Today was another busy but productive day. I got up early (7:30 am) to go babysit for Eli and Talia while Shosh went to the doctor. Talia was pretty fussy, but it was only for a couple of hours, so it was fine. Eli was in such a goofy mood, it was the cutest thing! My favorite moment was when I was trying to get Talia to stop crying, and I kept saying "What's the matter, Talia?", and after a while, I said it one time and Eli repeated, "whassa matter, Talia?" I cracked up, lol, he is SO CUTE! :-)
Anyway, after Shosh got home, we hung out for a little bit, and then I came home. I got home around 1:15 or so, ate lunch, and then relaxed for a little bit. I decided that if I didn't hear back from Nora by 3:30, I was going to go ahead and finish Julia's montage - put it on DVD and everything. Of course, I never heard back from her, so I went ahead and did it anyway, then sent her an email asking if she and Julia had had a chance to look at the final montage yet and also asking if I could come drop the DVD off tomorrow afternoon (I'm babysitting again tomorrow, and Joel and Shosh's house is about halfway out to where they live, so I'd rather go right after babysitting than have to double back later in the evening). I said in the email that if I didn't hear back from her, I would assume that it's fine. I haven't heard back yet...we'll see if I have anything from her in the morning. If not, I'm totally just gonna go anyway, and if she's not home, I'll leave it in the mailbox :-P
Marcus got home before I finished the DVD. It took FOREVER to burn for some reason, but it finally finished, and I was able to create the label for it and everything. Marcus helped me out by creating an invoice for the project (we had a little argument because he wanted me to add in more stuff, and I told him no, because it wasn't what Nora and I had discussed, and he thinks I'm short-changing myself, but whatever), which I also printed out to take with me tomorrow. Then we ate dinner and watched the Braves game.
After the game, I got a facebook event invitation for my 10-year high school reunion. I am SO bummed out that I won't be able to go, because it's over Thanksgiving weekend, and we'll be in Florida this year (we've been in Maryland the last two years - we have a two years and two years arrangement, it's a little complicated). The nostalgia junkie in me has been looking forward to this reunion pretty much since graduation...and now I can't go :-( Although I have already gotten a couple of facebook comments from friends who also can't go, so that makes me feel a LITTLE better, that some of the people I'd want to see if I went aren't going to be there anyway.
Then Marcus and I played cards for a while. It's been a long time since we've done that, it was really nice (and fun!). I kicked his butt at gin rummy and crazy eights, and then he kicked my butt at casino (even though I skunked him the first round) - pretty much on par for us, haha ;-)
I think I'm going to head to bed early (as in, as soon as I finish writing this), because I'm exhausted and I have another long and busy day tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
You are getting sleeeeepyyyyy
Well, actually, *I* am getting sleepy. So this will be a short post.
I had kind of a slow start this morning, but once I got moving, I was fairly productive. I managed to pretty much finish up Julia's montage, and posted it to youtube around 12:30 pm. Then I pretty much just vegged for the rest of the afternoon.
When Marcus got home, we went to the gym, then came back and cooked dinner (yummy pasta again!) for our friends Cat and Drew, who came over around 7:30. They brought a delicious apple and blueberry pie for dessert, and we mostly ate and talked, and also played a quick game of Blokus (which they also brought). After they left, we cleaned up and started to get ready for bed.
Then I got an email from Nora (Julia's mom) about the montage. She liked it, but was wondering where the video clip was that I was supposed to add in. I did add it in, but apparently it got lost somewhere in the upload to youtube. So I had to go back and re-add it back in, and re-upload it to youtube. Thankfully, it worked this time, so I sent her the new link, and we shall see what she says in the morning.
And now I am going to bed, because I have to get up early tomorrow (7:30) to go babysit Eli and Talia. Goodnight all!
I had kind of a slow start this morning, but once I got moving, I was fairly productive. I managed to pretty much finish up Julia's montage, and posted it to youtube around 12:30 pm. Then I pretty much just vegged for the rest of the afternoon.
