Growing up, my family went to the Delaware State Fair every year.* Of course we couldn't go last year because of COVID-19, so I was excited that the fair was back in 2021! I immediately looked up the concerts at the fair, and as soon as I saw that Jo Dee Messina and Tracy Byrd were performing together, I bought tickets. I wasn't going to miss that, especially after a year-plus without live music!
My dad and I arrived well before showtime so that we could check out the rest of the fair. I am not sure if this is related to the pandemic, but there were not nearly as many farm animals as in the past. There were lots of sheep and goats, as well as a handful of cows and pigs. But there were no horses, chickens, rabbits... that was a bummer. But here are some photos my dad took of the cuties we did see:
And of course I enjoyed my annual funnel cake!
Some friends joined us for the concert, and it was so much fun! I had already seen Messina in concert a few years ago (read that blog post here), so I knew what to expect (i.e. some proselytizing mixed in with her hits). But this was the first time I saw Byrd in concert. He sang a lot of cover songs that I didn't recognize, but he performed some of his best hits, too. Check them out:
I was inspired to make a loaf of orange bread when my roommate bought dried orange slices from Trader Joe's:
I thought I could put them on top of the bread for a pretty decoration. But I was afraid the dough underneath would not cook, so I thought I'd add them when the bread was half-way done. That did not work. At that point the top of the loaf was already quite baked, so the orange slices would have just sat on top as opposed to being actually baked into the bread. So now we still have the orange slices left. Oh well.
I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com, and it looked pretty easy. I didn't have any cranberries or Craisins, so I strictly made orange bread.
Ingredients
2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1.5 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup butter, cut into small chunks
3/4 cup orange juice
1 tbl. grated orange juice
1 egg, beaten
1 cup chopped cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a standard baking loaf pan.
2. Combine all dry ingredients. Stir butter into the flour mixture. Add wet ingredients and mix well. Fold in cranberries and walnuts. Spoon into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the oven until toothpick inserted comes clean, about 60-75 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
As you can see, my bread is a little burnt and not very tall. It was only until I was typing the ingredient list did I realize I had forgotten the baking soda. Oops! But in the end, the bread did taste very good. It tastes like an orange muffin. It's only a bit dry, but it would go great with coffee or a large glass of milk. I would make it again!
I knew I wanted to bake cookies this past weekend, but since I haven't been home in over a month, I didn't have any special ingredients in the house. But I didn't want to bake chocolate chip cookies; I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I don't really like them and think they're boring. But I did already have sprinkles in the pantry, so I thought I'd make sprinkle cookies.
I googled "easy sprinkle cookies" and this was the first recipe that popped up. Any cookie recipe with the word "soft" in the title is good by me! I'm not sure I had made any recipes from the Celebrating Sweets blog before, but I was up for trying this one.
Ingredients
1 ½cupsall purpose flour
1 ½teaspoonsbaking powder
¼teaspoonsalt
½cupunsalted butter, softened to cool room temp
¾cupgranulated sugar
1large egg
1 ½teaspoonspure vanilla extract
¼teaspoonalmond extract, optional
¾ cupsprinkles
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter until smooth. Slowly pour in the sugar, mixing as you pour. Beat sugar and butter for a minute, until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract, mixing until combined and scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add in flour mixture and mix until just combined. Add ½ cup sprinkles and stir by hand until combined.
Scoop a heaping tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball (or use a 1 ½ tablespoon scoop). Place ¼ cup sprinkles on a plate and press the tops of the dough balls in additional sprinkles (optional). Place dough balls onto prepared baking sheet leaving about an inch for spreading.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. The edges should be completely set, and the centers should look slightly under cooked, they will finish cooking while cooling on the baking sheet.
Place the baking sheets on wire racks to cool. Repeat with remaining dough once the baking sheets are completely cool.
Very easy recipe, and SO YUMMY! These cookies turned out just as I had hope. I frequently have the bad habit of waiting until cookies start to get golden, but that would have meant these were overdone. So I only did 8 minutes, and that was perfect! I did not put sprinkles on the outside, and even though the website said specifically not to melt the butter, mine was mostly melted and it worked out fine. I also made the cookies probably half the size, just so I could get more of them (and even then I only ended up with 25). Very quick to make; I would totally make this recipe again!
