Thursday, January 22, 2015

The Height of Luxury – Pizza and Sushi


One day last week I treated myself to lunch at Central Market’s indoor café.  Central Market is an upscale grocery store similar to Whole Foods.  You can get fancy bread, fancy wines, fancy cheese, fancy to-go meals, fancy cooked to order meals and you can sit down for lunch or dinner in there indoor café.


Thursday, January 8, 2015

Nerd Rant # 5 - 4 Reasons Why You Should Care About the new Ant-Man Movie




I don't know if you are a huge comic-book nerd like I am but I'm sure by now most people have a passing knowledge about the Marvel Universe and understand that The Avengers movie and their characters, Iron-Man, Thor, Captain America and Hulk, are part of the same world as the tv show Marvel Agents of Shield and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

You have probably seen the trailer for this upcoming Marvel Superhero movie called Ant-Man, and have thought one thing.

Who the f*ck is Ant-Man?

Friday, January 2, 2015

5 New Year's Resolutions That I Promise Aren't Lame


Happy New Year!  Hopefully ya'll spent New Year's with friends and family!

Normally I don't do New Year's Resolutions, and if I do they are almost always super easy like say smuggling a hot dog into a movie screening.

Yes that was really a resolution of mine for 2012!  Then I lied to my mom, when she called me and said my resolution was to get in shape, which is what I always say and never, ever do.

This time around I thought I would pick five doable yet legitimate resolutions.  




1.  Go out to a nice restaurant and eat an amazing meal once every three months.

Around the middle of year in 2014, I started cooking more meals at home, which helped me to lose some weight and helped me to stay relatively healthy during the cold/flu season.  I still plan on doing this but during the weekend, I had a habit of going out to eat at fast food places like Sonic.  I probably spent more money going to Sonic and Fuzzy's than treating myself to a nice dinner once every three months.  Plus, I feel that living so close to Dallas and Fort Worth, both of which have great restaurants, is kind of pointless unless I experience from time to time the good places that both have to offer.



2.  Do not believe the hype for music festivals and only go back to the ones I've had great time at.

I'm notorious for believing all the music festival hype and buying tickets to a three day festival, only to just go on Saturday, spend all day in lines and/or stand in the freezing rain to watch a band waay past their prime.  By this time, I know which festivals I had fun at last year, so I'll only be going to those this year.  I'll be saving time and money.


3.  Be relentlessly and unapologetically, yourself.

Look, some time during this year and any other year, life will throw us curve-balls.  Bad news, funerals, disappointments, injuries, etc.  To deal with any of these things while trying to be a skinnier, prettier, happier version of yourself is just too hard.  Be who you are and you will shelter any coming storms, I promise.

4.  Wear bright colors to work.

Right around November of 2014, I started to tone down the colors in my wardrobe and started wearing more button downs in neutral colors.  No real reason for it.  I was just out shopping with my mom and we found some ladylike and work appropriate blouses to wear under sweaters instead of my old standbys of cotton t-shirts,  I got bought myself some new sweaters at the same time, all in neutrals.  I thought I looked good buy my co-workers noticed immediately and not in a good way.  They missed the bright pop of color that is usually my signature, and now I miss it too.  I'm not skinny, I'm a big girl and I hate fading into the background.  2015 will be the year of color!




5.  Keep reading like a beast and write more!

Since getting my library card back in May to check out Dave Ramsay's Total Money Makeover, which I highly recommend since I was able to work off my consumer debt by year's end (which is probably my best accomplishment all year), I have kept returning to the library twice a month to check out two novels each time and read through them like an absolute beast.  I'm back to my old high school reading speed, which was usually insanely fast.  I love it and I don't plan on quitting in 2015.  Reading helps me to figure out my own strengths as a writer, so now I just need to write more, which is what absolutely every writer says.

What about you?  What goals or aspirations have you come up with for the New Year?



Friday, December 26, 2014

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Give Thanks - The #1 Thing I'm Most Thankful for This Year

I’m thankful for my sisters.

Five years ago, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, my dad passed away.  It wasn't tragic or even totally unexpected.  Our dad just succumbed to his ongoing health problems and passed due to natural causes.  At age 47.  Leaving three adult children and twin 6 year old girls.


Thursday, November 13, 2014

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Weekend Wrap-Up - Cake, Dia de los Muertos, and oh yeah - Go Vote!


Hola Amigos! This past weekend was quite busy.

Friday - I raced home to pass out candy at my house, then put together a sorry looking witch costume, looked in the mirror, decided it was too cold outside, and flopped back down on the couch.  

No regrets. 

Saturday - I went to to the Untapped Festival in South Dallas to see Cake headline.  Sweater weather had finally hit Texas, so there was crazy long lines to get in, crazy long lines to sample beer and crazy long lines for food.  What wasn't crowded?  The stage.  


Dallas based, The Polyphonic Spree



ADd+ - Dallas Based Hip Hop Group

ADd+ Frontman Slim Gravy singing on top of the speakers like a bawse


Even the Rahr Brewery Ugly Pug Mascot got into ADd+'s set

Rouge Wave


Leon Bridges

Shovels and Rope

Cake does this thing where they like to give away a small tree to a member of the audience to plant it and send photos of how their progressing.  Cool concept, but John McCrea took a solid ten minutes having people guess what type of tree it was.  Not cool, when you were itching for them to play something from your middle school days.

The worst picture you've ever seen of Cake performing.  I was actually trying to take a video.
Sunday - My friend's birthday happened to coincide with Dia de los Muertos, so we had our faces painted and headed out to the Bishop Arts area for dinner and a game of pool.




Dia de los Muertos altar


Laser focus....

I'm terrible at hand eye coordination when I've have been drinking so...I took pictures.

What fall festivities have ya'll been up too?  Who here had an awesome Halloween?

Oh and..........................................................................................................................

Go Vote Artwork by Lisa Condon




Friday, October 31, 2014

Birthday Getaway to The Windy City


Hello there.  I'm back up to full speed, after returning from a five day trip to Chicago with my best friend.  We both have our birthdays in October and were looking at some extra vacation time at our respective jobs.  We stayed with her family in Des Plaines, and took some day long trips to Lincoln Park, the Navy Pier and Evanston.

Monday, October 13, 2014

State Fair of Texas - Return of the Fried Foods



Hello there!  Just before celebrating the one year anniversary of the blog, I went to the annual State Fair of Texas, one of the biggest, loudest, craziest state fairs in the country.  I actually went twice.  Once with my friends around dusk (pictured above) and just this last weekend, during the day with my family.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

SugarSkull Industries Turns One Year!

Source
Hola my friends!  I'm super proud to announce the one year anniversary of the blog!

We made it!!!!! Commence with the champagne bottles popping, cupcake baking, nacho making.....making out? All the ways people like to celebrate.

One year in, and I've learned a few things.