Get to know me???

A. Age:

Twenty

B. Bed size:

Queen

C. Chore you hate:

Making the bed

D. Day:

Wednesdays - half-way there!

E. Essential start to your day:

COFFEE & the Today Show

F. Favorite color:

It varies- red.

G. Gold or Silver:

Silver, or white gold.

H. Height:

5'6"

I. Instruments:

Piano, Clarinet, Violin, Percussion

J. Job title:

Host/Cashier. Soon-to-be cast member!

K. Kids:

Eventually two.

L. Live:

Scottsdale/Tempe, AZ

M. Mom’s name:

Michelle

N. Nicknames:

C.J., Cal Cal, Callers, Cali Swag, California

O. Overnight hospital stays:

Not yet!

P. Pet peeve:

Clanging dishes or smelly burps.

Q. Quote from a movie:

Say I'm a bird!

R. Right or left handed:

Right

S. Siblings:

One sister

T. Time you wake up:

Oh wow...during school 6:30 am. This summer 1:00 pm.

U. Underwear:

VS?

V. Vegetables you dislike:

Asparagus...not a big fan of mushrooms, either.

W. What makes you run late:

When my hair won't cooperate.

X. X-Rays you’ve had:

A MILLION of my mouth.

Y. Yummy food you make:

I prefer baking...anything. Cookies?

Z. Zoo:

Otters are the best! PHX zoo sucks, btw. Henry Doorly is legit.

Here's What You've Been Missing

A LOT. I'm sorry to say. Here's the condensed version.

Postino's.

Their salted caramel sundae with chocolate covered corn nuts.

Beer can chicken with Mom.

My birthday from the lovely roomies.

Birthday dinner with my favs.

The love of my life.

Wrangler.

Kayaking with Sean & Wrangler at the cabin.

Sophie, Kayla's baby.

The haboob at work.

Meeting Rob Dyrdek.

Making bread pudding.

Banana Foster's bread pudding to be exact.

Seeing the family in Nebraska.

Icing cupcakes with Aunt Bonita.

My dream house just so happens to reside in Nebraska.

Small town USA, Nebraska.

So those were the highlights of my summer. I only have 20 days left till I'm off to Florida. Hopefully I'll be able to keep ya'll caught up. I'm sure I'll have a lot to share once I'm there.

I'm Back

...I think so at least.
I have so much to tell all of you, I don't even know where to begin.
Sorry I've been gone for so long. First I blamed it on finals, then I blamed it on getting into that summer schedule where my days and nights are reversed...now I don't have much of an excuse at all.

Here's what I must tell you all about:
Wrangler
Banana Foster's Bread Pudding
Postino's
and many many more...

I'll try to stick to it this time. I really have no excuse. I'm just a summer bum now.

Older Men

Ughhh I hate that it's so close to the end of school! I feel like it's the weekend tonight and I really don't want to stay in. Unfortunately I do have classes tomorrow so I can't stay out late even if I was going out. :(

I'm in a super goofy mood right now so I'll rant for a bit.

I have the fattest crush on my periodontist (a kind of dentist)...sure he may be a lot older, but he's super cute! Even my roomie said so. Today was my last appointment till next year. Tragic. I won't be able to see his charming smile for quite some time. I might have to find an excuse to go see him. Like a toothache or something ;)

Totally kidding, but don't judge me for liking older men. You all know George Clooney is a gorgeous man.

Yummy.

And speaking of George Clooney, I may be starring in a film with him sooner or later. Tomorrow is my first debut in a film called Untitled Love Story. Hahah totally playing this up. My friend is a film student and has to film a short movie for school. I told him I'd help him out. I get to test out my acting skills I learned freshman year of high school. Oh dear...wish me luck!!! It should be fun, though. Especially since there's a party scene at our apartment. (Excuse to throw one!)

Who Knew I Could Read?

I don't think I've ever finished a book. Just kidding, that's a tad of an exaggeration. I think I might have finished a few the summer of my freshman year when we took all those road trips.

This semester I've finished two...shocking, I know.
The first was Ree Drummond's Love Story and the second was Water for Elephants.

My roommate let me borrow Water for Elephants and I told myself I'd finish it before the movie came out. Surprisingly I reached my goal! Finished it yesterday. I really enjoyed it, if you like cute love stories, you should definitely check it out. Now I can't wait to see the movie! My prostodontist just sent me movie tickets in a thank you note, too so I don't even have to pay to see it! Only one problem, it comes out Friday and I already agreed to play a part in a friend's short film that day. Saturday I work a double and Sunday is Easter. Guess it'll have to wait. :(

Now I don't have something to distract me from school, which is a good thing with finals right around the corner, but it's kind of depressing at the same time. Hahah

So busy, busy weekend coming up. Most likely won't have enough time to bake anything and cross it off my list. :/ I'll try to keep ya'll posted, though!

Lady Luck

It seems that she has my back again. Lets hope it stays that way!

