Weekend Things

I would very much like to tell you about Friday night’s burger dinner, the 5 miler I ran on Saturday, my semi-failed (but semi-successful?) shopping trip, breakfast with my sweet Mama on Sunday and our new mattress, but first, FIRST, I must tell you that I just got a new phone.  I GOT A NEW PHONE!!!!!!

It feels very materialistic to be so excited but when your phone is so outdated that you’ve run out of all available room and can no longer take photos and the camera is so blurry that you’re not even sure you’d want to take photos so you’ve been making your husband use his phone to photograph everything then constantly asking him to text you those pictures and you’ve had to remove everything but the most essential apps (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are all VERY essential, right?) and you can’t even open your email because there’s no room to download the message, then your phone starts to feel more HARMFUL to your life (and your blood pressure) than HELPFUL.  So, needless to say, I am feeling SO relieved and happy and excited to have a new phone.  Especially since we will be in Nashville this weekend and I can actually use the camera on my OWN phone.  And thus ends a much too long paragraph on something you probably didn’t want to hear about in the first place 🙂

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FRIYAY!  When your mother-in-law’s birthday is also Cinco de Mayo and Kentucky Derby weekend and Rockies season, then all the stars have aligned for peak life happiness.  She asked me us to pick a dinner destination and look, I spend A LOT of time agonizing over restaurant decisions because I want to please everyone, but in reality, everyone just wants to eat at Park Burger.  But the beer list is great, there’s not a bad burger in the bunch and the atmosphere is always fun, so I get it!  Rockies lost, but whatever because Joey caught a bag of Cracker Jack during the 7th Inning Stretch and I don’t think he’s ever been so happy.

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Saturday was summer!  And by that, I mean it was 83°, we went morning time running (and it was kind of hot already at 8 AM!), drank iced coffee, spent as much time as possible outside — which included sitting on our porch swing (eeeee!) — and were sweating in the kitchen as we made dinner.  I’m not ready but I’m also SO ready!!!!  I also headed over to Cherry Creek and got a new sports bra (success!) and tried to buy new clothes at about 5 different stores before leaving empty handed (FAIL!).  Almost Googled “what do 27-year olds wear?” when I got home.

Irish War Cry did not win but I did fit in my once-a-year-two-minute-long horse race watching and that’s pretty much that.  Oh and please tell me you were equally unimpressed with SNL on Saturday night?  LOVED that Opening Monologue (laughed SO hard when Pete Davidson said, “No, I think that’s Ryan Reynolds.) but kind of a letdown otherwise.  Why was there so much singing??

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Remember last Sunday when we went to Devil’s Food for Sunday breakfast?  Well my mom had asked to go to breakfast with us the next week and while we were there we thought “we should just come back here!” and then my mom saw my picture on Instagram and texted me that she wanted to go “the same place we went.”  This is all to say, we were ALL on the same page and back to Devil’s Food we went!

Spent the rest of the day grocery shopping, lunch prepping, rain power-walking — it started POURING right as I got out of my car and while I had an umbrella keeping my head dry, my entire lower body (and yoga mat!) was SOAKED by the time I got to the studio — dinner cooking and life loving.  Plus, our new mattress came!!!

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Currently sitting in my office, witnessing a giant storm roll through and word on the street is golf ball-sized hail is hitting Denver hard, so pray for our little garden (and our little house, while you’re at it!) and Happy Monday!

Recently Consumed

A list of things consumed by my head, heart, eyes, ears and stomach lately.

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Carrot Hummus at The Pig and The Sprout

We chose this spot for our Tuesday Date Night and when they posted a picture of this luxurious looking carrot hummus on Instagram that day, I KNEW I had to order it and see what was up with those “funyun” chips.  Turns out there’s no chickpeas involved in that hummus, hence the creamy texture and those chips DID have the exact flavor of Funyuns.  We dug it!

Swear on This Life by Renee Carlino

Forgot to mention our March book club read!  Probably because I really wasn’t into it.  Basic Plot: Grad student/aspiring writer borrows a very buzzed about book from her roommate and discovers it’s about HER (very troubled) past and was written by her long lost childhood best friend turned first love.  Ugh, just writing that description reminded how annoying this book was.  The entire cast of the book seemed to cater to this very selfish and immature main character and I was not about it.

Girls Final Season

The highest respect to TV writers who had reviews of the final season of Girls out the night of the finale.  It’s been weeks and I still can’t make sense of my feelings on the show in its entirety.  I meant to write about the finale and I didn’t.  I meant to post about my favorite episodes from all six seasons and I didn’t.  I meant to figure out why I’m so conflicted about this show and I haven’t.  I will say, that final scene between Hannah and Adam was easily one of my favorite moments of the entire series.  They said so much by saying so little and though it was heartbreaking, it felt right.  Also, I will continue to pretend “Goodbye Tour” was actually the finale because Hannah and Jessa reuniting (even if only temporarily) was so touching and the whole dancing scene interspersed with snapshots of Hannah’s future was really the only ending I needed.  Plus I really hated “Latching.”

Well that “quick blurb” certainly got away from me…

Broken Angels by Gemma Liviero

This book reminded me A LOT of both All the Light We Cannot See and The Nightingale, both in the setting (Europe during WWII) and the formulation (characters from different sides of the aisle whose stories eventually combine).  That being said, I felt the effect was damaged because I kept thinking “I’ve read this all before!”  And I liked the writing in both of those other books more than this one.  Still, I liked this one well enough and wouldn’t dissuade anyone from picking it up for themselves.

Sweet Corn and Zucchini Pie

Well I’ve mentioned this recipe on the blog approximately 7,000 times, sooooo HAVE YOU MADE IT YET?  If not, I don’t know what you’re waiting for, but I’m actually not waiting for summer to eat corn and zucchini.  JOEY cooked this for ME and even though we were short a few ounces of cheese, it was still SO GOOD.  So that’s probably why I’ve talked about it so many times.  Paired with the best sweet potato fries (Joey makes them so much better than me!) and I think this meal actually willed the sun out of hiding that day.

Beloved by Toni Morrison

GUYS.  OMG.  LITERATURE!  I tried to explain to Joey — in a lengthy and cocktail induced speech — the difference between what I read in book club and actual literature and how damn refreshing it was to know within seconds of starting Beloved that is was the latter but he was probably mostly hoping I’d just stop talking 🙂  But seriously, the writing is so poetic and the story is so deeply painful and beautiful and I don’t know why it took me this long to finally pick this novel up but I’m so glad I finally did.

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Happy Friday/Cinco de Mayo/Birthday to my mother-in-law!  We are celebrating all those things the best way we know how… with burgers, fries, beer and a Rockies game!  Bet you thought I was going to say tacos and margaritas, huh? 🙂  What are you up to this weekend?