Twiddling my thumbs…for now

The bossy boss isn’t in yet so I thought I’d write something quick. Ummm…

Okay so this weekend was super relaxing. I got through tons of 30 Rock. The next episode in my lineup is Season 3, Episode 3. We also watched American Psycho. Hm, what else did I do…I saw Mandy, looked at her wedding color/dress, etc. Picked up a few groceries. Enjoyed the Keurig, as always. Ate light. Slept a lot. Edited Kev’s homework. We had a miscommunication about his assignment…that sucked…But other than that, a sucessfully lazy weekend.

I have a feeling that work will be pretty steady for the 3-day workweek (one word or two, I am so inconsistent with that word..damn) and when we get back next week it’ll be super busy. Boo. But I guess that’s good cause at least we’re getting new jobs in.

Hm everything else is pretty regs right now. I dropped a couple pounds, finally. I’ve gotta keep the momentum, but I sure as hell plan on enjoying a full plate of food on Thanksgiving. FOR SURE. My mom’s food is amazing – and she doesn’t skimp on the full-fat old school ingredients. I mostly love stuffing. Mmm. Nothing like bread squares with butter and herbs that were cooked inside the carcass of a bird that doesn’t fly. DEEELISH.

Argh, the Coug just walked in.

The week in a nutshell

Man oh man, after nursing a hangover all day Sunday I braved work and was just “blah.” That night, I missed my friend Joanne’s open mic/stand-up performance because all I wanted to do after a long Monday of still feeling out of it from lack of sleep and drinking was just lay on the couch. I did just that. We had dinner and just relaxed.

We’re also totally getting into 30 Rock – we’re streaming it through the PS3 and have been watching a few episodes together each night (the nights we don’t have a movie delivered). For me, it’s one of those shows I feel like I never got into early enough to love and it was placed on the back burner. I’m so glad we’re making time for it now. A-mazing.

I was thinking, and this week has been a week where I have had NOTHING to do after work. No family dinners, no appointments, no errands/returns/etc., no meeting friends for dinner or drinks, no co-worker drinks or parties or anything! I actually really like it…is that bad? I suppose I just get so used to having Kevin off that I want to just be with him all night and nobody else. I mean, don’t get me wrong, weekday fun is fabulous, but it was nice to get home nice and early and have the evenings to ourselves. Mikey was over for a bit last night and then D came by, which was sweet cause we still didn’t need to go anywhere. I felt homsick last weekend after just one day! Last night I just picked up buy one/get one Noodles & Co. and plopped down on the couch for the night. I’m really liking the Netflix deal, too, cause that means even more time for Kev and I to relax together. I know what I’ll be doing Saturday — catching up on 30 Rock!

Anyway, oddly enough, I don’t have prior obligations for this weekend and that feels good, too. I should really knock out a dinner with the girls from my master’s program (totally owe ‘em one), coffee with my SIL or another gf that I keep promising a coffee date to, but *sigh* the other thing is just saving a little cash for the holdiays now. Again I love getting together w/family and friends but I just need a chill weekend, too. No pressure. Just maybe a load of laundry, some organizing and relaxing. It’ll help make me feel a bit more sane.

Next week is a short week plus Thanksgiving, which means we all get to eat some DA-LISH-US food. Is it bad that I choose to go to my mom’s cause her food is sooo much better than the food at my dad’s family get-togethers? The food isn’t bad, I think I’m just used to my mama’s stuffing and all that jazz. Actually last year I chose based on food…but this year that side of the fam isn’t doing a formal get-together. Some people are going to visit Grams but others are out of town/state for their other sides of the family. Plus, my dad’s side is doing Xmas early this year. Reason being that my cousin & his wife and their newborn, Alexander, (Xander or X&er for short) are going to be in town. We all know those with newborns don’t/can’t travel much so we decided to work around them and have our family gift exchange/party Dec. 6. Totally cool that we will all be able to meet the new guy! Holy early, but it’s totally fine with me. I’ll be bringing green bean casserole. Why? Cause it’s cheap, everyone eats it and it’s super easy to make. No muss…no fuss…

Hm, what else. Though I’ve been trying to up my veggie and protein intake, the weight is not dropping. I know to kickstart I’m going to have to get back to the gym or do some workouts at home. Just gotta find that inspiration to sweat it out!

