My bloody portrait.



Since I've been taking more snapshots lately, I've been making this joke with Leon where if we take blurry pictures of something we'll say, "oh that's the cover of your shoegaze album."

This is the cover of my shoegaze album.

Last night I went to Simons to see Charles for his birthday. Amy was there and she brought my h&m nautical bikini bottoms in the right size. I hope they fit. She's going to visit friends in the city for the next couple of days and promises to come back with good gossip. We scheduled a band practice for this Saturday. I can't wait. I totally miss the Frenchmen. Whenever the Frenchmen stop, I often worry if I'll ever play music in a band again. I have been starting to play some music with other girls in town, and it's pretty fun, with the cheese breaks, laughing about this or that, but none of us are songwriters so we lack a little direction right now. I like it, it's just slow going.

Imaginary concept bands that I could be in:
Brown Flag - all mexican Black Flag cover band
The Chanclas - all mexican bad girl band

Heylove's first day of school.


Yes, that's her little treat cup. We couldn't get her to hold it like a lunch box.

Eventhough we were gated off from the rest of the (giant large breed) puppies, Heylove still did very well on her first day of puppy kindergarten. In fact, aside from the mild socialization issues she has with other dogs (they scare her), I think she's pretty ahead of the class. There's still so much to learn, so this week we're doing our homework on responding to her name and hand commands.

Menudo part dos.



I made vegetarian menudo again on Sunday.

I am determined to convert all of my favorite mexican recipes to vegetarian versions without loosing too much of the concept or flavor. I figured out menudo most recently but I'm still trying to figure out how to change turkey mole into a meatless dish. Next up are chilaquiles.

Here is a very basic recipe for vegetarian menudo that my dad came up with. I grew up with him making the real deal with the tripe (no patas in our version) and I always picked the meat out anyway. This is a great breakfast soup, full-bodied and spicy. Perfect because there's still a little chill in the mornings these days.

Vegetarian Menudo

1 29 oz can of hominy

Enough vegetable bullion cubes to make 6 cups of broth. You just want the undissolved cubes, not the actual prepared broth.

2 or 3 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 1/2 tablespoons of New Mexico chili powder or similar chili powder from the mexican spice section of the supermarket. Don't get that kind with cinnamon in it!

1/2 tablespoon of mexican oregano, ground

A shake of garlic salt

Start with a 2 quart sauce pan and add in the entire can of hominy and liquid from the can. Refill the can about 3/4 the way full with cold water and add that to the pot with heat on medium. Add in vegetable cubes, crush in garlic and add spices and stir. Simmer and stir occasionally until hot, just barely boiling. Turn heat to low and simmer about 5-8 more minutes. Serve with garnishes like fresh chopped cilantro, diced white onion, lemon wedges, more ground oregano and warm corn tortillas on the side. You shouldn't need any salt & pepper. This soup is really savory.

This could be made vegan if you choose vegan vegetable cubes.

Birthday weekend.


I turned twentysomething. My age is represented somewhere in these numbers.


Leon took me on a crazy walk in North Beach. We got to this car and he said, "happy birthday, I got you the tiniest, cutest yellow car in the world! Just kidding, you got some sweaters and a pair of shoes. Let's walk a million blocks back to the hotel."


We ate at Greens. This is what was left of my appetizer. According to my calculations each olive pit was worth about 10 dollars each. Yum.


We saw Jens play. Every song was about me, except the mean ones.


He sang me happy birthday in swedish and gave me a rose. Here we are, rosy.


Birthday bacon. Leon made me order it. That's the best I could do because the rest was kind of fatty.