Clone Trooper photo shoot

Aiden just got a Clone Trooper helmet, and decided one night he wanted to do a photo shoot with it. I have a feeling I'll be using these to pull out when he brings dates over some day.

I honestly was rolling on the floor laughing by the end.

NEA's top 100 books

I'm stealing this from Alyssa. I figure it will be a good way to keep track of books I need to read, and those I have.

"The Big Read is an NEA program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six. According to another blogger, they encourage us to:

*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE"



1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (In the middle of this one)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (Seriously, who the heck has read this?! I've read maybe 10 plays)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (My #1 of all time!)
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (And here's another favorite)
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Isn't this part of the Chronicles of Narnia?) I agree with Alyssa's comment there.
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne/
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding (Vastly overrated.)
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath (Highly recommend!)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So looks like I've read about 40? Only 60 to go...

Top Chef Tour: San Diego

I was privileged to get to attend the TC Tour courtesy of the site Blogging Top Chef. Behind the cut is the (very long) write up of my experience, which all in all was wonderful (blasted city of San Diego and their towing procedures aside). Hope you like!

Top Chef Tour: San Diego

I had a bit of a hard time finding the big Top Chef bus hidden near the beach in San Diego, but I finally did and made it about 10 minutes before the first show. I found our contact Fred, signed in and stood in the queue with the 30 or so other fans who were waiting. Pre-show, we caught glimpses of both the featured chefs for that day, Brian Malarkey and Ryan Scott, preparing the bus kitchen. I have to say it was pretty fun to see them sweeping and getting in their jackets. Of course, Brian was sporting one of his signature hats.



Since I was on "the list," we were brought in first, and my son and I were able to get seats in the second row. The chairs were so closely packed however, we were still only about two feet from the chefs' workspace. TVs were situated on either side of the seating area so that people further back could still get an up close view of what the guys were working on.



The two cheftestants were introduced and came in. They gave us a rundown of what we would get to see, which was them preparing an appetizer course for us, while they told us anecdotes about their show experiences, and fielded audience questions.

Both chefs were very fun, warm, and open, and seemed really easy going in front of an audience. They spoke about their show experiences, including that the stew room was like hell: a tiny space with a heater were they were holed up for six-plus hours at a time. Ryan said judging was always a scary experience, especially when Bourdain was on panel. No surprises there!

One audience member asked if Lisa was really as bad as she seemed. Ryan paused for a moment and said "my mother always told me if you don't have anything nice to say..." and then laughed. He went on to explain that she was a very talented cook, but wasn't perhaps the most pleasant person to be around. Both Ryan and Brian (aww, rhyming!) did say how cool many of the chefs were, including Tre, Stephanie, CJ and even Marcel.



Ryan told us a story about Mark that took place during the movie challenge, in which they picked the movie "A Christmas Story" as inspiration. The two were shopping for the challenge at Whole Foods, and had budgeted to spend all their money, when Mark came over cradling a squash like a baby, and asked of they could buy "Baby Jesus," as their menu was Christmas themed. He pinched pennies enough to afford the squash, which he continued to refer to as Baby Jesus and cradle/pet the entire duration of the challenge. Ryan said that by the end, Jen was so sick of the Baby Jesus-squash (and was maybe a bit tipsy) that she picked it up and smashed it on the floor... Mark and Ryan scooped up the parts as best they could, but thus was the end of Jesus-squash.



Another person asked what the cheftestants ate during filming, which evoked grimaces from both guys. Brian said they usually just got the leftovers of the craft services cart, saying that the pecking order went Padma, show big wigs, the rest of the judges, the crew, then the chefs. Ryan chimed in and said once they complained so much they were able to get McDonald's, and that that was the best thing he ate the whole time. Pointing to a large duffel bag on a shelf, Brian said that he had carried that during taping, and that after challenges, he and the other chefs would sneak whatever they could out of the kitchen: "bottles of whiskey" he laughed, leftovers from challenges, etc.

