Category Archives: Lazy Dog Cafe

by Becki | November 30, 2010 · 11:06 am

Creepy Encounters!

Have you ever had one of those encounters with someone that leaves you completely freaked out? I have!

Sometimes, I just create creepy moments.

Cuz I CAN, that’s why!

Creepy Encounter #1:
Black Friday, 4am. Guy walks into store with a bunch of friends, all eyes bloodshot to high heaven. Guy smiles at me, I smile back so as to not seem like I’m enraged that I’m working at 4am. Guy sidles (yes, sidles) over to me, still smiling in a creeper-fashion.
Guy: (Reaching out his hand) Hi, I’m Markus.
Me: (Shaking his hand, avoiding the temptation to crush his fingers) Hi, I’m Becki.
Markus: Do you have a boyfriend, Becki?
Me: Yes.
Markus: Can I have your number anyway?
Me: No. Thanks, though! (See how I refrained from complete evility? No, evility is not a word. Yes, I’m still using it in my grammarific blog.)

Creepy Encounter #2:
Since we’re on the subject of weird guys, here’s another lovely anecdote.
Guy: (After making really awkward small talk as I helped him select cologne.) So… do you have a boyfriend?
Me: Yes.
Guy: That’s okay, I can share.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

Creepy Encounter #3:
A new coworker walks over to me as I stand at my counter.
Coworker: I Googled you.
Coworker walks away. I suppress a shiver of fear.

Creepy Encounter #4:
I tend to speed-walk through the mall. No reason except that once you’ve worked in a mall, you don’t want to spend any more time than necessary passing by all of the stores. Anyway, back to the encounter.
(I walk by the jewelry store on my way to gorge myself on See’s.)
Jewelry man: (Literally sprinting after me, and with a French accent) Why? Why is you walks so fast?
Me: Um, I’m in a hurry?
Jewelry man: (Chuckling as he walks to back to his store) Oh!! Zis is why you walks fast. I understand now.
(This might be more of an awkward encounter, rather than creepy, but I decided to cover all my bases.)

Creepy Encounter #5:
Girl walks up to Windsor window and begins inexplicably chuckling to herself.
Girl takes camera out of her purse and takes a picture of the store window.
Girl gets home and posts picture to her blog.

My friend Jazzlyn is a model extraordinaire! I love stumbling across her ads. They’re EVERYWHERE!!!

And yes, in case you were wondering, creepy encounter #5 was me.

Creepy Encounter #6:

My lovely mom took me out to lunch at Lazy Dog today. The salad dressing had been stepped in by a dog. A very, Lazy Dog. (Cue the painful groans.)

Ugh, my joke is so bromidic even I’M disgusted with myself.

Moving on. We split an appetizer of spicy edamame.

I had a Mediterranean pizzetti. De-luscious!

Time for some beer tasting? OKAY! Dogfish Head’s limited edition Pangaea, brewed with crystalized ginger. I couldn’t taste any ginger, but I still appreciated the thought.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a complaint when it comes to Dogfish Head, especially now that they have their show Brew Masters! (Thanks for letting me know about that, Heather!)

Thank you for putting up with my random post and horrible grammar and words that aren’t real words.

You’re awesome.

Disclaimer: No animals, living or stuffed, were harmed in the writing of this blog.

3 Comments

Filed under Black Friday, boyfriend, Brew Masters, bromidic, cologne, creepy encounters, Cyber Monday, Discovery channel, Dogfish Head, edamame, Google, Jazzlyn, Lazy Dog Cafe, mall, Pangaea, pizzetti, Windsor

by Becki | August 30, 2010 · 7:13 am

Monster of Orange!

I woke up when my alarm went of at 6:30am and headed out on a 20 mile bike ride. That’s totally a lie. I woke up, turned off my alarm, and fell asleep until 8:30am. When my body tells me that it needs another day of rest, I listen. Instead, I did a bunch of pushups and crunches before breakfast.