When Marcus got home, we went to the gym, then came back and cooked dinner (yummy pasta again!) for our friends Cat and Drew, who came over around 7:30. They brought a delicious apple and blueberry pie for dessert, and we mostly ate and talked, and also played a quick game of Blokus (which they also brought). After they left, we cleaned up and started to get ready for bed.
Then I got an email from Nora (Julia's mom) about the montage. She liked it, but was wondering where the video clip was that I was supposed to add in. I did add it in, but apparently it got lost somewhere in the upload to youtube. So I had to go back and re-add it back in, and re-upload it to youtube. Thankfully, it worked this time, so I sent her the new link, and we shall see what she says in the morning.
And now I am going to bed, because I have to get up early tomorrow (7:30) to go babysit Eli and Talia. Goodnight all!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Manic Monday
Days like today are why the term "manic Monday" came about. I'm heading to bed early (as soon as I finish writing this, in fact) in hopes of recovering and catching up a little bit on sleep!
I woke up at 6 am this morning, and while I was attempting to fall back asleep, was startled awake again by a loud noise from somewhere outside (it sounded like a gunshot, but maybe that's just my imagination, since I haven't heard about any shootings...). After that, it took me a LONG time to fall back asleep, and when I finally did, I had a very unsettling dream about my car, in which it ended up having even more problems than those that were already there. Needless to say, I did NOT want to get up when my alarm went off at 8! But I had to, because I had a lot on the docket for today.
First order of business - took my car in to get the tire fixed. Luckily, they were able to plug the hole and didn't have to replace the tire, so I didn't have to pay anything! It also only took them about 20 minutes or so, which was nice. I brought my computer with me and worked on Julia's montage while they were fixing my car.
When I got home, I worked on the montage for a couple of hours longer. I got a lot done, and I'm HOPING to be able to finish it (or at least get really, really close to finishing it) tomorrow. We'll see how that goes, haha.
Then I just hung out for a while. Walked down and got the mail, of which there was a TON - I guess we forgot to get it on Saturday, haha. When Marcus got home, we took out the trash, then ate dinner. We were both feeling lazy, so we just kind of grabbed whatever out of the pantry. I had a tuna pack and he had a bowl of cereal! Then we watched Jeopardy together, then I watched Secret Life (can't wait for next week's season finale!), and we watched the new episode of Millionaire Matchmaker together. It was a rare episode where I actually liked both of the millionaires, haha, so that was fun. We also paid rent for next month and Marcus emailed his mom about houses and such.
So, it was a very busy and productive day, which leaves me feeling tired, but accomplished (which is a rare treat for me these days). Tomorrow should be another fun one, not much during the day other than finishing the montage, but after Marcus gets home it will be super busy!
I woke up at 6 am this morning, and while I was attempting to fall back asleep, was startled awake again by a loud noise from somewhere outside (it sounded like a gunshot, but maybe that's just my imagination, since I haven't heard about any shootings...). After that, it took me a LONG time to fall back asleep, and when I finally did, I had a very unsettling dream about my car, in which it ended up having even more problems than those that were already there. Needless to say, I did NOT want to get up when my alarm went off at 8! But I had to, because I had a lot on the docket for today.
First order of business - took my car in to get the tire fixed. Luckily, they were able to plug the hole and didn't have to replace the tire, so I didn't have to pay anything! It also only took them about 20 minutes or so, which was nice. I brought my computer with me and worked on Julia's montage while they were fixing my car.
When I got home, I worked on the montage for a couple of hours longer. I got a lot done, and I'm HOPING to be able to finish it (or at least get really, really close to finishing it) tomorrow. We'll see how that goes, haha.
