its been a long long while

updates on life of zoe
1. its tuesday which means tomorrow is wednesday which means early release out of school, which means MAYHEM!
2. i work with a lady who is alergic to the smell of peanuts so every morning knowing i can't have peanut butter... I CRAVE IT!
3. I got my school pictures today... i felt like a little kid again
4. In the process of creating a new blog... which makes me feel bad that I've ignored this one for so long!
5. i heart instant watch on Netflix
6. I'm eating a pumpkin bar with chocolate chips that my mom just made
7. number 6 is a lie... i'm thinking about getting up to eat a pumpkin bar with chocolate chips that my mom just made
8. I started playing golf
9. I'm planning thanksgiving recipes already... I want to make them all include some sort of dash of alcohol... is that wrong?
10. i made pumpkin cupcakes with whiskey buttercream.... they were REALLY GOOD!
11. i got a promotion at work which means I am now the assistant manager at CARE, which means I now have to be at work at 6:20 every weekday morning
12. I work with lots of older ladies... and i'm beginning to have sympathy menopause pains. Seriously... i get hot flashes all the time.
13. i love the social studies teachers that i aid for
14. the math teachers that i aid for... they're on my iffy list.
15. ok number 6 is now true, and number 7 is a lie
16. I've gotten my dad hooked on appetizer dinners
17. i can't wait for summer months to be here and i can make my move
18. I'm bummed i can't find a job in seattle and am still living in tucson
19. oh man its getting late... i should be getting to bed.
20. I've been on skype with val for about 2 hours... its been pretty wonderful
21. I was a ladybug for halloween again... half the kids thought i was an alien
22. The new neighbor who just moved in next door is in one of the classes i aid for... he had a sleepover and they yelled over the wall " HEY MS.ZOE I LIVE NEXT DOOR TO YOU NOW!!
23. i like meet me at maynards runs... their really fun. Especially with champ as my running buddy, but i wish the ladies were running them with me so we could chat it up like we used to
24. i'm thinking about crawling into bed right now and watching pushing daisies
25. i don't want to see who won the elections tomorrow morning... i'm nervous
26. i love when i wake up now... its chilly enough for a jacket
27. but the time lunch recess rolls around its pretty dang warm out
28. i miss my ladies VERY much.
29. but i'm very glad that they are all happy in what they're doing now... that makes me very happy.
30. I HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY TOMORROW!!

loves. me.

Summertimes' a endin'

Its been a long long while but most of you know what I've been up to... VISITING YOU! and for those who don't camp ended and I went on vacation to one of my most favorite places on earth... Washington!

Some other places to top the list in no particular order...
Beach Plum (how i miss it!)
my bed
the kitchen
william senoma
with the fam
driving range
in a car on a road trip at night
any grassy yard with a good book
lying around with blankets with friends watching trashy tv
and a few more.

After I got back on friday, the weekend was spent lying around in my bed! (i didn't realize how much i missed sleeping in a real bed as opposed to a couch for two weeks! but the time i spent with good friends long made up for the achy back!) Applying to jobs in seattle, day dreaming about the apartment that I am determined to get to sooner or later somewhere in or near seattle with lovely abbyleonard as a roommate. Reading a book that i had started but didn't take with me on the trip, catching up on recorded tv, laundry, and napping! Monday was spent dodging phone calls from my boss (wasn't ready to deal with yet), shopping for professionalish clothes (and bumming really hard about not being able to wear yoga pants to work any more), lunch with mama callimanis, and craft store shopping.
After blog stalking to try and learn how to make fabric flower bobby pins, and realizing that i needed fabric that we didn't have, and a few somewhat failed, somewhat successful attempts to make ribbon flower bobby pins I came across a martha stewart article for making tissue paper flowers, i got excited/inspired/ and i may have gone a little over board. I searched our gift wrapping/ storage/ miscellaneous craft closet all i came up with was 10ish sheets of white tissue paper, and to make one flower you need about 12. So i improvised and made my original one smaller and its still my favorite, unless you count the pale pink one, or the navy blue one, or the aqua one... never mind they're all my favorite! Anyway back to the story of monday... went to the craft store, bought tissue paper with with 25 colors in it (thats how i made the navy, and the fire colored one, and the purple and silver one... never mind just look at the picture.)


