Viva La Summer!

Today is the first day of summer, people! And it's finally acting like it in Tacoma.


Temperature is in the mid-70s, there's not a cloud in the sky, and tomorrow, it's probably going to rain again, so I am going full force with my celebration of the fair-weather solstice, starting with a series of self portraits I took in my backyard this morning before work.

They clearly exhibit my mixed emotions on what is ultimately a bittersweet tease of a day:


a.) Blind happiness in the ability to soak up a few morning rays.

b.) Jaded disgrutntlement that this beautiful weather will undoubteldy expire by this weekend.

c.) Sheer, unadulterated excitement for what I will do after work to maximize the fun-having capabilities of the final hours of daylight on this longest day of the year. Happy hour on a deck somewhere? Bike ride about town? BOTH?!!?! Who knows?!

Weee!

Happy summer, Tacoma!
Enjoy it while it lasts...

Feliz Dio De Los Padres!

(a.k.a. Happy Naked Father's Day. Trust me, it's not as gross as it sounds.)

 Prep for "Andreas Vegan Day" barbecue. 

Explanation for the above barbecue title:

I am vegan. 

My Dad's name is Rob.
His middle name is Andreas (he has been going by Andreas as of late).

Now that I'm vegan, he is adding "Vegan" to his new "name" because it "sounds good."

(For the record, Andreas' idea of veganism is "not eating anything that has been touched by a human cow.")

But I digress...

Anywhoo - loved that we had so many fresh, local veggies incorporated into the Father's Day grill .

...and moving on...

 Two of my best girls, Alecia "Leech" Campbell and Katherine "Kathy-Cadaver" Murts.

 Sistah Rachel and Uncle Chicker. (Andreas Vegan's older bro.)

 Token awesome niece-and-nephew-shot (Grace and Charlie).

 Camden playing bass for the first time ever.

He did really well and has a scary-striking resemblance to his Uncle Pete.

And please, disregard that this is possibly the most inappropriately-stickered-instrument for a 7-year-old. 

(For the record, he was too excited to play the bass than to actually read it.)

Back-flips in the front yard with Sean Kemp and Jesus.

And last, but most certainly not least, Robert "Andreas Vegan" Jensen. 

The mack-daddy of the entire event.

Love you  Dad!

And Feliz Dio De Los Padres, to you all!

Naked Sundays, round 12:

Food!

Today I brought in my first harvest (a big-assed bowl of mixed greens, see below) AND saw the first few sprouts of my kale!!! (I'm so excited for my eventual endless supply of organic kale, btw.)

I've also planted two types of slicing tomatoes, onions and carrots, but those aren't doing too much in the way of boutinful returns as of yet.

In other food news, I cooked up a delicious and healthy vegan dinner of marinated smokey barbecue tofu, savory quinoa and a big ol' pile of spinach to counter-act the batch of mixed berry brownies that I baked/ate as an after work snack...

Vuryy tasssty!

Now I'm drinking wine and sitting on my couch watching Law & Order.... and I'm probs going to eat another brownie. Or maybe even two.

'Night!

Naked Sundays - round three

I am actually on vacation right now in South Carolina, but won't be posting pictures of that expedition until I return to T-Town later this week.

In the meantime, here is a naked shot of some of my fuchsia Camellia leaves in my too-long spring grass.

I love my Camellia because it delights me with a bounty of gorgeous, perfectly round, petaled flowers on its big, leafy green bush each spring. 

I hate my Camellia because the flowers are only gorgeous, perfectly round and fully petaled for about a week before falling off.

The falling off stages lasts for months, by the way.

So here is what my yard looks like during the height of "fall-off" season. 

I always seem to forget to capture the Camellia in all its gorgeous, perfect, petaled glory.

Maybe next year?

Day 365 of the 365 Day Project

Here it is.

The 365th day of the 365 day project I took on 365 days ago.

You may notice a striking resemblance the last photo of the year has to the very first photo of the year.

(I thought a "full circle" approach was the way to go for the big finale.)

I've thoroughly enjoyed this year of taking pictures every godforsaken day. It has been challening. Enlightening. Frustrating and fun.

But at the end of the day, its pretty much just me and my dog in my mud-colored living room. 

So there ya go!

(Sort of anti-climatic, I realize, but we hope you will stick around for what's next....)

What is next?

What is next for this blog, you ask? 

I am not going to take on another year of POTDing... but at this point I plan to continue blogging on a regular basis, sharing photos that I deem worthy of posting on the web -  not just because I feel like I "have to" because another 24 hours has passed.

