Tag: amy

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime

Although I haven’t been posting, I have been having a great end of the year. Amy arrived on Christmas and we had lunch at Waffle House* on our way back from the airport. That night was festivities with dad’s side of the family, and next day was a party at our house with mom’s side of the family. And that night I Skyped with and which was fun. But yesterday, we actually got to have Christmas for ourselves, and once again, we won at Christmas**. 🙂

We have Amy with us till the day after my birthday (so till Friday) and we intend to enjoy her company as much as we can. Yesterday, after presents, we took a walk downtown and wound up doing Happy Hour at the Caroline. Mom and Amy and I have been mainlining episodes of season 1 of House of Cards*** (the US version with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright) while dad hides in his den. (He’s not into political maneuvering and shenanigans, and I’m beginning to see why. Heh.)

I’m hoping y’all are also having a nice end to 2014 and I hope that 2015 starts out wonderfully for you.

*Well, it was one of the few places open on Christmas day. Though we felt bad for the joint – busy as they were, their ATM, phone, and credit card machine all crapped out at the same time. Basically, the phone died and took everything with it. Thankfully we had cash as did other customers. Christmas is one of Waffle House’s busiest days. We even had a 20 minute wait before we had a seat. I decided to have second breakfast and it was yummy.

**Lots of fun stuff from the folks and Amy and others. Some new outfits, sweatshirts, books, Doctor Who DVDs, and a couple of new appliances – egg hardboiler (cuz I was envious of mom’s) and smoothie maker (cuz my blender just doesn’t have the power). We all had stockings this year, which was fun to help fill. Mom made the stockings and they’re lovely.

***Last time I had the DVD set from the library, I managed to get the first three episodes watched before my 1 week time was up. This time I have the set for 3 weeks and recommended to mom and Amy to catch up and we could watch together. Amy did her homework (she has Netflix) and mom got started on hers and finished up once Amy had arrived. We’re all pretty captivated for now.

That time between summer and autumn…

Once again, I have gone too far between LJ posts and mother has e-mailed me asking me when I will next update… I kept meaning to update – I wanted to tell about my lovely visit with Amy (my sis) and to go over the books which I read over break and even a post talking about The Bunny Hour. But I just couldn’t get a round tuit for the job. Perhaps this will get some of my writing urges satisfied…

I should first explain the title of this post. As far as I’m concerned, summer ended on August 15th when I reported to work (well to UVMC hospital) for the new school year. As soon as summer break is over, IMO, summer itself is over. However, we’ve got till September 20th for the vernal equinox. So this is some weird purgatory of time between seasons for me. Hot & shitty (which it hasn’t been since June, thankfully) and yet we’re in school. Thanks Nature!

I can’t complain though. I had a fabulous summer vacation. After my trip to Chicago, I headed out the following Saturday to Minneapolis to hang out with my sis. Let’s see how much I can recall…

Saturday: Left the house at 4:30am or so (bloody early), flew to O’Hare and then onto Minneapolis/St Paul airport. I had an Egg McMuffin & hashbrown at O’Hare and Amy had breakfast before she picked me up. So we started our time together at IKEA (like you do). Hey, she had a huge rental vehicle, we were in the area, it was perfect. We stopped at a butcher’s on the way back to her place and got brats & corn on the cob for supper. Home for a bit, then off to Anchor Fish & Chips for… I’ll let you guess. Had a cider with it and it was yummy. We picked up some liquor essentials (and tasted wine & liquor) at Surdyk’s. I think we did a chicken check (the rest of Amy’s Coop Co-op was on a camping trip while I was invading). And Amy’s boyfriend came around for supper, which we grilled and was lovely. Amy also roasted some root vegetables and cooked up some kale.

Sunday: Amy and I took a walk to a nearby park, had cereal for breakfast, and went to United Noodles, an Asian supermarket with a deli inside. It was quite a fun shopping experience, and the lunch was wonderful. I wound up buying a variety of candies/cookies (stuff like Pocky and some other things). I’m still eating ’em! We also had some shopping adventures, but now I can’t recall which days had which trips. See, this is why I should type it up the day of, Trina! Sheesh. I do remember that we had leftover brats & corn Sunday night.

