Outfit of the Day - L.A. Muscle Tank + Chiffon

Can we please have sweater weather already?? Come on Sacramento…give us some rain and gloomy, overcast skies. I'm tired of tank tops and layered pantyhose. I want to show off my massive collection of Black Milk leggings and long sleeves!

Today the weather wasn't scorching, but it was still hot enough to facilitate sleeveless tops and light-weight leg wear. 

I received a parcel in the mail yesterday from G-Stage that included this L.A. skeleton hand print muscle tank. Under $10 if you can believe that? I love G-Stage! Super affordable and super cute. Not to mention they had a decent selection of black stuff, which is really what I look for in a website these days. 

High-low chiffon blouse - Forever 21; L.A. muscle tank - G-Stage; Boots - New Rock

L.A. is my second home, even though I don't truly want to live there. It's a great place to visit and explore and get to know, but ultimately, all you do there is wait. Wait for opportunity, wait for traffic, wait for everything. I just can't handle spending that much time in the car in traffic, which is why I love visiting but am always glad to get out.

Until next time!

Sunday Brunch and "Tusk"

Sunday was our good friend Zach's birthday. We met up with a bunch of friends at a restaurant in downtown called Capitol Garage. They're known for their brunch specials and cocktails.

Starting brunch off right with an alcoholic horchata! 

A tofu curry scramble for breakfast - all vegan. It was damn good! 

There were like 12 of us altogether! What a large group. The birthday boy is the one on the right wearing a black beanie and stuffing food in his face. 

After some great conversations and delicious food, we headed to the movies to see Kevin Smith's new horror film, Tusk. Kyle and I are pretty big Kevin Smith fans and listen to all his podcasts, so we've been following all the Tusk news eagerly and waiting impatiently for the movie to come out. It did not disappoint!

Love this poster. 

All these cool people all in black. And no, it wasn't planned. That's just how our crew rolls. Hahaha. Also, we went full walrus in this picture. #walrusyes

The movie was awesome. It was everything you would expect from a Kevin Smith film (in the best possible way) and since we had been following it so closely, we were delighted to find out that it actually stayed very true to the original podcast that it was based off of. The makeup and special effects carried the film, but the actors' performances were also stellar. It was no surprise that Michael Parks made a great evil Walrus scientist/doctor, but who woulda guessed that Justin Long could pull off such an amazing walrus? All of the references to the SModCo podcasts were hilarious and the movie managed to find that perfect balance between weird, horrific, and terribly amusing. Go Kevin Smith. Please keep making movies of this caliber.

Until next time!

A Fashion Show at District 30

Last night I got all gussied up for a fashion show at a local club called District 30. We didn't end up seeing the fashion show or staying out super late because all my friends (and Kyle) had work the next morning, but it was still fun.

This is the interior of District 30. It's set up very strange for a club (in my opinion) because it's basically one long hallway of a venue. Here I am scratching my face and not paying attention to Kyle taking a picture. For some reason, there's a speck of light at just the proper place to make it look like my finger is radiating sparkles or something. Also, it looks like I'm flipping him off, but I'm not, I promise. 

Here we are outside on the patio having fun. I was already three drinks in at this point, so yeah….

Outfit front view. Loving the high-low hems right now. 

Crop top  - Rue 21; Chiffon high-low tank - Heavenly Couture; Boots - Demonia

After I drank three cocktails (did I mention the drinks were FREE??) I was pretty tipsy and Kyle was also ready to head home, so even though it was only 11:30 and the fashion show had not even started, we called it a night.

Until next time!

A Belated Post About an Anniversary Dinner

Kyle and I celebrated fourteen years (yes, you read that correctly - FOURTEEN years ) of being together on September 12th. We've only been married for four years, but we celebrate our dating anniversary too because that's how it's always been and that's the way we like it. Who doesn't like a fancy occasion to spend time with their significant other? *wink wink*

We headed out to downtown Sacramento to The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant we had both never been to before. Hey, I know it's a chain, but Sacramento Yelp said it was one of the top-ranked romantic things to do in Sac, so yeah….

We started things off with cocktails. Well, I guess I should say, I started things off with a cocktail. Kyle had a glass of red wine.

My cocktail was a martini that tasted like chocolate ice cream! 

What a fun design for a cocktail. In case you're curious, it had kahlua, vanilla vodka, ice cream, and chocolate shavings. Yum!