This morning was an ORANGE Monsta! We didn’t have much spinach left, so I improvised. This had about 1 cup of spinach, 1/2 of a peach, 1 carrot, 1/2 of a cup of soymilk, 1/2 of a banana, 1/2 of a cup of frozen blueberries and a big handful of ice.

I headed off for my full shift at work. The day actually went by pretty quickly. There wasn’t too much to do, so I had lots of time to hang out with my coworkers and also read my current book, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Everyone’s read it, so I have to get onboard and read it before they make the U.S. movie version!

I went out to lunch with my friend, Griffin, to the Lazy Dog Cafe.

Sir Griffin trying to decipher the menu.

A tasty glass of merlot!

I got half of a walnut chicken salad sandwich that has walnuts (duh), dried cranberries, thinly sliced red onions, tomatoes and lettuce, and came with a small side of fries.

It also came with a cup of chicken tortilla soup. The waiter failed to tell me that the avocado was an extra dollar. I should’ve guessed. Le sigh.

We got back to work, kinda, and watched the clock slide by until it was time to go home. I’m pretty stuffed from my late lunch still, so I’ll probably skip dinner.

I’ve said it before, but I am going to be going to have my first day at the gym tomorrey morning! I have a week-long guest pass, so prepare for a lot of complaints about how sore I am for the next week :).

Do you belong to a gym? Or do you prefer working out in the great outdoors?

3 Comments

Filed under chicken walnut salad sandwich, french fries, green monster, Griffin, gym, Lazy Dog Cafe, orange monster, tortilla soup, work

by Becki | August 14, 2010 · 8:18 am

Here and Now

Exercise of the day: Squatting down, lifting heavy boxes, and speed walking at work. That counts!

I have nothing to enthrall you with for today. My camera was kidnapped by my roommate for the day, and nothing out of the ordinary happened except for a lovely visit from my mum who took me to a wonderful lunch at Lazy Dog Cafe. Thanks, mom!!! I had half of the chicken walnut salad sandwich and a cup of the tortilla soup.

This is my here. This is my now.

Paul Newman’s Cabernet Sauvignon and a script.

Side note: Paul Newman is one of my all-time favorite actors. And those EYES!!!

Tomorrey begins day one of eight on set of the short film I’m starring in. I’ll be leaving the house at 5:30am tomorrow morning with a large mug of coffee and a Monster on hand! Right now I’m running laundry, charging cell phones and cameras, and packing up my car for the long haul. The next time I’ll be home will be Monday night (if I’m lucky), but I’ll have all my blogging materials with me to do some quick posts, if nothing else.

I’ll also be tweeting from set! Follow me here!

Happy weekend!

2 Comments

Filed under Lazy Dog Cafe, Paul Newman, red wine, script, short film

by Becki | July 6, 2010 · 8:15 am

Happy Belated 4th of July!

Ohhhh, dear! I fear I must attack you with another barrage of pictures since I was offline all weekend thanks to the LBM. So, let’s recap:

After Saturday’s KSS, I went back to the LBM house and tried the Mission St. Brown Ale. It had a good full flavor, but a little bitterness at the end, and definitely tasted a bit cheap. Not something I’ll be getting again.

I woke up early on the 4th of July (Happy belated Independence Day, all you Americans out there!) so I could fit in a good breakfast before work.

I had french toast! Woohoo! I had two slices of Trader Joe’s frozen french toast, sliced up two strawberries (plus one for a pretty garnish) and drizzled it with pure maple syrup. I had a huge mug of green tea with it and lounged around the house until work.

The green tea didn’t cut it. I got a major caffeine withdrawl headache at work, and went to pick up a small honey-almond latte and a tipperary bon-bon. Caffeine and sugar are made for each other!

Yummmm!

I met up with Vicky, her boyfriend Oliver, and Ashley for lunch.

We’re strange, yes.

