Monday, February 27, 2006

Another Redbox Code (#2)

This is from an email they sent out:

Go to your favorite redbox and use the code: APE to obtain a free onenight’s rental on any film. Good Sunday through Thursday, February 27 -March 23.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

A Weekend in WI

The drive to & from WI wasn't too bad. We had to stop twice on the way there and three times on the way back (although that 3rd time was for Andy.) It only made out 5.5 hour trip about 15-20 minutes longer having to stop more than once.

Friday night we had birthday cake for a delayed 50th birthday for my mom (her birthday was in January) and Saturday was my dad's 50th birthday party. We had this western murder mystery party theme going on for it. Both he & my mom seemed to have enjoyed themselves, so that was nice. Everyone really got into dressing up in costume. There were some really good ones. The funniest part was at the end when we were cleaning up and my sister Steph noticed that my dad was wearing her FBI sweatshirt. Here's how the conversation went (or at least close enough):
S: Dad, why are you wearing my FBI sweatshirt?
D: I thought I was supposed to. It was sitting there with all the rest of the clothes your mother laid out for me.
S: Didn't you see my pajama pants sitting there too?
D: **Teehee! Ha! Ha!** I'm wearing those too. (And proceeds to take down his jeans and show us the pajama pants he is wearing underneath.)

OMG! It was just the funniest thing. I was laughing so hard that my eyes started to water. So funny.

After the party we came back to my parents' house and took naps, then I talked to my sister Stepg for several hours.

Today - got up, got ready to leave, left at noon and began our trek back to MN and I sit here now watching the Simpsons.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Sitting here @ Blue Monday

I decided after the 9am sitting at the Meditation Center that I would come over to Blue Monday, grab a coffee and blog a little. There is something a little different about blogging in a coffee shop than sitting at home on the couch with a laptop. No bad or good necessarily, just different.

I ordered this Guatemala decaf.......it's ok, but I don't think I would order it again. I am not sure how dark of a roast this coffee is, but my preference is towards a light or medium roast & not dark.

So, anyways, the weekend.
* Friday - nothing. We stayed home and that was about it.
* Saturday - picked up the Tahoe, ventilation all fixed now. Went to eat at 43rd street grill, made a huge-amount of chocolate chip cookies (I would like to say the baby wanted them, but mom wanted them too.) And then waited for someone to show up to pick up some stuff we were getting rid of on Freecycle. Goodbye boxes & bags of flowers & swags from B&B days.
* Sunday (today) - well, like I said I went to the Meditation Center, am now at Blue Monday, am going to go pick up some stuff @ Just Food Co-op, and then hopefully someone else will show up from Freecycle to pick up some other stuff (purdge, purgde, purdge), and then up to the Cities for dinner @ Molly's. April & Jason (& Kallen too I imagine) will be with us. April is due about a month before me, so it will be interesting to see what I should look like in a month.

Next weekend we head to WI for my dad's birthday party. Should be fun having to stop every hour of our 5.5 hour trip to have to pee. I wonder how long it will take us to get home. Tomorrow is President's Day - so no work for me. Yeah!

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Snow Day!

I got up @ 5:30, hoping to see that school was closed, even though there is maybe an inch out there. Nope - on schedule. Well, I still had some time to sleep before I *really* had to get up to get ready. So, an hour later I get up, warm the shower and check the school website. Schools are closed! Woohoo! Turn off the shower and go back to bed.

Not much as really accumulated out there, but I guess the bulk of it is supposed to happen this afternoon/evening. Wind speeds are supposed to be around 30mph, and temperatures are in the single digits (& supposed to stay there through the weekend).

So, I think I'll try to get some stuff done around the house, make some crepes with berry sauce for breakfast (another great recipe for the crepes -- LC, LF, & WW worthy). Maybe we'll get the crib put together today.

Then I'll have to work tomorrow, but Monday is a school holiday. Yeah! Another day off and that day I won't have to stalk the district website to see if we are in session, I can just keep sleeping.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Valentine's Day

We had a pretty nice Valentine's Day. I got up a little early to work on breakfast, since we were going to sit down and eat breakfast together, but I also ended up going on a little scavenger hunt. When I went into the bathroom there was a card & some chocolates and a little note in the card that said that one card would not do and there were other cards throughout the house. He had 30 of those valentines with personalized messages on them through the house & my car. I have to count them, but I think I am still missing 2. Also, some more chocolate in my purse.

