Happy Thanksgiving!

 I hope everyone had a great day of being with family and eating wonderful food! I am in Asheville, NC with my family, on my way to see my best friend in Tampa, FL. All four siblings, including me, are here plus our mom and Grandma! We got in so late on thanksgiving day, that we did have the actual meal until yesterday, which is good because I think it would have been a little crazy after a 14 hour day of traveling. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the food from yesterday so this will be from a place that we went to lunch on Friday.

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This what it looked like inside. If you are ever in Asheville, NC I highly recommend going to the Green Sage Cafe and what I got from looking at the menu before deciding what to get, was that everything was organic, no processed food or anything of the sort. 

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I got a strawberry lemonade to drink and this how it looked before I stirred it into one; they basically had anything other than soda.

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This is what I got: their Chipotle Jack burger with sweet potato fries. Now the name of the burger comes from the type of cheese they use which is a habanero jack and as spicy as you would think that is, it was not spicy at all but I know people have different pallets for spice. Most everything on their menu can be prepared vegan/vegetarian or gluten-free, which I think should be a standard in most places to eat.

Tonight is my last with all the family here as tomorrow evening I will be in Tampa with my best friend who I only get to see once a year in the summer, so it is really nice that I get to go visit him. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving, be it with family or friends.

Well that is all for now! I am planning on looking up good places to eat while I am Tampa so make sure to stayed tuned! I am going to try and do a post at least once a month and get on a good schedule!

 I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaaaaah!

PEACE and LOVE.

Winter is Here!

So I have been doing a lot of thinking lately and I know I should be doing this more often than I have been, I looked at the last time I posted was back in July! I am gonna make it a point to post at least once a month, be it y going somewhere to eat once a month or doing something which I cook at home. With that being said, this post is about something I make at least once a week to eat at home. It is easy to make and feeds A LOT of people, so I am made enough to feed 3-5 people but I had LOTS of leftovers. This is going to a lot of pictures so bear with me!

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Here is a picture of everything you need to make taco salad: shredded cheese (whichever is your favorite, I used a Mexican cheese blend from the grocery store), a can of chili beans (I would go with Kuner's if you can, but any will do!), two cans of corn (I got some that had some chili's and pepper in the mix), lettuce, onion, french dressing and, of course, tortilla chips! (the ones I am using you can only get in Colorado).

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First, start with your head of lettuce.

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Make sure to de-core it! Then cut it in half.

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Then, depending on how much lettuce you want, dice it up like you would an onion (I usually use the full head).

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Now take your onion!

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Dice that up! You might start to tear up, but it will be okay <3

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Now that you have dome most of the prep, go ahead and pour those beans in a sauce pan over low-medium heat.

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Add those onions and corn!

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Looking good!

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Now mix up it all and let that simmer 10-20 mins. I must say the colors look beautiful.

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Once all that goodness is nice and warm pour it into a big bowl!

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Sprinkle a generous amount of cheese over all that awesomeness! Add the dressing and mix it up!

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Once everything is mixed, sprinkle some crushed chips, I decided to use tortilla chips and Doritos!

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Congratulations! You just made some amazing food! Pat your self on your back and chow down on that super bueno food. Now I like to top it off with some salsa and extra chips, but obviously out your twist on it!

This was so fun to do! I love sharing food I make with people, so I implore you to try and make this and put your own flair on it and I would love to see what everyone makes so I can try it as well! Like I said before, i am going to try and post at least once a month. There will definitely be a post for Thanksgiving where I will be sharing it with my girlfriend's family in Minnesota, so be ready for that!

I am going to start making music more soon I hope just costs money for what I need to do so but I excited to start doing that again. I used to be on GarageBand a lot at my friends but i never was able to at my house since I did not have an Apple computer, but I did some researching and I think I found software for doing just that, not only for my beatboxing but with built sounds and loops.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a good fall so far! It is snowing for the time this year which is nice. Stay tuned for the Thanksgiving post!