Then I just hung out for a while. Walked down and got the mail, of which there was a TON - I guess we forgot to get it on Saturday, haha. When Marcus got home, we took out the trash, then ate dinner. We were both feeling lazy, so we just kind of grabbed whatever out of the pantry. I had a tuna pack and he had a bowl of cereal! Then we watched Jeopardy together, then I watched Secret Life (can't wait for next week's season finale!), and we watched the new episode of Millionaire Matchmaker together. It was a rare episode where I actually liked both of the millionaires, haha, so that was fun. We also paid rent for next month and Marcus emailed his mom about houses and such.
So, it was a very busy and productive day, which leaves me feeling tired, but accomplished (which is a rare treat for me these days). Tomorrow should be another fun one, not much during the day other than finishing the montage, but after Marcus gets home it will be super busy!
What happened to the weekend?!?
I can't believe the weekend is already over, it went by SO fast! And this week is going to be insanely busy...at least I have our Chattanooga trip to look forward to at the end of it.
I got up early (for a weekend) this morning, around 9:30. Marcus had gotten up to head out to the APO section event, and I couldn't fall back asleep, so I just decided to get up since I had a lot to do today. I spent the morning doing laundry, then headed out around 2:15 to go to Eli's birthday party. I had to take side streets because of my spare tire, which went fine, although the tire seems to be running low. But I'm taking the car in tomorrow morning, so as long as I can make it to the dealership okay, it should be fine.
Anyway, the birthday party was fun! There were lots of adorable little kids there, and I ate way more than I should have. Eli seemed to enjoy himself - his favorite part was chowing down on grapes and watermelon! This child is a watermelon addict, seriously, it's hilarious! Especially since he calls it "waterlemon"...every other sentence out of his mouth is, "more waterlemon please!", lol :-) It was really hot out, so I've been super tired since I got home - too much sun, I think.
When we got home (Marcus came a little later to the party, straight from the APO event), we cooled off for about 15 minutes, then headed back out to go grocery shopping (Marcus drove). We decided to stop at Menchie's and get some frozen yogurt on our way home, which was a nice treat. Then Marcus headed over to David's house for a True Blood viewing party, and I stayed home and watched Food Network.
I have a really busy week planned, and it just keeps getting busier! So far, this is what I've got on the schedule:
Monday - certify unemployment, take my car in, work on Julia's montage, pay rent, watch Secret Life
Tuesday - finish Julia's montage and post it to youtube for final review, gym, Cat and Drew coming over for dinner
Wednesday - babysit Eli and Talia, finalize Julia's montage and burn it to DVD
Thursday - babysit Eli and Talia, deliver montage DVD to Nora, gym, pack for weekend trip
Friday - leave for Chattanooga!
I'll try to keep up with the blog posting, too!
I got up early (for a weekend) this morning, around 9:30. Marcus had gotten up to head out to the APO section event, and I couldn't fall back asleep, so I just decided to get up since I had a lot to do today. I spent the morning doing laundry, then headed out around 2:15 to go to Eli's birthday party. I had to take side streets because of my spare tire, which went fine, although the tire seems to be running low. But I'm taking the car in tomorrow morning, so as long as I can make it to the dealership okay, it should be fine.
Anyway, the birthday party was fun! There were lots of adorable little kids there, and I ate way more than I should have. Eli seemed to enjoy himself - his favorite part was chowing down on grapes and watermelon! This child is a watermelon addict, seriously, it's hilarious! Especially since he calls it "waterlemon"...every other sentence out of his mouth is, "more waterlemon please!", lol :-) It was really hot out, so I've been super tired since I got home - too much sun, I think.
When we got home (Marcus came a little later to the party, straight from the APO event), we cooled off for about 15 minutes, then headed back out to go grocery shopping (Marcus drove). We decided to stop at Menchie's and get some frozen yogurt on our way home, which was a nice treat. Then Marcus headed over to David's house for a True Blood viewing party, and I stayed home and watched Food Network.
