Check out artist Stacey Williams-Ng’s wonderful paintings:

From here:

Michael Q. Maybe it's because your back seat smells like pickles

Tony R. could've died a superhero but instead he lived to become the villain.

This image courtesy of Oh Joy!

How had I never heard of this beautiful store before, especially when it opened a year ago? It is the gardening offshoot of the Urban Outfitters family that also includes Anthropologie and Free People.  They mostly feature plants, containers, and gardening accessories, but there are dishes and home items as well. So pretty, and of course much too expensive.  A girl can dream.

Now I can only cross my fingers that they will make a move from Pennsylvania to California!

We got:

Antipasti

Puntarella Salad with Dungeness Crab Meat, Cara Cara Oranges & Pomegranate Dressing

Jersey Cow Beef Carpaccio with 30-Year Aged Balsamic & La Tur Cheese

Pasta

Crab Ravioli with Oyster Sauce & Chives

Nettle Pappardelle with Porcini & Fried Garlic

Secondi

24-Month Aged New Zealand Lamb Rack with Salsify Potato Cake

Stuffed Hills Farm Pork Chop with Strawberries, Chestnuts & Sunchoke Puree

Dessert

Assorted Artisan Cheeses

Some other thing, I don’t remember exactly what it was, sort of a tart creme brulee with a really flavorful sorbet.

And a bottle of wine that neither he nor I can remember the name of.  I really want to start remembering what wine we try so I can better figure out exactly what I like in a wine.  Oh and they brought us champagne with dessert.

I’m used to the fancy restaurants giving you tiny portions, but not Rose Pistola.  Basically, we could barely waddle to a tiny Italian cafe for espresso afterwards because we were so full!

Gosh, I am drooling just thinking about last night’s dinner.  Not only was the food delish, but there were some funny customers there to look at, like a really drunk old couple.  Oh! and they give a single red rose to all the women.   Swoon.

Me in a kimono, oh a couple years ago maybe.

These Rockabilly guys are great

Of course I love Sanrio characters, but Nikyoro is gaining popularity, and it is easy to see why!!  The name “Nikyoro” is a combination of  “niko niko” (which basically means happy and smiling) and “kyoro kyoro” (which is apparently the sound of eyes looking left to right). So as far as I can tell, Nikyoro can be anything with that smiling face.

J List is an online store with everything you never knew you needed, from cute bento boxes and accessories to weird things like anime hairpins –”An item that will definitely get guys to be looking your way!”  Warning: there are some “adult” items on the site.

I love these pictures.  My favorites are the ones that seem to occur naturally, although the ones where people are pretending to hold objects are interesting too. [ A couple of the images may be NSFW.]

1. Bacolicious: This is a site that gives you a realistic-looking slice of bacon right on your desktop.  Why? I have no idea, but it is fun nonetheless.  Here is an example.  Maybe I’m just crazy, but I can’t get over how real (and delicious) that strip of bacon looks.
2. Bacon Tiara: Ew.  I feel like my hair is greasy just by looking at this horror.
3. I Heart Bacon:  An entire blog dedicated to bacon???

Anyways, I don’t quite understand the bacon phenomenon, but I am in no way discouraging it.

Edit: Perhaps Salon can decipher this trend for us.

Ham on Rye–Charles Bukowski

Post Office–Charles Bukowski

Women–Charles Bukowski

The Bell Jar–Sylvia Plath

Cat’s Cradle–Kurt Vonnegut

I like the fact that these are all quick reads, because it makes me feel accomplished to finish a book, no matter how easy it was to get through.

What should I read next?  Quickly, before the semester really gets into full swing!

p.s. Bukowski is so gross. also, look at that bucket o’ cigs next to him!!