Tuesday, December 29, 2009

An Update - Yep, that's right, An Update

Alright, so time I finally update the ol' blog. I knew it had to be done, but my brother's rude comment on Facebook sparked the initiative.

So, 2 months have gone by. November was gorgeous with many days in the 50s, which made up for our rotten October. We had our girls' weekend the first weekend in Nov and it was the best one yet! I had such a blast and the weather was damn near 60 everyday! Last year when I flew home for girls' weekend, there was a nasty blizzard, so quite the change.
Justin turned 30 on Nov. 27th, so we threw a party. Had a great time but found out that I have some kind of allergy to dark beer. I spent the entire next day on the couch, unable to eat or drink anything (I just threw it all up). It was miserable. Now you all are probably thinking I just got really drunk and was super hungover. I have drank waaay more than that before and never once been that sick. And I didn't mix anything, I drank straight beer all night. Well, now I know to never do it again. At least we had a good time!
I had to work the day after Thanksgiving, so Justin and I just spent Turkey Day here. We made the whole works: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, green beans, rolls, and chocolate cream pie. It was all very delicious. We bought a new roaster pan and the turkey turned out way better this year than last. Bear even got to sample all the goods (minus the pie). He, of course, loved it all!
On to December. The month flew by. I can't even think of what I did. Had 3 lia sophia shows (the business is going quite well). Christmas shopped. Went back to Bis for the holiday - was there from Tuesday before to the following Sunday. Had a great time hanging out and playing games with my family. I love Christmas time. And got to see my BFF and had a wonderful time with her too. We exchanged gifts and played some interactive Mario Party on DS. I miss everyone already. I got back to the cities Sunday evening and Justin and I exchanged gifts. I got him a Slanket and a ps3 headset. From him I got a Vikings moshi, a cute-ass Favre/Vikes shirt, and a beautiful gold watch. Yay for Christmas!
Back to work and reality, but lucky for me it's pretty slow at work, so I'll have some short days this week. Have to work Friday but I probably only have to see one person, so no biggie. No big plans for New Year's. Justin and I usually just like to sit on the couch, watch a movie, and have drinks.
Then it's January. No offense to my peeps who have b-days in Jan (Talia, Josiah, Jamie, and Sam), but this is generally my least favorite month of the year. It's cold, there's nothing going on, football is almost over, and there's still months till spring. Speaking of spring, Justin and I are planning on taking a vacay to Florida in April (hopefully). We're going to use Justin's parents' timeshare and stay someplace on the beach. I've never been to Florida, so I'm looking forward to it.
I'll post some pics of Christmas and whatnot on Facebook. But that's it for now! Hope everyone had a fantastic '09 and here's to an even better 2010!

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Hello folks! Happy Halloween to all! We had a pretty uneventful one here. Not many trick-or-treaters, definitely less than last year. And if you're friends with Justin on Facebook, then I'm sure you've seen how we felt about this year's turnout. Anyway, I'm gonna post a few pics from our holiday at home.
This lasted about 3 seconds...
...just long enough for me to take pics.
2/3 of a family
Tuckered out after a long night of action at the front door.

Okay, so now what I want you to do is when you post a comment, I want you to tell me what your favorite scary/horror movie is and your favorite scene from that show. I'll start.

My favorite horror movie is The Shining. It's hard though, cuz I really love The Exorcist too. But I'd have to say my favorite scene from The Shining is, well I have two. The first is when Danny meets the twin girls in the hallway and the blood comes pouring in. And the second is the classic scene when Jack Nicholson hacks his way into the bathroom after Danny, sticks his head in and says, "Here's Johnny!" Pretty predictable, but hey, how can you not love those scenes?

Ok, go. I wanna hear your stories, peeps. I know I can count on two people to comment for sure - B-dog and E-dog. They both loooove scary movies like I do!

Happy Halloween/Daylight Savings Time!

And to me, November means winter, so I guess, Hello Winter!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Long Time No Bloggie

Hello everyone! We've had a crappy October, I have to say. It's been unseasonably cold and a lot of the trees lost their leaves before they changed colors. Just now we are finally starting to see the color change, and it's beautiful! Today was nice, 50 degrees. Justin raked, I bagged, and he mowed the lawn, so it's nice to have that done.

