Memorial Day Weekend 2020

Well, we didn’t go to a Rockies game or do any gardening or run the Bolder Boulder or host a family BBQ, but MDW 2020 was the best it could be considering the circumstances.  We still ate Blue Pan pizza, watched a bunch of movies, spent some time with family, grilled bratwurst and to top it all off, I got to attend our virtual book club, so while it may have been different from any other year, it was still good and happy ♥

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Um, how is Blue Pan so good?!  Well worth the indigestion I had after eating it (a fun new daily pregnancy symptom :P).  Afterward, we watched The Lovebirds, which I won’t say is a good movie, but is at least a funny movie.  I laughed SO HARD at that milkshake monologue Kumail gave.

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Andi was busy taking 300 naps on Saturday, while Joey was busy doing a little project in our back room.  We’ve been trying to rent out our house and a huge drawback seemed to be our “second bedroom,” which is already small and probably felt even smaller since we had a bunch of boxes we’d packed stacked up in there.  Thursday afternoon, Joey felt inspired to clean out the boxes, then that turned into re-flooring the room somehow.  I wasn’t going to interfere and I’m glad I didn’t because it turned out so nice.  WHY DIDN’T WE DO THIS YEARS AGO??  We made black bean + tempeh tacos for dinner and watched Laggies, which I’d seen recommended last week after the death of the director, Lynn Shelton and… I’m sorry, but it was really not good.  Oh well!

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Sunday morning, Joey went golfing (I finally gave in!) and we had showings from 9-noon, so Andi and I hid out at my parents’, where my mom fed me a blueberry scone and bacon quiche that were both SO GOOD, my dad entertained me with Quarantine Life videos and my little sissy even joined us, which was the happiest surprise.  My mom showed us this box of our baby stuff, including our baby books and this teensy t-shirt one of us had.  I cannot believe how small newborns are! ♥  Back at home, I sat outside for a little bit until the rain clouds rolled in and when Joey got home, we watched the 1994 version of Little Women (which we’d watched a few years ago after I finished the book, but had to watch again now that Joey’s finished the book).  Gotta say… it’s pretty damn good!!!  We also watched Shoplifters and it was really interesting and sad as hell.

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Memorial Day!  Felt weird to not wake up early and run the Bolder Boulder but also pretty nice, plus Joey had made us buttermilk waffles.  I don’t know why we make any other kind because these are clearly superior!  I spent a good chunk of the day finishing my book club book, Circe by Madeline Miller and I absolutely LOVED it!  If you’re into Greek mythology (or even if you’re not), I highly recommend it.  Then I made us some potato salad for later and did some yoga.  We grilled bratwurst to have alongside our potato salad for dinner and then Joey went to watch some scary movie while I “went” to book club.  I hadn’t been in months (um, reading is hard when you’re falling asleep on the couch at 8 PM every night), and it felt SO GOOD to be back!  I was in the best mood for the rest of the night ♥

I hope you made the best of your Memorial Day Weekend too!

Recently Consumed: Quarantine Edition

Yes, it now takes me three weeks to rack up enough content to write a post.  Sadly, I have not grown better at capturing the moments that have been lifting us up and keeping us occupied.  We have watched a ton of movies, I’ve actually gotten back to reading, we celebrated my sister’s birthday (six feet apart and with masks in a big outdoor area) and this weekend, the weather was so so nice and we spent lots of time outside.  Yet, my camera roll is just pictures of Andi and Cream of Wheat.  What is wrong with me??

Anyway, since my life is now just a list of things I’ve consumed, I thought I’d just break it down into some categories: things watched, things read, things eaten.  Here we go!

Things Watched:

  • I think we’ve talked about watching The Sopranos for ten years, but we finally pulled the trigger (no pun intended :P) and are already a few episodes into Season 2!
  • Can you believe we’d never seen any of the Lord of the Rings films?  In my mind, it seemed like some big time commitment and I’d made it my whole life without them, so it didn’t feel pressing but we plowed through them a couple weekends ago and I LOVED them!  The plot was interesting, the graphics really held up (Helm’s Deep is how you do a nighttime battle scene, Game of Thrones) and Orlando Bloom really made being a fairy seem cool.  Halfway through Return of the King, I told Joey “if one of these hobbitses die, I will lose it!”  Why did I wait so long??
  • My sister told me I needed to watch Broad City and she was right!  Every time Joey would catch part of an episode, he’d laugh the entire time.  It really is funny.
  • Joey flew through Misery so after he finished, I promised I’d watch the movie with him.  He wouldn’t even tell me if there were more torture scenes than that one torture scene, but I survived and actually thought it was pretty good.
  • We’ve watched like a thousand other things, but I’ll end here 🙂

Things Read:

  • In all honesty, though I’ve technically read parts of three books during this quarantine, two of them I’d started way earlier and I’m only halfway through the third one.  Don’t be like me and get into a habit of looking at your phone instead of reading at night!
  • The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip.  Unless you count Harry Potter, I don’t think I’ve read a true fantasy story maybe ever?  I got this one at our book swap in December and vowed to actually give it a go.  I didn’t love it, to be honest, but I’m glad I gave it a chance.
  • Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.  If you know me, you know I love Taylor Jenkins Reid.  This one wasn’t as good as The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo but I still really liked it.  She has such an knack for creating characters that feel so real I often find myself wanting to Google them before I remember they’re fictional.  
  • Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver.  I’m only halfway through and something like ten years removed from the last time I read a Barbara Kingsolver book, but I really like this one!

Things Eaten:

  • Asparagus Quiche with a Polenta Crust.  When your mom already makes the best classic quiche, it’s best not to even try making something similar, so polenta quiche it is!  We’ve been making this for years and it’s truly creamy and delicious.
  • Kale Caesar Salad.  We’ve definitely forgone our weekly salad-in-a-jar habit, but we’ve been trying to throw in a dinner salad here and there.  This one is old and I actually made the recipe up myself, but it’s delicious and the only update I’ve made is this technique for homemade croutons (they are crazy good!).
  • Sesame Soba Noodles.  Joey made these for us and then I think I ate the leftovers four days in a row.
  • We’ve also ordered a lot of take out.  Ramen from Uncle will never get old!

A pup who likes to sleep with his tongue out // A blossom update // A snowstorm that ruined all those blossoms // Aforementioned polenta quiche

In other news, we close on our house this Thursday (and it’s in person, ugh!!!), so that’s something to look forward too 🙂