Category Archives: More

More: Oscar Party

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For years I’ve been trying to host an Oscar Party, but it never works out, so this time around I decided to post it as a meet-up and let strangers with similar interests (basically movies, dressing up, eating, and drinking) come. The result: best Oscar party ever! Well, we actually knew most of the people that came, and between that and making new friends, we never really watched the Oscars.

Oscar Party Red Carpet
Oscar Party Red Carpet
Oscar Party
Oscar Party Red Carpet

 

Out of 20 people, only one person didn’t dressed up. Everybody else looked AMAZING, especially the boyfriend, who wore a tux with a bow tie and studs to match my dress. Our friend D. won the style contest for best dressed female with her creative outfit, while V. won best dressed male with his formal Indian attire. Everybody also brought drinks and mostly homemade appetizers, which made it the easiest party to host. I will definitely try to make it an annual event from now on!

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Oscar ballot winner!
Best dressed winner!
Best dressed winner!

Running, Eating, and Traveling in San Francisco

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As a continuation of our Valentine’s Day, the boyfriend and I went to San Francisco after Napa. The weather was perfect, sunny, and in the 70’s, so I couldn’t be more excited about running by the water. My friend J. and her boyfriend just got a new place in this cool part of town and from their apartment it was only 1.5 miles to AT&T Baseball Park and another mile to the Ferry Building.

AT&T Ballpark – San Francisco Giants
San Francisco Run
San Francisco Run

 

Tons of people were out enjoying the beautiful weather, so after the run we got a table outside at “The Ramp” for some drinks, guacamole, and crab egg benedict. Then, after a nap, more drinks and food at a Senegalese restaurant (“Bissap Baobab“) that was having live Brazilian music, which was the next best thing after trying to find a Brazilian restaurant open on a holiday without success.

Crab Egg Benedict
“The Ramp” Restaurant
J. and J.
San Francisco at night
Drinks
San Francisco at night

 

The pattern of drinks/food/sleep was repeated throughout the weekend, although we did walk what it seemed over 10 miles uncovering clues during the Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt. The first part of the clues had to do with the name of a San Francisco street, and since I don’t know much about the area, I wasn’t much help. We teamed up with a group from the Bay and eventually figured out all of the clues, even if it look us forever to cross the Chinese New Year Parade that was going on at the same time. We felt pretty good about our accomplishment, but ended up getting 30th place 😦

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More: Valentine’s Day

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Starting with red roses and ending with a bottle of champagne, it was an amazing Valentine’s Day with the boyfriend. Besides the flowers, he also got me truffles and took me to Napa for the night. Couldn’t have had a more romantic day!

Roses

It only took us 3 hours to get to Napa, so I had enough time to get all pretty with my short pink dress and 5-inch heels. Leaving the hotel room, I was feeling all hot and confident and then: face-plant. So lucky it didn’t happen in the middle of the restaurant! We ended up having a really nice dinner at Tra Vigne, with drinks, good wine, calamari, venison, scallops, and butterscotch pannacotta. The next day we went to celebrity chef Michael Chiarello’s Bottega restaurant for another great meal. The boyfriend has learned quickly that the way to my heart is through my stomach.

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By the way, besides the mug I painted for him, my real gift was my name change: I am back to E.M now.

"Paint Your Own Pottery"

“Paint Your Own Pottery”

New Year’s Eve (and eating) in New Jersey

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Okay, I know I said this a couple of posts ago, but this time I will really try to be quick. We spent New Year’s Eve with the boyfriend’s friends in New Jersey. For lunch we went to Stafford Diner, where D. got his favorites: creamed chipped beef and scrapple (pork trimmings – yuck). At night we had a blast drinking with the adults and playing with the kids. If NYE was any indication, 2014 will be a great year.

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Happy 2014 from D. and E. 🙂
Midnight Kiss

Running, Eating, and Traveling in Philadelphia

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It had been one month since my last outside run, but I was committed to my tradition of running in every big city I go to. In a very cold morning, I did a 5 mile loop around Valley Forge National Historic Park in about one hour, stopping for pictures here and there. This park is about 15 miles from Philly and it was the site of an American Revolutionary War encampment. It felt so good to run again! I really needed a break, but now I was ready to start training again.

In the afternoon the boyfriend and I tried to do some sightseeing, but it was so cold I really didn’t want to be outside, so we just did a quick city tour by car, walked by the river for a little bit, and spent the rest of the day at the Barnes Foundation, an impressionist / post-impressionist museum. We had to get tickets online in advance and when we got there we still had to wait in line, but it was worth it to see their extensive collection of paintings by Renoir, Monet, Seurat, Van Gogh… I always love it when I get to see an original of something I’m teaching about and the week before was all about Monet.

