It's that time of year again!

It's Birthday Week! If you're unfamiliar with Birthday Week, please read this. I was having "one of those days" at work today and just trying to make it through the day to get to the weekend. Tom surprised me after work with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and reservations at this cute little Italian restaurant that's right up the road from his work, Sapori. We both had lobster ravioli for dinner and I enjoyed caprese salad for an appetizer and coconut sorbetto (in a real coconut!!!) for dessert! After thoroughly enjoying our Memorial Day 3-day weekend, we decided to take tomorrow off (in addition to having Monday off)! Yay 4-day Birthday Weekend!!

Accidentaly Domestic Weekend

When Friday rolled around I had absolutely no plans of being productive, let alone domestic, this weekend. It's so much better to have nothing planned and accomplish a lot than the other way around. Here's a list of all of the domestic-type activities I did this weekend without even planning to :)

• Did all of my laundry


• Ironed enough clothes for the next 2 weeks


• Made Mint Syrup...then proceeded to spill 3/4 of the mint syrup when I was trying to put some on my canteloupe this morning :(


• Made Tomato Sauce (with tomato paste and water and sugar...because I was out of tomato sauce)


• Made Taco Soup for the freezer


• Made my own bread crumbs (Ummm, we were out and I needed some for the burgers. Besides, we had a few hot dog buns that needed to be used up).


• Made burgers from scratch


• Divided and froze the 6 pounds of ground beef we got from Costco (well, 4 pounds after the burgers and the taco soup)


• Cleaned out my computer


• Ground up 2 lbs worth of whole coffee beans in the blender (we got free coffee from Costco...wooo!)

Okay, I think that's it! It doesn't sound like much now that I listed it all out....but now all I have to do is sit back and relax for the rest of the evening (and "supervise" Tom while he grills our burgers).

Today's Mission: Back That Computer Up!

My computer (as of a few weeks ago) is officially 8 years old. It's been a good computer but lately it likes to make so much noise that it sounds like it might just take off at any given moment. I really have no complaints about it, but I need to get everything and anything important off of it (you know, like my illegally obtained free version of Snood) and backed up on one of our hard drives just in case.

My computer has been through a lot. The Love Virus of 2004/5, a few RAM boosts thanks to Tom, and multiple moves (8, to be exact). I'm in a race against time to make sure everything is saved, then all I have to do is sit back and enjoy however much time I have left with good ol' Compy. Who knows, by cleaning him out I may get a few more years out of him!

Currently

Excited about my birthday 4 day weekend!
Worried about a relative going through a difficult time
Reading Eat Pray Love
Creating a work out schedule that I will actually stick to
Loving that it isn't completely dark at 9:00 and that it's cool enough to sit on the back deck and relax
Hating days without a single cancellation or no-show (although I guess that's a good sign for job security?!)
Wondering when I'm going to find a suitable vacation rental for our August vacay
Craving Havarti dill cheese and rosemary garlic triscuits
Hoping to be better at menu planning this month
Watching on TV ID Network, Always Sunny reruns
Listening to Nickelcreek, a bunch of old mix CD's
Cooking honestly? Not much of anything lately! We've been grilling a lot of meat and veggies whenever we get the chance!
Looking forward to a little bit longer of a vacation in August, Mom and Dad visiting in July, My Birthday

Weekend Getaway

We were finally able to sneak in a Mini Vacay this weekend! We rented a house in Michiana Shores, IN...a little over an hour from Chicago. We arrived Friday afternoon and enjoyed a quiet, relaxing evening. We grilled out, watched Bailey "protect us" from the deer, and later enjoyed some good conversation on the screened in porch. Bailey sniffed the perimeter and kept watch from her "perch" at the edge of the deck.Saturday we slept in, enjoyed coffee, and wished real hard that the sun would come out so we could take Bailey to the beach. Well, we didn't wish hard enough, because the weather was absolutely miserable! You can't even see the lake, can you?!It was cold, misty, and foggy. We went to the beach anyways, and couldn't even see 100 yards in either direction.Bailey wasn't too sure of the water. Tom tried to take her in, but she kept running away whenever the waves would crash. She did like the sand, however, and kept trying to bury her nose in it apparently thinking she would find something. After about 15 minutes we had all had enough (or at least I had), so we headed back to the house to warm up with some hot tea.Saturday evening my cousin Laurel (who lives in Indiana) drove out to have dinner with us and spend a few hours catching up. It was so good to see her! There happened to be a convenient little wood-fired pizzeria down the road so we ordered a delicious meal (complete with prosciutto, rosemary, and pistachio pizza and various flavors of gelato).

Sunday (of course) was bright and sunny, but still a little cool. We packed up and headed home to get caught up on a few things and enjoy the end of our weekend. We're very much hoping to have a slightly longer vacation in August but this was a nice little treat! We feel relaxed and refreshed and ready for some warmer weather!

Happy 5 Year Anniversary!!

I can't believe it's been 5 years since we got married!! What a blast that day was! I mean, a day filled with friends and family, 37 cases of beer, and Velveeta....how could it not be awesome?! Happy Anniversary!

Remember how we're not allowed to paint?

Well, it turns out, we don't care :)

Last weekend we learned that our downstairs neighbors were allowed to paint....well, not technically. But they were allowed to choose the paint colors and have the painters do the painting before they moved in. So I said "Screw it" and we decided to paint one measely wall in our bedroom. I love it though, it makes such a huge difference!

Our "landlady" is so confused that we can just tell her it was like that when we moved in and she probably won't even bat an eyelash. Or we can just say "Remember how we had to call you 10 times in a matter of 3 weeks for you to get someone to come out and fix our air conditioning? And then remember how you said someone would be out on a particular Wednesday so Tom took the whole day off work (using 8 hours of his own PTO) to wait for a guy that never showed up? And then he had to call you to see if they were going to come or not? And then you told us to turn off our alarm system on a particular Thursday and that you would personally come in with the repair man so our dog wouldn't flip out...and then we got home and it didn't look like anyone had been there so again we had to call you to see if you even came out? And then the next week you sent a guy out and he didn't fix anything? And then you didn't return Tom's calls for 2 days and he had to call you AGAIN to finally confirm that someone will be out this Thursday at 9 am? Remember that?" To Be Continued.....

But in the meantime, enjoy a pic of our newly painted wall :)