Tag: amy & rachel

Holiday Swag

Yesterday was Christmas for my family. We had a late lunch of sandwiches and/or salads and Munchies. And then we chatted or read or slept or played Sims (well, just Judi for the Sims). But eventually we couldn’t stand the suspense any longer and at 4:30pm, Amy began passing out presents for opening.

We always do the “take turns” bit of unwrapping in my family. And we went in order of youngest to oldest. So Rachel started, followed by Amy, me, Judi, dad, mom. (The difference in dad & mom’s age is 6 months, but she is the older…) It was lots of fun unwrapping and seeing what folks got and seeing their expressions when they opened your presents. I, for one, had a blast with Amy & Rachel’s gifts. Rachel decided maybe she’d like some ice skates from LL Bean since they look more gym-shoe like and, thus, more comfortable than what she’d had in the past. So I told her that I’ll see about getting her some ice skates. And I did! And with Amy’s gift, I made up a Netflix-style service of my own DVDs. I call it Flicks DOT Net and made up a logo & everything. She got several pre-paid envelopes for the DVDs, and a list of my collection for her to mark up requests. We’re shooting for 5 at a time and we’ll see how it goes.

The surprise gift of the afternoon were these little wind-up flashlights that mom’s cousin got everyone. They’re LED lights and very easy to get lit. We had a blast cranking and shining and I’m happy to note that I’m not the ONLY one who looked into the lights. We took a break about an hour into the unwrapping and wound up finishing just a little before 7pm.

We had supper in mom’s “new” dining room. Chicken casserole, green beans, Brussels sprouts for mom & Amy, cottage cheese, cranberry sauce from the can, and vino. It was an excellent supper and we toasted Christmas and families.

We stayed there til after midnight and finally mooched on home with our swag. And boy did we do well! I have placed my holiday swag under my tree and taken a photo of it.

As you can see, I received many nice things. (The teddy bears are just decoration.) Several items of clothing from the parentals: 4 turtle neck shirts, 2 vests, corduroys and socks (which I picked up today). A Brit’s Pub shirt from A&R (from the English pub near their place). Dad’s toy (that the thing on the left with the nails in it) from this year. A Robopet from the parentals – yay toys! Books, a CD, and DVDs from the folks, elsaf and judiang. Wrap-around hearmuffs from the folks (all of us got a pair). The aforementioned flashlight and a box of gardening tools from mom’s cousin (the box of tools is under the clothes). A lovely photo of A&R in a motherboard-style frame from the girls which is currently on my kitchen counter and thus not in the photo. And some book uprights for when I finally get my bookshelves built (from m&d). The two wrapped presents there are birthday gifts – one from Elsa & one from Judi. I get to open then tomorrow.

Today, Judi and I headed off to Fairborn for my monthly(ish) trek to the Bookery Fantasy and Jeet India. We both got $50+ worth of stuff. And we had Indian Fud at Jeet. Wonderful buffet. We also went to the Evil Puppy Mall where Judi hugged a baby Pomeranian for a bit. At the Walking Place, I bought socks from mom as well as socks from me. (Well, they were buy 3 get 1 free, so I got 2 pair from mom and 2 pair from me). I love Fox River Socks!

For the third time since my holiday began, Judi and I visited Best Buy. This time, I was going in with the intent to get some speakers for my iPod for the kitchen and/or living room. (They’re portable enough for both – or even my bedroom should I desire.) I got a nice set of Logitech speakers for $150. And I’ve tested them out and they are nice. Judi got herself an external soundcard for her laptop.

After a short stop in Meijer for the last of my groceries for tonight and tomorrow, we returned home. Judi immediately plopped onto the sofa for a nap and I worked on getting things ready for tonight’s New Year’s Eve gathering. We’re playing games and eating food and watching movies and stuff.

I hope all of you have a Happy New Year! I certainly intend to do so!

Down & Safe

Yesterday morning, elsaf walked to her local bakery to get us some cinnamon rolls for breakfast. As usual, I was second up and judiang eventually dragged herself out of bed. We had a nice lazy morning after breakfast, just geeking and eventually packing. When it was nearing 1pm, we drove to Panera Bread in 2 cars. We had a relaxing lunch of broccoli cheddar soup in sour dough bread bowls. We knew that when we were finished with lunch, we’d have to part company, so we chatted for as long as we could. Then we left Panera, hugged, and drove off our separate ways. Elsa back to her place, Judi and I down south to my home.