I've done one Lia Sophia show and am in the middle of a catalog show. Things are going well so far. I'm really close to meeting my first goal for my Excellent Beginnings. It's fun and I absolutely love all the jewelry. If anybody wants anything, just let me know! ;)

Can't wait for girls weekend! I'll be flying home so that'll save me lots to time driving. I just can't wait to see all my favorite ladies in Bismarck. I'd have to say it's my 2nd favorite special event of the year. #1 is Christmas. Turkey day used to be up there, but I haven't been able to go home for it for a few years. I still love my birthday, but they've gotten less exciting each year, unfortunately.

I'm bummed about my elimination from King of the Hill. A PTA I work with invited me to this pool last year and this year. Basically you choose just one team that you think will win each week. If that team wins, then you move on to the next week. But you can't pick the same team twice. The last person to be in it wins the pot. Then we start all over, even if it's the middle of the season. Anyway, we had 30 people in it, $10 each, so the pot was $300! by week 5 it was cut to 13 peeps. Well, then in week 6 I picked Philly. Damn Eagles lost. So I'm out. But I hope it starts over soon. On a brighter note, I won the week 6 family football pool! Tiebreaker, baby! Melissa and I also have our own little bet. We pick one game each week to put $5 on. We try to pick a game that we think could go either way. Well, unforunately for Melissa, I'm up $20 so far. But there's still a lot of season left! Don't worry bff!

So Halloween is coming up. Don't think I'll dress up. We aren't gonna do much, just hang out and have some beers. Our typical weekend night routine. That's what we really enjoy. We're pretty mellow people. Last weekend our friends Sam and Ben came over. Sam and I carved pumpkins. We made slow cooker beef stroganoff and baklava bars - both very yummy. But now the damn squirrels are eating my pumpkin! Little bastards.

Before

After



Oh well, what can you do! I looked online about how to stop squirrels from eating them, but I was too lazy to actually do what they said, so I didn't. I'd like to catch those little guys on tape eating it, I think it would be entertaining.

Well, have a great end of October everyone! POB.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Juicy Lucy Taste Test

So here in the cities there are 3 places that are known for their 'Juicy Lucys'. For those of you who don't know, a juicy lucy is a burger with cheese inside of it. So they take a patty, split it in two, press them out, put a mound of cheese on one, then cover it with the other half, seal, and grill. The classic juicy lucy has American cheese, but some restaurants have variations, like bleu cheese, pepperjack, etc. It's also important to note that there are variations of the name as well. My friend Sam and I decided to do a taste test from the 3 different locations, and here are the results.

Location #1:

The Nook
Hamline Ave, St. Paul

Burger: Juicy Nookie with American cheese

With all of these burgers, the key is the wait time. If you bite in the moment it hits your table, the molten lava cheese will scald the inside of your mouth like a motherlicker and you won't be able to enjoy it after that. So, as hard as it is, you must wait at least 5 minutes before digging in. My first bite of this burger was juicy and full of gooey cheesy goodness. The flavor of the patty itself was great, seasoned just enough and not too much to take away from the whole experience. The cheese was melted completely through and had the perfect consistency, not too runny or thick. Every bite I took had cheese in it, but it was not overwhelming in the least. Overall, the burger was fantastic in every way and I can't say a single bad thing about it. I have wanted to go back and get another in the worst way ever since.

Fries: Fresh-cut fries, seasoned with garlic cracked-pepper and served with chipotle ranch dipping sauce. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't care a lot about fries. Generally, if the option is there, I would take mashed potatoes over fries any day. But these fries were really good. The garlic cracked pepper seasoning was not too strong and the chipotle ranch added just the right amount of flavor to compliment. Crispy, not too thick, not too thin.

Drinkage: Sam and I like to share pitchers of beer and our go-to is Blue Moon. They had this, so we did too.

Atmosphere: Dive bar, very small but comfy. Our server was fairly nice and reasonably fast. The place was as clean as a dive bar can be.

Benjamins: The burger comes with the fries - $7.95. Don't know how much the pitcher cost.

