our PW adventure

A few weeks ago I discovered that Ree Drummond – The Pioneer Woman was going to be in Denver for a book signing for her new cookbook – Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier. 

Um, yes please.  I want to go to there.

The day of the signing (last Saturday) finally rolled around and we had planned our day around heading to the Tradesmart book store in Littleton for the event which started at 4pm. 

Sweet Pea took her nap and got up with plenty of time for us to stop off to check out a couple of cross stitch shops before going to the book store but we didn’t get out of the house in a timely manner – I mean, really, I should be used to how long it takes to get out of the house with her but I seem to end up about a half hour behind schedule (unless there’s an appointment involved) no matter what I do.  So we decided to only hit one of the shops – thank goodness we did!  I finally found a good Christmas stocking kit for Miss P and a really great shop (Fancimats & More in downtown Littleton).

We walked in to discover that the ladies (one employee and one customer) were discussing, what else than the very same book signing that we were headed to.  I thought that was funny.  We found out from the ladies that the book store had been giving out numbers all day.  Great.

We decided to press on figuring that if we got there and we were way far back in line, we would just stay for the presentation, buy the new cookbook and go home.  So we got there a little before 3:30.  I staked out a spot and waited while Will wandered around with the baby.

The crowd anxiously waiting her presentation.

And then she finally appeared!

Her presentation is just a little history of her life and blog. 
She talks a lot on her blog about how she’s terrible at public speaking… well, it’s true!  But she’s funny and nervous in a very endearing way.

And then she sang to Charlie.  ha!

After her “song,” she came right over to begin signing books.  At this point it was about 4:30. 

My spot won me a perfect vantage point for when she started signing books.  Unfortunately, our number was 248.  We were going to be waiting for quite a while so we actually left and went up the street for dinner.  We’re still not sure why more people didn’t do the same.

Basically, all these people were just camped out in the store waiting to be called to get in line.  We grabbed a chunk of floor and let the girl crawl around for awhile.

They’d been playing an awesome country playlist but eventually the bookstore folks and the publisher folks got smart and they put The Muppets on one of the 2 screens that had been put up for the presentation.
Eventually, our number got called.  Not before the bookstore started announcing that if you needed to leave you could leave your books on a cart and Ree would sign them and you could come back and get them the next day.  A lot of people were taking advantage of that.
Aaaaaaand she fell asleep.  I was so hoping to have her meet Ree too. :(  But she was a little tuckered out by that point.

Finally we made it! 

It was about 8:30, 4 hours from when she’d started signing books and she was still so upbeat and nice.  AMAZING.  I was so excited to introduce her to our Sweet Pea since I know that Ree loves babies.  She told us how beautiful she was and that she looked like Snow White and just wanted to pet her.  Ree has to be used to people coming up and stammering at her because she just started asking questions while she signed the books.  Where did we live?  When we told her that we’d just moved to the area, she asked where from and then was joking that she was interrogating us.  Really, she’s just as nice in person as you would expect her to be if you’ve watched her show.  She even patted the babe on the leg.

Oh and thanks to the Tradesmart employee for taking the picture!  Our original plan was for me to have the baby and Will to take the picture but as you saw… she was asleep so Will had to get in the picture with us.

I had 3 books signed  - the original cookbook, Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.

The new cookbook – Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food From My Frontier.
And Charlie the Ranch Dog which we had signed for Miss P. 

If I knew where it was, I probably would have thought to bring The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels – A Love Story too but God only knows which of the bajillion boxes of books that’s in.

I actually bought the new cookbook at the event so I didn’t know what was in it.  I was pleasantly surprised to find two of my favorite recipes from her website. 

Pork Chops with Apples and Creamy Bacon Cheese Grits which if you’ve visited since November, I’ve probably served it to you in all of its delicious glory.  Though one of these days, I’ll finally make the whole thing correct from start to finish.  I haven’t done it yet.

And Summer Stir Fry.  The pictures are different from the recipe version that I’ve used but this is such a tasty summery dish.  I can even get Will to eat tomatoes!
 

So that’s how I got to meet Ree Drummond, Pioneer Woman. 

Well, Pioneer Lady in our house.  Damn you, Will!

maybe in LA, not in old town

Spotted on South Washington Street in Old Town Alexandria…

A car more worthy of Los Angeles or Milan – a Ferrari.

Who drives a Ferrari in the horrendous traffic that is Old Town at all times?  You’d barely be able to get it out of first gear – assuming,of course, that the owner didn’t commit sacrilege and buy an automatic.  Because buying an automatic in a sports car of that caliber would most certainly be sacrilege.

i see clear headless people….

As we were driving around the Mall (after visiting Tudor Place) trying to scope out where we could park for Sunday’s commencement ceremony, I saw this girl walking down the street with lots of balloons attached to something.

Well, she conveniently needed a break when we were even with her on 17th Street. 

This is what she was carrying…

For some reason, she was carrying two clear people around the Ellipse.

We could only assume that she was the creator of the “sculpture” and was therefore an artist of some sort. 

God only knows where she was headed with those things. 

ummm... WNY protesters??

So I've been bad and I've been driving to work a lot lately.

See, PT taught me that I can actually get to work on time while still leaving the house late if I drive. I just have to leave by 3 or I'm screwed and that's really the problem.