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To end our day we walked to Love Park, which has the “Love” sculpture by Robert Indiana. Super cute with all the Christmas decorations!

M. (the boyfriend’s sister) and I
Love Sculpture
The boyfriend and I

As for eating, I had to try a Philly cheesesteak, but since we went to a middle-eastern restaurant (Saad’s), that wasn’t even the highlight of lunch: the lamb shawarma was amazing! I love cities and all the options for authentic places.

Falafel
Philly Cheese steak
Lamb shawarma

Dinner time was “meet the boyfriend’s parents time” too! We met them at  McCormick and Schmidt’s, which is a chain from California I had never heard of. It turned out to be really fancy and really good, which is my cup of tea. Best of all, the boyfriend’s family is awesome. So glad everything went well!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

More: My Christmas Party

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Every year I have a Christmas party and this year it was another great one full of friends, food, and wine. Oh yeah, and kids. I think there were more kids there than adults. Note to self: hire a babysitter for the next get together. Also, congrats to my friend B. who has been to EVERY SINGLE ONE of my parties for the past 5 years.

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It was a crazy weekend with another Improv show on Friday and another holiday party on Saturday. The Saturday one was at Soule Domain, a really nice restaurant in Tahoe. Thanks to my friends L. and T., D. and I made it home safe after an overdose of good food and wine. I know Thanksgiving has passed, but I can’t stop being grateful for my good friends, so thanks everyone who made it to D.’s show and to my Christmas party and shared some holiday cheer!

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More: The Random Holiday Play Generator and Improv Show

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My super talented boyfriend is part of an Improv group who was doing the second part of a holiday show special, so last week I gathered my friends to go see him. The first part of the show were holiday skits, some of them pretty funny, like “A Jehovah witness’ Christmas” and “Santa’s twerking video”. The second half starts with D. asking the audience for a title, and from there they make up a play. You’d think it would be extremely confusing and that it wouldn’t flow well, but this group is so creative and professional, it seemed like they had rehearsed the “Holiday Painting” before, which was the title an audience member suggested. Tomorrow they are doing one last show for the season, so if you’re in Reno, go see them at the Potentialist Workshop at 8 pm!

Improv Show
Improv Show
Z Bar

More: Thanksgiving

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I could go on and on about this year’s Thanksgiving: how my students made the cutest paper turkeys, why my Trader Joe’s meal didn’t work out, how I made amazing chocolate pecan and pumpkin pies in gluten free crust, but all I really want to do is quote Tom Hanks again in Sleepless in Seattle: “It was like… magic.”

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More: Halloween

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Halloween is my least favorite holiday, mainly because orange is my least favorite color, but I’ve come a long way from hating it to tolerating it and actually participating in it. This year I dressed up as a pumpkin (well, I had an orange sweater on and a green hat) for the school dance, and as Black Widow from the “Avengers” (well, just a black outfit with a reddish wig) to go out in Tahoe. I first stopped at a friend’s house where no one ate the Halloween pumpkin pie I made (good for me – lots of delicious caramel-like gooey left overs), and then we went to Peak Nightclub inside Harrah’s. Hilarious fact:  Flavor Flav was the MC.

Unfortunately I wasn’t home for the trick or treaters, but my Dad said more than 20 kids showed up between 6:30 and 7:30, and he almost ran out of candy.

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More: Slick’s 9th Birthday

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Yup, I sent out invitations, had cupcakes and candles, and even party favors. Slick turned 9 years old on the 19th and since it was a Saturday, I just had to have a party for him. I invited only a fraction of the people I invited last year, and it was still huge. I bought some cheese at Wedge, cupcakes from Nothing Bundt Cake, but made everything else. I had hummus, roasted garlic, roasted potatoes, and a salad made with the produce from my organic basket delivery, and, of course, made pão de queijo and brigadeiro. I’m getting better at this party planning thing because this time it only took me 4 hours to prep, but my dad did help me by making an awesome fruit salad 🙂

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Since a lot of my friends just had babies, not many people were drinking, leaving me to finish all of the wine bottles I had opened. Later, my dad also made caipirinhas, and after that, well… I can only tell from the pictures. Apparently it involved being locked out of the house and using Slick’s doggy door to get back in, going to a Andrew W.K. concert (who the hell is he anyway?), and visiting many bars at the Midtown district (Chapel? Some dive bar on Wells?)

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