The Gift that Keeps on Giving and giving and giving and giving...Seriously no More Meat for Me

My roommate's brother gave him a giant feast of meat for Christmas...well late Christmas. So on Saturday we made a giant giant dinner of BBQ: jalepeño slow cooked brisket, two racks of ribs, two different types of sausages, Deb Dog's special potato salad, baked beans with a lattice work of bacon, cole slaw, and pecan pie.

Needless to say there was a lot of food to be eaten, and we have been eating it for every meal since....it wasn't until after we made it all did we see the part in the brochure that said serves 30...there were four of us.

a very full oven

baked beans with lattice work of bacon

jalepeño slow cooked brisket

after the feast

The Blue Marlin Plates also made a very fine showing at the feast, shinningly happy and covered in meat. We all know how much I love meat and delicious free meals...but seriously I'm on a brisket overload...

Also I'm finally putting up some not crappy webcam pictures...thanks to the roomie's new Nikon...and perhapse I have a new camera coming in the mail as well...

WOWie Wow Wow! Sometimes things just...

So this was seriously no joke around my neck right now/ me getting home.

Purple Monkey meets Purple Monkey Bandit....Show down at high noon...(que John Wayne music...dun dun dun...)

Night! xo

The Washing Machine Keeps Turning

Oh how things/thoughts/feelings all change so quickly. New York I'm sorry I talked trash. You are toasty warm to me even in the sunshine cold!

xo, PMB

HIFers are my Favorite People

Of course I follow a bunch of other cheap asses who like to blog...but one I have become addicted to checking daily is Hey, It's Free. They are a couple of really funny self-deprecating (my favorite humor) writers who post free giveaways and lots of other free junk they come across on the internet. Now, yes there is a lot of stuff on here that is clearly nothing I need, even if it it free, so beware not to sign up for every freebie you see, or say hello to a mountain of junk mail headed your way...however I have gotten a few really amazing gems from this site.

They always have free magazine subscriptions listed and so I now have my own free Metropolitan Home coming monthly. I love this magazine...must be something I learned from my cheap ass mentor...

Another great find was if you signed up for zappos in a 24hr window you received free next day delivery for life! Not too shabby.

But one of the most fun HIF deals I snatched just came in the mail the other day. I had completely forgotten about some weird link I went to on the site that took me to a hunting game. I had to shoot a bunch of deer (ala big buck hunter style) and then it asked for my address....

Tip: If you ever have to give your address to someone, when writing your last name put the initials of who you gave your address to with it. Example my Metropolitan Home subscription would read: Ms. Purple Monkey Bandit MH. Then when the junk mail starts rolling in I know that anything I receive with MH at the end of my name was sold by Metropolitan Home and I can call and verbally poop all over them. Genius tip from one of my roommates!

....so then a few months later (after I had completely forgotten about this game I played) I got a package in the mail. Inside I found my very own camo hunter's cap...ok so yes this is junk I don't need it...but I also received a $10 gift card to the Pro Bass Hunting Shop.My goal was to go onto the site and buy something that I wouldn't have to spend even a cent on. At first I was thinking I would end up with some pointless fishing tackle or something...but low and behold I found a sweet sweet miracle waiting for me in the clearance home section.

sorry my pictures are getting worse, digital camera battery depleted

Yes, I bought myself a $5 set of Blue Marlin Plates! And anyone who knows me, knows this is probably the most perfect fit. With shipping my order came to $9.97, so if anybody wants $0.03 to the Bass Pro Shop its all yours.

Good night cheap asses, I'm going to go eat tortilla soup out of a giant marlin bowl, jealous?!

Facing My Fears One Blog Post at a Time

For how much ever I love bacon and talking about eating meat...I HATE teeth. They freak me out and give me the chills. Maybe its the fact I had braces for 9 years of my life, the fact that I had major dental surgery that went wrong, or maybe its the tooth fairy Ren & Stimpy episode that was burned into my impressionable brain as a child, but I can't handle loose teeth. Yuck!

So, for the sake of my future and to help me with stand the multiple teeth jokes and photoshop pictures my roommate barads me with daily...I have decided to face my fear and try to find the beauty of teeth. Behold:

Mint Teeth by Kiyomi Kimble

Teeth Cards by Two Sarahs

Triskaidekaphobia Necklace

Frozen Smiles(Nightmares) Ice Cube Tray

Ok, so I feel a little bit better. I actually really like the teeth necklace. Hopefully my dreams/nightmares wont be filled with cartoonish soldier teeth taking me to the firing squad for this one.

So now it's your turn. Face your fears!

