Halloween Recap: USC vs. OR, Cookies, and Little Red

Happy November everyone. Hope you all had fabulous Halloween Weekends!

Ours started out with USC's Homecoming Game against #1 ranked Oregon.

USC lost, but we had a great time at the game. We tailgated with USC Alumni and our friends from Oregon who were in town.


Now I'm rooting for the Ducks to go all the way to the National Championship!


Sunday morning I made Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Chip cookies. It's a little tradition of mine to make cookies on Halloween, I think it satisfies my Halloween sweet tooth!


I think I need to buy some new baking sheets. Why?

I made 1/2 the cookies on one kind of darker color cookie sheet and the other 1/2 on a lighter cookie sheet and they turned out totally different.

The cookies made on the darker sheet turned out like this:


The ones on the lighter cookie sheet turned out like this:


The ones from the darker sheet were much fluffier and rounded. I never realized the kind of cookie sheet matters so much! That said, what kind/brand of cookie sheet is your favorite? I am totally going to buy a couple of new cookie sheets.


Finally, my Little Red Riding Hood costume turned out pretty cute!

This is me before heading over to our church's Halloween Carnival to pass out candy to the kiddos.


The Mr. was an "80s Rock Star" like Axel Rose or something. Hilarious.


You can't really see my boots, but these are my new suede boots from DSW. I love them! DSW is go-to place for boots.

How was your Halloween Weekend?


PS - My CSN Stores giveaway ends today. Enter here!

Exciting Friday!

Happy (almost) Halloween, friends! This is going to be one fantastic weekend! Why?


1. ESPN GAMEDAY is coming to USC!

That's right, my mighty, underdog Trojans are taking on the #1 Oregon Ducks at home. AND it's our Homecoming! I'm so excited to see the Trojans potentially unseat Oregon in our "red-out" stadium. Look for me in the west endzone!




2. Halloween

Last night, I finally decided I'd be "Little Red Riding Hood" this year (a costume I wore only to a work Halloween party 3 years ago). Because hey, free cute costume! It looks kind of like this (but less racy):

We're going to try to make it to a Halloween party Saturday night (if the big game doesn't last all night) and then we're serving at our Church's Halloween Carnival on Sunday evening.


3. A fun giveaway!

I'm giving away a $45 gift certificate to CSN Stores. Enter here!

CNS Store have over 200 online stores where you can find everything from contemporary coffee tables to fantastic fitness equipment to cookware!



What are you doing for Halloween?

Ski Bum

Long time readers may have noted that I love skiing more than almost anything in the world.

It may seem odd that a girl who grew up in San Diego would develop a passion for such a winter sport. But thanks to my amazing parents I fell in love with skiing at a young age and never looked back.

How passionate am I about skiing? I almost quit college to work at a ski resort when I was 19. The front license plate of my car has a frame that says "I'd rather be skiing". And I actually did work in the ski industry for a winter between college my real job.

My ski season is supposed to start this Friday in Lake Tahoe. I've got my gear all packed...



But unfortunately a set of giant storms is barrelling down on California all week. Which could prevent our passage into Lake Tahoe on Thursday! NOOOOOO!

Don't get me wrong, I love that we're getting a ton of snow, I just don't want it to ruin my ski weekend!

Last year I only took two ski trips due mainly to lack of time and funds: One to Breckenridge, CO and one to Lake Tahoe, CA. (click the links to read about those trips).


(My Dad and I in Lake Tahoe, 2009)

But this year one of my New Years resolutions this year is to ski more. So the Mr. and I have a set of trips planned...
- January: Lake Tahoe
- February: Breckenridge
- March: Mammoth Lakes
- April: Back to Tahoe?

But if this weekend gets snowed out the whole schedule could shift. Boooo.

Does anyone else love to ski? Snowboard? (Don't worry, the Mr. snowboards so I have learned to love snowboarders.)

Christmas 2009 Highlights

We had a fabulous Christmas in San Diego. Lots of great food, family, and fun!


The best part was Christmas Day dinner that my parents hosted for 18 people at their house. Here is the amazing table-scape that my Mom and I put together.



Photos don't really do it justice. But I loved the floating candle & flower displays that we put together. (These are so beautiful, easy, and inexpensive to make!)



We also had a ton of fun opening presents on Christmas Eve.


And of course, we had to see a football game! We saw Utah vs. Cal in the Poinsettia Bowl. Great game!



Hope you had a great Christmas!

USC Football: A Love Story

It's a well documented fact that I love USC football, so I got pretty excited when Kelly announced that this week was "Favorite Teams" on "Show Us Your Life."

I may not be as hardcore as all of the SEC girls out there, but I do love me some Trojan Football -- everything from the tailgating to the sold out stadiums to game watching parties for away game. In fact when football Season ends and I suddenly have all of these free Saturdays, I don't know that to do with myself, since Trojan Football is an all day event.