I  haven't decided yet if I'm going to try out a specific theme, time line, subject, or what (and I am open to suggestions) but in the meantime you can at least expect to see some pictures that I take that I like, coupled with my enchanting wit and over-use of terms like "hells ya!" and "redonkulous."

So, I hope you will continue checking in with "This Is Me, Getting a Life" from time to time and see what I'm up to, and what great directions my blog just might take!

And to all my loyal followers throughout the year (whether official, comment-leaving, or not) your thoughts, support and encouragement kept me going through it all!

THANK YOU!

365 Day Project - Days 350-352

Jade Palace Chinese Dinner

NuGrape Soda 

Bedside Table

365 Day Project - Day 342

Why, hello bright yellow walls

This is step one in my mini-home remodel. Next is bathroom trim (espresso brown), kitchen cabinets (intellectual gray), kitchen walls (i'm thinking Dexter's old apartment-kitchen blue), tiled backsplash and removal of '70s era lowered ceiling before painting spare room and setting up my "office."

Then, it's on to curb appeal.

365 Day Project - Day 328

So yum.

Kitchen Aid + Toaster Oven + a buttload of ripe bananas + other neccessary ingredients + dark chocolate chips/ walnuts/blueberries = Omg. SFG.

I told myself this bread was for Sean, in honor of our two-year-anniversary (happy anniversary, boo! I Love you!) and his return home from a tour with Bloodhunger today (It was only for four days, but I actually did miss him), but guess who ended up eating most of it...?

(Hint:  it wasn't Eddie.)

365 Day Project - Day 323

Snow pt. 3

All this happened during the two-hour-nap movie I watched this evening.

It's  like the third time this year (meaning during my 365 project, not 2011) we've gotten actual "snow."

CRAY!

It is much prettier and more fun to play in than rain (you can't throw water-balls for your dog) so it's all good in my book!

365 Day Project - Day 317

The last time I attempted to bake my one of my favorite cookie recipes (Cayenne Spiced "Mexican Hot Chocolate  Snickerdoodles") it was in celebration of my oven finally being fixed.

I made the dough, rolled the spicy chocolate balls in the sugar and cinnamon topping, placed them lovingly on the cookie sheet, in the oven and shut the door.

Minutes went by and I noticed there was no "freshly baked cookie" smell wafting from my kitchen.

I checked on my beloved cookies only to find that they were not baking because my oven was, in fact, not fixed.  

My cookie dreams had been shattered.
I was defeated.
I never knew when I would be able to bake another cookie  in the comfort of my own home again.

So trust me people, today was a big day.

After months of a cookie-less existence, the stars finally aligned, and it was time. 

Time to bake cookies.

Here's all that played into the long-awaited bake session today:

1) I ate a Quinoa Chocolate Chip Cookie at Corina Bakery a couple weeks ago, and haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

2) My sister recently sold me her old Kitchen Aid mixer (pictured above). She generously gave it to me for 50 bucks. 

 HELLS YEA!!!

3) Fred Meyer finally stocked its bulk section so I was able to purchase the needed quinoa to make the cookies I had been obsessing over.
4) OH yea, and I recently acquired a functioning baking device.

Here's the finished product:

 

And here's the link to the recipe I Googled (which is also included above, with various other links that make this story complete).

(Also, I was out of chocolate chips, so had to use the random bag of my roommate's peanut butter chips instead, which explains the lack of the rich, chocolatey hue in this shot).

365 Day Project - Day 311

Mousse EXPLOSION!

Apparently it doesn't take much to puncture a bottle of mousse and cause a fluffy white explosion all over the bathroom.

Who knew?

Luckily I needed to clean the bathroom anyways...

365 Day Project - Day 310

My house on a bright and sunny snow day.

365 Day Project - Day 309

Toaster Oven v. Regular Oven

Toaster Oven: works

Regular Oven: does not work

Toaster Oven: free (a gift from my mom for Christmas - thanks Mom!)

Regular Oven: expensive (has already cost me an arm and a leg to "fix it" and would cost the rest of my limbs to replace.)

Toaster Oven: removable crumb tray and shiny glass door I can see myself in.

Regular Oven: None of that shit.

Toaster Oven K.O. Regular Oven

365 Day Project - Day 296

House pimpin' part 3:

So continuing on the trend of making over my house, here is my luxurious new bedding/bedroom.

You may remember my old bed: shoved in the corner, flat pillows, no cushion, worn bedding.

