Weekend Things

Whew!  Do you ever have a weekend where you end up feeling more tired than rested?  Because I just had one.  And I’m kind of excited that it’s Monday and I have to be sitting at my work desk.  Emphasis on sitting.  We did so much house work this weekend.  But first!  A fun Friday.

P.S. This is a food-heavy post.  You’ve been forewarned.

Guys, I got contacts on Friday morning!  I’ve had glasses with a minor prescription since college but I rarely wear them because I hate seeing the frames in my periph so I’ve just been squinting at the TV guide and missing turns because I can’t read the street sign until I’m passing it.  I finally got contacts and life is easier now.  I took my fully functioning eyes to a concert on Friday night to celebrate.  Or because I was already planning to go to that concert.

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To say I’ve been excited to see The Head and the Heart in concert would be a huge understatement.  I adore this band and I’ve been anxiously awaiting the day I got to see them live.  I’d like to pretend we got there early because we were that excited, but it was like 10% excitement and 90% wanting to get one of the few seats so I wouldn’t have to stand for 3 hours.  And that’s what we call adulthood.

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Anyways, they were every bit as good as I thought they would be.  No, wait, even better!  Call me a uninformed fan, but I had no idea they had two male singers.  Totally thought it was just one voice on their albums.  Oops!  I’m so glad we got to see them.  My heart was soaring when I got to hear “Shake” and “Rivers and Roads” in person.  Chills just thinking about it 🙂  Also, some guy got on stage and proposed to his girlfriend, didn’t invite her on stage, then proceeded to celebrate and hug all the band members while she just stood there in the crowd.  Dude, come on.

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Saturday involved lots of house work — we picked paint, got to work on the kitchen and the living room and hooked up our new range! — and take out.  We tried this pizza place down the street for the first time and despite not having stellar reviews, we actually thought it was really good.  I’m a fan of anywhere that offers a bunch of veggie-licious whole wheat dough options so this was a win for me.  Then the annual viewing of my favoritest Christmas movie.  You think I would be sick of it but no.  Not even in the slightest.

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Sunday started with this bad decision.

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Dear body, please have a more consistent reaction to caffeine.  Love, Lauren.

This was my attempt at having a super productive day and don’t get me wrong it was super productive.  It was also super jittery and anxious.  I will never learn.  After I had more than adequately caffeinated myself, we tackled more painting, a trip to Ikea, a trip to the grocery store, cooking in our so-close-to-being-back-in-one-piece kitchen, un-packing boxes of kitchen stuff and a shower where I’m fairly sure I forgot to rinse the conditioner out of my hair… Oh, and our Christmas lights are finally up.  Yay!

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Then my parents came over to see all the progress at the house and to take us to dinner for their anniversary.  If that sounds backwards to you, then that makes two of us.  I tried to encourage them to enjoy a night out on their own but my mom insisted and I’m not one to turn down dinner.  Plus I suggested they make reservations at a restaurant we had tried to go to on Wednesday night, only to find there was an hour and a half wait.  If that kind of traffic on a week night isn’t a sign of a good restaurant, I don’t know what is.

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I think the popularity might have something to do with these little margaritas.

Turns out it makes more sense to order the large margarita and share it, rather than all order a small or medium for ourselves.  Joey tried to convince both my sister and I to order a large and both share with him.  Yeah, nice try.  Mass consumption of chips, guac, enchiladas, rellenos, burritos and sopapillas ensued.  And by the end of dinner, a majority of the table felt sickeningly full.  Who ordered those sopapillas?!  Oh, right…

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A very Happy Anniversary to my parents! 🙂

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And a Happy Monday to the rest of you!

My Favorite Holiday Gifts

I find the way people spend/manage (or don’t manage :P) their money to be such an interestingly personal thing.  I confess that I’ve always been more of a saver than a spender (hello wads of babysitting cash all over my room when I was younger, I miss you) and I’ve also always been kind of cheap.  Sorry, but I have a hard time justifying buying one nice shirt when I can buy five cheaper ones for the same price!  But! Recently, I’ve started making a few practical expensive purchases on quality stuff and guess what, some things are really worth the splurge.  Instead of making a list of things I want for Christmas, I thought those of you who are like me and need a trustworthy vote of confidence before dropping cash on something, would like a holiday gift list full of things I can honestly put my stamp of approval on because they’ve stood the test of time.  Here you go!

Eddie Bauer Lodge Down Parka

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My mom bought my sister and I each one (yeah, we’re still wearing matching clothes in our 20’s) for Christmas in 2009 and it is amazing.  This has been an EB best seller for over a decade so I’m obviously not the only one who thinks so.  It is so dang warm and I basically live in it all winter long.  If someone on your list lives somewhere cold (like Colorado, where it finally just stopped being in the single digits), this is so worth it.

Frye Boots

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Honestly, I didn’t understand the price and all the hype until I got a pair last year.  Frye’s have a reputation of lasting a famously long time.  We’re talking years and years, people.  That’s some seriously good leather.  I wear mine all the time and they never fail to make me feel just that much cooler, plus even with the small heel they are comfortable.  All I’m saying is they’re incredibly well made (I guarantee they outlast any other designer boot you’ve bought), they’re beautiful and you (or your mom, sister, boyfriend, aunt, best friend) need a pair 🙂

MacBook

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Truth: Mac owners are the worst.  They’re all “let me brag about my Mac and how perfect and pretty and light and fast and virus free it is!”  And it is so nauseating.  Until you convert and then you understand that they were right.  I was so anti-Apple for so long but it was all I could rent out at the library in college and it turned me.  We’ve had ours for 2 years and it has yet to have a single problem (except that time when I spilled an entire glass of water on it…).  Do you know how many issues my old HP laptop had in two years?  Don’t ask!

Cuisanart Food Processor

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Okay so if someone you know spends a lot of time in the kitchen, they need a food processor.  Of all the kitchen appliances I “had to have!” my food processor is the one I use the most.  Also, they’re so durable.  Unless you have a mini one and leave it on for an hour trying to make coconut butter and it starts smoking… My mom’s is at least 30 years old and works like a charm.  I know, because before I got my own, I was constantly driving to her place and stealing it.  Yeah, they’re worth all that trouble.

Room & Board Couch

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Please ignore our hideous green wall.  We’re in the middle of a exposed brick project.

Or just a quality couch in general.  I’m totally fine with buying cheap(ish) Ikea night stands or $8 coffee tables, but when it comes to big pieces of furniture that are probably going to see a lot of use, it’s so worth splurging.  I had such anxiety about pulling the trigger on this couch but after sitting on 12309834e587 couches at American Furniture Warehouse I knew the R&B one was so much better.  Plus I dig this cool color.

I’m hoping a Le Creuset dutch oven, a fluffy comforter and a vespa find there way on this list someday, but that’s it for now!

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Tell me some of your favorite “worth the price” items!