I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaaaaah!

PEACE and LOVE.

Life is a Highway

Hello all! I truly am sorry that this is so sporadic and not on a set schedule but I have just been so busy with work and being on vacation. Speaking of that I am in Los Angeles right now, with my girlfriend, after driving from Abiquiu, NM and being with my family and her for awhile. I was able to get three weeks off of work to do this road trip and being in New Mexico. I am so grateful how flexible my work that I am able to take time off like that, especially when I visit my girlfriend. While we are in LA, she will be doing some work and seeing friends and we are able to stay with her best friend which is amazing! 

We got in yesterday evening after staying in Flagstaff, AZ the night before. Everywhere we stopped in between were these weird gas station/shopping center like things which were the only places to stop so there were WEIRD people, so we spent as little time there as possible. Luckily we had A/C because some parts we drove through it got up to 106 degrees, which is NUTS...SO HOT. 

I feel a bit overwhelmed by LA right now just because where we came from was the complete opposite of LA. It was quiet, minimal traffic and very green, which is nice but to jump straight in to the craziness of LA after driving that long is a bit much I think.

Anyway, sorry for the personal stuff above but I just felt like telling you all what is on my mind. Now on to food! The place we went to is in Boulder, CO in downtown right in the thick of it called Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant. It is pretty busy usually but we happen to eat there when there was literally no one else there, maybe a few tables had guests. Below is what I had: a veggie burrito with beans inside and melted cheese on top and smothered in green chili. SO GOOD.

I am planning on doing more posts while here in LA since I have the time. I really am happy to be here just a little overwhelmed at first from coming from somewhere complete opposite. 

Anyway, I hope you all are having a great start to the week and I hope to post a few more this week!

I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaaaaah!

PEACE and LOVE.

Birthday Extravaganza!

Hi friends! So I really need to start doing these on a more regular basis and I do apologize for that. I have been so busy in the last month or so; with going to court and my girlfriend coming to visit me for my birthday. So my court thing got settled this past Friday, which is great. It was for an accident which happened back in April, can you believe it took this long to settle it? My amazing girlfriend bought us 2 nights down in Pagosa Springs for my birthday present but since my court date was at that same time we had to move around our reservation and luckily were able to. 

Now onto food! I love getting breakfast at the Barking Dog Cafe which is in my little town in Lyons, CO right on Main Street. They have breakfast burritos, bagels and cream cheese (which you can get an array of different things on it as well), fresh baked muffins and such, and of course coffee! They also do lunch which are mainly sandwiches and chips. We went there on June 8th, the day after my birthday and I got my favorite thing and hot chocolate!

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So this is called the Sleepy Lion and as you can see it has egg, tomato and cream cheese. I got it on an "Everything" bagel but they have multiple choices. This is probably my favorite thing to get there.

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This is not from the same place nor the same day but I wanted to show you what I had for my birthday breakfast. We went to a place in downtown Boulder, CO called Lucille's Creole Cafe and this is my favorite breakfast place I have found, I even got a birthday plate!

Anyway, that is all for this post! I will try to get on a more regular schedule for posting things as I have a lot more from my birthday week. I hope you all are having a super bueno weekend and may it be filled with awesomeness!

I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaaaah!

PEACE and LOVE.

An Eggselent Visit

Hello my friends! So this might be a shorter post than usual just because all I have been doing since my girlfriend was visiting has been working. I have worked 50 hours in the last five shifts which is nuts! As most of you know, my girlfriend was in town a little ago, and I must say, I am SO glad she decided to come and see me, even if it was for a few days. We were able to do so much in that little of time, mind you most of it was eating places, but hey, still good! Plus, we are going to meet up in Los Angeles on Saturday for 10 days so she can do some work with friends out there and see some of my family as well and I cannot wait to do all of that!