I have a really busy week planned, and it just keeps getting busier! So far, this is what I've got on the schedule:
Monday - certify unemployment, take my car in, work on Julia's montage, pay rent, watch Secret Life
Tuesday - finish Julia's montage and post it to youtube for final review, gym, Cat and Drew coming over for dinner
Wednesday - babysit Eli and Talia, finalize Julia's montage and burn it to DVD
Thursday - babysit Eli and Talia, deliver montage DVD to Nora, gym, pack for weekend trip
Friday - leave for Chattanooga!
I'll try to keep up with the blog posting, too!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Oy, too much stress!
So much for a relaxing weekend. Today started off innocently enough. I got up around 11:30. Marcus left at 12:30 to go shop with A and some others for the APO section event tomorrow, and I left around the same time to go over to Marsha's. We hung out at her house for a while, had some yummy waffles, and then decided to go check out a flea market. It was about 45 minutes away (not too bad), and we ended up spending a couple of hours walking around there. We got some yummy Italian ices and saw lots of cool stuff! We got back to her house around 5:30, at which point I looked at my car and saw that I had a flat tire. So I called AAA, and the guy came out 15 minutes later! This is the first time I've ever had a AAA person make it out in less than an hour, haha, which was awesome! He put my spare tire on, and then Marcus showed up. I had called him to let him know what was going on, because we had a dinner reservation at 7, and when I originally called AAA, they had said the guy would come anytime "between now and 7:17", so Marcus had decided to head over so we could go to dinner straight from Marsha's. Luckily, we were able to leave her house around 6:30, so we were on time for our reservation!
This week is Restaurant Week for Midtown Atlanta, which means a whole bunch of restaurants have special 3-course menus for $25 or $35 per person. We had looked through the menus and picked one to go to, it was a restaurant called Steel. Our dinner was DELICIOUS! Their regular menu is a bit out of our typical price range, and the $25 3-course menu was a steal of a deal given their normal prices. We were so full after dinner that we almost couldn't walk back to the car!
Anyway, we headed back to Marsha's after dinner to get my car, which I drove home with no issues. I'm a little concerned about the spare tire, because I'm supposed to drive to Dunwoody and back tomorrow for Eli's birthday party, and the car place is closed on Sundays, so I can't take it in to get the regular tire fixed until Monday morning, so that's a LOT of driving on the spare. The AAA guy assured me that it would be fine, that I "could drive on it for a week if I needed to", but that I shouldn't drive over 50 MPH on it. So I'm now planning to take surface streets tomorrow rather than the highway (which is fine, since they've been doing massive weekend construction on 285 anyway), but I'm still a little concerned about the spare tire holding out :-/
In other exciting (to me, anyway) news, several extended cousins from my mom's generation had a family reunion in Maine a couple of weeks ago. They are trying to get the WHOLE family back in touch, and to get many more people (including me!) to come to the next reunion in a couple of years! So they created a facebook group for the family, and I of course went crazy adding people to it, lol. I'm so excited, I've always wanted to have a family reunion! And this is on a way bigger scale than I even imagined!
So, now I am exhausted and heading to bed. Hoping my family in DC and NY (and everywhere in between) holds out okay with the hurricane!
This week is Restaurant Week for Midtown Atlanta, which means a whole bunch of restaurants have special 3-course menus for $25 or $35 per person. We had looked through the menus and picked one to go to, it was a restaurant called Steel. Our dinner was DELICIOUS! Their regular menu is a bit out of our typical price range, and the $25 3-course menu was a steal of a deal given their normal prices. We were so full after dinner that we almost couldn't walk back to the car!
