Tag: Uncle Ramen

Thanksgiving Weekend 2016

LaurenLeave a comment

Extended title for this post is “Thanksgiving Weekend 2016: A mixed bag, but mostly good.”  Because, uh yeah, it’s been a blurry roller-coaster type of deal for the past four and a half days.  And while I didn’t spend the entire time in the best of moods — I took a three day coffee break and I think my emotions are all over the place now that I’m back on the caffeine train — most of it was the custom food/family/fun explosion that makes Thanksgiving my absolute favorite time of the year.

Was that intro all over the place or what?  Oy with the poodles already!

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If Thanksgiving is my favorite day of year, then the three days leading up to it are my second favorite.  I get to tap into my plan -ahead, list-making, over-preparing talents and oh what a Type A high it is!  I looked forward to making this Salted Butter Apple Galette all day on Tuesday.  It turned out perfectly!  Pretty impressed with my apple slice feathering skills 🙂

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We managed to sneak out of work early on Wednesday, spent a couple of hours assembling/prepping dishes for the next day and made that one emergency trip to the grocery store, because something just HAS to go wrong when you’re cooking for Thanksgiving.  I totally made the Brussels sprouts with apple cider VINEGAR instead of actual apple cider and Joey had to pick up another two pounds so I could re-make them.  Yikes.

Crisis averted, we took ourselves to dinner at Uncle because after last year, I vowed to make ramen dinner our new Thanksgiving Eve tradition.  We people watched during the 45 minute wait, then sat in the exact same spot as last year!  What are the chances?

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THANKSGIVING ♥

Morning time perfection brought to you by a mug of coffee and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  It feels so wrong to give up our Turkey Trot tradition, but it also so feels so relaxing and right.  Joey even had time to draw a little Christmas tree on our wall 🙂

Afternoon perfection brought to you by Meal #1, which involved the best turkey, the David Blaine special (I could not roll my eyes hard enough…), a nap for Jory and the Cowboys game.  They won, I guess.

Meal #2 at my parents’ made complete by festive cocktails, my sister ladling gravy onto her roll, MOM’S STUFFING (!!!!!!!) and James Bond.  We found a whole slew of the films on Amazon and went with Spectre.  Oh and that apple galette… YUM!

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On Friday, I watched Joey’s first game of the alumni tournament before heading off to Loveland with my family to see my brother & co. at their new house!  Guess I was too busy scootering with my niece, holding my nephews cup of coffee for him while he rode his bike (start em young, right?), sipping beer with brother and admiring the penguin cake my sister-in-law made to take any pictures.  Fail!

But afterwards, Mom, Joey and I headed back to our house for GILMORE GIRLS!  I got us matching shirts to celebrate the arrival of the revival (I wanted to say that so bad!) and while we only made it through two episodes together (they were 30 minutes longer than we had originally thought), it was still so fun.  It only makes sense to watch a mother-daughter show with your mother 🙂  Debating a full out post about the series, but we’ll see!

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Saturday started with pancakes (my turn!), progressed to the last episode of Gilmore Girls, followed by a run for me and outdoor Christmas decorations for Joey, who was just up on our roof when I got back from my run… normal, so normal.  Then we got ourselves together and headed over to the Denver Central Market!  It is BEAUTIFUL in there and I love all the restaurant/market stations, but I also think most people will use it to eat instead of taking advantage of the butcher, cheese shop and produce section.  I grabbed a tuna salad sandwich from Silva’s Fish Market and while the bread was Texas Toast-esque perfection, I kinda didn’t want to pay $12 to put the two halves together myself.

One major snafu later — paid $10 to park at the 16th Street Mall Pavilions only to discover the movie we wanted to see was sold out — we ended up in Arvada for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  Okay, I ADORE being in the Harry Potter world but if you took away any prior HP knowledge and judged the movie on its own, it’s a lot less interesting.  I felt like the dialogue was so lacking.  Wait, was there even any dialogue?  Caught the winning end of the CU game afterwards though!