Monday: Rachel joined Amy and I for our walk. We also went to a nice breakfast place in St. Paul (the Buttered Tin) before Rachel had to head off to work. They were also a bakery and had some lovely cupcakes. So I got some for Amy and I to share, and one for Rachel to have when she had a break at work. Supper was more grilling – I mixed up the Miss Chick marinade (similar to what is used at the Poultry Days festival in Versailles) and Amy chopped the chicken (which was finally, nearly, thawed) earlier in the day. We grilled it that evening and Rachel joined us again. It was very yummy!

Tuesday: We had another morning walk which took us by a donut shop (but as none of us brought money, we bought no donuts) and a Cuban restaurant that sounded good. Amy made us egg sandwiches for breakfast. I later suggested the Cuban place (Victor’s) for lunch, so we walked there. Amy got a cubano and I had the “love” Cuban pork sandwich. We split a tropical salad as appetizer and shared beans&rice and fried yuca. It was all wonderful, and Amy got some nice leftovers. Soon, however, it was time for me to go back to the airport. (First I had to ask Curtis, Amy’s lovely cat, to get off of my suitcase. He thought it was the perfect cat bed.)

I was supposed to get back to Dayton by 11:30pm. But before I could leave MSP, I had to have a plane. And it was 3 hours late. Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about missing my connecting flight out of O’Hare – same plane. My parents are the most wonderful parents – despite the lateness, they came and got me! 2:30am – bleh! (And this after getting up at o’dark thirty to take me in the first place!)

It was a great way to end my summer vacation. (Well, the next morning was a pool party at mom & dad’s community pool, so that also helped with the end.) Then that Friday, I started back to work! And we just finished our first full week of school. I think this is going to be a great school year. So far, I’m actually caught up in grading – whee! And now a 3-day weekend!

Interesting Start to the Year

We were very fortunate to have a long Winter Break – two full weeks. And then Mother Nature decided that wasn’t enough. Heh. Today was our third calamity day for 2014 and the fifth for this school year. And I ain’t complaining! I love unexpected days off (and today was a particularly unexpected one).

January 2nd was a very snowy day and I got a number of photos from my folks’ veranda, one of which I’ll share below (once I pick it). So we spent the day inside and enjoyed each others’ company. (I’d originally planned to take the kitties to their annual appointment, but decided to change it to another day.) A friend of Amy’s and former student of dad’s came around despite the crappy weather (he and his family were on their way to Chicago, but decided after the drive to Troy to give it up and return to Pleasant Hill). We had a nice time visiting with them. And then mom and Amy went to the post office and dropped me off at the Chinese place so I could get us lunch. It was a lovely snowy day.

Sadly, the 3rd was Amy’s last day with us, so we spent the morning just watching her. Heh. We got her off to the airport and she arrived home safely. Her luggage took longer, but she was finally reunited with it in the late evening. I also made my way home and got to spend the weekend (and the past 3 days) with my kitties.

Well, actually, Saturday I spent the day with the parental units. Mom and I attended WeightWatchers (ouch – up 5lbs from before the holidays!) and then the three of us had breakfast at Bob Evans. Then we went to see Catching Fire (the second Hunger Games movie). Mom and I were impressed with how faithful it was to the book. Dad isn’t really a fan of this style of story. (Postapocalyptic just isn’t this thang, I guess.)

Sunday was supposed to be the next big snowstorm followed by ultra-cold temps. Well, the snowfall wasn’t all that big, then it turned to rain. Still, I spent the day making soup and baking bread. It was lovely. The ultracold temps did come and turned the wet into ice and the rain into snow. And thus school was closed Monday. And then Tuesday.

By Tuesday afternoon, I was getting cabin fever, so I put on double/triple/quadruple layers and walked to the post office. Amy’s birthday gift to me (the game Ticket to Ride) showed up. Yay! I returned home with all of my appendages doing just fine.