Breakfast was started the night before, it was a slow-cooker apple-cinnamon oatmeal. Fabulous! If anyone wants the recipe it's great! Low-cal, low-fat, high fiber, low WW points, high on flavor and very filling. I made some 'chocolate caramel brownie' coffee and bowls mixed with minneolas and blood oranges, some oj & sparking water (served over ice in our wine goblets). Oh! And we topped the oatmeal with a little whip cream. So Good. It's definitly one for the recipe book. I got out our nice silverware and the china to eat on, the cloth napkins, lit the candles on the tables, and put the roses I picked up on the table. Very nice.

In the evening we rented a movie, Broken Flowers , to watch together as we cuddled on the couch. It was a decent movie, but no conclusive ending. So, if you like conclusive endings, you do not want to watch this movie. And I made a nice dinner of toasted whole wheat french bread, salad (w/ romaine, spinach, carrots, cucumber, tomato, & green onion), spaghetti w/ homemade sauce (tomatoes, spinach, mushcrooms, onions, in a sauce & my own seasonings) & meatballs, and some sparkling water. Again, candles, flowers, china, nice silverware, wine goblets. A nice dinner -- which will make nice lunch leftovers today.

And then Andy gave me some candy hearts -- my favorite. I prefer them over chocolate any day, but chocolate is nice too.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Another One Bites the Dust

Weekends that is......

Our weekend was pretty low-key.
* Friday night we stayed home and I made supper and we watched tv.
* Saturday morning I had my half-day meditation retreat (started @ 7:30). It was a pretty good retreat, mde me think. Our yoga instructor had a mental breakdown (seriously, she had to be taken to the ER from the Meditation Center) so instead of doing yoga we listened to her rant and ramble for that time. The rest of the retreat was pretty smooth and I leared a lot more about Buddhist rituals, which was kinda neat. Then we ran some errands and I made dinner at home and fell asleep to the Olympics, only to have Andy send me to bed which ended up waking me up and then surfed for a long-ass time.
* Sunday (today) consisted of grocery shopping, buying & delivering roses (40 of them to Andy's parents for their 40th wedding anniversary, we brought them to the restaurant they were dining at as a surprise, going to HOM, and finally we went out to eat to Boca Chica (beware, the salsa is pretty spicy and I normally like things pretty spicy). The service there was really good and we received our food quite fast. We've been enjoying going back to HOM. It kinda sucks that it's an hour drive each way to go, but we have never found any other place like it and we enjoy going. We signed up to go to their Love Feast (we did this once before - met some strange people that just did not get Andy's sarcastic sense of humor) for their 2nd meal in March. So, it will give us a chance to meet some other people who go there. HOM is very much not your "traditional" religious community, and we like that aspect about it. I don't think either of us ever "enjoyed" going to church, ever, until we were introduced to HOM by Kendra & Tim. So, anyways, it's nice to be going there again.

Valentine's Day Plans -- I'm going to make a spaghetti & meatballs dinner and we'll sit down at the dining room table (we don't actually eat a lot of meals at the table, usually just weekend breakfasts and the occasional dinner, many dinners are spent in front of the tv) and rent a movie and snuggle. We don't need to do anything fancy to show each other that we love each other & want to spend time with each other. Really, the only thing we are doing differently is renting a movie, otherwise we always eat dinner together (just not always at the table). Movie rentals are usually a weekend thing.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Living in a Grey World

Yuck! Won't the sun come out? Winter in MN is so Blah. I feel like I am living in a grey world. The sky is grey, the tree trunks are grey and the branches are empty, the grass is brown, my car looks grey from the road salt residue. Yicky. I just want the sun to come out.

Friday, February 03, 2006

My Weekend.

Started out Friday night with dinner @ A&W. Mmmmmm.......deluxe cheesebuegers, cheese fries and root beer floats. Then popcorn & a movie. We saw Grandma's Boy. It was pretty funny.