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Sunday started with breakfast tacos and ended with Thanksgiving leftovers pizza and that’s really all you need to know about that day.  Also, I’m guessing your attention is dwindling at this point.  Wishing you a quick recovery from this weekend hangover 🙂

A Day in the Life

LaurenLeave a comment

Guys!  Do you like these kinds of posts?  I’m totally nosey about other people’s lives so I love seeing them and thought it’d be fun to do one of my own again.  Written in real time on Thursday but seeing as it’s Friday when you’re reading it, I guess I should say “Happy Weekending!”

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When you plan on waking up at 6 AM, you should probably not stay up late watching the Olympics the night before.  I know this, yet I did it anyway.  Summer Olympics only happen once every four years and I must watch every possible second!  “Strawberry Fields Forever” wakes me up, I hit snooze once then reluctantly drag myself out of bed, and into my running clothes.  By 6:20, I’m off!

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My 3-miler ends up not being so bad and lo and behold I might actually be in a better mood now!  Probably because I saw a pumpkin-sized round zucchini growing in someone’s yard and found it really funny.  Also, full disclosure: I tried really hard not to run super slow because I knew I’d be taking a picture of my results.

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Back at home, I shower and get ready.  Joey delivers me a glass of iced coffee at 7:15 and I love him just a little bit more.  Breakfast is overnight oats, granola and peanut butter (on loop all summer long) while I watch this fascinating Ryan Lochte vs. Brazilian Authorities story unfold on the Today Show.  I have a lot of opinions on this matter, none of which I’ll subject you to.

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We’re in the middle of a renovation at our office and it is a complete mess.  It’s going to be really nice once it’s all complete but right now it’s ripped up carpet, dust everywhere and whatever is going on in my ceiling.  Oh and hammering, lots and lots of hammering.  This does, however, give me an excuse to quote my favorite Christmas movie over and over again.  There’s a hole for an eventual window in Joey’s wall and I keep using it to enter and exit his office, because I can!

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Joey has just enough time between meetings — he’s spearheading this whole renovation — to eat lunch with me.  Salads-in-a-jar with tarragon vinaigrette, chickpeas, cucumber, tomatoes, feta, romaine and slivered almonds.  All week, we’ve been escaping the dust to eat lunch at a park down the street but no time today.  C’est la vie.  Lunch is cut short when at least five bees swarm our table and we decide we’ve had enough of the outdoors for one day.

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The reno crew leaves around 2:30 every day, at which time our office suddenly feels eerily quiet.  I wish I could tell you something exciting happened work-wise, but it’s a pretty mundane Thursday.  Ordering, invoicing, filing, texting my sister about guacamole.  Oh and I see this and come really close to crying at my desk.  Bookmarking this restaurant for one day when I make it to Atlanta!

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I’m the type of person who’s hyper aware of when 5 PM hits so I’m kind of thrown off guard when Joey comes into my office ready to leave and I hadn’t even realized it was time yet!  We make it home, check our garden — patty pan squash are looking NICE — and watch an episode of Seinfeld, but then it’s date night!  It was rainy towards the end of the workday but now the skies have cleared and I’m hoping for perfect ramen on the patio weather at Uncle.

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THERE’S NO WAIT.  What?!  I order a watermelon gose and am in my happy place.  We also ordered fried fingerling potatoes with kimchi butter and scallion sour cream so Joey is in his happy place.  Then we both make the best decision of our lives and order the Spicy Chicken Ramen.  The tahini broth is buttery and rich and life changing.  Also, we knock chopsticks the entire time we’re eating.  You would think, after 9 years, we would know which side the left-hander should sit on, but we’re reeeeeally slow learners.

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Back at home, we park it on the couch to watch the Olympics — apparently shot putters have to scream while throwing that ball? — and ugh, how cool is Usain Bolt?!  The Jamaicans definitely win for best names too.  Mid-Olympics, we watch Big Brother and by the time it’s over, I’m too tired to even watch Team Brazil win men’s beach volleyball gold.  Wait, they won, right??  Somehow, it is still 11 o’clock by the time I get into bed.  I guess I’ll just sleep more next week.