Hola friends, if this weekend has a theme, the theme would be changing things up. I t started when I went to the Paul Mitchell School to get my hair did on Saturday which
was a bittersweet visit. The girl I’ve been to the past two times is
graduating next month so this was the last time I could get my hair
done by her at a super low price.

Some people hate on beauty schools but I’ve had nothing but a great experience at Paul Mitchell. I love that you can choose to get your hair done by a Level 1 or 2 student (2 being more experienced) , get Paul Mitchell products used on you
while there and come out paying a lot less than what you would pay at
a regular salon. I get a partial foil done along with a cut and style
and it usually comes to about $55 dollars + tip. Not too shabby at
all. But this time around I decided to do something different with my
hair because lately it’s been so lifeless and meh to say the least. I barely wear it down anymore, it’s been in a permanent bun set at the nape of my neck for the past month. I was trying to grow it out but my hair is not having any of
them. My main issue which I really shouldn’t complain about, is that I
have too much hair. It’s so thick and lustrous and instead of growing
down like a normal person, it decided to grow out so managing it
becomes a pain in the butt. I haven’t had hair shoulder length in a
while so I went back to that all the while getting it a bit lighter.
When I saw it, I thought “Holy shit, I’m a blonde!” But I liked it a
lot. It’s awkward to sit there for two hours along just staring at
yourself but then I wanted to stare some more because I hadn’t seen my
hair this light in a long time.

Afterwards I went to Charming Charlie’s because a new hairstyle
deserves new jewelry, yes? Yes. I had a $25 gift card from my birthday
that I’ve been waiting to burn through and when I saw that clearance
items were BOGO, game was on! While I’m obsessed with big earrings I
took the road less traveled and bought only necklaces this time
around. I got three for $22 and two of them had earrings included with them so I got a pretty sweet deal.

Sunday was the Dragon Boat festival, I’m a girl who loves to get cultured and I’ve never seen dragon boat races so I was intrigued. Plus it was free so yeaaaaaah, on it like white on rice.

We caught one race while we were there and it was just like a normal rowing event but only with elaborate boats instead of plain ones. The highlight of the festival was watching the breakdance competition. They had two teams and one of the teams had a b-girl, it was awesome! While watching it I had the silly thought that it would be awesome if she fell in love with one of the guys from the other team and they had to keep their love on the DL. Then one day their respective teams find out about their love and forbid them to see each other, so a modern day, breakdancing Romeo and Juliet if you will. Except no one dies…….their teams finally accept them and then they have a breakdancing wedding. I would see a movie like that and surely someone has thought of the idea before? Now that I’m thinking about it I think it’s a movie I saw back in the 80’s……hmmmm. But anyways, the breakdancers were awesome. I would have loved to stay there longer but it was hot as balls out and they had vendors there but vendors cost money and I wasn’t in the mood to spend any money. Wanting to still feel the Asian influence, we ended up at Masa Asian Kitchen,  thanks to a Living Social deal I had. I’m rarely on the west side of downtown since I am east side all the way so this was something new for me, especially viewing downtown from the other side.

This was place was interesting…..well…..more like the
exterior of the restaurant was interesting, one may even say sketchy.
We turned into the parking lot and to be honest I wasn’t sure what to
expect-would we get food poisoning, shot making our way in or would it
be happy experience? Turns out door number three was the correct one
because the interior was a complete 180 from the exterior and the
service rocked.

We were the only table in the place which worked out
to our advantage because service wasn’t slow but at the same time they
weren’t overbearing. We had $20 to spend and the best part was they
have lunch specials that go through the weekend so we got the most
bang for our buck! Both of us started out with soup and then we had
the lunch specials that come with rice (if you don’t order a noodle
dish) and a spring roll or three piece California roll. Since it was a
Thai-Chinese place and I’m still on the hunt for the best pad thai in Denver,
that’s what I got. Sadly enough there is no change up with me when it comes to Thai food. When they brought it out I was shocked at the
portion size since it was the lunch size and it was huge! I got the
spicy and the balance of spicy and sweet was perfect and my only
complaint about their pad thai was that it was swimming in sauce. I
took the rest of the pad thai to go because you all know I’m not
wasting that and we only went $1.36 over the covered balance, works
for me!

My coworker was telling me about a recipe for carnitas that she makes
and it sounds intriguing especially since I’m all about the meat and
protein lately (wow, that sounds so dirty but I don’t care, I’m
leaving it!) Carnitas are traditionally made with pork however pork
wasn’t on sale when I went to the store but London Broil was so that
would have to work.

Beef carnitas ingredients
2 lbs London Broil
32 oz beef broth
1/2 oz green chile powder
½ sliced onion

Yeah, that’s it. I rubbed the broil with the green chile powder (which
was probably past it’s expiration date but I was going to make use of
it anyways) then laid in the crockpot, topped with the onions then
poured the beef brother over and let cook on low for six hours.

After I put that in the crockpot, I made tomatillo salsa and once the
beef was ready made an impromptu cole slaw with ¾ of the cole slaw mix
I bought along with 2 tbsp ranch dressing, 3 tbsp vegetable oil, ¼ cup
rice vinegar, 2 tbsp chile powder and salt and pepper. Cole slaw is
one of my favorite sides out there but I had the calorie punch it
packs so I tried to cut down on the creaminess of it and use more
vinegar or anything.

When I got home the beef was ready and I was excited to see how it turned out. The kitchen smelled like comfort and delciousness which was awesome because it was raining out and a little chilly out. The beef came out so tender and I barely had to work to separate with a fork.

I mixed some of the salsa with the beef to give it a little flavor yet subtle at the same time then had the cole slaw on the side. It was a perfect, no fuss meal that made tons of leftovers to eat throughout the week as is or on top of a salad or in a wrap.

Oh yeah, the last change up……..I got a new car!

I really wasn’t planning on buying a
new car since my job situation this past year has been unstable. But now that I have a full time job, things are starting to fall into place.
I was never a fan of my Corolla and wanted something that I would
actually feel safe in and not hear every single thing below my feet.
Before the Corolla I had a Isuzu Rodeo, Moishe, he was my baby for 10
years.

But then Cash for Clunkers came around and I traded it in for
the Corolla since everyone told me what a wonderful car it is. Maybe it is a great car but every since day one of getting that thing I was unhappy with it. First there
was the issue with the floor mats and
a recall came with that and then there was a general dissatisfaction with the car.
Since I live in Colorado the only option was a Subaru since it’s
pretty much the official state car so I went to the dealership on
Saturday night to take a look. After taking it for a test drive, I
loved the Forester and it was within my budget plus they gave me more
than I owed for the Corolla so I came out winning.

Hello smiles, I love the car already!!