Pining for the Fjords

Just like in states all over this great nation, the greater LA area has several county fairs in the summertime; although we live in Los Angeles County, the Orange County Fair is the one that gets all of the attention here, and after missing it last year due to moving and whatnot, we wanted to make sure to attend in 2017.  Let's go to the fair! That's the underneath side of a giant chicken up top Like last year, Chris' firm is on their summer schedule, which means he works 9 hours each normal work day and then gets every other Friday completely off.  After finding a Groupon for discounted fair admission ($7 versus the normal $12) that worked on one of his off days, we planned to hit up the Fair on August 11th, and I also secured vacation for myself.  I downloaded the daily schedule and read the reviews for the most interesting new fair food, finding those locations on my map.  We were ready! Since the Fair didn't open until noon on the day we picked, we spent

Although we've been hanging close to home this summer, building pergolas and working in the yard and whatnot, we have a decent amount of leisure travel coming up soon.  In addition to our annual Ragnar Trail event in November (back to McDowell Mountain this time...thank goodness !), we'll be traveling to a cooler climate in late October to attend a family wedding in Cleveland; my cousin Ashley will be wedding her love Brandon.  We're excited to travel and take part in the happy occasion, and since I didn't really have a dress that would work for a wedding in the (likely) cold climate, I decided it was time to go shopping! Except, I really hate going shopping.  Like really, really hate it.  I don't mind browsing through a few shops, just to while away the time, but the "I'm on a mission and I must find something" shopping undertakings are not for me.  I should amend that - I love shopping for gifts for other people, particularly if I have months to do

Late summer seems to be high time for Restaurant Weeks in our part of Southern California.  Dine LA ran for almost three full weeks in July, and during this time period, we ate out a few times, trying spots all over the map and finding a new favorite in El Segundo called Sausal (anyone flying in or out of LAX near mealtimes, that's where you will find yourself with us.  You've been warned).  The very next weekend, Dine LBC started up, and since that's our home turf right now, we wanted to be sure to get involved. While the event has tons of restaurants (and we already have plans to try another place - RESTAURATION - tonight), it was the Rice and Shine brunch on the opening weekend of Restaurant Week that really intrigued us.  For starters, it was at noon, which means we could wake up, do workouts, fiddle with the backyard, get fully showered and dressed, etc, and still be there at a reasonable time.  It was also only $45 for 8 courses, which is a huge bargain in the wo

As you might know if you've been reading the blog for a few years, when we lived in Arizona, we signed up for a veggie delivery service known as Chow Locally (I blogged about it here ).  Although we ended up cancelling our service with them once they merged with another local group (and started continually charging us for produce that wasn't delivered - not cool), we really enjoyed using them.  Thus, when I saw a Facebook ad come across for a firm called Imperfect Produce (IP), which was recently expanding to the greater LA area, I was intrigued. It seems like the main logo for IP is a tomato shaped like a heart - but it was the one that looks like a butt that caught my eye. Apparently, IP started in San Francisco with the main goal of reducing the amount of fruits and veggies that get tossed out and go to waste each day.  The idea is that farmers grow tons of produce and attempt to sell it to grocery stores; since stores only want to stock their shelves with t