Ahh what a beautiful day, I just have to share it all with you.
Started out with an overall wonderful day at school including a meeting concerning the Disney internship. Then I came home and ran an errand with my mom before an appointment. Right after, I headed to work and got cut about an hour in.
The fact that I called today beautiful might seem sarcastic to you all, but I'm being completely sincere. It's the little things that add up and mean the most to me.
For example: I couldn't find a paper for my com class and my friend happened to have an extra. I got an a on my speech outline. Got full clicker points in accounting. Went to the Disney meeting and found a potential roommate. Got a new phone at the Verizon store when I went with my mom. We stopped and had a cookie at Paradise. Had my final appointment at my periodontist (this one means the most to me.) And finally, although I would have really liked to earn some money tonight I have a really big stats exam I must study for.

So everything worked out perfectly and I couldn't be more thankful.
Other than that, nothing too exciting is going on. Birthday's coming up and school's just about out, but I have a lot of work to do before hand. :]

Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese and Cake Batter Cinnamon Rolls

Finally some catchin' up on my Bake-It List!
I updated it, too :D

Saturday was specifically reserved for baking and gluttony with Ali, which ended up being the perfect day for it since it was wet and dreary out. Extremely chilly, too!

We started off the festivities with a stop at In&Out. Ali hadn't tried the Neapolitan  shake. So we each grabbed one of those to hold us over till we started on our intense grilled cheese.

We learned a few lessons from cooking this weekend...you really should read through the entire recipe before you decide to start it. The jalapeno popper grilled cheese recipe wasn't terrible, but we didn't realize we would first have to roast the peppers which takes approximately 40 minutes (we cut the time down to 25 by sticking them in the freezer to cool.) Also I thought I would try to be gourmet and buy a bakery loaf of sourdough that I could slice myself. Turns out there was a huge air bubble in the center which is a bit of an issue when making a grilled cheese. Long story short I had to slice up the entire loaf before I could find four decent slices.

Let me tell you though, the trouble was well worth the flavor. It tasted pretty darn close to a popper. Just spicy enough with the creamy texture and crunchy crust of the sourdough.
I added my own little addition of roasted red pepper jelly as well for dipping. Perfect combination. I got the idea from Arby's, who have the best jalapeno poppers and always serve them with bronco berry sauce.

Pictures courtesy of Ali and her Iphone...I forgot my camera at the apartment.

That's the jelly next to it. Looks a little gross.

About four hours later, we finally regained our appetites. I never would have guessed a grilled cheese and milkshake would leave me so full. Normally I'm a bottomless pit.
It was almost midnight and we decided it was time to take a stab at the cake batter cinnamon rolls. We're both obsessed with cake batter. Ever Coldstone trip: Birthday Cake Remix. No reason to try anything else and be disappointed.
The problem with this recipe is it used PW's cinnamon roll recipe. I've always wanted to try her recipe for them, but unfortunately midnight is not the time to start when you're using yeast and waiting for dough to rise. We agreed that we'd substitute a recipe for quick dough online.

Not very pretty, yet pretty delicious.

Didn't drink that brandy. I SWEAR.

Definitely not nearly as good as they could have been, but the cake batter filling and icing made up for it. We just had to make sure we ate them warm so the dough was nice and soft. So sweet and satisfying :)

Aimless

I should really stop drinking so much Diet Coke when I have downtime at work. I come home all ancy and can't get to sleep or focus on anything.

My mind's going in a million different directions right now and a mile a minute. (wow...that's a lot of 'M's)

Last week I forgot tell you all about Jumpstreet! It's a place in Mesa that is about the size of a Chuckie Cheese and is filled with trampolines. You pay an hourly rate and jump until your heart's content. Legit, right?
Well my roomies and I as well as a couple of our friends from the dorm days all went on Thursday of last week. Best form of exercise, ever! Even if you're bored of jumping, you can go play dodgeball on trampolines, or jump in the foam pit.

Goodtimes...makes me miss my trampoline.
Tragic story: I came home one day last year from the dorm to find out my beloved trampoline had vanished. It was my birthday present from my parents one year and I've had quite a few fond memories of times I've spent on it.
Come to find out my Dad decided I no longer needed it and gave it to the bratty neighbor boys. My mom was relieved with his decision because she was always scared I would knock my teeth out while jumping on it. (My teeth are pretty expensive now-a-days with all the orthodontics and surgery.)

Well there's a little aimless rant for ya'll. Night!

First Fridays

This weekend was happened to be pretty eventful. I didn't have anything planned, but those weekends always turn out to be the best.
Last year the roomies and I all decided we wanted to check out this event called First Fridays. It's an artwalk thing they hold in downtown Phoenix every first Friday of the month. The easiest way to get to downtown Phoenix from Tempe is take the lightrail, so we all hopped on and headed dowtown with a general idea of where we were supposed to get off. Long story short none of us had any sense of direction downtown and never found the event. The highlights of the night consisted of a bum showing us tricks with his tongue on the lightrail...it frightened Kayla...and eating dinner in a sketchy Subway. It was the only open restaurant we could find at that hour.

