catching up

First, thank you all for calling/emailing/texting on my birthday. I had a great day, Alfred made me a delicious breakfast (burritos with egg and sweet potato), I had nothing but junk food all day at work (2 kinds of brownies and a cake), and then we had a fantastic dinner. If anyone still needs a gift idea for me for Christmas (or my birthday, as some of my siblings have yet to get me anything) a gift certificate to Barbara Jean's would be awesome. Then on our way out, we passed a real estate place - check out the lamp in their window!

Friday was super busy at work, and we pretty much just crashed that evening. I think that was the night we had liver for dinner, which was not quite as good as we had hoped it would be. Saturday we spent with Alfred's family and Ilya and Mercedes for my birthday. We had fried green tomatoes, mac and cheese, tomato pudding, crab cakes, and 2 types of cake (both baked by Mercedes, with help, apparently, from Ilya). It was all fantastic and I almost exploded afterwards. Seriously, my stomach almost burst. It was painful. But oh so tasty.

Yesterday we went into preparation mode for next week, cleaning and getting things ready. Katie's former abode took quite some work, but Mom, your holiday suite is now ready for occupation. We also put up and decorated our Christmas tree! We bought it Saturday morning (for only $30!) and spent all last night decorating. It's such a cute little tree. I'm all sorts of fired up for Christmas this year!

Tonight after work I did a little shopping, then came home and whipped up some meatloaf and mashed turnips (like mashed potatoes but healthier) for dinner. We're eating it right now, and it is rather delicious. After this we have some laundry to fold, and we got our Christmas cards today so we probably need to start addressing envelopes. Fun times!

happy birthday, dad!

Yup, it's Big Guy's birthday today. I called him this afternoon and spent 10 minutes hearing about how one of the dogs bit the other, and so he was trying to take a picture for me so I could see what he (the dog) looked like. Apparently he looked like Rocky (as in Balboa). We also discussed politics, which is always interesting. We don't tend to agree on politics, my dad and I. But that's ok. He doesn't read this, I don't think, but happy birthday anyway, just in case.

I also forgot to mention that yesterday was both Lindsay's and Allison's anniversary. They got married the exact same day, just a few miles apart, 3 years ago. I don't have any pictures of them to post. Sorry.

We just got back from dinner, I joined Alfred house sitting tonight so he took me out to eat. We went to a Cuban place, and it was pretty fantastic. I learned that I love fried plantains with a passion that burns from the bottom of my heart. We got a bit of a late start because Alfred's car battery died, so I had to go pick him up at work and hold a flashlight (tough work) while he took out the battery. Stupid car. We're trying to figure out a plan now to get him back to his car tomorrow. I think he thinks I'm not listening and is getting annoyed. Sorry honey. Ok we have to go pick up a car from his parents. Peace out, girl scout.

party animals

On Thursday night, after we went to the gym, we decided to go to the movies again. That's right, twice in one week! We smuggled in some food from Chick Fil A and saw Pineapple Express. It was really funny, pretty bloody. I liked it a lot, but Alfred liked Tropic Thunder better. I just thought this one was funnier, and all the action at the end was good. Bill Hader was in this one too, surprisingly, just for a few minutes at the very beginning. I think his part was funnier in this than in Tropic Thunder.

Then last night we went out to dinner with Ilya and Mercedes. Alfred found out that this restaurant we go to lunch at fairly often (well, he still goes, I don't anymore obviously) had 2 for 1 beer last night, so off we went. Mercedes and I only had 2 beers each, but Alfred and Ilya made up for it with 5 each. We had wings and nachos too, definitely a very healthy night. We wanted to get a picture with the food and all of our empty glasses, but the waitress said she couldn't leave the glasses cause they needed to wash them and use them again. She said she was sorry, but didn't sound it. She did take this picture for us, though. Apparently I felt the need to try and hide behind the umbrella pole.

This morning we're heading to pick up a fireplace that we've had set up as a display at a landscape/nursery place for almost a year. I think I've gotten one call on it, so obviously it was very successful. We've hit a slight snag in our plans:

Yeah, that's a truck in the fountain out front. We're working on it.

blogging over breakfast

I figured I'd come on and write a quick post while I ate this morning. See, there's my breakfast, yogurt and a banana muffin. I didn't get a chance to blog last night because we went out on a date! Yeah, that's right. We went out to dinner and then to a movie. Yay for $5 movie tickets! We saw Tropic Thunder. It was pretty good, definitely had some funny parts. Tom Cruise and Bill Hader dancing, for one. I had read that there were fake trailers before the movie, so when the first trailer started I assumed it was fake. It was something with Samuel L. Jackson (I think) being a bad cop. Looked pretty silly to me, so I Assumed it was a joke, but then the next one looked a little more realistic, like a movie I'd actually want to see. By the third trailer (for a Disney animated movie) I finally figured out these were real. But that first one really threw me off. (The fake ones are very obvious.)

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it here, but for a rich house, the hot water here sucks. They have an instant water heater, which is supposed to heat the water as it's being used instead of heating it and storing it in a tank, so you're supposed to have hot water right away and have it last the whole time. They must have theirs on some setting that turns it off after a certain amount of water or time, because I run out of hot water about half the time. And it's not like I take super long showers, I'm talking my normal 10-minute-max showers. I think it might have something to do with the fact that their shower heads use like 500 gallons a minute. It's nice for the first 5 minutes, but then when it gets cold it sucks.

Wow, this is fascinating stuff. But my breakfast is eaten and I have to leave for work in 13 minutes. Peace out

Lindsay's birthday, and our date

First of all, happy (belated) birthday to Lindsay! Her birthday was actually Saturday, but I got the dates mixed up and then didn't post yesterday. (I tried posting a picture, but blogger won't let me. Come back later.) She's taking her vacation the next couple of weeks, so hopefully we'll be able to hang out sometime. We used to work together, I miss seeing her every day! EDIT: We have pictures! The first one is us with Lindsay and Jeff at our work picnic last year. I do believe it's the only picture I have of Lindsay and I together. Then I had to add the one of them with Xyla cause she's just so damn cute!

So we had some plans that fell through last night, which left us all gussied up with nowhere to go, so Alfred and I went on a date! We went to see Baby Mama (which was good, definitely some funny parts but I thought the ending was a little... weird) and then out to dinner at Outback. (That's the only big chain restaurant where we live, so we got a few gift cards for there for Christmas. We finally got to use a couple!) We were out late too, didn't get back to the house we're sitting at until maybe 10:30 or so. Party animals.

I'm going to take some pictures of this house tonight, probably post some tomorrow. This house is kind of crazy. It's really big, and on the river, and decorated with lots of antiques. Very impressive, and nice to look at, but not very cozy. I do love the layout of the main part of the house, though. We're going to try to get some inspiration for our own house from them.