Odds & Ends

At this very moment, I have something like 10 posts hanging out in my Drafts folder. Some half written, some fully written but not edited, some just waiting for me to upload a picture to go with.  In other words, they are all so close to being able to publish, but then I lose interest, or they suddenly seem not “of the moment,” and something else seems more worthy of writing about right now.  I’m sure there’s some deeper psychological reasoning, but I’m not going there right now.  Instead, I’m going to put all those drafts aside for yet another day and tell you some random odds and ends.  Cool?

I read a list of the Top 50 Fast Food Items this week, and for some reason, it was so interesting to me, despite the fact that when I really thought about it, I realized I haven’t eaten fast food in four years.  I can’t decide if I’m proud or kinda sad about that.  For better or for worse, fast food seems so intrinsically American.  For the record, said list had Chick-fil-A Waffle Fries as #1 and I feel like that’s wrong.

Guys, are you buying these new John Mayer mini-albums as they get released?  He released the “Second Wave” last Friday and three of the four are VERY good.  “Helpless” is maybe the most I’ve liked a JM song in a long long time.  Cept I think “Wildfire” is actually pretty great too.  He just added new tour dates, including a stop in Denver and while it’s not Red Rocks (ugh, the Pepsi Center), you know I still bought tickets because where John goes, I will follow.

Tuesday was the best day of the year (aside from Oscar Sunday, Opening Day, GABF Day and Thanksgiving :P): National Pancake Day/Mardi Gras!  Pancake flights at Snooze (tradition, tradition!), followed by a caffeine/sugar buzz like WHOA and homemade shrimp étouffée that blew Joey and I away.  Best part?  It makes like eight servings so we’ve been enjoying it all week.

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We watched Other People on Tuesday night and though you probably wouldn’t think of Molly Shannon as starring in anything of real quality, we loved it!  It’s much more about Jesse Plemons’ character than anything else, but it’s beautifully tragic and after watching it, I realized that might be my favorite movie genre?!  What does that say about me, exactly?

I started fermenting some carrots and bottled a strawberry-lime kombucha on Wednesday and my hippie heart felt so satisfied and happy about it.  Also, I cannot get over how amazing purple carrots are.  They are already beautiful, but then you cut into them and they are YELLOW?!  Nature is a crazy cool magician.  This is only the second time I’ve tried flavoring my booch with fresh fruit and I’ve got my fingers crossed that it tastes good.

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This is hardly worth mentioning but I’ve been using hand lotion like crazy lately and I think my nails are all the better for it.  I’ve always had pretty good nails but for the past few years, they have been so weak (tearing and breaking on the sides CONSTANTLY) and I had a theory it was because I started cooking a lot and thus, doing a lot of dishes, which probably dries your hands/nails out, so I figured I’d at least try the moisturizing route and maybe it’s too soon to say, but I think it’s really really helping.

A picture of a breakfast my mom once cooked for us popped up on my TimeHop last week and Joey and I were reminded how often we used to go to my parents’ on Sunday mornings and how much we miss that.  I pointed it out to my mom and now we’re going there for breakfast this Sunday.  Ask (or passive aggressively mention) and you shall receive.  I’m pretty excited.

Have you been watching the live feed of the April the Giraffe??  She’s about to have a baby and we’ve been obsessively checking in on her, waiting for it to happen.  Meanwhile, a giraffe at our own Denver Zoo unexpectedly had a baby yesterday.  Joke’s on us!  The baby’s name is Dobby and my heart can barely handle the cuteness (of the actual baby AND of the name)!  Side Note: if you have not seen a giraffe sit down or stand up before, check the live feed out NOW.

It’s Friday Eve and I’m happy for that.

Oscar Weekend Things

Well.  I certainly wasn’t expecting that.  I woke up this morning, thinking “wait, did that really happen??”  Did they really announce La La Land as the Best Picture winner, only to figure out Moonlight actually won, after the entire La La Land crew was already standing up on stage, giving their acceptance speech??  What is even happening?

I am simultaneously amused and horrified because, in all seriousness, how unfortunate and sad for both films that it happened that way.  And also because that disaster overshadows the real star of the show… that Matt Damon/Jimmy Kimmel feud.  Kidding (because: Viola Davis, Mahershala Ali, Emma Stone, Kevin O’Connell finally winning after 21 nominations) but also not kidding because I was laughing so hard at that We Bought a Zoo/orchestra playing over his speech bit.  Too good, too good.

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Back on Friday, I started the weekend in the best (lamest?) way.  Aka by taking a nap.  That work week was too much for me, I guess.  But afterwards we rallied with Melvin beers and Loving.  Honestly, I just didn’t feel like the film did the true story justice.  It all felt very downplayed.  And look, I just could not stop focusing on how bad Joel Edgerton’s bleached hair was.  It was very distracting.

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Saturday started with the fluffiest pancakes and the prettiest tulips.  Full Disclosure: I actually wanted to make these, but buttermilk always does me wrong, so we had to move to Plan B which actually wasn’t a downgrade at all because I love these and hadn’t made them in too long.  And also, those tulips are actually from Friday but they got moved to our room on Saturday and they just looked SO BEAUTIFUL in the light from my window.

Other Saturday plans included a trip to the gym (I ran four whole miles and lived through it), Target, the grocery store, lounging, reading and maybe watching the critically acclaimed movie Step Up before we had dinner with my mom, sister and Wayne at Fire on the Mountain.  Alls I know is wings, fries, beer and a table of family made my heart so happy.  We may have watched Sausage Party afterwards, so just some excellent movie viewing going on that day.

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Sunday started with a family breakfast and Baby Roman was looking too cute for words.  Isn’t it crazy how quickly babies/kids change??  Last time we saw Roman he was just a little lump and now he’s holding his head up, looking around, SMILING.  Just wow!  Afterwards, not gonna lie, we napped.  But then we got ourselves together and did all that “Sunday stuff,” aka lunch salad prep, making shrimp stock, doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom (which is the worst chore EVER) before the awards started.

All envelope fiascos aside, I beat Joey at both the at-home ballot and Oscar Bingo so I’m probably the real winner of the night, right?

Did you watch?  Are you still in disbelief?  What was your favorite moment?  Tell me, please!