Tag: little library

Weekend Things & GABF 2018

LaurenLeave a comment

What can I say about this weekend except that it was the very best because: after two years, we were back at Great American Beer Fest!  Saturday was low key and plan-free and Sunday involved a last-minute manicure and baking (because it’s fall now, ya know??).  I’d relive it all again in a heartbeat!

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In truest Lauren form, I was EXTREMELY prepared for GABF — you do not even know how thorough my list making was — and my excitement level was OFF THE CHARTS.  Pretzel necklaces and Illegal Pete’s burritos are my favorite pre-fest rituals but this year was even better because Hannah and Mason dropped Josh off and I got to see that little babe crawl and bounce on our rubber cow and make only the best of faces ♥

The line to get into the fest was HORRIBLE (I think it wound the entire way around the convention center), but once inside, I forgot all about that ordeal.  Highlights included being the last group to taste Zombie Dust from 3 Floyds, a DEEP purple barrel-aged sour from Une Année, the Blazed Orange Milkshake from Hop Butcher for the World, a guy playing the saxophone on top the Melvin bus (who knows!) and get this… A SPAGHETTI GOSE from WeldWerks!  It smelled like spaghetti and tasted tomato-y in the most interesting way.  You’re probably thinking “EW!” but let me ask you this, do you like a Bloody Mary??  It’s not so different.  Mostly though, this was just the best night with the best people and I feel so happy about it.

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Joey got up the next morning and ran 5 miles (HOW??) but I needed an iced oat milk latte to revive me.  It worked, thankfully!  I realized I’d put ALL my energy into preparing for GABF and forgot to plan anything for Saturday or Sunday, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it made for a real laid back couple of days.  I hit up the grocery, bottled some orange-vanilla-honey kombucha, napped, excitedly snapped a picture of my little library once Joey got it set up (♥♥♥) and then we made tacos and watched Set It Up (which isn’t going to win any Oscars but we laughed).

Oh and I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, bringing my HP re-read to a close and it is so so bittersweet.  I think I cried like 100x during that last book, starting on the literal first page which said something like “And now we bring you the final installment of the Harry Potter series.”  HA!

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Sunday started with a run for both of us (TEN MILES for Joey and five for me) then breakfast together before we split up for the afternoon.  I booked myself a manicure and walked over to a surprisingly quiet Base Coat and on my way back, I peeped that little library and it made me so happy.  I tackled lunches before sitting outside to read for a bit.

Once Joey got home from watching football (really needed him to get our mixer down for me :P), I got to baking because it’s fall now and we MUST.  This recipe for Whole Wheat Applesauce Loaf is one of my very favorites and I hadn’t made it in years so obviously that had no change.  I always make em into muffins (same temp, just 30 minutes less to bake) and then Joey and I each ate one sitting on the couch in the dark because having the oven on without AC is still tough (but worth it for these!).  Hope your weekend was wonderful!

Weekend Things

Lauren1 Comment

Two nights out with friends, a trip to the Farmers’ Market, much Saturday relaxation, beer brewing on Sunday morning, seeing Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again with my mom and sister late Sunday afternoon and to cap it all off, Joey making me dinner.  So even though I think I was feeling sort of crabby on Saturday afternoon, I’ve all but permanently deleted that memory from my mind because the rest of the weekend was too good!

Oh and I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and only cried like five times 😛

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Friday afternoon, we met Hannah and Josh at Community for some happy hour action and oh my gosh, has a cuter baby dino ever existed??  I spend a lot of time thinking “Mason is growing so fast, where is the time going?!” but when I saw him sitting in the restaurant high chair, he looked positively teensy.  He can now do things like feed himself cereal pieces and pull himself up to standing!  Also, we ordered approximately a million plates of food and it was all really good.  We had to grab gelato up the street afterward, because there was no AC in the restaurant and it was SO HOT so we needed a way to cool off 🙂

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We woke up Saturday and headed straight to the Farmers’ Market and it was blissfully the opposite of what the last visit was like, THANK GOD.  We left caffeinated — first stop is ALWAYS Pig Train for nitro iced coffees! — and with peaches and thee fluffiest pita that I am so excited to try.

Not going to lie, much lounging happened during the rest of the day and it was perfectly wonderful.  We watched Ant-Man for the first time and I’ve gotta be honest, it was sorta dorky.  If Paul Rudd wasn’t in it, I probably would not have been interested.  Someone could have warned me about close up shots of ants!  I still have PTSD from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.  

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I cracked open my “Melonilla” kombucha and I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever made!  I absolutely love the vanilla flavor and it’s perfectly carbonated.  Unlike the lime-ginger I made last week that I keep making Joey open for me because it’s explosively carbonated… Oh and we made a trip to our homebrew store for ingredients and got the trim and door painted on my little library.  Just needs to stencil work and it’s ready to go in the ground!

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We met Bobby and Becca at The Source later on for dinner at Comida.  That taco platter is a beaut and all of the tacos were good, but for me, the grilled taco still reigns supreme so I’m probably only ordering those from here on out!  Since we were so close to a handful of breweries, — but can you really be anyplace that’s NOT close to a handful of breweries these days? — we walked over to the Great Divide Barrel Bar for a beer.  There, we reminisced about how perfect the wedding was and I kept hearing myself say stuff like “I remember, at our wedding…” and felt like a real old married person.

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We woke up Sunday and, while Joey got our beer brewing, I made us pancakes and then we had like four hours to kill while we brewed.  I posted a few Sunday clips on my Instagram story and told Joey “it looks like I’ve done a million things today but I’ve really just done like 5 minutes of all of them!”  Those things being garden harvest/upkeep, black bean pressure cooking, reading, a little workout/yoga session and watching the OG Mamma Mia! because I needed to prep for sequel time later.  I was incredibly embarrassing dancing around to “Dancing Queen” but I can’t help it!  Also, that synth sound at the beginning of “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” gives me life!

As for the sequel, as my mom said afterward, “it’s not a good movie but it’s so much fun!”  That fleet of ships carrying dancers performing “Dancing Queen” made me the happiest I’d ever been.  Also, Lily James is a knockout, Jessica Keenan Wynn is a dead ringer for Christine Baranski and I was very very thankful for far fewer musical numbers by the three, ahem old mature men.  Cher doesn’t have a huge role or much screen time but she is a LEGEND, so we should feel lucky any time she graces us with a performance.

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I came home to this stunning dinner that tasted even better than it looked and most importantly, didn’t involve me lifting a finger, except the one I used to swipe my credit card when I bought the salmon on my way home.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there’s nothing better than having a homemade dinner prepared for you!

What did you do this weekend?!