summer summer

More fun summer activities and treats.

Went to brunch and my manfriend did his usual elaborate rearranging of breakfast plates to make this super stacked bacon bedecked creations.

I think there’s actually part of a pupusa under there too? I was busy stealing his side of hash browns to keep track too much.

My new FAVORITE place to eat has been Hutchins Garage. Maybe the first pizza place I’ve ever encountered where the crust is so sublime that the bites of plain crust are AS DELICIOUS AS THE BITES WITH CHEESE ON THEM.

I went with the fella and we were hungry and tired and ate this entire mushroom and caramelized shallot bedecked beauty. Mmm.

Another fun weekend activity was attending a food truck rodeo with my friend Lesli and her friend Genevieve (it’s funny we all work in health care and I have seen notes from both of them in my patients’ charts!)

First we split lobster tots (!) from Cousins Maine Lobster truck.

Then I got a taco assortment. These were on homemade corn tortillas (*swoon*) and were so tasty and inventive.

Left: fish taco with remoulade and mango salsa
Center: steak taco with cucumber salad and horseradish crema (!)
Right: cauliflower taco with romesco and queso fresco

Lesli got a jerk chicken plate. We all shared bites and she offered some of hers and I was like “Yeah a bite of plantain is all I need to be happy in this life.”

Another fun (slash crazy) weekend activity was a special someone’s birthday party. Any guess how old he was turning?😂

Can you EVEN with my cousin’s kiddo’s third birthday party truck?! Chase is complete obsessed with all thing trucks (and earnestly describes the difference between excavators and combine harvesters and cement mixers and fork lifts and….) so this was quite the creation. We spent a lot of time speculating what made the gravel pile… crushed Twix bars? Butterfingers?

Honestly it was a miracle it was still intact for the singing of Happy Birthday since EVERY CHILD THERE WANTED TO STICK THEIR FINGERS INTO IT.

I want you to picture an event where there are DOZENS of people ages three and under, all of whom were given a kazoo upon their arrival to the party. WHOA MAN.

More weekend fun things:

Tailgating (I never go to the actual football games but sitting outside and eating burgers and playing cornhole is fun)

Leisurely walks outside

Clothing swaps! Actually I am done hosting them for the foreseeable future since my last one had a whopping total of ONE WHOLE GUEST. But Lola thoroughly enjoyed the setting up process.

artistry

I was walking in the rose garden by Chapel Hill Community Center and found this wonderland of fairy houses.

Then a few weekends later I attended Centerfest, an art festival in downtown Durham…

The whole town looked artistic…

Including its “statues”

A bit later I myself was the artist, making the clever choice to participate in our corporate tie dyeing event without putting on gloves. I looked quite exotic for a few days there…

The tie dyed tshirts were for an event a few days later.

What, pray tell was that event?

Well first of all THERE WAS A NICE UNICORN THERE!

AND A FIRE TRUCK!

AND I DREAM OF JEANNIE!

AND SHE-RA!

It was the Durham Pride Parade 🙂 Just a blast!

Picking a favorite float was impossible.

Lotsa music too. I was so impressed with the endurance of these performers because it was approximately 90 degrees out there.

Later in the evening there was also a concert downtown for further Pride celebration. I met up with my friends and their two little girls. My friend explained to her five-year-old that rainbows were the symbol of Pride, so she could dress up in a rainbow outfit, and she very earnestly reported that she wanted to make her own piece of art to pin to her shirt.

I present: PRIDE CAT

Can you even?! She should start a whole merchandise line.

snippets

Somehow I finagled a work meeting where I got to gab with my favorite professor from grad school (in the guise of “consultation”) PLUS we hung out on the beautiful patio at Guglhupf and had coffee and a hot pretzel. YASSSSSSS.

Another work highlight was a meeting at Duke Integrative medicine, where I looked out the window and saw…

NICE LITTLE CAT FRIEND!

I immediately updated my mom and sister on our group chat (which honestly is probably 90% animal content).

When I fail to plan myself a proper lunch on a workday I often utilize Whole Foods’ hot bar. As below (plus a yogurt):

In other news I got a rather gruesome summer cold. I was so phlegmmy and gross I slept on the living room sofa so I could elevate my head more. And since my temperature regulation was out of whack I did so under my down comforter. Lola approved.

Lola also VERY MUCH APPROVED when a little lizard (a skink I think?) got into our living room. It involved a LOT of rearranging and tupperwares and things but I rescued him or her.

The lizard was probably just trying to be an early guest to my housewarming party?

Which was lots of fun! It got postponed (see sickness, above) but I ended up getting most of my fave crew members into my house and it really feels more warm and cozy now that it’s had my people bless it with their presence.

Snax involved:

• Smitten kitchen’s miso soba noodle salad (SO good) with a variety of veggies on the side
• Three bean salad
• Deviled eggs
• Extensive cheese plate
• chips and salsa
• lots of watermelon

I also had an unpictured dessert table buuuuuuuut…

I was totally shown up by my friend Shaylen who made WORMS AND DIRT SUNDAES! It’d been a minute since I’d had one of those- so fun! Also a bunch of my friends ended up bringing their kiddos to the party so it was a big hit with them.

Other fun things…

Outdoor concerts

Very “balanced”, “healthy” dinners with my boyfriend😂

This meal at Wooden Nickel involved:

• Shisito peppers appetizer
• Buffalo wing appetizer (the ones at Wooden Nickel are COLOSSAL and delish)
• Burger with tater tots
• Fish tacos

Should I post this picture of myself licking wing sauce off of my fingers on Linkedin, advertising my skills as a nutrition professional?!

Another day another tater tot adventure…

Brew for him, kombucha wine spritzer (!) for me, tots, and lobster sliders. Yesss.