2/15/13

Monday, February 18, 2013
What is the most romantic book you've ever read?

Hmmm...I don't know if I have an answer for this.  That's not really my kind of book, ya know?  Feel free to give me your answer in the comment section.  I may be inspired to read some of your choices.

It's a beautiful day here today!  When I got to the gym this morning, it was about 18 degrees outside.  When I came out just a little over 2 hours later, it was 48!  It's GORGEOUS outside right now!  It's warm and sunny, and the perfect weather for taking my little Monkey outside.  I think I may just have to drive myself way out to her daddy's house, and steal her!  Actually, that's exactly what Stud asked me to do when I got home from the gym.  Being a holiday, there's no class for him today, so he said he wanted to spend the day with his baby, and he wants me to go steal her.  Ha!

Sadly, I don't think I'll get around to stealing anyone today, since I STILL have a long list of errands to take care of.  I won't be able to do my banking, thanks to the holiday, but I hope I can get the rest done.  I missed my weekly Saturday Sam's Club trip (which makes my pocketbook happy!) so I think I'll start with that one.  However, I just may go to the Sam's Club in my brother's town, then convince him to meet me there with Monkey.  I can kill two birds with one stone! =)

On that note, I'm going to go call my brother.  Happy Presidents' Day to all my Bloggy Buddies!

Sunday Funday

Did a bunch of running around today taking care of this phone nonsense for Magnum.  Let's just say, it was not a great day.  Once again, none of MY errands were accomplished.  But, his phone needed to be taken care of because today was the last day of his contract with his current provider.  He had it out with them on the phone a couple of weeks ago, and told them to just cancel his service when his contract expired.  Anyway, I took care of it, and he has a new phone now.

I was supposed to have lunch with Bestest Friend today, whom I haven't seen in almost a freakin' month.  I had to cancel at the last minute (I'm not even kidding, I was literally walking out the door to meet her!) because Magnum called and he had a chunk of time to do this phone crap.  Even though I totally blew her off for lunch, she still wanted to do dinner.  She's awesome like that.  We went to a place that's kinda becoming one of our favorites.  This was only the 4th time I've ever been there, and,  I've been really happy every time.

While we were at dinner, my mother called to see what I was doing, and if I wanted to come over for dinner.  I told you yesterday that my daddy retired Friday.  His friends at his gun club threw a huge surprise party for him this afternoon.  Then, they sent all the leftovers home with him!!  My mother was freaking out a bit.  "There are trays and trays of food here!  Who's going to eat it!?"  Like I said, I had already eaten, and for some reason, she couldn't get a hold of Magnum or Stud.  But, I told her I'd come by anyway, and at least take some of it home for them.

When I got to my parents' house, my sister and her boyfriend were there.  That's a good thing, as her boyfriend can EAT!  He's 6'6", about 350lbs.  He seriously looks exactly like this:

Wait, I think I might actually have a nice picture of them saved on this computer.  I'll be right back.

SEE!  I wasn't kidding!  And, what about that gorgeous sister of mine, huh?  I think I hate her.

Anyhoodles, I ended up staying at my parents' way too late, visiting with the gang.  I almost forgot to come here for my NaBloPoMo obligation!!  But, now I have GOT to hit the sack.  I'm exhausted.  Good thing tomorrow is a holiday, huh, so I don't have to go to work.  Oh, wait, EVERYDAY is a holiday for me these days!  Bwahahahahaha!!  Yes, I know, I'm a dork.  Good night!

What happened to my Saturday?

I had a list as long as my arm of errands I needed to run today.  Guess how many I got done.  Yep, you guessed it, none.

Thankfully, I DID get to the gym, though.  I went later than usual, but I was still there by 8am.  After my two hour workout, I went to my parents' house to try and help them with a problem they've been having all week with their phone.  I won't bore you with the whole story, but suffice it to say, I didn't get home until 7pm.  LONG day, let me tell ya.

I think I may have mentioned a few weeks ago that my Daddy was retiring.  Well, yesterday was his last day.  Woo hoo!!!  There'll be more about that later.

I'm ready to put my jammies on and hit the sack.  We're actually watching Harry Potter as I sit here and type.  It came on at 7, and we watched it while we ate dinner.  I think I'll watch the rest from the comfort of my bed, while snuggling up under my blankies.  More than likely, I'll be asleep within 10 minutes, which is fine, since I now have a list as long as my arm of errands to run tomorrow.

~~sigh~~

 

2/15/13

Friday, February 15, 2013
How did this Valentine's Day compare with Valentine's days of years past?

Well, it was definitely less mushy/flowery/chocolatey/romantic than the ones of my youth, but WAY better than some of the ones I spent alone.  I already told you about it yesterday, so I guess I'm done. =)

My Funny Valentine

Ok, I know I already did my post for today, but I just had to share my Valentine's Day gift. 

I got a call bright and early this morning, asking if I would like to spend the day with a certain little Monkey.  Well, is the Pope Catholic?!

We had a delightful morning of play before she literally fell asleep in her highchair while eating a cracker!  Hahaha!!  She looked like this for the next THREE hours!

The poor baby still isn't feeling so hot.  She started yawning around 10am, and I thought I was going to get her to sleep then, but she got a second wind, and played for a while, before she fell asleep around 11.  While she slept, I was able to work out and then shower, so that was kinda nice.

Her mommy sent her with a pretty cute shirt today.