Last night the school called to say we would be on a 2-hour delay this morning. So this morning I was up an hour later than I normally would be, and getting ready for work. And then they called again to say that, due to poor roads, school would be closed again. Whee!

I figured the main roads wouldn’t be as bad as the country roads and by 11am, I headed off to Piqua to go watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug for a second time. Turns out Piqua can show it in High Frame Rate. No more going down to Fairborn for HFR! Whee! I followed it up with a late lunch at Red Lobster. I also baked my first focaccia bread today (after making the dough yesterday and letting it proof today). Photo also included below.

So anyhoo, my Winter Break is now over (probably! Hopefully the salt could finally melt the ice on the streets!) and tomorrow I can be a responsible adult again. Heh. Till then, however, I’m gonna sit in my comfy chair with my kitty (Lucy right now) and veg out. Hope y’all have had an interesting start to 2014, too!

Here are the two photos I promised!

Snow on Jan 2
The patio doesn’t look as inviting when there’s several inches of snow on the furniture!

Focaccia!
My first attempt at focaccia! It looks (and smells) wonderful!

Goodbye to my Douglas Adams Year!

On Jan 1, 1971, at 12:16am, I came into the world. So for the past year, I was 42 years old. And I often wondered, in a solipsistic way, maybe Douglas Adams’ question is something along the lines of “What age will Trina be when she …?” “How old will Trina be when …” (put in your own humorous or not-so-humorous fill-ins for the blanks). With, of course, the answer being 42. But since the universe does NOT revolve around me (I was 99.9999% sure this was the case), I got through the year with nothing untoward happening.

So anyhoo, we’ve been having a fabulous time with Amy in town. Mom and I had Baking Day on Christmas and dad worked on his Christmas toy for family members (a gragger – nice and loud and fun). Thursday (Boxing Day) I wrapped presents. Friday was the busiest day of my time off.

I started Friday morning with a doctor’s appointment. (I’m quite healthy – whee! – and 19lbs lighter than my last appt.) Then I headed off to mom & dad’s for the family gatherings. We first went to Uncle Bob’s (mom’s side) at Indian Lake. It was good to see my cousin (currently living in Texas) and her girls again. Hadn’t seen her oldest in a couple of years. We had a lovely afternoon of food and fellowship.

We then headed back home to refill on cookies and then headed off to Aunt Becky’s (dad’s side). There was even more food and fellowship there (and I was surprised that I was hungry after the Anderson gathering). We left from there to go pick up Amy at the airport.

Amy’s flight got in early, but they had some tarmac wait time. Still, we were hugging her around the time of the original arrival time. Yay! Once home we chatted for awhile before finally getting to bed.

Saturday morning was our “Christmas.” We had Egg McMikey sammiches (dad’s specialty) and opened our stockings. Then present opening occurred. We know how to do present opening! It was after noon before we finished. Heh. Lunch was hamburgers and mac&cheese.

We took a walk that afternoon since it was going to be the warmest day Amy was in town. Since it wasn’t really Christmas, Mojo’s (a local bar) was our destination. We had drinks and snacks and then tottled back home.

Sunday included lunch at Harrison’s in Tipp City with friends (we wanted to show off Amy) and then some resting and relaxing. Monday included a shopping trip to Kohl’s where I got a new watch band and a WeightWatchers approved scale for under $5 (yay Kohl’s Bucks!)

Yesterday (New Years’ Eve) I popped home to check on the kitties and then mom, Amy, and I went to the Y for a Zumba Gold class and a line dancing class. We were the only folks who showed up, so we claim that we were the best students that day. 🙂

Our evening plan was to go to The Filling Station for NYE along with mom’s BFF Debbie and her hubby, Ben. When we got there around 6:30, they asked if we had reservations. Mom had TRIED to get reservations earlier in the week but they claimed then they weren’t taking reservations since they were having a live band. Thankfully, since we didn’t want to sit on the side of the bar where the band was, they had room for us. All but dad ordered the prime rib special (which wasn’t all that special) and dad had fried shrimp.