Thanks to the iPod Transpod that Judi had given me for Christmas, we listened to her iPod for the drive home. We only had one stop along the way where we discussed feminine things as you see in commercials. It was quite funny. I also got to pick on Judi’s 23 versions of “O Holy Night” in her playlist. Spread out over 500 songs, it might not have seemed a little excessive. In a playlist of 95 songs, it got a bit, um, repetitive. She also seems to like “The Little Drummer Boy” a lot as well.

When we got to Troy, I stopped at Penn Station to get us supper. I got my usual Philly cheesesteak, got Judi a club with no ham, mom a regular club, and dad the Italian sub. Plus a large fries. Once in town, I got some beverages from the gas station (including blue Gatorade for Judi who had thrown out her shoulder playing some pretty mean Air Piano during one of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra pieces and was having muscle cramps because of it). We arrived at the parentals with food and had a nice supper in their kitchen.

After supper, Judi and I headed to my house (where I’d already been to cuddle my kitties) and I showed off my flatscreen TV by playing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Ah, some mad David Tennant! What fun! Near the end of the film, mom called to say it was time to pick up Amy & Rachel, so I headed next door and we three rushed off to the airport to pick up the girls.

They arrived on time and we exchanged hugs. Then we waited and waited and waited some more for the luggage to come out. When their baggage carousel began to spin, I predicted to Amy “4th and 12th.” Well, neither of their bags showed up 4th or 12th. Indeed, it was more like 4th from the last and last. As soon as their last piece showed up, the carousel stopped. Heh, what timing…

We returned home for cookies and milk. I dragged Judi over from next door because calling her on my phone did no good. “Trina, you had 2 phone calls just now.” Um, yeah! Silly gurl! 🙂 The cookies, milk, and conversation were all a nice wind up to a busy day for all.

Bedtime for Judi turned out to be Kitten Hell. The kitties had never seen the sofa open out into a bed and spent most of the evening playing under the bed, rolling things back and forth. They did eventually join me in bed to sleep, but they aggravated Judi enough so that she didn’t have the world’s greatest night sleeping. Still, we managed to get over to mom & dad’s shortly after 9am. Dad made everyone Egg McMikey sammiches, which, as always, were very yummy. The girls went back to bed, Judi fell asleep on the sofa, and the parentals headed off to the grocery. So I have returned home for a little waiting for the sleepy heads to return to the land of the living.

Tonight, we have our “traditional” Christmas dinner of chicken casserole and will then open presents. Mmmm, presents! I love presents!

Heading for Home Again…

In an hour or so, we’ll be departing Amy & Rachel’s place for the Twin Cities Airport. Our flight is at 7:10pm CST and we should be back in Dayton just after 10pm EST. Then I’ll get to see my kitties again. Yay! (I hope they remember me!)

We had another lazy morning and I did my best to stay in bed until 9am. Dad once again put his cullinary talents at work and made us all Egg McMikey sandwiches. Yay dad! Then we sat around and read and slooched until lunchtime. We took a walk in Loring Park and even walked over I-94 to see the Sculpture Park from above. Then we walked through the Greenway to get to Nicollett Mall. Lunch was at Brit’s Pub. Yum! I had the steak & ale pie with chips and cole slaw. It was wonderful, but then again, so was everything that we ordered. Oh yeah, I’d also gotten an amaretto sour and managed to not spill it this time (unlike my last time at Brit’s).

Dad was out of reading material, so we also stopped at Barnes & Noble on the Mall. I looked around and got a few Christmas gift ideas to ask folks for. When we all joined up again, dad had gotten the reading material he needed and we headed over to the Tarzhay Mahal (the big Target downtown) for a few essentials.

We’re now back at the apartment and all packed for the trip home. Thus far, flight times are looking OK. Here’s hoping they stay that way! I wanna see my kitties soon! 🙂

This trip has been a blast and has been one of the nicest Thanksgivings ever. Thanks once again to Amy & Rachel for hosting us. I love you both lots!

Mary Poppins & Indian Fud

There’s a cathedral and basilica nearby and one of ’em has a 7:30am alarm chime they like to play on Sundays. Needless to say, we all woke up around 7:30 and then “slooched” for awhile after. “Slooch” is a term Amy & Rachel use to describe the whole being in bed & awake & snoozing time that’s just so enjoyable on the weekend. Dad made us all Egg McMikey sandwiches. And around noon, we finally headed out to Nicollett Mall and Macy’s (formerly Marshall Field’s).

On the 8th floor of the former Mashall Field’s, they like to do an animated holiday display each season. This year’s animated theme was the novel Mary Poppins (with music from the New York musical based upon the Disney movie). When we went 3 years ago (or so) to see Charlie & the Chocolate Factory there, we’d gone on the Friday after Thanksgiving and waited in line for a LONG time. Today, being further from the holiday, there was NO line. It was quite pleasant. The figurines were cute and the scenes they picked were fun.