Now for food! The night she got in we went to a very tasty Indian restaurant,which I forgot to take pictures of because we were so hungry that I completely spaced it, but I will get it another time. On the Sunday she was here we tried going out for brunch and we completely forgot it was Palm Sunday, so EVERYONE was out for brunch. We went to three different places before finally sticking to one because the previous ones had a minimum wait time of 45 minutes. So, if you like breakfast you should definitely check out The Village Coffee Shop in Boulder, CO. You go in and just wait for a table to open up, sit down, order and the kitchen is right there so you can see your food being made.

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This is what I had! A Denver omelette with onion, peppers and ham with hash browns on the side. SO yummy.

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What my girlfriend had: a tomato, lettuce and cheese sandwich with chips and potato salad on the side.

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We shared a massive plate-sized chocolate-chip pancake, which I ate most of. I was SO hungry that I basically finished anything she did not eat and I was kind of proud of myself, in a weird kinda way, for eating all that food. 

Well that just about sums it up! My next post will probably be from Los Angeles, as I am sure we will be going to a lot of good places to eat. I really CANNOT wait to go there to be with my girlfriend and just be around good people, her friends are pretty rad.

Hope you all are having a good week so far and may it be bountiful and super bueno!

I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaaah!

PEACE and LOVE.

Happy, Happy Birthday!

Hello friends! So after this I will be completely caught up with places to blog about, which means I can finally go places and start posting on a regular basis and not do a post about somewhere I was a month ago!

As you all know, I was just in Minneapolis visiting my girlfriend and I was able to be there and celebrate her birthday with her, which was a big deal for me and probably and even bigger deal for her. Her sister (surrogate) had a birthday as well, so on May 29th, her family did a joint celebration for both of them with presents and yummy things. I am was so grateful to be apart of that with all of her family there and just to enjoy the happiness of being with people and celebrating.

On her ACTUAL birthday, which was March 31st, I took her out to breakfast at one our favorite places and just decided to get A LOT of food, since we both LOVE eating. If you live in Minneapolis, or have the chance to visit, I would HIGHLY recommend going to The Bad Waitress for breakfast. Minneapolis is such a great city and also with amazing places to eat, most of which are locally owned, so you know when you eat at most of the places you are supporting a small business, which is awesome.

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Tell me you would not eat this MASSIVE pancake with fruit and chocolate chips on top and inside on it? This is what my girlfriend was craving so this is what she got, which is a plate sized pancake; I think she ate about half of it. She also got a chai latte and a milkshake!

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I was VERY hungry as well, so I also got plate size blueberry pancake which I did not finish.

Now this breakfast burrito is BY FAR the BEST I have ever had in my entire life, which is saying a lot because I LOVE breakfast burritos. It has two eggs with your choice of two ingredients, which I got oven-roasted tomatoes and vegan sausage, and your choice of cheese (I got smoked Gruyere).

All in all, this trip was such a good break from working and a nice change of scenery. Sometimes life is hard and stupid but you just have to know there is something good to come and that is the way we feel every time we see each other. If you are in a long distance relationship, it can be very taxing on the soul, knowing in your whole being that you want to be with that person, wherever they are. Just know that time WILL come and the world wont be as stupid when you are with the one you love.

Well that's all for now! I hope I did not rant to much about personal stuff but I hope I brought some insight on how hard it can be sometimes. My girlfriend is making a visit next weekend, so we will definitely go to some yummy places to post more on, if I can't go somewhere this upcoming week.

Have a great rest of the weekend and I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaaah!

PEACE and LOVE.

A Home Away from Home

Hello friends! So I am sitting in the airport, on my way home from visiting my girlfriend. It gets harder and harder to say goodbye to her and Minneapolis just feels like home for me, so that is another reason why I do not want to leave. I thought I would grace you all with another post, might as well since I have the time right? So this place is yet another one in my town of Lyons, CO and I must say we have some good eats!

This place is called Julie's Thai Kitchen and these three meals were what we had (my mom, my girlfriend and I) and this was soooo delicious. This is where we went for dinner that same day of my last post, so we had an awesome day of food. 