Mom, Deb, Amy and I played games (Pass the Pig, Zombie Dice, Euchre) while we waited for 2014 to show up. Part of the cover charge fee paid for party favors and champagne. They were running out of favors when they got to us, and the champagne may not have even had grapes, let alone alcohol. Still, we graggered the new year in once midnight hit.

We returned home around 1am and then mom and I prepared for breakfast: Eggnog French Toast.

Today was my birthday (no, duh!) so we started off with a great breakfast of eggnog french toast and bacon. Mmmm! Then I got to watch my parade. Love those folks in Pasadena – they always give me a parade. Lunch was pork and kraut and mashed potatoes and apple sauce. My cousin, Patty, joined us for lunch. We then had cookies and conversation. Uncle Doug and Aunt Charlene joined us after awhile and we continued eating and chatting.

Now I’m typing this up and looking over at my birthday presents. Whee! I think we’ll get to those soon enough!

Happy New Year to all of you! May 2014 be a great year for you!

Thanksgiving Adventures!

The folks and I decided that we had so much fun last year at Amy’s for thanksgiving, we’d ask if she’d have us back again this year. She (foolishly?) said yes, so we’re back in Minnesota again.

Amy decided that we’d have roast chicken this year instead of roast turkey, which was just fine with me. Turkey is OK, but chicken is very yummy. Especially the dark meat. So we developed a plan of attack for the meal. Cheeseball made and pies baked on Wednesday night, everything else on Thursday morning.

The cheeseball went smoothly (my usual “Thanksgiving Cheeseball”) but Amy had some issues with the pie crust. They were using white whole wheat flour and it didn’t work as well with Rachel’s mom’s pie crust recipe as regular white flour did. And then Amy discovered that her sweet potatoes had some bad spots she’d not planned on. Still, by the time we headed for bed, her pie and the apple pie that Rachel had made both looked wonderful. Pre-prep was done. On to Thursday!

This morning we lazed about some before I started on the rolls. I found a nice recipe from King Arthur Flour’s website and decided to give it a try. Once the dough was proofing, I turned on the oven to a low heat to get things started.

Amy started by chopping up the root vegetables for roasting (with Rachel cleaning) and I got the potatoes cut for future mashed potatoes. Then mom and I cut up the ingredients for a Pear Cranberry Chutney recipe she’d gotten from WeightWatchers. Since Cilantro tastes of soap to me, we substituted parsley for it. The recipe was claimed to go well with roast chicken. (They were right!)

Amy then started prepping the chicken – she’d found a nice recipe online (I think this was it) that looked pretty easy and that she had ingredients for. She discovered that the chicken wasn’t as thawed as it originally looked, but she took care of that hurdle only to discover a bigger hurdle – the oven hadn’t gotten any warmer than 150F since we first turned it on. The root vegetables weren’t getting roasted and the chicken wasn’t going to get so either. Eep!

Dad checked in the basement to see if any of the circuit breakers had flipped (Amy has an electric oven) but flipping them off & on did nothing for the oven. The burners worked just fine. Thankfully, Rachel’s apartment isn’t too far away, so she and I bundled up the rolls, chicken, and root veg for a trip over to her place. There, we baked everything and played with Charlotte (her kitty) and our phones (we both have Galaxy SIIIs).

The chicken reached it’s proper temp with 4 minutes to go on the timer, so we bundled everything back up and returned to the folks and Amy. Turns out the chicken was dripping red (gah – the recipe LIED) so some zapping in the microwave took care of the final cooking. While Rachel and I were baking, Amy was making the rest of the food. She had brussel sprouts going in one skillet and kale in another. And I got to mash the potatoes when I got back. Then Amy made a gravy (with mom’s help) of the drippings from the chicken.

Lunch was late (or supper was early) but it was simply wonderful. Despite the setbacks, the food was delicious. The rolls were declared “even better that my mom’s” by someone whose identity I will protect, just in case… 😉 So I think we’ll be keeping that recipe around for the future.

I am thankful for so much more than I can type, but for now I’ll just say that I’m thankful for the family I was born into and the friends that I have chosen in my life. We rock!