That monkey was part of her Valentine's Day gift from us.  I had bought her a sock monkey at Christmas time that she LOVED.  Sadly, we lost it at Sam's Club last week.  So, now she has a new "baby."

She was actually wearing a "pretty" today.  "Pretty" is her word for jewelry.  My mom bought this bracelet for her on their last cruise (about 2 weeks ago).  It has a little dolphin on it, which is perfect since she's currently obsessed with "fishies."

Her daddy actually came to pick her up today, instead of me taking her to her mommy.  We all played for a little while, and she watched Little Mermaid for the second time today.  She's really loving her beanbag, and dragged it into position when I asked her if she wanted to watch the movie.  I don't know why she looks so uncomfortable, but I swear she wasn't!

Look how cute she was when she was ready to leave!!  (Yes, I know the first one is completely blurry.)

I'm not sure where the new backpack came from, but I couldn't resist putting it on her, and making her carry her own "stuff."  I wish I had brought my phone outside with me when I walked them to the car.  She looked so freakin' adorable, walking down the driveway, holding her daddy's hand, carrying her stuff. :P

Here's what I ended up throwing together for dinner tonight.  I hadn't anticipated having Monkey all day, so dinner was really just an afterthought.

I made our usual salad.  We can, and do, eat it almost every single night.  Mixed greens, kalamata olives, tomatoes, and feta.

I put the cucumbers in a separate bowl tonight because I really can't eat them anymore.  For the past few years, they've been killing me, coming back on me for HOURS after I eat them.  It makes me really sad, because I LOVE cucumbers. :(

I dressed them with the same dressing as the salad - olive oil, red wine or balsamic vinegar (whatever I'm feeling that night) salt, fresh cracked black pepper and crushed garlic. I put it all in a small jelly jar, and shake the bejeezus out of it.

For my little Stud Muffin, I made spinach, sauteed in olive oil, with lots of thinly sliced garlic. 

That boy could eat spinach every night if I made it.  There's a restaurant nearby that he goes to with his friend specifically because there's a spinach dish on the buffet that he loves.

I did serve shrimp, like I said I was going to, but I did absolutely nothing to it.  Thankfully, it was fully cooked, so all I had to do was thaw it under running water for a while. 

We just dipped it in cocktail sauce.  We basically had giant shrimp cocktails for dinner!

We enjoyed some strawberries for dessert.  I snapped a picture of them to show you, because they were HUGE, but I realized after I put it here, that you can't tell how big they are.  I should have put something next to them to serve as a reference.  You can sort of tell, as that's a paper towel, not a napkin, that they're on here.  Well, trust me, they were about as big as my palm!  Man, I would have LOVED it if these had been dipped in chocolate. :(

 And, there you go.  Thanks for letting me bore you with our dinner!  I hope you all had/have a wonderful Valentine's Day, and that you spent it with the ones you love.

Happy Valentine's Day

Thursday, February 14, 2013
How do you feel about Valentine's Day?

Truthfully, I feel kinda meh.  That's one of Stud's favorite words to use - meh.

I know I've mentioned in the past how we always rolled Magnum's birthday (which was yesterday) and Valentine's Day into one big celebration.  Of course, when we were young and in love, it was a BIG deal.  Cards, candy, flowers, jewelry, and so on.  Then, we had all those years apart, and honestly, some of those Valentine's Days were hard.  Well, it was the being alone part that was hard.  But today is now the third Valentine's Day since we got back together, and really, it pretty much is just another day.  A Hallmark Holiday, as some people call it.  I would much rather we show each other how much we love each other every day, not just on Valentine's Day.  I'm sure there won't be any cards or gifts exchanged today.  (To his credit, all those years we were apart, Magnum always had a card and a gift [flowers, candy, etc] for me from Stud.)  And, that's fine with me.  We certainly shouldn't be spending money frivolously right now, anyway.  I'll probably make a nice dinner, like I mentioned the other day.  We may be going to the AT&T store later to get Magnum a new phone (whichever one is FREE with a new phone line), so that's probably the most exciting thing that'll happen tonight.  We live on the wild side, don't we?

I hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day, and that it turns out exactly how you want it to be.

2/13/13

Wednesday, February 13, 2013
If you could send out valentines this year as you did back in grade school, what type of valentine would you send out to your blogosphere class?

 Ok, I'm taking the lazy way out of this one.

 These were just a few more that I liked.

Today is Magnum's birthday, but I got the gift.  I got to spend the afternoon with my Monkey!!

This is what she looked like when I got to my brother's.

 I love how her little butt is up in the air, and how her feet are crossed.  So damn cute!!

She's been a bit under the weather the past week or so, which is why I went to my brother's.  He didn't really want to take her out if he didn't have to.

After she woke up, she had lunch.  Naturally, lunch included a banana (duh!) and some of it ended up in her hair.  When she finished eating, I washed her up, and couldn't resist playing with her wet hair.  I thought I'd see how she looked with the same hairstyle as her favorite cousin.  I was laughing so hard, I almost couldn't take these pictures!

Pretty close, right?

 I know this video sucks, but I took it, so you're stuck watching it.  Or don't.  I'll never know!

When my brother got home, I left right away to get home to Magnum.  He actually got home earlier than I anticipated.  We went and picked up some soup for my mom, who's been sick this week, (it's her favorite beet soup from the Lithuanian restaurant down the street) then brought it to her.  Then we left to meet Stud for dinner.  We had a lovely dinner, and now I'm ready to hit the sack.  I'm pretty sure Magnum is already asleep. :(