These Crunchy Curls

were disappointing.

Not sure what possessed me to think that a food distinctly described as a "lentil and potato snack" would be awesome accompanying late night tv watching. I thought tasty and healthy? I can't lose!

Ugh. They really need to take out the word "tasty". These curls were unbelievably bland for something described as a "snack". They needed...oh, I don't know, salt, seasoning, and flavor.

Bummer. Treader Joe's rarely lets me down.

Heat wave = froyo trips

I feel ridiculous calling the 80-something-degree temps we're experiencing here in SoCal as a "heat wave" but when it's a constant temperature window of 72-78 degrees, anything out of that comfort zone generates some exaggerated reflection. Or maybe I just use it as an excuse to get frozen yogurt.

Tonight, we tried a new place called Yogurt Passion:

The flavors were promising:

As were some of the unusual toppings:

And it looked good:

But unfortunately, it was totally disappointing. The tart flavors managed to still be sickeningly sweet and the rainbow jellies ended up tasting like the grass jelly drinks I remember from Chinatown, which have a very distinctive flavor that just doesn't work with frozen yogurt. Unless you like the taste of after-shave mixed with fruit cocktail and icy frozen yogurt.

The next night we went to Golden Spoon. There, they pump and put on the toppings for you so it looks quite nice:

Overall we enjoyed it, though the girl actually said there was too much peanut butter cups.

And well, I had no trouble finishing all of mine.

Here's to froyo and summer days!

Current obsession: Mel Gibson is so donezo

With all these crazy tapes of Mel Gibson's racist and violent rants, I've been picking up my jaw from the floor every day as new audio keep surfacing. On the one-hand, it was shocking enough when he had his drunken anti-Semitic and sexist tirade when he got arrested in Malibu a few years back and so I guess it shouldn't have been surprising to hear these words were in his vocabulary. Though this time, he was ostensibly sober when spewing this latest vitriolic garbage. On the other hand, I'm disappointed that I probably can't enjoy his old films (Mad Max, The Year of Living Dangerously, The Bounty, heck, even those darn Lethal Weapons) like I used to. His manly charm will unfortunately be displaced when I end up picturing him turning to say, What do you think you're looking at, sugar t*ts?

Perhaps TMZ's got the right idea and Mr. Gibson should have got on board with the World Cup this year:

World Cup Final (Ned-Esp)

For the World Cup Final between the Netherlands and Spain, I wanted to go back to the Harp where I went for the Germany-Argentina game. Fortunately, Mr. F (usually my MMA viewing host) was on board with catching the game there as he is an avid soccer player himself. Knowing it was going to be packed, we headed out early and managed to snag the last table at 9:30am. With 2 hours till game time, we settled in with some beverages:

And some breakfast (Shepherd's Pie for Mr. F and Fish and Chips for me--yes I ate it all):

Mr. F actually played soccer with a Dutch club (and my World Cup mentor at work was also rooting for the Dutch), so I was down with wearing Oranje:

By 10:30, the place was packed and we were joined by a friend of Mr. F's, Mr. Fettucine.

Fueled by many rounds of beer and a crowd that was evenly split, I remember the game being exciting, impressed by the ball control by Spain, and awed by the 14 yellow cards (and red card!) dealt out--especially for the the blazing side-kick to the sternum dealt to a poor Spanish player. Eventually Spain won out, 1-0. I remember saying goodbye to some face-painted Dutch rooters, next time, next time, and one guy sighed, "And now I gotta drive home in that", pointing to an SUV covered with "World Champs", "Go Holland", etc. in bright white and orange paint on all the windows.

We left the Harp after 2pm, and went to grab a bite at the Aloha Grill, where I had their Teriyaki fish sandwich:

But what Aloha Grill is really famous for is their Rainbow drink:

Knowing that the Rainbow features a memory-erasing 5 liquors in it, I gently demurred. After all, I did have quite a few rounds at the Harp. But eventually I was persuaded to have one:

Did I mention that the Rainbow has 5 different liquors in it? Bottom line, Mrs. F (who had taken the kids to Wild Rivers during the day) ended up picking us up and driving us home. The girl and I passed out together on the couch when we got home. I woke up sweating and a touch green in the gills.

I remember thinking that I still wanted to tackle more stuff on my to-do list, like clean. As one can imagine, not much got crossed off that night.

Note to self

I should have done these sooner.

Every once in a while I do something where I think, I really should have done this sooner. The obvious no-brainer is losing weight or exercising regularly. Less obvious is getting a haircut sooner than I thought I needed it or getting better fitting pants due to some weight fluctuation. But the ones that I often miss out are things that lose their gloss over such an extended period of time that I don't notice how much they deteriorated.

After I replaced these toilet seats--it was like how those home shows talk about how a new coat of paint freshens up a room. The toilets almost look brand new now. And the old seats in comparison? Erg--I throw up in a mouth a little every time I think about it.

Makes me wonder hard of what else has been eluding my grasp of what needs updating...

One day - so many directions

Words with Friends. It's like Scrabble with multiple friends on the iPhone and I'm addicted. But here are my disclaimers: I'm somewhat competitive--I can't let a good word go, especially those of the high point value (duh) or high tile use. And I usually have 10-12 games going. So this morning after a winning a game, I got a rematch right away. So sure, my reflexive response is it's on like Donkey Kong. I look at my tiles and a six letter word is staring me in the face. But it's, uh, a clinical word, and I try to find a different word but none are worth as many points or uses as many tiles, so the competitor in me puts the word down:

Seriously, my other 2 tiles were the B and V (the other five letters replaced the ones I put down). If you can think of a better scoring word, by all means, please comment, Smartypants. I already tried vaxing, baxing, vabina, etc.

Of course, it hits me after I submit the word that I'm playing with the mom of a friend, my World Cup mentor. I send her a message, apologizing for using such a clinical word and despite trying other variations, it was my best scoring word. I could practically hear the sigh of the jaded parent who's seen it all when she replied that's ok it worked. Thank goodness the Dutch won their semi-final today.

My day got a little worse as I managed to reactivate a pull in my neck. How, you ask? From some uber-multitasking--talking on the phone with the President while vacuuming? From breaking some weightlifting record? From rescuing a pregnant woman from a burning building? Nope, nope, nope. I cranked my neck reaching for the shampoo in the shower which I had moved to a new corner when I was cleaning the stall. I ended up going to the chiropractor, which I actually enjoy. Between the electrodes, heating pad, and a rubdown that's the perfect marriage between a massage and Vulcan neck pinch, it's like a practical, high-functioning spa treatment.

The highlight of my day was visiting a friend at work who just had a baby. Of course, I had to swing by the gift shop and get what every new mother wants in the hospital:

Look at this tiny cutie:

I wish I could pipe in sound for this picture, because then you could hear the adorable nom, nom, nom as the cutie sucked on her hand:

To end the day on an up note, I treated the girl and myself to a nice dinner at Native Foods. The fine food (I highly recommend the artichoke crudite plate while it's still available as a seasonal specialty) and always-refreshing watermelon fresca was enhanced when another friend from work and his family were there too. Native Foods is one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants, where even the cheese on the girl's pizza is dairy-free:

(wow, it would seem I eat like a pig from this picture)

The girl was a good sport about going there so I conceded getting her "real" dinner later:

Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit more even-keeled.

By the power of Greyskull

Time to seriously declutter (AGAIN, I know):

And replace some toilet seats:

Oy. Wish me luck.