Other than that, I’ve only had one drinking fest since Nov. 1st, and don’t plan on drinking again til December. I can’t wait for VINO!

Back to work…oh joy!

Weekend wrap-up

Friday night we took it easy and watched The Office, Parks & Rec and Community on the DVR. Each show was such a fail! Not funny. Nothing fun to quote. It was just all bad. Total letdown. We’re just hoping this week redeems itself. We went on a nice long walk since the weather was so mild. The highlight for me was hearing and then seeing an owl! It was so neat. I got super excited. Haha.

Saturday I slept in and then got up to do some vacuuming, laundry, etc. Then I hit the bank with Kev. I packed up an overnight bag and headed to my mom’s place in Naperville. We stopped to pick up a cake for my sister and were on our way to ISU.

The car ride started out fine, but of course I asked her what she’s going to do once my stepdad moves out and she started going on and on about him. I got testy and said something around the lines of “Okay, what about YOU, what are YOU going to do?” And that kinda rubbed her the wrong way…naturally. We kinda got over our tiff in a few minutes…I was going to apologize shortly after things smoothed over but was busy navigating since my mom didn’t know where her hotel was. I figured I’d just let everything go. Whatevs.

We got to the hotel and checked in, freshened up a bit and had a beer. Mom forgot the bottle opener for the Tecate so we had to ask a maid for one. She delivered! Though it was pretty ghetto…

We headed to my sister’s apartment — which is more like a townhome or house. She has an upstairs with 2 bedrooms & 1 bath, a middle level with the basic kitchen/living room and a bathroom plus a basement with couches and chairs. Sweet! If you know her, you’d guess she wasn’t ready at all yet when we arrived, so Nick, his 2 friends and I picked up the keg. It was so weird to be back at one of the liquor stores I used to frequent! Anyway we got back and encouraged my mom to try some jello shots. Hilarious. I had a beer and then we headed to Monical’s for salad & pizza. The wait took for-ev-er and my sis and I were a bit cranky. But we finally ate and all was fine. I was glad our waitress was super quick. I guess she got a good tip from mom because of it.

Well, the rest of the night is history. We got back to my sister’s place and Nick’s sisters arrived so it was nice to meet them. More and more people arrived and I was able to talk to some of my sister’s girlfriends. Some people were saying we totally look alike, and others said not at all. Someone was even saying how we talk exactly alike! It’s funny to hear that kinda stuff. I said something like…”Yeah…we typically don’t like the same people, so we have that in common…” Hah. Anyway I enjoyed bonding with some of her friends. I know she doesn’t like about 99% of girls (I’m the same way) so it was cool to talk to some down to earth young ladies.

My sister was kinda all over the place, upstairs, downstairs, talking to the new people that arrived, so I kinda felt like I didn’t belong. Though one of her girlfriends like, *loved* me, so that was cute. Other than that I talked to her neighbors and just chatted to people about their majors and they asked me about my life after ISU. I talked to Nick’s sisters about hating Naperville and what music we like, etc. But all night I just kept feeling SO OLD. Although one of Nick’s sisters is a year older than me…I just felt like I didn’t belong with all of the 21 year olds. Ah, well. I had a good time just hanging out.

Anyway I was DONE by about 1am (weak!) and crawled into my sister’s bed. Then, at 4-ish, I heard Nick and Jackie yelling. I also heard his sisters. Still not sure what all went down, but I guess the last hour of the party went downhill — fast. I guess there was frustration b/c Nick’s sisters didn’t have anywhere to sleep and the two of them felt disrespected. It was a drunken angry situation that I’m glad I was basically asleep for. Eek.

I didn’t sleep well at all, but was definitely feeling snuggled by my sis and Annabelle the cat. I got up around 10 with a bit of a headache, showered and mom picked me up. We stopped at Avantis for gondolas to go and were on our way. Well the lovely long ride in the car did me NO GOOD AT ALL! Long story short, my mom pulled off the highway and I puked. Nice.

My mom had water bottles and she had some meds in her travel bag so I took some Tums and a half of a Dramamine to ease my stomach. EEEEW.