On our way back to the apartment, we stopped at New Delhi for Indian Fud. They have a lunch buffet and I promised all that I’d pick up the bill if we went for Indian this weekend. They had a few dishes I’d not had before – egg masala and goat curry. They were good, but the bones (and hoof?) in the goat put me off of finishing it. We all enjoyed our lunch and waddled back to the apartment.

At this point, we all started reading and eventually folks dropped off. We napped for awhile and then spend the rest of the evening just relaxing and drinking wine (or cream soda in my case). We girls played Euchre and mom & I won both games. Go us! We had nachoes with guacamole & salsa for “supper” and finished it off with pie – both apple & pumpkin. I put ice cream *and* whipped cream on my apple pie. Yum!

This has been a fabulous weekend and I’m so happy we were able to join the girls for this time. Thank you Amy & Rachel for being great hosts. Tomorrow we’ll have a bit more time together and then finally we fly back home. I’ll miss being with the girls, but it will be nice to see my kitties again!

Little Miss Sunshine

Today was our first time outside since we arrived on Wednesday. Heh. (OK, so Amy & dad went out yesterday…) We got ready early in order to join Lynn & Doug at Keys Restaurant by 9:30. We walked into the joint at 9:29am. We rock. 🙂

I overindulged at breakfast having 2 eggs (over easy), hashbrowns, and toast AND 2 slices of French toast. More than one person can eat, which is why I let other people share my food. There was quite a bit of sharing going on – we’re the sharing family. And it was nice to have one more meal with Lynn & Doug before they returned home.

Once we’d said our farewells to Rachel’s folks (back at the apartment), we sat around & discussed our day’s plans. It was agreed that we’d go see Little Miss Sunshine at the Riverview theater at 7:10pm. And before that, go to the wine bar across the street from the theater. So what to do until then? Why, go shopping of course!

We started out at the Half Price Bookstore. I found Spy Muppet’s License to Croak on CD-ROM for $6, so I bought it. Rachel & mom also bought some stuff while we were there. Then we headed off to Pier One so the girls could use a gift certificate on cushions for one of their chairs. They found just what they were looking for, so they bought ’em. Then a trip to the new Trader Joe’s near them. I bought some Truffles for us and for Aunt Becky & the others who have been checking in on my kitties. Plus some cashews – unsalted & low salt. We also got some sushi, salsa, guacamole & tortilla chips for a light meal. Back home, we partook of these goodies. Yum!

We learned some interesting things while having our snack. First, sushi & nachoes are a good snack. 🙂 Second, putting wasabi & soy sauce on turkey still tastes of turkey. However, guacamole on turkey is an improvement upon the turkey. And third, cleaning up from sushi & nachoes is very fast (I did the dishes – heh!)

When it was 5pm, we moved on to the Riverview Wine Bar. They have several “flites” (samplers) that they offer for $9. Dad got the K’Syrah Shiraz flite, mom got a Riesling flite, and Rachel tried out the Chardonnay flite. Each flite has 4 wines with 2 oz samples of each. Amy tried a Victory HopDevil beer. I had water. We also got the cheese sampler – a goat cheese, a bleu cheese of some sort, an Italian cheese that resembled Swiss in appearance but not taste, and a zola (IIRC). I liked ’em all but the bleu cheese. Oh, and I made the mistake of seeing the specials board – they had creme brulee. Eep! So of course I had to get that. It was very yummy!

The Riverview theater is a second run theater with $3 evening movies (and $2 matinees). They also have reasonably priced popcorn (mom ordered us 2 GIANT Cokes and a large popcorn and it was $9). The movie playing was Little Miss Sunshine, which was riotously funny. Amy considered it good exercise, all that laughing. I agree. I’m loathe to say much about the plot because I went in knowing next to nothing and enjoyed it all the more because of that. If you want to laugh a lot and you don’t mind foul language from time to time, I heartily recommend this movie.

Tomorrow, we’ll probably have more grand adventures. But I shall leave you all with the lovely photo of mom in her make-up from yesterday’s session. Oh yeah, and I’m in it too. Mom is the lovely woman on the left. I’m the silly woman on the right. Heh. Enjoy!


Mom & Me. Yup, that’s make up on my face! Hee!

(PS, I can’t imagine getting any sleep tonight – I had some of the caffeine-laden Coca Cola with the movie. Whoops!)