Saturday AM we had to drive to one of the community college campuses to drop off the Tahoe. One of the perks of teaching for the community college is that periodically you get services done for free/reduced. At Christmas, all staff can get either a free manicure, pedicure, or makeover. I have done this twice in 4 years teaching for them, both times I got a pedicure. And they also will send out an email letting yourknow they are accepting vehicles for repair. They let you what kinds of things they are teaching that semester and then you submit your request and they let you know if they can get to it and if it fits within their parameters. Last year I wasn't picked, but this year I was. So, they are going to check out the ventilation (not blowing air out the defrost area) and the check engine light is on.

We stopped and had brunch at the Lakeside Creamery & Cafe, nice little place. Then came home and vegged out for the rest of the day.

Sunday I went on a cleaning rampage -- Andy was happy about that, as we are getting rid of excess clutter. Then he went to his brother's for a SB party and I went to Carrie & Kyle for a SB party (it was Carrie's b-day.)

Soap Gripes

So, I tivo (is it really a verb?) Day of Our Lives and Passions daily. Pretty soon the winter olympics will start on NBC and I won't be able to watch it, but for now I have some comments.

DOOL:
Ok - Chelsey is such a BITCH! I want her to get locked away. She's so selfish and a backstabber and just plain ole mean.
We all know eventually everyone will find out that Shawn is Claire's father, so yes Mimi, you are right, you should tell him. Because he will find out you knew and didn't tell him. But you know what I think will happen -- when she tells Shawn, he & Belle will hook up even though she is still married to Phillp, and then we'll find out that Mimi is pregnant (they make too big a deal out of that she can't get pregnant again for her not to wind up pregnant) from that night her & Shawn spent together. And then he'll have to decide between the married woman who he has a kid but has always loved with or his fiance who is pregnant with his child.
I never really liked Carrie. She was always too goody-goody (until she hooked up with Mike), but she's back to being goody-goody and that's just boring.
With all the schemeing that Lucas is doing, he is no better than Sami. I still think they will end up together.
Who the hell is Alex North? I HATED him in the beginning, and then he was beng all ushy-gushy with Marlena and that was annoying (thank god for tivo to quickly get through that). I didn't like that they were turning him into a good guy. I'm glad they made him bad again. He may be more interesting to watch now.

Passions:
I just love that Theresa is in control. This will be so much fun to watch. I hope she makes Gwen pay for everything. I can't stand Gwen. Although I don't want her to end up with Ethan. He's a pansy-ass and she deserves someone with a backbone and some balls.
Sheridan drives me nuts. I just can't watch her. And Chris is even more annoying.
What is with these strong women on Passions who like pansy-ass guys. I mean - come on Pilar. He's never going to love just you. Katherine drives me nuts too. I kinda like Rachael. She's tired of all the shit that went down and is doing something about it.
I wonder what type of excuse Kay will give Fox for turning down his proposal. I like those 2 together and I hope she makes Ivy and Vanessa pay for being meddling bitches. I am glad they stopped showing Chad and Whitney - their song & dance was annoying. We'll find out in a few years, or maybe after she becomes a full-fledged nun that they really aren't related. Noah is turning out to be a pansy-ass just like his father. I thought maybe he would be differnt, but nope.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Wild Grape Jam

I am devoting a whole post to talk about Wild Grape Jam.

My mom gave us kids a variety of homemade jams at Christmas. One of mine was Wild Grape Jam. It's been a long time since I had WGJ and I missed it. I forgot that I missed it. I opened that jar today and it was so delicious. There is just something different about WGJ that you can't get in regular ole grape jelly. You miss that tangy wild flavor.

I made my Natural Ovens Bakery Whole Grain bagel (if you have never tried their bagels, you are missing out, you can find them in the natural foods section or store) and topped it with the WGJ. Don't bother addng butter, it takes away from the natural tanginess of the jam. I wish I had made 2 bagels, as I really want another bagel with WGJ.

I am not sure if Andy likes WGJ, but that doesn't matter. I don't think he experienced WGJ growing up and might like the sweetness of plain 'ole grape jelly. There will be more for me if he doesn't.

So - great job on the Wild Grape Jam mom! Gifts of WGJ are welcome anytime. I've had the peach jam too and that is good. The pear has not been opened. Mmmmmmm.