Easter Weekend Things

Happy Easter, all!

I don’t know about you but we had beautiful sunny weather here in Colorado this weekend and I am in a good mood.  Which is probably my body’s way of making up for yesterday’s bad mood.  I was having one of those emotional mess kind of days.  Which is totally normal for me.  Anyone else?

Friday afternoon started out like this.

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I love running and hiking, but walking, or better yet, strolling is highly underrated.  And there’s nothing like a post-work, weekend-kickoff stroll around the neighborhood.

And progressed into this.

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Hannah, Joey and I thought we were showing up to trivia but it ended up being “Beergo.”  Which requires less brain power and more luck, and that was totally fine with me.  Weekends are for zoning out anyways, right?  I think they called about 10 numbers before Hannah got one.  It was impressive.

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Joey won round one.

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And round two.  Which was mostly annoying because we were both one number away from blackout.  And they just had to call out “68” instead of “69.”  This kid is the luckiest person I know.  And did I mention he bowled another 300 on Thursday night?  And is it normal to resent your boyfriend for all the  good things that happen to him?

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Other than me feelings all kind of emotional on Saturday (I blame a horrible night’s sleep), I got a massage, tested some egg-dying for today’s deviled eggs, spent too much money at the grocery store and celebrated Easter with my family.

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BBQ season is on.  And I am loving that it’s staying light outside longer and longer everyday.  Not just because it makes it easier to take bright beautiful pictures — although that’s a big part of it — but because it makes the time between work and bedtime and the time between dinner and nighttime feel much longer.

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I don’t think I want to know how much these Whole Foods burgers cost, but they are honestly delicious.  And Joey, the ultimate burger connoisseur can totally back me up on that one.  My soon-to-be-two-years-old niece ate half a burger and a bratwurst and I was in shock.  If I hadn’t seen in with my own two eyes, I wouldn’t believe it.  She’s definitely a Dorsey.

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We also broke into our 4th batch of homebrew.  It got mixed reviews at first (beer novices didn’t love it, those with more beer drinking experience approved), but eventually everyone came around.  I thought it was a lot hoppier than our previous batches and definitely had that hefeweizen flavor, so approved.

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Also approved of those Alexia Sweet Potato Puffs and homemade coleslaw.

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After dinner, we pulled out the celebratory chantilly cake for Joey’s birthday.  Or, more likely, because we all go crazy over this chantilly cake and Joey’s birthday seemed like a good excuse to buy one.  The thing is almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.

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What does the person who wins multiple rounds of Beergo in one night and can bowl a perfect game every other week wish for?

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This has been the first year that we haven’t fit two Easter celebrations into one Sunday but I have to say that today was really nice.  There was even time for sleeping in, eating pancakes, going on a 4-mile run (the Bolder Boulder is gonna be here fast!) and successfully driving Joey’s truck to Wal-Mart without freaking out and stalling with a line of cars behind me.  My legs only slightly felt like jell-o afterwards.  I get nervous, okay!

And then this happened.

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I came across this page last week and immediately volunteered myself for deviled egg duty.  I ended up doubling the food coloring amounts (tripling it in the case of the green and orange eggs) and letting the eggs soak for about 45 minutes.

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I left half of the eggs with a plain and simple deviled egg filling.

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Then got fancy with the other half.  Blue cheese crumbles and extra hot sauce!

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Aaaand one more picture because I’m super proud of how well they turned out.  Special thanks to my mom for providing me with the piping bags and a special thanks to Wal-Mart for having one glass deviled egg plate left today.

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Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

 

St. Patrick’s Day Weekend Things

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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Right now, I am so full of corned beef and cabbage, green beer and marbled cheesecake brownies that I don’t think I can move from my couch.  Good thing blogging requires me to do just that; sit on the couch and not move.  Other than eating too much green and Irish food, I can’t say my St. Patrick’s Day hasn’t been too wild or crazy.  It’s actually been more productive than anything.  Checking things off my to-do list left and right.

Celebrate the arrival of a new Cooking Light magazine by reading it cover to cover.  Check!

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Who else is excited for fresh spring food?

Have a successful driving lesson.  Check!

Confession: I can’t drive stick.  Which I feel is such a basic skill and something I should know how to do.  Especially since Joey drives a stick shift and if I ever had to I wouldn’t be able to drive us in it.  I only drove around the neighborhood, but I actually did pretty good.  The real test is when someone is behind me — pressure is on then.

Watch Beetlejuice because a certain someone has never seen it.  Check!

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Dayo, daaaaaayo.  I hadn’t seen this movie in years but 1. Alec Baldwin is so young! 2. What happened to Michael Keaton?  He is awesome in this movie! 3. What is with the plot of this movie?  It is so all over the place!  Okay, enough exclamation points.

Finish up some vacation reading.  Check!

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I had no idea The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a short story.  I never liked the movie, but I have newfound appreciation for it, now that I’ve read the original.  Whoever came up with the storyline for that film really had to expand from what Fitzgerald gave them.  I just wish they had expanded it quite so much.  Longest movie ever.

See a late night 3D Imax movie for $16 a piece.  Check!

Movie prices these days are crazy!  Oz (or whatever it’s called) wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t really worth that much money either.

Refill our super sad and empty fridge.  Check!

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If only beer was food, huh?

File my taxes.

My mom likes to baby me and has always done it for me (I swear I really did try to do it myself last year and she took over!) but I actually sat down and did it start to finish all by myself this year.  Turns out it’s super easy and it feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

Bottle beer #4.  Check!

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We’re slowly but surely getting a handle on the brewing/bottling thing and basically flew through it on Saturday.  Basically.  It still takes some time and cleaning a carboy that had beer sitting in it for two weeks isn’t on my list of favorite things to do, but that’s why I leave that part to Joey.

Deep clean entire apartment.  Check!

I feel that my hands may never be clean again.

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day the traditional way.  Check!

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Feel super full all night long.  Uh, I think we covered that one.

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Did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?

Have you filed your taxes yet?

Can you drive a stick shift?