Directional

At City Lights Bookstore, in San Francisco: in case you were looking specifically for A Coney Island of the Mind, it's through the doorway and up the stairs.

Chinatown

I went to explore San Francisco yesterday...it was a crazy busy day in Chinatown, where they're still celebrating the Year of the Tiger.

It's Not Easy Being Green

Here at the Lee house in Palo Alto, CA, as a family they're all about saving things that still work, even if the kids are now grown and have outgrown them. There's a Winnie the Pooh musical clock in the kitchen, a soccer and basketball themed rug in the bathroom, and then this old-school style Kermit the Frog telephone. I love the quirky atmosphere it gives the house!

In-N-Out

I'm in sunny California (actually not that sunny today) and one of my first stops was an In-N-Out Burger, which is a quasi non-healthy, delicious mess. When you go to In-N-Out, always order off menu, meaning order it "Animal Style"--means your cheeseburger is then cooked in mustard sauce and topped with lettuce, tomato, secret sauce, pickles, and grilled onions. Sweet! I went all out and had a Double-Double Animal Style, which means all that yumminess but with twice the meat and twice the cheese. I am, after all, still a Midwesterner.

Snow Globe

Went to have lunch with my dad today and got this shot out his office window...it may be almost March, but it's still a wintry wonderland in Milwaukee.

Nostalgia

I'm at Mama D's house in Kansas City, cleaning out old boxes of stuff that's been accumulating for more than ten years. Here's the most amusing stuff I've found so far: my 8th grade basketball picture, a New Found Glory sweatshirt (no comment), a greeting card I meant to give someone in 2006, and an old copy of my high school newspaper, the Thomas More Utopian (aptly named?).

Fat Tuesday

So although my last name is Pierski, I do not celebrate Fat Tuesday by running down to the nearest bakery for finely crafted Paczki (Polish jelly filled donuts) but instead stuff my face with, you guessed it, French fries. These fries came with a humongous sandwich at Honeypie in Bay View, where the portions are all humongous...see conversation below for reference.

Me: "This plate is, like, 12 inches wide. That's a lot of platage..."
My boyfriend: "Especially when your food is piled 6 inches high"

I think you get the idea.

A Blogging Hiatus Recap

So, dear friends, I've been away for awhile. I've had some mishaps, some adventures, and accomplished a few things. Let me show you a few:

Celebration: I toasted to the New Year with a good looking young man...
Happy surprise: I found a vending machine that serves all kind of addictions...nicotine, chocolate...

Industriousness: I found time to bake, and learned to cook a few new things (my own version chicken chili, homemade chicken pot pie, apple crisp, and macadamia and chocolate chip cookies all went in the 'win' column)...
Stranded: I was officially the last one living on Farwell Avenue to realize it's one giant tow-away zome during snow emergencies. It turned into a ghost town, and I got my car stuck in the snow twice trying to trek out to my dad's house (with it's sweet promise of a garage and plowed drive-way)...

Relief: The first of what is hopefully many acceptance letters to a Ph.D. program, so that I can fulfill my goal of becoming a professor and academically stressing out the--ahem--future leaders of tomorrow...