ethnic fare for four.

after happy hour, nick, angela, d & i decided on indian food for dinner. 

tempe has a ton of ethnic options - indian, thai, pakistani, ethiopian.

so per nick's recommendation, we landed at the Delhi Palace Cuisine of India and it was so good!

nick is quite the traveler, so we let him take care of the ordering on behalf of the table.
we had samosas, lamb curry, chicken tikka masala & a vegetarian dish plus two types of naan and basmati rice.

upon walking in, nick scooped up a spoonful of this herb & seed mixture, put it in my hand and told me to eat it... to cleanse my palette. it was, er, interesting. kinda like mint mixed with black licorice. cleansed.

when in india... kingfisher. 

nicoli deep in the menu. me & any, deep in the naan. 

equal parts deeeeelicious, flavorful & colorful. so tasty.

earlier in the week, i saw a link to this website on another blog and found it really interesting. you enter your birthday, and it talks about your personality traits based on the day you were born, day of the week, month, etc. it gives an overall "headline" along with health & personality traits. 

i entered mine and it was strangely accurate. so i gave danny's a whirl - holy crap - it was him. danny had the idea to print out angela & nick's and we'd all review/discuss them during dinner. we each read another person's and it was super interesting and almost eerie. angela & nick's were pretty spot-on, too. 

give it a try here: Secret Language of Birthdays

let's meet in the middle: mill avenue.

{mill avenue in tempe}

mill avenue is the main hub for ASU students. 

each time i'm on mill i remember how much i like it. maybe it reminds me of university blvd. in tucson? or it could just be the brick retail shops & restaurants lining a high-energy street. i dig. 

on friday night, we had plans to meet nick & angela for a night out, and ting suggested tempe since the city it middle ground for the four of us. ASU starts next week, so mill avenue was bustling. lots of college co-eds with fresh summer tans and new back-to-schools outfits were out and about.

we started with a drink at the handlebar

not a college student. 

inside the handlebar.

husbands. 

angela working on our instagram upload. obvi.

no love for the patio this time of year. 

how obsessed are you with angela's new haircut? i loooove it. 

let's goooo.... i'm hungry.

linner is the new brunch.

just you watch. it's gonna be the next big thing. 

i'm a big fan of linner (super late lunch). it just needs a cooler name. i like it because you get to sleep in, eat a late breakfast, do your chores (i'm one of those people who has to get things in order before i can really relax) and then crank things up around 4 o'clock when you've got tons of energy, it's still daylight and then you can just see where the night takes you. perfection. 

here's my thing with brunch... i'm a huge fan, particularly because i love daytime cocktailing. however, if i do a real boozy brunch, it's pretty much a guarantee i won't get anything done before i go and there's a good chance i won't do anything after. i feel like that's a perk of linner - you get to dabble in a little bit of both daytime and nighttime play. 

it makes tons of sense, right? here's a glimpse at last weekend's late saturday afternoon at the vig uptown. 

an arizonan's summer dream. 

the naturally lit indoor "patio" 

so what do you think on pushing this late afternoon concept with me? 

sunday pizza in the neighborhood.

there's no denying it: we eat pizza 3 out of 4 sunday nights a month. it's kinda a thing. (more about sunday traditions here) 

judge us all you want. 

last night, we decided to shake things up and walk to the local pizza shop to actually dine in verses take out on our couch. big deal for us. seriously, ooohhhhh big changes around here. it was the first time we'd eaten there. 

i'm a little obsessed with our neighborhood. 

these streets. 

landmark willo sign & the one of a kind easley's costume shop

arizona's NYPD pizza shop

the cheesy tv commercial pull of the slice with the cheese still stuck... perfection. 

hawaiian. a very polarizing pizza flavor. a personal fave of mine. 

i'd already finished the chelsea chopped salad. my fave. 

our dusky walk home on a warm summer night.

note: if you're looking for other good pizza in downtown phoenix, pino's pizza al centro is fantastic. 