Mary Kay Day

Before I get started, here’s a joke that’s on the girls’ fridge:

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: None. There is nothing wrong with the lightbulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That lightbulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?

Hee hee!

Anyhoo, the weekend in progressing nicely. Last night, Becky & Michelle arrived for warm-ups & dessert. The pies were very good – I had pumpkin with real whipped cream (sorry elsaf) and apple pie with ice cream. Yummy! We then played a game of Scene It with me, Becky & Michelle beating the teams of Amy, mom & dad, and Rachel and her folks. Go us! Rachel’s folks headed back to their hotel while we ladies played Apples to Apples. Rachel won that game.

We slept in a bit today, but eventually everyone showered and dad made us all Egg McMikey sandwiches. Doug & Lynn arrived and we had turkey sandwiches and cheeseball for lunch. Mmmm, turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce on ’em are good!

Once the dishes were cleand up, we started setting up for a Mary Kay party. In addition to being an Episcopal priest, Lynn is a Mary Kay Consultant. Becky & Michelle again arrived and Amy gave us all hand pampering to start the session. Then Amy & dad headed downtown for coffee and other essentials. Doug braved the crowds at the Mall of America to see the World’s Largest Gingerbread House.

Folks who know me know that I am not a make-up wearer. I do very low maintenance work on my face & skin. But hey, this was going to be fun, so I partook of the session. (Michelle is another non-make-up person, but the night before we’d agreed to both go through with it.) The facial was quite nice and we discovered that foundation helps tone down my rosacea. We even put on blush (heh – me, putting on blush!), eye makeup, and lip stuff (lip liner, lipstick, and lip gloss – sheesh!) My least favorite makeup is still lip-stuff. I even let dad take a photo of me and I might post it tomorrow.

I decided to get a few things including the stuff from our hand pampering session and a foundation/moisturizer which I might use on days when my photo will be taken (to tone down my red cheeks). I think Lynn did some good business with our small group. Go us! She even gave us her sales pitch for the Mary Kay world, which, nice though it is, means you have to talk to people, so most of us declined completely. 🙂

We had a blast during the party and I’ll need to remove my makeup before bed. Heh. Something I haven’t had to do since I was in the school play.

Supper was leftovers from our Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was just as good as the day before – yummy stuff! We even polished off a few of the dishes – go us! Still some turkey and some mashed potatoes left, but most of the rest of the food is gone.

Lynn & Doug once again returned to their hotel with promise to meet at Key’s for breakfast in the morning. Becky & Michelle stayed for drinks & games. I had an amaretto sour (no suprise) but gin & tonics and Cosmopolitans were also present. We wound up playing Trivial Pursuit, Genus IV because Amy & Michelle like to play it, but Rachel & Becky do not. So mom & I entered the game to make 4 (which is more fun than two) while Becky knitted and Rachel cross-stitched. Dad read for a bit before retiring early.

Mom quickly lept to the lead, but was unable to sustain it as Amy & Michelle caught up. I lost with only 3 pieces when Michelle won the game. Go Michelle!

Tomorrow promises to be another fun day with the parental units & the girls. Go us!

Thanksgiving 2006

This holiday weekend has been only the second time that both families have been together (the other being Amy & Rachel’s wedding). Last night, Rachel made vegetarian lasagna which we had when Lynn & Doug arrived (having driven into town). The dinner was excellent and accompanied by salad, roasted squash, and rustic Italian bread (from their Co-Op). Good eats!

But the REAL banquet was saved for today. Amy got up early and started on the chestnut stuffing (chopping & browning the bread) and then the turkey (which had been soaking in brine in the fridge for nearly 12 hours). As the morning progressed, I made the sweet potato souffle (having made the cheeseball last night), Rachel worked on the rolls, Lynn made the green bean casserole (using green & wax beans from her garden), Doug made the mashed ‘tatoes (having made cranberries the day before), and Rachel made the apple pie. Mom and dad carved the turkey (which turned out beautifully). And then we feasted at 2pm.


The feast, lovingly prepared by all.

Once we got the kitchen cleaned up again, we all crashed, some napping, others watching Love, Actually on cable. I napped a little, and now I’m typing this up.

We still have pies. Amy & Rachel’s friends Becky & Michelle will be arriving around 7:30pm for games, leftovers, and DESSERT. Mom baked her pumpkin pies yesterday and as I mentioned just now, Rachel baked an apple pie.


Mom’s pumpkin pies.


Rachel’s apple pie (with snowflake cut-outs).

Oh, and just cuz I can, gratuitous cat photo:


Früvous helped out by staying out of the way.

