The Other Day ( Tuesday )

On Tuesday of this week, Marine and I (Shawn) headed out to New Jersey to see family and friends. We had a very interesting day. A blog post was most certainly needed to recap the series of events.

The reasons for a delay in a blog update was due to a migraine headache on Wednesday and my 6.6 mile walk yesterday. (my hips and lower back are killing me!) But it was a much needed push to help strengthen those muscles.

Our Journey to Jersey

Don't stop believing...
Usually, five Minutes after we leave our apartment is when we begin to get aggravated by traffic and Pennsylvania Drivers. Now ya see, PA drivers are like "Sunday Drivers" except they are out EVERY day of the week.

But not today. The roads were next to empty and the crazy people were no where to be found.

It was extremely bizarre.

This made getting out of our area unusually easy on this particular Tuesday afternoon.

So it was expected at some point that we would encounter some bone-headed move by some dumb-ass, some where.

It just so happened that "Awesome" Maneuver #1 would be executed at the intersection of West Delaware Ave and Pennington Rd (Rt 31) in Pennington, NJ.

Google Map View of Intersection

#1 - The "C" word in the BMW

The Red Car labeled "US" represents Marine and I. The White car labeled "****" is the Dumb Woman in a BMW. The circle and arrow represent the color of the traffic light.

As you can see, We are situated behind Dumb Woman at a traffic light.

When the light turns green, Dumb woman, at the slowest pace known to snails, begins to pull forward.

Instead of making a proper left turn, she begins to angle her car to align it with the entrance for the gas station. (the building in the top right corner of the images)

We continue to make a left in the proper manner, thinking that this woman is going to straighten out and actually finish turning left.

OH HOW WE WERE WRONG!!!

This friggin woman actually ends up cutting us off!!

unable or unwilling to signal her intent to turn right, halfway through a left turn.

As the traffic arrow turns red, we are being cut off by this lady who is apparently NOT turning left. But actually trying to make her way into the gas station.

She had no intention of making a left turn.

She was angling her car just enough to make a right turn as she is "turning" left through a traffic light!!

Which leads to me rolling down my window and yelling the "C' word the loudest I have ever yelled that word in my life.

So loud, people with their windows down could hear me over the noise of all the trucks and cars at the intersection.

These motorist quickly began to look around, trying to figure out which person could be this "C" word . If they caught a glimpse of my "Jersey Bird", then my middle finger pointed at the BMW was an obvious give away.

So I began to look at the intersection. While preparing this post.

I noticed how well the lane system and entry ways for the gas station were designed.

The red arrow shows the proper way to gain entry to the gas station when making a left turn through the intersection.

The blue arrow shows the proper way to gain entry to the gas station when making a left before the intersection on the adjacent street.

The yellow arrow shows what the Dumb Woman in the BMW did.

She went into the wrong entrance way. She should have made her way several yards forward to use the proper entry way. Then she could have signaled her intent. instead of angling her car and cutting us off.

WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING LADY!

The Following is an animation I put together to better illustrate what this "****" did.

moving on

# 2 - The Jack Ass in the Truck

Our fun with idiots was not over just yet. no more than five minutes to five miles down the road, a box truck driver decides to cut us off. He pulled out of a shopping center, bolting out between another box truck and us. Which caused us to brake suddenly as he began to grind his gears while shifting trying to get his truck into gear so he could speed up.

Angry from the "****" before. I honked Marine's horn. (she needs to get better at using it)

Then without thinking, I grabbed my cell phone and called the company. This man Joe answers the phone. This is the conversation we had:

Joe : Thank you for calling "*****", This is Joe, how can I help you.

Me : Hey Joe, How are you doing today.

Joe : Not bad and yourself?

Me : I'm doing pretty good today, I'm actually calling to let you know that one of your truck drivers is driving, well, like an ass.

Joe: Where are you at?

Me : Near Hopewell NJ, on 31

Joe: Well, that's not good, what exactly is he doing?

Me: He just pulled out of a shopping center abruptly in between us and another truck. Which caused us to brake and him to ride the ass of the guy in front of him. He could have waited.

Joe: Oh my, did you happen to get a truck number?

Me: No, but I have the license plate number.

Joe: Shoot. (as in let me know what it is, not dangit, this guys' got us)

So I let Joe know the digits and he thanked me and assured me that he would have a word with the driver when he gets back to the warehouse.

Another five minutes down the road the truck driver abruptly pulls to the side of the road, signaling a mere second before excuting his manuver.

I can only hope that he was pulling over to answer his cellphone. And that Joe was on the other end of the line, ready to yell at the guy for driving like an ass.

# 3 - Crazy Bitch in a Civic

Later in the day as we're headed towards the somerville circle, in Hillsborough we come across a crazy bitch in white a Honda Civic who has:

+ pencil in mouth.

+ bluetooth in ear.

+ papers in her lap and hands.

+ looking down at her feet.

+ while approaching a lane merge after passing through a traffic light.