Location #2:

Cedar Ave, Minneapolis

Burger: Juicy Lucy with American cheese

First bite of the burger, no cheese. Second bite, no cheese. Dry patty, not much flavor. I think in the whole burger I maybe got two bites with cheese. It all had squirted out somewhere before it got to our table, apparently, because there was minimal cheese on my plate too. Absolutely nothing special about this burger. Didn't finish it. And my friend Sam didn't finish it either, which is unheard of in her world of burger-eating.

Fries: Well, no fries. They didn't come with the burger, so Sam and I decided to get an order of nachos as an app. Beef nachos with all the fixin's. They were ok, beef was a little greasy and you could taste it. Sam liked them better than I did. I wasn't too impressed.

Booze: I believe Sam and I shared a pitcher of New Castle. Can't go wrong with that either.

Atmosphere: Dive bar, but a little bigger than the Nook. Our server was super friendly and very attentive. She was better quality than the food, which is not necessarily something you want in a restaurant. Clean. Overall I liked the atmosphere of this place.

Moolah: Nachos: $7.50 Burger: $4.95 Pitcher of New Castle: $10.25

Location #3:

Matt's Bar
Cedar Ave, Minneapolis

Burger: Jucy (that's how they spell it) Lucy with American cheese

Hit the cheese on the first bite. Good flavor, but runnier cheese than the Nook which I didn't prefer. Cheese throughout the whole burger. Got raw onions on this one (not sure what I got on the others cuz it was too long ago). They were like little McDonald's onions and there were a ton of 'em. The flavor of the onions was a little too strong, and not a real natural onion taste. I had to scrape about 1/2 of them off. But the burger was juicy and very good. Ate the whole thing.

Fries: The burger didn't come with fries, but Sam and I ordered a regular side of them. They were shoestring fries. Good crisp, not too thin. Very good flavor. However, I am not a ketchup dipper with my fries. So we asked for a side of ranch - NO RANCH! That's a huge deal for me. What restaurant doesn't have ranch? I don't care how small it is. So I had to resort to dipping in ketchup. For a regular size order, it was a little on the small side. We polished off the whole basket, which is really saying something, as I've mentioned previously, I'm not a huge fry fan.

Drank: Pitcher of Blue Moon. With tiny little glasses.

Atmosphere: Dive bar, very small. Not too clean. Kinda noisy, with some turd burglars being loud at the bar. And the women's bathroom had two toilets in it, not stalls, just toilets. I guess they support double peeing (not the kind you're thinking of, you dirty bird). It took a long time for our server to get to our table after I got there to get me a glass so I could share in the pitcher. If there is anything a server needs to be prompt about, it's getting me my damn glass so I can get my drink on! She was more or less friendly, kinda slow.

Ca$h: Fries: $3.95 Burger: $4.95 Pitcher: No idea.

Soooo, as you probably were able to tell from my reviews, the winner is:

The Nook!!!

For the value, the fries, but most importantly....for the burger! I highly suggest you visit this place if you live here, or even if you don't!

The End :)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Just Some Things

My first Lia Sophia party is tomorrow (as an advisor), but I'm just playing the hostess role for this one. All the rest will be my own!

Kanye West is a huge douche-canoe, as if we didn't already know this.

RIP P-Swayze.

I am sick with a cold.

Football is perhaps the greatest sport ever invented and just one more thing I love about the coming of fall.

We made chili yesterday and it was delicious.

We are leaving for Tennessee on Wednesday to visit Justin's parents. The puppah is heading to Dog Day Getaway. Thank goodness for wonderful places like TN and DDG.

I hate packing, most likely because I am a chronic overpacker and it takes me forever.

This is the first time I've ever really been nervous about flying. Just so much plane stuff going on lately. And don't give me the statistics, I know it's "safer" to fly than drive, but could there be anything scarier than falling out of the sky in a huge metal death box?

We lost our playoff match tonight for volleyball. Season's over. Boo.

And a permanent boo to laundry.

I wonder if Community will be a good show? Sidenote: Do I need a '?' there? I feel like it shouldn't be there, but it looked weird with a period.

I don't like when football games are played on the same field as baseball and you can see the dirt.