Got home and just sacked out on the couch — but not before stopping at CVS for Diet Sprite. I needed something to nurse my hangover!

Kev and I recapped our nights, watched football, napped on and off, and I went to bed halfway through the Colts vs. Pats. I heard the Colts made a comeback and won by one point! Awesome.

Back to drying out for 2 more weeks. And after Saturday, I’m just fine with that…

My drinking history: the good the bad the ugly

After speaking briefly about this topic the other night, I thought I’d recap my relationship with alcohol…not only for myself but for you, my loyal readers…ha.

It started, I believe, when I stole gin from my parents and it made me oh-so-sick. I didn’t know how to drink or what to drink, and I think I was about 16 years old. After that, I tried all kinds of horrible liquors like Aftershock (!) and Bicardi Limon and Bicardi O. Sick. Why my friends and I chose these drinks, I do not know.

As time went on, we drank beer–any beer–it didn’t matter. Light beer, ghetto beer, any beer. I swear I was at a party and Mad Dog was served. Nice.

Once college came about, I was a lowly freshman and pretty much drank keg beer or cans of Natty Light. (Nothing but class.) At that time, I also preferred Bud Light to Miller, which has changed since. I dabbled in Captain, finishing a handle with 3 other girls before going out on Halloween night our freshman year. I moved on to bigger and better things like…Captain & Diet – oh yeah. I still can’t drink one of those without being reminded of late summer nights. I think I overdid the whole rum & diet thing…

My love affair for Vodka started my senior year of college. I was old enough to go out to the bars and I’d always order the same thing: Raspberry Vodka & Sprite. If I felt like a badass, I’d order a tall Stoli Razz & Sprite. Mmm. I always kept vodka in my apartment for pre-drinking, too.

Then came wine. Oh, sweet sweet vino. My friend Mandy and I finished a huge bottle of Carlo Rossi once night at her apartment and it was one of the best nights ever. I fell off her desk chair and had never laughed so hard in my life!

I began my real wine obsession shortly after getting hired at a Wine Bar down near ISU. I learned so much about wine and just wanted to learn more. When the bar was slow, I’d read about wine. There were 100 bottles of wine on tap, hooked up to oxygen and stored in temperature-controlled cabinets. It was awesome. The 100 bottle wine bar went from heavy reds that could stay at about room temp at one end to super sweet dessert whites that were chilled. I tried as much as I could and started deciding which types I liked best. I was into Shiraz and Riesling then, especially Shingleback Shiraz. Now I’m more into Pinot Noir or an occasional Merlot. For a solid easy drinking Pinot Noir I like La Crema or Mondavi. I like pretty much any California/Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir or Oregon Pinot Noir. But I’ll try any and all. I love all reds and typically there isn’t one I don’t like. Smooth, silky, spicy, anything. As for whites, I love Gewürztraminer and Riesling.

As of late, vodka has given me that warm buzz that I loooove, but it hasn’t been agreeing with me lately. In fact, it’s been giving me a drunk that I don’t like so much, at all, so I’ve been avoiding it.

So for now, it’s beer and wine for me … and that’s just fine.

One of the best parts of fall…

As many of you know, I like to partake in drinking tasty alcoholic beverages. This year we bought some new as well as some tried-and-true fall brews.

They were tasty, let me tell you. My favorites were Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale, Magic Hat’s Circus Boy and Magic Hat’s #9. Mmm-mmm!

Post-fall brew binge, I’m trying to cut back on any random drinking because we boozed it up so much during Kevin’s furlough. I hate to say it, but I believe it may have been one of the reasons we both gained so much weight! (Typically we stick to light beer.)

Enjoy the pic!

The quick run-down of the past 2 months!