Because it was our anniversary, they seated us in our own private little nook. It was a tiny little "room" all separated from the rest of the diners. So private! 

Before all the food came and cluttered up the table

Opening course was cheese fondue. It was a blend of white cheeses with shallots, green onion, and white sherry. 

Nom nom nom

Because neither of us was familiar with how a main course at a fondue restaurant worked, we ordered entrees. In retrospect, we would've skipped this pricy course because you actually cook it at your own table in a broth. They bring you raw meat or veggies and you boil them in the broth, which makes for some bland eating in my book. I prefer the cheese and chocolate dips.

Kyle ordered duck which turned out to be an awful choice considering that boiling duck pretty much murders all the flavor, texture, and fats that you get from cooking a duck properly. As I said, had we known this, we both wouldn't have ordered entrees. 

My smorgasbord of veggies to boil.

The best part of the experience was dessert of course. Dipping a variety of fruits and sweet cakes into melted chocolate was not only fun, but memorable. They even brought us special anniversary strawberries.

Smores-flavored chocolate with graham cracker topping!

Brownies, marshmallows, bananas, strawberries, and poundcake to dip!

Check out our special little anniversary strawberries. :)

 It sure was a pricey dinner and we had planned to see a movie at the drive-in theater afterwards, but we were both so stuffed that we just went home and Netflixed some "Once Upon a Time." We've gotten into that show recently.

Until next time!

Outfit of the Day - Blouses with Crosses

Look - I got a hair cut! Asymmetrical, shattered bob! Hahaha - just kidding. I styled my hair a bit differently and my extensions are on my off-camera shoulder, so it just looks that way. 

Nothing exciting to report today. My weekend is lining up to be super busy with a birthday brunch for a friend, the release of Kevin Smith's new horror flick "Tusk," and a small concert at a local club though, so I'll probably have lots more to say after the weekend.

Just an outfit post for today. I scored some sweet things at the local Goodwill, including the chiffon cross-print blouse I'm sporting today. I have several tops with cross prints, and sometimes I feel a bit odd wearing crosses because I associate myself with Christianity in NO WAY, so really, if you know me, it's kind of a sarcastic commentary on my atheism if anything.

Anyways, I had work to do when I got home from work (*sigh* the dilemma of working from home), so really the highlight of my day was hearing my boss inhale leftover helium from some decorative balloons at the store and then proceed to sing "We're Off to See the Wizard" from "The Wizard of Oz."

Cross blouse - second hand; High-low tank top - Love Culture; Boots - New Rock

Until next time!

Our last days in Hawaii and Snorkeling with the Manta Rays

The last day before Mom and I headed home was a Sunday and we were scheduled for a night swim with the manta rays. We were supposed to do it earlier that week, but it had gotten cancelled while we were on our way there. Imagine our surprise when we went to check in Sunday night and the company had a fully booked excursion and we were not on their reservation list! Luckily for us, the receptionist was able to call some of the people who had booked and rearrange their excursion so we could take their spot. So it all worked out in the end.

The boat ride out to where the mantas were was long but fun. We saw some spinner dolphins swimming alongside the boat and doing their acrobatic jumps out of the water. Spinner dolphins are smaller than Bottlenose dolphins and spin while they do their out of water flips. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the dolphins because you never know where they'll jump out of the water and they disappear so quickly.

Me and Mom taking a selfie on the boat. Eden didn't want her picture taken. 

Before the sun went down, the blue sky was so pretty and the ocean seemed to go on forever.

Mom and Eden sitting at the back of the boat for a bit.

Mom at the front of the boat looking for dolphins.

The sun beginning to set.

The sun colored the clouds so pretty when it was setting.

When the sun had finally gone all the way down, we all suited up in our wetsuits, collected our snorkel gear, and jumped into the ocean. Because the water is so dark at night, the way you see the manta rays is through a floating surfboard with very powerful lights attached to it. You basically hang on to the board and float while the mantas do twirls underneath you.

Mom and I had bought underwater cameras, but Mom couldn't get hers to work and when I got my film developed, the techs told me that the film was blank, which is apparently very common when using underwater cameras. So unfortunately, we have no real pictures of the manta rays that we took ourselves, but I Googled images and included them so at least you can get an idea of what we saw.

This is a picture of snorkelers hanging onto the floating light boards.