I decided that since it was a holiday, I would have a big fatty sandwich from Stone Oven. I got the garlic basil chicken sandwich (Again. I’m boring, I know.) with basil pasta salad, and had half. So worth it.

After work, I swung by Trader Joe’s and Albertson’s to pick up some celebration supplies.

Ooooh, yeah! I finished the rest of my sandwich, a mini-bag of barbecue chips, two chocolate chip vegan cookies, a scotchmallow and apple pie truffle, and both of those beers. I tried a new one – Kostriker Shwarzbier. It’s a German black lager that was surprisingly light and tasty! There was no bitter taste which surprised me, considering it was a dark beer. I followed it with the Franziskaner – I know that I love Franziskaner, and just in case Kostriker didn’t turn out, I wanted to end on a good note. It ended very well :).

The only fireworks I heard were in the neighborhood park where I was dog-sitting. To answer your question: no, I didn’t go watch, or even see any fireworks. I enjoyed having a small party with the LBM, watching some really cheesy TV shows and drinking my good beer. I was even more happy with my decision this morning at 7:30am when I woke up to get ready for another full shift at work.

Today started with another round of french toast. I started with it plain, but it needed some color and health from the strawberries.

Now it’s healthy!

I had time to pick up a coffee before work, so I had no withdrawl today :). It was actually very busy today, which was nice because it made the day go by so much faster. My wonderful parental unit came to take me to lunch. We went to the Lazy Dog Cafe :).

When at the Dog, you must always start with their spicy edamame!

I got the Hawaiian Ahi Poke… AGAIN!

We split a big order of the nachos.

I ate too much. It was awesome. My parents rock :).

The rest of work flew by. I got home and had a big KSS.

This had half a bag of lettuce, 1/2 a chopped and sauteed zucchini, LIBERALLY sprinkled with HdP, 1/4 a chopped bell pepper, 1/2 a cup of warmed lentils, and 1/2 a cup of homemade egg white salad. The egg white salad at TJ’s was getting too expensive, so this was made with 8 hard boiled eggs that had the yolks removed, then the whites were finely chopped and mixed with garlic aoili mustard, finely diced red bell pepper, a touch of soy sour cream and 2 of the removed yolks mashed in to give it a little substance.

This will keep in the fridge for about 3 days before I’m too nervous to eat it again :).

Oh yes, and a Magner’s!

Dessert was too many of the vegan oatmeal chocolate chip cookies split amongst my roommates and me. There is no “off” switch on me when it comes to food lately. Let’s remedy that this week.

Now that I’ve once again bombarded you with photos, I’ll leave you in peace. I’m off to unpack from the weekend at the LBM house, and to go through some sides for an audition I have tomorrow right after class. Tomorrow’s blog will be very late – I’m having dinner with a friend in LA and I’ll be coming back after 9pm.

Enjoy your Tuesdays! Stay off the highways so I can live vicariously through you :).

1 Comment

Filed under beer, Independence Day, Lazy Dog Cafe, little blurry monster, Trader Joe's, work

by Becki | July 2, 2010 · 8:28 am

Mediterranean Delicacies

GOOOOOD Thursday, all! I hope you got to start your day off as wonderfully as I did!

This Monsta was nothing but FRESH! 3 cups of fresh spinach, 3/4 a cup of soymilk, 1/2 a cup of fresh blueberries, fresh lemon juice, 1/2 a fresh banana and some fresh ice! 🙂

I had a full day at work, but the good news is that it’s now officially July, which could mean only one thing… FREE GODIVA (If you belong to the Godiva Rewards Club, you get a free piece every month). Yes, I track time through chocolate. What’s wrong with that?

Godiva is kind of a diva. It doesn’t like to be photographed and always comes out blurry – it’s a defense mechanism.

I didn’t make breakfast after the GM, so I had to snack on the Clif bar I had leftover from Tuesday.

