Pizza Heaven

This weekend, Jen and I took off for a long-planned weekend visit to Baker City to try the pizza that Kina and Whitey (and staff) work so hard to make. We'd heard rumors that it was good, and I believed it would be good. What I didn't know was that I'd come home and wish Paizano's was HERE instead of five hours (at best) away! OMG, Jen and I agreed that we both wanted to try the Sweet Thai Shrimp pizza, and decided we'd actually do half the pie with shrimp and half with chicken. The chicken rocks, but the shrimp is insane.

This isn't your typical pizza - without having heard Kina talk about it so often, I don't think I'd have braved it. It has sweet chili sauce, peanuts (yes, peanuts), coconut (yes, coconut), and green onions along with the shrimp (and these aren't canned shrimp) or chicken. I know it sounds weird. I know, really. But it is SO GOOD that I'm wishing that I'd brought a pie home with me. Yum.

The crunch and light saltiness of the peanuts, mixed with the tropical hint from the coconut, with the bright, clean tasting fresh shrimp, blended with the crisp green onion and the just-sweet just-sharp enough taste of the sweet chili tomato sauce blend was perfect. The pieces definitely make the whole - I think if I'd thought to order this anywhere else (I gave total trust to Paizano's here), I would have asked that the coconut be left off, and I would have been less enthralled with the result.

I'll be dreaming about this pizza for a while to come, and looking for excuses to go back to Baker City. Kina, it was so great to meet you, finally!!

Now comes the packing

The sale of our house here in SoCal has closed, been recorded, and is done. We're now living in someone else's house until we can move our things. The moving truck will be here on Friday, and we'll spend our weekend stuffing it full of our memories (and some other, more practical things). We've been about 60% packed since mid-August (constantly heard around here, "that's in a box") but there's still a lot of work to be done. We should be extremely proficient at packing by now (we're pretty darn good), seeing as how we've spent the past few years moving from state to state. I'm hoping that we'll be able to get everything in the truck this weekend and can get on the road on Monday morning.

If we can be out of here Monday morning, we'll be in Bend late Monday - it's only a 13 hour drive, but we'll have the four of us and four dogs (two puppies - we're bringing an additional puppy as a gift to our realtor in Oregon, as she's amazing) which means that we'll have to stop on a regular basis to let the dogs out of the car. Not to mention Zippy.

Burger alternates between being excited about moving and complaining that we're ruining her life. I think both of her reactions are reasonable points of view for a 14 year old. I hope the kids at her new school will be welcoming, because it's so hard to come in to a new school part way through the year. 14 sucks as an age, and I feel for her.

Worlds!

My favorite sport is gymnastics, you remember gymnastics, it's that sport you see every four years on television during the Olympics, right? Well, I'm sickened because we can see things like cup stacking, billiards, and cheerleading on ESPN (and other channels), but we get maybe 8 to 10 hours of gymnastics coverage in non-Olympic years (2 hours for the American Cup, 2-3 hours for the Visa U.S. Championships, 2-3 hours for World Championships). There is so much good gymnastics out there - I'm very thankful for You Tube because it allows me to see at least portions of competitions that we'd never get to see on television.

World Championships are this week in Stuttgart, Germany, and the team competition was held yesterday. An article about the results of the team competition are here, but if you don't want to be spoiled by reading the results, you can (OMG!!!) watch the coverage by signing up for an account on WCSN - AT&T has sponsored things so that WCSN can provide free coverage that we can watch! Bart Conner ('76, '80, '84 Olympian) and Tasha Schweikert ('00 Olympian) do an okay job of commentating - they're a little more in love with the Romanian team than I am, but I'm not necessarily surprised by that, considering that Bart is married to Nadia Comaneci who (duh) has strong ties to Romania. I do think we need a Dick Button type for color -- I love Dick Button because he's just snarky enough, but sweet and honest about it.

I stayed up way too late last night watching the coverage, and love that it's available for all! What a great preview of the talent out there with the Olympics coming next year!

Sue me. I'm a heathen.

It's been hot as hell here lately, and that hasn't made life any happier for me. There's very little A/C in SoCal, and absolutely none at our house. Usually we have a nice breeze coming off the ocean, but the past five or six days were absolutely miserable.

Why am I a heathen, you ask? Well, I'll be frank here. I'm committing the major sin of drinking a CHILLED glass of Merlot. I stuck the bottle in the fridge the other night when I thought I wanted red wine, but I also knew I wanted something cold. Turns out it was other cold stuff that I drank that evening (I love our kegerator, and can't believe that my better half wants to sell it. But that's neither here nor there...). But tonight! Tonight I am having cold red wine. And it tastes quite dandy, thank you.

Please note that we are indeed having red meat with dinner. I didn't want to push the envelope too much.

My favorite pizza topping

I'm mostly posting this because I know that keeneye reads my blog. And because The Minkz posted about piggies. But, it's utterly true, and completely important. My favorite pizza topping is bacon. Yum. You can't put it on the pizza when it's raw - it has to be pre-cooked. But friggin' yum. Bacon and onions, bacon and mushrooms, bacon alone... Bacon on pizza is awesome and shouldn't be missed! So keeneye, please, try some bacon on a pizza before you open. Small pieces. Cook the bacon about 80% before you put it on the pie. Yum.

Leonie's meme

My friend Leonie recently responded to a meme, and even though she doesn't yet know I've started this blog, I'm going to respond, as she challenged her readers to respond in kind.

