SoCal Sister Sleepover - Day 1

Today was my first full day of my 3-day SoCal sister adventure with Wilson. We had reservations for the ferry out to Catalina Island at 10:00 a.m. for a full day of walking and shopping. It's a 65 minute ride out to Catalina where you dock in their little marina that reminded me a lot of Victoria.

It was beautiful weather - sunny but breezy. We walked around awhile, checking out the sidewalk shops before stopping for some lunch at the Lobster Trap where I was eyeballing some clam chowder.

We split of bowl of really, really good chowder and also each got salads which neither of us could finish because the chowder was so filling. After lunch we decided to hike north to the Wrigley's Memorial and Botanical Gardens which, on the map, looked completely within walking distance. 10 miles later, and entirely uphill, we finally got there and discovered that by "botanical gardens" they meant ode to cactus.

At the top of the uphill gardens was the Wrigley memorial for William Wrigley Jr. (Wrigley Field and Wrigley's gum fame).

The walk back to civilization was much easier, mainly because it was all downhill. After a nice rest, some iced coffee, and a gluten free pecan chocolate chip cookie we were ready to continue to explore the downtown which included a walk down the marina to the Casino which, though it's name would imply, is not an actual casino but currently functions as a movie theater and museum.

We did the museum tour there where we learned that Wrigley built the Casino in the 30's as a large dance hall and a movie theater that could play both silent and talking movies.

By the time dinner came rolling around neither of us were hungry yet from our big lunch so we did the next best thing - had cocktails instead.

Then we still had to kill another hour or so until the ferry departed which turned out to be harder than we thought since pretty much everything except the restaurants closed down at 5:00 p.m. So we just ended up getting some hot coffee and sitting on the pier behind the ferry dock and chatting until 7:00 p.m. when the boarding line started to form.

We made sure to snag window seats on the ride back to Long Beach so we could enjoy the city lights when we arrived. After a "quick" 1+ hour ride back home we're ready to rest up for another big day tomorrow - the Getty Villa and California Science Center along with a lunch date to what Wilson assures me is a delicious Thai restaurant.

The shoes my frenemy bought

One of my female co-workers that I have a love-hate relationship with was in a walking boot for a couple of months so I offered up a pair of my Teva sandals that had a platform heel so that she wouldn't hobble around lopsided. After she got the boot removed she returned my sandals and gave me a gift certificate to a local shoe shoe as a thank you. And as much as I hate feeling obligated to be nice to her because she gave me something, it didn't stop me from blazing a trail to the shoe store for a little lunch time shopping.

My feet are now the proud owners of a comfy pair of brown leather Hush Puppies that are definitely going to  Catalina with me later in the week.

Candy trifecta

We ran over to Cash & Carry this afternoon and while there we got the last bag of Halloween candy I'd been eyeballing.

 Abba-Zabas (my favorite), Big Hunks, and Look! bars. Apparently Look bars are just chocolate covered Big Hunks (nougat with peanuts). I told the Canadian that he's not allowed to have any of these due to their "chewy" nature and the fact that he has paper mache teeth. Having already lost a tooth to Mike & Ikes, we're not taking any chances.

Hot Friday dates

We hardly ever go out to eat, but I ate out both lunch and dinner today. After weeks of planning, I finally had  lunch with Pam, our retired receptionist from work, at the Mennonite Cafe on Hagen Ln. I actually stopped there this morning at 7:00 am on my way to work and picked up some of their frozen dinners to take to a friend who is doing 24 hour care for her terminally ill father. Just throw them in the oven and you've got yourself some delicious chicken pot pies and cheesy chicken potatoes. The Mennonites are excellent bakers.

After a couple of hours of girl talk I came home and waited for the Canadian who was coming home from a job site in P-town for our dinner date at the super high-brow restaurant, La Comida.

I got all confused because Chico doesn't give you your chips and salsa at the counter like P-town does, they have a worker come by and hook you up. We had dinner early (i.e., 4:00 p.m.) so it was just us and our kind - the over 70 crowd. After dinner I talked the boy into going next door to the stationary/craft store so that I could ogle over all of the fall/Halloween decorations. While there I found some earrings that desperately wanted to come home with me so the boy bought them for me as an early birthday present.

The store has a rewards card for these brand earrings that when you've purchased a total of five pairs you mail in a post card (that has stickers from each of the purchases) to the company in VT and you get a free pair of your choice. And trust me, it won't be hard to find three more pairs that I want. There were two others on the display case that I would have gladly taken also. Free pair, here I come!

Death by cupcakes

I have a co-worker, Doug, who is notorious for bringing in treats to share with the office that are always out of date. One year for Valentine's Day he brought in day old donuts and wrote in sharpie on the box that they were fine if you nuked them first for a few seconds. I think a lot of the treats he brings are from his wife who works at their church food pantry and sends Doug with food they can't accept, like baked goods. Yesterday he brought mini cupcakes that were already four days past their "best by" date and once people realized who brought them the interest in the cupcakes waned. I even saved the life of a co-worker by damn near swatting a cupcake out of his hand when I saw him innocently reaching for one. And what do I get for my good deeds? I get stalked by those little clusters of moldy death. After I got back to my desk from working the counter I found this waiting for me;

and when I turned to answer my phone...

and when I reached up to grab my stapler...

There was no escaping their sinister stares. Once again, I blame one of the boys at work for trying to terrorize me!

My new little friend

One, possibly two, of my co-workers thought it would be heee-larious to stick a baby alligator lizard in my coffee mug last night after I left for me to find this morning.

Me - not so funny. I immediately employed the services of a big, manly co-worker to take it outside and dispose of it. Then I had to clean out the lizard cooties before I could enjoy some morning coffee. Boys!! (shaking my fist)

Back in the kitchen again

I've been holding on to a recipe for the past week or so that I thought would be a big hit at work and looked relatively easy to make - Peanut Butter Cup S'mores Bars. It's a bar made with a layer of graham cracker dough,

topped with full size peanut butter cups,

Then a layer of marshmallow fluff (or creme like I used),

Finally the whole thing is topped off with more graham cracker dough and then baked off for about 30 minutes.

After letting it sit for at least 2 hours to set up, you can cut it up into bars and serve to hungry Canadians.

A little too sweet for me, but I'm sure the little piglets at my work will love it!

While the bars were baking I was busy whipping up another recipe from my new Cooking Light issue - Maple Stout Quick Bread. As soon as the bars came out of the oven I slid the bread loaf in for about 45 minutes. After completely cooling I topped it with a maple glaze and cut us some pieces to try.

Hooooooooly crap, this was the most delicious bread I've ever made! I even swapped out all of the flour for the gluten free all-purpose flour (Better Batter) my mom got me at Christmas so I could eat the whole loaf without dying. It's got chocolate stout in the batter which gives it a wonderful aroma and the glaze gives it just the right amount of sweetness. Just looking at the photo makes me want to go back into the kitchen and get another slice it's that good!