Radio Frustration

I am lucky enough to be living only 1 hour from my brother (at least for the next 2 months until he graduates college) so last night I went to meet him for a very nice dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

After dinner I dropped him off at his house around 8pm and started my drive home. As soon as I turned on the radio I heard a trivia question that I thought I knew the answer to...

I figured that I might as well give it a shot since I was going to be doing nothing but driving for the next hour or so. I dialed the number and of course got a busy signal many times. Then it would connect and ring and I'd get excited, but it would keep ringing for 2 minutes and then cut me off without anyone answering. I would give up for a few minutes and then they would air a wrong answer guess on the radio so I figured I'd give it one more try...this cycle continued for the ENTIRE 45 minutes that it took me to get home. I was on my street, on my last ditch attempt at getting through, when I hear "Hi do you have an answer for me!?" I got so excited!

So here was the question:
These can be sold in the office, at the store, on the street, almost anywhere, but they can't be sold online. What are they?

I hear "Hi do you have an answer for me?" and I say "Is it Girl Scout Cookies?" and she says "Yes it is Girl Scout Cookies!"
I was so excited!! I got through, and I had the right answer, and she proceeded to ask me my name and where I was calling from and I was so happy that my 45 minutes of calling wasn't in vain...
and then I heard this...

"You're actually the Tenth person to guess it right, but thanks for calling. *click*"

I feel totally robbed!

New Yawk City: Just Like I Pictured It!

This past weekend, one of my best friends and I went to NY City with my mom to celebrate my upcoming 25th birthday! We got tickets to a Broadway play, made a dinner reservation, bought tickets to a concert, and invited friends.

We drove 5 hours, we ate at Vegas Diner in Brooklyn, we bought our subway metro cards, and after only one "Oh F**k" mishap of realizing I forgot the camera battery at my grandparents' place and going back to get it, we started our amazing day's worth of an adventure.

So glad to have had time to visit with Lara and David for dinner that night. We shared some classic Manhattanite hours together over a scrumptious & expensive dinner and a show at the Bowery Ballroom. (Please note Lara's Manhattan-i-rific shoes!)

We walked that city like we'd been there before and knew where we were going. And we enjoyed every step of it.



A quick stop for pizza before our Broadway experience, and our NYC day was everything we'd hoped for!

Anyone who ever has an opportunity to see Catch Me If You Can on Broadway...it's worth every penny!!

Slacking

I have been slacking. I admit it!

I promise to make it up to you by soon posting awesome pictures taken with the new camera on a weekend to remember....

I'm in Heaven!

#1 Fact: I am seriously in love with Amazon.com

#2 Fact: I have a picture taking obsession

#3 Fact: Putting 1 and 2 together is Amazing


Question to self: How do I take a picture of a camera....?

Amazingness

The crazy stuffed pepper recipe has been 100% forgiven! After the first bites of amazingness passed my lips, all anger towards them melted away and became pure love.

I think the photo speaks for itself!

Recipe Surprise

I do not have words for the amazingness that just took place in my kitchen. And by "just" I mean, over the course of the past 36 hours.

First:
I had a house-full of guests last night, so a special meal of pork was planned ahead, and the crock-pot slaved all day long so that I didn't have to! When I got home from work rice and veggies were cooked, tossed together, and eaten with the pork in a scrumptious combination of flavors. All guests were happy, and I was proud of my hostessing success.

Second:
Another hostessing opportunity arises tonight with a friend coming over for dinner and a slumber party. The catch: that friend is a vegetarian. I really don't care at all that she is a vegetarian, except when I have to cook for her :)
It's a challenge for me to come up with filling, healthy, non-salad meals for us, but I try. Yesterday I searched online and found a Stuffed Pepper recipe that sounded amazing, so I went out and bought the ingredients.

This morning I browsed over the recipe before heading to work (thank goodness!) and discovered that it called for the peppers to be stuffed, and then set in the crock pot for THREE HOURS to cook! So, unless Ashley and I wanted to eat at 9pm, that was a serious problem. So today on my lunch break, I ran home and started cooking rice, chopping vegetables, opening cans, dicing cheese, mincing garlic, and cleaning the crock pot.

At the end of my 45 minutes at home I had 3 perfectly stuffed peppers in the crock pot with a wonderful base of tomato sauce surrounding them as they brewed on their low setting.

The recipe allowed for many opportunities to test the combination of flavors and examine how they stimulate your palate (aka, sample the crap out of it) and considering how much I enjoyed that part, I am very much looking forward to dinner tonight.

I'll let you know how they turn out...

Success!

This weekend was relaxing and busy all at the same time.

There was a little bit of household necessity taken care of in the form of putting in a better shower head that would hopefully actually allow water to pass through it.
I was unaware that this installation process was occurring until the very end of it, but it was an overall success.
Then we had some friends over for a wonderfully gourmet lunch, complete with a side of mixed fruit, which was amazing!


We also found the time to go out to eat at a very nice Italian restaurant a couple of towns over from my house. The food was wonderfully fancy, and the cocktails were well mixed... :)

Then we decided that since we had had a very grown-up weekend, entertaining for family and friends, cooking, and doing household chores, we would made our way to our favorite park and walk the snowy trails for an hour. We made our way to the abandoned Mill, and played in the snow like we were little kids. Thankfully though, we did manage enough restraint to not throw snowballs at each other since I didn't have my gloves with me, lol.

We've found that a nice outdoor weekend walk serves to reset the brain a little bit, and makes the tasks ahead in the coming week much more do-able.

All in all it was a lovely weekend, which ended with the Superbowl, and my choice of Grid squares landing me $75 in winnings :) Success again!