Then came tuesday where I answered my phone and went to work for a few hours, planned out working a little bit for the rest of the week, decided that easing myself into work would be a lot easier on everyone around me, rather than just jumping back in! Then went to lunch with a co-worker and shopped the william senoma SALE! where i got candied ginger which i got really excited about fall deserts like ginger apple pie, and ginger snaps! and blood orange bitters which is A-MAZING in fresh made whiskey sours! and best of all... both were under $3 and were originally priced at more than 10! Tuesday night is filled with blog stalking of fellow kappa dorm roommates who are traveling traveling traveling (and by the way i'm super jealous of her solo walk through spain) and the other is home owner! CRAZY! but I'm also super jealous of her- she owns something, constantly has projects, and something that needs to be done. But also I would be scared shitless. So proud of them both!!

And to end this post of rambling-ness a few pictures.

abbys dinner of fries covered in gravy my first night in! how i missed that girl!
lake sammish. I love this place.picture wall at S.A.M inspired by andy warhol

see if you can find me!
and last of all since the kitchen was officially completed this week with window shades and moldings before and after pics!

and now... shiny new kitchen!!!

Thusday thoughts

Its thursday today, and the week is slowly creeping to an end. I'm back to working just at the high school camp instead of half there half at camp monsoon, and liking it MUCH better! Camp monsoon was fun for a while, but staying in one location made the hours creep by instead of behaving normally! I walk so much more during the day when I'm at the high school and I get to visit with lots of people instead of just headed from one class to another. And it allows me to spend less time in the classes, or with the teachers rather that are just strange. Like the woman who told me the story of how her pet rat died, and how she was so distraught that she drove 3 hours to a patch of land that her and her husband own slept in the bed of her truck and burred her rat in the morning light. Which she thought was rather poetic, I agreed (I decided that was a better response than... Say What?! pet rat? three hours? buried in the morning light?) This is also the woman who tells the kids WAY more than they need to know like why she is wearing duct tape on her legs (obviously because she ran out of band aids to put on her poison ivy rash. DUH.) So anyway I like being at the high school camp a lot more than camp monsoon!
When I made the chocolate coconut cupcakes on Tuesday I brought them into work (since Theo was going out of town and therefore they would sit around the house for to long tempting myself, mama callimanis, and basil) to be enjoyed by the people who spend hours upon hours planning, scheduling, and working with the kiddos.
Devin is the teacher for the ping pong class that I aide in in the morning, so i brought him a cupcake, and he traded me a personalized tennis ball- it was a pretty sweet deal.
I went to the driving range after dinner with the folks tonight, it was really peaceful going by myself listening to new music and getting out frustrations by whacking at the ball with my new clubs, and while there I was once again amazed by one of the things Arizona has a leg up on compared to Washington- the sky. Whether its the monsoon clouds rolling in in the late afternoon, sunset, or just glancing up at the night sky- its truly amazing.
Its getting late, so the boys (hudson and hemmingway) are getting rowdy- so I'm going to entertain them, as well as my self with their laser pointer, I should remind you that the boys- are cats. Yeah that's right I'm pretty awesome.

Tuesday night

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes

YUM.

my oh my oh my

I got my hair highlighted for the first time EVER yesterday. And I am still a little shocked by what I see in the mirror. For years and years I have had dark brown curly hair, and when I was finished at the salon yesterday, I had straight hair with caramel strands and toffee accents (Eric's words not mine- Eric is the iconic gay hairdresser- who yesterday I found out blogs.
Ericlosesweight.blogspot.com) My words- "It's so coppery."
I am still shell shocked and only am ok with the change when I am in certain rooms. Like my parents dark bedroom, or my bedroom with its light blue walls. But in my yellow bathroom- NO. I am not a fan- more of a freaked out individual.
But then I realized that when ever I have something drastic done to my hair- I.E the Georgia chopping off hair days - I freak. All I need is an adjustment period of no mirrors, and I'll be fine. After all it is just hair, and it grows. And this morning- its already grown on my a little bit more.
I went out with my friend sarah last night for dinner, and she reaffirmed what Eric, mama callimanis, and surprisingly Basil had told me (but he only told me after my freakout) that it looks good, and it suits me, and does not make me look like a totally different person.
So all in all, i think i am ok with the hair change, and will most definitly be ok with it within a week. So here you go- PICTURE TIME!

