(my babies at lolla)

so i'm not really much of a boater and i honestly can't remember the last time i went on one. i'm going for a boat ride today with some friends out hurr.

so this is perfect -- i have a legitimate use for my sperries and not for looking like an old man. but wait.. i didn't bring them with me because i couldn't find them before flying out here.

ohhh the irony.

sooo my first LA celeb sighting kind of turned out bad...

(ok, so she's more of like a quasi-celeb, but that made my title too hard to write)

matt and i met up with his friend sarah for a late dinner tonight. after not wanting to wait an hour for half priced japanese bbq (sadly), we stopped by a street that was close by with three restaurants that seemed like good possibilities.

we decided to check out breadbar, but then left because they were closing in 45 minutes. as we're walking out, we see their chef walk out to greet their diners.

matt notices here and says to me, "steph, turn around...that asian chef, you def know her! she's like a top chef...or something?"

i turn around to see this portly asian woman. i totally recognize her face and remember she was on the food network. my first thought -- OHH SHE'S THE WOMAN FROM THROWDOWN WITH BOBBY FLAY. SHE MADE THOSE POTSTICKERS.

i may or may not have said that quite loudly....and within earshot of her.

as we continue walking, and matt keeps telling me that i'm wrong and she's someone else, i realize...shit, he's right, it's not that throwdown woman. we actually saw debbie lee from the next food network star.

i went kind of crazy in front of a woman getting her identity completely wrong. GREEEEEAAAT. whoops my bad.

ps -- bobby flay is currently staying at the hotel sarah works at. going over to lay out at the pool tomorrow. will let you know if i actually see him. and i promise not to confuse him for rocco or w/e.

Pizza ala checca

From my friend's dads pizza place. Oh she happens to be an iranian armenian. No bigs haha. This has melted mozz, no sauce, on thin crust. Then it was topped w fresh tomatoes, basil and feta. Soooooo gooooood. The cheeses were salty and complimented the sweet, fresh tomatoes really well. And well basil is my fav herb so I was def loving its peppery/fresh awesesomeness. Altho I am a chi-town girl I enjoyed the thin crust and its perfect combo of chewy and crispy. Delishhhhh!

In case you're wondering this place is called panini's pizza and its on sunset. Adam sandler, linds lohan, klhoe and LO happen to be a big fans..u know, w/e its LA haha
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Spotted in LA

Red velvet whoopie pies!!
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MISSING:

(taken during my cruise around alaska...from my old camera obvs)

i can't find my babies :(

laura and i went to a farm.

yes, we're in the middle of farm country so i guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise. but prarie fruits farm and creamery is apparently popular amongst super-chefs of the chitown, one of them being ms. stephanie izzard. laura found out from champaign taste's twitter that this farm was having an open house where we got to pet baby goats and eat free food.

so of course we went.

(we're tourists. and sorry bout my hair. i promise it's the wind and not an weirdly-shaped bumpit.)

ok, so honestly...it was a bit disappointing. the whole "open house" consisted of a dimly lit room with one table of half-empty platters of food and a table advocating some local environmental thing. (yeah, i do care about environmental stuff but my priorities were on food, sorry.)

the food was REALLY good though. even after petting the baby goats i couldn't help going back for seconds (more like sixth's actually).

sidenote -- this is kind of a big deal because i had just learned from my food microbiology class that baby animals are the biggest carries of pathogenic microorganisms. w/e, i was hungry and didn't care to look for a bathroom/hand sanitizer.

there were chicken liver pate, some cans of house-made pickles, baked fruit, and assorted goat cheeses. but um -- they weren't selling any of it? they had made just enough food and cheese to be served. i think laura and i have become too accustomed to "open house" equaling "hey..yeah, check out our farm but we really want you to buy a lot of our stuff!!"

the goats as you can see, were absolutely adorable. i want to buy one. they're only $150 each. let's do it.

and we ended up venturing out to strawberry fields to buy their goat cheese. i got one with cracked pepper (aka my fav spice, duh). i have literally eaten it with everything -- carrots, apples, a spoon....

prairie fruits also holds breakfasts and dinners on their farm. mother said she'll take me to a dinner when she comes down, which is awesomeee because the dinners are like $60/head. soooo i gotta make sure she visits sometime soon.

in the meantime, if anyone wants to stop by for their farmer's market or mayyybe their breakfast lemme know :).

Woo free food!!

I'm really posting this so I can remember to get it haha. Flattop date back at school anyone??
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$5 for a a drink at a super dive bar on loyolas campus. I officially miss chambana :(
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in case u didn't know...i'm obsessed with this british show called never mind the buzzcocks. only the seasons with simon amstell though (hence my fb status)

it's hilariousssssss. love love love british humor. it's more crude, mean, and dry than most american stuff. LOVEEE.

in any case, they just talked about next's song "too close". oyee talk about an awkward and weird song.

WHICH I DIDN'T REALIZE TILL NOW. this song was def one of my favs back in the day.

here's my erm, "late night" post about it. sorry. don't hate me.

First cocomero of the semester!

