Weekend Thanks

Since next to no one is reading these anyway, I figure I'll just catch up at my own pace. Ahhh, the joys of being lazy.

Nov. 24 - On Saturday, I was thankful for...

Small businesses.

Hubby and I went Small Business Saturday shopping for the first year, and absolutely loved it. We headed up to Cedarburg (just north of Milwaukee), where we knew there was an adorable downtown shopping area that we'd been meaning to get to. We were not disappointed. 

We checked out a few stores, including a bike shop (Hubby's an addict, I swear), a toy store (where everything was made either locally or at least in the U.S.) and Penzey's (the spice place). We also got to eat lunch at a really cute pizzeria (they had Sprecher root beer on tap... YUM!!), where we got to warm up for awhile. On our way back south, we stopped at a cheese shop and got some delicious cheese* to take home (a 10-year cheddar and a really unique cheese that's sort of a combination cheddar and bleu cheese). We've eaten their cheese before, since they're always at Zoo Brew, but this was our first visit to their store. Again, we were NOT disappointed.

It was good to see people out and about supporting local businesses. We got some Christmas presents knocked off our list and managed to get a few things for ourselves. Most of all, we had a really nice day together, and for that, I'm definitely thankful.

*Maxi thought so, too. In fact, she stole some of our cheese. While we were sitting there. Little jerk.


Nov. 25 - I was thankful for...

My parents.

Growing up, I was as much of a Daddy's Girl as you could be. When I hit my pre-teens, I started fighting with my mom, and eventually pushed them both away (because they clearly had no idea what it was like to be me... or something...). Even after I graduated from high school, things were not pretty. It took me actually becoming a functioning adult to realize what an ass I'd been.

These days, I love visiting my parents. My mom is one of the most patient and loving people you'll ever meet, and my dad is a smart, funny guy. And they both love me and are proud of who I've become. I'm ultimately thankful that they never gave up on me and that they helped make me who I am now.

November?

Happy belated Halloween! Hope everyone had a lovely day. :-) I watched Nightmare Before Christmas (of course) and Hubby took me on a "Halloween drive" to see some of the awesome decorating people do around here. We had pumpkin pie blizzards from DQ and we watched the new episode of Criminal Minds. It was a good day indeed!

However, every year I forget (and am abruptly reminded) that there is a down side to Halloween; the next day is November.

While it's true that November does mean good things (Thanksgiving, semester ends next month, etc), it also means that winter is on its way and that another year is quickly coming to an end. I'm not necessarily opposed to this, it just kind of freaks me out. Wasn't it just summer? Weren't we just talking about how hot it was? Didn't I just change my clocks an hour forward!? WHAT KIND OF CRUEL JOKE IS THIS?!

Ahem. Sorry about that.

Anywhoozles, I'm going to try something for this November, to try and keep things positive and forget about the impending madness of winter in Wisconsin. With Thanksgiving in mind, I'm going to try to write a quick post each day about something I'm thankful for. At the end of the month, I should have a nice list of things I'm lucky to have to remind myself of whenever I get down. Or a list of really random things that makes me question my sanity and/or priorities. Seems like a win-win.

And so, here we go.

November 1st - I am thankful for...

Online shopping.

OK, this seems like a weird one to start with, but hear me out. I am, as many of you know, a very shy person. Some might call me anti-social. Some DO call me anti-social. In addition, I pretty much refuse to drive in Milwaukee. I've had my share of getting lost around here, and I am by NO means an aggressive driver (which usually means I'm the one who gets screwed over), so other drivers scare the crap out of me. Add those up and I don't get out much on my own.

While Hubby is great at taking me places and going shopping with me, I don't always want to bug him and he's not always available. Enter online shopping. Amazon has been my savior for years now, and I love my Amazon Prime account. (No, I'm not being paid to say that. I really just freakin' love it!) They don't have everything, of course, but more than enough for this gal. 

Besides, there are so many other sites out there! If I need stuff for the dog, BaxterBoo is amazing. If I need clothes, I head to OneStopPlus (big girls need clothes, too). If I want to browse random stuff, I head to places like Shopko, ThinkGeek, or Disney Store. And whenever I'm struggling with present ideas, gifts.com is awesome. Even if I don't find the perfect present, it never fails to give me some awesome ideas.

The benefits are almost endless. I don't have to go anywhere. I don't have to look presentable or even be fully clothed. If I change my mind, removing something from my cart is as easy as clicking a button. There are always deals to be found. Things get delivered right to my house. And a lot of stores will even let you return things (for free or the price of shipping) with little to no hassle.