This will be a short post just because I did a big one yesterday, I hope you all are having a super bueno week so far and that you never take anything for granted in your life that you are privileged to.

Well that is all for now! I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaaaah.

PEACE and LOVE. 

Blast from the Past

Hello friends! Sorry I have such a sporadic schedule for posting anything, I promise I will get on more of a schedule now that I have actually been to some cool places for food. The last week has been one of the best weeks for me. I have been in Minneapolis visiting my most amazing girlfriend and her family, the more I am here the more I want to move here, this is such a good city and it just feels like home. With that being said, let's get in to the food! This will be from somewhere I have already been to and posted on here but there is just such good vibes from this place and t is really good for breakfast things.

If you are ever in Lyons, CO you must check out Barking Dog Cafe, it is right on Main Street, but you can basically walk there from my house or hop on my golf cart and not waste any gas if you don't feel like walking; for a better description refer to my older post "Come, Sit, Stay". Now are you ready for the food? Good!

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This one is sooooooo tasty with an egg, bacon and cheese; one of my favorites here.

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This is a great option for all you veggie lovers out there with egg, tomato and cream cheese; a little messy but tasty none the less.

All of my life I have been a meat eater, usually every meal I would eat meat and I have slowly started to realize that I don't need meat at EVERY meal to enjoy food. Lately I have been trying to reduce my meat intake to one meal a day, and I must say, it is working quite well! I feel like I have more enjoyment in eating, with trying new things that I have never been accustomed to and trying new types of food and not just American food, mind you that I was very sheltered with what types of food I ate as a child. One of my new favorite kinds of food is Indian, I just love all the flavor that goes into it and how magically the spices and flavor coexist in one universe.

This is me being goofy! 

Thank you all for reading this, I will try to post on a more regular basis but there is more tasty places to come! I hope you all are having a super bueno week so far and a better one coming up.

I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaah!

PEACE and LOVE.

Oriental Night

Wow! I really need to be doing this more than once a month, but with work and just being tired all the time, I just have not gotten around to it. So these pictures are from Valentine's Day where my girlfriend and I went to a sushi place in Boulder, oh, and right before that I took all of her blog pictures; I really love taking her pictures for her blog, she is so beautiful! Anyway, back to where we went to eat. This place is called Japango and it was really tasty!

My girlfriend had the sushi, although she also got vegetable tempura, which filled her up to the point where she barely ate any of the sushi :P

This was my dish, it was salmon with rice on top of it with, I believe was kale and red cabbage. Salmon is one of my favorite fish to eat, when I do eat fish, so this one very tasty!

That night was so special for me, I have never been with anyone over Valentine's Day. I know this will sound cliche, but I truly valued this visit with my girlfriend, as I do with all my time I get with her and reminded me of how much I love her.

Well that is all for now! I will try to keep a better schedule for doing this, maybe every Monday? As an apology/thank you for putting up with my sporadic posting here is a picture of my cat I adopted that week! FYI he is perfect! :)

Hope everyone is having a super bueno week and I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaaah!

PEACE and LOVE.

BOCO

Has it been a busy couple of weeks for me! Sorry I have not been posting lately, I have been busy with work and my girlfriend visiting for Valentine's Day. I could not have asked for a better 10 days, we did so much and went down to our favorite place for a night. We exclusively ate at local restaurants wherever we were and we found some really good ones! This past trip really made me fall more in love with my girlfriend, maybe it was the holiday of love or something else, but it was an amazing time. 

When I got her from the airport, I took her to breakfast in Boulder, CO at a little place called Lucile's Creole Cafe, which is by far one of the tastiest places we have eaten. I had the Eggs Eisenhower which came with 2 eggs cooked however you want, potatoes/grits and a choice of meat if you want, these potatoes were some of the most delicious I have ever eaten and perfectly seasoned. Everything here is made with local ingredients and made to order, so you know it is fresh. Also, instead of fountain drinks they have all-natural cane soda, which was so tasty!

