Category: LiveJournal

Merry Christmas! Happy Tuesday!

Although today is Dec 25, AKA Christmas, I opened no presents. Poor Amy will not be with us until Dec 28, so we’ll open presents after she arrives (Sat morning, if all goes well!)

We also didn’t have a White Christmas today. But that’s OK, because we’re getting a blizzard tomorrow. If the power doesn’t go out, I’m intending to have a lovely day of bread baking, present wrapping, and game playing. Woo! And if it’s not horrible, maybe a walk in the snow. We’ll see!

What mom and I did do today was our annual Baking Day. However, due to me doing Weight Watchers, we didn’t go as overboard on cookies like usual. We did three things from scratch (pecan cookies, Lindy cookies, and ice box cookies) and three things from Market Day (shaped sugar cookies, macadamia nut cookies, and chocolate mint cookies). We watched schmalzy Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel or listened to Christmas music while we baked. It was a good day.

I am now back with the kitties though (and Linus wants some huggings, so I need to get offline shortly for cuddles) and I’m hoping tomorrow will be a good snow-watching day. And I really hope things get cleared up by Friday evening when Amy’s supposed to be flying in!

Hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Christmas today!

First Christmas of the season!

Today was our day inside. We started the morning with elsaf making us a breakfast of pancakes & bacon (mmmm, bacon!) and I had whole milk with mine (OMG, whole milk!) Tasty, tasty. Then we didn’t eat at all until supper time, cuz Elsa was making us our Christmas Dinner. (Well, OK, we all had a slice of butter bread from the loaf of bread that Elsa baked.)

I did take a short walk to Jewel (with a stop into Trader Joe’s for grins) to get a few essentials that we needed. Oh, and I took Patty (judiang‘s doggie) out for walkies once. She wanted to get back inside ASAP to watch Elsa cook, so we weren’t out long.

Elsa had e-mailed us last week asking for votes on the dinner. The consensus was rack of lamb, mushroom soup, asparagus, rice pilaf, and lava cakes. She added a red currant & wine sauce, pear salad, and from scratch rolls to that menu.

I think I cleaned the cooking dishes 3 times during the day, it took that much cookware for the meal, but it was worth it when we finally sat down for our meal.

The pear salad was very simple – sliced fresh pears with bleu cheese, walnuts, and a poppy seed dressing (no lettuce). Very tasty. She’s made the mushroom soup (with sherry) before and it was once again very yummy (and I’m not overly fond of mushrooms). The lamb was cooked perfectly and the sauce complimented it well (and was also good on the pilaf). For out-of-season asparagus, they were pretty good. And the lava cakes were spongy and nice, especially with a side of ice cream.

After the meal, we opened presents. I got lots of nifty stuff, including a real surprise – a K’nex roller coaster thingy that Judi got when she was in the studio audience of the Anderson Cooper show. Pretty darn nifty!

I managed to get stuff packed into my bag (and into another bag). I tweeted several photos from the meal tonight, along with a few gift photos. If you visit this lockerz.com page, you should be able to click on the photos that I tweeted tonight.

Tomorrow I fly home for more festivities! Woo!

Entertainment Time!

Today has been a fab day full of entertainment.

We started out (late) to Dim Sum, like usual. Man, I love dim sum. And I was a somewhat responsible eater, keeping WeightWatchers points in mind. And still had lots of yummy things.

On our way back, we stopped off at Bed Bath & Beyond and Best Buy for a few things. I found a Christmas present for the kitties at BB&B, too.

After a spot of resting at judiang‘s, we left for Navy Pier for my surprise of the weekend: Judi had ordered us tickets to see Miriam Margolyes’s one-woman show Dickens’ Women. Woohoo! With Elsa driving, we arrived with plenty of time so mooched about in one of the stores before getting to our balcony seats. It was a small venue and there wasn’t really a bad seat in the house. Miriam was excellent and the show was entertaining. And I realized I have a lot more Dickens to read!

Supper was also at Navy Pier (well, we paid for all day parking, might as well stay longer) and we went to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. I had an Angry Orchard crisp apple cider (I do so love those) and a salad with shrimp, crab, and lobster on it. Ate half of the salad and so today I was good for my WW points, I think!

Our final entertainment for the day was another 3D HFR showing of The Hobbit. The first time for elsaf and second time for me. Judi had tickets too, but sadly a sinus headache prevented her from going. So she lent us her phone (which had our tickets on it) and keys (so we could get back into her apartment) and dammit if I didn’t think to send all sorts of tweets & facebook updates about how cool trina is etc. 😉

Now we’re all together (Judi’s feeling better) and ready for another day tomorrow. Woo!

