Monday, February 23, 2009

Monday Monday

Happy Birthday to me last Friday and a HUGE thank you to everyone who wished me well :)
I will blog more about it later, but in sum:
Surprise bday party for me at my house ("Mad Hatter Tea Party") after a scrumptious dinner at Signature Bistro (mmmmm, Chilean Sea Bass). See pictures on Erin's blog or here.

My dad even drove down, which was amazing to see him!! Saturday I watched class (lame) and chilled, then went to see Taken with Charlie and Dad, followed by Luna's.

Sunday was the Oscar party:

Monday, February 16, 2009

Valentines Day

...was a wonderful day! After a rousing "Birthdays Party" at the Sholl's - a joint venture to celebrate all of the Feb/Mar birthdays we have amongst our friends, not to mention that Erin's birthday is actually on Friday the 13th of February - where the po-lice came to bust up the party due to noise infractions (awesome!), I slept in a little. Charlie went to play football with his friends, got home around 1:00pm or so, we had lunch of mac & cheese and sausages then napped until 5:30pm. The day was dreary and rainy, so it was perfect nap/cuddle weather. The dogs even joined in the fun...

We woke up and cooked a dinner Charlie had researched and planned, the menu consisted of the following - mind you, all of this was fresh and none pre-prepared!:
*Chimney Loin Tuna - Tuna Loin marinated in soy/wasabi/honey, then covered in sesame seeds and seared - delish!
*Carmelized Pancetta Salad w/ Red Wine Vinaigrette - all homemade over a bed of salad greens
*Mushroom Wheat Berry Pilaf - Brown rice, wheat berries, crimini mushrooms, fresh thyme & rosemary all in pilaf
*Fresh Green Bean Casserole - think the kind with those Durkee onions and cream of something soup...only all of the ingredients were fresh, from the homemade fried onions to the blanched green beans to the mushsroom-cream sauce.
*Chocolate Covered Strawberries - Dark & white chocolate mixture over delectably ripe strawberries!

I would eat it a hundred times again, it was so good!! Mmmmmmmmm. PLUS, we knew every single ingredient we were putting into our bodies, you can't beat that! Charlie did a great job planning an innovative, delicious meal. I am very lucky :)

Following dinner (which was at 9:30pm), we watched Boondock Saints on the BluRay then hit the hay. I hope you all had a Happy Valentines Day!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

De Neue Post

Well well well. My trip to the Netherlands to visit Jenny T (and Jim!) was successful and amazing! What a great week I spent with my BFF, so fun! I got the chance to relax, chit chat some serious girl talk in small cafes in local towns, saw some awesome windmills in the butt cold weather, watched an adorable swan (we deemed him male, calling to his female counterpart across the frozen tundra of the little river), had coffee in Amsterdam, swam at the NATO base, drank at an Irish Pub in Maastricht and...just had a great time! The JT's flat is great and they were awesome hosts!

Now I'm back to the US and back to the daily grind. Thank goodness it's almost the weekend, and a long weekend at that. I do miss Europe and all her glory.

I had coffee with a friend after work today, which made the "grind" seem less grind-y. It was a most welcome exchange of two brilliant minds (...so much is funny about that). Really, it reminds me that the people you know can make life better! Skadoosh!