Anyway, we headed back to Marsha's after dinner to get my car, which I drove home with no issues. I'm a little concerned about the spare tire, because I'm supposed to drive to Dunwoody and back tomorrow for Eli's birthday party, and the car place is closed on Sundays, so I can't take it in to get the regular tire fixed until Monday morning, so that's a LOT of driving on the spare. The AAA guy assured me that it would be fine, that I "could drive on it for a week if I needed to", but that I shouldn't drive over 50 MPH on it. So I'm now planning to take surface streets tomorrow rather than the highway (which is fine, since they've been doing massive weekend construction on 285 anyway), but I'm still a little concerned about the spare tire holding out :-/
In other exciting (to me, anyway) news, several extended cousins from my mom's generation had a family reunion in Maine a couple of weeks ago. They are trying to get the WHOLE family back in touch, and to get many more people (including me!) to come to the next reunion in a couple of years! So they created a facebook group for the family, and I of course went crazy adding people to it, lol. I'm so excited, I've always wanted to have a family reunion! And this is on a way bigger scale than I even imagined!
So, now I am exhausted and heading to bed. Hoping my family in DC and NY (and everywhere in between) holds out okay with the hurricane!
TGIF!
I'm exhausted and so ready for the weekend!
Today ended up being much busier and more stressful than originally planned. I went over to Barnes & Noble this morning to try to find a good birthday present for Eli. I texted Shosh while I was there to ask whether he already had a few books, but eventually headed home for lunch. She finally texted me back after I got home, telling me that he doesn't have any of the books I mentioned, so after lunch, I headed back to Barnes & Noble and bought his present!
When I got home the second time, I had an email from Nora about Julia's photo montage. There was this video clip that they wanted to include, and we had communicated about my needing to pick it up from them. So at 3:30, I headed out to their house. I had plans with Rebeca at 7, but figured I had plenty of time, since I was just going to transfer this one video clip (which literally should take about 2 minutes). Well, long story short, I got stuck at their house for 2 and a half hours and was super late getting back for Rebeca. We were in touch the whole time, so it's not like she was here waiting for me, but I was super stressed out and pissed about the whole thing. I vented a lot already about this to Marcus and to Gabbie and now to Rebeca as well, so I'm not gonna write out the whole story again, but suffice it to say I am VERY glad I have the weekend to recover before I have to finish up the montage starting on Monday.
Anyway, Rebeca finally did get to come over, and we ate dinner (leftover pasta from last night) and watched a movie (40-Year-Old Virgin, which she had never seen!). It was the relaxing ending I needed to a stressful day. This weekend is actually looking pretty busy, but hopefully I'll get to sleep in and relax in addition to running all over Atlanta.
Today ended up being much busier and more stressful than originally planned. I went over to Barnes & Noble this morning to try to find a good birthday present for Eli. I texted Shosh while I was there to ask whether he already had a few books, but eventually headed home for lunch. She finally texted me back after I got home, telling me that he doesn't have any of the books I mentioned, so after lunch, I headed back to Barnes & Noble and bought his present!
When I got home the second time, I had an email from Nora about Julia's photo montage. There was this video clip that they wanted to include, and we had communicated about my needing to pick it up from them. So at 3:30, I headed out to their house. I had plans with Rebeca at 7, but figured I had plenty of time, since I was just going to transfer this one video clip (which literally should take about 2 minutes). Well, long story short, I got stuck at their house for 2 and a half hours and was super late getting back for Rebeca. We were in touch the whole time, so it's not like she was here waiting for me, but I was super stressed out and pissed about the whole thing. I vented a lot already about this to Marcus and to Gabbie and now to Rebeca as well, so I'm not gonna write out the whole story again, but suffice it to say I am VERY glad I have the weekend to recover before I have to finish up the montage starting on Monday.
Anyway, Rebeca finally did get to come over, and we ate dinner (leftover pasta from last night) and watched a movie (40-Year-Old Virgin, which she had never seen!). It was the relaxing ending I needed to a stressful day. This weekend is actually looking pretty busy, but hopefully I'll get to sleep in and relax in addition to running all over Atlanta.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Oops!
Just realized I completely forgot to post last night. I'm SO good at this blogging every day thing :-P
I let myself sleep in pretty late yesterday. I didn't get up until around 11. I then proceeded to have a pretty lazy day overall, watched the Braves game (which was an afternoon game) and job searched a little bit. When Marcus got home, we made pasta for dinner - it's our favorite recipe that we've tried so far from the cookbooks we've gotten over the past year or so. I'll post the recipe below so you can try it if you want! It's YUMMY!