Adrian Peterson has an open invitation to my bed every night. Justin understands.


Ok, guess I'm done cuz my brain just ran out of thinks. :)

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Om Nom Kittahs

Justin introduced me to this first video and I just loved it. Now keep in mind this is coming from someone who is not a cat person. Anyway, I found another and I think they are the cutest vids ever.




Monday, August 24, 2009

Summer Fun

It's been awhile I know. Busy summer times, especially July and August. Since my last post, we had our Price Family reunion at Lake Sakakawea. It was beautiful weather and we had a great time. Justin and I realized that weekend that we need an air mattress as we are getting too old for car camping without one. A lot of the family was there and it was good times visiting. Played some bolo and bocce ball on the sandbar, and of course rode the waverunners. Haha, I just typed wavefunners by accident. That would be appropriate too.

The following week was my birthday and Justin and I went to a place called 'The Melting Pot'. It's a fondue place and it's actually pretty cool. You have a burner on your table and they bring out pots for all the fondues. We had a cheese fondue with veggies, chips, bread, and apples. Next course was a salad. Next was our main fondue with coq au vin broth that came with sirloin, pork, chicken, shrimp, lobster, and filet. It actually wasn't that good. We didn't like the coq au vin flavoring and of course everything you cook in there tastes like it. So we weren't that impressed with the dinner part.



We had a chocolate fondue for dessert. It was milk chocolate with crunchy peanut butter melted in it. It was served with strawberries, pineapple, brownies, cheesecake, poundcake, and bananas. That was delicious!


Overall, we didn't think it was worth the price ($150!). But we were glad we tried it; it was a cool experience. We think we woulda liked it had we ordered just oil to cook it in. For my b-day present, Justin got me a sweet ass watch!

The day after was my actual birthday and the 1st day of 10KLF. Well, I got on the road at a decent time, but an hour and a half into my drive I realized I forgot the tickets and my money! Brian already had to wait for me, and now I had added another 3 hours to the wait! I was so pissed, so was Bri, but what can you do at that point? There's nothing worse than getting outta town, then having to drive back, and then back outta town, this time at rush hour. Awful experience. Then when I finally got to Fergus Falls to meet up with Brian, his phone didn't have reception, so we spent another 45 mins trying to get ahold of each other. We made it to 10k at about 9pm and had to miss Widespread Panic (on my birthday!) to set up our campsite before it got too dark. But the weekend was great; we heard some great music, the weather was perfect, and we had a great time. Unfortunately for Bri, his car broke down in J-town on the way back home! What a crazy adventure.

Our campsite at 10k - everybody kept telling us how sweet it was
Gorgeous sunset (taken from our campsite)


The following weekend I went to my friend Sam's house in Blaine and we had a Daiquiri Day with our friend Jenn (we all used to work together at Morgan Place in GF). We were supposed to go tubing down Welch River, but it was only 70 degrees that day (at the end of July!) and we didn't wanna freeze. But we had so much fun and plan to do it again soon!

And on to August! Well, the first weekend we didn't do much. The following weekend I met up with Melissa in Fargo for a BFF weekend. The weather was crappy, but that didn't matter! We had an awesome time just hanging out, playing cards, and going out to eat. We need those more often!

Last weekend, I went to ValleyFair Friday night with some girls I work with. I heart VF. But this was the first year I actually got sick. No horking (sp?) or anything, but very queasy after round #2 on Wild Thing. I had to take it easy after that, skipped the Power Tower, but made it on Steel Venom - my fave ride! Brenda, Brooklyn, and Josiah came that night to pick up Talia who flew in from NC (she was visiting her dad) on Sat. We picked her up from the airport, got ready, and went to Como Zoo. The girls loved it, especially the butterfly house. After that, we went to Como Town, which is basically like a little amusement park for kids. The girls had a lot of fun on the rides. Sunday we went to Underwater Adventures at the MOA. It was really cool; I loved the turtles! And the sharks were pretty sweet too. The girls liked it too, especially when they got to touch the crabs. It was a fun-filled weekend! It was pretty neat to be able to take the girls to some cool places around here.

Ok, that should bring you up to speed for now! That was a long post, so I'm done now. POB.