I drove on Tuesday because I had an errand to run after work (that took me 3 hours but I think I'll complain about that in a different post) and then I drove again today because I was being lazy and late because I was writing softball e-mails this morning before I left. The e-mails could have waited until I got home again this evening and I totally would have made the bus but I didn't feel like it.

Ok... my point...

My point is that there have been protesters outside the 9th Street gate of the Navy Yard.

I say "Navy Yard" and "protesters" and you might think "oh - they're protesting some new ship or new missile." Something defense related anyway.

Nope.

These unfortunate hispanic guys are out there protesting because their employer is not paying their paychecks.

It would appear that a construction company has been contracted by the Navy to work on building 200 and said construction company is not paying their workers.

Now the question is: "is the Government paying the construction company and the construction company isn't turning around and paying its workers? or is the Government not paying the construction company and the construction company is passing that along to the workforce by not paying them?"

No clue.

But they're out there banging on their empty 5 gallon paint buckets and waving their signs and smiling at pretty girls who drive by - that would be me of course - and well, protesting.

What they probably don't realize is that by stationing themselves by the 9th Street gate (which I'm sure they chosen by virtue of being close to the building on which they're working), they're only being seen by about a quarter of the people that enter the Navy Yard.

They need to move to the 6th Street gate if they really want to make some noise and be seen by some admirals.

oddly specific fine

We were driving around downtown Sacramento when we spotted this sign across the street from the Capitol Building:Seems like an oddly specific fine, doesn’t it? 

Why $426? 

Why not a nice even $400 or $425? 

You might be able to tell that the amount is new, corrected on the sign with a big sticker.

signs from abroad

Yesterday a friend on Facebook posted a New York Times article in which readers had been asked to send in strange, quirky, badly translated to English signs from abroad – with a few thrown in stateside.

I found the article pretty funny even if it took me forever to go through all the signs because I was on my computer at work and it made me think of a particular picture from our honeymoon that we could have contributed:
Taken in the Auckland Airport as we were leaving the country. 

No, it’s not a bad translation but I still think it’s funny and fits with the spirit of the article.

coachella “fashion”

Ok, I’m a girl and I won’t admit to knowing that much about fashion (I know enough to not look totally stupid but I don’t get into trends until they’ve stuck around for a bit) but one of the first things to catch my attention upon arriving inside the Coachella grounds was the people.  And wow, the people.

In fact one of the first things I did was text Liz about how great the people watching was.  Here’s proof (of the texting that is):

Glamour posted that the celeb uniform was a short dress and boots which I don’t understand.  Well, they weren’t too far off for what the average festival attendee was wearing except that it was even odder than that.  So, of course, I started taking pictures.

But first – the typical festival goer:

The name of the game was as little as possible during the day so a bikini and a crossbody bag was a very common combo.  Also common – a flowy dress tied up for maximum exposure.

The bikini with a barely there cover-up was another common sight and the gold lamé bikini (on right) was practically ubiquitous.
This couple on the left was a good example of the normalcy that you could find.  These girls on the right – well, they read the Glamour post and wore boots with their dresses.  I don’t get it – it’s too hot in the desert for boots!

This girl looks cute but straight up polyester in the desert doesn’t seem to make much sense to me – It doesn’t breathe.  I guess this girl on the right knew I was taking her picture – oops.

next – oddities of hair

the side faux-hawk up against the fully committed mohawk. 
And, of course, the wigs were every where as well.

A girl with a very interesting colored mohawk.  This other girl was fairly typical with all the braids, things, and feathers.  Feathers were BIG.

Ok and now for the true weirdnesses (which I’m going to try to place in order of growing oddity) -
 
So these guys on the left were clad in shorts and vests but no shirts.  In particular that one guy is wearing a FUR vest.  This other hippie dude well, he was in line ahead of us for dinner on day 1 and it was like a train wreck that we couldn’t look away from.

Now we have the boy version of inappropriate boot-wearing.  If it’s too warm to wear your shirt, it’s too warm for boots.  This other kid’s shirt says, “Where’s Chumbawamba?”

Two odd things that were seemingly everywhere: body paint and odd girls with hula hoops.

Wearing lingerie as your outfit was a terribly common occurrence.

This chick continues the lingerie trend but adds the boots.  And the other guy well, he had biohazard symbols on his pants that you can’t see and was wearing a face mask (yes, like Ravi did).
I’m going to assume that Mr. Mexican wrestler man and the monkey mask were leftover from Halloween but I bet I’m wrong.

A few clearly homespun outfits made it to the festival as well:
This girl on the left actually appears to have a bit of sewing talent whereas this girl on the right seems to have simply attached large spangles (or mirrors, perhaps) to the seat of a leotard or bathing suit.

The ability to be seen in the dark was key for some:

Glow sticks of all kinds were everywhere but this other guy made himself a shirt of LEDs (we came across him another night still in the shirt so he was committed to his look).

But my personal favorites on the weirdness factor are these 2 ladies:

1. Bikini and rainbow furry boots.  I was so proud of myself for getting the picture without being noticed.      

2. The creepy rabbit girl the first night.  She was so WEIRD.  Not only did she have this get up on but she was acting all weird too.

That concludes my “fashion” report which I’ve been looking forward to writing.  And there was so much more but I didn’t have any celebrity sightings though I gather from People there should have been some good ones.