First Day of School!

Today was the first day of school – whee!

My end of summer was really packed full of action & adventure, which is why I’ve not updated my journal in that time. I finished up my visit with Amy (more details later, I hope!) and the day after I returned, flew in for a week spent at mom & dad’s cottage at the Lake. And as we were at the lake (soon joined by ) we didn’t have any internet connection. Yeah, yeah, excuses, excuses!

Still, I decided I wanted to have something interesting in this post, so I’ve uploaded a short video that I filmed at Open Streets MPLS while visiting Amy. We rode bikes to Lake St and then got on Minnehaha which was blocked off to street traffic for about 20 blocks. While perusing the various things going on, we saw a group of tap dancers from Keane Sense of Rhythm demonstrating their craft and giving mini lessons to folks interested. I filmed them for a bit and have edited the video a little for your enjoyment as well. The song playing while they tapped was “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train.

Oh, and I just want to brag here – I was able to finish reading 30 books during the summer! I’ll update my summer stats at another later post (probably).

Minneapolis Visit 2013

I love getting the chance to visit my sister in Minneapolis and so I’ve flown from Ohio to Atlanta and then up to MSP in order to do so once again! (The nice thing is that, though I flew AirTran, since I bought the tickets from Southwest, I got to use their rules and so my checked bag was free!)

I got up early yesterday morning (4:30 – blech!) and mom took me to the airport. Both the Ohio leg and Atlanta leg of the trip were uneventful. Amy picked me up at baggage claim and we returned to her place. Sadly, she was unable to get the day off work (though Monday and Tuesday she has off – whee!) but was able to work from home. So while she worked, I looked through the BiteSquad offerings to see what we could have delivered for lunch. We settled on Manny’s Tortas and Amy got a Cuban torta and I got Manny’s Special. The website didn’t say what was all on the sandwich, but we were willing to risk it. Turns out it had steak, ham, mushrooms, and their usual toppings (avocado, jalapeno and chipotle peppers, cheese, grilled onions, etc.) I’d not had a torta before and Amy described it to me as a Mexican “Great Steak and Fry” which described it well enough. Oh, and you get a bag of Lays potato chips with the torta order.

The BiteSquad website is nifty cuz it contiually refreshes the page to tell you where it is in the order. It was a Friday and the peak of the lunch time, so it was about an hour from when we made the order to when the BiteSquad dude dropped off the order. We sat outside on Amy’s patio and enjoyed our tortas and chips.

Amy was done with work by 4pm (she’d started early to get on the network before it got too busy at work) and so we figured out what our evening plans were from then. We both felt that a walk would be good and we might as well walk somewhere for supper. We used another website called WalkScore to find out what restaurants were nearby and how far the walk is. After much discussion and debate, we settled on Quang’s (a Viet Namese place) (with the option that if something along the way changed our minds, we’d go there instead). Turns out Quang’s was our eventual destination.

We started the meal with a steamed bun, which was HUGE and very yummy (and not on the menu, though it used to be). Then we both opted for the beef and egg roll vermicelli salad (bun thit nuong cha gio) for supper. This was a brilliant idea – a very yummy and refreshing salad (though with only a hint of greens. Heh). We both wound up with leftovers which we decided would make for a great breakfast. We also bought a (huge) chocolate chip cookie thinking we’d have it later in the evening.

Before heading home, we wandered back up the street beyond Quang’s to Glam Doll Donuts to see what all they had on offer. It’s a really cute store with some fun places to sit and eat. I picked up a cream filled donut and Amy chose a plain glazed donut. These, we figured, would complement our leftovers. We also popped into a new (to Amy) store called b. but didn’t see anything we could live without.

Since Amy had worked all day, she was too tired to do much else and thought sitting and reading would be a lovely way to finish the evening. I agreed. So once we were home, we sat in her living room and geeked on our laptops and then read until bedtime. A lovely day spent with my sister. (Oh, and we didn’t eat any of the cookie that night.)