I did manage to get one question in. I asked (hypothetically of course) if they were on death row or had to plan a last meal what it would be. Ryan said that although it was sappy, his favorite meals were Thanksgivings with his family since he doesn't get to see them that often. He did say if he had to pick a last meal for death row it would be "a lot of pizza and a lot of beer!"



Brian echoed Ryan's sentiments and said that his favorite dining experiences were those he had growing up on the Oregon coast, having Dungeness crab and clam bakes. Both chefs said that while they have had many extraordinary culinary experiences, the most important and special ones were those in which good company and loved ones were present.



They were both cooking for us the whole time, which for me was the most exciting part of the day. Brian had managed to procure some special local tuna, which he sliced into sashimi. He did two different cuts so we could taste the difference between the fatty belly and the upper part, and dressed them in a soy/wasabi dressing. The toro was absolutely melt-in-your-mouth fantastic. Some of the best I've ever had.



Ryan chose to do a savory summer salad, including watermelon, cucumber, baby cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced red onion, micro-greens, basil and some lovely, creamy cheese from Whole Foods on top. The dressing was a vinaigrette. It was also really, really yummy, and something I feel like I could even reproduce at home.



Toward the end, Brian mentioned that he was trying to get some of the chefs together for the San Diego Food and Wine Festival, which will be held in November. I'll definitely be planning to attend!

After the show, the guys came outside to sign the Top Chef book, promo pictures, and take pictures with fans. I hate to say it, but neither of them were my favorites during their seasons. Now, they were far from my least favorites, but they both probably fell somewhere in the middle of the pack for me. After this, I am a much bigger fan of both of them. They were so nice and gracious to everyone, taking the time to chat with everyone and really seeming to enjoy themselves as well. Ryan in particular was just a doll; he shook my son's hand and talked to him about video games, then scooped him up for the picture we took with him. Super, super sweet guy. Brian was great too, taking off his hat so my little one could wear it in the picture.





I would also like to mention the names of the chefs' restaurants in case anyone would like to visit them there: Brian is currently at Oceanaire, San Diego. It's located at 400 J Street, San Diego, CA, 92101; www.theoceanaire.com. (By the way, Ryan had eaten there the night before, and though he was a vegetarian, he says that Brian has converted him to a pesco-vegetarian, the fish was so well prepared.)

Ryan is chefing it up at Mission Beach Cafe in San Francisco. The restaurant can be found at 198 Guerrero St. at 14th St., San Francisco, CA, 94103, and online at www.missionbeachcafesf.com.

I know this was long, but I didn't want to leave one part of our fun day out! Minus that fact that at the end I got my car towed and had to shell out a few hundred bucks to get it back (that's a whole separate post, however!), it was worth it all. I got my book signed, I ate some great food, and just had an all around fun experience. Thanks so much to BTC (I represented with a shirt!) for helping to make this possible!

Sappy entry ^_^

Scott is away on a big fire in Yosemite, CA. I will be posting links to info on the fire for family members, but first, I have to say that he sent me the most beautiful bouquet today!

He is so sweet; this is the third big fire he's been on this year, and the third bouquet I've received with the card attached reading: "I will be home soon! Love, Scott"

This week in Loryn

Aiden and I went to the petting zoo:

Miniture donkey:


Cookie, the best cow ever:


And listening to Gorillaz on the iPod at the end of the day:

I redid my room!

But I forgot to post it, so here it is!

Close ups:




And Aiden's contribution: a hermit crab!


I'm planning on adding shelves with shells and pics with us at the beach to the blank walls, so it's not done yet!

New recons

Here are a few new reconstructions I've made in the last two weeks.

Clicky for more!


This is a actually a dress, but I failed to take a picture of the whole thing on my own:


A cool tee I got from the thrift store + scraps =


And finally, my shirt I made for my Blogging Top Chef gig coming up on Wed.:




I'll be heading to San Diego to meet and interview random contestants from TC. The writers of Blogging Top Chef asked that we represent the site, which I am more than happy to do since they hooked me up with my super rad back-stage passes! This is what I came up with; it was no sew, which is awesome, and the letters look much more uniform in person.

I'm so excited!!!