What we do to Keep the Rent Down and the Memories Pumping

I have been living in my same apartment in NYC for about 5 years...the longest time for me in any place since my childhood home that I left at 14.

Its one of those cozy small east village apartments where you can hear the chair squeek from any room in the place. Though its small, its got the works (dishwasher, washer/dryer/airports galore (ok so those came from my techie roommates but still counts as perks)) but most importantly we pay way way under market value for our place. In all our years our landlord never raised the rent, except once when we asked him after the first year about if he was going to raise the rent, "Oh, raise the rent? Uh ok I raise it $100". This is very unheard of for a New York apartment, they try to get you anyway they can....usually sideways and dirty. But I will just say that our landlord is very connected in some sort of "underground" "business" if you catch my drift. So when the landlord asks for a favor, you pretty much say "yes sir" and make it happen.

So, the other day our landlord asked us to make my bedroom look not like a bedroom. "Just take the bed out". Not as easy as it sounds, cause where the hell do you hide a bed, "You just hide it under another bed," he suggests. Right. Obviously we don't ask why we must do this...one because we like a knee caps and two we pretty much already knew it had something to do with building permits/taxes/shady ass shit.

As I was still in SF my roommates made this masterpiece happen...and our landlord was more than pleased....

The area in the back where the two chairs are is actually where my bed normally is. They did a great job...but just imagine if you had a room in your small ass apartment that was devoted as a lounge/computer room located right off your living room...instead of say having a dinning table or something else more useful...

When you do a favor for the m*b, you have a favor waiting for you...cheap ass rent...

Another Cheap Ass Haircut or All I want is Bang Bang Bangs

It's going to be a good year...17 days in and I've already accomplished my resolution...keep going to the gym and get a haircut. Done and done!

As I said in an earlier post I needed a haircut badly! My last one was in July from my friend Gardner, so you do the math...I was looking pretty raggedy. While I was in SF, I started asking everyone with a cute haircut where they got it, hoping to find a cheap ass gem from someone...and as it was CA, I'll be all cliche and say "Eureka I found it"! (Thats our motto for all you non California residents)

I was recommended to go to The Public Barber Salon by a girl with super cute hair, and even more was told to go see Sarah. The deal with this place is that a hair cut is $35 (yeah awesome prices!) and that everything like a shampoo and blow dry cost you more. So this is kinda cheating cause as a lady getting a cut we always get the blow dry, not to mention that more precise cutting of the hair is also done after the hair is dried...so really there is no way to get the $35 hair cut...instead my cut was $50 plus tip. So more pricey than I usually pay, Nothing-Free, but holy crappy what an amazing hair cut for the money!

I also decided I needed a whole new look for the year...was getting very bored with the same old graduated bobs I have been doing for years.

So here it is...

BANGS!

So this picture is horrible, as I am currently a hott mess laying in bed in my PJs and not about to take a picture right now (but what a night! nyc I remember why I love you so, sorry for the mind lapse), and I realized as I starting writing this post that I have no other pictures of my haircut yet, so shut up, stop judging and behold the choppy bangy shag I am sporting as of now.

Also I have come to realize my haircut is very similar to my brother's and no one has held back in saying so. Hi twinsies!

So hello 2010 and to having to flat iron my hair every morning! In love!

I heart YOKOO

So awhile back I won an amazing giveaway from Yokoo. If you have never seen her Etsy store, you should definitely check it out. I've been obsessed with her stuff for awhile, but it's always been a little too expensive for my cheap lifestyle, so I was so excited to find out I had won one of her amazing chain link scarves.

Yokoo became known not only becuase she knit really interesting eye-catching pieces, but also because of her quirky photography she took of herself modeling her goods. Check out this NYTimes article about her and other Etsy sellers. WOW!

Yokoo's Flicker

Inspired by her pictures and deeply excited to show off my new scarf, I emailed her my very own Yokoo inspired picture of myself in my new scarf.

I need a haircut...badly...and it better be cheap!

I'm an AUNTIE!

So this morning it finally happened...the Mission Madre had her wee one after almost 30hrs in labor.

I didn't know how I would be during the birth, but it was absolutely one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! He almost just shot right out of her...the Madre was strong, amazing and ridiculously funny. Between the two of us, Auntie K and the Dr., everyone was laughing the whole way through. Also have to mention how amazing, attentive and patient her husband was, good job D!

I'm so happy and proud that I was there! I learned that if I ever have a baby, I'm saying yes to a petoson and definitely yes to an epidural (DRUGS please!)...and definitely having the Madre there as my doula cause she was a pushing champ!