I was planning on going to the farmers’ market for lunch and feasting on the samples, but when I stepped outside in my all-black ensemble (mandatory for work) I realized that it was about 90 degrees, and the parking lot where they hold the market would be quite painful. Instead I went to Lazy Dog for a farmers’ market-inspired meal.

This is the Mediterranean Veggie Foccacia Sandwich. Grilled eggplant, fresh tomatoes, lettuce, sliced onions, fresh goat cheese, and sun-dried tomato hummus on rosemary foccacia bread. Oh yeah, and french fries :).

I had half the sandwich and half the fries, as well as a few edamame on the side. I was so full, I didn’t even have the room to stop at Paciugo! After an hour back at work, I did need to have a little See’s, just to keep me awake!

Scotchmallow, apple pie truffle, dark peppermints and a tipperary bon-bon.

I got home around 6:30pm and it was still very warm out, so I sat out back with a glass of Magners and listened to Owl City’s new/old song “Brielle” while watching the sunset.

A nice, crisp cider for a warm night out – perfect! An Owl City soundtrack to accompany the view? Priceless!

Dinner was the remaining half of my sandwich, with a chocolate soy ice cream sandwich for dessert.

So. Full.

I’m going to be crashing super early tonight in preparation for tomorrey! There will be lots of pictures, lots of words, and lots of happiness!

Have an amazing Friday! I’ll see you here tomorrow night 🙂

(A compilation of artwork my coworkers and I made 🙂 We be creative.)

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Filed under farmers' market, Godiva, green monster, Lazy Dog Cafe, See's Candies, work

by Becki | June 28, 2010 · 8:16 am

A Complete 180!

Isn’t it amazing what a few hours of sleep and one GIANT Monsta can do?

They’re baaaaaaack!

Sorry for the bummer post last night, but sometimes you’ve got to have a bad day to make you contemplate your life and the future and get real deep into your soul to think things through. Today, I woke up feeling a million times better, AND I had ingredients for GMs again! I made a big one with 3 cups of spinach, 3/4 a cup of unsweetened soymilk, half a banana, 1/4 a cup of frozen cherries and lots of lemon juice. I slurped it down with a big smile on my face :-D. It really helped me start the day off on the right foot.

I still had a full day at work ahead of me, so I had to fuel up.

My usual: an omelette made with one egg, 2 teaspoons of chopped sun-dried tomatoes, 2 teaspoons of goat cheese and a handful of wilted spinach.

The one thing I really hate about working on Sundays is that I can’t attend church. My entire day is sucked away by the schedule, so I tend to feel a little spiritually unfulfilled and bummed out. Today, however, I had a good prayer session beforehand, PLUS my friend Vicky (the one who helped me create a spit to roast the Zsu Zsu pet on) got to come over and work with me! When I’m at work I generally read…. I mean, focus on my work…. but we girls spent the time cracking ridiculous jokes and laughing until our sides hurt, then wandering the store and making up errands to run – one of them being See’s Candies for some chocolate energy.

I only had one mug of coffee this morning before I had to run to work, so that had to be remedied as well.

A small (I learned my lesson yesterday) ice blended mocha with soy.

Look at the spirals! I felt like a creative photographic genius at this moment.

My friend Griffin’s birthday was today, and he was stuck working. The poor guy deserved a break and a celebration, so Vicky and I took him out to lunch. There was one place neither of them had been, and I just happen to be a big fan, so I led our little group to Lazy Dog Cafe. First things first:

I had a 16 oz. Lazy Dog Honey Blonde draft beer. My lunch required a lighter brew so it could complement the dish rather than overwhelm it.

I chose the Hawaiian Ahi Poke.

This was, in one word, HEAVEN! The fresh tuna, creamy avocado and spicy Wasabi on top of the crispy wontons simply melted in my mouth. I may have drooled a bit while I took this picture…

The birthday boy chose a simple cheeseburger and a glass of Merlot – good mix, right?

Simple and delicious!

