And I officially feel old
Posted by Gypsy on Jun 26, 2009
Today, my baby sister, Samantha, graduated from high school. Honestly, there was a point when I thought she might follow in my footsteps and not graduate high school. Thankfully, she got smart and made it through. Not only did she make it through, but managed to become a certified nursing assistant and an emergency medical technician while she was at it. When I was 18, I was drinking and being a jackass. Clearly, my sister has a level of maturity not found in most people her age. And I mean this in a good way.
Samantha, I’m so very, very proud of you. Now don’t go to college and fuck it up. Learn from my mistakes and keep on doing what you’re doing and you will go far. Yes, it’s cliche, but it’s true.
Congratulations!
My new pretty…
Posted by Gypsy on Jun 22, 2009
I’m not a gun nut by any sense of the word. I’m also not a gun enthusiast. I’m just a girl who likes to go out and shoot on occasion. Nothing too out of the ordinary, at least not where I’m from. But I’ve never had my own firearm. I never really thought of myself as the gun-owning type. But being married to Andy means being a gun-owner because he owns guns and this is a community property state. As I’ve said before, though, Andy’s XD 40 is just a little too much for me. So it was high time I picked something up that was a little more my style. And since I just graduated from college, what better excuse to buy one than to call it my graduation present.
After looking around and doing a little research, I decided fairly quickly what I wanted: a Walther PPK. For those of you who don’t know guns, think of the tiny gun James Bond tends to use. That’s a PPK. Unfortunately, after nearly an hour of calling all the gun shops in San Diego, Andy had to break the bad news that there wasn’t one to be had in all of San Diego. Apparently, there was a safety recall on the PPKs that were manufactured here in the States. The sliver of good news, though, was that there was a gun show in Costa Mesa. I swear it had to have been my lucky day because we drove the 90 minutes up there and weren’t in the doors 15 minutes when we found one. Even better, it was manufactured in Germany and therefore not under the safety recall.
I’d love to say minutes later it was in my hand and we were out the door, however it didn’t quite work out that way. Andy said we should shop around as that one was priced a little high. So we searched. Took us over an hour to walk through the entire show only to realize it was the only PPK there and we should’ve snapped it up while we could. Again, would love to say we grabbed it and were our way home with it minutes later, but alas it was not meant to be. Apparently, California has a 10-day waiting period for handguns and while I am fully supportive of that law, I also really wanted to bring it home with me. Instead, I left empty-handed but for a sheet of paper stating a pick-up time and that we did indeed own it.
So we waited. Ten days. Ten long days. Including a weekend when we could’ve been having fun shooting it but instead just waited. Because that’s what you do during a waiting period. Ok, so I’m exaggerating. It didn’t actually seem like that long. We finally picked it up 10 days later and the real wait began. The wait for time to shoot it. Luckily, that was only a three day wait. And so the other day, 13 days after buying myself a shiny new plaything, I finally got to actually play with it. Charles also brought his shotgun along, so we had some photo fun.
To see the rest of our photos from the day (as well as from our previous visit to the range) click here.
My new haircut
Posted by Gypsy on Jun 7, 2009
Gather around, everyone, while I tell you a tale of a girl with frizzy, curly hair and what happens when you combine that type of hair with a short style and lack of ability to control it. On second thought, let’s not as it’s quite embarrassing for me. Long story short, imagine being 12 years old, kinda dorky and sporting this hair cut. (Seriously, the mean kids that were older than me called me Jimi because it looked just like that.)
So it was with no small amount of apprehension that I went to the hair salon to once again try out the extra-short ‘do. Luckily, I came armed with 15 years of experience dealing with the mess that is my hair and the confidence this gave me allowed me to go through with the cut I’d been planning for awhile. The results? Probably the best hairstyle I’ve ever had. Definitely my favorite and surprisingly easy to style. So without further ado, I give you my new haircut.
(Wait, a little more ado. The goddess of hair who is responsible for this awesomeness is the lovely Amy at the Paul Mitchell Salon on Murphy Canyon Road here in San Diego. Just call (858) 278-8184 and ask for an appointment with Amy. You might have to wait a couple days as I got the impression she’s very popular, but it’s totally worth it.)
Ok, for reals now, my new haircut.
Christina Cooks: Memorial Day Edition
Posted by Gypsy on May 24, 2009
I’m getting a little behind on blog posts, but the timeliness of today’s dessert bumps this post to the top. Yesterday, Andy and I headed up north to Vista to enjoy a Memorial Day barbecue at Kristen and Allan’s place. I was tasked with dessert, as according to Kristin I “make the best desserts.” Before anyone decides to do that thing where they remind me that Memorial Day isn’t just about cookouts and liquor, let me remind you that my family a military family. My friends here are military or dependents. More than most people in this country, we realize how important this day is. But we also like to enjoy our long weekend because, fuck it, we’ve earned it.
Anyway, Kristen’s comment on my desserts put the pressure on to come up with something fun and unique. Only once have I served the same dessert twice and that’s because it was a last minute thing the second time. (It’s a source of shame we’ll not mention again.)
This fun cake was made using just a box of white cake mix, some white frosting, food coloring and sprinkles. I made the cake just like the box told me to, then set aside 1/2 cup of the batter (split into two bowls) and put the rest in a cake pan.
The two bowls of batter were then colored with food coloring, one red and one blue. (Any colors will work, of course, and this would be a great cake to make if you are looking to make it match a school or sport team’s colors.)
The colored batter was this spooned into the pan and swirled slightly with a knife to create that marbled look.
Once cool, I frosted the cake with a thin layer of white frosting. This is called a crumb coat and is used to prevent any crumbs from marring the surface of the cake. I then popped the cake in the freezer for about 20 minutes before putting on a thicker layer of white frosting. I chose to decorate with sprinkles immediately after so they would stick in the moist frosting, but there is also the option of popping it back in the freezer and then adding the sprinkles. Putting the sprinkles onto moist frosting allowed them to stick better, but putting them onto cool frosting may have made the design a little cleaner. It’s really a matter of preference.
And there you have it. According to everyone at the barbecue it was quite yummy. I will add that I tried to get photos of the cake after it was cut to show the marbled colors. Alas, it was eaten way too fast for me to get a decent photo. I guess you could use your imagination. Or make it and see/taste the awesomeness for yourself.
Enjoy!