4 jobs I have held:

1. Lifeguard. I spent at least a portion of seven summers as a lifeguard, and it's the best summer job. Especially if you're like me -- I always asked for the adults-only pools (you make more money working for apartment/condo complexes than at public pools), and thus most of the time I was alone at the pool. At least until 5 pm or so, when the residents started coming home from work and would stop by for a quick dip and some conversation. I got to read a lot of books, and even managed to get a tan without burning, as I spent 99% of my time under an umbrella - I've never been a big fan of just baking in the sun.

2. Pizza delivery person. FUN!! I did this for one summer when I lived in Ocean City, Maryland (the summer of 1985. Yes, I'm that old.) I met tons of interesting people, wasn't shut inside the hot pizza shop (hi Pizza Tugos!) all summer, and wasn't stuck working retail (blech). I also always had ready cash at hand, and was never broke until my next paycheck like my roommates (of course, this also means that my roommates knew who to borrow money from... but that's another story).

3. Real estate appraiser. Also fun, also not stuck at a desk all day long. I was welcomed into all sorts of homes - from small shacks to million dollar mansions (that figure might not seem as impressive now as it did ten plus years ago. It sure was then!. I loved meeting new people, setting my own schedule, and figuring out what made the price set at a certain level.

4. Consultant. This is what I do now. I help companies design/test/pilot/implement/run their messaging servers. It's fun, I love my boss and have wonderful co-workers. I do miss not being tied to a desk most of the time, though!

4 movies I can watch over and over:

1. Dogma. Just brilliant. I love the story, the characters, the irreverence, all of it. I'm a HUGE Kevin Smith fan and a big geek.

2. Shag. What's better than four good friends who go to the beach when they're supposed to be doing other things? A classic chick flick, and fun fun fun!

3. Valley Girl. This reminds me of my friend Bernadette - we must have watched this hundreds of times during the summer of 1984. Nicholas Cage at his most casual.

4. The African Queen. Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. A delicious movie.

4 places I have lived:

1. Berwyn Heights, Maryland. The town where I grew up, our little Mayberry. Berwyn Heights is a wonderful little town - it's about a mile square, close to the University of Maryland. There were tons of kids in town and I spent many years playing in the town's little league. Berwyn Heights Day was always a special day, starting with a pancake breakfast (usually prepared by the mayor), moving on to the parade, games, pony rides, etc. I usually made it to Berwyn Heights day well after we'd moved away from town, and if I'm ever in Maryland the first weekend in May, I'll be back for this event! Every child should grow up in such a great town!

2. Crofton, Maryland. This is where we bought our first house. It's a much larger town than Berwyn Heights was, but we had fabulous neighbors (well, mostly. Doug and Kathy Mayer, you're the reason I have to include the "mostly". Jerks.) Burger (eldest child) went to elementary school in Crofton and to this day bemoans the fact that we no longer live there, as she would have been POPULAR. Got that? POPULAR. I ruined her life. Bad Mommy.

3. Bentonville, Arkansas. Yes, Arkansas. It's beautiful there. Unfortunately, we had to leave because:

a) I'm apparently allergic to everything there.

b) It's the bible belt. Really.

It was great living near my aunt, grandmother, and cousins for the year we were there, though, and I miss them all and wish I were more adept at keeping in touch now that we've moved.

4. Midway City, California. That's home for now. It's a tiny little town (about the size of Berwyn Heights) in Orange County, California. Unfortunately, we don't have the sense of community here that we had in the old BH. Sigh. So this may not be our last stop.

4 categories of TV programming that I enjoy:

1. Serial drama. Lost and Heroes are my favorites.

2. Family shows. Friday Night Lights is brilliant, and I'm so happy it was renewed for another season. I'm still bummed that American Dreams was cancelled a few years ago. We need more shows that we can watch as a family without having to cover Burger's eyes.

3. Reality TV. But only in very limited doses. As in limited to Survivor, Amazing Race, Deadliest Catch, and Project Runway. NO dating shows. YUK. No uber mean shows (I can't find my umulat!)

4. Good for me shows. Documentaries, history, biographies, etc. I dig this stuff.

4 places I have been on holiday:

1. Bend, Oregon. Love it. OMG, gorgeous, friendly, charming. Like a bigger Berwyn Heights.

2. Duck, North Carolina. Great place for a family vacation - we went to Kitty Hawk, spent time on the sand dunes, shopped, drove the truck out on the beach (which you cannot do in Maryland!), and had a wonderful week in Duck.

3. Ocean City, Maryland. Nothing like going down the shore. I'd kill for Thrasher's fries right about now (none better, anywhere, ever. I swear.) And I've never been to another boardwalk that's so much simple fun. You can people watch all day, ride the big ferris wheel, go in the fun house... I miss Ocean City.

4. Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Skiing with my guy when we were young. Sigh.

4 of my favorite dishes:

1. Lasagna. Home made, of course.

2. Jambalaya. Spicy, please!

3. Sushi. Anything but uni or tako.

4. Corned beef and cabbage. Simple, real food. With spicy mustard!

4 websites I visit daily:

1. www.cnn.com

2. www.msnbc.com

3. www.google.com

4. www.gymgossip.com

4 places I would rather be right now:

1. Bend, Oregon

2. St. Petersburg, Russia

3. Duck, North Carolina

4. Driving with my husband, going anywhere.

4 things I love to do in my spare time:

1. Garden

2. Cook

3. Read

4. Play

I'm opting out of tagging others, as I'm new at this game and am not quite ready to go there yet!