I had such an amazing time with my girlfriend visiting, it always sucks to say goodbye but I know will see each other soon and I know every time we see each other is better than the last.

Anyway, I hope you all liked reading this and have a super bueno week!

I will catch you all on the flip-flop lataaaaaah! PEACE and LOVE

Monday Blues

Hello all! I am back and posting another blog. Lately I have been working like crazy but I figured I would post another before I get out of a routine. It is snowing right now with about 3 inches on the ground which makes the roads sketchy, but okay to drive on, and I have to drive 15 miles to work later. Other than working, I have been just taking it easy on my free-time and talking to my wonderful, amazing girlfriend when I can being that we have complete opposite work schedules. I can finally start saving up money to be able to move out of the house in the near future!  Now on with the food part of this food blog! Here in Lyons, we only have small businesses, so the food here is great and the people who work there are awesome!

My mom and I ate at the brewery last week, here in town, which is the only place I have not blogged about yet. It is a pretty big seating area and down stairs they have a stage and another bar for concerts and things like that. I love the inside of this place, they decorated it with local artist painting of famous blues musicians throughout the years and just a nice atmosphere.

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I had the slow hand burger, which is basically the cooks choice for the burger on that specific day, this one had bacon, ham, cheddar and cranberry chipotle sauce and it was so good! Let's not forget the onion rings!

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My mom got the portabella mushroom burger with pesto and arugula cheese and sweet potato fries that are actually cut squash!  So check out Oskar Blues in Lyons, CO if you want some good beer and great food!

Well that is all for now! I hope everyone is having a super bueno start to the week so far!

I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaaah!

P.S. The title of this post is purely for creative purposes and in no way reflects my actual mood.  :D

PEACE and LOVE.

Hot Springs and Cold Nights

You all read about our New Mexico trip, but after we stayed the night in Santa Fe we headed up to Pagosa Springs, CO which is about a two hour drive north of Santa Fe. We try and go there every time my girlfriend comes and visits, which has been the case since August. By paying for a room, 24 hours access to the pools, of which there are 16 ranging from 85-115 degrees and you can go in the pools before check-in and after check-out, which seems like a pretty good deal to me. Here is just a peek at where we stayed that night, this was taken the morning we checked out.

This is such a beautiful location and that is one of the reasons we keep coming back.

Before we left we ate at a little cafe on the way out of town called Farrago Market Cafe. My girlfriend had a panini and what you are looking at is what I had, an Angus burger with sauteed onions and Gorgonzola cheese and a side of fries, but you could substitute anything for a side.  We were the only ones there, which was nice, since it was nice and quiet and we did not feel rushed. After we ate we just drove back to Lyons, CO where I live and just took our time. I love going to Pagosa but it is pricey when you include the 6 hour drive to get down there and I would love to go there again when she comes and visits but I would be fine with saving some money :)  That is all from our lovely trip! I highly recommend going there if you are in the area, even for the day.

Well that is all for now! I hope you all are having a super bueno week so far 

and I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaaah! PEACE and LOVE.

Land of Enchantment

Going off of the last post and posting more about my girlfriend and I's trip down to the hot springs we went to. We stayed in Santa Fe, NM the night before we went to the hot springs and we had a blast there, going into shops, walking around and just not being rushed at all. We ate at a little cafe, on the plaza, for dinner which was good and we had sopapillas, which we were craving for a LONG time. The next morning we checked out of our hotel and decided to go and eat breakfast.

We ate a place called Cafe Pasqual's, it is right off the plaza, one block to be exact. Everything here is organic and can be gluten-free. It is pretty small, seats about 50 people or so and we waiting for about ten minutes to be seated just because it was so busy. I had the breakfast burrito smothered in green chile and cheese. Now, if any of you have not heard of chile bacon (for those of you who like bacon), you really should get this. It is the best bacon I have ever had! Sweet and spicy, to die for and complemented my burrito so well. My girlfriend had their chai  and insisted I show you all. she is a big chai lover and said it was really good!

