Big Times Are Back

I was lazy this week and never got around to posting, but since my weekend this weekend was quite uneventful... I guess that works out.


Last weekend I spent a few hours on Sunday at The Big Big Big Big Big Fresnoooo Fair (my Fresno friends will remember the old jingle, I think I preferred the old commercials to this years "big times are back" jingle). Mom and I hit up all the important exhibits pretty quick since it was just the two of us and it was extremely hot for an October weekend. We saw horse races, all the art and home crafty exhibits, the animals, and I enjoyed a corn dog, chocolate covered frozen banana (with sprinkles) and of course the cinnamon rolls! Here's a little bit of what the day looked like according to my iPhone.

crossing the finish line

Certified CA girl

winning centerpiece

the stuff wasn't that neat

big times are back

I think I'll post another update solely devoted to pictures later and just finish this one off here. Going to the OC Fair (twice) this summer and hitting up the Fresno fair this past weekend has definitely given me a case of Fair Fever and I will have to make a point to go to some more in future years. Visiting fairs in other cities is certainly something to add to the bucket list. Who can turn down things like chocolate covered bacon, fried kool-aid, Alaskan racing pigs, outdoor concerts, horse races, and general all around good times with family and friends?!

Adventures in Cooking and Baking!

A weekend without any traveling forced me to find new things to do to occupy my time. Anyone who knows me is well aware that I am not much of a cook (I would much prefer to get fast food or microwave something before actually cooking... a habit I NEED to break). Friday night my mom whipped up some potato skins for the fam to enjoy while watching the Fresno State blowout game. The sight of the bacon cooking reminded me of the DELICIOUS bacon-wrapped hot dogs sold outside the Rosebowl at UCLA games. That was all the inspiration I needed to attempt to create my own. The product was delish but there could have been a few improvements; such as two pieces of bacon per one hot dog (the bacon shrinks as it cooks... in hindsight I should have realized that), and toothpicks to hold the bacon in place as it cooks. But overall it was a successful experiment in my opinion. Pictures!

1. Potatoe skins (pre cheese and cooking) 2. bacon-wrapped hot dog frying just like bacon 3. end result + relish, onions, mustard and a blue moon. YUM

I also decided to test out one of the recipes from a blog I've been following for awhile Gina's Skinny Recipe's.  I picked an autumn appropriate PUMPKIN BREAD recipe! This bread was incredibly easy to make (and if I'm saying that that def means something!). The end result was (one sec while I go find some good synonyms for delicious... oh here's a good one...) SCRUMPTIOUS!  I brought the remainders to work today and it was gone by lunchtime. So here are a few pics of my baking experience (since we all know I hate posts without pictures)...

(from top left to bottom right) 1. all my tools/ingredients 2.everything mixed together and ready to go in the oven
 3. baking! 4. all done and delicious! (and yes I'm wearing my jersey, it was Saturday... GO BRUINS! always)

On another note, a successful first month of (actually sticking to) blogging has got me thinking about upping the number of posts per week, but I don't want to get an crazy ideas or make promises I won't keep. That being said, stay tuned, we will just have to wait and see... Have a wonderful rest of your week!

Friends. Football. FUN.

I can not possibly begin to express how much fun I had this weekend, but this will be my brief attempt at doing exactly that. Saturday I made the quick drive up to Mountain View/Palo Alto to watch the Bruins play the Stanford Cardinal. Knowing that Stanford was ranked number six in the nation and the Bruins have not been having the best season (typical...) we decided to make an event of the day to ensure that even a Bruin loss could not wreck the weekend. As an added bonus I decided to not only include my wonderful UCLA/ADPi girls in the weekend, but also Weston, a friend from the midwest (Alumnus of THE Ohio State University) who moved out to California a few months ago.

A total of six of us all met up at Wes' apartment for some good old fashioned college drinking games (graduating definitely does not mean we plan to stop playing beer pong) before cabbing over to the stadium to meet up with some more ADPi's, and other UCLA friends. A mini-barbecue courtesy of the wonderful Kelsey provided us with some delicious hot dogs pre-kick off. Despite an opening drive that looked promising (until the end when we failed to score...) the Bruins were no match for Stanford. Still, clapping and singing along to Sons of Westwood and The Mighty Bruins brought all my Bruin pride flooding back, and reminded me that I could not be more proud to have graduated from such an amazing school.

Best friends and football will always be an ideal weekend for me. The weekend also included a trip to the Google campus, late night jacuzzi-ing, brunch, a google+ hangout with the friends who couldn't make it to norcal, lots of reminiscing, and tons of laughter.

Check out Bethany's post about the weekend as well! Now for a few pictures to showcase some of the highlights of the weekend.

made a quick stop by Bethany's work and could not resist taking a pic with the Google sign!

Weston and I at the tailgate.
2 things:
1. I got the Ohio State alum to wear blue!
2. Don't you love my new jersey?!

baby beer shot glass

being goofy before brunch (awkward parking sign...)

we love lions... duh

i love the drive from Fresno to the Bay. beautiful blue skies and California countryside