Tag: John Mayer

Weekend Things

Lauren2 Comments

Wow, wow, wow.  This weekend was so good!

I recently realized that I’ve vacationed every September since 2014 and while it’s meant really good vacation weather, it’s also meant missing really good weather right here in Colorado.  We’re only 11 days in, but I’m already LOVING this month and being able to spend it fully at home.  These last few moments of summer — it IS still technically summer — are so so precious and I’m taking full advantage of each and every warm weather second we have left.

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Friday, Joey dropped me off at Base Coat for a “Quick Coat Mani” and I got an A+ on my nail care report card.  As in, my manicurist told me my nails looked really good and there was barely anything for her to do, then complimented how moisturized my hands were.  I walked home afterwards, feeling really good about myself, ha!

We grilled up some chicken for dinner, then decided to be fun young people and go to a 9:30 PM movie at the Sie FilmCenter.  Get this, we’d never been there!  But we’d been wanting to check it out and they were showing “California Typewriter,” a documentary on typewriters that featured Tom Hanks and John Mayer, so I was sold.  There were only four of us in the theater, but whatever because the film was so interesting and there was a full bar and we were in our happy place.  Mark my words, this will NOT be the last time we come here.  Also, can I borrow someone’s typewriter to send Tom Hanks a letter?

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Saturday morning, we woke up, ate breakfast then biked over to the Farmers’ Market.  We have officially reached the point in summer where I live in paralyzing fear that this is finally the last week peaches will be for sale.  Luckily, they were still there this week!  Plus baby cucs, — including two that reminded me of those pull-apart popsicles — shishitos, giant corn and a baguette that Joey biked home with and it made me love him so much.

Afterwards, I dug around in our out of control tomato bush, read in the hammock, made another batch of granola, hit up the grocery store and basically just felt really chill for the entire day.  It was honestly so nice and relaxing and I’m just now remembering that I even took a nap.  More days like this please!

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But the main event of Saturday was actually later that night, at Dining Al Fresco!  This is an event the restaurants of Larimer Square put on a few times a summer, where they extend their patios out onto the street, giving diners a chance to enjoy the summer weather and eat underneath the string lights.  We got to witness the entire sunset over dinner and I could not get over the view.  It was prettier and prettier every time I looked up ♥

As for actual dinner, we signed up to eat at TAG and honestly, they did NOT have their shit act together.  They totally botched our reservation and sent out the wrong food, but those string lights made for the most magical dinner atmosphere and the taco sushi and black miso cod were both incredible so I’ll just leave it at that 🙂  I already can’t wait to do this Dining Al Fresco thing again next year!

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Sunday started with another 6 mile training run (it went GREAT!) then we cleaned ourselves up, only to get tired and sweaty all over again biking to brunch (<– still Summer Bucket Listing!) at the newly opened (or should I say reinvented?) Candela Latin Kitchen.  It used to be Central Bistro but recently closed and reopened as a Latin restaurant with a taco-stacked menu and while I still need to get there for HH/dinner, the chilaquiles on their brunch menu was CALLING TO ME and so we had to go.  I think one other party was sitting inside, but we were the ONLY ones eating out on the patio and I couldn’t understand why because the food, service and vibe were all AMAZING.  Get here, Denverites!

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The rest of the day featured more hammock reading, Rainbow Veggie Bowl prep, a kombucha field trip, dinner and me hiding in our room while the Cowboys game was on.  I roasted some salmon and served it with this Tomato-Peach Salad with Tofu Cream plus that baguette for dipping and it was all so summery and fresh and good.  All those tomatoes are from our garden and that makes me incredibly happy.  I guess the Cowboys won but whatever because, more importantly, ROCKIES SWEPT THE DODGERS!

Hope you all have a lovely (and for those of you in Hurricane Irma’s path, a SAFE) weekend!

Odds & Ends

LaurenLeave a comment

At this very moment, I have something like 10 posts hanging out in my Drafts folder. Some half written, some fully written but not edited, some just waiting for me to upload a picture to go with.  In other words, they are all so close to being able to publish, but then I lose interest, or they suddenly seem not “of the moment,” and something else seems more worthy of writing about right now.  I’m sure there’s some deeper psychological reasoning, but I’m not going there right now.  Instead, I’m going to put all those drafts aside for yet another day and tell you some random odds and ends.  Cool?

I read a list of the Top 50 Fast Food Items this week, and for some reason, it was so interesting to me, despite the fact that when I really thought about it, I realized I haven’t eaten fast food in four years.  I can’t decide if I’m proud or kinda sad about that.  For better or for worse, fast food seems so intrinsically American.  For the record, said list had Chick-fil-A Waffle Fries as #1 and I feel like that’s wrong.

Guys, are you buying these new John Mayer mini-albums as they get released?  He released the “Second Wave” last Friday and three of the four are VERY good.  “Helpless” is maybe the most I’ve liked a JM song in a long long time.  Cept I think “Wildfire” is actually pretty great too.  He just added new tour dates, including a stop in Denver and while it’s not Red Rocks (ugh, the Pepsi Center), you know I still bought tickets because where John goes, I will follow.

Tuesday was the best day of the year (aside from Oscar Sunday, Opening Day, GABF Day and Thanksgiving :P): National Pancake Day/Mardi Gras!  Pancake flights at Snooze (tradition, tradition!), followed by a caffeine/sugar buzz like WHOA and homemade shrimp étouffée that blew Joey and I away.  Best part?  It makes like eight servings so we’ve been enjoying it all week.

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We watched Other People on Tuesday night and though you probably wouldn’t think of Molly Shannon as starring in anything of real quality, we loved it!  It’s much more about Jesse Plemons’ character than anything else, but it’s beautifully tragic and after watching it, I realized that might be my favorite movie genre?!  What does that say about me, exactly?

I started fermenting some carrots and bottled a strawberry-lime kombucha on Wednesday and my hippie heart felt so satisfied and happy about it.  Also, I cannot get over how amazing purple carrots are.  They are already beautiful, but then you cut into them and they are YELLOW?!  Nature is a crazy cool magician.  This is only the second time I’ve tried flavoring my booch with fresh fruit and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it tastes good.

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This is hardly worth mentioning but I’ve been using hand lotion like crazy lately and I think my nails are all the better for it.  I’ve always had pretty good nails but for the past few years, they have been so weak (tearing and breaking on the sides CONSTANTLY) and I had a theory it was because I started cooking a lot and thus, doing a lot of dishes, which probably dries your hands/nails out, so I figured I’d at least try the moisturizing route and maybe it’s too soon to say, but I think it’s really really helping.

A picture of a breakfast my mom once cooked for us popped up on my TimeHop last week and Joey and I were reminded how often we used to go to my parents’ on Sunday mornings and how much we miss that.  I pointed it out to my mom and now we’re going there for breakfast this Sunday.  Ask (or passive aggressively mention) and you shall receive.  I’m pretty excited.

Have you been watching the live feed of the April the Giraffe??  She’s about to have a baby and we’ve been obsessively checking in on her, waiting for it to happen.  Meanwhile, a giraffe at our own Denver Zoo unexpectedly had a baby yesterday.  Joke’s on us!  The baby’s name is Dobby and my heart can barely handle the cuteness (of the actual baby AND of the name)!  Side Note: if you have not seen a giraffe sit down or stand up before, check the live feed out NOW.

It’s Friday Eve and I’m happy for that.