4/30/13

April Recap

April was...a month.  Let's just say that.  There has been a lot going on in our home, not all of it good, but we take each day at a time.  Due to some of these events my monthly recap is going to be pretty sparse and boring, but here it is nonetheless.

Books Read:
Second Shift: A Silo Story by Hugh Howey

Movies Watched at Home:
A Prairie Home Companion
Hit and Run
No Strings Attached

Movies watched in the theatre:
None, but we went to Wits at the Fitzgerald Theatre

On TV:
Revolution
Veronica Mars
Bunheads
Psych

Restaurants/food/drink:
The Anchor Fish and Chips
Dangerous Man Brewery
612 Brew
Cossettas
Brasa

Shopping:
Stella and Dot open house at Lindsey's
Shoes and sandals from DSW and Clothes Mentor thanks to my mom

4/10/13

Fud

I have found myself really broadening my horizons when it comes to food as of late.

I have learned to love sushi - to the point that I crave it now.  I was never that girl until 2013 apparently.  Or maybe it helps that I was introduced to an awesome sushi place that has a decent all you can eat lunch so you can try multiple things (thank you again JL).  All I know is, sushi is awesome.

It's baby steps - but last night Nate made us BLT's for dinner.  And I actually ate one with the L and the T on it!  I still do not want lettuce on my tacos or burgers - but I may get there with some sandwiches.  At any rate, I enjoyed the BLT and I can't wait to have one again.

I've had the chance to have charcuterie platters at several different restaurants this year.  Again, due to texture, there may be things on these plates I might have passed up in the past, but not anymore.  And now it's one of my favorite things to find on a menu - not to mention, it's an easy thing for Nate and I to share.

It might be from all the different beers we drink now instead of sweeter drinks - but I have found a real appreciation for a good oaked chardonnay.  I used to shy away from these, but I like enjoying a glass with some good smoked meat and cheeses.  Makes a pretty good pairing.

I don't know.  I still don't think I'm a true foodie, but I'm finding more and more I want to stray from the normal, same old all the time.

That being said, I still love my grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch every Friday.  Just call me Sheldon (Big Bang Theory).

4/5/13

Storytime

Shocking - here is an actual post of substance!

So it was an up and down week.  It started on Easter Sunday.  I woke up nice and early and planned to make us some cinnamon rolls as a little Easter breakfast before having dinner with my parents later in the day.  Before doing that however, I set up to clean up the kitchen a little bit as it was a mess from Nate making his hrutka (Russian egg cheese) the day before.  I started running water in the sink to do dishes and then saw it was draining really slow - figured the disposal needed to be run.  I start running the disposal and now water is backing up into the other side of the sink - ew.  This has happened before, we get little clogs every now and then and just need to clear them, so I told Nate I needed his help and he came in to start attempting to de-clog the sink.

But this time was different - no matter what he did the problem just got worse and worse - and then we discovered that it was now backing up into the laundry room tub.  So, we figured out, it had been nearly 7 years since we'd had our pipes drilled out to the street, so we needed to have the plumber come out and do that for us.

We still managed to make a nice breakfast - we just ate on paper plates and conserved as many dishes as we could.  The front half of the house wasn't affected, so showering and what not was no problem.  We had a nice meal with my mom and dad and came home to catch up on TV shows I'd missed while singing for all three Triduum services.

Monday I called our plumber first thing and they were able to have someone out to the house first thing - which was awesome, but then I was scrambling to call my mom to get her over to meet them!  She was thankfully able to do so at short notice (we had given her a little heads up on Sunday anyway).  I had left a signed check for her to give them and told her to call me when they were done so I'd have the total amount - and also to know if I should go to her house for lunch or mine.

I worked and caught up on being away from my office for two days and waited and waited to hear from her.  And it was almost 11:15 and I hadn't heard anything yet - thought that wasn't a very good sign.  So I called mom's cell - she was en route to her house - but now my dad is over at my house (he was off of work and returning home from a routine doctor appt and saw they were still there, so had stopped at my house) because there was a snag - not our fault or anything we'd be paying for, but the plumber lost part of his auger in our piping.  So he had to go back to his office and get a hook and a camera to send down and try to find it.  Ok fine, we're not responsible for this piece to that's ok.

I met my mom at her house for lunch and am happily enjoying leftover ham and potatoes and then my dad calls.  He says to me "Well this isn't your day"  I'm like "crap.  What happened now?"  Apparently when the plumber sent the camera down he discovered an issue we will need to deal with sooner rather than later - part of the pipe by the street is starting to separate and if it collapses, we'll end up with water backing up and causing problems.  This is something that just happens sometimes due to age and especially with our rapidly changing MN climate - cold, hot, cold, hot, pipes don't like that.  My dad continued to tell me "The bad news is you're looking at possibly as much as $3500 for the repair - they're going to have to dig up your yard and worst case scenario, they may have to remove the tree from your front yard."

OUCH.

The more we talked though my dad assured me it didn't have to be fixed THAT DAY, we have time to comparison shop for quotes on this and that from my dad's best estimate, the tree is far enough back in my yard that it should actually be ok, he thinks the plumber was misjudging.  So, he said I should talk it over with Nate and let him know if we had questions and we'd go from there.

Uffda.  So Nate and I talked and agreed we'll get some other quotes on this and see what we can do this summer.  I have another plumber from a trusted source to call.  We also talked to Greg and Marie (our Praise Project director) because they just had this done at their house a couple of years ago.  I guess that is about what they paid too, so I am just guessing it will be expensive no matter what, but I'm hopeful it won't be too bad.

So yeah, it's ugly but we're just going to go one step at a time.

The rest of the week involved roller coaster moments - some of feeling abundantly blessed in my friendships, some of fear because of things going on at my place of employment (if you've seen the news you probably know why) some of self doubt thanks to something stupid with my fashion blog (I'm over it now though) and some of pure fun with Nate - a rare weeknight date night last night which was just too fun.

So there's my long story.  I don't know that it's terribly interesting, but I thought it would explain some posts I'd made earlier on FB to those who were curious.

ON WE GO.

4/1/13

March Recap

Well, hello there April.  How nice of you to sneak up so quickly.  Now did you bring your friend Spring along too?  We'd sure to love to see her!

Seriously, March did fly by.  Here's my monthly recap.

Books read:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (yep, I'm now reading the books thanks to the movie watching)

Movies watched at home:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Monty Python The Life of Brian
The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Movies watched in the theatre:
None

On TV:
The Walking Dead
Revolution
Psych

Restaurants/bars/wineries visited:
The Butcher and the Boar
Acapulco
Chateau St. Croix Vineyard
Pizza Luce

Shopping:
Broke my ban a little early - bought a dress and two bags at a vintage sale and also bought a sweater and a necklace at a little boutique

That's kind of it.  March was a bit busy with church stuff so it didn't leave much time for anything else.  Hoping April is a little bit calmer!