Happy Solstice!

I’m posting this with my cell phone from Chicago. (I mean that my cell & I are in Chicago, not that my phone originated from there!)

Hope y’all had a great solstice! We’re now halfway out of the dark!

Seas and Ships and Ceiling Wax

Wow, December is half over and I’ve not updated once. And many’s the time I’ve thought “I should post that to LJ” and then never did. My round tuits are around here someplace…

First off: The Hobbit. Ever since I saw Peter Jackson’s take on the Lord of the Rings, I wanted him to tackle The Hobbit. And then when he cast Sylvester McCoy in it, I got even more excited. I’m pleased that judiang got into Richard Armitage, because the Armitage Army have been a great source for Hobbit info. 🙂

Anyhoo, for mom’s birthday last year, I got her tickets to my favorite ballet (The Nutcracker). This year, I got her tickets to a movie with my favorite actor in it. 🙂 So yesterday, mom, dad, and I went doon sooth to the only theatre in the area showing the film at 48 frames per second. We got ideal seats and enjoyed the flick immensely. The picture quality is so crisp, and I never got nauseous once (which I always do in 3D movies). The folks enjoyed the flick too, and neither recognized Sylv in his role (though dad had pretty much narrowed it down to Radagast). Woo!

As for Sylv in the flick – wonderful. But then I would say that. Heh. I was pleased by the amount of the movie that he’s in. Hope he shows up in the other two, too!

In other news: After our trip to Ikea in MN, I decided to go the next weekend to my own Ikea (which is even further doon sooth than the theatre where we saw The Hobbit) and get the stuff I’d decided I liked in MN. I measured my trunk and knew that everything would fit – probably. And it did. I got a dining room table (small & square that expands out to a bigger rectangle when needed), 4 dining room chairs with extra seat covers (I have cats, you know), a coffee table (Lack, with a shelf), and some candles. I even planned ahead with Weight Watchers and knew how many points my meal would be. Heh.

WeightWatchers: I am on it again through work. And believe it or not, am losing despite Thanksgiving and the upcoming holidays. I’ll be surprised (though pleasantly so) if I lose over the break.

Holidays: Probably my least decorated yet. Have the tree up, got a real wreath & roping and they’re finally up, and today got out the other things I’ll decorate with. Though not everything is in place yet. Didn’t swap out dishes like usual, though. Amy will be in after Christmas, so before Christmas, I’m doing a short weekend in Chicago to hang with Judi and elsaf. Should be much fun.

Holiday shopping: Mostly done with that. Not yet done with Amy, and there’s a few things to buy locally for mom and another friend. Oh yeah, little cousins… Hmmm.

Last week of school: This week is our last of 2012. If I get all of my grading done, I’ll be very pleased. That’s my goal for the week. One less thing to hang over my holiday. 🙂

Wow, 2012, you’ve gone by so fast. You know, 2013, you can take your time if you want (even though I AM ready to watch the second Hobbit movie. Heh.)

Fun in Minneapolis (the tl, dr edition)

I’ve been busy having fun & frolic with my family this weekend. This is the main reason I haven’t been updating my journal.

When I last left off, it was still Wednesday and we’d only just had naps. We had a few chores yet to do before Thanksgiving, including a booze run and the search for “real” cranberry sauce (the Ocean Spray variety in a can). Amy showed the folks the cottage they’ll be staying at most of the them they are here (they’re here for another week after I go). We also picked up Rachel at her apartment and got to see her little kitty, Charlotte.

We had Wine Time in lieu of supper where I had a pear hard cider (Fox barrel, so far my favorite pear cider). The cheese assortment was excellent, except for the sheep’s cheese that Amy had gotten from her cheese CSA. Ah well, they can’t all be winners. Amy, Rachel, and mom worked on baking the pies (sweet potato, apple, and pumpkin respectively) and I made my thanksgiving cheeseball. When everyone was back to their respective locations, Amy and I cleaned the turkey & let it soak in brine overnight.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and Amy and I got up at a reasonable hour in order to get things going. The cheeseball was finished, the turkey was prepped & stuffed into the oven, and the stuffings were prepared. Amy picked up mom and Rachel biked over while we were doing all of the rest of the work. Mom got the table set and it looked ecclectic and interesting.

Dad called later, looking for a thanksgiving dinner to be paternal over, so mom picked him up. And by 2pm, Amy’s friends, Jim & Carrie, arrived. Time to EAT!

The food was wonderful, the company excellent. I am very thankful for my family and our friends. And I’m really glad we got to come & visit Amy for the holiday.