Vicky was craving a BLT, so she went with the classic chicken club sandwich.

BACON!

I think she liked it.

Griffin made me swear on pain of death that I wouldn’t mention that it was his birthday to anyone at Lazy Dog. Oops, my bad…

Free ice cream!

He pretended to be irritated, but I didn’t hear any complaining while he ate!

Their mints be awesome! Why do I look like I’m going to suck your blood, you ask? I blame my latest vampire book, Insatiable by Meg Cabot, which I finished last night.

The rest of work took a long time. It was the most fun day I’ve had in a long time, but still seemed to creep by. Vicky and I grabbed some tea samples and sat on the couch to recuperate. I read my latest beer book: Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion. No, not the late pop star: the beer genius. I’ve added it to my favorites to the right –>

When I got home, the roommate had made a healthy taco salad.

Pardon the guacamole: it was squeezed from a plastic bag. This was a toasted corn shell covered with refried beans, taco-seasoned turkey meat, Tofutti sour cream (dairy-free, baby!), spicy guacamole and a big handful of lettuce.

I chatted with the roommates about life and their day of freedom, read some wonderful comments from YOU guys, and decided to blog before I got too zoned out. Tomorrow I have the day off until work at 6pm, so I’ll finally be getting back on the trail for a hike, and if I have time, taking a long bike ride to stretch out my legs. It’ll be nice to get my heart racing again – this time from exertion and NOT from too much caffeine.

This week, look for more cooking, fancy beer tasting, exercise and happiness! I have something amazing on the schedule for Friday! I can’t wait to share it with you!

Happy eating, Happy Sunday, Happy life.

2 Comments

Filed under beer, birthday, friends, Griffin, Hawaiian Ahi Poke, Lazy Dog Cafe, Michael Jackson, Sunday

by Becki | June 20, 2010 · 6:22 am

Friday Recap!

I’m back!!! I finally got to come home instead of driving to the other sad, empty LBM house after work and relax! Aaaah!

For this blog, I’ll be recapping my Friday since I wasn’t able to be home and log on to tell you all about it. The morning started off with a BIG breakfast. My work shift was from 7:45am until 4pm, and I needed all the energy I could muster to fend off the crazy customers.

I had a VERY Green Monsta, and an omelette that had one egg, a teaspoon of goat cheese and a huge handful of… SPINACH!

The day was completely insane with Fathers’ Day coming up – it seems to be crazy during all the holidays. Everyone seriously just spazzes out and goes into psychopath-mode. I needed to escape and take a breather, so for lunch I met with the most special girl in the entire world: my mom!

We stopped by Lazy Dog for lunch and split the small plate of Togarashi edamame. Deliciously spiced and so hot it’ll make your lips burn!

What? Beer? No way! Okay, maybe I did have a SMALL glass of their Lazy Dog Amber Ale. It’s always nice to try something different!

I ordered the Mediterranean Pizzetti (also from the small plate list).

The menu says that this has roasted veggies, carmelized onions, mushrooms, goat cheese, tomatoes, basil and balsamic reduction. They failed to mention that on THIS particular pizza, they had also put parmesan cheese on :(. Boo. I ate it anyway – an hour for lunch is not long enough to reorder. Oh, and that’s half an avocado I stole from my mom’s salad.

Needless to say, we polished off our plates.

That’s my mum! Ain’t she purdy? 😀

Then I had to go back to work, but only for another two hours, which sped by. I decided that since I couldn’t go out (I had to work again this morning at 7:45am, plus clean up around the LBM house), I was going to have me a date night with myself! A quick stop at the grocery store and the Redbox and I was set.

I’m not entirely proud of this layout… Spinach, Fraziskaner, cookies (oh noes!) and Zombieland for the movie!

I opened the bag of spinach first, thank you very much, and made myself a taco salad with spinach, a small corn tortilla shell and fat-free refried pinto beans. Brace yourselves for the picture: I made it small so you wouldn’t have to be totally grossed out, only minimally grossed out.