We said thanks before we had our feast. Today in particular, I am thankful that we were able to gather for this. Thank you, Amy & Rachel for making all of this possible. 🙂

Sister Visit

Here we are at my sister’s apartment. Mom, dad, and I got up at 0’dark-thirty this morning to head for the airport. We had a 7am flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul. We arrived nearly 2 hours ahead of time and had no issues with security (though dad and I somehow managed to get in the express line while mom took the long way though – still, it gave me time to have breakfast – a Cinnabon Pecanbon). Though we had to wait for the plane to be de-iced, we arrived in MSP on time. We were at the far end of the airport, so it took us awhile to reach baggage claim. And lovely Rachel was there waiting. Yay Rachel!

Dad and I waited for the bags while Rachel walked mom down to Starbucks. And our bags arrived very quickly. Once we were all together again, Rachel drove us to Amy’s workplace and we enjoyed some coffee & cookies (turkey-shaped gingerbread) in honor of the upcoming holiday. The office space is very nice. As were the cookies, come to that. 🙂

As Rachel hadn’t had breakfast yet, we stopped at Bruegger’s Bagels for some bagels. I had rosemary & olive oil with cream cheese – very yummy! Rachel then took us to their apartment (home for now) and we greeted Früvous, who growled & swiped in response. (He’s such a cute, grumpy cat.) We vegged in the apartment some, then mom made the crusts for her pumpkin pies, then we vegged some more.

Around lunchtime, we headed back to Amy’s work and got to see her cubicle. Cute cubicle! And with the new park across the street, she even has a nice view. We walked a couple of blocks to a coffee shop in the Open Book complex. I had grilled panini (sour dough) with cheddar and their autumn minestrone soup. Very tasty! We were all happy to let dad foot the bill. 🙂

On our way back home, we stopped at their Co-op to pick up the turkey. It’s a 16lb free range turkey (though why Rachel had to pay for it if it was free, I’ll never know… 😉 Amy’s gonna be the Master Chef for tomorrow’s meal, so most of us will get to relax (and watch the parade, ha ha!)

We’re back in a vegetative state while we await Amy’s return from work. I decided to read my flist & update my journal in this time. The girls are reading and I believe dad is napping. Yup, this family knows how to par-tay! 😉

Labor Day Weekend

We had a lovely labor day weekend because Amy & Rachel decided to visit us. They arrived Wednesday night and we spent Saturday-Monday at the folks’ cottage at the Lake. It was fun hanging with the girls and the parental units. Amy’s friend Alissa (pronounced a-lEEsa) and Alissa’s boyfriend Jon joined us for some of the weekend. And Aunt Becky came up some last evening for supper & card games. It was great seeing my sister & Rachel (who’s practically my sister too) again and I hope they had a pleasant flight home & have a great day relaxing with Früvous (their cat) tomorrow.

I’d write more details, but I’m too sleepy (and have a cold – which started up about 4 hours before the girls were supposed to arrive on Wednesday – bleh!) so I’m off to bed. Hope you all have a lovely Tuesday!

Back home to the Heat

Ah, it’s good to be home. I really had a great time with Amy & Rachel this weekend – no question about it – but it’s always nice to get back home. I seem to have brought the hellish heat with me, unfortunately.

Yesterday was a pretty easy-going day. Rachel had to go off to work for the morning, so Amy & I had breakfast without her. Cereal, toasted sour dough roll with butter, and a peach was my breakfast. Yummy. (No, not extravagant like the rest of the weekend, but even breakfast gurus like Amy need a break sometimes.) I was very sleepy during the morning and didn’t move around a lot But after my shower, I woke up. Unfortunately, I then got captured by a video game on the BBC site. As Amy said to Rachel when she got home “she just sort of disappeared.” But I successfully completed it, so we all went off to lunch.

We walked out into the near 100°F weather to the New Delhi Bar & Restaurant. Mmmmm, Indian Fud! We had the buffet and enjoyed it. But then we had to walk home in the heat. Gah! Still, we managed it and then crashed. We did get the energy to play Trivial Pursuit, however. Amy whupped our butts. Heh, I came in third. Amy had made us cosmopolitans (easy on the cranberry juice cocktail) and we had those & chips and the last of the sesame sticks. Worked for me for supper. Heh.

Amy drove us to the airport, and I was there by 6:30. Everything went smoothly. So smoothly, we arrived more than half an hour before the scheduled time. Mom & Dad, thus, were a bit late in picking me up. But they arrived & took me home. Yay!

Today was back to work. And eep! There’s only 2 more weeks before the place is inundated with teachers.

ETA: URL for the BBC game.