summer is approaching

and the temp is creeping up

75°F | °C

Current: Partly Cloudy
Wind: SE at 5 mph
Humidity: 26%

Thu

97°F | 64°F

Fri

100°F | 66°F

Sat

104°F | 67°F

Sun

106°F | 69°F

Playlist of the Day

Crazy Love: Michael Bublé Days Like This: Van Morrison Fig Tree: Brett Dennen Santeria: Sublime Airplanes: B.O.B (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore) Corona & Lime: Shwayze Bennie and the Jets: Elton John More than a feeling: Boston Rocket Man: Elton John Like You Do: Angel Taylor Magic: B.O.B Hey Soul Sister: Train Hello Seattle: Owl City Freedom Pt 2: The Beautiful Girls For what its Worth: Buffalo Springfield

Travel Observations

Airports are strange places, people interacting with people that most likely they will never come across again. Through my experience as a creepster people watcher I've divided travelers up into three groups. The chatters, the fake polite, and the group of mismatched individuals- the silent travelers.

The chatters are people who fascinate me. They share details of their lives with people that they will most likely never come across again. And not details of trivial things like favorite tv shows, but of things like birthdays, memories, life plans. It completely baffles me that people are willing to share these intimate details with someone that they have 1) a 1 in I don't know how many chance that they will ever come across again, and 2) let alone remember. Not to mention that I have this complete skepticism of the chatting traveler, who's to know if the business man sitting in the row behind me really flew in from china this morning or if he is a middle school teacher, tired of the day to day and wanting to spice up his boring trip to a teacher conference.

The fake polite people are the ones that will answer questions politely with one word answers then politely put their head down in their book, or slide their headphones into their ears as to say please let me be. But the fake polite people that have taken to the skies as of recently are the flight attendants -now maybe it was just the last flight that I was on, and these woman had been having a rough day... But to me their job is to be helpful, respectful of the passenger, polite (even if it is just a nice considerate fake polite), and other traits of people who work in the service industry. They should not be rude, condescending, and short with the passengers. For example when a mother of two young restless children gets up to take them to the bathroom in the midst of some light turbulence, instead of saying "you're really going to get up now?!" Should say were having some turbulence, do you think they can hold it for a little bit? Or when a passenger holds his hand up to stop a flight attendant to ask a question and starts to say excuse me-they interrupt and say "I'm going to go make an announcement" how did she know what his question was going to be? Now granted she's been up in the sky a lot longer and a lot more than I have but if that gives you the ability to read minds... Sign me up! Now this has not been my experience with all flight attendants- on my short hop over to phoenix we had two characters as our flight attendants- comedians would better describe them. Which is fine by me! Talking to each other over the loud speaker, telling jokes to which passengers would yell out the punch lines making the already short 45 minute flight feel like 5. But once again, maybe this is just their routine to keep them entertained from their numerous flights throughout the day, but to me they encompass the fake polite characteristics, entertaining themselves with the passengers being entertained as an added bonus.

Now the mismatch group contains people like me. The silent travelers. Their either silent because a) they are keeping to them selves and have no interest in what's going on around them- only in their final destination (where ever that may be). They keep their heads down and involve them selves with no one. Choosing rather to bury themselves in their book or magazine, ear phones in, isolating themselves from their fellow travelers. Now to the b's) the people like me, also a silent traveler, but an observer. Watching everything and everyone around us. The traveling world had evolved tremendously in the past years. I've heard the romantic stories of air travel, people dressing up traveling with trunks and fancy luggage. And I know that things have had to change with world events, checking luggage is now not only a convenience but a necessity since air travel has become over priced, but the clothes that people wear while traveling now are ridiculous! I'm the biggest supporter of fuzzy slippers there is, even rocking them to the supermarket- but to the airport? That's overboard, and the sponge bob pajama bottoms? really sir? You're approximately mid 40's, it may be time to get rid of the cartoon character clothing. My favorite thing about airports however, is when something is so captivating- like the woman with the "Rachel" hairdo is discussing her relationship with a man named Jim on her phone, telling him quite loudly that he knew she loved him, that she misses him, that the past few months have been really hard with out him by her side - and that perhaps they can come up with a code when she calls, like call hang up call and hang up again then wait for him to call her back. And in the midst of this situation- you look up and see a fellow creepster people watcher observing the same situation that you are- you catch eyes, and smile a smile that says... Hello fellow watcher, you're watching this situation, I'm watching this situation- let's not judge each other or this situation that's happening before us, have a good trip.

And that's it. Air travel observation from a creepster people watcher.

