Day 247 & 248: 365 Project

When looking for that next color to grace your fingernails with, please stay away from Sinful Colors at Target. I should have known immediately from the name to steer clear, but it was cheap and there were a lot of fun colors.

A little over a month ago, I painted my nails that greenish/yellow color. Well, when it was time to change colors because of chipping, I took the nail polish off to find that it had turned my nails this awful yellow color. Looked my nails had jaundice. I'll admit that I was a little worried at first, but moved on. I painted my nails with the blue, and when I took that off, some of the blue stuck to my yellow nails creating this awful green.

I know what you're thinking... Michelle, you think there's a bad color green? Yes.

Anyway, I knew then that this nail polish was dying my fingernails. I continued to paint my nails for weeks so the gross colors wouldn't show. Because of this my nails became brittle, for the most part. I decided to try to file off the colored nail to see if that worked, and it did for the most part. Now I just have to wait for my nails to get healthy again.

I looked up to see if I could find similar reviews, but I couldn't. Not sure if this is happened to someone else. When their website is back up and working, I plan to make an official complaint.

My advice is to stay away from Sinful Colors and pay the extra money that won't ruin your nails.

Day 245 & 246: 365 Project

The first thought that comes mind when I hear "Marzipan" is Homestar Runner. If you have no idea what or who that is, then please go check out www.homestarrunner.com. When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time on this website.

Anyway, I first heard of Marzipan, the candy, on Gilmore Girls (where else?!)...

Let me set up the scene:

[Lorelai and Rory and eating dinner at Richard and Emily's house]

RORY: Is there dessert?
EMILY: Yes, and we have a special surprise for you for dessert. We brought it back from Switzerland.
LORELAI: We're getting a mountain goat?
RICHARD: This is better than a goat.
EMILY: Let's go into the living room.
RORY: Dessert from Switzerland.
LORELAI: The land of chocolate.
RORY: Yum!
RICHARD: You two are going to love this.
LORELAI: Is it as good as Toblerone?
RICHARD: Oh, it's better than Toblerone.

[They walk to the living room. The maid sets the dessert tray on the coffee table]

LORELAI: Whoa, what is that?
EMILY: It's marzipan.
RORY: Marzipan?
RICHARD: The finest marzipan in all of Europe. Made by cloistered nuns.
EMILY: We toured their cloister, it was right out of "The Sound of Music."
LORELAI: What happened to the chocolate?
EMILY: What chocolate?
LORELAI: You compared it to zzToblerone - that's chocolate.
RICHARD: You brought up Toblerone. I just said it was better than that because I think it is.
EMILY: Marzipan is candy. You like candy.
LORELAI: Marzipan is not candy. It is a unique substance unto itself, like Velveeta or plutonium.

Well, when Sam and I were heading up to San Jose last a couple weekends ago, we stopped by Casa de Fruta. We went into a candy store looking for a chocolate covered strawberry. Yes, they're wonderful there. Well, we found the strawberry there along with marzipan. I needed to see if was as disgusting as I've heard.

See.. doesn't it look tasty? Yeah, well, it's not.

Marzipan: Something that should be enjoyed by sight, not by taste. -- At least that's my definition. 

It's a "treat" made of mostly sugar and Almond Meal.

 If nothing else, just seems like a foreign type of fondant,  but much worse.

Remembering Ten Years Ago

It's been sad watching what the attack on September 11, 2001 did to America. I'm not even just talking about the past ten years, I'm talking about today too. There have been so many news headlines today that have talked threats, scares, paranoia, etc. Places have shut down, including the Fresno Amtrak station because of suspicious baggage. People have been scared on planes because of "suspicious behavior," which on any other day probably wouldn't be thought twice about.

Because of the horrific day 10 years ago, people are spending their lives without the people closest to them. Men and women spend months, even years, away from their families to fight for their country. Lives are tragically, and unjustly torn apart for no good reason. If you don't support the war, support the troops and their families. 

I remember that day 10 years ago. I was just 13 years old, and was in my first couple weeks in high school. I remember my mom running into my room to turn on the television. Looking at the timeline I found, it had to be footage of the first plane. Then I had to go to school, not knowing really what was going to happen next. I remember a friend of mine carrying around a radio listening to the events to come. In my classes, we really did nothing that day, but watch news reports. We also discussed what was going on and tried to comprehend why this was happening. Being that we were all fairly young, we probably didn't understand the importance of what was happening, I know I didn't. 

Ten years later, I know that no one will ever be able to understand why this happened. The picture below I pulled from a Google search. I knew that there was a Ground Zero Cross, but I didn't know where it was from or who made it until I researched it. 

The results give me hope. 

Hope in knowing that while terrible things happen, God shines through. 

This cross wasn't made by man, it was part of what was left from the World Trade Center. Among all the debris and heartache was this 20-foot steel beam cross. I don't believe in coincidences, so I don't think this was just something random. I know this comes from the One above, simply reminding us to have faith, and hope in knowing He will give us comfort through the good and bad.

Day 244: 365 Project

A wonderful ending to a very strange, but interesting evening.
This, my friends, is a Strawberry Margarita Cupcake from Frosted Cakery. It was delectable. Not only was it  super cute, but it was so tasty. I'm assuming that the top of it had some salt in it, because I definitely tasted salt. It was like a real margarita!

