I forgot to post this photo from our smoky mountain trip, but I laughed and laughed when I saw this. The funny thing is J and I did eat and got gas there, we only saw the sign after we had already had some *yummy* gas station food and filled up our tank.
Yes, I know I am easily amused!
I’m so excited that the Sex and the City movie is coming out this summer, I was just talking to a friend and I might drive 8 hours to Nashville just to see it with my friend! I know, I know girls are weird! It won’t be the same even if I can drag J to go with me
Here is the leaked trailer
As I was scrolling through my old posts, I noticed I haven’t done a food related post in a while, which is really a shame, since it has been rather eventful in my food life recently. So here’s a quick update.
I made meatloaf for the first time last week. I don’t really like meatloaf so I never cook it, but I found an awesome recipe that sounded so delicious that i just had to make it. It is a southwestern flavored meatloaf, that is stuffed with pepper jack , colby and prosciutto. And the recipe doesn’t call for ketchup…yeay!
This weekend I tried a brand new dish called Menudo , which is a mexican soup/stew that is made with cow stomach or tripe, but unlike just one part of the stomach it is made with all 4 and each has very distinct textures. The soup is spicy and really heavy but it is super tasty if you wash it down with some pina agua or pineapple drink. Some of our really good friends took us to a little hole in the wall mexican place on Alston Ave. but it was definitely as authentic as we were going to find in Durham NC. I also went a little nuts and had some of my fave pastor tacos and an asada quesedilla. Fun trivia about Menudo, according to my friend Y- In mexico they have the 4 different stomachs up by the counter and you can chooose which ones you want in your soup. We went there after our pretty crazy friday night and apparently Menudo is good for hangovers!
I am also pretty excited because I just read somewhere that one of my favorite low brow drinks – Jack and vanilla coke is now an official drink named Blackjack! I have such weird tastes in drinks, I have been spoiled because I know all these awesome bartending gurus who have introduced me to cocktails and liquors that I had never even imagined- What would my life be without the Millenium Cocktail or a Sazerac or even just a classic martini, but Jack and diet coke is still my favorite drink ever.
then you will love this blog!
The Sartorialist is a great photo blog that captures real people caught in super cool outfits on the street, in different parts of the world. I love that site so much that I visit it at least once a day and I keep meaning to blog about it,but what finally became a catalyst is that the blogger is now in New Delhi, India and has some wonderful portraits of people on the streets. An example is this one posted by the Sartorialist on
You can check out this awesome blog at The Sartorialist
Last weekend was the tail end of my spring break and J and I took a trip to the Smoky Mountain National park with our friends JE and Er. The weather was supposed to be rainy with a chance of flurries, but we decided to risk it anyway. We were going to leave early friday morning and get to the park by the afternoon but anyone who knows me and J knows that we are incapable of waking up before noon. But we did manage to get up by 10, pack up the car , drop off the laylster at the kennel and hit the road by 1. We took a leisurly drive and then as we got close to the the NC side of the park, we made an error. I did not realize that our campsite – Cosby was in the Tennessee section of the park and was only accessible through only one park entrance. So J and I ended up driving through the highest points of the park, in the dark, while it snowed and with a thick fog ( they don’t call it smoky for nothing). We then had to drive through Gatlinburg and the surrounding areas and finally we made it into Cosby campground by 8.
Friday night, after its been set up
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By now it was pitch dark and JE and ER had already set up their camp and ER was trying to put up a shelter with some tarps and ropes so that we could make a campfire. We were also the only ones in a campsite that had about 40 sites. It really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. The boys got busy and finished the shelter and then finally made a fire. We ate bratwursts and baked beans straight out of the can for dinner and I swear, it was the best meal ever. The heavy rainfall continued, while we decided to call it a night. It was a good thing we had extra sleeping bags and blankets because we had another surprise in store.
Our tents
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The campgrounds
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We look squatters or refugees
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The next morning, when I opened my eyes, I noticed white chunks on our tent and when I looked out, I saw snow everywhere. The boys once again were heroes and set to drying up the firewood and starting another fire and we had breakfast. The temperature had dropped severely and we decided to pack up and head out of the campground. We had a lunch at a cute little apple orchard, that had a store and a diner and ER and JE decided to head home. After much J and I decided to stay for the whole weekend. We spent the afternoon exploring some of the park and went on a hike to Laurel falls. For the night, we bargained ourselves a $40 motel room, that had not been updated since the 70s, it had green shag carpet, and wood panelling, very retro chic!