So, yes, I am thankful for online shopping. It sounds silly, but it makes my life a lot easier and lot more pleasant. And that's worth a ton to me.

One Last Magical Day

Sorry for the delay, folks.  I'm finally over whatever sickness it was that I had (we're thinking it was Strep, but I don't know for sure because I've never had it before), which means I've been furiously catching up with work, homework, and housework.  Doing pretty well on the first two, but our house still looks like a disaster zone.  Eh, we'll let this one go Meatloaf style (2 out of 3 ain't bad!).  

So, Friday the 9th was our last day of Disney.  We decided to try and make it as epic as humanly possible and our goal was to head to Downtown Disney for a few hours before spending the whole rest of the day at MK (minus our reservations for dinner at 'Ohana).  

Downtown Disney isn't really a park so much as it is its own little town.  There are three parts to DD, but we really only ventured through the Marketplace on this trip.  The Marketplace, as its name implies, is full of shopping.  There's a Lego store, a store dedicated to Christmas ornaments, another art store and, best of all, the World of Disney.  World of Disney is sort of like an entire mini-mall of Disney stuff.  They have clothes, toys, jewelry, kitchen stuff, food, books, movies, music...  I could go on and on.  Essentially, if you want it, they have it (with the exception of my puzzle; I'm not saying they didn't have it, necessarily, but I sure didn't find it there, and I looked HARD).  

While at Downtown Disney, my only true goal was to go to Wetzel's Pretzels.  You see, my last name is Hetzel (my married name, anyway), and I was determined to get a picture with Hubby and caption it "Hetzels Eating Wetzel's Pretzels."  Perfect, right?  The pretzels were delicious, and Bestie did snap a photo for us, though I have yet to see it.  My secondary goal was to get some good shopping in, since we were heading back to the resort before we went to MK.  

I may have gone a little nuts, but thankfully, we had saved up for this trip and Hubby is good to me. :)  I got Mickey ears that light up with fireworks, a picture frame, a Wall-E and Eve ornament (Hubby and I like to get ornaments whenever we go on a trip together; might've been inspired by Bestie and her hubby), a Cheshire Cat antennae topper, a Jungle Cruise glass and a t-shirt for hubby!  Woohoo!

While we didn't get over to Pleasure Island or West Side on this trip, it was still a successful trip.  While we waited for the bus, I asked Hubby if he had any money, as I was eying up the vending machine.  He said he only had two dollars, but that the pop cost $2.75.  It just so happened that I had grabbed 3 quarters from our change at the hotel that morning, so I figured it was fate.  I went and bought a Coke and just as I took a step away from the machine, a second Coke dropped out.  Cautiously, I grabbed the second bottle and as I walked away, a THIRD bottle dropped!  Holy cow, man!  I hit the Coke machine lottery!

Standing there with three bottles in my hands (and a confused look on my face, I'm sure), I said, "Would anyone like a Coke?"  A man in front of me shrugged and put out his hand.  He and his wife split it, and his wife was very thankful (she wanted to get something to drink before her kids insisted on sharing it).  I gave the other bottle to Bestie and C, and we all agreed that it was bound to be a good day.  

It sprinkled on us a bit at the bus stop, but eventually our bus came and whisked us away.  After a short break at the resort, it was off to MK!  The order of events is probably a bit off, but that afternoon, we did:

• The Monsters Inc Laugh floor - Like Turtle Talk with Crush, this is an interactive attraction that's bound to entertain you, no matter what age.  
• The People Mover - A slow, gentle ride that guides you through some of Tomorrowland.  
• Carousel of Progress - If you're ready to just sit in the dark for a bit, this is a perfect stop.  Just be warned that you will leave with a song stuck in your head.  "There's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow..."
• Space Mountain - Only Bestie and I braved this one, but it was a blast!  I hadn't been on it since I was 17, and having Bestie giggling in the seat behind me the whole way made the ride that much better.
• Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe - A pretty fun quick service restaurant.  There are 3 "bays" to choose from; one serves primarily chicken entrees, another is strictly burgers and the last is random sandwiches.  While you eat, you're serenaded by Sonny Eclipse, an alien lounge singer that looks sort of like a dinosaur with a bad hair piece.