I always like to take a trip for the 4th of July (well, other than during 2020 because of the pandemic). Several years ago, I kind of started a random tradition: I would visit a friend over the holiday, and the Baltimore Orioles would just happen to be playing the home city team. This happened during my trip to Seattle and a visit to Wisconsin. When I looked up who the Orioles were playing this year over Independence Day, it was the Los Angeles Angels. My sister lives in L.A., so I figured that's where I should go!
After a long morning of flying, we laid low at home, eating a Sunbasket lunch and watching the new Full Bloom show on HBO Max. I had just seen Maurice Harris on the Try Guys, so I was excited to see his series. After just chilling out (and taking a much-needed nap), it was time to head out for the baseball game!
I love the big baseball caps! And you can't tell, but I'm wearing my patriotic O's shirt.
I had never been to the Angels stadium before, so that was fun to check out. They sell a lot of monkey stuffed animals in the gift shops; I'm not sure what that's about. And they only had one food stand that sold chicken tenders. One! I feel like those are just as standard as hotdogs these days. But in the end I had something better:
Helmet nachos. Yes, it's a thing, and yes, they're delicious.
Another weird animal thing at this stadium: We're all used to hearing Queen songs at sporting events, but not quite like this video they showed on the Tron:
But about the actual game. The Orioles were ahead for a few innings, but then the Angels came back, winning by one run. We saw their superstar Shohei Ohtani hit two home runs and steal a base. He was certainly the MVP of the game, and he brought home a win for the Angels. Here's a recap of the whole game if you're interested.
On Saturday we mostly hung out in my sister's neighborhood. She took me for a walk in the Sepulveda Wildlife Area, since I always enjoy nature walks. It's interesting to see the different kinds of plants and animals that live in a drier climate than what I'm used to. I especially liked seeing some local squirrels run through their burrows, and we saw two female Allen's hummingbirds! Even though it was hot (and our shoulders did get a bit sunburned), it was nice to walk around and get our steps in.
We got to see more beautiful nature the next day at the Rose Garden at USC. I was in heaven! All of the roses were so beautiful; I must have taken a hundred photos. The varieties were all so cool, and they had fun names like "Secret," "Twilight Zone," "Dark Desire," and more. Here are just a few of them:
This was my favorite of the day!
This bee was voguing for me!
This plane is at the entrance to the California Science Center.
Our next stop was the California Science Center. On an earlier drive, I saw a poster for a Lego exhibit there, and I just had to see it! "The Art of the Brick" exhibit did not disappoint. Nathan Sawaya creates amazing pieces of art from LEGO. I'll let the pieces speak for themselves:
Recreation of the Girl with the Pearl Earring
It's hard to tell in the photo, but the waves are 3D!
A 2D LEGO "painting" of the artist's girlfriend
Photo credit: Tony Castillo
There was an entire zoo section! I liked the flamingos a lot!
One section featured photographs by Dean West that imposed images of LEGO creations into the picture. In this one, the dress is made of LEGO!
While the LEGO exhibit brought us to the museum, we wanted to check out what else there was to see. I'm not particularly interested in space exploration, but I was definitely into seeing their "Ecosystems" exhibits. The kelp forest one was my favorite. It felt like a miniature aquarium! We got to see so many cool animals; we even had the chance to touch sea urchins and sea stars. I could have spent hours in there just watching the animals do their thing.
Photo credit: Tony Castillo
That's what the bottom of a sea star looks like!
Since we were in the area and it wasn't quite lunch time, we decided to check out the California African American Museum instead. It's a smaller museum and free to visit. I liked the interesting art, but I was disappointed that I couldn't make a donation at the museum. Even online, there's no simple donation form: you have to email someone to inquire about making a donation! Why would a museum make it so difficult to get themselves some money?!
Taylor and I went with her friends Darren and JP. Darren had never seen Dirty Dancing before!