And while that bed had the ability to keep me in it for hours on end, somehow I got an itch to make it even more comfortable.

I added a fluffy mattress pad. Got four new ultra fluffy pillows. Two new sets of sheets (that I actually like.) And a plush, velvety new blanket and quilt set to top it all off. (Don't worry, all these items were purchased at discount retailers/on-sale.)

I centered the bed in front of my window (adorned with my new, insulated curtain) and decluttered/purged/and removed all the non-essential bedroom items to more appropriate parts of the house in an attempt to create a tranquil, serene space to retreat and rest with out distractions.

There's still a little ways to go as far as creating the perfect bedroom space, but I am well on my way as of last night, and slept like dream.

yay!

365 Day Project - Day 293

 House pimpin' continues....

Typically, I don't like to buy things for myself this time of year (even though it is my birthday month) but as I am on the verge of living-alone-dom and am experiencing the the trickling out of roommates and their things, I've been needing to buy some fresh, new replacement items that are just for me.

For instance, old roommate had a kitchen rug. She moved and in turn, I found myself in need of a floor covering. (She also took with her an extensive seashell collection. That I will not be replacing.)

So there you have it, my new rug. 

 (I like it a lot :)

I got it for a pretty good price at Cost Plus World Market (where I do a lot of my Christmas shopping). I also picked up a couple of new seat cushions that I'd been eying since summer as well (they were on sale, so what was I to do? It was clear sign to finally make the long-awaited purchase.)

And once soon-to-be old roommate moves her couch, I'll show you my "new" antique green armchair (!!!LOVE!!!) that I got a couple months ago and since have been patiently  waiting for the moment to put it out in the living room (right now it's sitting quietly in the spare-room storage). It's sooo comfy and it will look sooo nice in my bachelorette pad's living room. 

It is sure to be one of the crowning moments of the house-pimpage.

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365 Day Project - Day 287-288

MY BED

This is where I've been spending a lot of my time over the past couple days (More than 20 hours total over Dec. 7 and 8, to be precise) recovering from two crazy long and over-the-top-fun weekends in a row.

It's been nice, because I do love my bed, but it has also inhibited me from doing anything all too exciting, and also has taken my motivation to put any "real thought" into my POTD's as well (hey, it happens from time to time!)

So to really spice up this post (and also comply with the photo a day rule I've committed to)

here's the book I've been reading the past couple of days, also:

My sister recommended me this book about a year ago, I bought it this summer, and Sean read it while I started another book (which I somehow managed to loose about halfway through it. The same thing happened to the book before that. Which is really weird, because I mainly read in bed, and bed is a weird place to loose books.)

Anyways, after I finally gave book searching for the last two ("Mob Girl" and "From Cradle to Grave," both fine pieces of non-fiction) I started reading this little number, "The Devil in the White City," which has been incredibly so good thus far.

Let's just hope I don't loose this one too, right?

Keep your fingers crossed for me...

365 Day Project - Day 283

Courtnay wanted me to take a picture of her and her cats to send to some friends for Christmas cards....

I agreed, not realizing that is really not as easy as it sounds.

First we had to grab the cats. The "weird one" (Rio, left) first, and then the "normal one" (Cedo, right) second. But even the "normal one" was acting unusually weird, and it was obvious they did not want to cooperate with the "photo shoot."

After several attempts of corralling, and then getting the cats to relax enough to not look completely freaked out (or in Rio's case, nearly decapitated) we finally got a decent one where everyone looks moderately calm, and slightly willing to pose for a nice, family portrait.

What I've posted here is not that shot, but is represents the truly hilarious challenge we encountered while getting to the final product.

It  also pretty much makes Court the new poster child for the thousands of other "Crazy Cat Ladies" of the world. 

Merry Christmas!

365 Day Project - Day 282

Couch potatoes!

Since I've got the sweet new TV and Blu-Ray player (which enables me to stream unlimited Netflix on "the big screen") I have taken to sitting on my ass a lot more. 

Here you see me and Eddie (asleep) on round 4 of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (year 11).

Good stuff!

And a great way to keep me occupied now that my Boot camp membership has expired.
Trading an uber-active daily habit for a completely sedentary one? 

I don't see any problems with that, do you?

365 Day Project - Day 281

Monday, I bought the 'cado

Tuesday, I ate the 'cado.

It's about the only thing that can make me love black beans even more.

365 Day Project - Day 280

Ah, how I love myself a well-priced, extra large, ripe Avocado in late November...