Eventually, it was close to dinner time, and we took the boat over to the Polynesian resort.  'Ohana was the first place we ate on our honeymoon, so it was sort of fitting that it was the last Disney dining experience we'd really have on this trip.  As we promised Bestie and C, there was food galore.  Starting with coconut-pineapple bread, the food just keeps coming every 5-10 minutes or so.  There's a salad, pot stickers, chicken wings, veggies, lo mein noodles, and eventually some of the best meat you'll ever eat.  On ginormous skewers, Cast Members bring around shrimp, pork, beef and chicken, and slide it onto your plate so you can chow down without ever getting up.  

Dessert is an amazing bread pudding with caramelized banana sauce, served a la mode, but Bestie also got us some ice cream to celebrate (C had gotten a promotion while we were on vacay, and I had joined a national honor society just before we left for FL).  By the end, we were seriously stuffed.  

We wandered down to the beach to watch Wishes from across the water, then checked out the beautiful art store at the Polynesian.  When we took the boat back to MK, we were the only 4 people aboard.  Our captain was very friendly and knowledgeable, sharing with us that Cinderella's Castle is 189 feet tall.  Why not 190?  Because air space guidelines require that you put one of those red blinky lights on structures that tall, and Walt didn't want to have that take away from the magic.  :)

On our way in, we caught the Main Street Electrical Parade, which I don't think I've ever seen before in its entirety.  After that, I know we did Splash Mountain (which was just as fun as I remembered) and one last time on the Haunted Mansion.  We also tried to hunt down some more ice cream for Bestie, but we were SOL.  Boooooo.

We said goodnight and goodbye to MK and took our last bus ride back to the resort.  Since Bestie and C were headed out earlier than Hubby and I were, we had to say goodbye before we went to our room for one last sleep at WDW.   

Noms!

So Friday night I wanted to have a Mexican food night.  To be honest, I just wanted an excuse to have guacamole.  I loves me some guac!  So, I hunted down some good looking recipes for entrees and off we went to Sendik's for ingredients.

There are two things you should know about me: 1) I love going to the grocery store with my hubby.  Mostly.  When he starts playing with the cart like it's a race car, I tend to get a bit annoyed, but otherwise, it's actually something I enjoy doing.  2) I especially love grocery shopping at Sendik's.  For anyone who hasn't been to Sendik's, I highly suggest it.

Sadly, I was a bit disappointed by our Sendik's trip.  They didn't have pre-made guac, for one.  Really?  I can go to most any Pick n Save and find already made guac.  Sometimes it's already packaged for me, too.  Step it up, Sendik's!

For another, NONE of their normal avocados were ripe.  We had managed to find a guac mix ("Just add avocados!") and figured we'd give it a try.  But the avocado selection was less than stellar.  They were like bumpy green stones.  Not cool.  We spent six dollars getting two "organic" avocados (and justified it by saying we weren't getting any other ingredients for it, like onions, tomatoes, etc).  It ended up being pretty tasty, but still.  

For dinner, we made chimichangas.  Here's the recipe.  I was seriously surprised that this recipe was as easy as it was, AND it was tasty!  We substituted ground turkey for the ground beef (as we almost always do) and I melted some cheese over the top of the chimis, but otherwise followed the recipe pretty closely.  With a little taco sauce and some sour cream on top...  Mmmmmmm...  Now I'm getting hungry, dammit.

Anywhoozles, just thought I'd share a good food experience with y'all.  :-)  This weekend we're going for another tropical night, so stay tuned!  

Harrumph!

I believe I've decided (or, rather, perhaps the world has decided for me) that Hump Day will no longer be a weekly post.  Instead, it'll probably be more of an "if-Erika-has-time-for-it-and-finds-something-good" post.

On the plus side, the work day is done and it's almost time for quality time with the hubs.  In this case, quality time is dinner at Chili's and shopping at Target for notebooks and other back-to-school items that I totally forgot I needed.  It may not be fancy or sound special, but I'm pretty excited nonetheless. 

What A Wonderful Weekend

Ok, so, morons aside, this Monday I also have to write about my weekend with my hubby.  

Normally, Zach and I like to try to get away a few weekends of the year.  It's a chance for us to get away from everything and just be us.  This is a little harder with Maxine in the picture, so the only getaway we've really had in the past year was our honeymoon.

So, rather than a trip to Door County or a weekend camping trip, we decided to have a date weekend in our own area.  Not only did this mean we didn't have to find arrangements for the puppers, but it also saved us some money since we weren't paying for a campsite or hotel room.  Huzzah!

The only "rule" was that we weren't allowed to go on the computer during the weekend.  A few exceptions presented themselves (I needed to re-order my meds and we had to check on a pints-to-cups conversion), but otherwise, we stayed offline and made each other our focus.

