The Japan Blog

It's hard to believe we leave for Japan in just two short weeks!

Here's the blog where you can follow along...

http://youregoingtojapantodowhat.wordpress.com/

Steph's Guide to Breakfast

Since traveling and breakfast are pretty much two of my most favorite things in the world, I usually try to have at least one fantastic breakfast per trip. I love finding new breakfast spots via word of mouth, random google searches, or Urban Spoon.

While a "Steph Meets Breakfast" Food Network show would be ideal, I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future, so I thought I'd post some of the gems I've found around North America... mostly for my benefit so I can remember the names of them.

Cincinnati, Ohio

• The Echo Restaurant - Just had a fantastic breakfast there today, thus the post.

Baltimore, Maryland

• Miss Shirley's - The photo is of my white chocolate raspberry pancakes from there. Yum.

Denver/Boulder, Colorado

• Sam's No. 3 - I first ate here in 2005, and had the pleasure of returning this summer. It's a diner with a Mexican twist.
• Walnut Cafe - Found this by googling "Best Breakfast in Boulder."

Vancouver, BC, Canada

• Paul's Place Omelettery - We checked this out while in Vancouver for the Olympics. How could you not love a restaurant that has "Omelettery" in the name?

Chicago, Illinois

• Yolk - One of my favorite hotel salespeople told me about this place, and I've been there several times now. Popeye's Favorite is my favorite!

Redmond, Washington

• Pomegranate Bistro - Holly has taken me here a couple of times when I was there visiting. Besides the yummy food, they also have some lovely coffee drinks.

... and I would be remiss if I did not share my fave hometown spots:

Indianapolis, Indiana

• Cafe Patachou - I heart the omelette you can't refuse. I really can't refuse it.
• Omega Pancake House - This one's pretty new to me. I've only been there once, but there was a lot of food. And a lot of laughter.
• Good Morning Mama's - ok, so I haven't actually been to this one yet, but it is on my list to try soon. If it's anything like it's sister restaurant, Mama Carolla's, I already know I will love it.

Louisville, Kentucky

• Toast on Market - A trendy little place downtown
• Lynn's Paradise Cafe - A Louisville institution. Good food and ugly lamps.
• Wild Eggs - they have this amazing everything muffin...

What's your favorite breakfast place?

Long Overdue

The design of my blog was probably a good indication of how many things have slipped through the cracks over the past couple years of craziness. But like all the other things, it eventually got done.

Hope you like it.

You've found out... I've got a crush on you

Earlier today, I posed this question to a good friend:

Do we still have crushes when we’re 30?

Her answer made me laugh. In a nutshell, she said that yes, we do, but that they are not just on boys [we think] we want to marry.

So I thought I’d share a few things on which I currently have a crush:

Fried cheese at the State Fair. I know… surprise, surprise… Steph likes something at the State Fair. I don’t know why I waited this long to try the fried cheese, but with a little encouragement from the Millers, I decided to go for it.

My church. There’s some cool stuff going on there, and it seems to get better with each passing week. Aaron can kick our butts and make us laugh all within one 40-minute sermon. Then the worship team sings a song you have to download immediately when you get home.

Sweet Potato Fries. Just recently I discovered that Ore Ida sells frozen sweet potato fries. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it turns out they are delicious. I stocked up when they were on sale at Target!

Not being in school. Finishing school is perhaps the most awesome thing that has happened in the past few years. A Sunday afternoon with no worries of a looming midnight deadline is the best. Rest without guilt is a beautiful thing.

Grilling. I’ve had a grill at my house for at least two years, but had never used it until this summer. The grill got used, just not by me. That’s right… other people came over and grilled FOR me. That’s not a bad gig, by any means. But I decided I should figure it out for myself this summer. And you know what? I’m pretty good at it. Sure, my Kickin’ Chicken made our noses run, but it was totally worth it. Yes, I had to call Mark Olsen to ask how to grill corn on the cob, but I’m not ashamed to ask for help!

The new FFH album. One night I heard a familiar voice singing an unfamiliar song on the radio. It took me a minute to place it, but when I realized it was Jeromy Deibler of FFH fame (well, fame might be a strong word), I was pretty excited. I thought FFH had dropped off the face of the earth. But they’re back!

My reusable cup for iced coffee. Awesome roomie (this would be linked to her blog if she would start one!) has been making iced coffee for us this summer. But alas, we did not have an appropriate means of transporting it to work. Enter Bed Bath and Beyond. I found some pretty amazing plastic reusable cups there. They don’t even sweat!

Huddles Frozen Yogurt. Or should I say, “Huddles Frozen Yogurt on nights when it is not overrun with high school kids.” Lots of flavors. Lots of toppings. Enough said.