Red velvet and cheesecake froyo. And both non-fat! Woot. But I think they raised their price..its now 45 cents/ounce. Wasn't it like 27 cents before?! Still yummy yummy yummy!!
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heading out to the city of angels!

going to LA for part of sb (from 3/24-3/28). if you're out there, let's play!

lemme know if you know some good things to do. nothing touristy por favor! and food-centric activities would be boss.

ms. bontempo offered me this awesome website. def gonna keep these things in mind.

some stuff i know i already want to do: hit up randy's doughnuts, breakfast at anisette's, find the korean taco truck, see jimmy kimmel and/or dancing with the stars (already put in our ticket requests!), get some sun (altho i'll probs miss the 80 degree weather sadly)

and see some celebs, dur. and shoppppp

check out my buddy sam and how he scored $70 headphones for free.

basically...i hate him.

uh sorry i don't see how this is supposed to be so great.

it's just a random mix of weird scenes that make no sense. but i guess that's supposed to be 'artistic..'?? just seems liek a wannabe kill bill. but much worse. muuuuuuuuuuuch worse. total waste of 10 minutes of my time.

ok -- if you're really trying to be true artist and shit, whats up with all of the product placements? ohhh hey rocking her verizon (or virgin mobile??) phone (sorry too lazy nor do i care enough to go back and verify). oh look -- there's some diet coke and miracle whip. yeah, having huge brand names blatently put in there isn't distracting at all.

don't get me wrong i'm a lady gaga fan. in fact, i still really love htis song. it's at 20 plays on my itunes right now! but this video is just ridiculous. at least her other videos are fun to watch and u can even give some props to the mis-en-scene and stuff (fancy word i learned from intro to film, wuddup). but this?? trying wayyy too hard. the story sucks. the scenes suck. her "clothes" (if that's what you can call them..) suck. overall--video SUCKS. suck suck suck suck suck suck. (i should've copy-and-pasted that but i didn't. i somehow was able to type all of those suck's correctly. woooot for 2nd grade typing classessss)

dear lady gaga -- you're better than that. you've done cool videos with awesome costumes and interesting (and relevant!) stories to the songs. case in point, papparaazi. go ahead and watch it, all 7 of you who check out my blog, actually worth the time to watch :)

yipee!! new the lonely island song vid :)

totally just LOL'ed in the union watching this. totally worth the embarassment. enjoy.

an email from shopbop today --"What We're Wearing to Shreds: 8 Have-to-Have-Them Styles".

yo, wait a second... what is is that i see in the bottom row??

a denim button-down!??! soooooo remember when i decided i wanted one?? and how most of ya'll made fun of me for it? well look at this....shobop says its a "have-to-have" item this season. WUDDUP.

24:28

now i only have to run four times the distance in 6 weeks. oyeeeeee.

wish me luck!

so i wore my canvas sperries out today

(oh hey, starting to figure out my weird camera..)

...not realizing that drizzling weather = wet ground = mud everywhere. i'm stupid.

sooo my white sperries are now look like this. muddy and a bit gross. whooops.

but no regrets. totes worth the greatness of wearing shoes without socks :). and hopefully with some elbow grease i can clean them. i'll take a look at google later and let ya'll know.

wooo illini win! and just in time for me to catch giada :)

Every Monday this month at Dunkin Donuts...

yeah, so i guess we've already missed two of them. but there are stil three more! enjoyyyyyyy

GPOYO (Gratuitous Picture of Your Outfit) - Unofficial Edition

(only pic i like and it looked weird if i cropped it. so congrats on getting on the blog trevor.)

top - gap kids

leggings - american apparel
bag - foley + corinna
sunnies - oliver peoples
hair bow - made myself
aaand i wore my green wellies too..sad they're not in the pic.

obvs super proud of this outfit...it includes my favorite color, my new fav sunnies, and every trend i love (menswear, ribbon accents and leggings).

yeah..don't judge me.

soo it's amazing weather this week and i left my sperries at home :(

http://uiucnopants.com/

gotta be honest....it's only a matter of time before i'm on this website. loooooove my leggings!!!!!!

Chipotle Ranch Sauce at Seven Saints

Holy jesus amaaaing. Dippin my onion rings in it (got off the whole eating healthy thing...whooooops). Its lighter than regular ranch but gets some heartiness from the smokey chipotle. Delishhhhhh
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Bonding w the father..?

Papa Wong came down for the bball game that's happening. After a delish (and very filling) meal at black dog we came to murphys to watch the duke/unc and bulls games. Oh and enjoy some blue moons and fries. Hollaaa
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Spotted in the union basement...

Ahhhhh! Hopefully they'll be as good as the crepe cafe was. Miss that place :(
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green eggs and ham

(photo from flickr)

this was on the menu for my graduation brunch at kitsch'n. i mayyyy have found the recipe and it mayyyy be on the menu of another eventful breakfast coming up.... ;)

MUST. GO.

training start today :(

this is what i'll be doing for the next nine weeks at the arc. oh boyyyyyy.

my weird ways to trudge through gross studying.

sorry for being that weird friend. but my new sunnies have polarized lenses and it's entertaining me as i try to study a bit (i have three tests this week ahhhhhh). from my very scientific tests (ie tilting my head to the left and right) i'd say these lenses are polarized +45degrees. see, i remembered something from physics/chem...

oh and i also made a bow for my hair using fabric and a bobby pin.

i'm probs a bit loopy. tina told me i'm crazy :(