!!!!

Needless to say, we had a great time and later we had sore time but all in good fun.

No pain no gain, right?  Happy Birthday Crees!!!!

Woodstock

This trip was just what the doctor ordered!

Woodstock is a small and very peculiar town.  Plenty of stores to “window shop” at.  Some stores carry pretty weird merchandise, while others have the normal “souvenir” stuff.  If you like “records”, this is the town to go to.  If you like wearing second-hand funky/gothic/hippie stuff, this is definitely the town to come shop at.  I LOVE thrift stores, and this town definitely appeals to that side of me.  My favorite was Castaways in the Woods.  Lots of stuff to go through, but no doubt anybody will find something to take back home with them.



Our cabin was small, cozy and delightful. I was very happy with our stay there.  The only downside of this cabin is the shower, but taking a shower takes only about 15 minutes of your day, so this didn't make me not like the cozy place.  Rock City Writer's Studio was equipped with everything we could need on a rainy gloomy winter weekend.  HDTV, cable, DVD player, movies, board games, a sauna room, a fully equipped eat-in-kitchen.  If grilling is your thing, and I wish it hadn't been so rainy and cold so we could have taken advantage of it, the cabin comes with its very own gas grill.  This lil place was just perfect for our weekend getaway.


Now, lets talk about FOOD!


Whoever goes to Woodstock, HAS to go eat Oriole 9.  Try to get seated AWAY from the door if it's a cold day.  The food here is pretty damn delicious!  They don't have "normal" sodas or cocktails, but they do have homemade sodas -  the orange soda one was pretty refreshing!  We had breakfast here.  I had a chicken sandwich and my boo had a regular breakfast.  The french toast were delicious!


Cucina was a nice lil Italian restaurant.  The service was so nice and welcoming.  The waiter and the

bartender were also very accommodating to my "pain-in-the-ass-requests-for-getting-the-perfect-cocktail", and they DELIVERED with FLYING COLORS!  WOW was that drink amazing!  The food was pretty tasty too.


Until Spring, my dear Woodstock.  We will certainly see each other again!

#PickleFest

So a couple of weeks ago I was browsing around the internet and stumbled upon Rosendale's Pickle Festival flyer.

Now, let it be known that I am not a fan of pickles or pickled things, but I figured...  why the fuck not?  It's not like I do anything interesting with my time on Sundays, nor did I have anything exceptional planned for today, so I put my "something to do" hat on and put together this lil trip with another couple.

This was our first time at a pickle fest and have no idea what to expect, except a whole lotta pickled products.

So this day started with a crack of dawn 8 a.m. wake-up (bear with me, it's a fucking Sunday, ok!?)  The four of us hopped in the car and went for a hearty breakfast at the Brownstone Diner - boy was that delicious!

After getting our tummies filled with deliciousness, off we went on a 2 hour car ride to Rosendale, NY to attend the Pickle Festival.

Cheap (close to free admission) and quick check-in was definitely a plus.  Once in, they had a four tent setup.  The first tent was full of "flea market" and "homemade" items for sale - which is always entertaining to browse through.  The second tent was full of "fair" foods like cakey goodies, Italian sausage sandwiches, cupcakes, dried fruits and vegetables, coffee, pastries, organic fast foods and the

likes. In between tent one and two I noticed a human pickle parading around to take pictures with the visitors - I totally got one, of course.  It was the one things I was looking forward to.  We then passed

by a stand alone tent with a ginormous pickle Christmas ornament symbolizing a German tradition, to which I made everybody enter and take a group picture with.  The third tent was more like the miscellaneous tent, selling all types of peanut butter, cheeses, salsas, pickle juice energy drinks, pastries, venison meats, and chocolate covered bacon.  The last tent was all kinds of pickled shit "heaven", and the equivalent of L.A rush hour traffic.  Masses of people standing in front of the vendors' tables pretty much blocking me and the ones I was with from seeing what was being sold by them, but it was obvious it was with no doubt, the pickled tent.

So this was my Sunday pickled adventure.  My fave parts of the day were seeing the human pickle *grins*, and the stand alone tent with the huge Christmas ornament.

Looking forward to stumbling upon another "weird" event to go to.

Until then...