The evening was closed with a game of Apples to Apples, which, frankly, is a little boring after playing Cards Against Humanity. Amy won the game. I had only 1 card at the end. Alas!

Rachel spent the night with us that night, and Charlotte was picked up because she’s still very young and hasn’t been alone all night yet. Curtis, my sister’s cat, tolerated his little cousin. He’s probably glad when she finally goes home. 🙂

The girls and I had decided there was one Black Friday sale that we had to attend. A local business had donuts and coffee, 10% off, and a free gift for $20 purchase (a $50 value). So we took advantage of their sale. I had two of their donuts (they kept insisting) and we each bought enough merchandise for the free gift. Rock on! Here’s to small businesses that take care of their customers!

We picked up the folks and then headed to Brit’s Pub for lunch. I had half a BLT and cock-a-leekie soup along with a Strongbow (on tap). We had a great time at the pub and I picked up the tab. It seems appropriate to eat there since it was Doctor Who‘s 49th anniversary.

Our only big box store visited that day was Target for a couple of things that we needed. It wasn’t overly crowded, whih was nice. Then we went to Depth of Field, the futon store that Amy got her futon from. She was determining what fabrics to get her bolsters and pillows in. Dad, meanwhile, investigated what on him kept setting off anti-theft devices in stores. To everyone’s annoyance (and my amusement), he kept removing stuff until he finally discovered it was something in his wallet. He eventually discovered a little RF antenna in it.

Our final shopping spot of the day was Midwest Mountaineering. This allowed us to have our parking ticket validated and both of the girls found useful purchases. Looking at the price of the Smartwool socks, I realized that my $9 Fox River socks weren’t too expensive after all. Heh.

We returned to Amy’s for pie and coffee. We finished off the apple pie (now with ice cream). Then we headed to mom & dad’s cottage in order to watch Brave on the nice TV there. Turkey sammiches were the snack of the night. Then Amy and I dropped Rachel off at her place (Charlotte had been dropped off earlier) and returned home for bed.

Yesterday (Saturday), we had several things planned in advance. To start with, Amy and I made breakfast. She made “refrigerator clean out” eggs in a tortilla wrap and I fried potato cakes from leftover mashed potatos. The breakfast was a success, if we do say so.

Next, we walked to the library so she could return some videos and get her books that were on order. Sadly, we were too late for her to avoid the late fee on the DVDs, but the fee is pretty reasonable.

Then we picked up the parental units and headed to the chicken coop. It was Amy’s day to feed & water the chickens. I helped! Sadly, the outdoor water faucet was frozen, but Amy discovered that after she dumped the water (whoops). So a short trip to Rainbow to buy 2 gallons of drinking water, and she was done with the coop chores.

I have a number of people I’ve known online for years and yesterday had the chance to finally meet one of them. He’s a member of the Greater Midwest Lego Train Club and they had an open house in the Brickmania Toyworks display room. So we went there and were awed by the train displays, and I got to meet Michael. I took lots of photos.

We had hopped to also visit an antique store in that area, but the frozen tap had other ideas. So we just hopped on the 35W and headed south to Bloomington to meet a friend of dad’s at Sawatdee for lunch. The lunch was good (I, of course, had tofu pad thai), and it was nice to see Bill again.

Since we were down in Bloomington, we decided to visit Ikea. I love shopping at Ikea. I think I need to visit my “local” next weekend. Heh. But I managed to refrain from putting stuff in the basket. Amy, meanwhile, scored a number of nice things. A Poang chair, stuff for her soon-to-be remodeled bathroom, and a few other odds and ends.

We dropped the folks off at their cottage, then put Amy’s purchases into her house and got snack foods, and finally picked up Rachel. Then it was Game Time at mom & dad’s cottage. Mom popped popcorn and we munched on that and cheese ball and crackers. We started with Euchre, where Rachel and I won after a slow start. Then we played Rumikub, where I won after a slow start. Heh.

So now Amy and I are relaxing on a fine (but chilly) Sunday morning. NPR is on the radio. We had a cinnamon roll (from Ikea, dad’s purchase) and steel cut oats (I doctored mine with brown sugar, almond slivers, butter, and banana). Tasty tasty. Dunno what we’re doing today other than eventually taking me to the airport. Gonna miss hanging out with the family, but will be glad to see the kitties again.

Long Day is Long

I got up this morning at 3:45am EST. It’s now 11:42pm EST, so I’ve been up for a long time. Why, you ask? Well, this morning the folks and I flew to Minnesota to visit my sister – woohoo!

