{adachef's restaurant review}

Look. I love me a good hamburger, especially when it is homemade. Maybe that's because I find gross enjoyment in squishing raw meat between my fingers (especially in the summer when my hands are hot and sweaty).

Post-script: Save your "ewwww" comments for a rainy day. You can't sway me or my love for raw meat touching.

Anywho, David and I went to the cabin for a weekend getaway (more on that tomorrow after I download our crash-and-burn sledding videos off my camera). On our way home, we stopped at The Red Onion in Heber, AZ for dinner. I've been wanting to go to The Red Onion for months and he said, "Yes". And I was pleased. And I was very, very pleased. How often do you order a hamburger at a restaurant and they bring it out to you in such a way that you feel like you're at a summer BBQ at a friend's house sipping Izze's from the bottle and watching the kids do cannonballs and flips off the diving board? That's what I thought. Never.

Delicious, perfectly portioned, hand-formed hamburgers (a leetle disappointingly "unpink") with a generous slice of green leaf lettuce, 2 plump tomato slices, pickles, and of course - 4 slices of red onion. Ba doi. Top that toasted bun with some condiments and you have yourself a summer day, my friends. We will be going back for that bad boy (for $4.75 you better believe it).

pushing daisies

I love my new favorite show, Pushing Daisies, for so many reasons. Here are a few:

- I love that when the narrator says someone's age, it is always in years, months, days and minutes.
- Kristin Chenoweth.
- All of Ned's pies look delicious and I love that his shop is called "The Pie Hole".
- I have big crushes on Ned when he looks at the ground shyly and grins to himself while mumbling something to Chuck (the cute girl in the red flower dress)
- The brightness and color remind me of Amélie.

Seriously, this show is so great. The plot is fantastically bizarre, the characters are quirky and surreal, the filming is vibrant and the main character is an awkward hunk. What else could you ask for?

As most of you know, my brother (a.k.a."Strawbs") is getting married in Seattle in December. I am so excited for him . . . and for me cause I get to go! I love Seattle a lot and David has never been so we are planning on doing as many cool things as we can pack into 3 short days. These are the things I know I want to do:

- have a breakfast of fresh strawberries and raspberries at Pike's every morning
- eat fish 'n chips at Ivar's (too touristy?)
- walk along the Pier and look at shops

I would love hike Mount Rainer but that will have to wait for another time since it will be December and too far away. I don't really care about the Space Needle (although walking by might be necessary to satiate David's construction interests). I also think it would be awesome to do a whale watching tour through the Seattle Aquarium but we don't have that kind of time or money. So, do any of you Seattle-living (or loving, for that matter) readers out there have any great ideas of fun things to do that are inexpensive and within the city? We also LOVE to eat so whoever recommends a good restaurant wins!

My sister-in-law insists that I look just like Ashley Tisdale (a.k.a. "Sharpay" from High School Musical). I often think that this is not very good news but I can kind of see a resemblance in our coloring. Hmmm, I've been told that I look like Drew Barrymore (bleh) and Ashley Simpson (double bleh). Am I really that ditsy? Splendid.

SYTYCD finale recap:

I have to admit that I am surprised that the winner last night was Sabra. Don't get me wrong, I love that girl but I also really liked Danny and Neil . . . don't get me started on Lacey though. When she was the first to get kicked off last night, I was sitting across the room staring at the t.v. when I heard that she was outta there. I began my best "Mr. Burns" impression with each of my fingers and spoke to myself in an evil tone, "yes. yes. yes. YES!" Go America! I'm impressed that America could see that all she was is a stinky booty dancer.

Anyway, I am proud of Danny, Neil, Mia and Wade. Those two rock my world. I cannot wait for The Office (September 27) and LOST to start. I am sick of summer t.v.

I love that my grandma Ada (whom I am named after) wrote this on the back of one of her recipe cards:

"You don't have to worry about the boys if you make sure that all of your girl friends with whom you closely associate are living the standards of the Church."

Boo ya, Grandma!

A Return to Modesty

I listen to NPR at work. Today, I had hope for this world.

On the Diane Rehm show this morning, they did a show on the influence that Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are having on young girls. They used a ridiculous quote by Paris Hilton as an example of the “bad girl” persona that is seemingly popular. But I’d like to thank Paris for being such an idiot, that there almost no feelings of admiration anymore amongst a lot of teenagers and 20-somethings. I smile as I hear that, “many girls are back-lashing the ‘bad girl’ and looking towards modesty and self-respect”.

Diane is interviewing Wendy Shalit, the author of Girls Gone Mild. My favorite part of the show at this point (as I am still listening to it) is a comment made by Wendy, “I always heard in our Sex-Ed class in school that talking about your private parts is like talking about your elbow. Well, what about now when we constantly see Britney Spears’ ‘elbow’?” She reads letters from a young girl asking advice when a teacher tells her, “Sex is something that you should be doing by the third date or get ready to be dumped.” I am totally impressed with the things that this woman has said on the show. She emphasized not acting on feelings because of pressure, being a responsible parent when it comes to discipline and understanding that it is “not bad to be good”.