We ended the 4th of July with an outdoor movie screening at the Hollywood Cemetery (sounds creepy, but it's just a big lawn!). Cinespia, a local movie theater, puts on these screenings, and this time they were showing Dirty Dancing, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. We had our little picnic set-up and enjoyed free snacks from Whole Foods and Smirnoff popsicles. Then it was show-time! I loved how the audience would react to the movie, like swooning when Patrick Swayze is first on screen. And right at the end when he lifts Baby up in the air, a single firework went off at the perfect moment. As the credits were rolling, the real fireworks show began, and it was fun being able to lay on the grass and just watch the bursts of color in the air right above us. So cool! It sounds like they host these outdoor movies throughout the summer and into the fall; if I lived in L.A., I would go to these all the time!
I think Taylor's friend Darren took this photo. How cool!
Vegan tacos, a generous portion of guacamole, and a raspberry margarita from Sugar Taco. Yum!
Ok, break-up is a strong word here. We only dated for a couple of months (during which I was on vacation for several weeks), and we never even had the exclusivity talk. I was introducing him to people as my "friend," for crying out loud! But alas, I can't think of a better word or term for ending a brief relationship, and even the word "relationship" makes it seem like a bigger deal than it was.
Anyway, I will admit that I kind of knew from the get-go that this would just be a summer fling. I already knew there were certain things about him that didn't make him a good life partner (read on), but he owns a boat, and gosh darn it, I wanted to go boating this summer! So I knew this wasn't going to last, but I figured we could still have fun for a little while.
I'll list the reasons why he wasn't the right guy for me, starting with the more minor issues and getting to the biggies at the end:
He was spitty. And I don't mean he would spit when he talked, or that he would hock loogies or anything like that. He's just one of those people who always seems to have saliva not only in but around his mouth, with the tell-tale white stuff in the corners of his mouth. He isn't a particularly slobbery kisser if it's on the lips, but he would leave wet kisses on my cheeks or forehead, to the point that I'd have to discreetly wipe my face off with the back of my hand. And he frequently sounds like he has a frog in his throat, but he won't clear his throat, so he just keep talking with the phlegm stuck there. It made me want to gag! I was thinking, "Man, just cough! Or drink some water. Do something!"
He bragged about the wrong things. No one likes a bragger, but I can understand it if you're super-successful, have accomplished something few others have, etc. But this guy would brag about stuff that no woman wants to hear from her partner. He repeatedly would call himself a jackass or an asshole, but tried to make it sound funny or cute. Those are two words I don't want anywhere near the man I'm with. Why would I want to be with someone who acknowledges he's a jerk AND tells people about it? And on multiple occasions (we'll get to that later) he told me that he would have been the "cautionary tale" for coke, which he claims he would have loved if he had ever tried it. Maybe don't tell anyone that you're the kind of person who would have OD-ed on coke and would have liked it.
He states the obvious. I don't know if he's trying to make himself look smart, or thinks women (i.e. me) are stupid, or if he just wants to fill the silence and can't think of anything else to say. But he regularly says things that are so obvious. I saw a church sign that said, "Mass on the grass," and I pointed it out thinking the rhyme was fun. He responded, "That's definitely a COVID thing." No shit! (and that's what I said to him, too!). Or when we were at the Brantley Gilbert concert (read that blog post here), he kept repeating that people were smoking pot or cigars. I have a sense of smell! I don't need you to tell me this; I am aware. You know the saying, "Don't speak unless you can improve the silence" ? I don't think he's ever heard it.
He wasn't a good story teller. I'm an extrovert, and when I'm with someone (be it a friend, a partner, etc.), I want to have good, entertaining conversation. He could not do that, and it goes beyond him stating the obvious. For one, he repeated a lot of the same stories, and we had only been dating for a few weeks. I can't listen to the same boring stories for the rest of my life! He made me think of the famous saying, "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." He's definitely more in the average/small minds category. He was also a slow talker: he'd start a story and then just randomly stop; you had to wait a beat or two before he started talking again. And he used a lot of filler, like "um" and "you know" (during which I had to bite my tongue and keep myself from screaming, "No, I don't know!" EVERY time he said it). It was actually exhausting listening to him talk.