This was followed by one or two of those amazingly delectable cookies and the Franziskaner. Apparently I was feeling very weak yesterday…

Zombieland. Was. Awesome! I’m not a squeamish person at all, but the gore in this movie had me cringing a bit. Overall, it was hilarious and Woody Harrelson was genius! Bill Murray was incredible! Loved his cameo. It’s definitely something I’ll see again with my pops, who appreciates all things gory.

That sums up my yesterday! Coming up later tonight is today’s blog. I was very, very weak in the food department again.

Oops.

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Filed under Amber, beer, Bill Murray, date night, edamame, Emma Stone, Franziskaner, Friday, green monster, Lazy Dog Cafe, little blurry monster, Mom, pizzetti, taco salad, Woody Harrelson, work, Zombieland

by Becki | June 7, 2010 · 8:19 am

Lunch Date!

Today was a long day. I mean a really, really long day. I woke up to my phone serenading Owl City to me at 7am, rolled out of bed and threw about 6 cups of spinach into the blender along with 2 frozen bananas, the juice of half of a lemon, a cup of blueberries and a cup of soymilk and ice. I skipped on the Emergen-C again, but even without, this was the best GM to date! Must be all the extra blueberries. Yay antioxidants!

I finally hopped on my bike and spent about 50 minutes going 7.5 miles. Is that a good time? I have no concept as to what qualifies as good timing on a bike. This road route I took was uphill the first 5 miles, then downhill for the rest, excepting the insane hill I have to ride up to get back home. I didn’t stop once, so I’m happy for that! I love having my heart race so much that I can feel my pulse in my teeth, and flying through a cloud of misty marine layer that makes my hair damp. Love it!

After I got back I had a scrambled egg for protein, chugged a crapload of water and stretched my insanely tight quads. I had an hour of relaxing time in the backyard enjoying a hot cup of coffee and a view before I had to head to work.

I worked for a half hour before my stomach started rumbling. I swear, my metabolism is insane! Must. Eat. Constantly. I brought some freshly sliced bell peppers and the remains of my homemade hummus (picture omitted because I thought I’d look like a crazy person taking pictures of my food). Then I had to plow through work with visions of my potential lunch options dancing in my head.

For lunch I went to Lazy Dog Cafe. A wee bit extravagant, but sometimes a girl just needs a good gourmet burger. And maybe a shared beer 🙂

I split a guacamole and green chile burger, as well as the signature Lazy Dog Amber with my awesome lunch date ;). I’m always on the search for that new brew that makes the day seem bright and exciting – this Wednesday I’ll be heading up to the Islands Brewery in Carpinteria with some friends to have some tastings and take a tour. You don’t even need to ask: of course there will be pictures!

I got home after what seemed like the LONGEST day on the planet and was too tired and too out of ingredients to make the Channa Masala I wanted to, so I ordered pizza instead. Oops. I had three (oops again!) slices of thin-crust ham and pineapple, as well as a Fat Tire. I wasn’t even hungry, but three pieces of pizza went into my stomach! I’ll have to work on that… Eating when I’m not hungry is definitely an issue with me.

We just finished watching a family friend, Jenn Karlman, on the season premiere of “Grill It with Bobby Flay!” She and Bobby made different versions of grilled wild wahoo. Very cool to see her looking all pro with her amazing chef skills. You can check Jenn out here. She’s an amazing improvisational cook and makes delicious, healthy meals!

I’m so sorry for the lack of pictures, but I’ll charge the camera battery so I can keep up. I hope everyone had a great weekend! Keep your chins up for the week – just because we have to get back to the drone of work doesn’t mean we can’t have the best droned-out week ever!

Cheers!

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Filed under Amber, bike, Fat Tire, green monster, hills, Lazy Dog Cafe, mountain bike, pain, spinach, ugh, work