First things first, I know people say this a lot, but time really does fly. I haven’t blogged much since late August! So much has happened since then…

Condo:
The c’doh is good, things are just moving right along. All repairs to the roof, etc. were made so it’s nice to have that out of the way. At our last association meeting, we decided it’d be cost-effective to each take on the duties of keeping the common areas & halls clean so we’ve decided to let our cleaning lady go. Three of the 4 condo units are participating. A couple in one of the units is relatively unable to help because they’re both pretty immobile and elderly. (The good thing is they’re almost always home to sign for our packages – so that’s a huge help to all of us.) Anyway, we decided each unit will take on a month and perform the common area duties: check light bulbs, vacuum, check the air fresheners and sweep/mop if needed. It’s a nice way to save cash–and besides, we heard that our cleaning lady was doing a poor job and was showing up whenever it was convenient for her anyway. Last month was our month to clean and we just vacuumed a bunch of leaves that had acquired. It’s a small building so it’s not too big of a job. It does feel good that we’re all in it together and want to keep the place nice and fresh. We will also sell the snow blower soon because we like our snow removal guys from last year. We’ll put that money into the association for any unforeseen issues that may come up. Other than that, we just took down the Halloween decorations (*tear*) in our condo. But all in all, the place is pretty normal.

Relationship:
All is well on the home front. Right now it’s rough because Kevin has been off for about 3.5 weeks and he will be going back into work tomorrow. Boo…Boo…Boo-Hiss. Things tend to feel a bit off when he dives right back into work, and that’s because we simply don’t have the time to communicate as much as we’d like to. He sleeps while I work, but if he gets up and tries to call, sometimes I’m busy and we can’t chat. He works while I sleep and sometimes when I’m up late and give him a ring, he can’t answer. Such is life; such is the schedule. But his furlough has been a good time overall.

We went to 4 haunted houses, watched over 10 thriller/horror movies, had a Bears party complete with friends on our couch and food in their bellies, went to a Bears game, spent time with my mom & his parents, went to THREE weddings (wow!) and did a lot of lazing around together. We had an awesome time drinking lots of Oregon wine with Mark & Kim and they even had a fun Halloween party. But the fun times are on hold for now. I must admit that coming home to a clean condo and dinner in the works has been amazing! I’ve really enjoyed watching all of the Netflix movies as well as having the freedom to see our friends & family whenever we feel like it.

But, we’ve also both gained a good amount of weight in the past month or so – well, my weight gain starting during or just after our trip to Vegas in June. Yikes. Let’s just say I’m the highest weight I’ve ever been and my jeans are pretty darn tight. I know it’s all on me and the decisions I make. If I wanted to go get larger jeans, I would. But I don’t want to go up a size. I’ve gotta gain control. So if I want a better body, I’ve got to make better decisions. I’ll be trading pizza, tacos, brownies, beer and other booze for salads, chicken, fruit, veggies, fish and eggs for now. Sigh. It’s hard – but I want it. I think my biggest problems are cravings and being around others that have goodies. If it’s around and readily available, I’ll eat it. Bad habit.

Family:
Sadly, I’ve learned that my mom and step-dad are officially divorced. I still love him as family and it will be hard to see them actually go their separate ways. They’re still living together until the end of this month. Unfortunately they’ve got lots of assets to divide so it’s a bit messy. He emailed me and told me he’d like to have a dinner with me and my sister before he moves out. His plan is to use one of their vacation homes in Steamboat, Colorado as his main housing for now, and stay with his parents in Arizona and friends in California as well. He can work from home so it works out. They’re still waiting for their old condo in Steamboat to sell…

Work:
Work here, in its natural form, is fuggin’ bi-polar and usually pretty nutty. But we got the 7.5% of our pay back, so that takes off a bit of stress. Things are busy, then slow, busy, then slow. It’d be nice if they were just steady, but rolling with the punches is easy. Especially when we get to goof around and wear hoodies here. I can’t complain all that much, even if the Coug makes me want to rip my ears off sometimes.

Look at this f*$#%@) hipster

Ahh, finally…it’s good to be back.

I figured after my blogging lull of sorts I’d share a funny site with you.

I stumbled upon this lovely collection of images and decided I’d like to do nothing more than post it for those I love most – my readers.

It’s a little bit inappropriate, a little bit creepy, and all sorts of funny. In other words, right up my alley.

latfh.com

Enjoy!

New website for your viewing pleasure:

Enjoy: keggersofyore.com

You’ll find nostalgic photographs from keggers of yore such as this one:

Oh yeah, and there is definitely some Schlitz action in some of those pics.

I’m pretty much obsessed with this site:

How to properly catch a laptop – in case you were wondering.