My breakfast burrito, SO GOOD!

The chai!

The chile bacon!

I hope everyone is having a super bueno week so far! There is more to come from our little trip, good food and pretty places! Oh I just started a new job and could be more happy with it, I think I could get used to this for awhile! I know this was a lot of pictures so I thank you sticking through till the end.

Well, until next time, I will catch you on the flip-flop lataaaaah!! PEACE and LOVE.

Dinner and a Show!

I really need to start doing this more often! Sorry for not posting anything lately, I have been super busy

being with my girlfriend coming to visit and being out of state for 3 days while she was here.

The last six days have been so wonderful, my amazing girlfriend came out and visited during that time and we went down to New Mexico just for a little time by ourselves. On Saturday evening we got to Santa Fe and stayed there overnight, one block from the plaza, which was so nice, we had really good food that night which will be in the next post. My mom just recently bought an acre in Abiquiu, so we went down to look at it and while we were there we unloaded some things for her. After that, we headed up to Pagosa Springs, if any one has not been there, I highly recommend it, it is one of my favorite places to go. We stayed over at the hot springs which gave us two days access to the pools, of which there are 16 varying in temperature; I will do a separate post about our trip there.

So my girlfriend and my mom ate at the Boulder Dinner Theater, which is why I chose the title of this post, guess which one is my girlfriend :P  Anyway, that is what the inside looks like where you eat and watch the the show. You get there around 6:30 pm and eat, the show is not till 8:00, the entree you choose is included in the ticket price, you can choose from 8 different entrees, drinks and dessert cost extra.

I decided to go with the vegetable curry on top of some rice with chicken, you can get it without the meat and it is still really good, I wanted four different things on the menu but I went with the most different of the the four. The flavor was to die for in this dish, it had carrots, broccoli, peppers and soy bean pods. I highly recommend this to anyone seeking entertainment and great food for a reasonable price.

I hope all of you had a super bueno past couple of weeks, I know I did! I love when my girlfriend visits, she is the most amazing person I have ever known and she is crazy cool! I start my new job today, which I am super excited about and kind of nervous, just because it is the first day. Wish me luck!

Well that is all for now! I will try and do another post soon about our trip to New Mexico!

I will catch you all on the flip-flop lataaaaaah! PEACE and LOVE.

And a Happy New Year!!

Soooo, It's been awhile since my last post but I have been crazy busy with family being here and looking for work and applying places, that it has just been so crazy. My sister and her boyfriend were here, they left New Year's eve and my Grandma is still here till the 8th. I am anxiously (in a VERY GOOD way) waiting the arrival of my wonderful girlfriend on the 9th, each day that comes I get more and more excited about her getting here and I just want it to be that day already! With a new year comes new opportunities and I think I finally landed a job after months of searching, it may be delivering pizza'a but I will get 30-35 hours a week and my cousin works for them as well, which will be fun!

So if you like BBQ, or anything like that, then you need to go Smokin' Dave's BBQ & Taphouse in Lyons, CO, where I live, the food there is great and made-to-order and they have four house made BBQ sauces on the table that you can use to your liking. I don't think they have many vegetarian options, maybe one or two, being that it is BBQ but most everything can be prepared gluten-free. If you like beer, they have 24 on tap, more half of those are local brands. There menu is great and the food is even better!

Now the inside has a bunch of old signs everywhere and this was taken right by the front of the restaurant, this about 1/3 of the whole restaurant, so it can seat probably around 70 people when it is full. One of the owners likes collecting license plates, so the whole wall behind the bar is covered in it and it is just very cool how they decorated it.

The title on the last is tied into this one and I was not meaning to offend anyone thinking I was calling you, "a filthy animal", it is a reference to the movie Home Alone :) Anyway, I hope everyone is having a super bueno start to the new year, may it being new experience, joy and wonderful things!

That's all for now! I will catch you all on the flip-flop lataaaaaaah! PEACE and LOVE.