The Mr. and I met at USC so we've both been avid USC fans for over 8 years now and sharing Football games is one of our favorite things.

Note: Unfortunately almost all of my USC pictures from College are not digital, so I'll have to show my love for USC Football through the last 4 years after college.

We usually tailgate for at least 4 hours before the game with the Mr's fraternity alumni association. Here are few of my favorite tailgating pictures from over the years. Lots of beer and BBQ!


{click to enlarge}

USC hate UCLA more than anything (way more than UCLA hates USC) hence the FUCLA shirt above. USC's band even has a whole song that ends with "UCLA Sucks" -- that they play at games where we're not even playing UCLA. Hilarious.

We have Season tickets and apparently I really like to take close up pictures of ourselves in the stands.

{click to enlarge}

Fun unrelated-fact: From 2005 to 2009 the Mr lost over 50 lbs! You can really see it in these pics.

I love seeing the Colosseum covered in Cardinal and Gold.


We're so passionate about USC Football that we usually go to at least one away game a season. Here we are before the Stanford game last year and at the Berkely game this year.


But my favorite games are BOWL GAMES! Since I started at USC in 2001 the Trojans have been to SEVEN BCS Bowls!

Of course the best Bowl Game was in January 2005, when I traveled to Florida to watch the Trojans win the Orange Bowl and be named the 2004 Season National Champions! It was SO amazing!



And for the last two years we've watched the Trojans win in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

FIGHT ON TROJANS!


Update: Check out my bloggy friend, Julie's post on USC. Her little boy in USC jerseys just makes my heart melt! I swear, when I have a baby, the first thing I'm going to buy for him/her is a little jersey or USC tee!

"Yo fui al partido de fútbol Americano" - Football Weekend Recap

When I was in High School, every Monday morning my Spanish Teacher would ask the class "what did you do this weekend?" (in Spanish) and then if you raised your hand and answered (in Spanish) he'd give you like .1 of an extra credit point. So every Monday in the Fall I would raise my hand and say, "Yo fuí al partido de fútbol Americano" (I went to a Football Game). And it was true because I was always at either my High School games, San Diego State games, or Charger games.

Well, I'm starting to feel like my blog has become my Spanish class this Fall, because it seems that the major thing going in my life is Football games. So if you don't like football, just go ahead and skip this post. But for the pigskin lovin' girls like me, here's a recap of my Football weekend.

My cousin and his girlfriend arrived at LAX on Friday afternoon. Friday night we grilled out, drank wine, and went to the Laugh Factory Comedy Club in Long Beach. Good times!

Saturday morning we gave them a mini tour of Long Beach and LA and then headed to USC for to see the Trojans take on the Cougars!

I love seeing campus on Game Day! So full of energy and Cardinal & Gold. Here's the Mr. and I at Tommy Trojan.


The whole crew leaving home.


Tailgating.


I'm happy to report that the Trojans won this weekend!

Sunday morning we drove down to San Diego to watch the Chargers beat the Miami Dolphins!

We sat with a bunch of friends from San Diego in the first/second row of endzone. Great seats!

Here I am with my friend, Sarah.


The Charger Girls!


Right before the Chargers scored a touchdown!


I took a day off work on Monday to relax with my family in San Diego and go to Mission Beach.

Now it's back to the grind until next the Football Weekend, which actually starts this Friday when we fly up the San Francisco Bay area to watch the Trojans play at UC Berkely (Cal) on Saturday! And next Monday I can once again say, "Yo fui al partido de fútbol Americano."

Family & Football this weekend!

One thing that you may not know about me is that I have the world's smallest family.

Seriously. I've never met anyone with a smaller family/extended family.

Lots and lots of only children (including me). I have only two cousins (and one is by marriage, so she is really a step-cousin). Yes, I know this may be shocking to people that have like 25 cousins like many people I know.

So you can imagine how excited I am that my only blood-cousin is coming to visit me in Los Angeles from Illinois for the first time ever!

I saw him last here, where we cooked up plans for fun-filled football weekend in Los Angeles and San Diego since he loves Football as much as I do but doesn't have big-time college or pro sports in his small town.

He flies in Friday.

On Saturday we're going to tailgate on USC's campus and watch the Trojans play at the Colosseum.


Then Sunday we're going down to San Diego to see the Chargers play at Qualcomm Stadium


The last Charger game that I saw in person was this one. Check out the view from our seats. First row, end-zone! Yup, I've got the hooook-up with tickets.

Have a great weekend everyone! Go Trojans and Bolts!

Fight On for ol' SC

Our men Fight On to victory!

This weekend we went to the USC Trojans season opener at the LA Memorial Colosseum!

I heart my alma mater so much!


(That's us tailgating at the Mr.'s Fraternity Alumni Tailgate)

Our season tickets this year are the best seats we've ever had!

Really great, huh?!

Despite the 90-degree weather, the fans were still out in full force.