My bestie Sean asked if I wanted to go with him to First Fridays this Friday because he just got a fancy new camera and wanted to see this band he heard was playing. After getting dinner at Oregano's with the family we hopped on the lightrail and headed down. I had a little more faith going with Sean considering he is an Eagle scout=sense of direction.

Of course we got to experience a few bums on the way there...wouldn't be the lightrail otherwise. Once we were in Phoenix we walked quite a few blocks, but eventually found it. The whole thing was pretty big. There were booths scattered around, performers of all sorts and artists displaying their work throughout. I was impressed. The only way I can describe the overall event was unique. I couldn't tell if one organization put on the event or it was just numerous individuals all coming together for the night.

The coolest parts of the night were the fire troupe, the live music, and the ghost busters for sure. Haha

This is one of the band performing on the street. They weren't very good, but I like how raw the setup was.

 Here's the Mourning Fyre professional fire troupe:

And the Ghostbusters:

I apologize for the crappy pictures.

This looked like a dance floor setup for maybe break dancers. I didn't get to see any, but they were playing old school hip hop from the porch of the house. 

A sweet artist using spray paint to create this piece.

There was truly way too much to see. I kind of wish we went earlier because we found it about 8:30 and didn't leave till 11:00. Fun night, though :)

I Should Be Sleepin'

...Instead of keepin' these late hours I've been keepin'.
Hahah there's a little country for "ya'll." Emerson  Drive. :)

Anywho I don't have anything substantial to say. Guess I'll just tell you all what I've been up to. Work, school and some more work.
I did get to go jogging with Ali today. And when I say jog, I mean walk for 3/4ths of the distance. It's always nice to just have someone to talk to and get your mind off of things. Or talk things over with if you absolutely can't get your mind off things. I know everyone thinks they have the best friends in the world, but I know I truly couldn't ask for better ones.

Pretty much now-a-days I'm just waiting for summer to get here and enjoying the beautiful weather while I can. Hell's heat is right around the corner and unfortunately there's no escaping it this summer. This weekend I spent most of my time outdoors. I hosted Saturday, so luckily I got to enjoy the weather then and later that night I saw Limitless with gorgeous Bradley Cooper. I really enjoyed the movie, but honestly I could just watch Bradley Cooper for a few hours without the huge production and be equally as satisfied ;)
Sunday I went to the Tempe Arts Festival with my mom, Belle & sis. It was nice. We got In & Out for lunch, too. Got my Neapolitan shake fix.

That's all I got for now. Hopefully I'll have something exciting soon. :)

Der Fondue Chessel

It's been way too long.
Sorry folks. My motivation has been lacking lately.
I'm a little behind schedule considering I need to tell you all about my wonderful experience at Der Fondue Chessel, the fondue restaurant sitting on top of Keystone Ski Resort.
So much fun. Expensive, but well worth the experience.
First you take two gondola rides to the top of the mountain. Unheated gondolas, mind you.
Not ideal when Grandpa forgets to put on his long johns, or wear his sweater. He didn't realize he forgot till we were at the top. It was a riot to see him standing in his jeans and white t when we were checking our coats.

 Beautiful place, huh? Look at the giant fireplace in the back.

 Cheese fondue with white wine (I think.) Pretty strong tasting...I could've done without, but it was Grandpa's favorite.
You also get a Caesar salad, but I had already eaten it. I think we all know what a Caesar salad looks like anyways. :)

 Veggies & bread you dip in the cheese. I hate asparagus, but surprisingly I think it was the best tasting with the cheese fondue.

 A little look see at our four courses.

 You get entertainment as well!

 Great Polka music :D

 It was his birthday so they made him stand on a chair and dance.

 Next we grill our own food. Pork, chicken, steak, sausage, shrimp, and scallops. We also got a few more veggies as you can see I decided to grill my onions. They also give you Raclette cheese as well as sourdough bread and yummy potatoes. I put some garlic and butter on my bread and toasted it beneath the burner. By the way Raclette cheese=amazingness. Melted mine and poured it on my potatoes. That could have been my main course right there.

 Everyone has to do the chicken dance!

 Nice photo bomb in the back. I like how all of his friends are giggling, too.

 We're in front of the massive fireplace!

 Best course: dessert.

 We had dark and milk chocolate. That's whip cream on the top. By this point in time I was stuffed to the brim, but the chocolate fondue was so decadent, I couldn't stop eating. My favorite combo was the banana bread in the dark chocolate. Forget the previous courses, this was all I needed.

 Time to head back to the bottom. Get the dolly! as my dad would say. I need to be rolled out I'm so full.

And a picture of the beautiful snowfall. What a great experience. We were all laughing the whole ride home about Grandpa's lack of clothes. Great night. One to remember :)