(please excuse my horrible bb pics, hopefully I'll get better soon at taking non-intrusive creepster observation pics)

Bagel Shop Observations

Bagel shop observations of the day: aka observations from a creepster people watcher:

¨ familiar table of senior citizens sitting and chatting away the morning hours- all with free refill cups of coffee
¨father sitting with his three kids- taking them into school later after special breakfast
¨older gent sitting by himself with a HUGE college sort of ring that has a massive diamond in the center of it daintily tapping at an iphone
¨fashionista high school aged girl dressed in short short shorts with the only redeemable part of her outfit being her purple american apparel sweat shirt
¨kid that I went to high school with that back in the day had a massive white boy fro, taking payment for bagels
¨ super gwaky man in his mid to late 30's driving up in a mazda sports car breakfasting with wife daughter and perhaps mother (and in law)
¨group of moms and preschool aged kids eating breakfast of champs (fruit cups for them bagels for the kids)

attack of the orange and chocolate craving.

So i woke up saturday morning with a craving for some orange and chunks of chocolate concoctions, and after going through my food network magazine and wanting to make the orange and chocolate bread pudding... and consulting with mama callimanis- and her shooting down the idea (she's not the biggest fan of bread pudding- and i had to take her word for it since i have never had the stuff myself) i went on an googling extravaganza. I ended up with four tabs open on my browser when i declared times up for recipe searching (mainly because the office dvd i was watching had ended and i had to get up anyway to put on a new disk... but that's another post all together.) One was Ina Garten's mini orange and chocolate chunk cake- which satisfied my need for orange and chocolate chunks, but didn't include the nifty new (really old school) way of infusing orange into deserts when i came across a fellow bloggers orange and olive oil cake- which i would have loved to add chocolate into but the crumby texture that olive oil adds to cakes was not going to satisfy the craving. And a tasty kitchen recipe for double chocolate and orange cookies which would allow me to use my nifty new cookie dough scoop which i got for making truffles... but after some internal debate the mini orange and chocolate chunk cake won over... with a slight change to the original recipe- I used the old school way of boiling and orange for around an hour- then letting it cool in the water that it was cooked in and then pureeing it in the mini Cuisinart. The dough used about half the orange mixture, and tasted a little bitter, so i added a bit more sugar- Ina's original recipe called for a orange syrup to be poured over the cakes then a ganache. The cakes turned out delicious - slightly dense, but satisfied the orange and chocolate chunk craving wonderfully.
Now what to do with the left over pureed orange? After going through my yia-yia's joy of cooking book, it hit me- marmalade. its so surprisingly easy! soaking the pureed orange in the water it was cooked in for an hour, the boiling it for an hour. After the boiling the book recipe wanted around 4 cups of sugar- I cut it down to 3/4 of a cup to make it equal proportions of orange puree and water, it was a little runny when it was still hot, but thickened up quite nicely as it cooled. However when tasting it on toast this morning- a bit more sugar probably would have made it even better. But the good news in all of this- i've been bitten by the jam/jelly/marmalade bug! eek.

WooHOO

I just figured out how to bring back posts that I thought I lost and blogger deleted, but really they were just in a draft folder! YES! Things just got a little more exciting around here!

Truffles the good the bad and the ugly.

I just wrote a long long post about my adventures in making truffles, how I went to William Senoma got offended by the prices but then realized one day perhaps I'll be able to purchase nice things, then went to Crate and Barrel and fell in love with about 50 thousand kitchen gadgets, so on and so on, then it went on to describe the process, my current obsession with Good Eats, and some more things- but then it got deleted. It was very sad, so now all I'm going to write is that I made truffles they were delicious and surprisingly easy to make all thanks to alton brown.

The End.

adventures of truffles

I finally made truffles this afternoon. They was something that I had been wanting to make for a while after seeing an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats where he focused on anything and everything chocolate... it was 30 minutes of drooling. Anyway, he made them look so easy to make, and since recently I've been craving coconut and chocolate for months now (and mini mounds bars just aren't cutting it anymore) I decided to take the plunge into candy confection making.
First came the hunt for the proper tools, since a melon baller is the one thing mama callimanis doesn't have in her drawers filled with kitchen gadgets, the quest was on. Alton recommended using either a melon baller or one of the mini ice cream scoops with the swishing swingy thing to loosen up the deliciousness in the scoop also known as a cookie dough scooper, off we went on a adventure to William Senoma... and after lusting after all the gadgets, and recovering from the fainting attack that I felt coming on from the prices (30 some-odd dollars for a cookie dough scooper)... we decided to hit up Crate and Barrel where once again I lusted after kitchen gadget after kitchen gadget, with much more realistic prices (12ish dollars for a cookie dough scoop), my truffle making dreams were becoming more and more tangible.
Saturday was going to be the day... but the comforting familiar rain made it difficult to do anything other than playing around with the newly installed internet on my blackberry. Waking up this Sunday I was committed to the cause, I was going to make truffles. And so I did.