(Yes, yes, I know, Californians are wimps about weather. We're like Goldilocks, we can't have it too hot or too cold. We accept nothing less than 74 and sunny.)



USC won 56-3 and now we are ranked #3! In Pete we Trust!


But what I also loved on Saturday was seeing all of my bloggy girlfriends blogging and blowing up Twitter with College Football game day updates. (And seeing babies in game day gear makes me want a little one so bad! Like, tomorrow. I think that's the first thing I'd buy if I found out that I was pregnant).

From your blogs I learned so much about your College Football traditions and personal stories. Like from Kelly's Korner I learned about how SEC girls dress for games. Or from Kate at Elefantitas Alegres about what it's like to live in a "house divided". Or from Megan at In this Wonderful Life about how she decorates her home for Football season.

It's so fun to be friends with so many college football fans across the country! Although I don't know if Mrs. Everlasting and I can still friends next weekend when our teams play each other! Ha! Fight On Trojans!

Did you go to a College Football Game this weekend? What College Football Traditions do you have or love?

Falling in Love with Fall

Even though the first day of Fall is officially September 22, I've always felt that the day after Labor Day marks the end of summer and the start of Fall.

When I was young I loved summer so much that Labor Day was a day of mourning for me. I'd mope around the house and sometimes even cry over the loss of Summer.

Now that I'm "an adult" working for "the man" in an air conditioned office every day, and I don't go back to school, seasons matter less to me. And since I live in a Southern California beach city where the weather rarely drops below 60 all year, and the palm tree leaves don't turn to shades gold and brown, the concept of Seasons is sometimes irrelevant. But nevertheless, in recent years Fall has grown on me.

So since "Fall" is right around the corner I've been thinking of the reasons that I've fallen in love with Fall.

1. College Football! Specifically, my Alma Mater, the USC Trojans!
I love the excitement around college football in general. But there is almost nothing I love more than tailgating on the USC campus with my alumni buddies and watching the Trojans demolish a team in the Colosseum.


PS- Can you believe that a true Freshman, Matt Barkley will be starting at quarterback on Saturday? It's the first time ever in USC history a true Freshman has started at QB.


2. Holidays
I've always loved Halloween. And now I love Thanksgiving because it is always such a fun and special time with the Mr's family in Oregon (where they actually have seasons). Plus my MIL is a great cook and does a lot of fun dishes with the leftovers too.



3. New Fall TV Shows
I don't watch a TON of TV, but I am excited for new episodes of three of my favorite shows (my other favorite show, LOST, will not back on until January)

The Office premires on September 17.


How I Met Your Mother premires on September 21.


Grey's Anatomy premires on September 24 (thank goodness for DVR!)


What parts of Fall do you enjoy? Or do you still hate Fall like I used to? What are you looking forward to in Fall?

Family Celebrity

I have to take a day to brag about my little brother-in-law, Elijah, who has recently become a huge celebrity in the world of track and field!

Elijah currently has the fastest high school time in the nation in the 800 meters! His current time is: 1 minute 48 seconds. (For you non-track people 800 m is basically two laps around the track). AND he has the fastest high school time in the nation for the 1500 meters (current time is: 3 minutes 50 seconds).

This weekend he is running in a huge race (the PreFontaine Classic) with Olympians and will try to break the all-time National High School record for the 800 m! (which he’s already very close to beating)

He’s recently had a cover story in ESPN Rise Magazine.


He’s been featured in Dyestat.

{click the image above to read the story}

And he has been a frequent local story on TV stations in Portland, Oregon. Check out this Fox News feature on him: http://www.kptv.com/video/19558612/index.html

Elijah is currently a Senior in High School and will run next year for the University of Oregon. Oregon has a legendary track program and he chose Oregon because going there will give him the best chance of going to the Olympics in 2012. Yes, people are already talking about him being an Olympic contender (see Fox new story above). Isn’t that crazy!?

So we may be going in London in three years!

But Olympics or not, we are all so proud of him already. His work ethic, attitude, and spirit are just amazing. We love you, Elijah!



Here I am with “my boys”, the Mr. and his three younger brothers, at Thanksgiving last year.

Long Beach Grand Prix Recap

Last weekend the Long Beach Grand Prix came to our backyard.

The Long Beach Grand Prix is a open-wheel race held on a temporary road course and is the longest running major "street" race in America.

So the Mr. and I spent the weekend checking out races, exhibits, and festivities.

I've never been to car race before (sorry nascar fans), so it was a great experience!

Here are the pics from the weekend...

Me next to the palm-lined track:


Our Condo Building as viewed from the track:


Sitting by the track:


Celebrity Race. Celebs included Keanu Reeves, Raven Symone, Alex Trebek, and others I'm forgetting:


Keanu Reeves won! But apparently forgot to shave:


Pros warming up:


The Mr. checking out the cool cars at the exhibition: