"Where's Fluffy?"

    Hiya!

Happy Wednesday! I figured since I had shared some of my musical tastes with you on Monday, I should share some movies as well. If you haven't noticed by now, I'm an assorted conglomeration of a person.

Some of my personal taste surprises people but I can't help what I like.. right?! 

Ok. Enough blabbering. We shall get to the movies.

1//Pride & Prejudice 2//Toy Story 3//A Streetcar Named Desire 4//The Notebook 5//Star Wars 6//The Crow 7//Empire Records 8//Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist 9//Clue 10//Oliver and Company 11//Beauty and the Beast

I have to say that this list was pretty hard to compile. This is honestly just a fraction of the movies that I love but are some of the most watched by me for sure. The size of the picture also has no bearing on how much I love a movie it's just how I made the collage. Well, except for Star Wars, that should have a whole picture to itself. Either way, let me tell you why I love each of them so.

1//Pride & Prejudice-- I read the book in high school and fell in love with it. I didn't have a very high expectation for this movie because I loved the made for TV movie, that came out in 1995, by the BBC. I was oh, so wrong. They capture the emotion of the characters so well. Keira Knightley was even nominated for an Oscar because of it! A really good watch.

2//Toy Story-- This movie and all of the sequels are so good. They just take me back to childhood.When I was younger, I made beds next to me for all my stuffed animals. After seeing this movie for the first time I was like, yes! they are real! haha.

3//A Streetcar Named Desire-- I read the play in college and then found out there was a movie with Marlon Brando.. ummm sign me up! It follows the play almost exactly, which is what I love about it! Deals with psychological struggles of a woman named Blanche and how her realities are different from the world around her. She interacts with her sister and brother-in-law and chaos ensues.

4//The Notebook-- I know, I know.. I'm such a girl! I had to... I can seriously quote this movie from beginning to end. It makes me cry from the very beginning, I'm so lame. It's just such a good love story.

5//Star Wars-- My one true nerdy love. What can you say about these epic movies really? They're just amazing. The end.

6//The Crow-- Weird choice. I know. I've always had a fascination with death. This movie has it all death, love, the supernatural, and action. The main character is a batman or sorts that comes back to avenge his and his fiance's death. If you haven't seen, it check it out.

7//Empire Records-- This is another movie I can quote along to. It's about a couple of teenagers trying to save their mom & pop record store from becoming a big, corporate music store. It has teenage angst, love, heartache, and hello.. music!

8//Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist-- I watch this movie a couple of times a month. I love everything having to do with Kat Dennings (she's such a babe!). It's about, primarily, two teenagers and the night they have in NYC. I want one of those nights! I love music so much! This whole post is named after this flick, FYI.

9//Clue-- Murder mystery that's based on the game. I love the game and this movie is awesome! It's also quite cheesy, in my opinion, which only makes it better.

10//Oliver and Company-- AH! The cutest movie ever.. About the bond of a dog and a cat in NYC. It's seriously one of the most underrated Disney movies ever!

11//Beauty and the Beast--Pretty sure everyone has seen this one.. but it's always a feel good romance. I know they're cartoons people! So what? I love the beast.. and honestly was more attracted to him as the beast than him as the prince. meh.


Hope you all enjoyed these!
Are any of these your favorites? Let me know!

With all my love,

Pati

"The Boys in Blue"

Who loves Mondays? Oh, no one? Yeah, me either. 

I thought today I would bring you some music to soothe your soul. Yesterday afternoon it rained for a couple of hours so I sat and listened to records while I did some laundry. 

These are the four records I listened to will relaxing.

Hard Skin "Same Meat Different Gravy"-- They are what I love about punk music. Coming from England and making Oi! music cannot make you anymore legit. Oi! is what you would call the working man's genre. It came out of England in the 1970s and is probably what some of you associate with classic punk rock, because frankly, it is! If you love punk and haven't heard this.. what's wrong with you? I actually saw them a couple of months ago in Austin. SO GOOD live.

Dion "Greatest Hits"--This is what I would call just good classic pop/doo-wop from the 50s. He's best known for his hit "Run around Sue". A total classic from the era. He first began with a band, The Belmonts, and then went on to a solo career. 

Bon Iver "Bon Iver"-- This is for my little indie side that I have. It's just such a soothing record. I could fall asleep to it or just sit and relax, while watching the rain. I'm sure most of you have heard of him.. if you haven't though, check it out.

 Sam Cooke "The Best of"-- I'm in love with this man! I'm such a hopeless romantic and this man knows exactly what i'm feeling. He's a R&B, soul, and pop singer from the late 50s-early 60s. So good. I know you've heard some of his hits like "twistin' the night away" but he has so many others. I'm on the hunt for all of his records. An artist I will truly never get tired of.

 Thought you would like to see what I play these lovelies on. It's just a modern combo record player; it  has a slot for a tape, radio, and a usb to plug your ipod into, as well as the record player. However, I'm in the process of buying a record player, tuner, and speakers all separately. The sound that comes from this one isn't very good and I need a good set up. Bob has an AMAZING set up at his house and i'm so jealous.. soon!

What I left on repeat, Mr. Sam Cooke.

With all my love,

Pati

Badass Weekend (Part 2)

Hellloooo!!!

I'm back! I'm sorry this took so long to put up buutttt I've been here, there, and everywhere this week.

So, I've brought yet another cemetery to you. They're just too beautiful not to visit. 

I'm always on the hunt to photograph an amazing, historic cemetery.

When we went to Houston we went to Glenwood Cemetery. It did not let us down.

The cemetery itself was established in 1871 and continues to be an active cemetery. It is comprised of 84 acres!!! We were astounded at the size. We only walked around a tiny portion of it. There are still 18 acres that are completely undeveloped and are for sale if you are wishing to plan ahead ;). It was also the first cemetery in Houston to be professionally designed. 

There were so many beautifully crafted mausoleum and they were so well taken care of! There were signs all over as you were driving through it to direct you towards your destination. The grounds were so neat and clean. Bums me out to think of my local cemetery and the way it's not kept up :(.
The cemetery holds tons of big wigs, if you will, a hollywood starlet, founder of what would become Chevron, last president of the Republic of Texas, and first president of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, just to name a couple. 

Statues/sculptures have always fascinated me. How do they make it look like her tunic is flowing? The detail on the hair and wings make it seem that much more alive.

I've been really interested in Freemasons for a few years now, so when I saw this I knew I needed a picture. He was born in 1811! History is so darn fascinating. Also, if you have no idea what i'm talking about please read up on it!

This instantly caught my eye! A mermaid on dolphins?! How amazing. 

We're silly people. He asked for this picture. haha.

A little bike!!

I loved this family plot. They were all labeled with who they were in the family, like the one above. I think I was really drawn to this plot because of the plants that were on the top.                                    

I have to admit that when my times come I don't want anything fancy like this at all. I would rather be cremated and turned into a tree. It can be done! I've seen it. Cemeteries are more for the living anyway.. don't you think? The dead are well dead and don't really know what you put or didn't put on their grave. Just my two cents. 

Either way I think cemeteries are fascinating and will continue to visit them.

Hope you enjoyed!

With all my love,

Pati

Badass Weekend (Food Edition)

Hiya!!

So, yesterday I showed you a little glimpse into what was my weekend and today I wanted to share some yummy things we ate in Houston.

My younger sister lived in Houston, she graduated from Rice, for four years. I figured she was the best person to ask where we should get our grub on. She definitely did not fail me. 

She suggested tons of restaurants but the one she REALLY wanted us to go to was a sushi place called Miyako. The sushi was serioulsy TO DIE FOR.

 I couldn't have asked for a better ambience as well. We went around 1 on a Saturday and were seated right away. My kind of restaurant. 

 I've never had this many pictures of us together.  There was another that I liked but his smile was SO fake. What a jerk. 

This is the other couple that went with us. One of Bob's best friends and his girlfriend. 

Bob had an Asahi Black with his meal because that's what you do when you're out of town. Beer with everything. These were our appetizers, some crab puffs, so delicious!

 Then.. came the sushi. Heaven in my mouth!

 I cannot remember the names of the rolls but they were the best I've ever had! I know the ones in the background on this picture were some type of buffalo chicken; which was odd so we tried it. Pretty good. The first roll above was the best though. 

 Our friends ordered some pot stickers, not sure of the technical name, and shared. NOMS!

They also ordered some roll that had would I would describe as a crab coleslaw. I'm salivating just thinking about it!

As if the food wasn't delicious enough, they went up a notch in my book with this turtle pond! I'm such a sucker for any type of animal.

So after this delicious meal we were suppose to go to the St. Arnold's pub crawl. We got close to it and already saw TONS of people. As we passed the bars that were participating, we saw just how packed it was. We would've seriously had no fun standing in line for a beer. It was decided to abandon this idea, the boys were bummed, but we did a lot more with our time.

Both of the boys love craft beer and actually Michelle also, the girlfriend, I use to not like it but I'm coming around.

They went and bought some beer, which we don't get in south Texas, and then we headed to a place with a good tap list. 

The place is called Hay Merchant. I would REALLY recommend this place to any craft beer lover for sure.

We didn't come for the food but it was so delicious. Good food and good beer.. I mean what more can you want?

We got sat ourselves by the little bar area that they had and chose a good brew.