This morning, we did as promised and had our leftovers and donuts. We were both a little disappointed in the donuts as, despite being yeast donuts, they were too dense (more like cake donut density). Ah well, now we know better than to waste our WeightWatchers points on Glam Doll donuts. Still, breakfast was yummy and I supplimented mine with a peach.

Our main morning goal was to get some summer fruit for Amy to freeze for the winter months. We stopped at the Midtown Farmer’s market for blueberries (Minnesota grown) and she picked up 6 pints for $20. They have been lovely tasting blueberries, too. Then we went to her local co-op, Seward, and she bought a case of peaches (Michigan and Wisconsin grown). A quick stop at a liquor store allowed dad to buy us some rum and gin and beer and cider. Thanks dad! (I love it when he gives us “bad girl money” to spend on liquor and chocolate!) And then we returned home.

Since we hadn’t yet gotten any real exercise for the day, we decided to go for a walk to our lunch place. This again required some discussion and debate and our eventual choice was Butter. I had a BLT and their pesto pasta salad and both were yummy. We returned home and then headed off on a grand adventure.

Yesterday, Amy and I went across the street to a neighbor of hers who had two old IKEA chairs and a matching ottoman available for anyone to take. Our goal today was to find some fabric and foam rubber to replace the cushions on the chairs. Amy drove us to Crafty Planet for some fun fabric and then onto Jo-Ann’s for some foam rubber. Since the Jo-Ann’s was near a Best Buy, we popped in there for some Cat-5 cable as well. (Not for the chairs, but for another project.)

We have since returned home and our evening plans involve grilling out and having Amy’s friend Kyle around for dinner. Should be some good geeky fun (among other things, he’s a Doctor Who fan).

Welcome 2013!

Nearly a week into the new year and I’m finally posting. I blame my sinus infection. When I wasn’t hanging out with the folks and Amy (or working), I was getting sleep to fight my sinus infection.

But I’m feeling almost normal (or as normal as I can be) and have a bit of time this morning to type up a post about the end of 2012 and start of 2013.

Amy arrived late on Friday evening and it was lovely to have her home again. We did Christmas morning on Saturday, then. First stockings, full of fun, small kitchen gadgets, then breakfast. Dad grilled us Egg McMikey’s and served ’em on the English Muffin Toasting Bread that I had baked for just that occassion.

We opened lots of presents and, once again, won at Christmas. Mom and I even zipped off to the Co-op in the middle in order to pick up a few supplies (and then to Kroger to pick up one more Christmas pressie). I got lots of nifty stuff, including a mini-cannon (which actually fires), bread baking supplies, nice clothes (most of which fit), and an HO train car, just like Christmasses when I was a kid. Lovely nostalgia. 🙂

Sunday was mom’s day to shine. She decided to make a true Anderson dinner. Her brothers and my cousins were invited around for dinner and she made fried chicken and noodles like Grandma. Amy and I helped with other things, like banana salad and rolls. I decided NOT to make Grandma’s tapioca, because the last time I’d made it, everyone tasted it and said “Gee, this tastes just like Grandma’s tapioca. I never did like her tapioca!” Heh.

Monday was New Years Eve and we had a relaxing day which finished off with us having snacks and watching Trading Places and The Amazing Spider-Man before the ball dropped. I fired my cannon during the countdown (almost timing it perfectly).

New Years Day was even more relaxing. Mom made us baked oatmeal for breakfast. I got to watch my parade (thank you Pasadena!). I finished reading The Casual Vacancy. We had pork and kraut for lunch. I opened birthday presents. Money to buy Neil Innes, new box-set and a Mah Jongg tile set in handy carrying case. Sadly, I then had to go home that evening because I worked the next day.

I felt bad for my students. Even though I felt fine, by this point in my sinus infection, I had practically lost my voice. I felt like a cough drop addict on Thursday. But on Friday, during physics, my ear canal finally drained and I could hear again. And today I feel even better.

So a nice, quiet start to the New Year. That works for me! I hope others have had a great start and that 2013 turns out to be the Best Year Ever!

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!