Snowy Weekend Things

You guys, you should have seen the grocery store on Friday!  We left work early to do our usual Friday night shopping trip (I am officially the antithesis of fun) and it was INSANE.  A million people, out of everything (and by everything, I mean bananas and spinach) and check out lines that looked like they were winding through the entire store.  It was like Y2K!  Except that I didn’t grocery shop back then so I have no idea what Y2K was actually like and except that it was just a snow storm everyone was bracing for, not some massive technological shut down.

We fully intended on going to the movies that night, but we got word that the new brewery down the street — yeah, because two other breweries within walking distance and A KEGERATOR IN OUR LIVING ROOM weren’t enough — had just opened, so change of plans!  They do this “guest brewer” thing where regular Joes can come in and brew with a professional and then have their beer served in the taproom.  I can’t decide if that’s cool or dumb but the beer I had was great!  The Peach Cobbler taster however… I took one sip and couldn’t imagine taking another.

IMG_7123Saturday was my nephew’s birthday and somehow he is SIX YEARS OLD.  When the heck did that happen?!  Before driving into Longmont, we went to our coffee shop and looked at pictures from the day he was born.  Whoa, we all look so young!  But now, 6-year old Gennaro has a bunch of school friends, wants to grow out his hair and wear ripped jeans and is too cool for Joey and I.  Though Joey was granted permission to join the exclusive laser tag group.  Three adults against all the kids: 23,000 points to 5,000 points.  I mean, way to take it easy on them, guys.

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After the party, we grabbed lunch (“I love Chipotle, Chipotle is my life”) and finally went to that movie.  American Sniper!  Okay, look, I was kind of preparing to hate it.  I think war movies are incredibly difficult to pull off, especially when you’re talking about recent war because it’s just kind of a sensitive subject and I don’t think it’s easy to represent that stuff in a way that will please everyone, but you know what?  I actually really liked it!  I didn’t agree with any of the criticism I’d heard about it and I thought it was very well done.

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It was full-blown blizzard status when we got out of the movie, so we drove home, parked it on the couch in our pajamas and stayed there for the rest of the day/night.  I think we watched something like 85 episodes of Friday Night Lights.  Give or take.  And though I was expecting and kinda hoping to wake up to 16″ of snow, I think we got about 5″.  Wah wah.  But snow days and Sundays call for fun breakfasts!  Is it weird that I’ve been dreaming of breakfast tacos all week?  Wait, don’t answer that.  I made us each some, plus pancake minis, strawberries for me and sweet potato home fries for Joey.  More breakfasts like this forever, please!

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I was kind of dying to break a sweat and seeing as we couldn’t use snow as an excuse not to go to the gym, we headed there mid-morning.  For real, I left my phone there and didn’t realize until we were home.  Who puts their phone down on a table to put their jacket on, then leaves it there and doesn’t notice?  Probably the same person who leaves their purse at restaurants and doesn’t notice.  I’m blaming Oscars excitement for my lack of focus.

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I made us this way-too-extravagant-for- just-two-people spread of Oscars viewing snacks and though we crushed that bowl of veggies, grapes, nuts, figs and popcorn, I swear we didn’t eat all of that cheese.  That Cambozola was a recent Bon Appétit recommendation and it was like a blue cheese-brie hybrid that tasted totally awesome.  How often is one allowed to eat cheese and crackers for dinner?  As for the actual Oscars.  Kinda meh, don’t you think?  NPH’s jokes didn’t seem to be hitting the right note (I personally thought they were too short and hard to catch) and everything in general just wasn’t that memorable.

Oh and Joey and I tied on our Oscars ballot.  I picked Birdman for Best Picture so I’m calling myself the winner, though.

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This is our forecast for the rest of the week.  Pray for us!

Oscar Weekend Things

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.

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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+++!

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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…

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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! 

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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!