Tonight started out strange, and the theme continued. I went to meet Angelica and Kristin at Tower Theater for Fresno Filmworks to see the French film, "The Names of Love." I arrived late due to a lot of traffic. I think people were confused because of the rain. Eventually got there, met up with them inside the theater and watched the movie.

Filmworks are always a mystery. First off, I never know what the movie is when I go. I just go because it's the thing the three of us do. For the most part, it's always a foreign movie and always really weird. I think we've disliked (and been completely confused) more films than we have leaving and falling in love with one. It's still fun to get together and see a movie. I find it more fun for us to talk about a terribly confusing movie than discussing a movie we really liked.

The movie tonight was decent. It was definitely one of the better ones we've seen, but still seemed to lack focus. That's happened with the majority of the foreign films we've seen.

After the movie, we went to Irene's.

I checked into Irene's via FourSquare. It was taking too long to "set the check-in" so I just set my phone on the table and forgot about it. We were sitting inside, and this group sat outside next to our window. Not long after they sat down, the guy with the crazy green hair came over and tapped on the window and showed a picture of me to us. We were really creeped out by this. How did he get a picture of me? It was a picture that was like two years old. Eventually, after he comes over to show us, I look at my phone and realize that I became mayor of Irene's Cafe. Waaay better. Still a little weird, but better.

The food is wonderful there, but the service is terrible. I think that's half the fun though. Had it been our first time there, and not the 50th time, we probably wouldn't go back. Many times has our waiter vanished, only to see him walk in 15 minutes later with a Venti Starbucks drink. The service tonight was no different. We had to get up from the table to go to the front to pay, and the kid who took our money was really confused. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a character from 3rd Rock From the Sun, or has no friends he goes out to eat with.

This is what happened with our check:
Price was about $30 for all of us. They just put all of us on the same tab. We wanted it split up. Angelica hands him a $20 for her meal, then Kristin and I had him our credit cards for our portion. He doesn't ask us who ate what, he just walks away. We're standing there waiting... for... something. At this point, I figure he is just going to split the check three ways. Not a big deal.

But no.

He comes back with a receipt for me to sign, one for Kristin, and no change for Angelica. I look at my receipt and it charged my credit card about $5. Well, that's just a few dollars off. Kristin's was the exact same.

So what happened? He kept Angelica's $20, then cut the remaining bill in half between Kristin and I. Um. What?! Who does that?! It was weird, but gave us a some laughs. I ended up buying Angelica's cupcake.

Yes, very strange evening, but had a great time with some awesome friends. And even had a super yummy cupcake.

Day 243: 365 Project

This is the only picture I have from last weekend. For some reason, we didn't take any pictures, which is super unusual. It was me taking a goodbye picture of nice, cool air.

We spent our Labor Day weekend in San Jose with Valarie and Richard. It was nice to get away from home, and the heat to hang out with some great friends. I hadn't seen Val since May and before that, November. Much too long to go without seeing your bestest friend.

We did a lot of hanging out at their place and watching Weeds.
We also did some antique/thrift shopping and I got some super cute, cheap stuff. I love thrift stores.
We also went to the Gilroy Outlets where I drooled over nearly everything in the Fossil store. We also went into a bookstore that was closing down -- everything was $1!!
Valarie and I also went into the Sanrio store. I have so many memories with the Sanrio store. I used to love going there when I was kid.

Monday morning, Sam and I went to Ikea. Our main goal was movie shelves that hang on the wall. We were also looking for a new, small kitchen table. The one we have is so big for just the two of us. Time to downsize!

We left with:
1 Kitchen table plus four chairs
4 wall movie shelves - $6 each!
1 wall hanging magazine rack - Originally $20 for $7.99!
1 set of 6 drinking glasses  - $6.99!
2 white picture frames - $1.99 each

We did really well and I can't wait to put our new home items to use. I'll post pictures when everything is all set up.

We headed back home Monday evening.
It was a great trip.
Needless to say, it was a perfect weekend!

Ημέρα 239, 240, 241 & 242: 365 πρόγραμμα

                          
Just to mention a few things that we enjoyed at The Annual Greek Festival this last Saturday afternoon.

We arrived and immediately went for the food. I got a chicken kabob and some Greek fries. I had been looking forward to those fries since I had some for the first time last year. I ended up sharing them with the group. The Sams (my husband and another friend) both got Gyros. Jesse got a Lamb kabob and some rice. All the food was so tasty. The food alone is reason enough to go to the festival. We even got to see half the Stewart family. It was great catching up a bit with them.

Kope sporting is Greek outfit. Not entirely sure what it's called.

We even did some wine tasting. I didn't really like most of them since I don't actually care for the taste of alcohol, but it was still something fun to do there.

Other than it being insanely hot, it was a wonderful afternoon spend with great friends, wonderful food and fun entertainment. Can't wait to attend again next year!

OPA!

(According to Urban Dictionary, Opa means "a Greek word used to describe a jubilant emotion of/during 'celebration'" or 

"a word that Greek people use for no apparent reason at all." -- Personally, I like the latter)