The first part put me at ease, melting chocolate adding heavy cream and brandy or in my case metaxa ( you know me always have to throw some greek into the mix), the closest thing to brandy that we had in the liquor cabinet, then put in the fridge for an hour... the next part was a little more labor intensive, having to use the new scooper and put them back into the fridge to get nice and hard. After a hotdog lunch break, back to truffle making I went. Alton's strict instructions not to let the coating chocolate to get above 94 degrees got me a little overwhelmed but then I was what eva alton its chocolate if it goes above 104 degrees its still going to be delicious and tasty! Then I got to coating, leaving the tray of uncoated truffles in the fridge so they stayed cold, and taking them out as needed, which meant that I had to wash my hands quite frequently because I gave up on his instructions of using a spoon to lightly coat the trufs and used my fingers instead, then rolled the coated truffs in the truffle toppings of toasted walnuts, coco powder and cinnamon, and toasted coconut. Rolling the truffles in the toppings proved to be the most difficult part since my hands were coated in chocolate then the toppings got stuck to my fingers which made it hard to open the fridge to get out the remaining truffles but was a tasty treat indeed!
Finally the coating process was finished and back into the fridge they went.
Then came the dishes, the worst part of the truffle making experience, and since I don't want to disturb you with the amount of dishes that are required to make and then are disturbingly dirty after you finish making them, I'll leave you with a picture of them all nice and clean and drying.

first blog from blackberry

So I've been spending most of my time away from the house-thus-away from my computer and email... So as the data charges on the phone have continued to rise... I've decided to remedy this situation by adding data to my blackberry-i mean that's what blackberry's are made for right??!!
So nothing new has been happening lately other than my boss becoming more and more annoying and new daily encounters with stange individuals at the gym, totally have to write a whole other post on gym encounters of zoe.... Its gotten quite ridiculous and therefore quite entertaining!!
Today has been a relatively full day for a saturday which used to be siting around the red house recovering from friday nights... This morning included pancakes with the rents, a walk with the mom and pup, a quick decision to get a haircut and surprise and delight to get fit in later this morning (and with my new fav gay hairdresser... We bonded over discussing the duggars, my big fat greek wedding and the weird things hair-cutters tell their hairdressers. I got lots of stories!) Lunch with the mom, truffle recipe hunting on food network (its my other current obcession) and an outing to at&t, sprouts, and safeway. The day is coming to a close with me investigating all the new gagets that come once you get the internet added to your phone and friends dvds. Fun fun fun!! Missing washington lots but enjoying this early spring weather we've been having here (70-75 degrees and sunny) and today has been a nice reminder or wa with its pouring drizzles I loved ever minute of it!

Google

totally obsessed with the idea of working at Google... and may be applying to jobs that I don't really qualify for. Why some might ask...It may be that they've been on the top companies to work for for the past few years with good benefits, stocks, corporate is nice, blah blah blah what not... or it may be because i've stalked their what its like to work for seattle/kirkland google office photo page... but none the less... i'm obsessed.


oh well perhaps they will like my soc background??!!
hopefully...
fingers crossed...
throwing pennies in the wishing well...
looking for the first star i see tonight...
anybody have a wishbone lying around...

sore sore sore

Sore. Sore. Sore.
So I mentioned in passing to the big bro that I wanted to start lifting weights and what does he do? He immediately asks his coworker (who by the way is a hostage rescue team member in training) to come up with a plan for me.
A few days ago we started lifting... and it has been a LONG time since I've felt this sore.
But I do miss the feeling... growing up every Sunday I would feel sore after Saturday swim practices... but that would generally go away after a day. With lifting with the bro I was sore for four days... pain in the behind (literally and figuratively)! This morning I lifted for the first time by myself at the gym... and let me tell you... there are WEIRD people there in the am! Creepy old men who are trying to lift as much as the younger meat heads but who can hardly lift the bar... Single fathers who pick their kids up from where I work wearing little tank tops and tight pants.... AWKWARD!