This is what I saw swimming up at me when I was looking down. Mouths wide open and jaws flapping. Also lots of white, speckled bellies.

The manta rays eat plankton and are filter feeders with no true teeth, so they are completely harmless to people. However, at first, it is a bit disconcerting to see a 15 to 20 foot long sea creature swimming right at you with its mouth wide open. They do ballet dances in the water, spinning in circles and doing back flips in order to catch the most plankton they can. Sometimes they hit the boards or the snorkelers while flipping, although you're not supposed to touch them.

We got wine, beer, hot chocolate, and snacks on the boat ride home to end our night snorkel. What an amazing experience and such a great way to spend our final night on the island.

Aloha Hawaii! I'll return soon…hopefully to visit my Dad once his houses are built. :)

A big thank you goes out to my Mom for inviting me along and planning all the excursions. I'm glad we got to do such fun things together!

Until next time!

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden and an Unpleasant Surprise

After our horseback ride in Waipio Valley, we had a short drive to Hilo, where the Botanical Gardens we wanted to visit were located. We got a bit lost trying to find it since it seems nowhere in Hawaii has a physical address to input into a GPS. All the directions are something like: "Make a slight right onto the road with the two flashing lights, pass mile marker 11.2, and turn up the driveway with the banana trees on either side."

The botanical gardens were definitely beautiful, but since I don't know much about plants or trees, all the gorgeous flowers started to look the same, even if they were different colors and shapes. My favorite section was the orchid area of course.

Because I know nothing about any of the flowers and plants pictured below, I'm pretty much going to be skipping captions on them. Also, if you're not a fan of pretty flower pictures, skip ahead because the unpleasant surprise is still yet to come.

Front entrance sign.

Me and Eden reading about the statue of the Hawaiian god

Mom on the bridge down into the garden. It starts out level, but then you go down a lot of stairs, which are not fun on the way back up and out of the gardens. When we left, I felt like I had just taken a shower because I was that sweaty. 

I'm pretty sure this one is called beehive ginger. They also had these flowers for sale at many of the farmer's markets.

Of course there were geckos!

There was a bird area with a cage that had a few macaws in it. This red guy here liked to talk.

At the end of the trail downwards, you hit the ocean and can read about the legends of the rock formations and how they got that way.

Eden doing some reading.

I appreciated the botanical gardens for their beauty and all the plant life they contained, but I can't say I wasn't thankful to get back into the air conditioned car. Plus we had ridden horses all morning and then taken a mile and a half hike around the gardens with a lot of steps at the end of the trail, so I was beat and ready to go back to the hotel and take a shower. Turns out, that was not in the cards.

Eden wanted to check out Hilo since it was only a mile or so down the road, so on our way there, Mom stopped at an intersection to let a pedestrian cross. We heard a terrifying screeching of tires and everything seemed to go in slow motion like it does in the movies when something traumatic happens. BAM! We were rear-ended by a pickup and the rental car was pushed through the intersection.

Poor rental car. Simply not drivable anymore and not our fault. 

Eden was in the back seat and bore the brunt of the impact, but it seemed that everybody was OK aside from being very shaken up. I had never been in any sort of collision of that nature before and I just couldn't believe our bad luck. Luckily, Mom had purchased the additional insurance through the rental company, so we were fully covered.

All of our phones were dead, so we didn't really have any way to communicate with the rental company, tow truck, or insurance agents. Luckily for us, the man who hit us was a gentleman and loaned his phone to make calls. He even drove Mom to the Hilo airport to get a new rental car because we still had two hours to drive to get back to the hotel. Me and Eden stayed on the side of the road with the broken car until the tow truck came and it was really funny because we had no way to communicate with Mom to know if she had contacted the tow truck and we were supposed to ride to the airport with him or what was going on. The tow truck dude was also very nice to us and made some calls and found out that we had to wait just a bit longer because Mom was on her way back with a new car.

That's the tow truck driving away with the crashed rental car. At least Eden and I had a grassy area on the side of the road to hang out on.

So, once again, we had a THIRD rental car on the island. I could hardly believe we had gone through three cars in under a week! Our luck was so bad that I could only laugh at the situation because there's really nothing else you can do in a situation that bad.

We all had some much-needed alcohol when we got back to the hotel. And I got my hot shower. What a rough day.

Until next time!