Anyway, after dinner, we decided to watch a movie (yay, Netflix!). We browsed around for a while, and ended up watching Wet Hot American Summer, which I had never seen and had been wanting to see for a while. It was clever, I really enjoyed the sarcastic jabs at...well, pretty much everything, lol. Definitely entertaining.
We went to bed on the early side, around 11:30. That pretty much sums up the day, so I'll go ahead and post the recipe to finish this off!
Lemon-Pepper Pasta and Asparagus (from the Betty Crocker Easy Vegetarian cookbook)
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked farfalle (bowtie) pasta
1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
1 lb. asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 can (15-16 oz.) navy beans, drained and rinsed
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package.
2. Meanwhile, in 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, asparagus, lemon peel, salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender.
3. Stir in lemon juice and beans. Cook until beans are hot. Add pasta; toss with vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with pepper.
You can do variations, too. For example, we usually use yellow bell pepper instead of red, and we don't freshly grind the black pepper. It also says you can try using lime peel and juice instead of lemon - I'm sure this would be delicious, although we haven't tried it. We also never realized that step 3 probably means you're supposed to cook the lemon juice and beans separately and then add the pasta to it and THEN add the whole thing to the vegetables. We just cook it all (except for the pasta, which we add at the end) in the skillet.
Also, for those of you who are health-conscious like me, the cookbook actually tells you the nutrition information! Information is for one serving; remember there are four servings in the recipe (so eat 1/4 of what it makes).
Nutrition Info: Calories 400 (Calories from Fat 130), Total Fat 15g (Saturated Fat 2g), Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 410mg, Total Carbohydrates 52g (Dietary Fiber 9g), Protein 14g
I let myself sleep in pretty late yesterday. I didn't get up until around 11. I then proceeded to have a pretty lazy day overall, watched the Braves game (which was an afternoon game) and job searched a little bit. When Marcus got home, we made pasta for dinner - it's our favorite recipe that we've tried so far from the cookbooks we've gotten over the past year or so. I'll post the recipe below so you can try it if you want! It's YUMMY!
Anyway, after dinner, we decided to watch a movie (yay, Netflix!). We browsed around for a while, and ended up watching Wet Hot American Summer, which I had never seen and had been wanting to see for a while. It was clever, I really enjoyed the sarcastic jabs at...well, pretty much everything, lol. Definitely entertaining.
We went to bed on the early side, around 11:30. That pretty much sums up the day, so I'll go ahead and post the recipe to finish this off!
Lemon-Pepper Pasta and Asparagus (from the Betty Crocker Easy Vegetarian cookbook)
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked farfalle (bowtie) pasta
1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
1 lb. asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 can (15-16 oz.) navy beans, drained and rinsed
Freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
1. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package.
2. Meanwhile, in 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add bell pepper, asparagus, lemon peel, salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisp-tender.
3. Stir in lemon juice and beans. Cook until beans are hot. Add pasta; toss with vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with pepper.
You can do variations, too. For example, we usually use yellow bell pepper instead of red, and we don't freshly grind the black pepper. It also says you can try using lime peel and juice instead of lemon - I'm sure this would be delicious, although we haven't tried it. We also never realized that step 3 probably means you're supposed to cook the lemon juice and beans separately and then add the pasta to it and THEN add the whole thing to the vegetables. We just cook it all (except for the pasta, which we add at the end) in the skillet.
Also, for those of you who are health-conscious like me, the cookbook actually tells you the nutrition information! Information is for one serving; remember there are four servings in the recipe (so eat 1/4 of what it makes).
Nutrition Info: Calories 400 (Calories from Fat 130), Total Fat 15g (Saturated Fat 2g), Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 410mg, Total Carbohydrates 52g (Dietary Fiber 9g), Protein 14g
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