= (equals!)

Crazy Bitch in a Honda Civic cuts us off!!! causing Marine to shift into the left lane abrubtly. luckily no one was in the other lane!!!

#4 - The Filthy Lying Waiter

We made dinner plans with our friends Christine and Sean to go to the new restaurant Maestro in Hillsborough.

Do not let the above picture fool you. It is not bright in this place at all! Very very very dimly lit during dinner. I could barely see across the table. It wasn't until half through my meal did my eyes adjust to the lighting. Even then it was way too dark in that place.

Service was slow, and it seemed like it was one of the bus boys trying his hand at waiting on a slow night. Which is fine - you gotta get some experience somehow.

The food was delicious. But it was the 20 dollars of dessert, which we DID NOT order, that was added to our bill that really pissed me off!

I'm very glad I looked at the tab. Who friggin does that?!

He only had THREE tables to cover. There is no way he could have screwed up. I'm sorry. I know a liar when I see one, and that guy was caught!

To top it all off, after enduring an onslaught of idiocy and craziness during the day, while on our return trip home at 11 pm at night. 5 miles away from our house, on the exit ramp to get to Rt 1. we came across:

#5 - Ignorant **** in a Cadillac

STOPPED In the middle of a fork in the road. Proceds to back up in the middle of the off ramp. first into a guy who is in front of us trying to turn right, onto the off ramp. Then he cuts in front of us, trying to then turn left which was the direction we were trying to go!

Marine ACTUALLY Slams her hand down on the steering wheel and lays on the horn.

THE FRIGGIN IGNORANT **** of an idiot rolls down his window and gives us the finger.

HE gives US the finger.

How ignorant of the asshole. HE's the one that just pulled the dumbass move in the middle of an off ramp and he has the audacity to give us the finger.

Which brings me to my point of all these little stories... R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Marine talked about RESPECT as it pertained to a certain business. I'm talking about RESPECT

pertaining to every day life.

We, the people, have lost respect for just about everything.

We have no respect towards anything. Most people don't even have respect for themselves.

We, the people, need a wake up call. We have completely ignored everything we were ever taught; it's rather sickening.

The best I can do, is start treating people with a bit more respect myself - or at least be aware of what my actions say about myself to other people.

The simple solution - Just start thinking. We, the people, need to start thinking and being more aware. Of ourselves, and of each other.

On Family, Sisters, and Growing Up

We don't talk about family much on the blog - Shawn comes from a relatively small family and most of my extended family still resides over seas in France, so neither one of us has much family to speak of. Both of our immediate families live just one state over and we make a point to visit on a fairly regular basis, but otherwise, it's just the two of us. So I'm going to dedicate this post to my lovely younger sister who left home on Friday for her first year of college!


sisters being crazy, circa 2005

I am the oldest of three children - five years older than my sister, six years older than my brother. Growing up, I definitely felt the differences in age; the two of them were always very close, but I was always slightly too old to relate to them. They grew up and into their personalities while I was away at college, so I feel like I missed out on that transition from child to mini-adult, the crucial time to be an older sister. When I moved back home after college, they were no longer the childish minds from four years prior - they were developing their own philosophies on life and I could actually talk to them as peers - something I'd waited years for! And now, my little sister is starting a new journey on her own, and I'm sitting in the sidelines again, waiting for the moment to be a big sister if she needs me to be.


for reference, a more recent picture of my sister

She was kind enough to come visit last week so that we could hang out one more time before she left on Friday. We had planned on driving into center city and going thrifting, and then bringing home our finds and altering them on my sewing machine - I had looked into it and written down a few thrift stores to check out, and that's exactly what we set out to do. We parked near the first store (Circle of Hope Thrift), only to find an empty shell of a building where it was supposed to be. So we got back in the car and drove up towards the next store (Philly Vintage), parked in (what we later realized was a really pricey) lot, and walked over to the store's location... only to find yet another empty building! Slightly disheartened and running short on time by this point, we decided to abandon our plans and just walk around the city to kill some time and hopefully stumble upon something interesting. And stumble we did!


Second Time Around thrift store; picture borrowed from yelp.com

With fifteen minutes left before needing to be back at the parking lot, we finally found a thrift store. Second Time Around, to be exact (the irony is just too much). We just browsed, since we had to keep it quick, but this is definitely a find! The selection is beyond amazing and the prices are decent (I hate consignment shops that take themselves too seriously and charge nothing less than $30 for crappy old clothes...) If we had no time limit, we definitely would have been there a while and gone home with a few pieces. There's always next time!


yummy gelato from Capogiro!

Another great find - Capogiro Gelato. One of my co-workers used to work there and always praises them, so when we happened to stumble upon it, there was no way I could just walk past without stopping in for a taste! And taste we did! Like any good gelato place, they let you sample as many flavors as you want, and they let you pick two different flavors for the small cups - I settled on Nutella and Banana Rhum, and my sister got Dark Chocolate and Lime Sorbetto. Both were delicious, and gelato was definitely a good choice over the coffeeshop we were originally going to seek out.