Amazon’s $5 Album Sale. I actually looked at all 1,200+ albums that are on sale the other day. Yikes. I am proud to say I only purchased three. Heart, Snow Patrol, and the 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music. What can I say… I have diverse musical tastes.

Baby Clothes. I will admit that I had hoped for a baby girl Olsen, but I am definitely finding some cute boy clothes for Andrew. Auntie Steph has promised not to buy him the Madonna onesie from Target, though. I picked up a pretty amazing outfit for Ryker's little brother, too, whom I only know as Baby D. He should be here any day now.

So there you have it. What are you crushing on this summer?

Summer Reading List

One of the [many] things I neglected while I was in school was reading anything not related to school. Now I am starting to rediscover the fact that I do enjoy it. I am missing the summer reading program I used to participate in at the Jeffersonville Township Public Library. Perhaps I will make some sort of craft by which to keep track of what I've read with stickers... we'll see.

I'll be blogging about most/all of these as I finish over on OnebookOnemonth. Check it out... and join us!

Things I've already read this summer:

• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
• Stuff Christians Like by Jon Acuff
• The Pumpkin Patch: A Single Woman's International Adoption Journey by Margaret Schwartz

Books on my list, in alpha order by author, but not necessarily in reading order:

• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
• Forgotten God by Francis Chan
• Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore
• Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann
• Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps
• Between Wyomings by Ken Mansfield
• This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley
• One Day by David Nicholls
• The Church of Facebook by Jesse Rice

Yikes. Pretty ambitious. How long is summer, again?

Anything that needs to be on my list that isn't?

Stress Eating, Tears and Martinis (Or: Graduation, the big meeting and turning 30)

Sigh. Of. Relief.

Hello, friends. It's been a long time. This is my first free evening in I can't remember how long. It's been a rough, crazy, and fantastic spring. The three biggies are that I graduated, made it through another big meeting and turned the big three-oh. Yikes.

I don't really know how to begin to explain the crazy, but here are a few photos. Mostly, though, I'm going to put it behind me and think of the lovely things that are in store for me this summer. Like weekends. At home. With nothing to do.

Graduation! My friend Arleen and I have a lot in common, like our love of Bon Jovi and NKOTB. I shall henceforth be referred to as Master Stephanie. Because I worked hard for that!

David got married! Here are Jami and I with him at Huber's.

Somewhere along the way, I got to go to a fantastic Jars of Clay concert where they played their first album, beginning to end. And we were uncomfortably close to the band. But it was awesome.

I took a little birthday trip to Colorado. Things kept going wrong. U2 was canceled because Bono had back surgery. Then I planned a hot air balloon ride, which was also canceled because of the weather. It rained all weekend... I stayed a couple days extra to work and the weather was lovely. Above, Holly and I are at Red Rocks to see Princess Bride. I also had the opportunity to catch up with summer project friends from both 1999 and 2000.

This is Colorado birthday dinner #2. On my 20th birthday, Chad sang a Backstreet Boys song to me. For 30, he didn't really want to, but Holly and Jess helped. I Want it That Way is much better than Happy Birthday, anyway.

So... what's next?

Well isn't that the million dollar question. I'm hoping to take a little time to rest and do nothing this summer. Oh, and I am just now remembering that I DO like to read, so hopefully I can get through the big stack of books I've been collecting. I also have an idea for a fun new blog that a few of you know about. Hopefully that will come later this summer. Other than that, I'm going to stay in town for a bit, enjoy all the fun summer Indy things, reinstate Staycation Sundays, and do a little dreaming about the future.

Surprise Encouragement

Believe it or not, I tend to overcommit just a tad and then end up completely stressed out. Like now, for example. I am in the midst of the busiest time of year at work, trying to finish my last class of grad school despite the raging senioritis, not to mention all of the other day-to-day things that make up life. This week seemed especially silly. Dumb things* kept happening that made me want to be really mad.

But every time I even thought about being mad, someone did something ridiculously awesome for me that made it impossible continue being angry.

Here are a few examples:

Monday night I came home to find not only a martini waiting for me in the fridge, but also a custom crossword puzzle.

These were a fantastic surprise, dropped off at my office for me.

(Except there were more of them...)

I got this in the mail from an old (not literally!) friend. Hilarious.

There seemed to be some extra kindness from co-workers this week, plus lunch with one of my besties, and let's not forget the phone call on Sunday that had me laughing so hard I was unable to speak. Either I am radiating stress and people think I'm completely on edge, or I just know some awesome folks. I'll go with the latter.

Thanks, friends. I'll do my best to pay it forward.

*Sorry, kids, not going into specifics on 'dumb things' here...