I thought it was really cool that they change the menu every week , but then Bob reminded me that they can't continuously have the same beer year round. Duh! Some beers are seasonal and some are a one type thing. 

Look! I even ordered a beer. In a fancy tulip glass. I'm just awesome like that. The boy ordered me the beer, La Folie by New Belgium, and I actually liked it. He's pretty good at knowing what I can handle and what I cannot. I'm glad I gave it a shot. Not going to lie, I'm scared of loving craft beer as much as he does because it's so darn expensive! One person in our relationship is more than enough..

The tap list.

The decor was really cool and really chill. Hay Merchant is actually named after Westheimer, who built Houston's first public school, because he was a hay merchant as well as many other things. The restaurant itself sits on Westheimer Road, so it's very fitting to say the least. 

Look at these fans!

This was a couple of hours after the sushi and I really wanted dessert. I ordered this delicious treat and was not let down. It's chocolate chip bread pudding. If y'all could only taste it..

After I ordered this everyone else got something as well. I however did not photograph any of the other dishes but they were so yummy. Bob got a lengua pastrami sandwich, Chuck got a fancy hot dog (cannot remember what was on it), and Michelle got a pretzel with a delicious cheese dip. I could not choose a favorite. That's how amazing they all were.

I leave you with this silly picture of me eating Bob's  hand, not really though. I hope that wasn't too much of an overload of pictures. I just could not leave anymore out. 

Tomorrow I'm going to walk you through, my favorite, a cemetery we went to!

Ps: I know none of this is low-carb but sometimes I need to live a little. :)

With all my love,

Pati

Badass Weekend (Part 1)

Helllloooooo girls (and guys?)!!!!

I think I have FINALLY recovered from my punk rock weekend and oh man, did I have fun! 

I was in dire need of getting out and taking a breather from life here and this was right up my alley. 

It ended up being four of us that went up to Houston to listen to good music.

The mini fest, Badass Weekend, happened Friday and Saturday nights.

We literally got to Houston at 7:15, checked in to the hotel, and headed straight to the venue.

The music lasted until well into the wee hours of the morning.

So, I am a total punk rocker at heart but I honestly LOVE all types of music. My second favorite has got to be swing/big band. I know, totally opposite spectrums. That's just me. 

I don't have a lot of pictures from Friday because we were just at the show the whole night. Here is what it looked like inside a house show around 3 AM. I had SO much fun!

                                                                                       

 

These aren't very good quality but you can totally get the energy and the excitement that was surging through this room. I just love being around music it soothes my soul.

So after staying up until around 4 in the AM, Bob and I got up and went sight seeing around town. I refuse to waste ANY time in a city that I visit. 

We did tons of stuff on Saturday but for this post I will show you Hermann Park!

The park itself is located in the downtown area and is actually really close to Rice University. Part of it are across the street from the campus. It has so much stuff inside of it to see and do but honestly just sitting outside on a bench enjoying nature is an awesome way to pass the time.

All of the pictures above are from the Garden Center. They have rows and rows of rose bushes that are , i'm assuming, beautiful to see in bloom in the spring! We found a couple of roses to enjoy though.

I was planning on looking for more caches but this was the only one we searched for. See?  I told you! They're everywhere.

They had several of these busts around the Garden Center but this one was my favorite, the explorer, Cabeza De Vaca.

Then.. we found Confucious. He's  pretty rad dude who takes care of the park. 

Bob and him are now BFF's!

Then we took a walk to the Reflection Pool and the Japanese Garden.

I promise you this was the best take. GRR.

We found a punk rock ducky! He kept diving for food. It was pretty hilarious.

This boulder is at the entrance to the Japanese Garden, and says that the 77th prime minister of Japan secured funds in 1990 to open up this garden inside of Hermann Park. It was not opened until 2010 but I think it was worth the wait!

They had Cherry Blossoms! I'm sure there were tons of other spring blooming flowers as well. We're going to have to take another trip up in a couple of months for sure!

In case anyone cares about what I'm wearing, the jacket and the scarf are thrifted. I'm wearing a black skirt, this t-shirt from the movie plan 9 from outer space (watch it if you haven't), some tights, and my vans. It was a walk around and be comfy outfit.

Aren't these views amazing?! I wish we had more time there to just take it all in! Bob freaked out when he saw there were fish in this little pond. That's his shadow and a fishy.

We even found a little butterfly. There were more but this was the only one that sat still for me, thanks little friend!

Cannot wait to make it back to Houston soon. It was a blast!

We also toured a cemetery and ate at some delicious places. Stay tuned for those posts this week.

Jacket: Thrifted

Scarf: Thrifted

T-shirt:Relapse (The rest of the stuff is pretty much band merch)

Skirt: Target (super old)

Tights: Target

Shoes: Vans

With all my love,

Pati