Weekend Things

Interrupting recaps of Italian Vacation 2019, to tell you I watched too many movies this weekend.  But, as Joey whispered to me while we were cozy in our seats at the Alamo Drafthouse on Friday night, “it’s movie season!”

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We saw Jojo Rabbit, a movie I had been highly anticipating, on Friday night and I don’t know how to tell you about it.  The entire time, I had this feeling that something was missing or amiss and just not totally working for me, so I was shocked to death afterward when Joey told me “that’s the best movie of the year!”  We maybe argued about it for way too long, but now that a few days have passed I’ve softened and feel like I was maybe too harsh in my criticism.  I still don’t think it’s a perfect movie, but I will say it’s funny and for real, I was so taken with Roman Griffin Davis, who plays Jojo and is seriously so adorable ♥

Back at home, we maybe started Jenny Slate’s comedy special Stage Fright and I didn’t think it was that funny, yet I keep quoting it?  What does this mean?

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Saturday started with pancakes for the first time in three weeks!!!  I should mention that after we got back from Italy, we were home for a literal day, then flew to Chicago for a wedding in Rockford, so this was our first real weekend home.  I hit the grocery and was reminded that all human beings are annoying and from here on out I will do whatever necessary to have my groceries delivered 😛

Back at home, Joey was cleaning up our yard, which was covered in leaves and the dead remains of our garden (all the shishitos had turned to ghost shishitos!).  I basically figured we had no chance of getting it all cleaned up, but then we did and I’m so glad!  I even found some carrots and beets that had managed to thrive even though we had completely neglected them.  Also, it was in the 70s and beautiful outside.

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I am nothing if not a committed movie viewer, so even though we weren’t stoked to see it, Oscar buzz for Renée Zellweger means we went to see Judy.  We were sort of disappointed that, though there are a few flashbacks to when she was filming Wizard of Oz, most of the film takes place near the end of her life.  I wanted to see it all!  She does her own singing and I don’t know that she really sounds like Judy Garland but you do still get that captivating effect.  Mostly, it was really sad knowing she would die so soon after the events of the film.

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Woke up to snow on Sunday (and it’s basically been snowing ever since…)!  My sister picked me up later so we could go get our nails done.  We go to the same nail salon, but not at the same time as often as we should.  She was telling me about a simulation lab she did in school and I’m so impressed and proud of that little nurse-to-be ♥  We went to Beet Box afterward so she could pick up some donuts for Wayne and I got myself a tofu banh mi (that was so good!) for lunch.

Back at home, Joey and I lazed around for basically the rest of the day.  Last Thursday, while he was at bowling, I decided to re-watch Ocean’s Eleven then quickly realized I had definitely never seen a single second of that movie.  So Sunday we watched Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen.  Thirteen is okay, but Twelve was a joke.  Why do we make sequels again?  Snow days calls for chili and cornbread, right?

What did you do this weekend??

Weekend Things: Mom’s Birthday!

Hi!  This weekend was really really good and I guess the best way to explain it is by saying I have THREE canker sores in my mouth and still managed to be in a good mood.  It’s probably because I got to see the new Quentin Tarantino on Friday, celebrate Mom’s birthday on Saturday and somehow manage to fit in family time, chore time and yoga time on Sunday.  The best!

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Guys, I’ve had Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood written down as a movie to anticipate for like two years and it’s finally here!  We bought tickets to see it in 35mm (as Quentin intended) at the Sie on Friday, but first, spicy chicken at Q House!  Ugh, so good.

As for the movie, I LOVED it and the more I think about it, the more in love I am.  Our theater was packed and we were all laughing together through the whole thing.  I’m not here to debate Brad vs. Leo because they are both EXCELLENT but I would like to watch the scene of Leo yelling at himself in his trailer on loop, please.  Also, Margot Robbie gives such a non-showy but intimately beautiful performance that I found so compelling.

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Saturday started with breakfast at Hoja!  Turns out they have a little patio out back that is shady and quiet and just a lovely place to spend some time.  Um I did not make it through that gargantuan (see what I did there?) burrito but I tried my best.  Afterward, I briefly contemplated going to the grocery but decided to do some backyard clean up by way of making a bigger mess instead.  Our tomato bush is trimmed, our strawberries have been thinned out, the weeds in our flower bed are pulled and I finally spread out the bag of red bark we bought like a month ago.  Plus I had granola baking inside!

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At 2, I walked over to Base Coat for a pedicure, but the real event of the day was my mom’s birthday dinner!  We got her an Apple Watch and my favorite moment of the entire day was when we told her she could talk to it and she whispered “I love you!” to it, HA HA!!  We had a tapas spread at The Med before walking the Pearl Street Mall and whoa, I think it’d been years since I’d done either of those things.  We had perfect weather for a stroll.  We all headed back to my parents’ afterward for cake/sorbet and to play with the Apple Watch.

P.S. Please know my dad had also seen Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood earlier that day and I don’t think the three that hadn’t seen it appreciated constant references by the three of us who had 🙂

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We had Sunday morning family breakfast plans but when I woke up Joey was already awake and making coffee plans for us.  (Side Note: I could get used to this thing where Joey wakes up before me and has already thought up a fun thing for us to do!) We hit up Downpours and though it was a million degrees inside the coffee shop, they also had a shady backyard patio area, where we drank our iced coffee and ordered our groceries online.

We celebrated July birthdays at Cathy & Todd’s with a breakfast burrito bar and what a genius idea that was!  I maybe had a headache over my left eye (from my ONE glass of sangria, seriously??) but we got to sit out on the deck and visit with everyone for a couple of hours and it felt so nice.

Back at home we tag-teamed salads (this one but with this dressing) for lunches this week and I finally got around to cleaning our bathroom and still had time to make it to Sunday yoga for the first time in three weeks!!!  Came home and took some glamour shots of our garden and deck.  Our backyard, just like our kitchen/fridge, is always in flux and I’m learning to be okay with it being messy at times because I know it’ll be back in order eventually.  By Sunday is was all spic-and-span!

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Dinner was Loaded Summer Chili Fries and I was blown away by how good and simple and fresh they tasted.  Truly a wonderful recipe ♥  Eaten in the backyard and I just want to remember how happy I felt in that summer moment.  We headed inside to watch Big Brother afterward and I pretty much hate everyone except Tommy.  Please tell me how your weekend was.  It was the last one of July, you know!