The Coachella 2011 Dozen

Rather than posting all of my photos from Coachella on my blog, here are 12 photos from all three days.

Art installation made of mirrors and lights up in the dark.

The Black Keys tearing up the stage. They were one of my favorite performances. The Black Keys' album "Brothers" is my favorite from 2010. I love the album from beginning to end but two of my favorite tracks is Sinister Kid and Never Gonna Give You Up. The Black Keys are blues-rock which is a style of music I love and after watching a day of Indie-Rock bands (where some don't even play real instruments and use too much electronic type sound effects) it was great to see and hear actual live instruments. That is what live music is all about for me-- real life musicians.

Transportation. Taking the horrific traffic situation from last year, we decided to bring our bikes to ride into Coachella. We parked in a neighborhood about three miles away and rode into the festival and zoomed passed all of the idle cars. Smart move.

Warpaint. A new band I kind of dug at Coachella. I had never heard of them until I saw them at the festival. They are an all-girl band that plays guitars and drums in cute dresses. 

F-You. Cee-Lo Green showed up on stage 30 minutes late. Performers only get about an hour during the day to play and if you're 30 minutes late, they are going to cut you off when your allotted time is up. That was the case with Cee-Lo Green who showed up confused and presumably drunk. I found it hilarious. He did get his current hit "Forget/F*ck You" song in and told festival organizers to F-off. They cut off his audio during his very last song, singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing."

There was a competition for garbage bin art and this was my favorite.

The duo called Jenny and Johnny. That is Jenny Lewis and her boyfriend. Can you imagine playing in the same band as your boyfriend and traveling with him all the time... spending every. minute. together? Once the tour is over I'm guessing so will be their relationship. P.S. Jenny Lewis is little Hanah Nefler from the movie Troop Beverly Hills. It took every ounce of me to not yell, "Beverly Hills, what a thrill!" None of the kids at the festival would've gotten it anyway.

Mumford and Sons. My other favorite act at Coachella. I liked them so much I want to see them at their very own show.

Arcade Fire. The lady in the photograph had an 80s perm and wore a figure skater outfit. Her brown curly hair and outfit made her look like Nancy Kerrigan. Anyway, Arcade Fire also rocked the stage.

Kanye West the Drama Queen. That is Kanye West descending on the crowd from a crane during his closing performance. His set had more drama and theatrics but lacked a good performance and guests (which is unusual because most of his songs feature guests like Rihanna or Katy Perry). He had ballet dancers, no live band (just one singer from Bon Iver and a keyboardist) and he had very little interaction with the crowd. He was a lonely man on a very large stage. Kanye is no Jay-Z (who gave an epic performance last Coachella).

As predicted the sun was brutal all three days and life was miserable between the hours of 2-6 p.m. -- but as also predicted, the sunsets were beautiful and every night, Coachella transformed into an incredible place of lights and amazing live performances.



I survived Coachella -- barely. Allergies and a cold are not a good thing to have while you're at a music festival.

A dinner that will leave you plenty of calories for your vices

I just wanted to share with all of you this salad recipe I found and was really excited about. I don't often get excited over salad, but of course with some bacon and scallops, this salad was prefect for dinner.

Celery Citrus Salad with Balsamic and Feta (recipe from Whole Foods) - Serves 4

5 Honey Tangerines (or Tangelos which I used. Remember larger tangerines and not cuties)
1 oz (1/4 cup) of Feta Cheese Crumbles
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
4 cups mixed salad greens (I used 2 cups of salad greens and 2 cups of arugula because I love arugula)
1 cup roughly chopped celery leaves (Optional. You can always add another cup of arugula or mixed greens)
3 cups sliced celery

Squeeze juice from one citrus fruit into a large bowl. Whisk in feta and vinegar mashing the cheese to make the dressing. Toss the mixed greens and celery in large bowl with the dressing. Add tangerine slices.

The best part about this recipe is the salad dressing. I think the salad dressing may be one of my favorites and it's so easy to make and doesn't require any oil.

Nutritional Value for salad:
Per Serving:
Calories:110
Total Fat: 1.5 g
Cholesterol: 5 mg
Sodium: 190 mg
Carbohydrate: 23 g
Fiber: 5 g
Sugar: 17 g
Protein: 4

For dinner, I recommend two servings of the salad (so that is 220 cal) and a serving of seared scallops (100 cal) and two servings of bacon bits (50 cal). That brings the dinner to a total of only 370. Score! Now you've got plenty of calories left for the vice of your choosing... beer... wine... chocolate.

You can also add any protein you'd like. I think chicken breast or even some fish would work well.
Happy Cooking (for one)!

Late night lessons and if my mother were here, she'd tell me to go to sleep.

Do not eat something spicy late at night. I just ate blue cheese stuffed jalapeños and hello heartburn.

Anyway, I haven't mentioned it or talked about it (to anyone) but 11 years ago today, my mother lost her battle with cancer. She turned 47 years old and passed away within the same week. I can't believe it has been that long. I can't say enough how grateful I am for the time I had with her and how well she prepared my dad, my brother and I for her death. I would write something more about my mom and who she was but I will save that for another time.

Well, I hope I wasn't too much of a downer. It is not a sad day for me. I don't think being sad on the anniversary of her death is what she would have wanted.


Okay, heartburn meds seems to be working now. Goodnight!






- Brought to you by Sarah from my iPad.

avoiding it.

By it I mean work. I am avoiding going back to my desk, to my cube, to staring. at. the. computer.
I am just going to sit here, blog and drink my coffee while I soak up some sun. I am sitting on a patio located in an alley. Strange right? It's actually kind of nice.

A guy just sat next to me. He's a good looking guy. Dark hair pretty eyes. He's reading a book.

I just asked him what he was reading and I think he said James Wallace and he added that he has been reading a lot of Hunter S. Thompson. If this were a movie, we'd chat a bit longer, talk about our love for HST and gourmet, fair trade coffee.

Unfortunately, I live in the real world. I can't stay long and he's probably got a girlfriend or he's gay.

Sigh, back to work.

zip ties and hose clamps keep it together.

The great thing about having a bike is getting it all fixed up and I have previously blogged about some of the work I have done on my bike.

Here are some before and after photos of my Schwinn with new (more like old) accessories.

The way my bike looked when I purchased it (ignore the scary uninviting porch)

with a new seat, some fenders and a basket...

now, the bike's got a vintage Schwinn messenger seat, a headlight mounted to the fender and a back rack.

I got this seat from eBay. Schwinn no longer makes these seats so I got this one for about $40. It is surprisingly so much more comfortable than the previous seat I installed.

The back rack I got from someone for $10 at a rat bike rodeo and it wasn't meant for my bike so I didn't think I could ever make it work to fit. Thanks to a crafty friend, zip ties and hose clamps did the trick!

So I have to give credit where credit is due and that is to my friend MT. He did most of the hard work on this bike because it involved using a drill. Besides, why do the work when someone else can do it for you -- (half) kidding.

Here's a bike he built. I stole this photo from Facebook and can you believe how easy Facebook makes it for you to steal photos? I just discovered the "download" button today.

P.S. I just finished my fifth week of counting calories and exercising at least one hour per day. I don't remember what kettle chips taste like anymore. Kettle chips are my favorite, which is why I have stayed away from them. So far, the progress has been good. I have lost 9 lbs., which is the rate of about 1.8 lbs. per week. When I hit the 10 lbs mark, I'm going to shop to celebrate and maybe enjoy a small bag of kettle chips.