however, they're closed on sundays. bummer for both of us. 

summertime sweets.

a 10-minute escape from the heat. 

reeses peanut butter cup for her. oreo for him. 

fantastic foto friday.

feast your eyes on this

yup, that's my very own german sex tourist.

this photo will never get old. i love it. we laugh each time we look at it.
i snapped this gem last month at the mumford & sons concert.
it was easily the only good thing that came out of the show.
it was terrible. but that's a whole other looong story.

don't get me wrong, we love mumford & sons.
but it was the worst concert experience of all time. 
the traffic. the venue. the crowd. the sound system. the concessions. the everything.

three songs into the show, we looked at each other and decided to bail. it was too much to bear.
danny salvaged the night and raced us off to the crescent ballroom to see STRFKR instead.

on our way out of the (worst) venue, i stopped to pee and a few minutes later came out to this sight.
the solo creep loitering outside the ladies room with a camera around his neck held up by a rainbow strap,
strappy rubber mandals, short shorts & a big grin on his face.

priceless.

i love this man.
and i love that he loves this outfit. and rocks it. and owns it.

...

every friday should start with a fantastic foto.
perhaps a new installment on the blog? 

a phrase i've latched onto.

makes me feel better a lot lately. 

winner winner wine for dinner.

what's better than a generous postino pour after a long day of work you ask? 

a generous pour por gratis. 

that's right. i unrolled my silverware napkin and out fell the golden ticket - grown up version. 

willy can have his chocolate, i've got free sauvignon blanc. 

just one more reason i love postino. 

---

rain rain please DON'T go away.

we finally had a major rainstorm in the desert. monsoon season is beginning and it's fantastic. 

the thunder, lightning and inch of rain came on sunday morning and made me a very happy camper. 

the window were open, the rain was pouring down and it was the perfect excuse to spend another day on the couch. 

the past 10 days in 10 letters: e-x-h-a-u-s-t-i-n-g.

{watching last week's sunrise in denver, colorado} 

work has been a little nuts. 

early mornings - long days - late nights.

not nearly enough hours in the day.

come friday night, i finally crashed. i slept for 12+ hours.

saturday morning i woke up to a fresh pot of coffee & a 10 o'clock massage appointment. 

i feel like a new person. refreshed. happy. anxiety levels back down.

...

when did we go from carefree college kids to full-blown career people? 

the kind of people who are in charge of strategically advising people on how to spend enormous sums of money. 

the people co-workers and clients lean on for ideas, problem solving, managing timelines & execution.
pretty surreal still (& stressful) if you think about it too much.
guess we're officially grown ups now. 

san diego dinner dates.

as soon as we drove into california, we scooped up our nephew jacob (yes! that's jake), my little brother steven and headed straight to Sublime Ale House to decompress and catch up. i love these boys SO much. it's nice to be home. 

he's no longer a boy. he's a little man now, and he's a good kid. and we love him so much. 

(just not the ear stretchers so much - stop it!)

another night, we checked out San Diego's South Park & North Park neighborhoods and met up with a longtime friend of mine, Rico (or Rico & Rachel Castillero, photographer extraordinares). ting is obsessed with South Park.

and even after spending the entire fourth of july together, we didn't quite have our fix of the quinns yet. so we met up for one more night together (and pizza & beer). 

brunch has gone to the babies... not the bubbles.

that may not be entirely true - blair never made a peep during brunch - perfect angel. 

but perhaps it was ironic for me to kick off tiff's thirties at a champagne brunch and pass on the mimosas. 

a sign of what's to come for me in just a couple of months?

naaaahh... just the decision based on a wicked hangover. 

tiff's lovely parents diane & mike treated us to a delicious brunch at Sparks in Huntington Beach. 

it was a toast to two birthdays - tiff and sabrina, her younger sister. 

the brunchin' bentleys!

 a man who's not afraid of a baby. 

a beautiful new mama on her birthday.

cheers, tiff!