My Weekend in Dallas

Hi everyone! I know its been a bit since I've blogged last, but that's because i didn't have anything to show you guys!

So here's a new post for you :P


My boyfriend and I went to Dallas for the weekend. We had SO much fun! Here are some pictures I took with my new camera.

 Downtown Dallas is really pretty, especially at night!

In-N-Out Burger

2800 Preston Road, Frisco, TX

Our first food stop was In-N-Out Burger. I saw on my facebook newsfeed that a friend of mine had gone to In-N-Out, and I got SOOO jealous! And then I read that there were 2 new locations open in Dallas! Well...Frisco. lol.

 Their milkshakes are SO thick, the straw was useless!!!

 Perci got a Double-Double, and I got the regular cheeseburger.

 NOM NOM NOM

We basically inhaled everything, and decided to get one more Double-Double to share. :P Although since I had 75% of the milkshake and fries (beside my own burger), I got full after the second bite!

 Also, I had no idea that Dallas has a rail system! And a bus transit system! So cool! If I knew how to navigate my way around in them, I'd totally take the railway instead of being stuck in traffic for hours and hours like we did -_____-;

We also visited the North Park Mall, but I didn't take any pictures at that mall. ^^; But it was soooo nice! They had EVERY designer store I could think of!

Anyway, the next stop was the A-Kon, one of the largest anime conventions in Texas. My friends and I were going to go dressed as Sailor Scouts (anyone remember these?), but I had no way of making the costume (and if I wanted to stay with them, it would have costed me almost 200 dollars!!!), so I had to back out of dressing up and staying with them :(

But at any rate, Perci and I wanted to come visit anyway to see them and to visit all of our food destinations, so we came anyway. :P

 Perci demanded that he get a picture with Master Roshi...but Master Roshi said he'd only take a picture with Perci if he could get a picture with me. -___-;

Maybe its just me, but I feel like I look extra plump in this picture :P Maybe its all the sodium and fat from In-N-Out? Hee hee.

On the first day of the convention, I met Phi!!! :D (Photo stolen from her blog here, because she was wearing this Rilakuma outfit when I met her. Where can I get one of these?! :P ) And she's just as pretty and soft-spoken in person as she is on her blog and YouTube!

Thank you for talking to me, Phi! :P We should have taken pictures together! And sorry if I'm a total fangirl. Hope I didn't freak you out!

On Saturday, Perci and I went to H-Mart, and ate like piggies!

We ordered these meat buns first, which came with a REEEAALLLY good jalapeno soy sauce mixture and some radish (I don't like the radish unless it is in kimbap). I'm definitely going to have to try to make that jalapeno soy sauce at home though.

I ordered a Char Siu ramen...and to be honest, the meat and the broth tasted sooooo good...but the whole package wasn't really all that great. I like Pho much better than I liked this ramen.

The side dishes (panchans) that came with our meals were these: 2 meatballs, 2 battered fish cakes, and kimchee. The kimchee was really good, but the other 2 sides I could do without. 

Perci ordered the curry rice, because he was craving it I guess? It was good, but could definitely be replicated at home.

We also got a crap ton of groceries and some pastry deserts from Tous Les Jous, but I didn't take any pictures of them.

After H-Mart, we met up with my friends again.
they weren't in costume on Friday, but they were on Saturday.

Here are my buddies teaming up to remove those ridiculously tall boots. They were 7 inches tall I think?!?!

I won't post up all of the pictures here, because I'm not sure how they'd feel about that yet. =/ But here's a teaser! Aren't they so cute??? Ugh now if only I could find a way to get my costume made...I'll have to talk to my mom lol!

 After my friends and I parted ways on Saturday, Perci and I hung out around the downtown area and snapped a few pictures at the convention venue. Everything was really really pretty there, but we had a really hard time keeping those creepy anime people from finding their way in the frame. :P

You can even see some of them strolling along across the street! But these were the more normal-dressed people.

This is my favorite picture from the set we took. And while I'm at it:

OOTD:

Shirt: Aerie by American Eagle (plain white v-neck)

Shorts: American Eagle (distressed light wash denim)

Scarf: Express

Shoes: from Target

Jewelry: Jade bracelet with pandas (made myself forever ago),

Fake(?) Jade cuff was gifted by my mother,

Michael Kors Midsize Rose Gold Watch,

Earrings were simple topaz-colored studs from American Eagle.

Oh, and that's second-day hair! Not bad, considering my hair always dies just after day 1!