Our flight took off at 6:45am and we got in early – 7:30am CST. Turns out Amy was mistaken on the arrival time (we were supposed to arrive at 8am, she was thinking 8:40) but she met up with us at the car rental place shortly after we had loaded it up.

We headed to her place of work for K-Day where they were celebrating with kalua, koffee, and kookies. Apparently this is a tradition on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We got to meet several co-workers (current and former) of hers and it was always fun being introduced as “Amy’s sister” or “Amy’s parents” etc. 🙂

As I’m rather tired, I’m sure I’ll get some of this wrong, but I think we next went to pick up the turkey & last minute items from the co-op. Sadly, the “fresh” turkey was frozen, but we think we’ll be good for tomorrow.

Once back at Amy’s, we figured out where to head for lunch. We went to Herkimer Brewery as mom would get bonus points for her air miles card (or something). I thought the beer battered fish was very good, as was the tartar sauce. Sadly, some of the other things there weren’t quite as good. The fries were no better than ones you’d find in your grocer’s freezer. Ah well, the Strongbow cider was a plus.

We had a couple more things to pick up while out, then we returned home for naps. I didn’t nap, but got caught up on e-mail and twitter. But not LJ, sadly. Or else I wouldn’t be doing this now when I’m too tired to type. I think I’ll finish this for now and continue tomorrow (or whenever I next get to updating. Heh.)

Thanksgiving is tomorrow (minutes away in Ohio!) so y’all have a great day!

WoW claims another victim – NaNoWriMo

First, I should updated my WoW icon. I don’t play the two Horde characters in the list, and I don’t have my Worgen or Pandarian showing.

Second, I have now paused on my NaNoWriMo novel. I got past 6100 words, but then Parent/Teacher Conferences came. When I got home late from the first night, I realized I would rather play World of Warcrack than work further on my novel. (And I really don’t know what happened the day before – what was my excuse for Wednesday?)

Friday night we had a dinner party at a friend’s place. An Oktoberfest in November. What’s funny is what occured BEFORE the party…

See, thanks to my gaming addiction, I’ve been having issues getting to my parents’ house at the times I say I’ll be there. Dad now just expects me to be late ‘cuz it happens so often. (He is a scientist, you know, and is good with interpreting evidence.) So I was going to be on time, dammnit!

I actually set the stove timer to remind me when I should bug out Friday evening. I played WoW until the timer went off. And then headed outside. I scolded myself as I exited that I hadn’t parked in front like I’d told myself I would do in the morning. (I actually drove to work that morning since I was running late. I don’t game before work, but Twitter sometimes distracts me in a similar fashion.)

I walked into the garage and noticed the absence of car. Um, the reason I hadn’t remembered to park in front of the house? I hadn’t remembered to drive home! LOL. I stood there laughing at myself, then called dad on my cell as I started walking (quickly) to the school to get my car.

I wasn’t much later to the folks than I had intended, and we wound up being the first there to our friends’ place. The evening was fun and I had two hard ciders during the course of the evening. (Was fine when it was time to drive the folks home.)

And when I got home, I wasn’t in the mood to write. So the poor thing is languishing. I haven’t decided yet if I want to give it up or try to jump start it. We have another round of parent/teacher conferences on Tuesday. Then when Thanksgiving comes, I’ll be busy with family family family.

Hmmm, I have Christmas music playing now. Perhaps if I turned the novel to a Christmas story I’d be more likely to write it…

Wow, October’s nearly over!

Alas, one of my worst months ever as far as updating LJ. And it’s not as if I’m doing nothing. (Sadly, I suspect it’s the doing World of Warcrack which is preventing me from doing things like this, grading papers, cleaning house, etc… MMORPGs are bad, mmm’kay?)

Anyhoo, one of the most recent things that I’ve done (other than play video games) is attend a Halloween party. Friends invited my folks (and I crashed, which was actually OK with the hosts) to this party, with the invitation itself being a blank mask with instructions to decorate. I didn’t know what I was going to make mine into until the day of the party and opted for making it into a puppy dog, with a pair of socks for doggy ears.

doggytreen

I wound up winning the prize for most creative mask. Dad, meanwhile, had cut out his mask and had me print “Generic Mask” on it neatly. He glued it to a stick (ala Renaissance masks) and wound up winning the Funniest mask. Heh. Mom then topped us during the pumpkin carving competition by getting a special award for her puking pumpkin. A family of winners – woo! Tomorrow I’ll post punkin pix.

Oh, and this year will be my first year attempting National Novel Writing Month (AKA NaNoWriMo). Hoping it might jumpstart my blogging and possibly curb my gaming. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

Anyone have a novel plot idea????