It's 80 degrees here in January!

As much as it's been raining here lately (and coming from Oregon, I feel like I am an acceptable judge of what is a reasonable amount of rain and what is the amount that makes you want to crawl back under the covers until May), the fact that it has been 80 this weekend has boosted this from a good weekend to a fantastic weekend.

We are having a potluck on Friday at work for two people who are leaving my company.  They are both vegetarians.  Usually, I bring dessert to this sort of thing, but I really haven't been in the mood to bake lately, so I thought I'd bring something vegetarian in a crock pot.  I found a mac and cheese recipe, courtesy of a friend who LOVES her crock pot.  But the recipe says it's intense, so I figured I'd better try it out on some friends (I was offering wine in the bargain, so, really, how bad could the evening be?).  I invited some girlfriends over on Friday, and we had a great time catching up, drinking sangria, and eating mac and cheese and bread pudding.  The only "intense" thing about the recipe is that every 20 minutes or so you have to stir it.  You are using a bunch of dairy products, and you don't want them to curdle.  I doubled the pasta and left the rest of the recipe as is, and everyone loved it.  I loved that it was a homemade meal, but I really didn't do a whole lot of work, so I got to enjoy having guests over, too.

On Saturday, I got up bright and early because I had a running club to attend in Carlsbad.  I ran 9 miles as my taper for the Carlsbad half marathon next weekend, which meant, as far as I am concerned, that I was completely entitled to my burger and margarita at Rock Bottom with a girlfriend.  Then we went to Nails 2000 in UTC and had gel manicures.  Somehow, the process involves UV light and to harden the polish, so it doesn't chip.  My girlfriend had it done two weeks ago and had no chips, only her nails had grown.  So far I've washed dishes without gloves, and zipped my fly (you know how damaging a metal zipper can be to a good mani).  The real test will be weight lifting with my trainer on Tuesday.  The reviews I read of the place were actually not so good, but I trusted my friend, and I had no issues.  This is a more expensive mani than I usually go for (especially considering I have a friend who will do it for free), but I am REALLY hard on my hands, so if it lasts, it will be money well spent.  

I am slightly concerned about the UV light, but I wear hand lotion with sunscreen, and I live in California, so on the one hand I try to be pretty careful, and on the other, I'm bound to get some sort of skin cancer at some point, so I seriously doubt that my occasional manicure is really what's going to tip that scale.

This same girlfriend is, sadly, leaving my company.  She found a position in a totally different field, and we are all really excited for her, and we're going to miss her, but ever the optimists, we thought this would be the perfect excuse for a "boozy brunch" at Gringo's in PB.  They are apparently updating their website, so I've linked it to the yelp site, but they have a $16 brunch, and $4 bottomless mimosas, which may be cause for celebration by itself.  Including tax and tip, it works out to about $25 per person.  I had never been to Gringo's before, and was a little concerned when a friend described it as "Mexican breakfast," but they had normal breakfast items and some Mexican choices.  I was going to try my first tamale, but Mexican food is not my favorite, and when I opened the lid on the buffet line the overwhelming scent of corn stopped me in my tracks.  As far as I can tell, a tamale is stuff wrapped in a leaf.  It was probably good, but this was just a culinary adventure for which I was unprepared to embark.  However, everything I did eat was fantastic.  We were there three hours, so I think we totally go our money's worth of mimosas, too.