Saturday was pretty low key.  Maxi and I went to wake Zach up around 10:30 and ended up napping with him until about 11:30.  After getting some dishes done and looking up recipes, we headed to Milwaukee Public Market for lunch.  We got some great burritos (with chips and guac - yum!) and did some window shopping around the market.  We did end up buying a bag of Herbs de Provence for a recipe we intended to make for dinner, as well as a container in which to store it.

Then we headed out to do some fun shopping.  We went to World Market (because I could spend a lifetime in that store and never get enough of it), PetCo (to get some belated gifts for Miss Maxine's anniversary) and finally Sendik's to get things for that night's dinner.

As it turned out, we weren't able to do the recipe we had planned for because I'm an idiot and didn't notice that it needed to marinate for 8 hours before grilling.  Yeah, that wasn't going to happen.  Instead, we kind of winged the entree and I focused on the rest.  For those curious, our dinner consisted of the following:

• Grilled beef tenderloin, seasoned with dried garlic, dried onion, kosher salt, pepper and herbs de provence.  Complimented with a gorgonzola cream sauce.
• Prosciutto-wrapped asparagus. 
• Alexia brand Oven Reds (Olive Oil, Parmesan & Roasted Garlic).
• A slice of chocolate orange dream cake from the Sendik's bakery.

Some quick notes on this dinner, if I may:

1. These were some seriously rich foods.  And while I love rich foods, this was a lot even for me.
2. In the past, we've used cream cheese (even light or fat free) in place of the Neufchatel for the asparagus.  It really doesn't make a huge difference, in my opinion, though the cream cheese probably makes it lighter.
3. The oven reds were good, but were more like steak fries than I had anticipated.  They also went great with the cream sauce.
4. Speaking of the cream sauce, we made a HALF recipe and still had tons of leftovers.  Also, it didn't reheat well, so next time we plan to make only a quarter recipe.  Should be more than enough.
5. The recipe we didn't get to make (but someday will) can be found here.  We're excited to try it when we have enough time and foresight.  As it was, the tenderloin was pretty awesome, AND the leftover meat was great in the morning for a makeshift "steak and eggs" type breakfast.

Anyway, we pretty much lounged for the rest of the evening.  We watched some episodes of Castle on DVD and watched Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian on TV (huzzah for cable!).  Then we went to sleep, full and happy.

Sunday we had a nice breakfast of leftover tenderloin and fried eggs.  Then we got dressed and headed out on an adventure.  We stopped at Fowler Lake in Oconomowoc, and then headed on to Astico County Park near Columbus.  Our final destination for the day was Day One Pizza in Columbus, an awesome pizza place we stumbled upon a few years ago that we make an annual mecca to just because it's just that good.

Once we made it home, we watched Knocked Up and then Zach caught up on his new zombie show (Walking Dead).  Overall, I'd say it was a successful weekend indeed.  :-)

Hump Day - A New Kind of Quickie

Have you ever been driving home from work and suddenly you think to yourself, "Gee, I could really go for a new vibrator, but I just don't have the time!"?  Or maybe you're looking for some back-seat loving, but could really use some lube. 

No matter the problem, this place has the answer: sex-toy drive thru lanes!

All jokes aside, though, this story is actually a bit sad.  Alabama is the last state to have a ban on sex toys, so they can't be purchased without "a bona fide medical, scientific, educational, legislative, judicial or law enforcement purpose."  

To skirt this issue, customers are required to fill out a form indicating the medical "issue" that necessitates the purchase.  I can only imagine what some of those look like... 

Purchase: Vibratror

Reason for Purchase: I have a bad back and need this personal massager to ease my pain.

Purchase: Lubricant

Reason for Purchase: I have dry elbows...  Yes.  Dry elbows.

Purchase: Handcuffs

Reason for Purchase: My wife sleepwalks and I need them to keep her in bed.

Anywhoozles, you can see where I'm going with this, right?  IT'S RIDICULOUS!  Comparable to, let's see here... Medicinal marijuana?  "Uh, my leg kinda hurts and, um..."  "Here you go!  An Rx for some weed ought to fix you right up!"  

I'm not saying that there aren't people who may legitimately need weed (or sex toys, I guess) for medical reasons, but the fact that we're making people come up with lame-ass excuses in order to get these things goes so far beyond ridiculous that I'm not even sure there's a word for it.  However, I will now make it my goal to come up with a word for it.

(Uncrediculicious?  Ridonculary?  I'll keep trying...)