I am a city girl in my heart. If Bear hadn’t come along I’m sure I would have wound up spending time in New York. This weekend we stumbled upon an area that helped satiate that yearning in me at least for a little while.

On our way back from visiting the grandparents we needed to grab some dinner, so we had the same conversation we have at least five times a week. What do you want to do for food?

You’d think that this would not be an issue for us since I really do love to cook and I’m good at it, but dinner is ALWAYS an issue for us because we have a number of obstacles to get past.

1) I absolutely hate grocery shopping. I don’t even know why. I just do.
2) We live in a big suburban area where fast food is abundant and fairly cheap. Depending on which tier of fast food we choose, it can be cheaper to eat out.
3) There’s just the two of us eating every night, so it’s really easy to talk yourself out of going to the trouble.
4) A shameful secret I haven’t yet disclosed on the blog is that one of the ways I’m able to accomplish so much is that I outsource dinner responsibilities on such a regular basis. It’s really helpful in my time management. That and never sweeping the floors.

Anyway, since we eat out so frequently, we get SO VERY SICK of all the usual places. Driving back from Orange County we decided to have a little adventure. We told our Garmin that we wanted some Barbecue, and we let it pick our restaurant for us.

Southern California doesn’t really have what would be known as “downtowns” in other areas. Everything is developed from North of LA straight down to Mexico and so in even the heart of LA or San Diego you’ll be driving on one street with skyscrapers and fancy restaurants, then two streets over you’ll be in a residential area with roses in the front yards. In Orange County you’ll be driving through fancy neighborhoods and strip malls and then all of a sudden you’ll feel like you’re in the middle of some major urban center. On one block you’re surrounded by Mexican bakeries, and then just down the road there will be Vietnamese Pho shops as far as the eye can see. It’s one big jumbled up diverse area.

The Garmin directed us to an area in Orange County that I’d spent a lot of time in, inbetween where we used to live and I used to work, and I never knew this spot was here. Just 5 square blocks or so of downtown plopped in the middle of suburban sprawl. I drank it in.

We ate dinner at this fancy modern barbecue place, I got to eat fabulous buttery scallops in a cajun corn broth, we soaked in all the hip modern decor, and then we climbed back in our car and headed home. Just a great little oasis of city life amid our typical suburban activity.

Right now I’m waiting for Atti to wake up from his nap so I can go out and grab some things I need for the backyard and some custom orders. I really hate running errands. Really hate it. And I’ll do whatever it takes to not have to return something – even if that means going without. It’s a little pathological.

Anyhoo, once I finish my work for the shop, I have project after project waiting for me with no errands required. Everything in this pile is ready to go and just waiting for me to finish up what has to get done so that I can get down to playtime.

The anticipation is almost as good.

Bear had a super important thing today that involved being away from home until about 9 o’clock tonight, so he suggested dropping the baby off at Grandma’s so I could have a day to get caught up around the house.

I hemmed and hawed – the thought of not having my baby or my guy around at all today did not sound like tons of fun, but I’m at that point I frequently dig myself into where I have about five projects going at once, the house is a mess, I’ve got deadlines creeping up on me and I need to start crossing some things off my to-do list before I stress myself right out. So I let them go and now I have a whole day to myself.

I’ve got a present I *need* to finish for Atti’s physical therapist that we’ll be losing soon, my little garden experiment is going toes up unless I can get out there and address some issues, I’ve been working on one house project that has been strewn throughout the living room for weeks now, and I haven’t lifted a broom since we got back from our weekend away.

I’m not sure that I’ll end up being very productive. I think this is one of those things that sound like a good idea in theory, but will find me pacing around the house unsure of what to do with myself. Maybe I’ll throw my to-do list away and just go knit in the sunshine for awhile.

The ice cream of the future. It’s regular ice cream, frozen below zero, and it makes these little beads of frozen goodness.

We had a branch of this place in the nearest mall growing up. I don’t know what it is I love so much about this stuff. The texture’s really interesting, and then when it melts it becomes more like ice milk than ice cream, which is a really good thing to me. I love that light taste.

There are a few franchises around here, but none that are super convenient, and you can’t keep it in your home freezer, so when I go I usually buy two or occasionally three flavors and power through them as a once in a great while, out of control splurge.

If you come to my house, chances are you’ll find a candle burning somewhere. The more fragrant the better. I especially love fresh, clean, citrus-y scents. Lately my favorites are the White Barn Candle Company’s Mango Mandarin and Pink Grapefruit, but I’d love tips on smaller companies I might be missing out on.