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.

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). 

celebrating the usa's birthday the all-american way.

san diego sunshine. the quinn family. coronado island's patriotic parade. red, white & blue on blonde & red headed babies. brandt beef burgers. mission bay sailing. boys vs. girls beach games. watching fireworks bayside from a rooftop hot tub. 

'merica the beautiful.

driving onto coronado island. never gets old.

the all-american quinn kids. 

quinns & tings plus the budweiser horses. 

such a good uncle. 

two to a chair for parade watching. 

pacific beach sporting its usa pride.

summer lovin'.

quinn & meg's godson... sweet sweet boy

america

ting helping buffy (quinn's mom) & molly (quinn's sister) with the bbq fixings - deviled eggs, potato salad, homemade mac & cheese.... oh, and he may have been offering up some recipe "tips"

meg was killing it with the broccoli florets 

san diego brought it's a-game this fourth of july

pit stop for some beachside fish tacos

bike pride

our view for the afternoon

sue brandt taught ting how to work the sails.

our beachside spot for the day. 

and then the sun went away and we bundled up.