Cemetery close to the campground, lots worn out gravestones
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Laurel Falls
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A view of the park from a ridge
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That night we hit the town and all we found were tourist traps like Ripley’s believe it or not and stores that sold medieval knives and other weapons, crazy airgun shops ( i actually thought that some were real) and super christian tee shirts. There were no bars in the town, but tons of violent imagery and weapons. Go figure. We were forced to have an early night.
Cades Cove
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A primitive Baptist church
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Cemetery with some civil war gravestones
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The next morning, J and I explored Cade’s Cove, a wide valley which used to have a community of farmers. The valley was beautiful, dotted with meadows and old historic buildings and tons of deer. We checked out a few cemeteries with some civil war gravestones and then headed home after our grand adventure.
While I wait for J to upload our smoky mountain photos onto picasaweb, I thought, I’d do a fun post about the top 10 most played song on zen player. My friend RSG sent me an invite to Lastfm.com, but I have slacked off and haven’t actually downloaded the little widget onto itunes, so this is my closest attempt at recreating Lastfm.com’s lists. Anyway, I love my little zen player, I’m so glad I didn’t go with an ipod.
1. Extraordinary Machine- Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine
2. Rehab- Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
3. Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes – Paul Simon, Graceland
4. Have Mercy on Me – Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose
5. Now that I’ve found you- Allison Krauss , Now that I’ve Found you : A collection
6. Sleeping In – The Postal Service, Give up
7. The District sleeps alone tonight – The Postal Service, Give up
8.Crazy Love Vol. II – Paul Simon, Graceland
9. Shut your Mouth- Garbage, beautifulgarbage
10. Lady Midnight- Leonard Cohen, Song from a room.
As I mentioned before I am going camping to the Smoky Mountains on friday with my friend JE and her family and I’m super excited. Last night, she and I were planning what supplies to take and it got me thinking about all the reasons why camping is one of my favorite things. My friend HotHotJJ who just got back from an awesome trip is also doing this entry tomorrow, so you can check out her answers at her blog
1. The smell of a campfire smoke.
2. Eating Bratwursts and Baked beans. This has become one of our standard camping meals
3. Getting into a sleeping bag at night. I especially love it when the sleeping bag is all warm from having been in the sun all day.
4. Gathering wood, and putting in a group effort to make a campfire. THere’s always hilarious comments and when everyone has an opinion , it can sometimes take forever
5. Sitting and chatting around a campfire and making communal meals
6. Planning, prepping, packing the car before the trip, its always filled with so much anticipation
7. Walking around with flashlights in the dark.
8. Going hiking, exploring around the campground
9. Having an excuse not to shower!
10. Looking at the stars at night.
I have one more class, before its officially Spring Break 08. I can’t wait to spend a week not thinking about school. Next week, I’m going to take it easy for the first few days and at the end of the week, we are going camping to the Smoky Mountains. We are driving out there on friday and meeting up with our friends JE and EB and we’ll camp inside the national park. I am so excited, although I’ve been up to Blue Ridge Mountains before, this will be my first trip to the national park.
Here is some of the great Scenery I’m anticipating
This is going to be an awesome spring break
photos from google images
Originally uploaded by annadasg
I took this photo in the Bahamas a few years back and it made me long to go to the beach this summer. I wish it would hurry up and get here and rescue me from this gloomy winter!
But to make my wait easier and to cheer myself out of this funk, I decided to go to this website called Upumpitup, this is a community based website where there are various challenges that women can join and monitor their progress. It breaks the challenge down to 4 categories of Connect, Explore, Express and Inspire and each has small challenges like writing every day in a journal or planning a big solo vacation. Anyway , I signed up for five challenges to do through out the year
Here they are
1) No Muss, No Fuss- Working towards a clutter free home and life
2) Get into your Groove- Learning a new dance
3) Wardrobe Remixed- Playing with my clothes
4) Downward Facing What? – Commiting to yoga
5) All in the Family- Planning a family reunion.
I’m excited to see how I end up on doing my challenges and meeting my milestones. You can sign up for a challenge or create your own at http://www.upumpitup.com .
Yes! Yes! Yes!!! Just the news I needed to help me deal with my little emo funk from yesterday! I just found out that there is a new X-files movie coming out this summer. I am the biggest X files geek ever and I am forever hopeful that someday Mulder and Scully will get together! Although I would much prefer that Mulder aka David Duchovny…ahem…got with me…but thats probably not gonna happen! Anyway, now I can’t wait for July 08 when the movie hits the theatres. I have heard rumors that the official trailor has been leaked but I couldn’t find a good enough version on youtube. I’ll continue my search. Meanwhile, seriously people….The truth is out there!!!
Orange You Grape 