I'm making the most awkward face in this picture, and the pose sucks. But I loooove how hazy it looks, and how vibrant green the trees are.

Anyway, that's all of the pictures from my trip!

I made a video for YouTube that I'm in the process of importing and editing. :)

Thanks for reading!

Update, Juicing/Juicer Review, New Camera!

Hello hello everyone...Once again, it has been forever and a year since I've posted!!! :P But I have an explanation this time!

So I took a mini-hiatus because I was waiting for...

THIS! (photo taken with ipod touch 4)

Meet my new baby, Grendel (the second)!!! He is a Nikon D5100...And I love him!

He is Grendel the second because Grendel the first, his predecessor, was mine for about 2 weeks...It was the Nikon D5000, and while he was simply amazing, I just had the worst buyers remorse of my life, and couldn't justify having the camera in my current stage of life.

But this....THIS...is different. lolol Different because he was a present this time! It is my birthday/graduation/Christmas present for the next 5 years from my mom and stepfather. And while I'm not going to be receiving anything from thing as far as presents go for the next five years, I am totally okay with that!!!

Plus, I've got loads of projects this year (I'm taking my own graduation portraits, and my oldest brother has a baby on the way, to name a few).

But anyway, I'll stop rambling. Onto the post!

My mom gave me this Jack Lalane Power Juicer almost a year ago because she had put the attachments on wrong and rendered the machine unusable. So she said I could have it if I could fix it! So even though I didn't have a plan, that juicer was now mine!

So anyway, the reason I decided to pull it out and put it to use was because Perci (the boyfriend) and I have been super obsessed with getting fruit/veggie juice at our local Whole Foods Market...but it can get very expensive (around $4 for a small cup?!?!)...

So on our last visit to the grocery store, we decided to try out the juicer that we've been neglecting for months!

We made some juice earlier in the day, and LOVED it.  So this time, I decided to document the process. :P

My mom didn't give me the attachment that catches and contains all of the pulp, (and the first time we tried using the juicer, the pulp was EVERYWHERE....so messy), so this time, we got creative...

Well, not that creative. We just tied a plastic bag around the pulp spout...nothing fancy really. lol

Here are our juice ingredients:

• 3 Bananas
• 2 large kale leaves
• 1 lemon
• 1 apple
• 1 beet
• 1 carrot
• a handful of blueberries

We just used a measuring cup with a spout to catch all of the liquid, so that we could divide the juice evenly amongst the two of us. If you're making juice for yourself, you could just use a cup.

All of the fruits and veggies cut up

Lots of blueberries

Banana juice

Then apple and lemon

Kale

Carrot juice

Beet juice

The blueberries went in last!

Our bag trick worked! No need to spend $20+ on an attachment when we can just use a bag. :P

To clean the juicer:

First, remove the spout part. Then you're left with this:

 Take a screwdriver and remove the three screws holding the blade:

Look how colorful the juice is!

 Remove the screws and the blade.

 Then, remove the orange peice holding the other metal attachment...Don't know the name for all these parts <__<

Spout attachment

 Dump as much juice as possible into the cup before cleaning everything up.

 Then you're left with this gross looking mess...Its much more vibrant in person!

Yielded around 4 cups of juice

Looks like paint!

 We stuck the cup into the freezer while we cleaned up. I will admit, cleaning the juicer can be a bother, especially since you have to unscrew the blade and take the whole thing apart. But with that said, it really isn't a tough job. Supposedly, the parts are dishwasher safe, but I'd suggest hand washing everything just so that you can guarantee that you got all of the pulp out of the whole juicer, as well as removing any stains (beet juice stains are unforgiving!!!) before they set in.

 And here we are, left with 2 full cups of juice!

I look so high in this picture...but pay no mind! And I'm not wearing makeup, either. And my hair is a mess. But pay no mind!!!! lolol

The verdict:

 YUM! It was awesome! I was really iffy about the lemon, but I can't even taste it!

I will definitely be drinking a LOT more juice from here on out (Perci wants to go on an all-juice diet/detox), and I do recommend this juicer for anyone who loves fresh juice, but hates spending too much money on having it made.

Also, like I said, cleanup can be cumbersome, but it goes by much faster with help :)

I give the Jack Lalane Juicer ★★★★☆

I feel like this was such a random post. But I like it. :) I will try to upload much more often, and have a few makeup videos on the way! Stay tuned!

-Sarah