Fun House Stuff – Page 27

I have the post-Oscar blues.

The countless days and nights I spent at the movie theater this winter finally all culminated with the big show last night (the Oscars are my Super Bowl) and now that it’s all over, I’m like “what do I do with myself now?!” What did you guys think of the show?? As far as winners go, I felt it was pretty predictable, but I love love loved Pink’s performance, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts eating pizza in the audience and every second of Ellen’s hosting job. Can she just do it every year forever? Oh and I beat Joey in the annual at-home ballot competition. When in doubt, pick Gravity.

Anyways, rewinding back to Friday, I made a giant pot of pasta (homemade Penne Rosa, for the win!) and we discovered we could rent “Nebraska” through Apple TV. Honestly, I did not want to see this movie. It looked boring, was in black and white and starred Will Forte. The same person who starred in MacGruber? No thanks. But as we were two nominees away from seeing all the movies up for Best Picture I figured “why not?” Or more like “ugh, if I must.” But! I loved it! Thought it was so funny and June Squibb killed it. Favorite scene: Bruce Dern’s character’s reaction to Mt. Rushmore. A+++!

Post-Saturday workout & Home Depot run lunch.

I’m trying to do this thing where I work out on the weekends. On the one hand, it sucks because it’s the weekend and I want to be doing other fun stuff like watching TV in bed, drinking amounts of caffeine that make me feel severely off kilter and working on house projects, but on the other hand, the weekends are so much easier to coordinate a workout with. I can go at almost any time, stay as long as I want and not feel rushed. So if it means being able to sleep in a little later during the week (week day morning workouts suck) and not have to go straight from work to the gym (the only thing worse than week day morning workouts), then I’m all for it. And thus ends the longest most boring paragraph ever about my workout schedule…

We spent most of the day Saturday putting our living room back together, which involved texturing new drywall, painting some holes Joey patched up and cleaning the floor. Like on my hands and knees with a rag for hours because there was drywall dust stuck in every.single.crack. And that’s all I’d really like to say about that. But the good news is our TV is back in the living room, our couch is no longer in the kitchen and I can actually see the floor! Which is worthy of a celebration, if you ask me!

We had a reservation at Restaurant Kevin Taylor for Denver Restaurant Week and even though I felt the service and atmosphere left a lot to be desired, the actual food was pretty good. I’m actually going to dedicate an entire post (or 2…) to our Denver Restaurant Experiences this week, so I’ll just leave it at that for now. Oh and I’ll leave you with this picture of something that was hanging up near the restroom. I think we found the groomsmen outfits for the wedding!

Afterwards, we headed to a bar where our wedding band was playing. You know, just to make sure they were still good (they were). And because some of Joey’s family was there checking them out for the first time. They all approved and good thing, because we already put that deposit down… Then, we headed to a friend’s birthday party. Can I just say that beer pong is so much better now than when I used to play it? That whole thing where you just fill the cups with water and keep your actual drink on the side and sip as desired is so preferable to the chugging of crappy dirty beer. Also, I am the epitome of terrible at beer pong.

Sunday involved more working out (today’s rest day never felt so good) and Joey and I rushing to an afternoon movie (because we rush everywhere…). “Philomena,” which we keep calling “Philomania” because of that SNL skit a few weeks ago, was the only best picture nominee we hadn’t seen, so we had to. Sadly, it was just as cheesy and boring as I thought it was going to be. Definitely my least favorite of all the films, but I can’t believe we actually saw them all! Between seeing all the best pictures, all the short films and one of the documentaries, we killed it on the Oscar thing this year.

Spent the rest of the afternoon with this little project. I’ve got one out of three coats up and I’m so so excited for our chalk wall. It will most likely feature the name of whichever beer we’re currently brewing/drinking and notes from me to Joey saying stuff like “you forgot to hang up the towel in the bathroom AGAIN!” I think he’s really gonna love it. Also, I swear I’m going to start showing some pictures of the house now that it’s closer to being done. One day…

Happy Monday!

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What was your favorite moment of the Oscars?

What did you do this weekend?

Are you celebrating Mardi Gras or National Pancake Day tomorrow? That’s a yes to both for me!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sunday started with this bad decision.

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!

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.

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…