Even though the day did not go as planned (when do plans ever go right?), it was still a whole lot of fun and I got to spend it all with my sister. I appreciate times spent with my siblings more now than I ever did - funny how that works. And now we have a few ideas on where to go next time she visits!

Do you have any siblings? How close are you in age, and do you feel age makes a difference in your relationship with them? Tell us a story about growing up in your family! Or a story about a day that didn't go as planned.

The only cookie recipe you need!

Today I'm going to share one of the best recipes in the world with you! Ok, perhaps that's a bit of a stretch, but chocolate chip cookies are pretty damn appreciated in this world and I cherish this recipe greatly. It took years of recipe tweaking but I finally found THE chocolate chip cookie recipe. This dough makes a fantastic base for other types of cookies too - it's easily tweak-able! I've made coconut cookies, peanut butter cookies, and oatmeal cookies from this same base. But the chocolate chip cookie is still my favorite.

But before I show you how to make cookies - I'm going to talk up some chocolate!



When it comes to chocolate, Trader Joe's Pound Plus bars are my favorite! They're only $4.99 for 17.6 oz of Belgian chocolate goodness! The semi-sweet bars are perfect for brownies or recipes where chocolate is the prominent ingredient, and the dark chocolate bars are what I chop up for cookies. Personally, I prefer fresh chocolate chunks over bagged waxy chocolate chips any day! If you're lucky enough to have a Trader Joe's near you, go buy some chocolate now!!!

Ok, time for some cookies. How do you get this....



... from stuff like this?



I'll show you!






Mix mix mix. If you're lucky enough to have a mixer in your kitchen, then use the paddle attachment on that. Otherwise, make sure to build up some strong muscles! Working in a pastry kitchen for almost two years helped me become a strong whisker - but if you don't have that luxury either, then just do what I do and let your butter soften up a bit before attacking it with your spatula.




Before and after baking shots! If you make cookies fairly often, I recommend getting yourself a cookie scoop, it makes the bowl-to-sheet pan process a little easier, and you get uniform cookies every time! You can usually find them for a decent price at places like Home Goods; that's where I got mine. I usually bake off about a dozen cookies at a time and scoop up the rest into an airtight container that can sit in the fridge until the next time you want cookies. Which, in our house, is almost a daily practice...

Chocolate Chip Cookies

ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

- Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and getting your dry ingredients ready: whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set it aside.
- In another bowl, beat the butter and both sugars together until mixture is pale and fluffy.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined.
- Add your dry ingredients now and mix everything together until all the flour is incorporated.
- Now you have a delicious cookie dough base! At this point, you can add in whatever mix-ins you please. I went with the traditional chocolate chips (ahem, chunks), but you can really veer off and add whatever you're craving - nuts, candy, coconut, dried fruit, cereal, anything!
- Once you've mixed in everything you want to mix in, scoop little balls of dough out onto your sheet pan- leave about an inch of space between each- they will spread a bit! I usually fit about sixteen on my sheet pan.
- Bake them for 16 minutes, give or take a few depending on how your oven runs and how crispy you like your cookies.
- Let them cool on the pan for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Bake, and enjoy!




A happy baker!

Failure

. Marine is off at yoga.
.. I have finished my delicious Finca El Puente coffee.
... So now it is time for cereal!

I reach for my favorite box of Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berry cereal and realize that there is only enough left for one bowl!

So, without much thought I grab the neighboring box of Honey Nut Cheerios and fill up the rest of my bowl.

So now I have a combo breakfast. Half somewhat healthy and the other half sugar fun!


Terrible Combo. Epic Fail!!

If I had regular Cheerios, it might have worked out a little better.
AND! There was no way I was gonna waste all that milk and cereal... so I ate it.
And that is how I realized:

Crunch Berries + Honey Cheerios = Failure.

Which is the word of the day.

Around the globe at dinner time

Yet another "dinners you've missed" post; we should just start a tag for that already...



Quesadillas for dinner! Red and green pepper and onion triple cheese quesadillas, to be exact. So tasty, and so simple!




Chips and salsa and homemade guacamole. Making your own guacamole is so easy! All you do is mash up three ripe avocados, add a little salt and a good amount of lime juice, chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, and a little fresh cilantro. Let it sit in your fridge for a bit too, it helps all the flavors meld together. There you have it!




Chinese takeout from Auspicious on an earlier evening when we didn't feel up for cooking. Shawn got some General Tso's and I got Pad Thai - overall, pretty tasty (but it's no Thai Kitchen :( !) and for the quantity of food they gave us, definitely worth the price. This is the first time we've gotten a 'microwave safe' rice container though! Very sturdy and a great idea, if only we had a microwave!




Our fortunes from said meal, taped to our blank and lonely fridge. How are they are always so on point!?




And a shot of Shawn looking cute, for good measure. It's not food, but it's candy for your eyes :)


Mmm mm.