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!

Weekend Things

Good news! We had our house inspection on Thursday and nothing major or deal-breaking came up. And Joey officially closed on the house he was selling on Friday. In other words, moving right along. I couldn’t be happier. In other news, this weekend has been a good one. Actually, Joey has been at the office for most of it (making up for time missed doing house stuff this week and holding two fantasy football drafts), but we’ve been making good use of our nights for fun stuff.

On Friday, my family went to Red Rocks for “1964 the Tribute,” which is a Beatles tribute show. I figure I’m never going to see the actual Beatles in concert, so this is the next best thing. We had a car picnic in the parking lot then headed into the amphitheater for the show. The band had the Beatle mannerisms down.

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Please excuse the poor quality and size of this photo. Trust me, it only gets grainier the bigger I make it.

They sang a lot of their older songs, stuff the Beatles actually would have been performing while they were touring. I’d been hoping to hear a lot more of their later stuff but now I understand it was all for authenticity’s sake. Mom even taught me some old school dance moves like “the mashed potato” and “the hitchhiker.” Hilarious!

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How cool does the moon look in this photo?

On Saturday morning I went on a 5 mile run and was so proud of myself. That’s far for me these days. I’m kinda sorta thinking about signing up for a 15K (that’s 9.3 miles) in October so I thought I’d test the waters with a run that was longer than the 2-3 mile runs I’ve been going on lately. I felt pretty good on the 5th mile (it was my fastest!) but the thought of running 4.3 more miles terrifies me. I also started packing up our apartment. Our bedroom walls are looking so bare! Then I took a break to make some zucchini mini muffins.

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They came out great! I only know this after waking up at 1:30 AM, going into the kitchen for a glass of water and deciding what the hell, might as well eat a mini muffin too. That’s a normal thing to do, right? Anyways, we decided to head into Denver for dinner on Saturday night and ended up at Ace, the sister restaurant of Steuben’s and Vesta Dipping Grill and the only one we hadn’t been to. Yelp reviews weren’t the best but I’ve decided that people who give bad Yelp reviews just didn’t have enough beer with their dinner.

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We clearly did, so we loved it. Joey thought the ambiance and outdoor bar was way cooler than the set up at either Steuben’s or Vesta. I thought the two steamed buns with choice of side for $8 was way cooler than the prices at either Steuben’s or Vesta 😛 I tried kimchi for the first time and my tastebuds were blown away! It’s like sauerkraut on steroids. My mouth was on fire but I couldn’t stop eating it. I need help.

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Afterwards, we drove by our house and our future neighbors were having a giant party in the front yard with a bouncy castle. Now we’re wondering if that’s a regular weekend occurrence. Sunday involved sleeping in for what felt like the first time in forever and pancakes. And good news, I had just enough time between pancakes and yoga to pin a billion house-related things.

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Anyways, the real highlight of Sunday was a Farm to Table Dinner at Whole Foods with my family. I know, you probably thought it was Miley Cyrus’s performance at the VMAs, but you’re wrong. They had some tables and tents set up outside and for $10 we got a huge spread of locally sourced food, including bratwurst on a pretzel bun. Guys, a PRETZEL BUN. Oh and beer (yes, more beer) from my hometown. Louisville pride!

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Plus a real life Chopped competition. These two WF team members were given Hatch green chiles, Swiss chard, chocolate, bison skirt steak, peaches and red quinoa. Honestly, both of their plates looked really tasty! My mom and I stood up near the contestants for 10 minutes and tried to come up with our own creations. Then we both decided we’d rather just follow a recipe that someone else already created.

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Before we left, I ran inside with my sister to replenish my chocolate supply and had to buy this little Venus Flytrap for my office. Plus a mini orchid, so cute! Now we are parked on the couch watching the VMAs. I am actually mortified for Miley. What was she doing?! But I know JT and Nysnc are coming up so I’m bursting with excitement. On Saturday morning I watched One Direction’s performance on the Today Show and all those crazy crying and screaming girls totally reminded me of Nsync in the 90’s. Ah, how I missed them.

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Did you watch the VMAs?

What would you have done with those “basket ingredients”?

What did you do this weekend?