He's misinformed. I like learning new things from my partner. It's fun to have someone who can expand my horizons. But if you're going to teach me something, it better be right. He would say things that I clearly knew were untrue, but I didn't want to seem like a know-it-all by correcting him (and honestly, as a man, he didn't want to hear it and be corrected by a woman anyway). For example, his neighbor kept mentioning that she had seen hummingbirds recently, and he told me that she was mistaken because the birds would have already migrated. WRONG! Hummingbirds can been seen in Maryland throughout the entire summer. Or the time he told me I shouldn't eat tilapia because it contains a lot of mercury. NOPE! Not only is this a smaller fish (and wouldn't have issues of bioaccumulation [a big word that I'm sure he's never heard] like swordfish or other larger fish would), but most tilapia is farm-raised, so the fish aren't coming into contact with pollutants in the ocean. I can't be with someone who not only believes but spreads such obvious lies.
He's a bad pet owner. Well, he may not have always been; he is still obsessed with his Newfoundland that died many years ago. But he's not the first man I've met who compares his new pet to his old one, and there is no comparison, so he never loves the second one as much. He adopted a dog during COVID, but I don't think he thought that through. He and I actually met a few years ago, but we only went on two dates because our schedules were so busy and we couldn't find time to hang out. And he's just as busy now, so I'm not sure why he thought he'd have time for a dog. She's terribly overweight, but that's because he takes her out for, what, maybe 20 minutes a day? Any large dog, but especially one that is overweight, needs 45-60 minutes of walking every day. Most of the day she's just left in a small section of his townhouse, just laying around waiting for him to come home. He also lets her get into things that she shouldn't, and then she gets sick. She chewed up and swallowed not one but two leashes, and both times she had to go to the veterinarian. He also gives her stuffed animals as toys, which is fine, but he lets her swallow the stuffing, which is NOT okay; instead of taking away the toy once she's punctured a hole, he lets her keep eating it. And she frequently licks a certain spot incessantly, and instead of checking out what might be wrong, he just tells her to stop; what if she has a hot-spot or a wound? He straight up said that he wouldn't spend a lot of money on this dog, especially at the end of her life like he did with his first dog. You should treat your pet like family: you will not spare any expense to save your pet. And if that's not how you feel, you shouldn't have a pet.
He's not a healthy person. Health and fitness are extremely important to me. You only have one body, and if you aren't healthy, it has negative impacts on every other part of your life. You should treat your body like a temple! And he does not. He used to be an alcoholic, and while he never admitted to smoking, he chewed nicotine gum incessantly, so clearly that was a former vice as well. And I know some people would say, "Good for him for quitting the drinking and smoking," but those are problems that are 100% preventable and never should have happened in the first place! I don't want to be with someone who is stupid enough to even get to that point (and I should say that he told me he became an alcoholic because he loved to drink, not because he had Daddy issues or was trying to hide some pain/trauma, etc.). He also doesn't exercise; he thinks being a lacrosse goalie twice a week counts (ahem, it does not). He has a tradition of eating Wendy's before every game yet claims he "rarely eats fast food." Sir, do the math: you have games twice a week, which is eight times a month...that is not "rarely" eating fast food. That is regularly putting garbage food into your body. And if it weren't for me packing picnics, we would have been eating Royal Farms fried chicken on the boat, another activity he does every week!
He doesn't care about the environment. I grew up in a rural area near nature; our family vacations were mostly to national parks; I was an environmental studies major in college; before my current job I had exclusively worked for environmental non-profits. So clearly protecting nature is a passion of mine. And he could not care less about it. He doesn't recycle, uses single-use plastics (water bottles, Keurig cups, etc.), spits his nicotine gum out in the water... He doesn't care at all what impact he has on our planet. And while he agrees that climate change is happening, he thinks it's all part of a natural cycle and that people aren't the main cause of global warming. What a moron!
I just...can't. And that isn't even covering the fact that he's been divorced, that he used to have insane credit card debt... He's just not at all what I am looking for in a long-term partner. And it got to the point that the boat wasn't worth the headache... So...buh bye.
