Birthdays and Pies

On Saturday, the clan traveled up to LA to visit Grandma Ann for her birthday. Ryan, Kev (bro), and I drove while Ryan's parents and Kim (sis) took the train. The plan was to take Grandma and her overweight chihuahua Ronnie, named so after Ryan's dad, on a nice lunch outing. We walked quite a ways to our destination, the Farmer's Market, but the day was brisk and sunny and therefore perfect for an afternoon jaunt. I must mention that on the way we stopped at a Jewish deli for the world's best matzo ball. I'm no matzo ball expert but everyone agreed it was undeniably the best they'd ever eaten. The thought makes me drool right now...

At the market, I was a bit dazed by all the choices. There were food stands everywhere: funnel cake stands, greek food stands, bbq stands, philly cheese steak stands, the works. Being the predictable people that we are, Ryan, Kev, and I honed in on the mexican food stand like flies to honey. I got a veggie burrito, a side of fried plantains, and a horchata. The food didn't look particularly impressive but it tasted pretty darn good. Afterwards, Ryan's dad generously bought us a coconut cream pie to take home. Fyi, we've already eaten most of this pie as it's much too delicious to leave untouched for long. With our bellies full beyond belief, we strolled through the Grove, which is a pedestrian street packed with stores, and eventually found our way to a triplet of female singers performing old songs from the 40's. It's was lots of fun and I'm sure Grandma was touched to hear familiar songs from her yester years.



On our drive home, we stopped by South Coast Plaza to visit the Gucci store. A few months ago when Ryan and I were vacationing in Las Vegas, Ryan found a beautiful Gucci tuxedo jacket (for the wedding) on sale at Barney's. Unfortunately, there were no matching pants so he's been on the hunt since then. Sadly, the South Coast store did not have the pants either, but luckily we could get some custom made in the same exact fabric. Score! Now we just have to find a nice dress shirt for the wedding and our attire will be all squared away.

So I'm officially declaring the start of the wedding diet. I really should have started this a month ago, but I think two months is still enough time to work with. I plan to eat lots of fresh fruit and veggies and heavily cut down on the sweets (so difficult). My last binge was this afternoon when Ryan and I tried a new burger joint we found on citysearch. It's called Boomerangs and is out in the middle of nowhere Clairemont. The buffalo wings we ordered were overcooked but my house burger with bbq sauce was really delicious. Of course I had to get the sweet potato french fries which were like crack, and chase everything down with a pitcher of hefeweizen. After lunch, we decided to finally visit Henry's Marketplace and see what all the hubbub was all about. Boy were we pleasantly surprised! Not only was the food fresh and relatively cheap, there were so many organic and all natural options. It totally satiated our need for green. In addition to food, we got some bio-degradable shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. We also found some Fat Cat wine that we couldn't resist buying.