| A dreamer fighting cynicism; a cynic fighting dreams. |
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| news briefs :) |
[31 Oct 2007|06:31pm] |
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fun halloween parties all around last weekend.
hung out with/interviewed shag (no, not shaq) yesterday. pic to come. nicest, most normal guy ever.
kids' costume parade down main beach was the cutest thing ever.
saw bono speak last night. hottest man ever. (shut up, jenna.)
highlight quote re: american ingenuity - "is that the moon? let's take a fucking walk on it."
oh, and i'm waaay too stressed out right now.
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| whiny me |
[22 Oct 2007|10:00pm] |
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Channel 9 Breaking News |
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(It's funny; on Satuday night, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tim_and_moey and I talked over Chick-fil-a about how much we can't stand whining on LJ. My bad.)
We're still just as safe as we were - in fact, they set up the local evacuation center just down the street from us, so I guess that means we're in a relatively good area
Please keep one of our pastors and his family in your prayers - last we heard, his front yard in Foothill Ranch was on fire. The neighborhood was all over Channel 7, etc., where the fire was licking each yard and the firefighters were going yard to yard.
This pic was taken 3 doors down from my pastor's house:
Our church offices are down the street from there, about 1/2 mile from the current fire line; Matt was there earlier helping take important stuff out of it.
And the head pastor lives at El Toro and Portola, so he's kind of in the path of the fire now, not to count some of my family in law in Silverado Canyon. Another family member's been evacuated out of Poway.
You know what's funny? Sunday night, at a dinner party, I felt like all the stress was over. Got past a party that had me in a ridiculous schoolgirl tizzy (it's all your fault), usual newspaper breaking-news madness, dealing with the aforementioned pastor's terribly sad departure from our church, two weddings I coordinated, and a friend since childhood's sudden, horrible death.
Not to mention all of Matt's medical bills, tests and specialists, his own fears of life-threatening illness, death or blindness (never talked about all that here, did I?), dealing with all the issues in our new "fixer" place (never talked about that here either), the housing crisis (ditto), my dad's prostate cancer (ditto), my brother's MRI scare (ditto), getting proof of mom's citizenship (ditto), blah blah blah.
It's like there was no time to decompress from one stressor before the next broke onto the scene.
And I'm sick of being strong, you know? I've been afraid to show any weakness for the past year or so, because when I did, I felt like a bad person. Just need something to lean on. I'm a girl, too, dammit.
Then as we were driving into our neighborhood last night, I saw this looming on the ridge.
Will keep you posted.
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[22 Oct 2007|02:41pm] |
personal update: the skies cleared a bit around lunchtime, but the winds are blowing the smoke back onto our street. i'm holed up in the bedroom with the air purifier on; the other rooms in the house STINK. it's oppressively hot and smoky outside.
my pastor has boxed up stuff at our church office. he watched the fire from the in 'n' out in foothill ranch and said it was really bad.
saddleback church is now a staging area, presumably to protect it as well.
latest info from city of lake forest (2 p.m.):
The City of Lake Forest is conducting voluntary evacuations for approximately 2,000 homes in the foothill areas of Lake Forest including Foothill Ranch and Portola Hills. Mandatory evacuations are in place on La Solita, La Perla, Pandale and Calle Cabrillo.
Anyone who feels in threat should go to El Toro High School, 25255 Toledo Way; check in at the Red Cross station.
ROAD CLOSURES: Road closures are as follows.
SB 241 toll road closed at 91 freeway
133 freeway closed at Interstate 5
Santiago Canyon closed between the 241 and 261 toll roads at Ridgeline
Portola Parkway closed between Culver and Sand Canyon
241 toll road off-ramp closed at Portola both North and Southbound
Jeffrey road closed to Modjeska
Irvine Blvd. Northbound closed
Irvine Blvd. closed at Alton
East Patriot is closed at Pioneer
Jamboree closed between Chapman Avenue and Portola Parkway
261 toll road closed between 241 toll road and Irvine Boulevard
Culver is closed at Valley Ridge
Silverado Canyon closed from Newport to Cook's Corner
SR74 escort only due to rock slides
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[22 Oct 2007|11:27am] |
New conflicting update from OCFA as of 11:20 a.m.:
A mandatory evacuation is in place for Modjeska Canyon and Hangman Tree Raod (Thomas Brothers page 832 D6). No evacuations at this time in Foothill Ranch, Lake Forest, or Irvine.
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[22 Oct 2007|10:54am] |
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Vineyards and Britneys condo complexes in Foothill Ranch area of Lake Forest near Walmart are now under MANDATORY evacuation. Rumors of some homes engulfed already? It just spread there with no firefighters even aware of it. You can see it from the Walmart on Portola.
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| News Update |
[22 Oct 2007|10:29am] |
(Figure I might as well be a clearinghouse for Irvine fire news since I'm getting wire feeds)
Fire Alert : Irvine fire.
The fire is within 20 feet of homes at Portola Parkway and the 261 tollroad in Irvine. Trees and brush are on fire but no houses burning now. Details to come.
This is near the intersection of Tustin Ranch and Jamboree.
Also, 2 charred bodies were found in a ("unrelated?") fire near Concordia University (Ridgeline and University) in Irvine, also set last night. Rumors are that the people who started the three fires in Santiago Canyon were trying to start them all around the Irvine area.
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| fire update |
[22 Oct 2007|10:15am] |
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channel 7 press conference with the governator |
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orange county sheriff just said they're in the process of evacuating a prison exactly a mile north of us.
(tim_and_moey, it's the musick jail at bake pkwy. and trabuco/irvine blvd.)
he's saying the fire's 1/2 a mile from them. you can see the flames from the prison. and my church office is a mile up bake from the prison.
within the last 15 minutes, my patio has been covered in ash and the air is totally smoky. i thought the wind had just changed.
oh, joy. there's a park that's literally a line of eucalyptus leading between us and them.
will keep you posted. i'm working from home. i don't think there's any threat whatsoever, but it's still scary.
brunsons (northwood) and morrisons (cowan heights): you're in my thoughts. call us if you need anything.
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| guess who our new client is? |
[16 Feb 2006|04:27pm] |
the dodgers! they started looking for a new agency about 6 weeks ago, and we jumped in during the last week of pitches, and STILL won. they're sending us 4 stadium seats for the lobby in thanks, and we just had a beer and peanuts meeting so they could announce it. i guess we have box seats now, but they don't know yet how they're going to raffle off games to employees.
cool! hopefully i'll make it to a freeway series game ;)
c.
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[16 Feb 2006|11:02am] |
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I have access to a free antique box stove, minus the stovepipe (it leaves a hole when it's removed.) I'm thinking about using it on the patio as a planter; can anyone think of any other (viable) ideas for it? It looks kinda like this:
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| luv, soft as an easy chair |
[15 Feb 2006|09:59am] |
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What a guy. He came by yesterday at work to deliver 3 red roses ("for the 3 months we've been married"). I was a little miffed - 3 roses??! I should have known better... :)
Got home that evening, got thru everyone coming over to pick up their stuff (it being Tues night), then went to dinner at Pomodoro, where they had a yummy prix fixe menu. Right when we were about to sit down, we received a call from Jon, who forgot his back order. Matt went home to get it out of the garage for him, then came back and we had champagne, a crab biscotti-type amuse bouche, shrimp, butternut squash ravioli, mushroom ravioli, beef with barolo wine sauce, and a to-die-for chocolate souffle (of which I ate WAY too much, WAY too quickly).
While we were there, I gave him his gifts: a handmade Valentine (complete with hand-cut silver doily-style accent and an Anne Bradstreet poem), a Stewie Griffin keychain in a Shrek Valentine's bag, and a bottle of wine made with a custom wine label (see below).
When we got home, he gave me nine more roses ("for the 9 years we've known each other"). This is where I began to get mushy.
He then led me to the bedroom where he had set up all the ducks around another vase of red roses and a box with hand-drawn wrapping paper (see excerpt below).
Inside the wrapping paper (my favorite gift) was a Neiman Marcus box with a beautiful aquamarine and peridot layered briolette necklace in it. Now, this necklace has a story. When we were in Vegas last weekend, I ooh'd and aah'd over this necklace for a good 15 minutes. When I finally had the strength to walk away from it, he secretly tossed his credit card to the store clerk. Anthony disappeared a little while later, so Matt said he had to "go find him," and left me at Tahari or some such store. While I thought he was "finding" Anthony, he had gone back to buy the necklace, and hid the box the whole rest of the time we were out. :) Needless to say, I was impressed - I had thought my Valentine's Day present was the mixing bowls and drapes we had just gotten at the Williams-Sonoma/Pottery Barn outlet (see below).
And THEN, I come in this morning to find he got me a related LJ gift! So cute. So very cute. The boy done good.
EDIT: the LJ rose was from Leanna! Aw, you're so SWEET, hun! :) Matt's still doin' good, though. And I also forgot to post a pic of our newest friend, courtesy of my dad:
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[14 Feb 2006|09:32am] |
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Happy VD, everyone! In honor of the occasion, I present all GGUSD alums with the recipe to the giant chocolate chip cookies they used to sell for a quarter in all the schools I attended. I had a weird craving for them the other day, so I emailed the head of their food service department. Enjoy! Reduce the quantities as needed, of course ;)
8# Sugar
8# Brown Sugar
4# Butter
7 ½ # Shortening
6 Cups Eggs
½ Cup Vanilla
3/4 Cup Baking Soda
½ Salt
18 # Flour
½ Gallon Chocolate Chips
Mix and baker according to any chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Oh, and today's junk food tally (since I first walked in the door 10 minutes ago):
1 heart-shaped Jell-o Jiggler
1 Rice Krispies Treat
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| French Laundry menu |
[09 Feb 2006|05:39pm] |
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Everyone's been bugging me to share the menu from our French Laundry honeymoon experience - I finally found it, and typed it up to share. For those who really don't care about such things, French Laundry is allegedly the best restaurant in the country according to foodies everywhere. To get a reservation, you have to call exactly two months to the day before you want to dine, from 10:00 am to 10:10 am, and pray you get through. I managed to get reservations for the night before Thanksgiving, at the best table (#6) right next to the fireplace. As we were leaving, a limo pulled up with a pair of people waiting to take our place at the table - turned out to be Christina Aguilera and her brand-new hubby, who got married right when we did.
Anyway, on to the food. They started out by giving us a variety of breads, followed by their traditional amuse-bouche, an "ice cream cone" topped with a little scoop of salmon tartare and crème fraiche, then moved into the ever-changing tasting menu. From what I recall, wine-wise we started off with a sparkling German wine, then moved to a Brunello for the middle 3 courses, then finished with an amazing Barolo.
The menu:
“Oysters and Pearls”
“Sabayon” of Pearl Tapioca with Beau Soleil Oysters
and Russian Sevruga Caviar
“Carnaroli Risotto Biologico”
Castelmagno Cheese and Shaved White Truffles from Alba
Grilled Fillet of Meditteranean Sea Bream,
Caramelized Fennel Bulb, “Suprêmes” of Navel Orange
and Niçoise Olive “Purée”
“Saffron Vanilla”
Maine Lobster Tail “Cuite Sous Vide”
with Wilted Arrowleaf Spinach and a Saffron-Vanilla Emulsion
Sautéed Sirloin of Devil’s Gulch Ranch Rabbit,
“Cassoulet” of Autumn Pole Beans, Transparent Apples
and Serrano Ham “Gastrique”
“Bouillon” Poached Ribeye of Elysian Fields Farm Lamb,
Fork-Crushed Yukon Gold Potatoes, French Laundry Garden Swiss Chard,
Roma Tomato “Confit” and “Sauce Gremolata”
“Vermont Shepherd”
Savoy Cabbage and Sweet Carrot “Slaw”
with Whole Grain Mustard Emulsion
Satsuma Mandarin Sorbet
“aux Agrumes D’Automne et Feuille de Bric Croquante”
Valrhona Chocolate “Dôme,”
Wildflower Honey-Sicilian Pistachio “Nougat Blanc,”
Bitter Chocolate “Coulis” and “Cerceaux de Sucre”
“Mignardises” (they gave us several)
(They also gave each of us a beribboned sachet of fresh shortbread to take home, in case we got hungry in the car :) )
For more information on the way the service works there, there’s a great article here.
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[09 Feb 2006|11:34am] |
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You know your office is kept too cold when you look forward to printing a stack of documents, just because you'll get to warm your hands on them when they come out of the printer.
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[08 Feb 2006|11:54am] |
Awwww.
My bridesman just called cos he was randomly in my old neighborhood and remembered it from 7 years ago. It reminded him of me. How sweet.
Also, wasn't it an absolutely GORGEOUS morning? I don't remember the last time I saw the sky so blue.
Of course, as soon as I arrived at my office, I could see and smell the smoke from the Anaheim Hills fire. Figures - it was so clear and sweet-smelling at home.
My best to Mark, Cathy, Eric, Gramma Glass and everyone else in that area. Yeah, you too, Jenna. :) Hope it isn't too smelly and sooty.
Oh, and I have the coolest new icon in the world, courtesy of Leanna. Ducky saw it and, yes, he wanted his very own LiveJournal as predicted. It's in the works here. And I'm not even going to write it for him. He's going to do it all by himself.
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| Uh-oh |
[03 Feb 2006|09:53am] |
I don't know about other locations, but the Irvine Spectrum Anthropologie is having an additional 40% off all sale apparel and jewelry.
Hence I got this for about $20 (was $128):
And I also got the cap-sleeved version (much cuter and more functional) of this Ann Ferriday top for about $20 (was $118):
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[02 Feb 2006|04:27pm] |
Nicole Kidman-lookalike coworker (observing my outfit): "Hey, I have that same skirt!"
Me: "Cool!"
Coworker: "Yeah, I have the cutest pair of pink Liz wedges with flowers on them that I wear with it!"
Me: (holding up my foot and showing her the exact shoes she's describing): "You mean THESE?"
(pause)
Coworker: "No. Way."
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